As it happened: Coronavirus infections near 100,000 globally - WHO - BBC News
Global markets continue to fall amid fears about the economic cost of the epidemic.
We've been reporting that the World Health Organization says the total number of cases of coronavirus globally is "nearing" 100,000.

This is what the WHO's director general told a daily briefing in Geneva on Friday afternoon:

Quote Message: We are now on the verge of reaching 100,000 confirmed cases from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus World Health Organization We are now on the verge of reaching 100,000 confirmed cases

But other organisations - including news agencies such as Reuters and AFP, are keeping their own tallies by adding up figures given by various national and state health officials. Both these news agencies are now reporting that the total number of infections has passed 100,000.

At Johns Hopkins University in the US, researchers are maintaining an interactive web-based dashboard to track the outbreak in real time.

They also calculate that more than 100,000 people have been infected, and more than 3,400 have died across the world.

But as countries including Italy, France and Iran continue to report significant daily increases, the WHO stressed the importance of containment measures to try to slow down the outbreak.