Health

Countries must return to "basic principles" of public health surveillance if they are to bring the coronavirus outbreak under control, the World Health Organization's (WHO) top emergency health expert said on Friday.

Abbott Laboratories' antibody test for the new coronavirus is highly likely to correctly determine whether people have ever been infected with the fast-spreading virus, the company said, citing a U.S. study.

The National Institutes of Health said on Friday it has started a clinical study to test a combination of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir and anti-inflammatory treatment baricitinib in COVID-19 patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it has authorized the first diagnostic test for the new coronavirus that allows patients to collect saliva samples at-home.

France's daily coronavirus death toll rebounded on Friday, three days before it starts lifting its almost two-month-old national lockdown.

Italy on Friday became the third country in the world to record 30,000 deaths from the coronavirus, reporting 243 new fatalities compared with a daily tally of 274 the day before.

Anne Messman, a veteran emergency room physician in Detroit, knew something was wrong when she developed insomnia and became unusually irritated with people she loved.

The Japanese government, under fire for a limited number of coronavirus tests conducted, eased access to such tests on Friday and indicated that a new test supplementing the currently dominant polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test could be approved next week.

The number of people who have died from coronavirus infection in France rose 243 to 26,230 on Friday, a higher daily death toll than the previous day when it stood at 178.

The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended guidelines on when and how localities should reopen activity are being edited, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Friday.

Hackers linked to Iran have targeted staff at U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc in recent weeks, according to publicly-available web archives reviewed by Reuters and three cybersecurity researchers, as the company races to deploy a treatment for the COVID-19 virus.

Britain's COVID-19 death toll has risen by 626 to 31,241, according to figures announced on Friday by Environment Secretary George Eustice.

Maaki Modimola sways along to a hymn in the yard of her dead sister's home in the South African township of Soweto, a bottle of sanitiser swinging in her hand.

Samantha Salinas never planned to give birth during a global pandemic, but Mother's Day 2020 may be when her baby finally arrives.

A cat belonging to a family in the Spanish region of Catalonia tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the professor who conducted an autopsy on the pet said on Friday.

Indonesian provinces have blamed flawed distribution of reagents, too few laboratories and a lack of expertise for preventing them from getting near President Joko Widodo's target of 10,000 coronavirus tests a day in the country.

The Japanese Health Ministry said on Friday it now wants people experiencing difficulty breathing or those with a fever to seek advice on whether they may have been infected with the new coronavirus, easing public access to testing.

Australia will ease social distancing restrictions in a three-step process, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as Canberra aims to remove most curbs by July and get nearly 1 million people back to work amid a decline in coronavirus cases.

The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 35,000 on Friday as the kingdom struggles to get to grips with rising numbers of new infections.