India urgently needs more ambitious structural and financial sector reform measures and a medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy due to the rising debt levels while ensuring a more accommodative fiscal stance in the budget, the IMF has said.

The death toll in China's novel coronavirus outbreak has spiked to nearly 1,500 with 121 new fatalities reported mostly from the worst-affected Hubei province while the confirmed cases of infection jumped to nearly 65,000, health officials said on Friday.

Indian-origin politician Rishi Sunak was appointed as the UK's new finance minister on Thursday by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a Cabinet reshuffle.

Britain's finance minister, Sajid Javid, resigned on Thursday, just weeks after Brexit and a month before he was due to deliver the government's annual budget.

Japan said Thursday it would allow some elderly passengers off a quarantined cruise ship and into government-designated lodging, as the number of new coronavirus cases on the vessel jumped to 218.

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.