Global coronavirus cases have surpassed 8 million as infections surge in several countries, especially South American nations.

Medical staff gathered outside the Ministry of Health in Brussels on Sunday, to stage a protest against the lack of funding in the country's health system.

On Monday, Italy moved to phase two of the coronavirus emergency by starting to relax some of the stringent lockdown restrictions that have been in force since March 10.

The World Health Organization reiterates that the new coronavirus is of natural origin after US President Donald Trump claimed he had seen evidence it originated in a Chinese lab.

Twitter Inc. will grant researchers and software developers access to a real-time data stream of tens of millions of daily public tweets about COVID-19, which they can use to study the spread of the disease or track misinformation, the company says.

A 92-year-old Colombian woman received a rousing send-off from hospital staff in Suesca, a small town north of Bogota on Thursday (April 23) after recovering from COVID-19.

Scientists at Oxford-based pharmatech company Exscientia are hoping to find a drug against COVID-19 within a year, using artificial intelligence technology.