Health

Sorrento Therapeutics Inc on Friday partnered with New York City's Mount Sinai Health System to develop an antibody cocktail to potentially treat or prevent COVID-19, with the aim of starting human trials in the third quarter.

Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surged past 25,000 on Friday, just hours before the government was due to lift lockdown measures, with the country reporting some of the biggest daily increases in new infections in the world.

China is open to an independent investigation to determine the origins of the coronavirus now sweeping the world, its ambassador to Berlin told a German magazine on Friday, amid U.S. allegations that it came from a laboratory.

Singapore plans to test all 16,000 elderly residents of its nursing homes for the coronavirus over the coming weeks, as it edges towards exiting a nationwide lockdown next month.

A wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan played a role in the outbreak of the novel coronavirus last year, as the source or possibly as an "amplifying setting", the World Health Organization said on Friday, calling for more research.

Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus rose to 229 on Friday, up from 213 on the previous day, the health ministry reported.

Australian officials are frustrated that their push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus is being undermined by the White House, which has sought to link the outbreak to a Chinese lab, government, diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.

Indonesia reported 336 new coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the total in the Southeast Asian country to 13,112, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.

Sony Corp said on Friday it will manufacture and donate medical face shields to hospitals in Japan, amid worries about the availability of protective equipment for healthcare workers dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia rose by 10,699 over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 187,859, the coronavirus crisis response centre said on Friday.

Malaysian health authorities on Friday reported 68 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,535 cases.

The Philippines' Health Ministry on Friday recorded 11 new coronavirus deaths and 120 additional confirmed cases.

A British scientist advising the government on its coronavirus response resigned from his role on Tuesday, after the Daily Telegraph reported he had broken lockdown rules by meeting a female friend.

At an outer suburban manufacturing plant, engineer Byron Kennedy is resetting a machine to spray-print a layer of copper on to a door handle, aiming to use the metal's antiviral properties to counter the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) is asking for more information on the federal government's plan for deciding how and where to supply the only drug so far shown to help patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

Michigan and California, two U.S. manufacturing powerhouses, acted on Thursday to allow factories to reopen from coronavirus lockdowns over the next few days, as millions more Americans joined the ranks of workers left jobless by the pandemic.

Thailand on Friday reported eight new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,000 cases and 55 deaths since the outbreak started in January.

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

Facebook Inc and YouTube, the video service of Alphabet Inc's Google, said on Thursday that they were removing a video that made medically unsubstantiated claims relating to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 75,000 deaths on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, after the White House shelved a step-by-step guide prepared by health officials to help states safely reopen.