BERLIN - Leaders from the European Union are promising to do "whatever it takes" to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, as Italy reported its biggest single-day death toll since the disease was first detected their last month.
The 27 leaders of the EU met in a video conference after facing criticism they had been too slow to deal with the outbreak, which first emerged in China at the end of last year.
Elsewhere, the virus continued to spread in the United States and appeared in new countries including Bolivia and Turkey, while Indonesia recorded its first death.
Globally, more than 4,000 people have died from the coronavirus and in excess of 113,000 cases have been confirmed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 64,000 people have recovered from the illness around the world according to John Hopkins University.
This is Mersiha Gadzo in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur. (Aljazeera)