Left empty as the coronavirus pandemic forced events to be cancelled, Berlin's exhibition centre Messe is getting a makeover with the help of German soldiers -- to reemerge as a hospital in a few weeks' time.

The new coronavirus is quickly destroyed by sunlight, according to new research announced by a senior US official on Thursday, though the study has not yet been made public and awaits external evaluation.

William Bryan, science and technology advisor to the Department of Homeland Security secretary, told reporters at the White House that government scientists had found ultraviolet rays had a potent impact on the pathogen, offering hope that its spread may ease over the summer.

Britain's health ministry on Thursday said 616 more people had died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus in hospital, taking the country's official death toll to 18,738.

Unarmed Madagascar soldiers went door-to-door in the capital Antananarivo, doling out sachets of a local herbal tea touted by President Andry Rajoelina as a powerful remedy against the novel coronavirus.  

Oxford University is launching a human trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine, with the daunting aim of making a successful jab available to the public later this year.

Italy began conducting antibody tests in the northern region of Lombardy on Thursday, seeking information about coronavirus immunity to help guide authorities as they reopen the long locked-down country.

Two asylum-seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos were shot and injured after apparently violating coronavirus quarantine rules, officials said Thursday.

Each time Maria, an Indian care worker living in Israel, goes shopping she is consumed by fears of bringing the coronavirus into the home of the 91-year-old woman she looks after.

The U.N. Security Council began work Wednesday on a draft resolution co-authored by Tunisia and France urging "enhanced coordination" and a general cessation of hostilities in conflicts on its agenda, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The head of the U.S. agency in charge of developing a vaccine against coronavirus said Wednesday that he was removed from his job for opposing the chloroquine treatment promoted by President Donald Trump.