Brazilian health authorities have reported an increase in the number of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes (SARS) in 22 states and the Federal District, where three out of every four detections were of COVID-19.
The World Health Organization (WHO) called on countries to depoliticize the investigation into the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and how it jumped to humans, pressing for more raw data to review and suggesting that more can be done within its current framework to track lab safety around the world, including China.
Brazil's Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the state and municipal departments of São Paulo, has confirmed a case of Coronavirus disease in the municipality of São Paulo. The business man had travelled this month to the north of Italy.
A Chinese doctor who was among the first to warn publicly about the new coronavirus outbreak - and was reprimanded by authorities for “spreading rumours” - died of the infection early on Friday, his hospital announced.
The World Bank will revise its global growth forecast downwards due to the new coronavirus, the president of the multilateral lender said on Tuesday amid fears the epidemic in China will harm global supply chains.
China said it was halting flights and trains from Thursday out of Wuhan, the city of 11 million people at the centre of a deadly SARS-like virus outbreak, as the UN extended emergency talks on the disease.
A SARS-like virus that has spread across China and reached three other Asian nations is contagious between humans, a government expert said, and the World Health Organization announced that a key emergency committee would meet this week to discuss the infections. The news came as Wuhan health authorities reported on Tuesday that a fourth person had died of the coronavirus.