The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed around the world passed 100,000 on Friday as Iran reported a sharp rise in cases and threatened to use force to stop people travelling between cities.
Tehran’s announcement came as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority” and Donald Trump signed a $8.3bn emergency spending bill to deal with the virus, despite insisting that it “will go away”.
In Italy, Europe’s worst-affected country, the death toll rose by 46 to 197, and the number of confirmed cases increased by 778 to 4,636.
Speaking at a televised press conference on Friday, a spokesman for Iran’s health ministry said the authorities had confirmed 4,747 cases of the virus, a rise of 1,234 on the day before. While he did not elaborate on the threat to use force, the spokesman acknowledged that the virus was present in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.
The threat may be aimed at stopping people from using closed schools and universities as an excuse to go to the Caspian Sea and other holiday spots in the run-up to the Persian new year, which falls on 21 March.
Semi-official news agencies in Iran posted images of long lines of traffic of people trying to reach the coast from Tehran on Friday despite authorities earlier telling people to remain in their cities.
Checkpoints on roads in Mazandaran and Gilan provinces were being operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in perhaps the most visible intervention by the state yet. There also appeared to be checks for those entering or leaving the holy city of Qom.
Friday prayers and football matches have already been cancelled but public trust in the authorities’ capacity to deal with the virus had been undermined by the government’s sluggish and complacent initial response to the outbreak, and by the state’s secrecy over the killing of hundreds of street protesters in November.
What is Covid-19 - the illness that started in Wuhan?
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals.
What are the symptoms this coronavirus causes?
The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
In the UK, the medical advice is that if you have recently travelled from areas affected by coronavirus, you should:
- stay indoors and avoid contact with other people as you would with the flu
- call NHS 111 to inform them of your recent travel to the area
More NHS advice on what to do if you think you have been exposed to the virus can be found here, and the full travel advice to UK nationals is available here.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
China’s national health commission confirmed human-to-human transmission in January, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere.
How many people have been affected?
As of 9 March, more than 110,000 people have been infected in more than 80 countries, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
There have over 3,800 deaths globally. Just over 3,000 of those deaths have occurred in mainland China. 62,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. Seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Another key unknown is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population – elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems – to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important. One sensible step is to get the flu vaccine, which will reduce the burden on health services if the outbreak turns into a wider epidemic.
Have there been other coronaviruses?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.
Stung by criticism of its handling of the outbreak, Tehran has pointed to WHO assessments that have not challenged the government figures. Health officials said the new figures may reflect the availability of more accurate testing kits.
In two further signs of rising concern about the situation in Iran, Christoph Hamelmann, the WHO country director, told senior overseas diplomats in Tehran that funding was urgently needed for a “rapid upscaling” of laboratory and clinical components, and Saudi Arabia called on citizens to declare visits to Iran in the past 14 days. Members of the kingdom’s Shia minority tend to keep their visits to Iran secret because of the bitter rivalry between the two countries.
But at a briefing on Friday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director general, praised Iran for “switching on” to the outbreak and for taking an “all-of-government approach”.
Tedros said the epidemic was continuing to spread, adding: “We are continuing to recommend that all countries make containment their highest priority.”
Elsewhere in the Middle East, 12 new cases were reported among workers on a cruise ship in Egypt. A tourist who travelled on the same ship sailing between Luxor and Aswan tested positive for the virus on her return to Taiwan a week ago.
Across Europe there were significant rises in death tolls and infections. In France, where cases rose by 190 to 613, and deaths by two to nine, President Emmanuel Macron urged people to limit visits to elderly people, even though this could prove “heartbreaking” at times. The UK, meanwhile, reported what is believed to be its second death, and the Netherlands its first.
Elsewhere, the first confirmed cases were reported in Costa Rica, Colombia, Cameroon, Togo, Serbia, Bhutan and Vatican City.
As the outbreak continued to spread in the US, the Trump administration was forced on to the defensive following criticism of its approach to the virus. Fifteen people have died from the coronavirus there and more than 200 infections have been confirmed across at least 18 states.
Trump called for calm as he signed an $8.3bn emergency spending bill to deal with the virus. “It will go away,” he said. “We have very low numbers [of confirmed cases] compared to many countries throughout the world, our numbers are lower than almost anyone … In terms of cases, it’s very, very few because we have been very strong at the borders.”
The president also said he believed the financial markets would “really bounce back” despite concerns that the virus was spreading beyond the control of governments around the world.
Passengers on a large cruise ship off the California coast were instructed to stay in their cabins on Friday as they awaited test results that could determine whether the virus was circulating among the more than 3,500 people aboard.
A military helicopter crew lowered test kits onto the Grand Princess by rope and later retrieved them for analysis at a lab as the vessel lay at sea off San Francisco, under orders to keep its distance from shore.
Authorities undertook the testing after a passenger on a previous voyage of the ship died of the coronavirus and at least four others became infected.
“The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,” the Califorinia governor, Gavin Newsom, said.
In Asia, a diplomatic row erupted between Japan and South Korea after Tokyo said it would quarantine all passengers arriving from the country, which has the highest number of cases outside China.
From Saturday, anyone arriving in Japan from South Korea will be placed in a two-week quarantine at government-designated sites, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said on Thursday.
Seoul described the move as “unreasonable, excessive and extremely regrettable”, accusing Japan of failing to address its own outbreak properly, and threatening retaliatory measures.
The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have insisted the Games will open as planned on 24 July, but speculation is growing that they will have to be cancelled.
Meanwhile, schools in parts of China were set to reopen as the central province of Hubei – excluding the provincial capital Wuhan – reported no new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours for the first time since the outbreak began last year.
While Hubei reported no new cases for a full day, Wuhan, the centre of the epidemic, said it had confirmed 126 new cases of the virus on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Lily Kuo in Hong Kong and Justin McCurry in Tokyo
