LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth made a highly rare broadcast to her nation on Sunday to rally the public in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. Here is the text of the 93-year-old monarch’s address, only the fifth special televised broadcast she has made during her reign, the longest in British history. “I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our...

More than 90 countries have asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for emergency funding as the coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented economic crisis, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday. “Never in the history of the IMF we have witnessed the world economy come to a standstill,” the head of the Washington-based institution said in an online press conference of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “We are now in recession. “It is way worse...

The effectiveness of the two metres distance rule to ensure one is not infected by coronavirus is being placed in contention following the view of scientists at the National Academy of Science in the United States that coronavirus may spread through the air and maybe contracted through breathing and even talking. Responding to a question by Kelvin Droegermeier, Head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, about the possibility that coronavirus could...

The United Nations (UN) has announced plans to begin an emergency response in the North East region of Nigeria to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the region. A statement, quoted Mr. Edward Kallon, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria as saying that the displaced persons had already suffered enough and should not be left to suffer the effect of the pandemic. He said the response would focus on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is no longer shaking hands, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after a top doctor with whom he met last week, tested positive for the coronavirus. “Everyone maintains social distancing now,’’ Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency, TASS. State media reported the previous day that Russia’s top doctor for coronavirus cases, Denis Protsenko, had tested positive. Protsenko heads the coronavirus treatment facility at Moscow’s Kommunarka hospital. Moscow,...

Spain on Monday overtook China’s total number of coronavirus cases. However, business leaders and regional authorities criticised the government’s decision to further restrict the movement of people and keep non-essential workers at home until mid-April. An overnight death toll of 812 people brought total fatalities in Spain to 7,340 while the number of infections rose by eight percent to 85,195, against 81,470 in China, where the disease originated at the end of 2019. Health emergency...