A worker wearing protective suit checks the body temperature of an employee at the entrance of OrbusNeich Medical (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd amid the coronavirus outbreak on March 6, 2020 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China.
Chen Wen | China News Service via Getty Images
This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks.
- Global cases: More than 595,000
- Global deaths: At least 27,300
- Top 5 countries: United States (103,942), Italy (86,498), China (81,897), Spain (65,719) and Germany (50,871)
The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of 9:19 a.m. Beijing time.
All times below are in Beijing time.
9:36 am: Abbott receives approval for test that can detect coronavirus in 5 minutes
Abbott on Friday announced it received approval for a test that is capable of delivering positive results of the coronavirus in as little as five minutes, and it will begin making those tests available to health care providers next week.
The test can detect negative results in 13 minutes. The company said it plans to ramp up manufacturing so it can deliver 50,000 tests per day.
“The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus,” Abbott Chief Operating Officer Robert Ford said in a statement.
This is the second Abbott test for the coronavirus to be launched. – Salvador Rodriguez
9:02 am: China reports 54 new cases of infection, all of them ‘imported’
China’s National Health Commission reported 54 new cases of infection, all of which were “imported” as residents returned from abroad. Three new deaths were announced and all of them occurred in Hubei, where the coronavirus was first reported.
Starting Saturday, foreign nationals holding valid visas or residence permits for China will not be allowed to enter the country, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.
Altogether, China says it has had 81,394 confirmed cases thus far; among them, close to 75,000 patients have recovered and 3,295 died. Data from Johns Hopkins University showed both the United States and Italy have overtaken China in terms of the number of reported cases. – Saheli Roy Choudhury
All times below are in Eastern time.
6:20 pm: Gov. Cuomo, the National Guard and FEMA transform the Javits Center into a hospital
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that the construction of a temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Center had been completed with the help of FEMA and the National Guard. The New York City convention center, which usually hosts events like New York Comic Con, is now home to 1,000 hospital beds that will be used to handle patient overflow caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The temporary hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan is just the first of several that will be built in New York. Cuomo plans to have a temporary hospital in each of New York City’s five boroughs as well as in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. – Hannah Miller, Adam Jeffery
5:45 pm: US coronavirus cases top 100,000, doubling in three days
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surpassed 100,000 Friday, doubling in just three days as the pandemic accelerates and the U.S. rolls out broader testing measures.
Data from Johns Hopkins University showed the total number of coronavirus cases as 101,707 and the total number of deaths in the U.S. as 1,544.
The virus emerged in Wuhan, China, in December. It has since spread to more than half a million people in almost every country around the world and continues to pick up speed, the World Health Organization warned earlier this week.
“The pandemic is accelerating,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday at a press briefing from the organization’s Geneva headquarters. “It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for second 100,000 cases, and just four days for the third 100,000 cases.” – William Feuer