The health ministry of Japan has detected the country’s first outbreak of the new strain of the novel coronavirus, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday.

Reports from Britain and South Africa of new coronavirus strains that seem to spread more easily are causing alarm, but virus experts say it’s unclear if that’s the case or whether they pose any concern for vaccines or cause more severe disease.

Reports of people being diagnosed with coronavirus over the previous 24 hours in different districts kept reaching the UNB desk till Monday morning.

Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it would halt all international flights to the kingdom for two weeks in the latest effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

As outbreaks of the new coronavirus that first emerged in China continue to spread in more than 100 countries — particularly those experiencing winter — one of the biggest unanswered questions is how it will behave in warmer weather.

Saudi Arabia closed off air and sea travel to nine countries affected by the new coronavirus Monday as Mideast stock markets tumbled over fears about the widening outbreak's effect on the global economy.

Experts think the New Coronavirus and the disease caused by it called COVID-19 will probably become a permanent part of the human respiratory-virus repertoire.

Iranian health authorities on Saturday reported a fifth death from the new virus that emerged in China, and said the fatality was from among 10 new confirmed cases of the virus in Iran.

A second case of novel coronavirus has been confirmed in the U.S. among evacuees from China, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is convening a global research and innovation forum to mobilise international action in response to the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV).