Iran reported its single biggest jump in deaths from the new coronavirus on Wednesday, saying that another 147 had died in a nearly 15% spike that raises the death toll to 1,135 people nationwide.

It marks the biggest 24-hour rise in deaths since officials first acknowledged cases of the virus in Iran in mid-February.

Political leaders "underestimated" the magnitude of the danger posed by the coronavirus, the president of the European Commission admitted Wednesday, as the EU shut its borders.

The president of the European Commission said Tuesday that, after speaking to a German biotech firm, she hopes a vaccine against the novel coronavirus strain will be available this year.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for a unified national response to the coronavirus threat, after coming under fire for downplaying the pandemic and allowing states to go their own way.

The European Union will impose an entry ban on travelers from outside the bloc for 30 days to battle the spread of the coronavirus, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.

Member states "agreed to impose an entry ban" into the bloc, with only nationals of EFTA countries and Britain exempt from the restriction, said Merkel.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday suspended prayers inside all its mosques except the holiest two sites in Islam as it steps up efforts to contain the new coronavirus, state media reported. 

Three men have been detained in Ukraine, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday, after stealing 100,000 surgical masks as the coronavirus pandemic expands.  

He called on the country to come together. He warned of pain to come. And he deferred to the nation's public health experts while at least momentarily putting aside petty squabbling.

After weeks of trying to play down the risk posed by the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump struck a new, more urgent tone Monday as he delivered a sobering message to Americans grappling with a new reality that will dramatically alter their lives for months to come.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) regional office for Europe on Tuesday said there is a need for bold measures in all European countries, calling the continent the "epicenter" of the new coronavirus pandemic.

Britain on Tuesday ramped up its response to the escalating coronavirus outbreak after the government imposed unprecedented peacetime measures prompted by scientific advice that infections and deaths would spiral without drastic action.