CORONAVIRUS has infected more than 81,000 people globally as new cases were discovered in a growing list of territories today.

The Covid-19 virus has killed over 2,700 people throughout the world, with the majority of fatalities in China where it was first discovered.

Germany, France and Spain were among the places with a growing caseload and more than 200 cases in northern Italy have been reported.

Greece became the latest country in Europe to find cases.

German authorities stressed “sneezing etiquette” to stop further spreading.

In the Middle East cases have increased in Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq, and Iran revealed an official tally of 139 with a death toll of 19.

And threats continued to emerge in Asia, with South Korea placing 9,570 troops under quarantine and banning most of its enlisted soldiers from leaving their bases.

The United States, which stations 28,500 troops in the country, also announced that a 23-year-old soldier in the region tested positive.

Workers sanitised public buses in South Korea while in China, banks disinfected banknotes using ultraviolet rays.

Brazil’s government confirmed its first case after a 61-year-old man who travelled to Italy this month for work was diagnosed with the virus.

The instance is the first discovery in Latin America.

“We will now see how this virus behaves in a tropical country in the middle of summer, how its behaviour pattern will be,” Brazil’s Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said.

Christians around the world found many churches closed and rituals changed at the start of Lent.

Doctors in the United States have announced a clinical trial of a possible treatment.