You can continue to view our live coverage of the coronavirus outbreak here.
Evening summary
We’re closing this blog now. Thanks for joining me.
Here’s a summary of the news so far today:
- It was now “highly likely” the infection will spread in the UK in a “significant way”, a No 10 spokesman has said.
- The number of coronavirus cases in Germany has hit 684 on Saturday morning, an increase of 45 overnight.
- Authorities in the US are preparing to test passengers on the coronavirus-hit cruise ship Grand Princess, after 21 people on board tested positive for the illness.
- Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of Italy’s Democratic party (PD), which governs the country in coalition with the Five Star Movement (M5S), has tested positive for coronavirus.
- The pope will make Sunday blessings via a streaming service from inside the Vatican, instead of appearing in person in St Peter’s Square, it was announced.
- British health officials say the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK has risen from 164 to 206, an increase of 42 from Friday.
- NHS England has confirmed it will provide GP surgeries with personal protective equipment (PPE) to help them deal with the coronavirus outbreak
- Cases in both Italy and Iran have increased by more than 1,000 in 24 hours.
The family of the 83-year-old man who died after testing positive for coronavirus have paid tribute to him in a statement released on Saturday afternoon.
Here’s the full story from the UK:
Updated
Cases in Italy rise by more than 1,200 in 24 hours
More than 1,200 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Italy since Friday, the Civil Protection Agency said.
The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy has risen to 5,883 from 4,636 on Friday, according to official figures, a rise of 1,247.
The death toll in the country rose to 233 from 197 on Friday.
The head of the agency, Angelo Borrelli, said in a news conference that of those originally infected, 589 had fully recovered while 567 were being treated in intensive care.
In total there are now 5,061 current cases (this figure doesn’t include those who have died or those who have recovered.)
The outbreak in Italy, which began over two weeks ago, is focused on a handful of hotspots in the north, but cases have now been confirmed in each of the country’s 20 regions, with deaths recorded in eight of them.
Updated
A second member of France’s National Assembly has been taken to hospital after contracting coronavirus and five other lawmakers are being tested for the illness, the lower house’s presidency said in a statement on Saturday.
The Assembly did not name the two legislators who have caught the disease, but local media in the eastern region of Alsace have reported that the first of the two lawmakers is Jean-Luc Reitzer, who represents one of the departments most affected by the outbreak and is currently in intensive care, Reuters reports.
The second lawmaker is a woman, according to the statement by the parliament. The Assembly said on Friday that a snack bar worker had also contracted the virus.
Sessions in the lower house will be interrupted for two weeks from 9 March and 22 March due to municipal elections that are taking place across France, reducing activity and the number of people present in the building, the assembly said.
France’s health ministry said earlier that two more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to 11 people.
France now has 716 confirmed cases of coronavirus, an increase of 103 compared with a day earlier.
Updated
Italy’s premier football league, Serie A, could be forced to suspend mid-season if a player tests positive for coronavirus, the Italian football federation (FIGC) said on Saturday.
“We must be realistic,’’ Gabriele Gravina, president of the FIGC, said in an interview with Italian broadcaster Rai, “We need to take measures to protect athletes, and we cannot exclude the possibility to suspend the competition if a player tested positive.’’
On Wednesday, Italy ordered that all sporting events should be played behind closed doors until 3 April due to the outbreak.
The ”derby of Italy” between Inter Milan and Juventus football clubs is set to be played on Sunday, while the Rome marathon, due to take place on 29 March, has been cancelled due to the outbreak.
“This is the message that we would never have wished to write but sadly, as a consequence of the ongoing health emergency and according to what is laid down in the cabinet decree of March 4, 2020, the Marathon on March 29 has been cancelled,” said organisers.
Italy is the European country most affected by the coronavirus with 3,916 infected and 197 dead.
Updated
Cases in Iran increase by more than 1,000 in 24 hours
Iran’s death toll climbed to 145 on Saturday after another 21 people were confirmed to have died, as infections in the country increased to nearly 6,000.
Announcing the latest deaths from the virus, a health ministry official said in a televised briefing that the tally of confirmed infections had increased by more than 1,000 during the last 24 hours, totalling 5,823 by Saturday, Reuters reported. On Friday, the country’s confirmed cases were reported to be 4,747.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, called in a tweet for world opposition to US sanctions, which he said were draining Iran’s resources, needed in the fight against the outbreak.
.@realDonaldTrump is maliciously tightening US' illegal sanctions with aim of draining Iran's resources needed in the fight against #COVID19—while our citizens are dying from it.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) March 7, 2020
The world can no longer be silent as US #EconomicTerrorism is supplanted by its #MedicalTerrorism.
Updated
A second confirmed case of Covid-19 has been recorded in Cornwall.
Steve Brown, Cornwall council’s deputy director of public health, told PA Media: “The case is a resident directly linked to the initial diagnosis in Cornwall, who had also travelled to northern Italy.
“I’d like to reassure people again that the risk to the general public remains low and Cornwall council is working with health colleagues to do everything we can to stop the virus spreading and ensure the people of Cornwall are protected.
“If you have not been contacted by Public Health England as a close contact of the confirmed cases you do not need to take any action at this time.”
Public Health England is also contacting people who had close contact with a resident of Leicestershire, one of the latest confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Fu-Meng Khaw, the centre director at Public Health England East Midlands, said: “Close contacts will be given health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the 14 days after contact with the confirmed case.
“This tried and tested method will ensure we are able to minimise any risk to them and the wider public.”
Updated
The Premier League handshake ban has kicked in today, with various players seen bumping fists or elbows instead, or even completely avoiding a physical greeting.
Updated
Sam Jones in Madrid
Police are preparing to lock down entire blocks of a neighbourhood in a small town in northern Spain after dozens of cases of the coronavirus were traced back to a funeral two weeks ago.
Spain has so far confirmed 430 cases of the virus – 60 of which originated among people who attended a funeral service in the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, according to Spain’s National Microbiology Centre.
Thirty-nine of those 60 cases are in the neighbouring La Rioja region, according the local government, with most of them concentrated in the towns of Haro and Casalarreina. About another 25 cases are reported to have been confirmed in the Basque country.
Although only six people in the region are being treated in hospital, the authorities said police would be “reinforcing home isolation controls” in Haro and limiting access to the town’s health centre.
Updated
Greek Cypriot police fired pepper spray on Saturday after skirmishes broke out with protesters angry about a closed checkpoint on the ethnically-split island, according to witnesses.
Authorities said the closure was a precaution against coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Cyprus announced the temporary closure of four checkpoints on the divided island on 28 Feb, the first closure since border crossings were opened in 2003 after decades of estrangement.
Witnesses said a group of people on the Turkish Cypriot side turned out in support of peace activists on the other side of the barricade calling for the checkpoint in the capital Nicosia to open. When open, it is used by hundreds of people every day.
“People were holding olive branches, and at some stage it appears someone started pushing,” a witness at the gathering on the Turkish Cypriot side told Reuters. “Greek Cypriot police pushed back and at that moment it appeared they used pepper spray.”
In a statement, Cyprus police said they made limited use of teargas to prevent demonstrators breaking a police cordon. Stones were also thrown at police, the statement said.
Updated
The Italian Democratic party leader, Nicola Zingaretti, in a video about his own Covid-19 diagnosis
Updated
My colleague Nicola Slawson has written a story about a letter that was sent to over 7,000 GP surgeries in England, informing them that NHS England will provide personal protective equipment to help staff deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
Updated
Virologist Chris Smith, presenter of the BBC radio talk show The Naked Scientists, told the BBC in a Q&A with members of the public that, at the moment, the level of circulation of coronavirus in the community in the UK was “extremely low”, and thus the risk of catching it currently “remains extremely low”.
Smith said there was a very low chance of getting infected with coronavirus via items such as parcels.
