close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Fears of coronavirus pandemic rise

By News Report
February 23, 2020

BEIJING/TEHRAN/SEOUL/LONDON: An alarming surge of new coronavirus cases outside China, with fears of a major outbreak in Iran, is threatening to transform the contagion into a global pandemic, as countries around the Middle East scrambled to close their borders and continents so far largely spared reported big upticks in the illness.

In Iran, which had insisted as recently as Tuesday that it had no cases, the virus may now have reached most major cities, including Tehran, and has killed at least four people, according to health officials.

Iran's health ministry reported a fifth death on Saturday, a day after Israel and Lebanon confirmed their first cases. Iran’s Hajj Pilgrimage Organization has reportedly cancelled all trips for pilgrims travelling to Iraq in a bid to prevent the spread of virus.

Iranian officials have decided to close all of Iran's five land borders with Iraq and are mulling taking action to restrict visits to holy shrines in Qom — where the virus has killed two people — and other nearby places.

Iran will close schools, universities and educational centres in two central cities to prevent the spread of coronavirus, state TV reported. It said the shutdown would begin on Sunday in and last two days in Qom - where two people have died from the virus - and a week in Arak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the window of opportunity to stem the deadly epidemic was "narrowing" amid concern about a surge in cases with no clear link to China.

An Italian Serie B match was called off around one hour before the scheduled kick-off because of fears over the spread of coronavirus.

Italian news agency ANA said the Ascoli-Cremonese match was postponed because the visiting side are from the Lombardy region in the north of Italy where 30 cases have been reported so far. The coronavirus outbreak will likely lower China's economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from global growth, the International Monetary Fund said. Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva presented the outlook to central bankers and finance ministers from the world's 20 largest economies at a meeting in Riyadh but said the IMF was also looking at more dire scenarios if the outbreak lasts longer and spreads more globally.

Thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about the coronavirus, disrupting global efforts to combat the epidemic, US officials said.

False personas are being used on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to advance Russian talking points and conspiracies, including suggesting that the CIA is behind the virus that has claimed more than 2,300 lives, mostly in China. "Russia's intent is to sow discord and undermine US institutions and alliances from within, including through covert and coercive malign influence campaigns," said Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia.

"By spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting the global health response," he said.

More than 30 British and European passengers arrived back home in the United Kingdom after spending more than two weeks stuck on a quarantined cruise ship in a Japanese port due to the coronavirus outbreak, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed. They landed at a defence ministry airfield in southwestern England on a government-chartered plane from Tokyo and were being taken straight to quarantine facilities.

The Diamond Princess liner was carrying 3,700 people, including 78 Britons, when it was quarantined in Yokohama on February 5.

Meanwhile, the central province of Hubei, the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak, Saturday reported 109 new deaths, while in the provincial capital of Wuhan, 90 people died.

Mainland China had 397 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections by the end of February 21, the country's National Health Commission said on Saturday, marking a significant drop from the 889 cases recorded a day earlier.

That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 76,288.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,345 as of the end of February 21, reports the international media.

The spread of new coronavirus has intensified around the world, with South Korean cases more than doubling to reach 433 - the highest number of confirmed cases outside of China.

Italy confirmed its first two deaths from the virus as authorities moved to close schools, bars and other public spaces in 10 northern towns.

Chinese President Xi Jinping personally thanked US billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates after his foundation donated $100m to fight COVID-19, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The foundation pledged the nine-figure sum towards efforts to detect the new coronavirus that causes the disease, to provide protection for at-risk populations and to develop a vaccine as well as treatment.

In his letter to Gates, Xi said: "I deeply appreciate the act of generosity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and your letter of solidarity to the Chinese people at such an important moment."

Meantime, China is bringing in seven cruise ships to house medical workers in Wuhan, state media reported.

The first of these ships, the Blue Whale, arrived in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, on Friday from Yichang, a nearby city down the Yangtze River.

The seven ships will provide 1,469 beds in total.

Dozens of protesters in a Ukrainian town attacked buses carrying evacuees from coronavirus-hit China.

The evacuees were brought to a health spa in Novi Sanzhary, in the central Poltava region, where they will be held in quarantine for 14 days.

President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the protesters to show empathy.

Ukraine's security service (SBU) said a fake email claiming to be from the health ministry falsely said some evacuees had contracted the virus.

SBU officials are now investigating the apparent hoax, a statement said.

Ukraine has no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, which originated last year in China's Hubei province.