Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended visas for pilgrims wishing to visit Mecca over coronavirus fears, the foreign ministry said. The government is “suspending entry to the Kingdom for the purpose of Umrah and visiting the Prophet’s Mosque temporarily”, the foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be […]

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Thursday on public schools to close nationwide from March 2 to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. “The government considers the health and safety of children above anything else,” Abe said. “We request all primary, junior high and high schools… across the nation to close temporarily from March […]

North Korea has postponed the new school term to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, reports said Thursday, the latest measure as the ill-equipped country ramps up efforts to prevent a devastating outbreak. Pyongyang has not reported a single case of the virus now known as COVID-19, which originated in the central Chinese city […]

Denmark reported its first coronavirus case Thursday, a man who had returned from a skiing holiday in northern Italy which has become a hotspot for the disease. “The man who came back from a skiing trip with his wife and son on February 24 has been suffering since then from a cough and a temperature,” […]

A woman in Japan who contracted the new coronavirus and was released from hospital after recovering has tested positive again, officials said Thursday. The case is the first time a patient apparently cleared of the virus has subsequently tested positive for it, a local official in Osaka said. The woman in her 40s was first […]