Health

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported 1,480,349 cases of the coronavirus, and said the number of deaths had risen to 89,407.

Syria's health minister told the World Health Organization on Monday that "coercive and unfair" Western sanctions were hitting medical services trying to cope with coronavirus in his war-torn country and called for their removal.

The United States on Monday said China must pay more than the $2 billion it committed to the World Health Organization, calling the pledge a token to distract from what the Trump administration claims was Beijing's failure to properly alert the world to the coronavirus outbreak.

Russia has taken measures to prevent "exponential growth" of the coronavirus epidemic and hopes to start clinical trials of a vaccine within weeks, its health minister said on Monday.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Turkey rose to 150,593 on Monday, with 1,158 people diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed.

Nearly all 50 U.S. states were at some stage of reopening on Monday as authorities eased restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus and stock markets opened higher on optimism about a potential vaccine trial.

A region in the western corner of New York that includes Niagara Falls will become the sixth region in the state to start reopening on Tuesday after clearing a final hurdle related to contact tracing for the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo told a daily briefing.

Early data from Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the United States, showed that it produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers, the company said on Monday.

A comprehensive study of coronavirus antibodies present in the Spanish population will help the government decide which regions need most assistance, and pave the way for future research, Science Minister Pedro Duque told Reuters in an interview.

The World Health Organization said on Monday an independent review of the global coronavirus response would begin as soon as possible and it received backing and a hefty pledge of funds from China, in the spotlight as the origin of the pandemic.

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 99 on Monday, against 145 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, registering the first tally of below 100 since March 9.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that he would initiate an independent evaluation of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic at the "earliest appropriate moment" and vowed transparency and accountability.

The number of people who have died in the United Kingdom after testing positive for COVID-19 rose by 160 to 34,796, the health department said on Twitter on Monday.

The United States said on Monday that the pandemic had "spun out of control" in great part due to a costly "failure" by the World Health Organization, and called for a more effective WHO.

Spain's overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 59 on Monday, the lowest figure in two months, the government said.

Iran called on Monday for global solidarity against the pandemic, but said that unilateral sanctions are "inhumane" and causing "unnecessary suffering and pain" for its population.

Britain expanded its testing scheme on Monday to allow anyone aged over five with COVID-19 symptoms to book a test to see if they have the virus, health minister Matt Hancock announced.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the coronavirus pandemic would be overcome more quickly if the world works together to tackle it, adding that it was necessary to look at whether the World Health Organization's processes could be improved.

The oversight body of the World Health Organization said on Monday that WHO had "demonstrated leadership" in handling the pandemic and that its performance should be reviewed, but "not during the heat of the response" which could prove disruptive.

Cars, trucks and motorcycles jostled on Monday in a return of the Thai capital's familiar gridlock as commuters headed back to work in the second phase of easing coronavirus restrictions to get the economy back on track.