Health News (Reuters)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had some contact with ministers while he is recovering from COVID-19, housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Saturday.

Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.26 million globally and 154,613 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1400 GMT on Saturday.

Hundreds of workers poured onto the streets of Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong on Saturday, flouting social distancing rules to demand work and wages during the coronavirus shutdown.

Greece is no longer the black sheep of Europe, having shown discipline and resilience in its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

France will try to avoid setting different rules for older people and other forms of discrimination once the government starts easing its coronavirus confinement measures, the French President's office said.

Croatia is extending its coronavirus lockdown for another 15 days, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Saturday, but added the government was looking at whether it was possible to gradually ease restrictions on movement.

A European technology platform to support smartphone apps that can help trace people at risk of infection by the new coronavirus is gaining support from governments, one of its prime movers said on Friday.

The United Arab Emirates will fine people up to 20,000 dirhams ($5,500) if they share medical information about the coronavirus that contradicts official statements, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday.

The Swiss death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 1,111 people, the country's public health agency said on Saturday, rising from 1,059 a day earlier.

Confirmed coronavirus infections in the Netherlands have risen by 1,140 to 31,589, Dutch health authorities said on Saturday.

With much of the world living in lockdown, the spread of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that was first detected in China late last year is beginning to slow in some places. As of Friday, 2.18 million people had been infected and 147,000 killed by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The U.S. economy has imploded in the past month amid aggressive measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, with 22 million people filing for unemployment benefits and most factories, stores and other businesses at a virtual standstill.

Better-than-expected social distancing practices have led an influential research model to lower its projected U.S. coronavirus death toll by 12%, while predicting some states may be able to safely begin easing restrictions as early as May 4.

North Korean authorities told citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country as early as the end of March, in contrast to official Pyongyang claims that it has not had any confirmed cases, Radio Free Asia reported on late Friday.

Malaysian health officials reported 54 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the lowest daily increase since the government imposed curbs on movement and business on March 18, taking the cumulative total to 5,305.

Indonesia reported 325 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections in the world's fourth most populous country to 6,248.

Doctors and health workers criticized the British government on Saturday for suggesting that gowns used to protect them while treating coronavirus patients could be re-used, as supplies run low across the country.

Russia said on Saturday its death toll from the novel coronavirus had risen to 313, an overnight increase of 40, as it posted a new record daily jump in new cases.

Taiwan will put 700 navy sailors into quarantine after three cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed among sailors who had been on a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau, the government said on Saturday.

The Philippines' health ministry on Saturday reported 10 new coronavirus deaths and 209 additional infections.