The entire district of Guetersloh in western Germany will be placed in lockdown after a coronavirus outbreak at a slaughterhouse, North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet said Tuesday. 

Coronavirus cases in the West Bank have more than doubled in a week, the Palestinian Authority said Monday after warning a second wave of infections could be worse than the first.

The World Health Organization called Monday for a rapid increase in production of the steroid dexamethasone, after British clinical trials found it has life-saving potential for critically-ill coronavirus patients.

More than nine million people have now been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, according to an AFP tally drawing on official sources, as of Monday 1520 GMT.

Brazil says it has registered more than 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak as well as about one million infections, as the second worst-affected country in the world struggles to control the disease.

China banned imports from a top U.S. poultry producer and ordered a Beijing Pepsi factory to close Sunday as authorities clamped down on food production and distribution amid a new coronavirus cluster in the capital.

The Palestinian Authority has said it is temporarily closing the cities of Hebron and Nablus in the occupied West Bank to contain the spread of coronavirus after a sharp rise in infections.

Spain reopened its borders with France on Sunday, getting rid of one of the most potent symbols of Europe's battle against the coronavirus, as infections in Latin America surged past two million. 

Europe has recorded more than 2.5 million coronavirus cases since the outbreak of the pandemic, with more than half the total accounted for by Russia, Britain, Spain and Italy, according to a tally from official sources complied by AFP as of 1030 GMT Saturday.

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis has decided to halt a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, citing problems in recruiting enough patients for the study of the controversial drug.