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World leaders raced to shore up panic-stricken global markets on Thursday, pouring liquidity into the financial system as investors everywhere dumped assets, switching to dollars in cash amid the escalating coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of Twitter users welcomed on Thursday an offer by Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, to make ventilators for coronavirus sufferers, after the United States appealed for donations of respirator masks to combat a shortage.

The risk of the African swine fever could increase this year as China seeks to raise pig output, said a Chinese official from the ministry of agriculture on Thursday.

Malaysia reported 110 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with the total number of cases increasing to 900.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Wednesday declared a 90-day state of catastrophe as cases of the new coronavirus mounted in the nation, giving the government extraordinary powers to restrict freedom of movement and assure food supply and basic services.

Countries across the world must take a comprehensive approach to fighting the pandemic of COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus and isolate, test and trace as many cases as possible, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

When Mrinal Sabharwal and his wife landed in New Delhi with hundreds of other passengers from Barcelona on Monday, they expected clean coronavirus quarantine facilities.

The first town in Germany imposed a curfew on Wednesday to slow the spread of the coronavirus, local authorities said, adding that citizens in the town of Mitterteich in southern Bavaria are still allowed to buy groceries, go to work and visit the doctor.

Hundreds of millions of people faced a world turned upside down on Wednesday by unprecedented emergency measures against the coronavirus pandemic that is killing the old and vulnerable and threatening prolonged economic misery.

Greece will ban public gatherings of 10 people and more from Thursday in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus, its crisis management minister said.

Germany's Economy Ministry said on Wednesday that export licenses for the export of protective equipment to Italy, Switzerland and Austria had been issued, including for 400,000 protective masks to go to Italy.

Australia is closing its borders to foreigners and pumping about A$100 billion ($56 billion) into the economy as it seeks to minimize the blow from the coronavirus epidemic.

Taiwan will help its hard-hit airline industry access T$50 billion ($1.6 billion) in financing, and does not rule out further economic stimulus to help during the coronavirus outbreak, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Thursday.

As worries over the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak spread from stocks, oil and bonds to cryptocurrencies late last week, bitcoin crashed to its worst day in seven years. But plummeting prices weren't the only problem for investors.

The Japanese doctor who created a media firestorm with videos criticizing the quarantine of a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship said he now believes the Tokyo 2020 Olympics should not go on.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday granted Abbott Laboratories approval to sell a test for the new coronavirus, as more companies begin producing much needed diagnostics for the pathogen that has set off a global pandemic.

Roche will test its arthritis drug Actemra in patients with coronavirus-linked pneumonia, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday, joining other pharmaceutical companies seeking to re-purpose existing medicines to fight the epidemic.

Beijing saw a record number of imported coronavirus cases, data released on Thursday showed, as new local transmissions in China fell to zero, putting more pressure on the capital to screen out infected passengers and isolate suspected cases.

Chinese scientists and health experts involved in the country's fight against the coronavirus believe the worst is now over, downplaying warnings that the disease could become seasonal or that a deadlier "second wave" could hit later in the year.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday all non-citizens and non-residents would be banned from entering the country from 9 pm (1000 GMT) Friday.