The US vice president's spokeswoman became the second White House staffer this week to test positive for the coronavirus, officials said Friday, even as President Donald Trump continued to go mask-free at a World War II commemoration with veterans in their 90s.

Researchers in Hong Kong have found that patients suffering milder illness caused by the new coronavirus recover more quickly if they are treated with a three-drug antiviral cocktail soon after symptoms appear.  

Brazil, the country in Latin America that has been hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, said Friday it had reached a new daily record for COVID-19 fatalities with 751 deaths.

The announcement by the health ministry puts Brazil's total death count at nearly 10,000. 

The United States recorded 1,635 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 77,178, according to the latest real-time tally Friday reported by Johns Hopkins University.

Britain plans to introduce a 14-day mandatory quarantine for most international arrivals, reports said Saturday, despite growing pressure on the government to relax virus lockdown measures.

Sudan extended a curfew in and around the capital Khartoum for 10 days from Saturday as coronavirus cases mount, state media reported. 

More than 31,000 people who have tested positive for coronavirus have now died in Britain, new health ministry figures showed on Friday.

The British government warned the public on Friday not to expect any major changes to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown next week, as the official daily death toll topped 31,000.

Russia on Friday registered more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row, after emerging as a new hotspot of the pandemic.

The United States on Friday prevented a vote in the U.N. Security Council on a resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, apparently because it made implicit mention of the World Health Organization, diplomats said.