WHO warns of global shortage of protective medical equipment to tackle coronavirus outbreak

The World Health Organisation has warned of a chronic global shortage of protective equipment, such as face masks, because of the coronavirus outbreak. The agency said it was working to identify bottlenecks in supplies of items.

Also in the programme: Yemen Al-Qaeda leader al-Raymi killed by US strike; and nearly six hundred thousand people have been displaced by fighting in north-west Syria since December, in what the UN has described as an unfolding catastrophe.

(Photo: A passenger with a sign saying "shortage of medicine" onboard the Dream Princess. Some 3,700 people are on board the Diamond Princess, which is quarantined in Yokohama for at least two weeks. Credit: Reuters)