The World Health Organization has raised its global risk assessment of the new coronavirus to its highest level after the epidemic spread to sub-Saharan Africa and financial markets slumped.
The virus has proliferated around the globe over the past week, emerging on every continent except Antarctica, prompting many governments and businesses to try to stop people from traveling orgathering in crowded places.
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It has killed more than 2,900 people and infected over 85,000 worldwide—the vast majority in China—since it emerged apparently from an animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late December.
Rapid spread
But it is its rapid spread to new zones that has authorities concerned–in the past 24 hours, it has affected nine new countries, from Azerbaijan to Mexico to New Zealand.
“We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
“We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities. As long as that’s the case, we still have a chance of containing this virus.”
In the Korean peninsula, South Korea reported on Saturday its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases and concerns grew of a possible epidemic in the United States.
The virus has rapidly spread across the world over the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy.
The vast majority of infections have been in China but more daily cases are now logged outside the country, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as major focal points.
South Korea has the most cases outside China, with nearly 3,000 infections as 594 more patients were reported on Saturday”•the country’s biggest increase to date.
Borders closed
In neighboring North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un warned top party officials of the “serious consequences” of failing to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus on their side of the border.
The impoverished nation, with a weak and ill-equipped health care system, has closed its borders to prevent the spread of the disease into its territory.
In Washington, US health officials reported a third case of the new coronavirus transmitted to a person who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, indicating the disease was spreading in the country.
Authorities said the new case concerned a person living in the western state of Oregon.
The adult patient, who has been hospitalized, was known to have had contact with people at an elementary school.
Oregon Health Authority director Patrick Allen told reporters that the case is considered “presumptive” pending confirmation of the test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We’ve been expecting this and we’re prepared for it,” he said.
Officials said the elementary school will be shut down until March 4 as it undergoes a deep clean and as health officials talk to employees and parents.
Two other “community spread” cases have been reported in neighboring California this week.
Both cases involve older people in the northern part of the state who mysteriously contracted the virus.
Fears heightened
The increasing number of people stricken with the illness in the United States is sure to heighten fears of an outbreak across the country.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, as of Thursday there were more than 60 people infected with the disease in the United States.
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday said 33 people there had tested positive for the virus, and five of them had left the state.
Global investors nevertheless ran scared, with world markets suffering their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.
The chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said the central bank stood at the ready to intervene if needed, given the “evolving” risks to the world’s largest economy posed by the deadly outbreak.
New drastic measures were put in place: Switzerland canceled all gatherings of more than 1,000 people, and Saudi Arabia banned Gulf citizens from its holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
“This is not a time for panic. It is time to be prepared”•fully prepared,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
‘Struggling with containment’
Those efforts come as the number of deaths and new infections has been tapering off in China, following unprecedented quarantine efforts locking down tens of millions of people in the worst-hit cities.
“We see a number of countries struggling with containment,” said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program.
The WHO has voiced particular concern about Africa’s preparedness, warning that the continent’s health care systems were ill-equipped to respond to a COVID-19 epidemic.
Cases had previously been reported in Egypt and Algeria, but not in the sub-Saharan region until Friday when Nigeria reported its first case: an Italian man in densely populated Lagos.
In Iran, unnamed health system sources told the BBC that at least 210 people had died of the coronavirus”•far beyond the official death toll of 34, but a health ministry spokesman angrily denied that figure.
Schools closed
The coronavirus crisis is affecting everything from global production to schools to sporting events, with FIFA warning Friday that international football matches could be postponed.
Several companies have said they expect the virus to hit their earnings because of weaker demand.
Oil prices also slipped again, with Brent oil for April delivery sinking as low as $50.05 a barrel.
Analysts have warned that China, the world’s second-largest economy, will see a major cut in growth this quarter as the country remains largely paralyzed by quarantines and containment measures.
China hope
Still, signs in China offered hope that the outbreak could be contained.
China reported 44 more deaths on Friday, raising its toll to 2,788, with 327 new cases”•the lowest daily figure for new infections in more than a month.
The virus has mostly killed the elderly or people with pre-existing health conditions.
In Korea, the virus has had wide-ranging impact, even forcing K-pop megastars BTS to cancel four Seoul concerts scheduled for April.
British cruise ship passenger dies
In Japan, the health ministry said a British man who was on board a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo had died. More than 700 others on the ship have tested positive.
The governor of Japan’s rural northern island of Hokkaido urged people to stay at home this weekend in a desperate effort to contain the outbreak.
In Europe, the largest epicenter is Italy with 650 cases and 17 deaths”•mostly in cities in the north.
Wide-ranging measures to halt the spread of the virus have affected tens of millions of people in northern Italy, with schools closed and cultural and sporting events cancelled.
Experts said the virus had probably “circulated unnoticed for several weeks” before the first confirmed cases”• possibly since January.
US health officials on Friday (Saturday in Manila) reported two more cases of the new coronavirus transmitted to people who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, indicating the disease was spreading in the country.
There are now three such cases in the United States, with one in Oregon and two in California, in addition to some 60 other infections in the country.
“This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear,” said Sara Cody, director of public health for California’s Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley where tech giants like Apple and Google are based.
“What we know now is that the virus is here, present at some level, but we still don’t know to what degree.”
Economy, events hit
US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the central bank stood at the ready to intervene if needed, given the “evolving” risks to the world’s largest economy posed by the outbreak.
Official data released in China on Saturday showed the extent of the damage caused to the world’s second-largest economy, with manufacturing activity falling to its lowest level on record in February as key industries ground to a standstill under drastic containment measures.
More global events were disrupted due to the epidemic, with the United States delaying a regional summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) due in Las Vegas next month.
“This is not a time for panic. It is time to be prepared”• fully prepared,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
Those efforts come as the number of deaths and new infections has been tapering off in China, following unprecedented quarantine efforts locking down tens of millions of people in the worst-hit cities. But they have kept rising abroad.
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