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Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating in Africa, spreading to the hinterland from capital cities where it arrived with travellers, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Paraguay's coronavirus camps, obligatory for anyone entering the South American country, have garnered praise from international health bodies for helping stem the spread of the epidemic. The government calls them the "first line of defense".

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday that it was "very regrettable" that Taiwan was not accepted to take part as an observer at the World Health Organization assembly last month.

Russia on Thursday rolled out a drug approved to treat patients suffering from the novel coronavirus, its state financial backer said, as the number of infections there surpassed half a million.

Britain published new guidance for airlines and airports on how to operate safely to minimize the risks from coronavirus, adding to hopes that the country will soon agree deals to allow quarantine-free travel.

Britain's death toll from COVID-19 could have been halved if lockdown had been introduced a week earlier, a former member of the UK government's scientific advisory group said on Wednesday.

British doctor Jihan Mohamud travelled to Somalia for the first time last year to bury her father in the land of his birth.

Africa will have a "steady increase" in COVID-19 cases until a vaccine is developed and strong public health measures are needed in current "hotspots" in South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Hundreds of children in Indonesia are believed to have died from COVID-19, giving the Southeast Asian country one of the world's highest rates of child deaths from the novel coronavirus that experts around the world say poses little danger to the young.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 555 to 185,416, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.

Cuba will test all visitors for coronavirus when it reopens to international tourism, which will be limited at first to the beach resorts at the keys of the Caribbean's largest island, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on Wednesday.

The United States may see 200,000 deaths because of the coronavirus at some point in September, a leading expert said, while total U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday as governments relax restrictions.

Eli Lilly and Co could have a drug specifically designed to treat COVID-19 authorized for use as early as September if all goes well with either of two antibody therapies it is testing, its chief scientist told Reuters on Wednesday.

South Korean doctors have found certain underlying conditions that may make some COVID-19 patients more severely affected by the disease, a professor at Yeungnam University Medical Center said on Wednesday.

Mainland China reported 11 confirmed and four new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases by the end of June 10, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

Latin America's coronavirus crisis reached a grim new milestone on Wednesday with total deaths exceeding 70,000, according to a Reuters count, as Mexico hit a daily record for confirmed infections.

Some Chinese students returning to school after lockdown are grappling with familial conflict while others are stressing over how coronavirus disruptions have affected their academic performance, teachers and school counsellors say.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is seeking to review treatments and tests for COVID-19 "as fast as we can" for emergency clearance, with the priority on those using high-level science, the agency’s commissioner said on Wednesday.

The arrival of warmer weather in the Northern Hemisphere raises the question of whether summer could slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Here is what science says.