Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Global downturn looms as countries struggle to contain coronavirus outbreak

The coronavirus spread further on Friday, with cases reported for the first time in at least six countries across four continents, battering markets and leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its impact risk alert to "very high." Hopes that the epidemic that started in China late last year would be over in months, and that economic activity would quickly return to normal, have been shattered. As coronavirus slams Italy, paralysis and anxiety spread

At the epicenter of Europe's worst outbreak of coronavirus to date, daily lives have taken on an eerie, aimless calm. It's at night that the worry takes over. "You can hear the ambulances coming and going, and maybe they're going to sick people who have nothing to do with the coronavirus but it worries you just the same," said Davide Benelli from his home in Casalpusterlengo, a town of around 15,000 in Italy's quarantined "red zone" where the disease broke out a week ago. New coronavirus case in California is of unknown origin: county health officials

The latest confirmed U.S. case of coronavirus is of "unknown origin" and was diagnosed in a woman who had not traveled overseas or had contact with any known travelers, Santa Clara County Health officials said on Friday. The patient was identified as an adult woman with chronic health conditions who was referred for testing after she developed difficulty breathing, Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer for Santa Clara County and Director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, told an afternoon news conference. Mainland China, excluding Hubei, reports lowest new daily infections

Mainland China - excluding Hubei province where the new coronavirus outbreak originated - reported four new cases of infection on Friday, the lowest since the national health authority started compiling nationwide data in January. The central province of Hubei reported 423 new confirmed cases on Friday, the National Health Commission said on Saturday, up from 318 a day earlier. Iran calls on people to stay at home as death toll rises to 43

Deaths in Iran from coronavirus have hit 43, the highest number outside China, and the total number of infected people has risen to 593, an Iranian health official said on Saturday. As several countries in the Middle East reported cases of the coronavirus stemming from Iran, the country is at the epicenter of the outbreak in the region. Mexico confirms three coronavirus cases in three men returned from Italy

Mexico's government said on Friday it had detected three cases of coronavirus infection in three men who had all recently traveled to Italy, making the country the second in Latin America to register the fast-spreading virus. The first case is a 35-year-old man who showed positive in an initial test in Mexico City also test positive in a second test early on Friday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez told a news conference. United Kingdom has 19 confirmed coronavirus cases

The United Kingdom now has 19 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus after Wales identified its first case and two new cases were found in England, health authorities said on Friday. "The total number of UK cases is 19," the health ministry said. Number of U.S. coronavirus cases of unknown origin climbs to four

U.S. public health officials said they have identified four "presumptive" coronavirus cases believed to have emerged from community transmission of the infection, signaling a turning point in efforts to contain the disease in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement on Friday citing three such cases newly diagnosed by state public health authorities - one each in California, Oregon and Washington state. Google employee who was at Zurich office tests positive for coronavirus

An employee of Alphabet Inc's Google, who had been in the Zurich office, has tested positive for coronavirus, the company said on Friday. "The Zurich office, like all other offices, remains open", a Google spokesperson said. New York scrambles to replace U.S. government's faulty coronavirus test kits

New York health officials are trying to get their own coronavirus testing kits up and running after getting stuck with faulty tests from the federal government that they said left them unable to diagnose people quickly in the nation's most populous city. New York state's Department of Health filed an emergency application on Friday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be allowed to use a testing kit for the new coronavirus it has developed in-state, according to an official involved in the process.

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