According to Unesco, the UN body that oversees education, 13 countries have shut down schools nationwide and a further nine countries have implemented localised closures.
With the death toll in Italy jumping to 107 Wednesday – the deadliest outside of China – the government in Rome announced country-wide school closures until at least 15 March.
Unesco chief Audrey Azoulay has warned the global scale and speed of the educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, “could threaten the right to education”.
The Covis-19 outbreak has so far killed more than 3,200 people and infected more than 95,000 others, with the International Monetary Fund announcing a 50 billion dollar package to fight the crisis.
The global scale of the educational disruption from the coronavirus epidemic is “unparalleled,” the United Nations said. Almost 300 million students are now out of school in South Korea, Iran, Japan, France, Pakistan and elsewhere. https://t.co/drPbreeg9n
The New York Times (@nytimes) March 5, 2020
Meanwhile the governor of California declared a state of emergency as the number of cases there hit 54.
In France, some 30 doctors and scientists and laboratory managers were summoned to the Elysée Palace Thursday as President Emmanuel Macron looks to "take stock of the state of the coronavirus” and find solutions to deal with the crisis.
France is currently in a “stage 2” epidemic response, which consists of looking to contain the spread of the virus for as long as possible. Authorities have said, though, that the transition to a stage 3 response seems inevitable.
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