Health News (Reuters)

A crucial projection study that helped convince the British government to impose more stringent measures to contain COVID-19 painted a worst case picture of hundreds of thousands of deaths and a health service overwhelmed with severely sick patients.

France limited sales of paracetamol-based drugs on Tuesday as people who fear coronavirus infection raided pharmacies to stockpile the drug.

Alarmed consumers thronged markets across Africa on Tuesday, many in masks and gloves, to stock up as the coronavirus spread on the world's poorest continent.

About half of the blood centers in the United States are already reporting low inventory levels and the country could see shortages in about two weeks as blood drives are canceled due to the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks, said on Tuesday.

British cinema chains, theaters and arts venues began closing their doors on Tuesday as the entertainment industry adopted the government's latest guidance aimed at trying to control the spread of the coronavirus.

CureVac, the German biotech firm at the center of a row over alleged U.S. attempts to gain access to an experimental coronavirus vaccine it is developing, denied on Tuesday it had received U.S. offers for the company or its assets.

Greece's confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 387 from 352 with the death toll increasing to 5, health officials said on Tuesday.

European Union leaders meeting via videoconference on Tuesday are likely to seal off the EU's external borders and stress a "whatever it takes" approach to easing the economic fallout from the likely long coronavirus crisis.

European Union leaders will on Tuesday discuss how to prevent hostile U.S. takeovers of EU-based research firms at the forefront in developing drugs and vaccines against the coronavirus, officials said.

About half of blood centers in the U.S. are already reporting low inventory levels and the country could see blood shortages in about two weeks as blood drives are canceled due to the fast-moving coronavirus outbreak, according to AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks, on Tuesday.

Every country in Europe should be taking the "boldest" actions possible to try to halt or slow the epidemic of COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus, the World Health Organization's European director said on Tuesday.

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced plans to cancel all routine surgery for three months and to send home as many patients as possible to free up staff and beds to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.

Finland will start heavily restricting traffic over its borders on Thursday in an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said.

Queen Elizabeth canceled her annual garden parties and will leave London for Windsor Castle earlier than planned because of the coronavirus outbreak, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday.

Spain set up police checks at its land borders with France and Portugal on Tuesday and turned back foreigners attempting to enter, part of strict measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Europe's second hardest-hit country.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy.

British cases of coronavirus rose 26% to 1,950 from 1,543 the day before, the health ministry said.

Hungary will allow a one-off transit of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens stuck in Austria on Tuesday night after their governments requested it, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday.

Britain hopes the measures it has taken to tackle coronavirus mean it will have below 20,000 deaths from the outbreak, the governent's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Tuesday.

German vaccine developer CureVac has not received a takeover offer from the United States, was not asked to reserve production slots nor were its scientists lured to move to the U.S., the firm's acting Chief Executive Franz-Werner Haas said in a media call on Tuesday.