Virus spreads to new countries as top official warns world 'not ready'
GENEVA, Switzerland — New coronavirus cases surged outside of China on Tuesday, leaving an Iranian deputy minister among the stricken and triggering mass disruption as a top health official warned
Even as the number of fresh cases declines at the epicentre of the disease in China, there has been a sudden increase in parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
In Iran, which has reported 15 deaths out of nearly 100 infections, even the country's deputy health minister Iraj
At the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Bruce Aylward, who headed an international expert mission to China, hailed measures taken there but told reporters that other nations were "
"
Travel and trade routes
The virus has killed
The disease has now reached dozens of countries, with Austria, Croatia and Switzerland the latest additions on Tuesday.
The epidemic's disruption has also grown, with stock markets tumbling around the world, restrictions imposed on travellers and sporting events cancelled.
The WHO, the UN health agency, has called for countries to "prepare for a potential pandemic" — a term used to describe an epidemic that spreads throughout the world.
Poor countries are particularly at risk, the WHO has warned.
Gulf cuts links to Iran
In the Middle East, Iran has emerged as a major hotspot.
The death toll — the deadliest outside China — rose to 15 on Tuesday when three more people succumbed to the disease, officially known as COVID-19.
The country has been scrambling to contain the epidemic since last week when it announced its first two deaths in Qom, a centre for Islamic studies and pilgrims that attracts scholars from abroad.
US Secretary of
Gulf countries announced new measures to cut links with Iran
The United Arab Emirates suspended passenger and cargo flights to Iran, while Bahrain closed schools and nurseries for two weeks. This came after the Gulf states of Kuwait and Bahrain announced additional cases.
Games off
South Korean President Moon Jae-in warned that the outbreak was "very grave". His country's death toll rose to 10 and the number of confirmed infections approached 1,000 — the largest total outside China.
Scores of events, including K-pop concerts, have
Parliament closed for cleaning on Tuesday after confirmation that a person with the coronavirus had attended a meeting there last week.
In Japan, a fourth former passenger of the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship died, a health ministry official said.
Nearly 700 people from the quarantined ship have tested positive for the illness so far. Infections have also spiked in Japan, with at least 164 cases including one death.
Italy — which has reported 10 deaths and
A young man who returned to Croatia from Italy became the first case in the Balkans region.
Upcoming football matches in Italy's Serie
In Venice, production of the latest "Mission: Impossible" film starring Tom Cruise
And in the United States, which has 57 cases, health authorities significantly escalated the level of threat being conveyed to the public, saying they ultimately expect the new coronavirus to spread more widely there.
"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but
Wall Street stocks sank deeper into the red, following a slide in European markets.
"Bit by bit, US investors are seeing the prospects for global growth diminish," said Gregori
Swiss food giant Nestle postponed all business trips until mid-March because of the virus.
China returning to business
In China, though, the epidemic appears to be slowing — and the country is gingerly returning to business.
More cars are on the streets of Beijing, factories are resuming work, Apple is reopening several stores, and some regions are relaxing traffic restrictions.
But schools remain closed, the capital has a mandatory 14-day quarantine for returning residents, and authorities are keeping about 56 million people in Hubei Province — the hub of the outbreak — under lockdown. — with Laurent
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