Asked whether the new coronavirus could mutate quickly into new, even more aggressive forms, meaning that patients would likely not enjoy immunity even after they had it, Smith said that, judging from currently available observations about the outbreak, Covid-19 was thankfully changing shape “only very slowly”.
Toys for small children could be cleaned very effectively in the dishwasher, Smith advised.
Updated
UK cases up to 206
British health officials say the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK has risen from 164 to 206, an increase of 42 from Friday.
So far in Britain, two patients who had been confirmed as being infected with the virus have died, the health ministry and the Public Health England agency said.
The Department of Health said more than 21,000 people had been tested for the virus. “As of 7am on 7 March 2020, 21,460 people have been tested in the UK, of which 21,254 were confirmed negative and 206 were confirmed as positive.”
Updated
Around 70 people were left trapped after a hotel used to quarantine people who have had recent contact with coronavirus patients collapsed in Quanzhou, eastern China, officials said.
The Xinjia Hotel collapsed around 7.30pm local time (11.30am GMT) and around 23 people had been rescued by 9pm, according to a city government statement reported by AFP, with rescue efforts ongoing.
The 80-room hotel was recently converted to a quarantine facility for people who had recent contact with coronavirus patients, the People’s Daily state newspaper reported.
#UPDATE 28 people have been rescued after some 70 people were trapped following a hotel collapse at 7:30 p.m. (local time) in Quanzhou City, southeast China's Fujian Province, said local authorities.
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) March 7, 2020
latest: https://t.co/zX1eYjdNai pic.twitter.com/7yWBVqc20D
Updated
Five more people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Scotland, with a total of 16 now confirmed.
Two new cases, confirmed on Saturday by the Scottish government, have been reported in Lanarkshire, with an increase of one case each in the Lothian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Grampian areas.
The increase matches the jump seen in Scotland on Friday, the biggest in a single day since the first Scottish case was reported the previous Sunday. In total, 1,664 of the 1,680 tests in Scotland have come back negative.
Updated
The England cricket team’s head coach, Chris Silverwood, has said he is following the lead of Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp by referring questions over medical advice to experts.
Seemingly, doctors have instructed the cricketers to keep their distance from members of the media in Sri Lanka as part of precautions against the coronavirus.
There has been only one recorded case on the island to date, but the squad are taking a proactive approach, with all players and backroom staff provided with an ”immunity pack” for the Test tour, including hand sanitiser, sterilising wipes and nasal sprays, PA Media has reported. Handshakes have also been replaced by fist bumps.
Post-match interviews on tour often take the form of pitch-side huddles but when Silverwood emerged to speak to two journalists after the opening day of the warm-up match in Katunayake, he did so while standing behind a blue table. The measure is designed to establish a buffer zone of around two metres.
“I’m taking Jürgen Klopp’s lead here – I’m not a doctor, so we do what we’re told and follow the advice,” he said, referring to the Klopp’s comments earlier this week that journalists should ask experts about medical issues, not sportspeople.
“We’re all in the same boat and we do our best to be as vigilant as possible,” said Silverwood.
Updated
David and Sally Abel, the British couple diagnosed with coronavirus onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, remain unable to return to the UK after their latest test came back positive.
They were taken to a Japanese hospital from the cruise liner following a positive diagnosis of both the virus and pneumonia, after spending almost two weeks in quarantine in their cabin.
In order to leave the hospital, both need three negative test results. Both had been tested twice previously – and the result had been negative – but during the most recent and final test, David Abel’s response came back positive.
David Abel, who has been filming a YouTube video diary of his experiences, said:
Sally is now negative but is staying in Japan. Sally is now totally all clear, good to return to the UK. But she won’t because I have had a positive. This is what happens.
I have now got to go back to square one. I have another test on Monday. That is more than likely going to be negative.
They have agreed to allow her to remain here so we can be company for one another. She won’t get reinfected because we have got the same strain. Her immune system is now really well established. So it’s the waiting game.
The doctor, I think he was surprised. I think everyone else was expecting a negative.
Updated
Confirmed cases in the Netherlands have risen by 60 to 188, health officials have said, after the country reported its first fatal case on Friday.
The National Institute for Public Health said that most of the cases could be traced back to people who had recently travelled, mostly from northern Italy. In 29 cases, the path of infection was still being investigated.
Elsewhere, in New South Wales, Australia, two more people have tested positive – bringing the day’s number to eight and the state’s total to 36 cases.
The two new cases are a man in his 60s who recently returned from Italy and a second man in his 40s who is a known close contact of a previously confirmed case.
Updated
In need of some light relief? Here’s a montage of inventive new greetings designed to avoid the risk of passing coronavirus.
And here’s something a little longer, on the man caring for cats left alone in Wuhan.
Updated
Diamond Princess death toll rises to seven
A former passenger of the Diamond Princess cruise ship who was infected with coronavirus has died, bringing the death toll from the ship to seven, Japanese public broadcaster NHK has said.
The passenger, a man from outside Japan, died on Friday, according to Reuters.
Updated
The US president, Donald Trump, remarks that he would prefer if passengers on the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship were not allowed to come on to US soil.
Updated
France reports further 63 cases
France has reported another jump in coronavirus cases from 653 to 716, an increase of 63, according to the French health ministry.
The spokesperson said that 11 people had now died in France because of the virus.
Updated
Pope to stream Sunday blessings online
The pope will make Sunday blessings via a streaming service from inside the Vatican, instead of appearing in person in St Peter’s Square, in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The pope’s general audiences are also to be streamed and no participants at papal morning masses are to be allowed until March 15, Reuters reports.
The measures are being put in place to protect worshippers and the pope from infection. The pope has been suffering from a cold.
Updated
As Greece steps up measures to contain an outbreak of coronavirus in the west of the country, there is growing concern over the stance of Greek Orthodox clerics, who have refused to postpone church services and suspend Christian rites.
Although the Holy Synod, the church’s ruling body, has endorsed many of the preventative measures, it has steadfastly rejected calls for practices such as holy communion to be halted. To the alarm of scientists, high-ranking bishops have invoked religious belief as a bulwark again Covid-19. In extraordinary exchanges on TV, clerics have argued that sacraments such as the holy eucharist should remain off-limits because they are God-given.
“Whoever believes that holy communion and the church are life has nothing to fear,” the Bishop of Patras, Chrysostomos, told Open News. “There has been no case, anywhere, of a virus or any other illness being transmitted through holy communion.”
Prominent virologists in the country have also come out in support of the powerful religious institution.
One well-known professor of infectious diseases said that while people aged 65 and over with underlying health issues would be better off avoiding church, she belonged to those who would still attend services, which in Greece are often held in crowded chapels.
“When you go to take holy communion, you don’t take it out of habit but because it tis he body and blood of Christ,” Eleni Giamarellou, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Athens, told local media. “Those who want to take the sacraments should not fear that germs could be transmitted through holy communion.”
The stance has raised fears of further transmissions in a country where cases of coronavirus rose from eight on Monday to 46 today.
In a statement, the Federation of Hospital Doctors’ Unions slammed what it described as obscurantist views, suggesting that some professionals were putting religious beliefs before the strictures of profession. “We will be on the front line of defending scientific truth against metaphysical [theories] and every other kind of obscurantism,” it said.
Updated
Another leading epidemiologist has weighed in on the drop in cases in Hubei province, and what this might mean for the rest of the world.
Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said it was a source of hope that China was currently seeing a substantial reduction in cases.
“However, there are still unanswered questions, for example about the total number of infections and even how protected previously recovered people are from new infections, before we can give confident descriptions on how to contain the disease,” he said.
“I would like to see detailed, population-based (as opposed to clinic-based) serological investigations to be conducted. This would allow an individual’s history of the disease, including inapparent (or asymptomatic) cases, to be evaluated. And this needs to be done in large areas where cases have been reported, in order to find out how many cases were missed by the surveillance programs.”
Hibberd added that such data could enable a more accurate analysis of the disease’s severity following infection, “in a similar way to how we are able to calculate this for Influenza”.
He warned governments around the globe to get the balance in their response to the outbreak, by adequately contributing to the world’s attempts to delay the spread of coronavirus, while simultaneously “keeping their economies running as well as possible”, instead of “putting too much of their health care resources into Covid-19”.
Updated
A 26-year old woman returning from London has tested positive for coronavirus in Vietnam, after the country went 22 days with no new infections.
The Vietnamese woman, the country’s 17th case in total, has been quarantined and is undergoing treatment, the Vietnamese news outlet VN Express reported.
Authorities said the patient had left Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport on 15 February to visit family members living in London. Three days later, she travelled from London to Milan City, in the province of Lombardy, Italy, and returned to London on 20 February.
On 25 February, the woman travelled from London to Paris to visit her sister. She contracted a cough on 29 February, but did not see a doctor.
On 1 March, she reportedly felt body pain and fatigue, but it was unclear if she had a fever. The same day, she boarded a flight from London and landed in Hanoi on 2 March.
As Vietnamese authorities held an emergency meeting about the case, and 17 doctors who had been in contact with the woman were being isolated, Public Health England said it could not comment on individual situations.
Updated
Italian party leader tests positive for coronavirus
Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of Italy’s Democratic party (PD), which governs the country in coalition with the Five Star Movement (M5S), has tested positive for coronavirus.
“Doctors told me I have tested positive,’’ Zingaretti announced on Facebook. “But I’m fine and I will stay home for the next few days. From here, I will continue to follow the work that needs to be done.”
Updated
Cruise ship passengers to be tested by US authorities
Authorities in the US are preparing to test passengers on the coronavirus-hit cruise ship Grand Princess, after 21 people on board tested positive for the illness.
Some 140 Britons are among those on board. US vice-president, Mike Pence, said on Friday that the Grand Princess, currently carrying more than 3,500 people, had been directed to a non-commercial port for testing, PA Media reports.
So far 45 people on board the ship off the Californian coast have been tested, with 19 of those diagnosed with the virus being crew members.
Lisa Egan, whose 90-year-old father is on board, called for the ship to be evacuated. “Keeping people on board is going to be a death sentence for many,” she told the Telegraph newspaper.
Donald Trump appeared to suggest he wanted to see the ship remain off the coast to keep country’s infection numbers down.
Updated
An infectious disease specialist has warned against mass panic and stockpiling as Covid-19 infections continue to spread across the world.
Abdu Sharkawy of the University of Toronto’s Division of Infectious Disease wrote on Facebook that he was not scared of the virus, but feared the implications of people’s egoism, which could result in a mass panic.
What I am scared about is the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything that could fill a bomb shelter adequately in a post-apocalyptic world.
I am scared of the N95 masks that are stolen from hospitals and urgent care clinics where they are actually needed for front line healthcare providers and instead are being donned in airports, malls, and coffee lounges, perpetuating even more fear and suspicion of others.
I am scared that our hospitals will be overwhelmed with anyone who thinks they ‘probably don’t have it but may as well get checked out no matter what because you just never know...’ and those with heart failure, emphysema, pneumonia and strokes will pay the price for overfilled ER waiting rooms with only so many doctors and nurses to assess.
He added that he was scared about far reaching travel restrictions impacting communities harshly, and about “epidemic fears” limiting trade in multiple sectors.
But mostly he was scared of the message children were told in this crisis.
Instead of reason, rationality, openmindedness and altruism, we are telling them to panic, be fearful, suspicious, reactionary and self-interested.
The fact is the virus itself will not likely do much harm when it arrives. But our own behaviors and ‘fight for yourself above all else’ attitude could prove disastrous.
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Italy is considering setting up new quarantine red zones in northern regions amid increasing numbers of coronavirus cases, as the country grapples to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of Covid-19 which had claimed 197 lives by Saturday.
Authorities are also considering locking down the entire region of Lombardy.
Rome has announced it is making €600m available to hire 20,000 new health professionals to cope with the emergency.
The government is evaluating the possibility of prolonging the closure of schools until 3 April.
Some 3,916 people are now infected, 620 more than Thursday, the emergency commissioner and civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli said on Friday.
Updated
A cruise ship on the Nile in Egypt with more than 150 tourists and local crew was in quarantine on Saturday in the southern city of Luxor, after 12 people tested positive for coronavirus.
A Taiwanese-American tourist who had previously been on the same ship tested positive when she returned to Taiwan. The World Health Organization informed Egyptian authorities, who tested everyone currently on the ship, AP reported.
Health authorities in Egypt released a statement on Friday saying they had found a dozen Egyptian crew members on the ship had had contracted the fast-spreading virus, but did not show symptoms.
The statement said they will be be put in isolation in a hospital on Egypt’s north coast. The passengers, who include Americans, French and other nationalities, and crew will remain quarantined on the ship awaiting further test results.
Updated
The coronavirus death toll in Iran has increased to 145, a rise of 21 over the past 24 hours, a health ministry official said.
The number of people testing positive for the virus increased by more than 1,000 over the past 24 hours, reaching 5,823 on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Updated
Girl, 12, first case reported in Malta
Malta’s first case of coronavirus has been detected in a 12-year-old Italian girl who lives on the island, the health minister, Chris Fearne, said on Saturday.
The girl tested positive for the illness early on Saturday and is receiving treatment in the infectious diseases unit of the state hospital, the minister said, adding she “is doing well”, Reuters reports.
She returned on Tuesday from the northern Italian region of Trentino, passing through the capital Rome, with her parents and sister and reported symptoms on Friday.
It was only on Thursday that the girl displayed symptoms associated with coronavirus. The whole family went into self-quarantine immediately, according to MaltaToday.
Health authorities were alerted and immediately tested the girl, who resulted positive.
Updated
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
The number of coronavirus cases in South Korea exceeded 7,000 on Saturday, an increase of 448 from the previous day. More than half of the total are linked to a branch of a secretive religious sect in the south-eastern city of Daegu.
The death toll in the country rose by two to 46, according to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
The KCDC said it had confirmed 7,041 cases in South Korea, including a new cluster at an apartment complex in Daegu where some members of the sect live.
Despite the significant increase in infections over the past 24 hours, Saturday’s total was the third straight day of declines in the number of new cases in South Korea, the KCDC said.
A report in Japan, meanwhile, warned that cancelling this summer’s Tokyo Olympics would slash the country’s GDP by 1.4%. SMBC Nikko Securities, in Tokyo, projected that the Games would create demand worth 670bn yen (US$6.4bn), but added that cancellation due to the coronavirus outbreak would sap GDP by about 7.8tn yen. The firm said it believed the Games, which are due to open on 24 July, would have to be called off it the virus continued to spread through to July.
While the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers insisted this week that they expected the Olympics to go ahead as scheduled, the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt preparations, with Greece’s Olympic committee saying it will restrict the number of guests at next week’s flame-lighting ceremony in Olympia.
The Japan leg of the torch relay is scheduled to begin on 26 March in Fukushima, the scene of a nuclear meltdown nine years ago.
Updated
Infections in Germany jump to 684
The number of coronavirus cases in Germany has hit 684 on Saturday morning, an increase of 45 overnight since Friday evening, according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s public health agency.
Germany has now confirmed cases in 15 of its 16 states, while the biggest concentration is in the west and south of the country, with 346 in the state of North Rhine Westphalia and over 100 each in the southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, where Germany’s first cases were registered.
A popular leisure centre in Glasgow has closed after a player at the rugby stadium, which is part of the complex, tested positive for coronavirus.
It is understood the decision to close the Scotstoun Sports Campus was taken after a Scottish player due to compete in a women’s Six Nations match at Scotstoun stadium against France on Saturday contracted Covid-19, PA Media reports.
The match was subsequently cancelled and a spokeswoman for Glasgow Life – the agency which governs the city’s leisure spaces – said “appropriate measures” were being taken.
The player, who has not been named, is described as “doing well” by James Robson, the chief medical officer of Scottish Rugby, and has been checked into a healthcare facility.
Seven members of staff and players have self-isolated after taking medical advice.
Scotland has so far had 11 confirmed cases of the illness, according to the Scottish government, with preparations continuing for a larger outbreak.
Updated
Paul Hunter, a professor at the Norwich School of Medicine, at the University of East Anglia, said the drop in infections in Hubei was a good sign, echoing comments of senior WHO advisor Bruce Aylward.
“The continuing drop in cases reported each day from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan is one of the few good news stories from the past week,” he said.
“Excluding the days when clinical diagnosed cases and not only laboratory diagnosed cases were given as the daily totals, the epidemic in Hubei peaked on 5 February with 3,156 new cases. Since then there has been an almost steady decline in cases reported each day. Today’s provisional figures show only 74 new cases from Hubei,” Hunter added.
China had demonstrated that the rigorous control measures put in place had been effective in delaying the spread of the infection globally, he said.
“Ultimately, however, the infection did spread from China and is now spreading globally with several countries experiencing rapid increases in numbers. It looks like the UK is also at the start of a rapid growth in locally-acquired infections. However, the extra weeks that we have had to prepare, thanks to the control measures in Wuhan and Hubei generally, will make quite a difference to our ability to mitigate some of the more harmful effects of the epidemic,” he said.
Updated
All migrant workers in China are expected to return to work in early April, according to Chinese government officials, Se Young Lee, at Reuters, reports. 78 million rural workers who had travelled home for lunar new year have already returned to work, he says.
Reuters: CHINA HUMAN RESOURCES MINISTRY OFFICIAL SAYS 78 MLN RURAL WORKERS HAVE RETURNED TO WORK, OR 60% OF TOTAL WHO DEPARTED FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR
— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) March 7, 2020
Updated
As the number of confirmed cases in Spain rose to 401 on Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker, the outbreak has prompted Barcelona city council to postpone the Catalan capital’s marathon, which was due to take place on 15 March. The event will now be staged on 25 October.
Meanwhile, a prison worker at a facility in Aranjuez, 50km south of Madrid, has tested positive for the virus, and health authorities are investigating a cluster of cases that appear to be related to a funeral held in Vitoria, in the Basque country, two weeks ago. As many as 60 people who attended the funeral are reported to have picked up the virus.
So far, eight people have died in total in Spain because of coronavirus.
Updated
Children are just as likely to contract coronavirus as adults, according to a new Chinese study, countering the theory that kids are less susceptible to Covid-19.
Research on community transmission of the virus showed a “sharply increasing proportion of infected children” as the outbreak has progressed.
Scientists analysed 365 patients in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen – including 74 clusters comprising 183 cases. Children aged under 15 made up just 2% of the cases before 24 January. But from 25 January to 5 February, the proportion of children went up to 13%.
According to the researchers, the findings implied that children’s risk of becoming infected could substantially rise with more exposure to the virus. Transmission of the virus within families was also a major factor, they said.
Updated
A Briton stuck on the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California has told of her plight as 140 other British passengers brace for potential weeks of isolation.
So far 21 people on the ship, with 3,500 people on board, have tested positive for coronavirus – just under half of all those who have been tested. The Grand Princess is being directed to a non-commercial port, the US vice-president, Mike Pence, said on Friday.
Jackie Bissell, from Dartford, in Kent, told the Today programme that she had booked the cruise with a friend as part of her 70th birthday celebrations. She said that passengers had only been told on Thursday that there might be something wrong, as the ship’s management implemented rigid procedures in the hope of limiting the outbreak.
“We had a note popped through the door saying that this virus might be on the ship – they removed the salt, the pepper,” she said.
“We could touch absolutely nothing, if you wanted sugar in your tea or coffee they would come along and do it for you rather than you touching any of these items,” she added.
“You can just go out in the hall if someone taps the door. They put the food outside, drop your menus inside and that’s about it.”
Bissell said she was “very comfortable” and life on board “has not been too bad” so far. “It was a bit mishmash yesterday but today they’ve got things a lot more organised,” she said.
Passengers relied on information from the news, she added.
“We are waiting for the ship’s captain – but I think he’s as much in the dark as we are and he’s said he’s only giving us information as and when he gets it.”
Updated
'Highly likely' Covid-19 spread in UK will be 'significant', No 10 says
Boris Johnson is due to chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee on Monday morning. It was now “highly likely” the infection will spread in a “significant way”, a No 10 spokesman has said, according to PA Media.
“Officials will therefore accelerate work on the delay phase of the government’s plan,” the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, sports governing bodies and broadcasters have been called to a government meeting to discuss how to deal with the outbreak’s possible impact on the sporting calendar.
The meeting will cover various scenarios, such as holding events behind closed doors, should the virus continue to spread and gatherings of large numbers of people are banned.
Updated
An Iranian MP has died from coronavirus, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday, in an another sign the disease is spreading within state institutions.
Iran is one of the countries outside China most affected by the epidemic. As of Friday, the country had reported 4,747 infections.
The MP who died on Friday is Fatemeh Rahbar, a conservative lawmaker from Tehran, according to Tasnim. It did not say if she was included in the country’s official toll of 124 deaths from the virus, given on Friday.
On 2 March, Tasnim reported the death of Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council, intended to resolve disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, a governmental body that vets electoral candidates, among other duties.
Iran’s deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, and another member of parliament, Mahmoud Sadeghi, have also said they have contracted the virus.
Updated
Government ministers are expected to advise elderly people in the UK next week to visit relatives now before “social distancing” policies are introduced.
British pensioners could be warned to stay at home and will likely be told to avoid crowded areas, the Daily Telegraph reported.
World should be encouraged by decline in cases in Hubei, WHO expert says
Bruce Aylward, the senior advisor to the head of the World Health Organization, has said the world should be encouraged by the decline in coronavirus cases in China’s Hubei province, where the virus is believed to have originated. Countries hadn’t yet learned the lesson that an effective response depends largely on speedily finding, isolating and testing suspected cases, however, he told the Today show.
“You’ve got to find the cases very very quickly, get them isolated, find their close contacts, because those people are where the virus is, and if you get those isolated, quarantined, you’re going to take the heat out of this outbreak,” he said.
Despite weeks of China making “heroic” efforts to contain the virus, countries were “still surprised when it hits their borders here and they still don’t know how to isolate or find cases”, Aylward said.
As a church in Devon has been closed for a deep clean after a parishioner there became infected with coronavirus, Gina Radford, a vicar from south Devon and deputy chief medical officer for England until last year, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that churches across the country were trying to go about their normal business as much as possible, because of their “very important role” in communities.
Radford said during service, advice had been given about how to maintain appropriate hygiene as an individual, which also applied to priests administering communion.
It was up to priests to decide whether they it would be necessary to “withdraw the common cup” during communion, she said, so that everyone would not be drinking from the same chalice. Congregations had been reminded that they could decide to just take the wafer, “that is full communion”, she added.
“We do have to remember that churches are places of meeting and welcome and comfort, and at the moment [...] we are wanting to encourage people to have a balanced approach [to the outbreak] and to go about life as normal as they can for as long as they can.”
Updated
As millions of people wonder whether their travel plans and holidays will be affected by coronavirus over the coming weeks and months, my colleague Patrick Collinson has put together a useful advice guide about all things travel insurance, holiday deposits, flight bookings and more.
My colleagues Peter Beaumont, Lorenzo Tondo and Kim Willsher have written an analysis on how human error helped spread the virus across the globe, and how avoiding small mistakes can mitigate the crisis.
