France today said it will cancel all public ‘gatherings of more than 5,000 people’ in closed spaces, as it seeks to curb the spread of coronavirus amid a surge of cases in the country.
The decision followed a special meeting of ministers to discuss the virus, which has infected 73 people in the country, according to Health Minister Olivier Veran.
As a result a Paris half-marathon that was due to be held on Sunday with more than 40,000 runners expected has been cancelled, and the capital’s annual farm show will close a day early on Saturday.
Elsewhere, an Iranian MP has died of the ‘flu’ as coronavirus claims 43 deaths in the country – as it prepares for the possibility of ‘tens of thousands’ of people getting tested as the number of confirmed cases spikes.
Mohammad Ali Ramazani Dastak, who was elected as the representative for Astana Ashrafieh last week, reportedly suffered from a respiratory and pulmonary disease before his death this morning.
It comes as Covid-19 has killed 43 people out of 593 confirmed cases in Iran, where the number of cases are rising sharply despite officials still trying to downplay the virus’s reach.
The list of countries touched by the virus has climbed to nearly 60. More than 85,000 people worldwide have contracted the virus, with deaths topping 2,900.
South Korea, the second hardest hit country, reported 813 new cases today – the highest daily jump since confirming its first patient in late January and raising its total to 3,150.
South Korean soldiers wearing protective gear move to spray disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at Dongdaegu railway station in Daegu today
Indonesian women wear masks in a public area in Depok, West Java today
A dog sits on its owner’s lap in a park in Hong Kong, China. The country has seen a slowdown in new infections and on Saturday morning reported 427 new cases over the past 24 hours along with 47 additional deaths
Coronavirus infected patients arrive and are transferred by ambulance in Lodi, Italy
Mohammad Ali Ramazani Dastak (left), who was elected as the representative for Astana Ashrafieh last week, reportedly suffered from a respiratory and pulmonary disease before his death this morning (right, people in Iran today)
Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran have led to infections of people in other countries. France and Germany were also seeing increases, with dozens of infections (pictured, staff in Italy)
Thai people, wearing surgical masks, protest against the government amidst the global spread of the coronavirus at Kasetsart University
Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran have led to infections of people in other countries. France and Germany were also seeing increases, with dozens of infections.
In Italy schools and universities will stay closed for a second consecutive week in three northern regions in an effort to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of the disease.
The Iranian health minister today disputed a report by the BBC’s Persian service citing anonymous medical officials in Iran putting the death toll at more than four times as much as has been reported.
But the number of known cases versus deaths would put the virus’s death rate in Iran at over 7 per cent, much higher than other countries.
That has worried experts at the World Health Organisation and elsewhere that Iran may be under-reporting the number of cases.
But even as Iran sends spray trucks and fumigators into the streets, officials still are trying to downplay the virus’s reach.
The virus has infected more than 85,000 people and caused more than 2,900 deaths since emerging in China.
Iran has the highest death toll outside China. Of more than 720 confirmed cases across the Middle East, the majority trace back to the Islamic Republic.
Spectators’ stands are empty during play in a preseason baseball game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Yakult Swallows at Tokyo Dome amid spreading coronavirus
A woman walks her dogs in a park in Hong Kong, China. Yesterday Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said that a pet dog belonging to a person infected with the coronavirus has tested ‘weak positive’ for Covid-19 and that it was put in quarantine
Tourist arrivals in Thailand are down 50% compared with a year ago, and in Italy (pictured) – which has reported 888 cases, the most of any country outside of Asia – hotel bookings are falling and Premier Giuseppe Conte raised the specter of recession
A worker disinfects a public bus against COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, in Skopje. North Macedonia has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus infection, diagnosed in a woman who recently arrived from Italy, the health minister said
Since this morning thanks to the intervention of the Lazio Region, which through the Civil Protection, has set up emergency tents
Saturday’s new toll of 593 confirmed cases represents a jump of 205 – a 150 per cent increase from the day before.
Mr Jahanpour has warned that large increases will happen as Iran now has 15 laboratories testing for the virus.
Late on Friday, a BBC Persian report citing sources in Iran’s medical community put the death toll at at least 210, but Mr Jahanpour disputed the report as politically motivated, conflating other causes of deaths with the coronavirus and relying on sources without access to Iran’s testing labs.
However, he also suggested ‘tens of thousands’ could seek testing for coronavirus, and encouraged people to continue to avoid mass gatherings – even funerals for those who have died of the virus.
‘The safest place is our homes and our cities,’ he said. ‘We have to reduce our visits, even attending to funerals, and of course those people who are mourning, will feel guilty if they find that their ceremony causes the disease to spread.’
Concerns continue to grow as online videos showed an angry crowd setting fire to the courtyard of a medical clinic in the southern city of Bandar Abbas.
Semi-official media reported those gathered wrongly believed the clinic housed people sick with the coronavirus.
It comes the coronavirus outbreak’s impact on the world economy grew more alarming on Saturday, even after President Donald Trump denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a ‘hoax’ cooked up by his political enemies.
Pets owners walk their dogs in Hong Kong, China today amid a growing number of worldwide coronavirus cases
The virus has also spread to new zones in recent days, reaching nine new countries including Azerbaijan, Mexico and New Zealand, as well as reaching sub-Saharan Africa with Nigeria reporting its first case (pictured staff in Italy)
European nations are scrambling to contain the outbreak as new infections mounted in several countries – many linked to virus hotspot northern Italy – including in France where a surge of new cases was confirmed Friday (pictured in Italy)
Thai people, wearing surgical masks, protest against the government with a three finger salute amidst the global spread of the coronavirus at Kasetsart University February 29, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand
Meanwhile in the US, health officials reported three more cases of the new coronavirus transmitted to people who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, indicating the disease was spreading in the country.
