Iran’s health ministry raised on Sunday the nationwide death toll from the new coronavirus to 54 as the number of infected cases jumped overnight to 978 people. The ministry’s spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said new cases were confirmed in a number of cities, including Mashhad, which is home to Iran’s most important Shiite shrine that attracts […]

South Africa will evacuate 151 citizens from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan within days, the health minister said Sunday, as the death toll and number of infected worldwide mounted. The virus has spread to more than 60 countries around the globe — killing nearly 3,000 people and sickening 87,000 — prompting the World Health […]

A coughing Pope Francis told pilgrims gathered for the traditional Sunday blessing that he is cancelling his participation at a week-long spiritual retreat in the Roman countryside because of a cold. It is the first time in his seven-year papacy that he has missed the spiritual exercises that he initiated early in his pontificate to […]

Operators of a British cruise ship that was turned away from its destination due to fears of the new coronavirus said Saturday they have chartered planes to ferry passengers home — but don’t yet have permission to dock anywhere. The Braemar, which had been scheduled to disembark its hundreds of passengers in the Dominican Republic […]

Mexico confirmed its fourth case of the new coronavirus on Saturday — all linked to recent travel to Italy — after a young woman tested positive for infection. Health authorities said the 20-year-old from northern Coahuila state was carrying the virus without showing symptoms. She had recently travelled to Milan and was now under isolation […]