Health News (Reuters)

A study by French scientists which suggests a man was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases, could be important in assessing when and where the new coronavirus emerged, experts said on Tuesday.

The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia has risen by 10,102 over the past 24 hours, compared with 10,581 the previous day. This brought Russia's nationwide tally to 155,370, the country's coronavirus crisis response centre said on Tuesday.

If the United Kingdom had ramped up testing for COVID-19 earlier, it could have been beneficial, the British government's chief scientific adviser said on Tuesday.

Grandparents hugged their grandchildren, toddlers rushed excitedly through parks and factories revived their long-stalled production lines as Italy started the slow process of unwinding Europe's longest coronavirus lockdown.

Britain has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from coronavirus in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths, figures released on Tuesday showed.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to hear arguments over whether a U.S. law violates constitutional free speech rights by requiring overseas affiliates of American-based nonprofit groups that seek federal funding for HIV/AIDS relief to formally adopt a stance against prostitution and sex trafficking.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 685 to 163,860, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany is currently estimated at 0.71, the head of public health authority RKI said on Tuesday.

The death toll from the outbreak of new coronavirus in Iran rose by 63 in the past 24 hours to 6,340, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Tuesday.

Indonesia reported on Tuesday its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections with 484 new cases, taking the total in the Southeast Asian country to 12,071, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.

Malaysian health authorities on Tuesday reported 30 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,383 cases as the country entered the second day of relaxed curbs on movement and businesses.

The Philippines' health ministry on Tuesday reported 14 new coronavirus deaths and 199 additional infections.

Singapore's health ministry on Tuesday confirmed 632 new coronavirus cases, taking the city-state's tally of infections to 19,410.

Almost a month after Tokyo declared a state of emergency, dozens of call centre employees for telecom KDDI Corp still commute into their crowded office, where the fear of coronavirus infection has taken a back seat to data security.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Thailand on Tuesday reported one new coronavirus case and no new deaths, the lowest number of new infections since March 9.

A newly revised coronavirus mortality model predicts nearly 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections, as social-distancing measures for quelling the pandemic are increasingly relaxed, researchers said on Monday.

Germany could only allow coronavirus antibody tests to help determine how freely people can move once it has advice from its ethics council, Health Minister Jens Spahn said, after securing millions of the tests from Swiss drugmaker Roche.

The World Health Organization said on Monday that comments by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing "evidence" that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were "speculative", and called for a science-based inquiry.

New Zealand recorded no new coronavirus cases for a second day in a row on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the outcome of her discussions with Australia on a travel bubble between the two countries would be announced later in the day.