The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has agreed to declare a state of national public health emergency following the local transmission of coronavirus, according to Senator Bong Go, CNN Philippines reports.
Updated
Summary
Here’s what has happened in coronavirus news so far today:
- Twenty-one people tested positive for coronavirus onboard the Grand Princess cruise ship stranded off the California coast. Of these, 19 were crew members.
- The US confirmed its first East Coast deaths, as two people died in Florida.
- The number of cases worldwide has passed 100,000, as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority”.
- Europe’s infections doubled in the last three days, to 7,300 on Friday.
- China’s exports have fallen sharply. China’s exports plummeted in the first two months of this year on the back of a coronavirus epidemic that forced businesses to suspend operations, disrupting the world’s supply chains.
- In Victoria, Australia a doctor has been confirmed as the eleventh case of the virus for the state. He treated 70 patients despite displaying flu-like symptoms shortly after travelling from America.
- The number of cases worldwide has passed 100,000, as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority”.
- South Korea’s diplomatic spat with Japan escalated, as the country suspended visas and visa waivers for Japan.
- South by South West was cancelled. The annual technology and culture festival said its March events would not go ahead amid fears it could help to spread the virus in Austin, in Texas.
Two South Korean apartment buildings heavily occupied by members of a sect linked to most of the country’s coronavirus cases have been quarantined after dozens of residents tested positive for the disease, an official said on Saturday.
The country, which has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases outside China, reported 174 new infections, taking its total to 6,767.
Another two deaths were reported by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bringing the toll to 44.
The apartment complex in Daegu – the country’s fourth-largest city and epicentre of its outbreak – was placed under lockdown after 46 residents were confirmed to have the virus, mayor Kwon Young-jin said.
More than 140 people live in the two buildings, including 94 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which is often accused of being a cult and is linked to most of South Korea’s infections.
The NBA is preparing its players for the eventuality that they may have to play in empty stadiums to no fans, sports journalist Shams Charania and the New York Times report.
Sources: The NBA has sent a memo to its franchises explaining that, due to coronavirus outbreak, teams should be preparing to play games without fans in attendance and identifying “essential staff” present for these games -- should it be necessary.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 7, 2020
Updated
Afghanistan’s health ministry said on Saturday that the number of confirmed case of coronavirus in the country had jumped to four.
“Three positive cases of coronavirus have been registered in western Herat province of Afghanistan,” Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health told Reuters, adding that of the 36 cases tested in Kabul, 33 had come back negative.
Herat borders neighbouring Iran, which is one of the countries worst affected by the coronavirus outside of China, with more than 4,000 cases and dozens of deaths.
Mayar expressed concern about the vulnerability of Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
Millions of Afghans live and work in the neighbouring country and many are facing increasing political and economic pressure to return.
Mayar said the cost of testing would be a strain on Afghanistan’s resource-strapped health system in an economy damaged by years of conflict. Each test kit - which would test around 50 cases - cost around $1600 (or $32 per test), he said.
One of 2,400 passengers on board the Grand Princess cruise ship stranded off the Californian coast is a retiree with stage-4 cancer. Kari Kolstoe, 60, from North Dakota told Reuters she and her husband, Paul, 61, had looked forward to the Grand Princess cruise to Hawaii as a brief, badly needed respite from the grind of medical intervention she has endured for the past 18 months.
Now facing the prospect of a two-week quarantine far from their home in Grand Forks, she worries their getaway cruise will end up causing a fateful delay in her next round of chemotherapy, scheduled to begin early next week.
“It’s very unsettling,” she said in a cellphone interview from the ship on Friday. “It’s still a worry that I’m going to not get back.”
In South Korea, more than 60% of the total cases are linked to a secretive church at the centre of the country’s outbreak, health authorities said.
Reuters report the death toll also rose to 46 from 44, Kwon Jun-wook, the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s (KCDC) deputy director told a briefing on Saturday.
South Korea’s cases rose to 6,767 on Saturday, up by 174 from late Friday.
The number of people infected with the contagious disease has spiked in South Korea since mid-February when a 61-year-old woman known as “Patient 31” tested positive after attending religious services at a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu.
A new smaller cluster case reported on Saturday at an apartment complex in Daegu, where some members of the church live, KCDC said.
“63.5% of the total cases is related to the Shincheonji Church and its members, but there is a possibility that new cases increase as tests are still underway,” said the deputy director.
The number of infections in Europe has more than doubled in just three days, the New York Times reports, as confirmed cases reached over 7,300 on Friday.
According to Johns Hopkins, here are the ten countries in Europe with the highest number of infections.
- Italy: 4,636
- Germany: 670
- France: 653
- Spain: 401
- Switzerland: 214
- UK: 164
- Netherlands: 128
- Belgium: 109
- Norway: 108
- Sweden: 101
Updated
Just an update on the global coronavirus numbers today, from Johns Hopkins.
Total cases are now at 102,188. Of those, 80,651 are in mainland China.
Total deaths: 3,491. Of those, 2,959 were in Hubei province, Mainland China.
The countries with the next highest numbers of confirmed cases are:
South Korea: 6,767
Iran: 4,747
Italy: 4,636
Germany has the next highest number of confirmed cases, but there is a fair gap between its numbers and those in Italy:
Germany: 670
We learned four valuable lessons from Ebola. They can help us fight the coronavirus, writes Chris Withington, who works in the humanitarian and emergency response unit of Care Australia.
“Coronavirus is a global crisis that is going to require a global solution. The lessons from Ebola are there for us to use – but will we?”
The United Arab Emirates reported 15 additional cases on Saturday of a new and fast-spreading virus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 45.
The Health Ministry said 13 of the new cases had recently arrived from abroad, and they include three Emirati citizens, two Saudis, two Ethiopians and two Iranians, as well as a person each from Thailand, China, Morocco and India.
The statement gave no further details on where the travellers had come, when they had arrived to the UAE and which ports of entry they had come in from.
The other two cases, an Emirati and an Egyptian, were diagnosed after being monitored in connection with a cycling tour in the country that was halted a week ago after two Italians were first confirmed as having the virus.
The emirate of Dubai is home to the world’s busiest airport for international travel.
American jails are on high alert for coronavirus. Below are sone of the measures that are being taken, and some of the particular challenges faced by prisoners as they seek to protect themselves.
There have been no reports of Covid-19 inside US jails or prisons. But more people are incarcerated per capita here than in any other country in the world and prisons have become hot spots in other nations touched by the outbreak, AP reports.
Inmates share small cells with total strangers, use toilets just a few feet from their beds, and are herded into day rooms where they spend hours at a time together.
Practicing even the most simple hygiene, such as washing hands, is not a given in such environments. Hand sanitizer is often treated as contraband because it contains alcohol.
Inmates go in groups to court, where they wait together in cramped holding areas. Many are poor, meaning that when they’re released they often must get on public buses or trains to get home.
- In New York City, the Department of Correction is cleaning and sanitizing cells, common spaces, showers and transport buses more regularly.
- Anyone sick at Rikers Island, the notorious New York City jail where Harvey Weinstein is being held, is screened and could be sent to an area hospital or the department’s communicable disease unit.
- In Miami, any newly arrested person suspected of having the virus will be diverted to a hospital. The department has also secured space for a medical quarantine for any of the 3,900 inmates already in custody if it becomes necessary.
- Prison staff are being trained in many facilities on how to recognize symptoms and are being given supplies for protection, such as masks, gloves and eye protection.
- Throughout the country, criminal attorneys are meeting with clients via video conference and exercising caution over how they handle and exchange legal documents with inmates.
Despite the lack of much good coronavirus news in our liveblog today, here are precisely nine reasons to be reassured when it comes to the status of the outbreak so far.
