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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.

Facebook Inc said Tuesday it plans to award $100 million in cash grants and ad credits for up to 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries to address the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

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.

U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc will be allowed to continue operating its Fremont factory as the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday begins a three-week lockdown to rein in the spread of coronavirus, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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.

Amazon.com Inc on Monday said it would hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to deal with a surge in online orders, as many consumers have turned to the web to meet their needs during the coronavirus outbreak.

Amazon.com Inc is suspending sellers from sending non-essential products to its U.S. and U.K. warehouses until April 5 in the latest move to free up inventory space for much-needed supplies that are in shortage as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Leading British cinema chains began shutting their venues on Tuesday in response to the latest guidance on how to try to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Volkswagen will raise the amount of nickel used in it electric car battery cells to 80% in the next year from 65% at present, Frank Blome, head of battery cells at the carmaker said on Tuesday.

Jordan has announced a lockdown beginning on Wednesday, ordering all citizens to stay in their homes apart from emergencies and banning travel between provinces, to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The Church of England said on Tuesday it would suspend public worship to slow the spread of the coronavirus, although churches would remain open for prayer if possible.

Bosnia declared a nationwide state of emergency over coronavirus on Tuesday to enable coordination of emergency activities between its two autonomous regions, Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija said.

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