Thousands of travelers flocked to catch trains leaving Wuhan early on Wednesday, AFP reporters said, as authorities lifted a ban on outbound travel from the hard-hit city where the global coronavirus pandemic first emerged.

Iran's parliament convened Tuesday for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced its doors to close, as the country reported a drop in new infections for the seventh straight day.

The European Union is to put up 15 billion euros ($16.4 billion) to help poor countries fight the coronavirus epidemic, the bloc's chief announced on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's health minister on Tuesday warned of a huge spike in coronavirus cases of up to 200,000 within the coming weeks, state media reported.

Sweden on Tuesday reported another 114 coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 591 in a country that has adopted a softer approach to containing the outbreak than some of its European neighbors. 

Two elderly South Korean coronavirus patients recovered from severe pneumonia after being treated with plasma from survivors, researchers said Tuesday, offering hope in the face of the global pandemic.

A Romanian maternity unit was being investigated on Tuesday after 10 newborns tested positive for the novel coronavirus, with the suspicion they contracted the virus from healthcare staff.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 75,000 people worldwide, the majority of them in Europe, since it emerged in China in December, according to a tally compiled by AFP from official sources at 0945 GMT on Tuesday.

Iran on Tuesday reported 133 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of officially confirmed fatalities to 3,872.

While the world waits for a coronavirus vaccine, medicines used to deal with the symptoms of the disease are increasingly in critically short supply in Europe, the worst-hit continent.