As we are hit with minute-by-minute updates from around the world, experiencing the advance of Covid-19 in real time – news alerts, huge headlines, social media hysteria – there’s a risk that we might lose some essential context.
Yes, this virus is obviously a massive challenge: medical, political and – perhaps most strikingly at present – social and economic. But it is worth remembering the world has never had better tools to fight it, and that if we are infected, we are unlikely to die from it.
Here, courtesy of a number of scientists but mainly Ignacio López-Goñi, a professor of microbiology and virology at the University of Navarra in Spain, are what might hopefully prove a few reassuring facts about the new coronavirus:
‘It isn’t the Thunderdome, it isn’t Mad Max’
Australia’s toilet paper tensions continued on Saturday, this time with hair pulling at a Sydney Woolworths.
NSW police had to be called to a western Sydney supermarket on Saturday morning after a fight broke out among three women over toilet paper.
On Saturday afternoon NSW police asked the women involved to come forward, and warned shoppers to behave themselves.
“We just ask that people don’t panic like this when they go out shopping,” police said. “There is no need for it. It isn’t the Thunderdome, it isn’t Mad Max, we don’t need to do that.
Summary
Here’s what has happened in coronavirus news so far today:
- The US has confirmed its first East Coast deaths, as two people died in Florida.
- The number of cases worldwide has passed 100,000, as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority”.
- 21 people are infected on board the Grand Princess cruise ship, currently quarantined off the California coast.
- In Victoria, Australia a doctor has been confirmed as the eleventh case of the virus for the state. He treated 70 patients despite displaying flu-like symptoms shortly after travelling from America.
- The number of cases worldwide has passed 100,000, as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority”.
- New Zealand has confirmed its fifth case, a 40-year-old woman who contracted the virus from her husband, who was the country’s third case
- South Korea’s diplomatic spat with Japan escalated, as the country suspended visas and visa waivers for Japan.
- The first case in Central America was confirmed. Costa Rica said a 49-year-old woman from the United States had been infected with the virus.
- South by South West was cancelled. The annual technology and culture festival said its March events would not go ahead amid fears it could help to spread the virus in Austin, in Texas.
Updated
In Australia, just a quick summary of that presser with deputy chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly:
- The Australian government will be releasing 260,ooo masks from its stockpile
- The government is offering assistance to Indonesia as the Australian neighbour works to contain the spread of the virus there.
- It is looking “increasingly unlikely” that Australia will be able to completely contain the virus over the long term
- The government is considering stockpiling some pharmaceuticals, including antibacterial and antiviral medicines
- With regard to the coronavirus-infected Melbourne doctor who treated 70 patients despite exhibiting flu-like symptoms, Kelly says: “Don’t soldier on... we expect our health care workforce particularly to take this onboard”.
Kelly also said that the government is looking into the potential correlation between high rates of coronavirus spread and winter conditions. Australia is entering its winter season, so the government will be watching that closely, he says.
Updated
In Canberra, Australia deputy chief medical officer Kelly says over the longer term there is a “range of possibilities that may take place. We may be able to take it under control but that’s looking increasingly unlikely... it may become endemic, so something that comes back around each winter.”
Updated
We’re still in Canberra, Australia for the moment, where deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly is giving a general update on the status of preparations for managing the spread of the virus. Kelly says Australia is offering support to Indonesia for testing and other control measures for the coronavirus outbreak.
Updated
In Canberra, Australia, deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly says the government is considering stockpiling some antibiotics and antivirals to a stockpile, though none of either type of pharmaceutical have been proved to be effective against coronavirus.
Updated
In Canberra, Australia we’re hearing more from the Department of Health on the Melbourne doctor who treated 70 patients despite exhibiting flu-like symptoms.
The general principle is, as it is in flu season, “Don’t soldier on...and we expect our health care workforce particularly to take this onboard,” deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly says.
Updated
In Australia, 260,000 masks are to be released from stockpile, authorities say. We’ll have more updates shortly.
China's exports plunge
China’s exports plummeted in the first two months of this year on the back of a coronavirus epidemic that forced businesses to suspend operations, disrupting the world’s supply chains.
Exports fell 17.2 percent, the biggest drop since February 2019 during the trade war with the United States, and imports dropped 4 percent, according to official data released Saturday.
China’s trade surplus with the US - a key point of contention in the trade dispute between the two countries - plunged 40 percent in the first two months, from US$42 billion last year to US$25.4 billion.
Chinese authorities said last month that January and February’s data would be combined.
This is in line with how some other indicators are released, to smooth over distortions from the Lunar New Year break.
In an early sign of the economic impact to come, China’s manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level on record in February, with non-manufacturing activity plummeting as well.
Two people die in Florida state
Florida Health Department says in statement that two people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died in the state, Associated Press reports. The deaths are the first on the East Coast, according to the New York Times.
Updated
The Australian town of Cairns is deathly quiet in the wake of the coronavirus, Aaron Smith reports for the Guardian.
The combined economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and the bushfires have kept visitors away from Australia and nowhere is this more acutely felt than north Queensland.
The wet season from January has traditionally been a low season for the Queensland tourism industry in the far north, so the growing Chinese market has been a much-needed boost for a region in recent years.
However, since Chinese New Year this year, Chinese tourist numbers have dried up because of cancelled inbound flights from China.
It’s been a tough blow for region already suffering a struggling market since last year’s floods, the summer’s bushfires and the international attention on coral bleaching.
Updated
In Sydney, Australia this morning, a scuffle broke out at a Woolworths supermarket over – what else? – toilet paper. A video posted to social media shows three women involved in a short scuffle over a 24-pack of toilet paper in a Chullora store.
#BREAKING: A scuffle broke out at a Woolworths in Chullora this morning with patrons coming to blows over toilet paper, forcing employees to intervene. Bankstown police attended the scene and no charges have been laid. #9News pic.twitter.com/9TmDAStb9D
— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) March 7, 2020
Now, NSW police have issued a sharp warning and appealed for information regarding those involved.
“It’s not Mad Max, you don’t need to do that,” New South Wales police have said.
Officers spoke to a 49-year-old woman who had reportedly been assaulted. She was uninjured. No arrests have been made and as inquiries continue comic police are appealing to identify the women involved. As inquiries continue police are appealing. Violence of this nature will not be tolerated and anyone involved in this behaviour may be committing an offence and find themselves before the court.
Updated
In Australia, Sydney police are appealing for information surrounding an argument that broke out at a Woolworths over toilet paper. A spokesperson is speaking now, we’ll be following live.
Updated
Bethlehem under lockdown after virus cases confirmed
The city of Bethlehem is under lockdown after the first Palestinian cases of the deadly coronavirus were discovered there and authorities announced a state of emergency.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said a total of 16 cases of coronavirus had been detected in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after nine new cases were discovered in Bethlehem, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Friday evening.
The Palestinian government announced a month-long state of emergency late Thursday after the first seven cases were identified, while the Israeli defence ministry said it had imposed emergency measures on Bethlehem, with everybody “forbidden from entering or leaving the city”.
It added that the lockdown had been imposed “in coordination with the Palestinian Authority”.
The Church of the Nativity, built on the site Christians believe was the birthplace of Jesus, was closed on Thursday and along with other sites is expected to be shuttered for a month.
The streets of Bethlehem and Ramallah, where the Palestinian government is based, were near-empty on Friday morning, with most shops closed, AFP journalists said.
Israel controls all entrances to the West Bank from the Jewish state but the Palestinian government has limited autonomy in cities.
The Palestinian health ministry said the cases had first been detected at a hotel in the Bethlehem area.
Coronavirus confirmed in two attendees at US pro-Israel summit
Influential US pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC said Friday that two people who attended its annual Washington conference alongside dozens of lawmakers had tested positive for coronavirus.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in an email to attendees, speakers and congressional offices that the pair had traveled from New York to go to the March 1-3 event.
