World is
approaching coronavirus tipping point, experts say
78,000
cases confirmed, as Italy and Iran scramble to contain major outbreaks
Angela
Giuffrida in Rome, Patrick Wintour in Tehran and Sam Jones
Sun 23 Feb
2020 17.13 GMTLast modified on Mon 24 Feb 2020 01.38 GMT
The world
is fast approaching a tipping point in the spread of the coronavirus, according
to experts, who warn that the disease is outpacing efforts to contain it, after
major outbreaks forced Italy and Iran to introduce stringent internal travel restrictions
and South Korea’s president placed the country on red alert.
Some of the
countries most affected by the virus are scrambling to halt its progress two
days after Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health
Organization (WHO), said the international community needed to act quickly
before the narrowing “window of opportunity” closed completely.
With almost
78,000 cases of Covid-19 now confirmed across the globe, experts say the
situation will soon reach a critical threshold.
In 11 north
Italian towns, 50,000 people have been in lockdown since Friday night, with
police patrolling the streets and fines imposed on anyone caught entering or
leaving outbreak areas. In Iran, the authorities have ordered the closure of
schools, universities and other educational centres in 14 provinces as “a
preventative measure”.
On Sunday,
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, placed the country on “red alert” after
it reported its sixth death and more than600 infections.
And four of
the 32 British and Irish Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers flown to the
UK on Saturday have tested positive for Covid-19, the Chief Medical Officer for
England said on Sunday. It brings the total number of confirmed cases in the UK
to 13.
While the
number of patients worldwide is increasing, some virus clusters have shown no
obvious link to China, leaving experts struggling to determine where they
started.
Paul
Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia and an authority
on the new coronavirus infection, echoed Tedros’s warning and said the time for
containing the disease was running out.
“The
director general of the WHO has recently spoken of a narrowing of the window of
opportunity to control the current epidemic,” he said. “The tipping point after
which our ability to prevent a global pandemic ends seems a lot closer after
the past 24 hours.”
Hunter said
that while cases were declining in China, where the outbreak began, the weekend
had seen some “extremely concerning developments elsewhere”.
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He said the
surge in South Korean cases had been unprecedented so far in the epidemic,
adding: “The identification of the large cluster of cases in Italy is a big
worry for Europe and we can expect there to be quite a few more cases
identified in the next few days.”
Hunter also
said the situation in Iran could have major implications for the Middle East.
“A further problem with the Iranian cases is wider armed conflicts in the
region,” he said.
Dr Robin
Thompson, junior research fellow in mathematical epidemiology at the University
of Oxford, pointed out that case numbers in Italy had doubled between Friday
and Saturday. “This is an important stage of the coronavirus outbreak,” he
said. “Fast isolation of even mild cases in affected areas is important for
preventing substantial person-to-person transmission in Europe. It is critical
that public health guidelines are followed.”
Two people
have died from the virus in Italy since Friday and more than a hundred cases
have now been reported, most of them centred around the small town of Codogno,
about 40 miles south-east of Milan.
Those
living in the affected areas now face what the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte,
said could be weeks of lockdown. The final two days of the Venice carnival were
cancelled and Milan fashion week was also affected.
Iran has
recorded eight deaths from the virus, the highest toll of any country outside
China. The latest three deaths reported on Sunday were among 15 new confirmed
cases, bringing the overall number of infections to 43. Four new infections
surfaced in the capital, Tehran, seven in the city of Qom, two in Gilan and one
each in Markazi and Tonekabon, the health ministry spokesman, Kianoush
Jahanpour, said.
Pakistan
responded by closing its land border with Iran, while Afghanistan said it was
suspending travel to Iran “to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and
protect the public”. Turkey also closed its borders and said it would halt
incoming flights, adding that all motorways and railways at the border would be
shut on Sunday afternoon.
Jordan,
meanwhile, will not allow entry to citizens of China, Iran and South Korea and
other foreigners travelling from those countries in response to the deadly
outbreak.
Announcing
his decision to raise South Korea’s alert level on Sunday, Moon said the
government and the local authorities should not hesitate to take
“unprecedented, powerful” measures to contain the viral disease without being
limited by “regulations”.
As his
country struggled to contain theoutbreak in the city of Daegu, the president
described the coming days as “a very important moment”, the news agency Yonhap
said. Of the 123 new cases, 75 were related to the Shincheonji church in Daegu,
the country’s fourth-largest city, and a neighbouring hospital.
The Korea
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they had placed more than 9,000
Shincheonji members in self-quarantine and thousands of worshippers had been
screened for the virus.
The raising
of the alert level came as a Japanese government minister apologised after a
woman allowed to leave the coronavirus-hit cruise ship Diamond Princess on
Wednesday tested positive for the infection on Saturday, raising more questions
about the country’s management of the outbreak.
Warning
that China’s virus epidemic was “still grim and complex,” the Chinese
president, Xi Jinping, called on Sunday for more efforts to stop the outbreak,
revive industry and prevent the disease from disrupting the spring planting of
crops. Xi defended the ruling Communist party’s response as “timely and
effective” in a video conference with officials in charge of anti-disease work,
according to the Xinhua news agency.
“The
current epidemic situation is still grim and complex,” Xinhua cited Xi as
saying. “Prevention and control are at the most critical stage.”
AFP and the
Associated Press contributed to this report
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