On Thursday, Saudi Arabia announced that it has halted travel to the Kaaba amid fears over the novel coronavirus. The Kaaba is located in the holy city of Mecca, where Muslims travel to for the annual hajj pilgrimage, which occurs in just a few months. The announcement comes as the

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the world that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus is not yet considered a pandemic, but that countries must do more to prepare for impending outbreaks within their borders. WHO stated that countries should be “in a phase of preparedness.” South Korea, Italy, and

Over the weekend, Italy became victim to Europe’s biggest outbreak of the novel coronavirus as cases rose from three on Friday morning to more than 130 by Sunday. The majority of the coronavirus infections remain in mainland China, surpassing 78,000 confirmed infections as of last week, followed by Japan with

The coronavirus was first detected in Hong Kong in late January, and since then there have been two deaths and 62 confirmed cases within the city. However, Hong Kong’s political stability following the violent and widespread 2019 protests has been threatened by the outbreak in mainland China, where at least

Russia announced that on Thursday, the country will temporarily ban Chinese nationals from entering Russia due to the outbreak of the infectious coronavirus disease. Russia’s travel ban aims to combat the outbreak that has infected over 73,000 people worldwide. The plan was announced by Russian authorities on Tuesday. It is

Xi Jinping, China’s current president, appeared to speak about the national health epidemic occurring in the province of Wuhan on Monday in an attempt to stifle criticism of how the issue is being handled by Chinese authorities. The video was released to a Chinese broadcaster, CCTV, and featured Xi visiting

Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who initially alerted the Chinese government to the deadly coronavirus outbreak, passed away early on Friday. Despite contradictory reports about Wenliang’s death, it has been confirmed that the doctor has died after contracting the disease while treating patients infected with it. The virus has now

The trade of wild animals has been banned as of Sunday within the city of Wuhan, China. The government stated that they will severely investigate and punish violators to the ban. The ban is a result of the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus that has killed several Wuhan