Reuters Health News

South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical said its anti-parasitic drug niclosamide had eliminated the novel coronavirus from animals' lungs during testing.

Mainland China reported three confirmed and 21 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases as of Monday, the National Health Commission said.

Thailand on Tuesday reported two new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing its total to 3,121 confirmed cases, of which 58 were fatalities.

New coronavirus cases had their biggest daily increase ever as the pandemic worsens globally and has yet to peak in central America, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, urging countries to press on with efforts to contains the virus.

The Mexican government reported 2,999 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing total confirmed infections to 120,102, according to data from the health ministry.

University of Washington researchers estimated on Monday that 145,728 people could die of COVID-19 in the United States by August, raising their grim forecast by more than 5,000 fatalities in a matter of days.

Reina Paula, a saleswoman at Havana's La Epoca supermarket, said the same day that a worker tested positive for the coronavirus, local authorities sent the rest of the staff in a fleet of state vehicles to isolation facilities for testing.

Brazil reported 679 new COVID-19 deaths and 15,654 additional confirmed cases on Monday, as controversy grew over the country's official coronavirus data amid allegations of manipulation from a senior lawmaker.

Health minister Matt Hancock launched a study to find out the prevalence and spread of the coronavirus among school children and teachers in England on Tuesday to help inform the phased reintroduction of education after a lengthy national lockdown.

More than half the residents tested in Italy's northern province of Bergamo have COVID-19 antibodies, health authorities said on Monday, citing a sample survey.

The track and trace smartphone app of Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which is meant to help keep the novel coronavirus outbreak under control, will be ready for launch in time for the next lifting of lockdown restrictions at the start of July, The Times newspaper reported.

A U.S. Navy investigation into the spread of the coronavirus aboard the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier has found that about 60 percent of sailors tested had antibodies for the virus, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, suggesting a far higher infection rate than previously known.

Brazil reported a total of 37,134 deaths due to coronavirus and 707,412 confirmed cases as of Monday, according to the Council of State Health Secretaries (Conass), which brings together the heads of health departments of all of the country's states.

Global Blood Therapeutics Inc said on Monday it plans to ask U.S. regulators to greenlight the use of its sickle cell treatment, Oxbryta, in children aged 4 to 11, expanding on an earlier approval for patients 12 and over.

Poland will close 12 coal mines from Tuesday for three weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus among miners, Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin said on Monday.

Denmark plans to lift the limit on public gatherings from 50 to 100 people in July and to 200 in August as it eases measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, the government said on Monday.

The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

The sounds of tears and laughter rang through the Casaverde nursing home in Navalcarnero outside Madrid on Monday, as residents received their first visitors since the facility was locked down in March.

France's coronavirus deaths were four times higher on Monday than a day earlier but the increase of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were at a one-week low.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported 1,938,823 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 17,919 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 474 to 110,375.