Health News (Reuters)

Bulgaria's parliament approved the extension of a state of emergency by a month on Friday to stop the spread of the coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases rose to 485.

Italy plans to tighten health checks to ensure that work is not disrupted in a small northern town specialising in the production of medical supplies to tackle its coronavirus crisis.

Turkey's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak increased by 69 to 425 on Friday, while the number of confirmed cases from the disease rose by 2,786 to 20,921, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 239,279 cases of coronavirus, an increase of 26,135 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 930 to 5,443.

The global scramble to secure face masks to shield frontline workers from the coronavirus has turned the marketplace into the "Wild West", with the United States often ready to outbid buyers who have already signed deals, officials from Europe to the Americas say.

The death toll from an outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy has climbed by 766 to 14,681, the Civil Protection Agency said on Friday, marginally higher than the daily tally of 760 fatalities registered a day earlier.

She'd picked her dress, they'd booked their honeymoon and the wedding was set for the end of March. Then, the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Alphabet Inc's Google has published charts showing how the coronavirus has brought hard-hit Italy to a standstill, led to runs on grocery stores around the world and prompted a stark drop in going-out between Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day.

A new hospital, built in under two weeks in a conference centre in London to provide thousands of extra beds to treat those who have contracted coronavirus, will open its doors on Friday.

Medical charity Alima planned to open an emergency operating theatre this week in Burkina Faso, but the project has stalled because the country closed its borders before a surgeon and anaesthetist could fly in, its director told Reuters.

Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it has developed a new, faster test for the novel coronavirus that that causes the COVID-19 disease, reducing the time of results delivery to about two hours.

Hungarian pharma company Alkaloida Zrt has asked for a domestic distribution licence for its drug Hydroxychloroquine and can produce 20 million pills, enough to treat 2.2 million people infected with coronavirus, the firm said on Friday.

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

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 52,000 deaths as the pandemic further exploded in the United States and the death toll climbed in Spain and Italy, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

Healthcare companies Sanofi and Regeneron announced on Friday more encouraging results for their Dupixent product used to treat severe atopic dermatitis, often commonly known as eczema.

Volunteers in hazmat suits have been spraying Wuhan with disinfectant to help the Chinese city where the coronavirus first took hold get back to work as the number of new cases in China drops.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House task force on the coronavirus, had a message for Americans on Thursday: do better at social distancing. President Donald Trump didn't like the message.

Sanofi SA will be able to provide millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine for patients with the illness caused by the novel coronavirus if the old malaria drug proves successful in clinical trials, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to explode in the United States and the death toll climbs in Italy and Spain, with data on Thursday showing deepening economic pain as U.S. weekly jobless claims rose to another record.

The coronavirus has been a far deadlier threat in New Orleans than the rest of the United States, with a per-capita death rate twice that of New York City. Doctors, public health officials and available data say the Big Easy's high levels of obesity and related ailments may be part of the problem.