The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, with at least 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 deaths.
"We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. "We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear."
More:
Timeline: How China's new coronavirus spread
Coronavirus: Which countries have confirmed cases?
What happens if you catch the new coronavirus?
Leaders from the European Union are promising to do "whatever it takes" to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in China at the end of last year and Italy has further tightened the quarantine it imposed across the country earlier this week. The country's medical chief Roberto Stella, 67, was also reported to have died of the disease.
Meanwhile, the virus continued to spread in the United States and appeared in new countries including Bolivia, Honduras and Turkey, while Indonesia, Bulgaria and Sweden recorded their first deaths.
More than 66,000 people have recovered from the illness around the world, according to John Hopkins University, which is tracking the virus.
Here are the latest updates:
Thursday, March 12
01:15 GMT - China announces 15 new cases of coronavirus, 11 deaths
China, the country where it all began, has given its daily update on the coronavirus situation.
The National Health Commission says it had 15 new cases - the lowest since the outbreak began at the end of December - and 11 deaths.
The hardest-hit province of Hubei and its capital Wuhan continue to account for the bulk of the country's 80,793 cases and 3,169 deaths.
01:10 GMT - US to suspend all travel with Europe, except for UK
US President Donald Trump is speaking on the coronavirus from the White House.
He's suspending all travel between the United States and Europe, with the exclusion of the United Kingdom, from midnight on Friday.
The ban will remain in force for a month.
00:15 GMT - Australia announces $11.4bn stimulus plan
Australia announced a 17.6 billion Australian dollars ($11.41bn) economic stimulus plan on Thursday that includes wage subsidies and cash payments for small businesses to counter the effect of the coronavirus.
"Both this financial year and in the next two financial years, the gross impact of that stimulus is A$22.9 billion ($14.82 billion). That's 1.2 percent of GDP (gross domestic product)," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera's continuing coverage of the coronavirus outbreak.
I'm Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.
You can read all the updates from yesterday (March 11) here.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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