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The largest U.S. airlines are moving rapidly to mandate facial coverings for all passengers, with Southwest Airlines Co and Alaska Airlines on Friday joining other major airlines in imposing the measure to address the spread of the coronavirus and convince reluctant passengers to resume flying.

Gilead Sciences , which manufactures remdesivir, is focused on making the experimental coronavirus drug accessible and affordable to as many people as possible once it is approved, Chief Executive Officer Daniel O'Day said on Friday.

The COVID-19 death toll in English hospitals has risen by 352 from the day before to 20,483, including 18 people who did not have any known underlying health conditions, health officials said on Friday.

Chinese gaming and social media group Tencent Holdings has bought a 5% stake in Afterpay Ltd, the Australian buy-now-pay-later firm said on Friday.

A manufacturer of a possible COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists said on Friday it may know by the end of May if it can make a million doses a month with a view to building stocks for commercial supply when the vaccine is approved.

Britain might have hit its daily target of carrying out 100,000 COVID-19 tests a day, or will come close, putting in place the beginnings of a network to test, track and trace people through the pandemic, housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Friday.

A testing target set by Britain's health minister has driven up the capacity to test people, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday, hours before an expected announcement on whether the 100,000 target a day will be met.

The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen by 475 to 39,791 health authorities said on Friday, with 98 new deaths.

Australia will consider next Friday whether to relax coronavirus-related mobility restrictions, as the growth rate of new infections slows, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday following a national cabinet meeting.

Burials in Jakarta remained close to record highs in April, official data showed on Friday, indicating there may have been many more deaths from COVID-19 in the city than have been officially recorded.

Japanese Prime |(Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he was leaning towards extending the country's state of emergency for about a month as experts said coronavirus restrictions should remain in place until the number of cases falls further.

China's central province of Hubei, where the novel coronavirus behind the pandemic was first detected, will lower its emergency response level from Saturday in the latest relaxation of lockdowns put in place to contain the virus.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would review the state of emergency over the coronavirus epidemic on May 4, and was leaning towards extending it by roughly a month.

U.S. cloud services company Vonage is partnering with social enterprise CTI Africa to pioneer video-linked healthcare in Uganda, where good hospitals and qualified medical personnel are scarce.

A Chinese startup that develops augmented-reality products for use in manufacturing and gaming has found a promising growth area in the midst of a global pandemic - wearable glasses that measure temperatures on the move.

A Chinese startup that develops augmented-reality products for use in manufacturing and gaming has found a promising growth area in the midst of a global pandemic - wearable glasses that measure temperatures on the move.

As lockdown orders force billions of people to work, learn and play from home during the novel coronavirus outbreak, usage has surged for the cloud computing services that power video conferencing, streaming television and online games.

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

The annual meeting of health ministers will take place virtually from May 18, with the focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has angered Beijing by calling for a global inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak, said he had no evidence to suggest the disease originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.