Austria’s chancellor has said other European countries will be forced to adopt containment measures as drastic as Italy’s, after Rome placed a quarter of the population in lockdown in an effort to halt the rapid spread of the coronavirus.
As the head of the World Health Organization praised Italy’s “genuine sacrifices”, Sebastian Kurz said the situation in Austria, which has reported 99 Covid-19 cases, was under control and the measures it had adopted were appropriate for the time being.
He said EU leaders and health ministers were in close contact over their countries’ handling of the epidemic, which according to the Johns Hopkins tracker has so far infected more than 107,000 people worldwide and claimed more 3,650 lives.
“It will be important to decide which steps to take when,” Kurz said. “You can close schools for one or two weeks and this is urgently necessary in Italy. It will happen in other European countries. The decisive question is when to do it.”
The World Health Organization is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine.
The UN agency advises people to:
- Frequently wash their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or warm water and soap
- Cover their mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing
- Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever or cough
- Seek early medical help if they have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share their travel history with healthcare providers
- Avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals when visiting live markets in affected areas
- Avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods.
Despite a surge in sales of face masks in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, experts are divided over whether they can prevent transmission and infection. There is some evidence to suggest that masks can help prevent hand-to-mouth transmissions, given the large number of times people touch their faces. The consensus appears to be that wearing a mask can limit – but not eliminate – the risks, provided it is used correctly.
The difficulty will be in balancing the need to head off a peak in infections that could paralyse public health systems against excessive economic damage, he said. “You have to consider carefully when to adopt these measures, because a national economy cannot handle this over too long a period.”
Speaking to French radio, the EU commissioner for the single market, Thierry Breton, said European countries were “each acting according to the latest available data in their countries. The virus has spread faster in some places than in others, so naturally the measures in each differ”.
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.
In the US, Anthony Fauci, the head of the infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, said Americans , and particularly those who are vulnerable, may have to stop attending big gatherings. Nor could large-scale quarantines be ruled out, he said.
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, tweeted his appreciation for Rome’s efforts after the government published a decree barring people from entering or leaving vast areas of northern Italy without good reason until 3 April.
The quarantine zones are home to about 16 million people and include the regions around Venice and the financial capital, Milan. Cinemas, theatres and museums will be closed nationwide and leave has been cancelled for health workers as the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said the country was facing a national emergency.
Tedros said the government and people of Italy, which has confirmed 7,375 cases and 366 deaths, were “taking bold, courageous steps aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus and protecting their country and the world”.
The lockdown allows people, including tourists, who were in the affected areas temporarily to return home. Italy’s borders with Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia remain open, but Alitalia, the national airline, suspended all national and international flights from Milan Malpensa airport.
Pope Francis expressed solidarity with the victims of the virus in a prayer and message livestreamed from the Vatican. Elsewhere in Europe, France confirmed 1,126 cases and 16 deaths. The health minister, Olivier Véran, announced a ban on all gatherings of more than 1,000 people.
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said organisers had been too reluctant to act but all public events with more than 1,000 participants should be called off. “Given how fast things are developing, that should change quickly,” he said. Bulgaria reported its first case on Sunday.
Spain confirmed 589 cases – a rise of 159 from Saturday – and 17 deaths, and the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, which has 25 cases, is in quarantine at his residence after a case of coronavirus was detected at a school whose students visited the presidential palace last week.
Belgium said it had confirmed 200 cases, including a second at the the European council in Brussels. Nearly 50 of the 3,000 staff at the organisation, which hosts ministerial meetings and EU summits, were told to stay at home.
In Iran, 49 new deaths were reported on Sunday, the country’s highest toll for a single 24-hour period. The figure brings the number of fatalities in the country to 194. It has also recorded 6,566 confirmed cases.
The epidemic has spread to 30 US states, killing at least 19 people. A man in his 50s tested positive for the virus in Washington, the first confirmed case in the capital, and another person who travelled through the city has also tested positive in Maryland. New York announced a state of emergency.
Two people who tested positive have died in Florida, marking the first deaths on the US east coast attributed to the outbreak. Donald Trump said he was not concerned at about the coronavirus getting closer to the White House.
More passengers on the US cruise ship Grand Princess have tested positive and the 3,533 passengers on board the vessel, which is to be allowed to dock in Oakland, California, on Monday, have been confined to their cabins. Another cruise ship carrying 2,000 people, the Costa Fortuna, was turned away by Malaysia and Thailand.
Colombia and Cost Rica reported their first cases of the virus over the weekend and a 64-year-old man died in Argentina, marking the first coronavirus fatality in Latin America.
The number of infections in South Korea passed 7,000. In China, however, only 44 new cases were reported on Sunday, the lowest in weeks. Nearly all of them were in Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak and the remainder imported from abroad, including Italy and Spain.
At least 10 people were killed in the collapse of a hotel in Quanzhou in eastern China that was being used to isolate people who had arrived from other parts of the country, authorities said on Sunday.