“We have confirmed that at least two Policy Conference attendees from New York have tested positive for the Coronavirus,” AIPAC said in the message, posted to its Twitter account.
Important Update: Coronavirus
— AIPAC (@AIPAC) March 6, 2020
As emailed to Policy Conference attendees, participants, speakers, administration and Hill offices.https://t.co/0mkWeuRErA pic.twitter.com/EHl694pkgJ
The event attracted high-profile attendees including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Democratic former White House hopeful Mike Bloomberg.
About 18,000 people had been expected to travel from across the US to attend the conference, which typically attracts around two-thirds of the members of Congress.
Attendees swamped Capitol Hill in their hundreds during the event, as is the custom.
“If you test positive for Coronavirus, we urge you to inform your local health authorities so they can properly coordinate the response to this situation with the appropriate health authorities,” AIPAC said.
Facebook said on Friday it is closing its London offices until Monday after a visiting employee from Singapore was diagnosed with coronavirus.
“An employee based in our Singapore office who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 visited our London offices February 24-26, 2020,” Facebook said in a statement.
“We are therefore closing our London offices until Monday for deep cleaning and employees are working from home until then.”
Facebook also advised employees based in the affected area of its Singapore office to work from home until March 13. It said it had immediately closed the area for deep cleaning.
Hong Kong asks residents to defer non-urgent travel
The Hong Kong government has warned the city’s residents to consider deferring all non-essential travel outside of the territory.
It had already placed a red alert - the second-highest warning in Hong Kong - on travelling to South Korea and the Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy, Reuters reports.
However, the government said all travelers out of Hong Kong should now contemplate putting their plans on hold.
Hong Kong has reported 106 cases of coronavirus and two deaths in the past six weeks, according to the city’s health officials.
Just three of the territory’s 13 borders with mainland China remain open following the announcement of closures by Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam on February 3.
COVID-19 is the name of the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
“As the transmission of COVID-19 virus has been increasing around the world, they are advised to consider delaying all non-essential travel outside Hong Kong,” the CHP said in a statement published on a government website on Friday.
Updated
Mexican authorities on Friday said they have identified a sixth person infected with coronavirus, a 71 year-old man in the State of Mexico who recently traveled to northern Italy, Reuters reports.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said the man, who suffers from hypertension, arrived in Mexico in “grave condition” and is currently hospitalized in stable condition.
Lopez-Gatell said two of the man’s family members have been tested to check for the infection, with the results still awaited.
Six new cases in New South Wales, Australia
In Australia, New South Wales Health confirmed six fresh cases of coronavirus on Saturday, taking the state’s total to diagnosed cases to 34.
NSW Health authorities are seeking to track down passengers on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha after a man in his 70s was among six new cases of the deadly virus diagnosed in the state.
All of the new cases were close contacts or family members of previously confirmed cases except for a male who contracted the virus after visiting Italy.
The man fell ill day the day after flying back to Sydney via Qatar before he was diagnosed this week.
NSW Health said they were attempting to contact passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR908 which left Doha on March 1.
“Screening continues at Sydney International Airport,” NSW Health said in a statement.
“As at midnight 7 March, a total of 23,814 passengers have been assessed, and a total of 77 were sent for testing.”
Males in their 20s, 40s and 50s and two females in their 40s took the NSW total of confirmed coronavirus cases to 34 on Saturday with another 545 under investigation.
We’re just trying to confirm the number of infections for Turkmenistan.
Radio Free Europe reported two days ago that “Medical sources in Turkmenistan claim[ed] at least two Turkmen have tested positive for the coronavirus at a hospital near the capital, Ashgabat,” but the Johns Hopkins database – which we use to confirm cases – does not yet show these.
U.S. has raised its travel alert levels for Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan
The U.S. State Department on Friday raised its alert level for travel to Azerbaijan, warning Americans to reconsider travel there due to a coronavirus outbreak and response measures implemented by the country’s government.
The State Department also raised its alert level for travel to Turkmenistan due to travel restrictions and quarantine procedures instituted in response to the virus.
Neither country has reported many cases – Azerbaijan has six, according to Johns Hopkins – but both border Iran, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus. The U.S. State Department slapped a travel advisory warning on Iran last month, urging Americans not to travel there.
India is bracing for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rush to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease, the Associated Press reports.
It is screening international travelers at 30 airports and has already tested more than 3,500 samples. The Indian army is preparing at least five large-scale quarantine centers.
India has shut schools, stopped exporting key pharmaceutical ingredients and urged state governments to cancel public festivities for Holi, the Hindu springtime holiday in which people douse each other with colored water and paint.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s canceled travel plans to Brussels for an India-EU summit amid a rising caseload in Belgium, and tweeted that he would not attend any Holi festivities.
Experts fear these precautions won’t be enough for India’s beleaguered, under-funded and under-staffed health system to stave off an epidemic.
Facebook’s director of product management has announced on Twitter that the company is banning ads selling medical face masks.
Update: We’re banning ads and commerce listings selling medical face masks. We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency. We’ll start rolling out this change in the days ahead.
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) March 7, 2020
In the US, CNN reports that the passengers on board the Grand Princess cruise ship currently quarantined off the California coast were not told of the number of infections on board before US Vice President Mike Pence announced it.
An audio announcement just made aboard the Grand Princess cruise and shared with CNN said the infected patients *were not told in advance* of Pence’s statement.
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) March 6, 2020
“We apologize, but we were not given advance notice of this announcement by the US federal government."
UN predicts tourism expected to fall sharply, Asia Pacific worst affected
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation says international tourist arrivals are expected to drop 3% due to to the new coronavirus.
“This first assessment expects that Asia and the Pacific will be the worst affected region, with an anticipated fall in arrivals of 9.0 percent to 12.0 percent,” the organisation said in a statement.
The number of international tourist arrivals is expected to drop sharply this year, the UNWTO said Friday, reversing a previous forecast for a substantial increase.
The United Nations’ UNWTO said in a statement that arrivals were now projected to fall by 1.0-3.0 percent in 2020, instead of a previous forecast of growth of 3.0-4.0 percent.
This will lead to an estimated loss of US$30-50 billion in international tourism receipts, the body said.
If confirmed, this will be the first annual decline in the number of international tourist arrivals since 2009 when the global economic crisis hit the travel and tourism sector hard.
In the US, Hawaii’s KITV4 is reporting that the American state has confirmed its first case of coronavirus in one of the passengers on board the grand princess cruise ship.
Local department of health officials say the man had no close contact with residents on the islands. The grand princess stopped at Nawiliwili, Honolulu, Lahaina, and Hilo during its voyage, KITV4 reports.
Argentina has eight confirmed cases of coronavirus, all brought by people who had recently been in Europe, the Health Ministry said on Friday, adding uncertainty to an economy already slammed by recession, high inflation and unsustainable debt.
“Argentina continues in the containment stage, with eight confirmed cases with a history of travel to transmission areas,” the Health Ministry said in a statement. The Argentine patients range between age 23 and 72, it said.
The country is a major world food supplier struggling to pull out of recession and tame 50% inflation as the government hunkers down for what promise to be tough restructuring talks with bondholders.
Fellow South American countries Colombia, Chile and Peru announced their first confirmed cases of coronavirus this week, and a number of cases have been confirmed in neighboring Brazil.
In the US, Reuters reports that the United States is considering ways to discourage U.S. travellers from taking cruises, as part of a broader Trump administration effort to limit the spread of coronavirus, according to four officials familiar with the situation.
The officials, who asked to remain anonymous, said no decision had been made. The discussions were taking place ahead of a meeting this weekend between Vice President Mike Pence, who is in charge of leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus, and the cruise industry.
The cruise industry contributed nearly $53 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018 and generated more than 420,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the Cruise Lines International Association.
