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 Australia initiated emergency measures and Taiwan raised its
epidemic response level to its highest, a day after U.S. President
Donald Trump put his vice president, Mike Pence, in charge of the
U.S. response to the looming global health crisis.
The United States and South Korea postponed joint military drills to
limit the spread of the virus, which has emerged far beyond China,
where it originated late last year, apparently in a market selling
wildlife in the city of Wuhan.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his country, which has
23 cases of the virus, was operating on the basis of a pandemic and
hospitals were under orders to ensure enough medical supplies,
personal protective equipment and staff.
"There is every indication that the world will soon enter a pandemic
phase of the coronavirus," Morrison told a news conference in
Canberra.
"As a result we have agreed today and initiated the ... coronavirus
emergency response plan."
French President Emmanuel Macron called the outbreak a "crisis, an
epidemic that is on the way".
Stocks sunk deeper into the red, oil prices fell and U.S. Treasuries
rallied into record territory as more signs of the global spread of
the virus heightened fears of a pandemic.
Global markets have dropped for six straight days, wiping out more
than $3.6 trillion in value.
The coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed
nearly 2,800, the majority in China. Much remains unknown about the
virus but it is clear the ramifications of the world's
second-biggest economy in lockdown for a month or more are vast.
The rapid spread of the virus in different places - notably Italy,
Iran and South Korea - in recent days has met the definition for a
pandemic, and raised alarm.
The World Health Organization has not used the word pandemic to
describe this outbreak.
There is no cure for the virus that can lead to pneumonia, and a
vaccine may take up to 18 months to develop.
In Japan, a woman has tested positive for the virus for a second
time, the first known person in the country to do so, raising new
concern about it.
Japan has more than 190 cases and is facing questions about the
Olympic Games, due to begin in Tokyo on July 24. The government will
ask schools to close from March 2 until around the end of the month,
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
(Live blog: Online site for coronavirus news - https://www.reuters.com/live-events/coronavirus-6-id2921484)
FIRST CASES
There have been 3,246 cases outside China, including 51 deaths,
according to a Reuters tally.
A rash of countries have reported their first cases in the past
couple of days with the latest being Denmark, in a man who returned
from a ski holiday in Italy, and Estonia, in a man returning from
Iran, media reported.
Brazil confirmed Latin America's first infection on Wednesday.
China reported 433 new cases on Thursday, against 406 a day earlier.
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South Korea reported another 334 cases, pushing its total to 1,595,
the most in any country other than China.
The U.S. State Department issued a new travel warning for South
Korea after the U.S. military reported on Wednesday its first case
of the coronavirus, in a 23-year-old soldier based near the South
Korean city of Daegu.
The South Korean military has also reported a number of infections
and confined most troops to base.
A "command post training", usually conducted by members of the two
militaries' Combined Forces Command, will be postponed until further
notice, the command said.
The outbreak has played havoc with international aviation with
airlines cancelling flights as countries ban visitors from hot spots
and nervous passengers put off travel plans.
News that a Korean Air flight attendant who worked on flights
between Seoul and Los Angeles later tested positive, is likely to
unnerve passengers further.
(Graphic: Reuters graphics on the new coronavirus - https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-GRAPHICS/0100B5CD3DP/index.html)
'VERY READY'
The United States is managing 59 cases - most of them Americans
repatriated from a cruise ship quarantined in Japan where almost 700
cases developed. Four people from the ship have died in Japan.
Trump said the risk from the virus was "very low" in the United
States, and it was "very very ready" to face the threat.
Chinese authorities said the number of new deaths stood at 29 on
Thursday, the lowest daily tally since Jan. 28. The virus has now
killed 2,744 people in China, most in the central province of Hubei.
Italy reported another 100 cases nationwide, taking the total in Europe's
biggest hot spot to more than 400, while its death toll rose to 12.
Many of the cases appearing in the Middle East have been linked to Iran, which
has had 141 cases and 22 deaths, the most outside China.
Saudi Arabia suspended foreigners' entry for the Umrah pilgrimage and tourism
from countries with new coronavirus cases. The kingdom has no cases.
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html
in an external browser)
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Jeff Mason and Susan Heavey in Washington,
Jonathan Allen in New York, Diane Bartz in Chicago, Gavin Jones, Francesca
Piscioneri and Crispian Balmer in Rome, Ryan Woo, Yilei Sun and Lusha Zhang in
Beijing, Kate Kelland in London, Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith in Seoul, Paresi
Hafezi and Alexander Cornwell in Dubai and Stephanie Nebehay and Michael Shields
in Geneva; Writing by Stephen Coates, Robert Birsel; Editing by Michael Perry &
Simon Cameron-Moore)
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