A surge in coronavirus cases across the United States and Europe has forced governments to strengthen containment measures as a survey released Saturday showed support for the handling of their pandemics has slipped.

Governments are fast losing support for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak from a public that widely believes death and infection figures to be higher than statistics show, a survey of six countries revealed Saturday. 

Support for the federal government of the United States, the country with the most reported infections and deaths, dropped by four percentage points from mid-June, with 44 percent of respondents declaring themselves dissatisfied, said a report by the Kekst CNC communications consulting group.

An Israeli company is developing a coronavirus breathalyzer test that gives results in 30 seconds, billing it as a "front line" tool that can help restore a sense of normality during the pandemic.

A three-year-old girl has become Belgium's youngest known victim of the coronavirus, officials said Friday, as the country confronts a worrying growth in new infections.

Health spokesman Boudewijn Catry said three people die each day in Belgium from COVID-19, including recently the toddler and an 18-year-old.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday pushed back against some of the conspiracy theories spreading online accusing him of creating the coronavirus outbreak.

Stephane Manigold's bistro in western Paris is bustling this summer despite the coronavirus crisis that has emptied the capital of foreigners -- largely thanks to locals taking advantage of his newly created outdoor dining area.

A Jordanian couple in Saudi Arabia burst into tears of joy to be among the chosen ones for next week's scaled-down hajj pilgrimage, but countless rejected applications have stirred resentment.

Emirates, the largest airline in the Middle East, will cover customers' coronavirus-related medical costs in a bid to "boost travel confidence", the Dubai Media Office reported Thursday.

More than three million cases of the coronavirus have been reported in Europe, more than half of them in Russia, Britain, Spain and Italy, according to an AFP tally Thursday.

Europe has registered  3,002,861 infections, out of a global total of 15,237,784. The continent remains the hardest hit in terms of deaths, with 206,633 out of 626,994 worldwide.

The small, neighboring sheikhdoms of Bahrain and Qatar have the world's highest per capita rates of coronavirus infections. In the two Mideast countries, COVID-19 epidemics initially swept undetected through camps housing healthy and young foreign laborers, studies now show.

In Qatar, a new study found that nearly 60% of those testing positive showed no symptoms at all, calling into question the usefulness of mass temperature checks meant to stop the infected from mingling with others. In Bahrain, authorities put the asymptomatic figure even higher, at 68%.