Concern over coronavirus spread as cases jump in South Korea, Italy and Iran

[webfact]

Concern over coronavirus spread as cases jump in South Korea, Italy and Iran

By Jane Chung and Emily Chow

 

People queue at a supermarket outside the town of Casalpusterlengo, which has been closed by the Italian government due to a coronavirus outbreak, Italy, February 23, 2020. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

 

SEOUL/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - International concern about the spread of coronavirus outside China grew on Sunday with sharp rises in infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.

 

The government in Seoul put the country on high alert after the number of infections surged over 600 with six deaths. A focal point was a church in the southeastern city of Daegu, where a 61-year-old member of the congregation with no recent record of overseas travel tested positive for the virus.

 

In Italy, officials said a third person infected with the flu-like virus had died, while the number of cases jumped to above 150 from just three before Friday.

 

Authorities sealed off the worst affected towns and banned public gatherings in much of the north, including halting the carnival in Venice, where there were two cases, to try to contain the biggest outbreak in Europe.

 

"I was surprised by this explosion of cases," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told state broadcaster RAI, warning that the numbers would likely rise in the coming days. "We will do everything we can to contain the contagion."

 

Italian health authorities were struggling to find out how the virus started. "If we cannot find 'patient zero' then it means the virus is even more ubiquitous than we thought," said Luca Zaia, the regional governor of the wealthy Veneto region.

 

Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy and Veneto with a combined population of some 50,000 have effectively been placed under quarantine.

 

The European Union said it had confidence in the Italian authorities. "We share concern for possible contagion (but) there is no need to panic," the bloc's Economic Affairs Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told reporters.

 

Iran, which announced its first two cases on Wednesday, said it had confirmed 43 cases and eight deaths, with most of the infections in the Shi'ite

 

Muslim holy city of Qom. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan imposed travel and immigration restrictions on the Islamic Republic.

 

The virus has killed 2,442 people in China, which has reported 76,936 cases, and has slammed the brakes on the world's second largest economy. It has spread to some 28 other countries and territories, with a death toll of around two dozen, according to a Reuters tally.

 

"Despite the continuing decline in reported cases from China, the last two days have seen extremely concerning developments elsewhere in the world," said Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at Britain's University of East Anglia.

 

South Korea raised its infectious disease alert to its highest level on Sunday as confirmed coronavirus cases in the country jumped to 602 and the death toll rose to six. Ciara Lee reports

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday it was worried by the detection of infections without a clear link to China.

 

For a graphic on tracking the novel coronavirus, click https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html

 

'SEVERE AND COMPLEX'

China, which has seen the vast majority of cases, reported 648 new infections. But only 18 were outside of Hubei province, the lowest number outside the epicenter since authorities began publishing data a month ago and locked down large parts of the country.

 

"At present, the epidemic situation is still severe and complex, and prevention and control work is in the most difficult and critical stage," President Xi Jinping said.

 

State run television urged people to avoid complacency, drawing attention to people gathering in public areas and tourist spots without wearing masks.

 

In South Korea, Catholic churches in Daegu and Gwangju have suspended services and other gatherings, while churches elsewhere saw declines in attendance on Sunday, especially among the elderly.

 

"If the situation gets worse, I think we'll need to take more measures," said Song Gi-young, 53, wearing a face mask at church.

 

South Korea's president said raising the disease alert to the highest level, allowing authorities to send extra resources to Daegu city and Cheongdo county, which were designated "special care zones" on Friday.

 

Health officials reported 169 new infections, bringing the total to 602.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The potential economic impact of the disease was prominent at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Riyadh.

 

The International Monetary Fund's chief said China's 2020 growth would likely be lower at 5.6%, down 0.4 percentage points from its January outlook, with 0.1 percentage points shaved from global growth.

 

Xi highlighted the importance of fighting the epidemic in the capital Beijing, which has recently required people arriving from elsewhere in China to be quarantined at home for 14 days.

 

He said it would have a relatively big, but short-term impact on the economy and that Beijing would step up policy adjustments to help cushion the blow.

 

In Japan, where the government is facing growing questions about whether it is doing enough to counter the virus, authorities had confirmed 773 cases by early Sunday evening.

 

Most of them were from a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo, the Diamond Princess. A third passenger, a Japanese man in his 80s, died on Sunday.

 

British authorities said four people evacuated from the ship had tested positive for the virus after being flown to Britain.

 

(Reporting by Emily Chow in Shanghai and Jane Chung in Seoul; Additional reporting by Lushu Zhang in Beijing, Kevin Buckland in Tokyo, Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Crispian Balmer in Rome and Kate Kelland in London; Writing by Martin Petty, Philippa Fletcher and Alex Richardson; Editing by Kim Coghill and Frances Kerry)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-24

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[nobodysfriend]

That Covid 19 virus is very contagious .

Only lucky that it is not very deadly .

I think , that , if mankind does not learn to respect and live with  , ( not against ) , nature , and continues to create severe damage to the ecosystem , this same ecosystem will create more viruses ( and more deadly ones ) , to eliminate the human threat .

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by nobodysfriend

[joebrown]

It's comforting to know that this virus is under control here in Thailand whilst several other countries seem to be struggling to contain it!

[nauseus]

1 hour ago, nobodysfriend said:

That Covid 19 virus is very contagious .

Only lucky that it is not very deadly .

