US health authorities issued an alert Thursday over a rare but sometimes deadly autoimmune condition among children that is believed to be linked to COVID-19.

The new coronavirus could kill 150,000 people in Africa in a year unless urgent action is taken, according to a WHO modelling study that says nearly a quarter of a billion people will be infected.

Japan's prime minister on Thursday lifted for most of the country a state of emergency imposed to tackle the coronavirus, but kept it in place for Tokyo and Osaka.

Beijing accused the United States Thursday of smearing China after Washington alleged Chinese hackers were attempting to steal research on developing a vaccine against the coronavirus.

World leaders past and present insisted on Thursday that any eventual COVID-19 vaccines and treatments should be made available to everyone, free of charge.

The French government warned Thursday that it would be "unacceptable" for pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to reserve any COVID-19 vaccine for the United States first, after the firm's chief said he would give preference to the American market.

"For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access to such and such a country for financial reasons," deputy finance minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told Sud Radio.

The CEO of the world's busiest airport for international travel wants to get the globe flying again, but even he acknowledges everything remains up in the air during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paul Griffiths oversees what now is a much quieter Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and crucial to East-West travel. The millions that once poured through the airport's concourses are no longer flying as countries around the world enforce lockdowns and travel bans to fight the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes.

The United States recorded 1,813 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 84,059, according to the latest real-time tally Wednesday reported by Johns Hopkins University.

The coronavirus outbreak risks sparking a major global mental health crisis, the United Nations warned Thursday, calling for urgent action to address the psychological suffering brought on by the pandemic.

Bangladesh has prepared a huge field hospital in three weeks to treat coronavirus patients in an attempt to fight the intensifying outbreak in the country.