The United States was supported only by Israel Friday in a vote against a UN resolution for a "comprehensive and coordinated response" to the Covid-19 pandemic, a text that included recognition of the WHO's leadership role.

North Korean authorities have issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus entering the country from China, according to the commander of US forces in the South.

Coronavirus cases in the wider Middle East from Morocco to Pakistan have topped two million, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The caseload for the 21 countries has more than doubled since July 1, the UN agency said.

The coronavirus has upended everyday life in the six months since the crisis was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 900,000 since the respiratory disease first appeared in China last year, according to an AFP tally.

Headaches, confusion and delirium experienced by some Covid-19 patients could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain, according to a study published Wednesday.

Thousands of asylum-seekers were without shelter Thursday after a fire gutted Greece's largest migrant camp, prompting wrangling among European nations over their responsibility towards refugees and calls for urgent reform of the current system.

The United Nations on Wednesday deplored a lack of progress on its call earlier this year for a ceasefire in conflict-wracked nations to ease their battle against the novel coronavirus. 

The UK government on Wednesday tightened coronavirus restrictions due to a sharp rise in cases, banning social gatherings of more than six people and making contact tracing mandatory in pubs and other venues.

U.S. President Donald Trump admitted that he tried to minimize the lethal threat of the coronavirus early on in the pandemic, according to excerpts reported Wednesday from a new book by veteran US journalist Bob Woodward.

"I wanted to always play it down," Trump said in an interview with Woodward on March 19, according to a CNN preview of the book "Rage," due to be published September 15.