Health News Roundup: Armed with lessons from Ebola; France limits paracetamol sales as hoarding threatens availability and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Armed with lessons from Ebola, Africa braces for coronavirus surge

When a passenger arriving from Brussels at Cameroon's Yaounde Nsimalen airport on Saturday was found to have a temperature, health officials say he was whisked to a hospital and diagnosed inside four hours as the country's fourth case of coronavirus. The central African country was doing more generalised screening for disease long before China revealed the new virus that has killed more than 7,500 people globally. Along with other countries on the continent, it hopes its experience guarding against Ebola and other epidemics will help its health system cope with a pandemic that could quickly overwhelm it.

France limits paracetamol sales as hoarding threatens availability

France limited sales of paracetamol-based drugs on Tuesday as people who fear coronavirus infection raided pharmacies to stockpile the drug. France's ANSM medicine agency said that while paracetamol-based medicine is useful to alleviate aches and fevers in case of coronavirus infection, people should not unnecessarily buy large stocks of the drug.

UK health service to cancel all routine surgery

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) has announced plans to cancel all routine surgery for three months and to send home as many patients as possible to free up staff and beds to deal with the spread of the coronavirus. Simon Stevens, NHS head in England, said non-urgent operations will be canceled from April 15 with the aim of freeing up a third of 100,000 hospital beds in England.

Spain unveils 'unprecedented' 200 billion euros coronavirus package

Spain announced a massive 200 billion euros ($220 billion) package to help companies and protect workers and other vulnerable groups affected by the spiraling coronavirus crisis. Police carried out checks at borders with France and Portugal, turning back foreigners attempting to enter Spain as part of strict measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus in Europe's second worst-hit country.

Pfizer, BioNTech to co-develop potential coronavirus vaccine

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc has signed a deal with Germany's BioNTech SE to co-develop a potential vaccine for the coronavirus using BioNTech's mRNA-based drug development platform, the companies said on Tuesday. The drugmakers will start the collaboration immediately and have signed a letter of intent for the vaccine's distribution outside China, they said in a joint statement.

Sobering coronavirus study prompted Britain to toughen its approach

A crucial projection study that helped convince the British government to impose more stringent measures to contain COVID-19 painted a worst-case picture of hundreds of thousands of deaths and a health service overwhelmed with severely sick patients. In a sharp toughening of Britain's approach to the outbreak on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson closed down social life in the world's fifth-largest economy and advised those over 70 with underlying health problems to isolate.

Factbox: COVID-19 and the new coronavirus - Fact versus fiction

Social media is awash with myths about how people might stop the new coronavirus or treat infection with COVID-19, the disease it causes.

Here are some facts to address the fiction:

New coronavirus can persist in air for hours and on surfaces for days: study

The highly contagious novel coronavirus that has exploded into a global pandemic can remain viable and infectious in droplets in the air for hours and on surfaces up to days, according to a new study that should offer guidance to help people avoid contracting the respiratory illness called COVID-19. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, attempted to mimic the virus deposited from an infected person onto everyday surfaces in a household or hospital setting, such as through coughing or touching objects.

EU seeks to prevent U.S. takeovers of coronavirus research firms

European Union leaders will on Tuesday discuss how to prevent hostile U.S. takeovers of EU-based research firms at the forefront in developing drugs and vaccines against the coronavirus, officials said. The talks, to be held in an extraordinary videoconference on the EU response to the virus crisis, come a day after the European Commission pledged financial support to a German firm after it emerged that Washington was trying to persuade it to move its research to the United States.

German coronavirus vaccine developer CureVac denies any U.S. bid

CureVac, the German biotech firm at the center of a row over alleged U.S. attempts to gain access to an experimental coronavirus vaccine it is developing, denied on Tuesday it had received U.S. offers for the company or its assets. European Union leaders will on Tuesday discuss via videoconference how to prevent hostile U.S. takeovers of EU-based research firms at the forefront of developing drugs and vaccines against the coronavirus, officials said.