|
 Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday in
an emergency move to try to prevent a global recession and the World
Bank announced $12 billion to help countries fight the coronavirus,
which has taken a heavy toll on air travel, tourism and other
industries, threatening global economic growth prospects.
The virus continued to spread in South Korea, Japan, Europe, Iran
and the United States, and several countries reported their first
confirmed cases, taking the total to some 80 nations hit with the
flu-like illness that can lead to pneumonia.
Despite the Fed's attempt to stem the economic fallout from the
coronavirus, U.S. stock indexes closed down about 3%, safe-haven
gold rose 3% and analysts and investors questioned whether the rate
cut will be enough if the virus continues to spread.
U.S. lawmakers were considering spending as much as $9 billion to
contain local spread of the virus.
In Iran, doctors and nurses lack supplies and 77 people have died,
one of the highest numbers outside China. The United Arab Emirates
announced it was closing all schools for four weeks.
The death toll in Italy, Europe's hardest-hit country, jumped to 79
on Tuesday and Italian officials are considering expanding the area
under quarantine. France reported its fourth coronavirus death,
while Indonesia, Ukraine, Argentina and Chile reported their first
coronavirus cases.
About 3.4% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, far above
seasonal flu's fatality rate of under 1%, but the virus can be
contained, the WHO chief said on Tuesday.
"To summarize, COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu,
transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not
sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any
vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained," WHO chief Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
Health officials have said the death rate is 2% to 4% depending on
the country and may be much lower if there are thousands of
unreported mild cases of the disease.
Since the coronavirus outbreak, prices of surgical masks have
increased sixfold, N95 respirators have tripled in cost and
protective gowns cost twice as much, the WHO said.
It estimates healthcare workers each month will need 89 million
masks, 76 million gloves and 1.6 million pairs of goggles.
The coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan
late last year, has spread around the world, with more new cases now
appearing outside China than inside.
There are almost 91,000 cases globally of which more than 80,000 are
in China. China's death toll was 2,946, with more than 166
fatalities elsewhere.
In a unanimous decision, the Fed said it was cutting rates by a half
percentage point to a target range of 1.00% to 1.25%.
Finance ministers from the G7 group of rich countries were ready to
take action, including fiscal measures where appropriate, Japanese
Finance Minister Taro Aso said. Central banks would continue to
support price stability and economic growth.
[to top of second column] |
AGGRESSIVE CONTAINMENT
In the United States, there are now over 100 people in at least a dozen states
with the coronavirus and nine deaths, all in the Seattle area.
Amid criticism of Americans not being able to get tested for coronavirus unless
they met certain limited criteria, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on
Tuesday that anyone can now get tested with a doctor's order under new
guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
New York state reported its second case, a man in his 50s who works in Manhattan
and has been hospitalized.
The public transportation agency in New York, the most densely populated major
U.S. city of more than 8 million, said on Twitter it was deploying "enhanced
sanitizing procedures" for stations, train cars, buses and certain vehicles.
China has seen coronavirus cases fall sharply, with 129 in the last 24 hours the
lowest reported since Jan. 20.
With the world's second largest economy struggling to get back on track, China
is increasingly concerned about the virus being brought back into the country by
citizens returning from new hotspots elsewhere.
Travelers entering Beijing from South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy would have to
be quarantined for 14 days, a city official said. Shanghai has introduced a
similar order.
The worst outbreak outside China is in South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in
declared war on the virus, ordering additional hospital beds and more masks as
cases rose by 600 to nearly 5,000, with 34 deaths.
WHO officials also expressed concerns about the situation in Iran, saying
doctors lacked respirators and ventilators needed for patients with severe
cases.
WHO emergency program head Michael Ryan said the need in Iran was "more acute"
than for other countries.
While the case numbers in Iran appear to be bad, he said, "things tend to look
worse before getting better."
The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday said the summer games in Tokyo
set to begin on July 24 were still expected to happen despite Japan having
nearly 1,000 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths. Health officials said they would
continue to monitor the situation in Japan before any final decision on the
Olympics is made.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo;
Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber in Berlin, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva,
Kate Kelland in London, Takahiko Wada in Tokyo; Writing by Robert Birsel, Nick
Macfie and Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Alexander Smith, John Stonestreet and Bill
Berkrot)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