China’s manufacturing plunged in February by an even wider margin than expected after efforts to contain the virus outbreak shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy, an official survey showed Saturday.
The survey, coming as global stock markets fall on fears the virus will spread abroad, adds to mounting evidence of the vast cost of the disease that emerged in central China in December and its economic impact worldwide.
The monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by the Chinese statistics agency and an industry group fell to 35.7 from January’s 50 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate activity contracting.
Iran is preparing for the possibility of ‘tens of thousands’ of people getting tested for the virus as the number of confirmed cases spiked again Saturday, an official said, underscoring the fear both at home and abroad over the outbreak in the Islamic Republic.
The virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes have killed 43 people out of 593 confirmed cases in Iran, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said. The new toll represents a jump of 205 cases – a 150% increase from the 388 reported the day before.
But the number of known cases versus deaths would put the virus’ death rate in Iran at over 7%, much higher than other countries. That’s worried experts at the World Health Organization and elsewhere that Iran may be underreporting the number of cases now affecting it.
Earlier Saturday, Bahrain threatened legal prosecution against travelers who came from Iran and hadn’t been tested for the virus, and also barred public gatherings for two weeks.
Saudi Arabia said it would bar citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council from Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina over concerns about the virus’ spread. The GCC is a six-nation group including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia closed off the holy sites to foreign pilgrims over the coronavirus, disrupting travel for thousands of Muslims already headed to the kingdom and potentially affecting plans later this year for millions more ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan and the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Elsewhere around the world, already slumping financial markets dropped even lower on Friday, while virus fears led to emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, and drastically reduced trade and travel.
Despite anxieties about a wider outbreak in the U.S., Trump has defended measures taken and lashed out Friday at Democrats who have questioned his handling of the threat, calling their criticism a new ‘hoax’ intended to undermine his leadership.
The virus has rapidly spread across the world in the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy (pictured, staff in Skopje)
Thai people, wearing surgical masks, protest against the government with a three finger salute amidst the global spread of the coronavirus at Kasetsart University February 29, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand
Health workers wearing protective gears check Nepali citizens evacuated from China as they are under quarantine following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, in Kharipati, some 20 km from Kathmandu
Two tourists peek out of hotel windows at H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Spain
Shortly before Trump began to speak, health officials confirmed a second case of coronavirus in the U.S. in a person who didn’t travel internationally or have close contact with anyone who had the virus.
The list of countries touched by the virus has climbed to nearly 60. More than 85,000 people worldwide have contracted the virus, with deaths topping 2,900.
Even in isolated, sanctions-hit North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un called for stronger anti-virus efforts to guard against COVID-19, saying there will be ‘serious consequences’ if the illness spreads to the country.
China has seen a slowdown in new infections and on Saturday morning reported 427 new cases over the past 24 hours along with 47 additional deaths. The city at the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, accounted for the bulk of both.
The ruling party is striving to restore public and business confidence and avert a deeper economic downturn and politically risky job losses after weeks of disruptions due to the viral outbreak.
Streets were deserted in the city of Sapporo on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, where a state of emergency was issued until mid-March. Seventy cases – the largest from a single prefecture in Japan – have been detected in the island prefecture.
The archbishop of Paris asked all of the French capital’s parish priests to change the way they administer communion to counter the spread of the coronavirus.
Bishop Michel Aupetit instructed that priests no longer put the sacramental bread in the mouths of worshippers celebrating communion and instead place it in their hands. He also asked that worshippers not drink wine directly from a shared chalice, and that sacramental bread instead be dipped in wine.
The bishop’s instructions were listed in a statement Saturday from the Paris diocese. It said a Paris priest tested positive for the virus on Friday after returning from Italy.
The head of the World Health Organization on Friday announced that the risk of the virus spreading worldwide was ‘very high,’ while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the ‘window of opportunity’ for containing the virus was narrowing.
Stock markets around the world plunged again Friday. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index took yet another hit, closing down nearly 360 points. The index has dropped more than 14% from a recent high, making this the market’s worst week since 2008, during the global financial crisis.
In Asia, Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced they would close, and events that were expected to attract tens of thousands of people were called off, including a concert series by the K-pop group BTS.
Tourist arrivals in Thailand are down 50% compared with a year ago, and in Italy – which has reported 888 cases, the most of any country outside of Asia – hotel bookings are falling and Premier Giuseppe Conte raised the specter of recession.
Assuming there are many more cases with no or very mild symptoms, the rate ‘may be considerably less than 1%,’ U.S. health officials wrote in an editorial in the journal. That would make the virus more like a severe seasonal flu than a disease similar to its genetic cousins SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome.
Given the ease of spread, however, the virus could gain footholds around the world and many could die.
Europe’s economy is already teetering on the edge of recession. A measure of business sentiment in Germany fell sharply last week, suggesting that some companies could postpone investment and expansion plans. China is a huge export market for German manufacturers.
Economists have forecast global growth will slip to 2.4% this year, the slowest since the Great Recession in 2009, and down from earlier expectations closer to 3%. For the United States, estimates are falling to as low as 1.7% growth this year, down from 2.3% in 2019.
But if COVID-19 becomes a global pandemic, economists expect the impact could be much worse, with the U.S. and other global economies falling into recession.