The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may not pass to the child in the womb during late pregnancy, or cause severe health outcomes in a newborn, according to a study published in The Lancet journal.

The UN health agency on Wednesday cautioned it was "way too early" to say whether COVID-19 might have peaked or when it might end, following a drop in new cases.

China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus, has reported a record 242 new fatalities and nearly 15,000 fresh cases in a single day, local health officials announced on Thursday, the fastest rise in the daily count since the virus outbreak was first identified in December.

The coronavirus outbreak in China has led to rare open calls for freedom of speech in the Communist nation amid growing public discontent over the handling of the epidemic, as the death toll continued to climb which prompted the government on Wednesday to announce fresh restrictions in top cities.

Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was on Wednesday sentenced to 11 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in two terror financing cases.

The death toll in China's novel coronavirus outbreak has gone up to 1,113 with 97 new fatalities reported mostly in the worst-affected Hubei province while the confirmed cases of infection jumped to 44,653, health officials said on Wednesday.

Beijing: Global efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak intensified on Tuesday with a team of WHO experts holding in-depth exchanges with specialists here, as the death toll from the deadly infection in China crossed 1,000 while the confirmed cases rose to 42,708.

President Donald Trump will travel to India later this month on a two-day visit, the White House announced on Tuesday, in what would be his first trip to the country as the president of the United States.