During a press conference at the White House on Friday evening, Pence said elderly people should use “common sense and caution” when planning a trip on a cruise ship.
“Cruise ships represent a unique challenge for health officials,” Pence said. “We’re going to be working closely with some great American companies in the cruise line industry to enhance and strengthen the screening procedures.”
Shares in Royal Caribbean Cruises, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have fallen around 50% since January.
Updated
Kuwait has suspended all flights to and from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Bangladesh, Philippines, India, and Sri-Lanka for a week starting on Saturday, Kuwait’s civil aviation directorate said in a tweet.
Kuwait also banned entry of anyone who has been in the seven countries in the last two weeks except for Kuwaitis coming from the seven countries, who will be allowed entry but will have to submit to quarantine procedures, the civil aviation directorate added.
China: Almost all new cases outside Wuhan originated outside country
About a quarter of China’s new confirmed cases and almost all of those outside Wuhan originated outside the country on Friday, according to official data.
Mainland China had 99 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Friday, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Saturday, down from 143 cases a day earlier and marking the lowest number since Jan. 20, when the NHC started to publish nationwide figures.
China also reported 28 deaths from those with the virus, all from Hubei province.
Outside of central China’s Hubei province, there were 25 new confirmed cases reported on March 6, of which 24 came from outside China.
Most of these were in China’s northwestern Gansu province, from quarantined passengers who entered the provincial capital of Lanzhou on commercial flights from Iran between March 2 and March 5.
The capital Beijing reported four new cases on Friday, of which three came from Italy, according to a notice from the Beijing health commission posted on its official Weibo account on Saturday.
There were also three cases in Shanghai that originated abroad, and one in Guangdong province on Friday, according to the National Health Commission.
The total nationwide number of cases that originated outside China reached 60 as of the end of Friday.
For the second day in a row, there were no new infections in Hubei outside of the provincial capital of Wuhan.
Updated
Two federal health screeners at Los Angeles International Airport have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an email sent to their colleagues today and seen by Reuters.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees were conducting secondary screenings of passengers arriving from overseas, including from China, and have been directed to self-quarantine until March 17, the email said.
“At this time, we cannot confirm where these two screeners were exposed,” said the email, which was sent by a senior CDC official. “Let us keep our colleagues in our thoughts during this period.”
Latest South Korea figures: 174 additional cases
South Korea on Saturday reported 174 additional coronavirus cases from late Friday, taking the national tally to 6,767, the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said.
The death toll remained unchanged at 44 from late Friday, the KCDC added.
In the US, Donald Trump used a freewheeling press conference on Friday, intended to provide updates on the coronavirus, as an opportunity to attack Democrats, praise his own intelligence, lash out at CNN and spread false and misleading information about the status of the outbreak.
Amazon is working to identify and prosecute coronavirus price gougers
Amazon.com Inc said on Friday it is working with state attorneys general to identify and prosecute third-party sellers who are taking advantage of fears of the spreading coronavirus to engage in price-gouging on the Amazon website.
In a letter to U.S. Senator Edward Markey, the company said it has removed more than 530,000 product offers over price-gouging concerns as well as “millions” of products that make unsupported claims about their ability to fight coronavirus.
Markey wrote Amazon earlier this week asking the company to stop third-party sellers from ramping up prices for items like Purell hand sanitizers as people seek to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
Markey said he wrote the letter after finding that a pack of 24 2-ounce bottles of Purell, which should cost $10, was selling for $400 on the company’s website.
The number of cases in Japan grew to 1,112 on Friday, with 55 new infections reported from Yamaguchi prefecture in the southwest to Hokkaido in the north, according to the national broadcaster NHK.
Thirteen of the new cases were people who visited a live music venue in Osaka or their family members, NHK said.
The spread of the disease has raised doubts about whether Tokyo will be able to host the Olympics this summer, but the government has insisted the Games will go ahead as scheduled.
The number of new cases of the virus fell to 505 in South Korea on Friday, from 760 the previous day, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said authorities had almost finished tests on more than 200,000 followers of a church in southeastern Daegu at the centre of the outbreak.
The number of South Korean visitors to Japan fell nearly 26% last year to 5.6 million, the first drop since Japan’s tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011, Japanese tourism officials say.
South Korea suspends visas and visa waivers for Japan
South Korea said on Friday it would suspend visas and visa waivers for Japan in response to Tokyo’s own travel restrictions on Koreans, as fears over the spreading coronavirus rekindled a feud between the neighbours dating back to before World War Two.
South Korea’s curbs, which take effect on Monday, also include special entry procedures for non-Japanese foreigners arriving from Japan, Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young told a briefing.
At present, Japanese can visit South Korea for 90 days without a visa.
Seoul had earlier summoned the Japanese envoy to protest against Japan’s decision to quarantine South Korean visitors for two weeks.
Japan is among almost 100 countries to impose curbs on travellers from South Korea, which has suffered 44 deaths and 6,593 infections in the biggest outbreak outside China, where the virus emerged late last year.
In case you missed this story, Victorian health authorities are trying to contact about 70 patients of a Melbourne doctor who has developed coronavirus after returning from the US.
The doctor is the state’s 11th case of the novel coronavirus and the state health minister, Jenny Mikakos, says he attended work and treated patients after her was symptomatic.
“I have to say I am flabbergasted that a doctor that has flulike symptoms has presented to work,” Mikakos said.
The doctor returned from the US on 29 February and saw approximately 70 patients last week between Monday 2 March and Friday 6 March at the Toorak Clinic on Malvern Road. The clinic has been since closed.
Patients have been contacted by text message, phone or email and two patients the doctor treated in a Malvern nursing home have been isolated.
All patients the doctor saw and all clinic staff have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days. The clinic’s other patients have been asked to monitor their symptoms.
Passengers on the flight with the doctor would be contacted, Mikakos said.
21 people test positive on the cruise ship quarantined off California coast.
Twenty-one people aboard a cruise ship that was barred from docking in San Francisco have tested positive for coronavirus, U.S. officials said on Friday, as half a dozen states reported their first cases of the fast-spreading respiratory disease.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is running the White House’s response to the outbreak, said at a news conference that 19 crew members and two passengers out of 46 people tested so far on the Grand Princess ship had the virus.
He said the vessel with about 3,400 passengers and crew would be taken to a non-commercial port where everyone on board would be tested.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would rather have passengers remain on board the vessel, but that he would let others make the decision whether to let the passengers disembark.
“I’d rather have them stay on, personally, but I fully understand if they want to take them off,” Trump told reporters after touring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Summary
Welcome to today’s coronavirus liveblog. As infections continue to spread around the world, authorities are racing to trace the contacts of confirmed cases.
Here’s a summary of the latest events:
- The number of cases worldwide has passed 100,000, as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority”.
- Iran reported a sharp rise in cases and threatened to use force to stop people travelling between cities.
- Donald Trump signed a $8.3bn emergency spending bill to deal with the virus, despite insisting that it “will go away”.
- In Victoria, Australia a doctor has been confirmed as the eleventh case of the virus for the state. He treated 70 patients despite displaying flu-like symptoms shortly after travelling from America.
- New Zealand has confirmed its fifth case, a 40-year-old woman who contracted the virus from her husband, who was the country’s third case
- The UK confirmed its second fatality after tests performed on a man who died on Thursday came back positive. Medical staff and patients at the hospital where he died were placed in isolation amid family fears he was not isolated quickly enough.
- The first case in Central America was confirmed. Costa Rica said a 49-year-old woman from the United States had been infected with the virus.
- South by South West was cancelled. The annual technology and culture festival said its March events would not go ahead amid fears it could help to spread the virus in Austin, in Texas.
- A Scottish international rugby players tested positive. Scotland women’s Six Nations rugby match against France was postponed after it was confirmed a Scottish player was a sufferer.
