27 February
"In light of the significant infection risks, we will ask that national sporting or cultural events that will attract large crowds be either cancelled, postponed or downsized for the next two weeks,":
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
CORONAVIRUScases spread beyond the out-break's European hot-spot Italy Wednesday, as the world scrambled to contain the deadly epidemic that is fast growing outside China's borders.
New cases linked to Italy -- the hardest hit European country -- have emerged in several countries in Europe and beyond, amid warnings from health experts that nations are not ready to contain a global outbreak.The novel corona-virus has killed over 2,700 people and infected more than 80,000, the vast majority in China.
But on Wednesday the World Health Organization said more new cases were now being clocked outside China than inside the country, where the deadly vi-rus first emerged in December. Greece confirmed its first case Wednesday, a woman who had re-cently travelled to northern Italy; while a suspected case was report-ed in Brazil—a traveller recently returned from Milan. If confirmed, it would be Latin America's fist case of the virus.
Croatia, Austria and Algeria have all reported cases linked to Italy, while a hotel in Spain re-mained under lockdown Wednes-day after an infected Italian tourist was hospitalised with the virus. A World Health Organization official warned that nations were "simply not ready" to contain the outbreak.
"You have to be ready to man-age this at a larger scale... and it has to be done fast," said WHO's Bruce Aylward, who headed an international expert mission to China to assess containment measures. Several governments have advised against travel to Italy, particularly to outbreak epicen-tre in the north, and introduced checks for passengers arriving from the country. Italy has con-firmed 374 cases of the disease and 12 deaths, and says the virus has spread to some southern regions as well.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
France reports first citizen to die from coronavirus
A 60-year-old man has be come the first French victim of the coronavirus in the country, the health ministry announced Wednesday.
The man died overnight after being rushed to a Paris hospital in serious condition on Tuesday evening, bringing the total death toll in the country to two, said the ministry's deputy head Jerome Salomon.In a televised state-ment, Salomon said a 60-year-old French man in a very serious condition was tested at Paris’ Pitie-Salpêtrière hospital late on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately (he) died dur-ing the night,” Salomon said.
Xi chairs leadership meeting on COVID-19
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of Chi-na (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Po-litical Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Responding to a call of the CPC Central Committee to all Party members, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng all made donations to sup-port the COVID-19 prevention and control work.
Addressing the meeting, Xi said the positive trend in prevent-ing and controlling the epidemic is expanding and economic and social development is rapidly re-covering, but the situation in Hu-bei Province and its capital city of Wuhan remains complex and grim, and the risk of a rebound of the epidemic in other regions can not be overlooked. Xi said at this moment it is important to make unremitting epidemic contain-ment efforts and accelerate all aspects of work in economic and social development.
Public events cancelled
Japan reported two more deaths linked to the coronavirus Wednesday as the government called for organisers to reconsider holding major events in coming weeks to limit the outbreak.
The news came as dozens of passengers allowed off a vi-rus-stricken cruise ship were re-ported to have developed symp-toms including fever, and will be asked to be re-tested for the virus.
A Tokyo man in his 80s who tested positive for the infection died of pneumonia, the health ministry said. He had not travelled to China recently and there was no sign he had contact with known infected individuals, it said in a statement. Another elderly person in the Hokkaido region of northern Japan died of viral pneumonia, the ministry said. Testing done after the death confirmed the infection of the individual, whose details have not been released at the request of the family.
Seven deaths linked to the virus have now been reported in Japan—four of them former passengers from the Diamond Princess—while the country has also recorded more than 700 infections from the boat and at least 160 off it.
"In light of the significant in-fection risks, we will ask that national sporting or cultural events that will attract large crowds be either cancelled, postponed or downsized for the next two weeks," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a cabinet task force meeting.
Coronavirus rumours
Iranian cyberpolice have ar-rested 24 people accused of on-line rumour-mongering about the spread of the coronavirus in the country, semi-official news agency ISNA reported on Wednesday. The Islamic republic has been battling to control an outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has claimed 19 lives among 139 infec-tions in the past week.
"Twenty-four people were arrested and handed over to the judiciary and 118 (internet) users were talked to and let go" after receiving warnings, said Vahid Majid, head of the Iranian police force's cyber unit.
The arrests were carried out after the establishment of a special unit to "combat rumour-mon-gers regarding the 'spread of coronavirus in the country'," he was quoted as saying.
Virus threatens Afghanistan, Pakistan
With porous borders, creak-ing hospitals and large illiter-ate populations, Afghanistan and Pakistan face a potentially devastating health crisis after the new coronavirus erupted in neighbouring Iran. Islamabad has closed official border cross-ings while Kabul has suspended all travel to the Islamic republic, which has reported 15 deaths out of nearly 100 infections -- making it one of the hardest hit countries outside the virus epicentre China.
But experts fear the meas-ures could prove ineffective with thousands of people -- refugees fleeing violence, Shiite pilgrims, smugglers and migrants look-ing for work -- likely crossing the long, poorly patrolled frontiers every day. The virus has spread to more than 25 countries, killing over 2,700 and infecting 80,000, mostly in China. But new out-breaks in Europe, the Middle East and in Asia have fanned fears of the contagion taking hold in poor nations which lack the healthcare infrastructure to cope.
North Korea imposes 'ex-traordinary' measures
Loudspeakers blaring hy-giene messages, foreign ambas-sadors locked in their compounds and state media demanding "absolute obedience" to health authorities—North Korea is tak-ing what diplomats call "unprec-edented" measures as it seeks to prevent a crippling coronavirus outbreak.
North Korea maintains ex-tensive control over the lives of its citizens and is pulling out all the stops to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China, long its key diplomatic ally and trade partner.
First case confirmed among U.S. troops
South Korea said Wednesday that its total coronavirus infec-tion cases have exceeded 1,200 as the situation rapidly worsens in the country, with the first case confirmed among U.S. military personnel. With 284 new cases re-ported the same day, the number of infections has reached 1,261, and the death toll has risen to 12, up from 10 on Tuesday, ac-cording to the Health and Welfare Ministry.
South Korea is on its high-est alert over the outbreak of the pneumonia-causing virus, which first emerged in neighboring China, as the number of cases of infection skyrocketed from 51 a week ago.
REFERENCES
Xinhua; AFP; Kyodo Updated News
