Health News Roundup: Canada's Ontario warns coronavirus cases will soar; Turkey's coronavirus death toll rises to 425 and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Canada's Ontario warns coronavirus cases will soar without further distancing measures

Ontario health officials on Friday projected 80,000 coronavirus cases in the province, Canada's most heavily populated region, by April 30 under current public health measures and urged people to restrict their movements. The officials said the new coronavirus would kill 1,600 people by the end of the month, under current policies. With "full future intervention," that figure would be 200, they said at a news briefing.

Turkey's coronavirus death toll rises to 425, total cases 20,921: health minister

Turkey's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak increased by 69 to 425 on Friday, while the number of confirmed cases from the disease rose by 2,786 to 20,921, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Koca said 16,160 tests had been carried out in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests carried out in Turkey to 141,716 since the outbreak began.

Americans should cover faces and also keep distance: Dr. Fauci

Americans should cover their face if they have to go in public, but they should still stay isolated as much as possible, the nation's top infectious disease official said on Friday as the Trump administration readies its recommendation on such coverings. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned however against the public using face masks that must be reserved for doctors, nurses, first responders and others on the front lines battling the highly-infectious disease.

Italy's daily tally of coronavirus deaths and cases steady, with 766 new deaths

The death toll from an outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy has climbed by 766 to 14,681, the Civil Protection Agency said on Friday, marginally higher than the daily tally of 760 fatalities registered a day earlier. The number of new cases was slightly lower, growing by 4,585 from a previous 4,668, bringing total infections since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 to 119,827.

WHO opens door to broader use of masks to limit spread of coronavirus

The World Health Organization on Friday said that medical masks should be prioritized for health workers, but it opened the door to greater public use of homemade masks or other mouth coverings as a way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. A senior WHO official told reporters there was some possibility of airborne transmission of the virus that has now infected over 1 million people and killed 50,000 people worldwide since emerging in China last December.

U.S. big bucks turn global face mask hunt into 'Wild West'

The global scramble to secure face masks to shield frontline workers from the coronavirus has turned the marketplace into the "Wild West", with the United States often ready to outbid buyers who have already signed deals, officials from Europe to the Americas say. In France and Germany, senior officials said the United States was paying far above the market price for masks from No. 1 producer China, on occasion winning contracts through higher bids even after European buyers believed a deal was done, and Brazil's health minister reported a similar incident.

IMF, WHO urge leaders to focus on health spending to get virus under control

The IMF and the World Health Organization on Friday urged leaders of developing countries to prioritize paying medical staff, buying protective gear and other health expenditures in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a joint column in the UK's Telegraph newspaper, the heads of the two institutions said getting the new coronavirus under control was a prerequisite to reviving the global economy, and it was critical to strike the right balance in spending emergency aid.

UK ramps up coronavirus trials but results 'a few months away'

Britain said on Friday it was launching the biggest clinical trial of possible treatments for coronavirus in the world but a leading health official cautioned that the results were likely a few months away. Almost 1,000 patients from 132 hospitals had been recruited in 15 days and thousands more were expected to join in the coming weeks, the health department said.

CDC reports 239,279 coronavirus cases, 5,443 deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 239,279 cases of coronavirus, an increase of 26,135 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 930 to 5,443. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on April 2 compared to its count a day ago. (https://bit.ly/2IVY1JT).

UK nowhere near running out of ventilators: senior medic

Britain is not "anywhere close" to the scenario of running out of ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients at the peak of the spread of the virus, England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said on Friday. Asked during a news conference whether the health service would have enough ventilators for those who will need critical care at the peak of the outbreak, Van-Tam said: "I don’t think we are anywhere close to that kind of scenario at the moment."

(With inputs from agencies.)