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The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen by 49 to 197, the Civil Protection Agency said on Friday, the largest daily increase in fatalities since the contagion was uncovered two weeks ago.

France's Health Ministry said on Saturday that two more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to 11 people.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom has risen to 206, a rise of 43, British health officials said on Saturday.

All countries should make containing the outbreak of COVID-19 their top priority, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, pointing to Iran "national action plan" to combat one of the world's worst outbreaks after a slow start.

A U.S. sailor deployed to Naples, Italy, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the U.S. military said on Saturday, in the second confirmed case among U.S. forces following another in South Korea. 

The leader of Italy's co-ruling Democratic Party (PD), Nicola Zingaretti, said on Saturday he had tested positive for coronavirus becoming the first senior Italian politician to be infected.

South Korea said on Friday it would suspend visas and visa waivers for Japan in response to Tokyo's own travel restrictions on Koreans, as fears over the spreading coronavirus rekindled a feud between the neighbors dating back to before World War Two.

South Korea's coronavirus cases jumped above 7,000 on Saturday, up by 448 from the previous day, with more than half of the total number linked to a secretive church at the center of the country's outbreak, health authorities said.

The number of people infected with coronavirus approached 102,000 across the world as the outbreak reached more countries and caused more economic damage.

The European Commission told Italy on Saturday that its planned extra spending to respond to the country's coronavirus outbreak will not be counted in considering its compliance with European Union budget rules.

The number of coronavirus cases in the United Arab Emirates has risen to 45 from 30, the Health Ministry said on Saturday, as other countries in the Gulf region also reported new infections.

The number of deaths caused by coronavirus infections in Iran rose by 21 over the past 24 hours to reach 145 on Saturday, a health ministry official said.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte will declare a public health emergency to help contain the spread of the coronavirus, after the country recorded its first case of community transmission, officials said on Saturday.

Among the 2,400 passengers stranded off the California coast on a cruise ship carrying at least 21 people infected with coronavirus, few people aboard likely have more to lose than Kari Kolstoe, a retiree from North Dakota with stage-4 cancer.

Australian health authorities said on Saturday they had closed a clinic and were contacting around 70 patients of a doctor who has been diagnosed with coronavirus after recently returning from the United States.

Twenty-one people tested positive for coronavirus on Friday aboard a ship that was denied entry to San Francisco Bay after a number of passengers and crew developed flu-like symptoms on the vessel, which had been linked to infections from an earlier voyage.

Facebook said on Friday it is closing its London offices until Monday after a visiting employee from Singapore was diagnosed with coronavirus.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office in recent days granted exclusions from import tariffs for dozens of medical products imported from China, including face masks, hand sanitizing wipes and examination gloves, filings with the agency showed on Friday.

The South by Southwest music, technology and film festival in Austin, Texas, was canceled on Friday, adding to a growing list of events being suspended around the world over concerns about the spreading coronavirus outbreak.

Travel insurers and travel agents will offer New York residents and businesses the ability to buy coverage that would allow them to cancel a trip for any reason, including those related to coronavirus, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.