Keeping you up to date on the latest novel coronavirus (Covid-19) news from around the world.

Coronavirus symptoms multiply as pandemic deepens

Every week, it seems, the list of coronavirus symptoms - ranging from disagreeable to deadly, from "COVID toes" to toxic shock - grows longer.

What began as a familiar flu-like cluster of chills, headaches and fever has rapidly expanded over the last three months into a catalogue of syndromes affecting most of the body's main organs.

The new coronavirus can also push the immune system into overdrive, unleashing an indiscriminate assault on pathogens and their human hosts alike.

"Most viruses can cause disease in two ways," explained Jeremy Rossman, a senior lecturer in virology at the University of Kent.

"They can damage tissue where the virus replicates, or they can cause damage as a side effect of the immune system fighting off the disease."

Doctors suspect, for example, that Covid-19 is behind the hospitalisation in recent weeks of more than 100 children and adolescents in New York, London and Paris diagnosed with a disorder similar to toxic shock syndrome that attacks blood vessel walls and can cause fever, vomiting and in extreme cases organ failure.

Europe emerges from confinement, but Asia infections spike

Swathes of Europe began the long process of reopening from coronavirus lockdowns on Monday, but the first new infections in weeks at China's ground zero offered a sobering reminder of the dangers of a second wave of cases.

The mixed fortunes illustrate the high-wire act governments face across the globe as they try to get economies moving while keeping in check a pandemic that has now killed more than 280 000 people and infected over four million.

As France and Spain basked in a relaxation of restrictions and Britain plotted a path to normality, the Chinese city of Wuhan where the pandemic was born reported a second day of new cases after a month without a sign of the virus.

Fewer than 1 000 virus patients in intensive care in Italy

Italy on Monday reported fewer than 1 000 people in intensive care treatment for the novel coronavirus for the first time since 10 March when the country went into confinement, the civil protection agency said.

The number of daily deaths rose slightly to 179 from the last report of 165, but was still the third consecutive day below 200 fatalities, it said.

On 3 April the number of Covid-19 patients in ICU units throughout the country peaked at 4 068.

102-year-old Spanish Flu survivor recovers from coronavirus

A 102-year-old Icelandic woman who survived the Spanish flu has recovered from Covid-19, according to a United Nations report.

Helga Gudmundsdottir was placed under quarantine at her nursing home in the West Fjords at the beginning of April. She was declared virus-free just days before her 103rd birthday.

Iceland has been one of the most successful countries at tackling the coronavirus, limiting infections and carrying out extensive testing.

Aids deaths could double in sub-Saharan Africa due to Covid-19: UN

The number of deaths from Aids-related illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa could double if the provision of healthcare to HIV sufferers is disrupted during the coronavirus crisis, the United Nations said Monday.

A six-month disruption of antiretroviral therapy due to the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to more than 500 000 extra deaths in the region in 2020-2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNAIDS said in a joint statement.

In 2018 - the latest figures given - an estimated 470 000 people died of Aids-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.