Health News (Reuters)

Saudi Arabia detected 17 new cases of coronavirus, 11 of whom were Egyptians, state news agency (SPA) said on Friday.

Airlines on Thursday appealed for urgent government financial support as U.S. carriers rushed to cut flights to Europe in the wake of new U.S. travel restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus outbreak, while United Airlines warned of U.S. travel disruption as the virus spreads domestically.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry suggested on Thursday the U.S. military might have brought the coronavirus to the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has been hardest hit by the outbreak, doubling down on a war of words with Washington.

France will close from Monday all nurseries, schools and universities to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address, calling the outbreak the nation's worst public health crisis in a century.

Britain likely has between 5,000 and 10,000 people infected with coronavirus, the government's chief scientific adviser said on Thursday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson stepped up the response to the outbreak.

The United States went into crisis mode on Thursday to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has played havoc with businesses, shuttered schools and universities and severely disrupted the sports and entertainment world.

The Dutch government on Thursday changed its travel advice for the United States, advising citizens to only travel to the U.S. "if necessary."

U.S. companies have announced 633 layoffs related to the coronavirus outbreak so far, global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said on Thursday, providing the first tally of American job losses from what has mushroomed into a global pandemic.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had "almost no interaction" with a Brazilian government official they met in Florida last week who later tested positive for coronavirus and do not need to be tested, the White House said on Thursday.

Two of the Netherlands' premier tourist attractions, the Rijksmuseum national gallery and Van Gogh museum, closed to the public on Thursday as a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people was imposed in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose 22% to 614 on Thursday, health officials said.

Airlines bore the brunt of a dramatic expansion of the coronavirus crisis on Thursday, as U.S. travel curbs on much of continental Europe deepened the sector's misery and piled more pressure on governments to offer emergency support.

The peak of coronavirus cases in Britain may still be 10 to 14 weeks away, the government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Thursday.

The U.S. Senate will delay its recess and will work next week on a coronavirus relief bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday.

Global markets took another hammering on Thursday as alarm over the coronavirus intensified, and governments from Ireland to Italy scrambled to contain the impact of a disease that has infected more than 126,000 people worldwide.

Policymakers and government leaders have taken a range of approaches to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Here is a list of how some of the world's biggest economies and economic blocs have reacted.

The top U.S. official on infectious diseases, Anthony Fauci, told a congressional hearing on Thursday that U.S. officials would consider additional travel restrictions beyond those already in place "if the dynamics of the outbreak mandates that."

The first patient to die from the new coronavirus in the U.S. state of Georgia was a 67-year-old man with underlying medical conditions, Governor Brian Kemp said on Thursday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie are in self-isolation after she came down with flu-like symptoms and was tested for the new coronavirus, according to an official statement on Thursday.

The likely number of people in Britain infected with coronavirus is between 5,000 and 10,000, the government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Thursday.