I think , that , if mankind does not learn to respect and live with  , ( not against ) , nature , and continues to create severe damage to the ecosystem , this same ecosystem will create more viruses ( and more deadly ones ) , to eliminate the human threat .

 

And a very good morning to you, too!

[URMySunshine]

The world has always gone periodically mad and bad it's just a pity we are going to have to live through this particular episode. 

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

International concern about the spread of coronavirus outside China grew on Sunday with sharp rises in infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.

Seems a little odd to me that other countries are experiencing hikes in their infection numbers, yet Thailand who had an open door philosophy for China over the Chinese New year still maintain only 35 cases?

[rwill]

to put things in perspective:   

 

U.S. health officials have counted 92 child flu deaths this year, up from the same time last year but fewer than were counted by this point in 2018. In all, the CDC estimates at least 14,000 Americans have died of the flu this season.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/rough-us-flu-season-kids-vaccine-working-69105173

And this is just the USA.  Imagine the numbers worldwide.

Way more people die from common flu strains and yet somehow we don't go around freaking out about it.

 

Another perspective.  

About 70 people die each day from traffic accidents in Thailand and yet we still travel around.

[digger70]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

Seems a little odd to me that other countries are experiencing hikes in their infection numbers, yet Thailand who had an open door philosophy for China over the Chinese New year still maintain only 35 cases?

That's what they are suppose to tel the main public.   ????

[URMySunshine]

31 minutes ago, rhyddid said:

is contagious as any kind of flu !
and yes its much less deadly than a regular seasonal influenza.

Indeed there is a mush serious virus out there, its the permanent social media addicted that can be turned up and turned down by social media paranoiac scare.

I'm am starting to think that there is obviously an element of this in the mix and we won't know the real truth until there is a cure / vaccine probably at the speed things are going later in the year. It's gonna be a bumpy year for sure and it's going to get 'worse' before it gets better. 

 

OR it really is a as bad as the scenes coming out of China suggest the whole world will go on lockdown for months and millions will die much more than in a usual flu season. Basically if you don't want to get infected by fear log off the internet and get onto Thai TV booinggg...kerching it's business as usual there.

[URMySunshine]

38 minutes ago, rhyddid said:

Practically the CONVID19 its an INFLUENZA CORONA VIRUS, which proved kill much less that a seasonal influenza , indeed it served its scopes :

1- place the globe on a military pandemic virus warfare test
2- crash whatever country economy
3- re confirmed how social medial may play a big role in turning people one side to another as the wind turn a flag.

 

Well let's enjoy the CORONA hysteria that as any influenza by spring will be gone.

And of course all the top medical scientists, doctors and public health specialists are all in on the conspiracy as suckers on public subsidy they must march to their master's voice. 

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-expert-opinions/#lipsitch-021720

 

 

[Eric Loh]

4 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

That Covid 19 virus is very contagious .

Only lucky that it is not very deadly .

I think , that , if mankind does not learn to respect and live with  , ( not against ) , nature , and continues to create severe damage to the ecosystem , this same ecosystem will create more viruses ( and more deadly ones ) , to eliminate the human threat .

 

Common flu is more deadly yet no one pay much attention to that. 
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

[URMySunshine]

12 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Common flu is more deadly yet no one pay much attention to that. 
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

Death is the biggest cause of death and no one has immunity from that I'm afraid (apart from Jesus allegedly). 

[Traubert]

5 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Common flu is more deadly yet no one pay much attention to that. 
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

I did say a month ago that this was a strain of flu to be feared as many of the other strains should be but there was no need to panic. Great exception was taken to it.

[KruZik]

8 hours ago, Traubert said:

I did say a month ago that this was a strain of flu to be feared as many of the other strains should be but there was no need to panic. Great exception was taken to it.

Simply not true. Influenza has a mortality rate far lower than 1%, whereas this virus is in the 2 to 3% range. While it's true that seasonal flu is a killer, it doesn't kill as many as COVID-19 seems to. Having said that, we don't know the true number of infections - there are probably thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of mild cases and once taken into account, this would lower the fatality rate considerably. So right now, it's hard to tell, but the current figures support a higher death rate for COVID-19:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/03/the-flu-has-already-killed-10000-across-us-as-world-frets-over-coronavirus.html

[Tug]

Well let’s hope they (the powers that be) are learning how to deal with this kind of incident better Incase something vastly more fatal pops up sadly I doubt it 

[chilly07]

Believe  the S Korea spike is due to  one individual who  didn't report  travelling to  Wuhan in December. I think  the other spikes will be traced to similar  irresponsible  individuals. It's either  the Chinese who are world wide travelers lying  or Bats spreading the virus.  I know  which my money is on! 

[Parsve]

On 2/24/2020 at 7:09 AM, rwill said:

U.S. health officials have counted 92 child flu deaths this year, up from the same time last year but fewer than were counted by this point in 2018. In all, the CDC estimates at least 14,000 Americans have died of the flu this season.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/rough-us-flu-season-kids-vaccine-working-69105173

And this is just the USA.  Imagine the numbers worldwide.

Way more people die from common flu strains and yet somehow we don't go around freaking out about it.

 

Another perspective.  

About 70 people die each day from traffic accidents in Thailand and yet we still travel around.

You forget to tell about how many are killed by wars and by starving. And you not seems to realise that one more deadly and easily worldvide spread illness make the whole worse.