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Coronavirus
spreads further as WHO expert warns world 'not ready' for pandemic
More cases
in South Korea while first suspected infection is recorded in Latin America
Kate Lyons,
Sarah Boseley and agencies
Wed 26 Feb
2020 08.36 GMTFirst published on Wed 26 Feb 2020 05.40 GMT
Coronavirus
has spread further around the world as a World Health Organisation expert
warned that countries outside China are “simply not ready” for a pandemic.
The virus
has proliferated in parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East in recent days,
with the death toll rising in Iran, infections in South Korea passing 1,200 and
the first suspected case recorded in Latin America – even as the number of
deaths and fresh cases decline at the disease’s centre in China. Covid-19 has
now reached dozens of countries with Austria, Croatia and Switzerland the
latest to declare cases.
At the
World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Bruce Aylward, who headed an
international expert mission to China, praised its drastic quarantine and
containment measures but warned that other nations were “simply not ready” to
contain the outbreak.
“You have
to be ready to manage this at a larger scale … and it has to be done fast,”
Aylward said, noting that every country in the world should learn from China’s
successful experience of containing the virus and treating those who fall ill.
“Access the expertise of China,” said Aylward,
speaking in a personal capacity at the World Health Organisation in Geneva.
“They have done this at speed and they know what they are doing. They are
really, really good at it.”
China’s
epidemic has peaked and the numbers are on their way down, thanks to an unprecedented
engagement at every level by the Chinese, he said. The data they saw suggested
it had saved many people from sickness and possible death. “Hundreds of
thousands of people in China did not get COVID-19 because of this aggressive
response,” he said.
The WHO has
called for countries to “prepare for a potential pandemic” – a term used to
describe an epidemic that spreads across multiple continents.
The virus
has killed 2,715 people and infected more than 78,000 in China. There were 52
more deaths inside the country reported on Wednesday – the lowest in three
weeks – with no fatalities outside the disease centre in central Hubei
province.
China’s
National Health Commission also reported a drop in new infections to 406, with
only five outside Hubei. In the rest of the world there have been more than 40
deaths and 2,700 cases.
On
Wednesday, Beijing’s health commissioner announced that the capital would
quarantine people for 14 days at home or in groups if they have been to
countries seriously hit by the coronavirus.
But cases
of the virus outside China continue to swell, including in South Korea, which
reported 284 new infections on Wednesday, raising its total to 1,261 – by far
the most outside China – while an 11th person died.
Ninety per
cent of the new infections in South Korea were in Daegu and the neighbouring province
of North Gyeongsang. Seoul has announced plans to introduce “maximum measures”
to contain the coronavirus, including plans to test around 200,000 members of a
secretive church believed to be at the centre of the country’s outbreak.
A
23-year-old US soldier who had been based in a US camp in a town near Daegu
tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement from US Forces
Korea, and was in self-isolation at his off-base residence.
In Japan
the football league was cancelled and questions were raised over the viability
of the Tokyo Olympics.
The
developments in Asia came after three more people died from Covid-19 disease in
Iran, which has reported 16 fatalities out of nearly 100 infections. It has
been scrambling to contain the spread of the virus since last week when it
announced its first two deaths in Qom, a centre for Islamic studies and
pilgrims that attracts scholars from abroad.
The deputy
health minister Iraj Harirchi said he had contracted the virus after appearing
at a press conference in which he downplayed its significance of the virus but
appeared feverish.
The first
potential case in Latin America was reported late on Tuesday with Brazilian
authorities saying a 61-year-old man in São Paulo had tested positive.
According to the O Globo newspaper the man recently arrived back in the country
from Italy.
In Europe
towns and cities have been sealed off in an attempt to stop the contagion,
while hotels in the Canary Islands and Austria were locked down because of
suspected cases. Italy – which has reported 10 deaths and more than 300 cases –
has locked down 11 towns and ordered Serie A football games to be played to
empty stadiums.
A man who
returned to Croatia from Italy became the first case in the Balkans region.
In France,
a second person infected with the coronavirus died late on Tuesday, according
to the country’s health ministry.
The death
was one of three new cases in France this week, bringing the total confirmed
cases in the country to 17. A Chinese tourist who had tested positive for the
virus died earlier this month.
Disruption
around the world has grown with stock markets tumbling, restrictions imposed on
travellers and sporting events cancelled. Australia’s ASX200 dropped 2.5% on
Wednesday, wiping billions off its value.
