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Singapore launched a contact-tracing smartphone app to allow authorities to identify those who have been exposed to people infected with coronavirus as part of efforts to curb the spread of the disease.

Malaysia will deploy the army from Sunday to assist police in enforcing a restricted movement order aimed at reining in the spread of a coronavirus, the government said.

Dutch health authorities confirmed 534 new cases of coronavirus and 30 new deaths on Friday, bringing the Netherlands' total to 2,994 cases and 106 deaths.

Britain has banned the parallel export of 80 crucial medicines including adrenaline, insulin, paracetamol and morphine to protect supplies during the coronavirus outbreak.

After two decades of sewing jackets and school uniforms, Venezuelan clothing designers Stalina Svieykowsky and Nelson Jimenez this month revamped their operations to make the country's most sought-after article of apparel: face masks.

Italy's Saipem has reached an agreement with Norway's Equinor to develop technology to build floating solar power farms close to the coast, the energy contractor said.

British government emergency response scientists published the evidence on their understanding of COVID-19 evolution on Friday.

Americans worried about their exposure to coronavirus can check their symptoms with two new screening tools online.

Japanese Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda said on Friday the government would not extend its request that schools be closed until spring break to stem coronavirus infections, setting the stage for classes to resume at the start of the academic year in April.

Belgium recorded 16 new deaths on Thursday because of coronavirus, for a total of 37 in the country, the biggest daily rise since the beginning of the epidemic, a spokesman for the Belgian health ministry said on Friday.

An Olympic torch event in Japan drew hundreds of spectators on the day of the flame's arrival on Friday, creating the type of packed gathering the government and Tokyo 2020 organisers have warned against to prevent coronavirus from spreading further.

Finland's national health authority questioned on Friday the World Health Organization's call on countries to test as many patients as possible for coronavirus, after the country ran out of testing capacity this week.

While many Muslims in Indonesia's capital accepted advice to avoid religious gatherings and prayed at home on Friday elsewhere in the world's most populous Muslim country, people ignored the risk of coronavirus and crowded into their mosques.

Russia due to coronavirus has postponed a test designed to improve the ability of its domestic internet infrastructure to cope with being cut off from the global network, the Communications Ministry said on Friday, TASS reported.

Spain's death toll from the coronavirus epidemic soared to 1,002 on Friday from 767 on the previous day, the country's health emergencies chief Fernando Simon said.

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

Many overseas arrivals in the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong are going unmonitored as they begin two weeks of mandatory self-quarantine, with only a third of the 6,000 electronic wristbands issued to them being activated, authorities said on Friday.

Taiwan, which has won global praise for its effective action against the coronavirus, is rolling out a mobile phone-based "electronic fence" that uses location-tracking to ensure people who are quarantined stay in their homes.

Chinese online education platform Yuanfudao, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings , is close to completing a financing round that would value it at around $7.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.

An Olympic cauldron was ignited in Japan on Friday with a flame carried from Greece, with officials again pledging the Tokyo 2020 Games will proceed despite mounting pressure to halt the world's biggest sporting event due to the coronavirus pandemic.