Several U.S. hospitals in states with fresh surges of COVID-19 cases have started treating their sickest patients with dexamethasone rather than await confirmation of preliminary results of a study by British researchers, who said the inexpensive steroid saves lives.
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, with Thursday's 150,000 new cases the highest in a single day and nearly half of those in the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
There is a notable name missing from the frontrunners in the race to test experimental immunisations against the novel coronavirus: the world's largest vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline .
The United States has found alternative partners for global health projects as it withdraws from the World Health Organization (WHO) except for polio eradication, an area where U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had credited the body for its good work.
The World Health Organization should change guidelines that led it to oppose travel restrictions early in the coronavirus epidemic, said former WHO chief Gro Harlem Brundtland, who now chairs an independent watchdog that monitors the global body.
China said on Friday it had identified a European strain of coronavirus as having sparked the recent Beijing outbreak, while the World Health Organization said only that it had been imported from outside the city and needed further investigation.
Tennessee lawmakers passed one of the tightest abortion restrictions in the country on Friday, banning the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected at around six weeks, which is often before a woman realizes she is pregnant.
Brazil was on track to surpass 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, second only to the United States, with total deaths fast approaching 50,000 as the country struggles with a tense political climate and worsening economic outlook.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 2,178,710 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 23,138 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 733 to 118,365.
The Germany region of North Rhine Westphalia faces the threat of a renewed coronavirus lockdown amid a spiralling outbreak at a major slaughterhouse, the region's premier said on Friday.