In the
United States, which has a few dozen cases, health authorities urged local
governments, businesses and schools to develop plans like cancelling mass
gatherings or switching to teleworking as the country braces for the virus to
spread further.
San
Francisco declared a local emergency despite having no recorded cases.
California’s fourth-largest city said it made the move to boost its coronavirus
preparedness and raise public awareness of risks that the virus may spread to
the city. “Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco
residents, the global picture is changing rapidly and we need to step up
preparedness,” said the city’s mayor, London Breed.
Coronavirus:
quarter of Italy's population put in quarantine as virus reaches Washington DC
Giuseppe
Conte signs decree early on Sunday after 1,200 cases confirmed in 24 hours
Helen
Davidson, Lorenzo Tondo , Verna Yu and agencies
Sun 8 Mar
2020 07.47 GMTFirst published on Sun 8 Mar 2020 05.45 GMT
Italy has
formally locked down more than a quarter of its population in a bid to stop the
spread of the novel coronavirus, as the outbreak reached Washington DC and a
political convention attended by Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
More than
5,800 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Italy, after an alarming
increase of more than 1,200 in a single 24-hour period. Two hundred and
thirty-three people have died. Almost 100 countries are now responding to
outbreaks.
In the
early hours of Sunday, Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree
enacting forced quarantine for the region of Lombardy – home to more than 10
million people and the financial capital, Milan – and multiple other provinces,
totalling around 16 million residents.
Affected
provinces include Venice, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini,
Pesaro and Urbino, Alessandria, Asti, Novara, Verbano Cusio Ossola, Vercelli,
Padua, and Treviso.
The
lockdown decree includes the power to impose fines on anyone caught entering or
leaving Lombardy, the worst-affected region, until 3 April. It provides for the
banning of all public events, closing cinemas, theatres, gyms, discos and pubs.
Religious ceremonies such as funerals and weddings will also be prohibited, and
leave for healthcare workers has been cancelled.
Rome is
also prolonging the closure of schools across the country until at least 3
April, while major sporting events, such as Serie A football games, will be
played behind closed doors.
In the UK,
the government is preparing its own emergency response measures, including
emergency legislation allowing people to switch jobs and volunteer to work in
the NHS or care homes, and for courts to use telephone and video links.
The banning
of people over 70 attending public events is also reportedly being considered
by the Cobra emergency committee, which meets on Monday.
The
escalation in Italy comes as the US struggles with its own response to the
outbreak. In Washington DC, authorities reported a “presumptive positive” test
result in a man, aged in his 50s, who had no identifiable contact with the
virus.
He began
exhibiting conditions in late February although he appears to have no record of
international travel or close contact with people known to have the virus,
Mayor Muriel Bowser said. He remains in hospital.
The
American Conservative Union also reported on Saturday that an attendee of its
annual conservative political action conference last month has been diagnosed
with Covid-19.
The
organiser said the affected person had “no interaction” with Trump or Pence and
did not attend events in the conference’s main hall, held in Fort Washington,
Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia.
Asked about
the development later on Saturday, Trump told reporters in Florida he was not
concerned and planned to continue to hold political rallies.
Australian
authorities are also searching for people, including government employees, who
came into contact with two defence force personnel since diagnosed with the
virus. Three people have died in the country, with more than 70 confirmed
cases. On Sunday, the federal health minister urged people to avoid panic
buying, which has seen two people charged for fighting over toilet paper.
The rate of
new infections in China, where the outbreak began, has slowed.
But
Professor Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong, who has been
advising authorities on control measures in the city, said the worry for
mainland China and Hong Kong was reverse-imported cases, and urged Hongkongers
to avoid travel until the end of the year.
“We think
the epidemic will probably not come to an end,” Yuen said. “There will be what
we call reversed imported cases. In the beginning other countries feared us,
now we fear them [for bringing in the virus].”
At least
four people have been killed in a building collapse in the east of China. The
Xinjia Express hotel was being used as a quarantine centre for people infected
with the virus, state media said. On Sunday rescuers continued to search for
about 20 people still trapped in the rubble.
Friends of
a prominent Chinese activist detained for criticising President Xi Jinping’s
handling of the coronavirus outbreak said he is being held on a state security
charge that carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.
Xu Zhiyong,
a former law lecturer and founder of the social campaign New Citizens Movement,
was taken away by police on 15 February during a fresh crackdown on freedom of
speech precipitated by the coronavirus crisis.
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