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Five Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday wrote Amazon.com Inc to raise concern about its firing of a worker who protested warehouse operations during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.

The German foreign ministry has restricted use of the video conferencing service Zoom to fixed-connection computers due to concerns about security issues, two German government sources said.

Brazil's health minister said on Wednesday that the country's attempts to purchase thousands of ventilators from China to fight a growing coronavirus epidemic had fallen through and the government is now hoping Brazilian companies can supply the devices.

Some coronavirus patients who would have been admitted into the emergency department at a New York hospital are being sent home with an oxygen-monitoring device as the city's medical system struggles to reserve resources for only the sickest people.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday approved Alphabet Inc unit Google's request to use part of an U.S.-Asia undersea telecommunications cable after the company warned it would face significantly higher prices to carry traffic by other means.

Cats can become infected with the new coronavirus but dogs appear not to be vulnerable, according to a study published on Wednesday, prompting the WHO to say it will take a closer look at transmission of the virus between humans and pets.

U.S. deaths due to coronavirus topped 14,600 on Wednesday, the second highest reported number in the world behind Italy, according to a Reuters tally.

In New York City, an intensive care nurse treated patients for three days after she started displaying symptoms of COVID-19 - but couldn't get a test from her hospital. In Georgia, a nurse was denied a test after treating an infected patient who died.

Medical device maker Medtronic Plc said on Wednesday it has won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval to immediately market its ventilator, which it plans to launch by May, to meet increased demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A New York couple has seen the cityscape outside their Brooklyn apartment change dramatically in recent weeks, as refrigerated trucks line up in the lot below to receive the remains of COVID-19 victims as they exit the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.

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

The United States will seize exports of key protective medical gear until it determines whether the equipment should be kept in the country to combat the spread of the new coronavirus, two federal agencies announced on Wednesday.

Portugal's parliament temporarily suspended electricity, water and gas shutoffs and granted partial pardon to some of its prisoners on Wednesday as the country moved to contain the economic and social damage of the coronavirus outbreak.

France reported some positive coronavirus-linked data on Wednesday, with the increase of hospital death fatalities slowing again, but the presidential palace said nonetheless the national lockdown aimed at containing the disease would be extended.

French President Emmanuel Macron offered his full support to the World Health Organization (WHO) in a call with its director on Wednesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the international organization.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Wednesday that time was running out to start work on new facilities to help medical authorities cope with the coronavirus outbreak, as swathes of the United States prepare for a surge in coronavirus patients.

"I feel like 20 years from now, we'll be a history project."

The number of coronavirus cases in New York state alone approached 150,000 on Wednesday, surpassing Spain for the most infections anywhere in the world, even as authorities warned the state's official death tally may understate the true toll.

One medical worker called it "insane," another said it induces paranoia - the speed with which patients are declining and dying from the novel coronavirus is shocking even veteran doctors and nurses as they scramble to determine how to stop such sudden deterioration.

Zoom Video Communications Inc has tapped former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser to improve the privacy and security of its rapidly growing video-conferencing app amid a global backlash, including a move by Alphabet Inc's Google to ban the desktop version of Zoom from corporate laptops.