BEIJING: The global death toll from the new coronavirus epidemic surpassed 3,000 on Monday after more people died at its epicenter in China, as cases soared around the world and US officials faced criticism over the country’s readiness for an outbreak.
The virus has now infected more than 89,000 people and spread to more than 60 countries after first emerging in China late last year.
With fears of a pandemic on the rise, the World Health Organization urged all countries to stock up on critical care ventilators to treat patients with severe symptoms of the deadly respiratory disease.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus has raised fears over its impact on the world economy, causing global markets to log their worst losses since the 2008 financial crisis.
China’s economy has ground to a halt with large swathes of the country under quarantine or measures to restrict travel.
Other countries have started to enact their own drastic containment measures, including banning arrivals from virus-hit countries, locking down towns, urging citizens to stay home and suspending major events such as football matches or trade fairs.
In a stark example of growing global anxiety, the Louvre — the world’s most visited museum — closed on Sunday after staff refused to work over fears about the virus.
China
China reported 42 more deaths on Monday — all in central Hubei province. The virus is believed to have originated in a market that sold wild animals in Hubei’s capital, Wuhan.
The death toll in China alone rose to 2,912, but it is also rising abroad, with the second highest tally in Iran with 54, while the United States and Australia had their first fatalities from the disease over the weekend.
The WHO says the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illness.
It has a mortality rate ranging between two and five percent — much higher than the flu, at 0.1 percent, but lower than another coronavirus-linked illness, SARS, which had a 9.5 percent death rate when it killed nearly 800 people in 2002-2003.
But infections are also rising faster abroad than in China now, as the country’s drastic measures, including quarantining some 56 million people in Hubei since late January, appear to be paying off.After an increase on Sunday, China’s National Health Commission reported 202 new infections on Monday, the lowest daily rise since late January. There have been more than 80,000 infections in the world’s most populous country.
A Chinese court has sentenced a man to death for fatally stabbing two officials at a checkpoint set up to control the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak.
On Sunday a court handed down a death sentence to a 23-year-old man after he stabbed two officials at one local village checkpoint.
The incident happened on February 6 when Ma Jianguo was driving a minivan through a checkpoint at Luo Meng village in Honghe, southwestern Yunnan province, where he was stopped.
After Ma refused to cooperate with officials, his passenger began trying to remove the roadblock, the court said, and the local official started filming Ma and the other man on his mobile phone.
A furious Ma stabbed the official -- a local poverty alleviation cadre -- in the chest and abdomen with a knife he carried with him and then attacked another official who came to the victim's aid.
The two men died from their wounds.
The court statement said that although Ma had “voluntarily surrendered and truthfully confessed,” the killings were “extremely vicious.”
By contrast, infections are soaring elsewhere.
Germany
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen to 150 on Monday from 129 on Sunday, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said.
More than half of the cases, 86, are in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, where several schools and daycare centres will be closed on Monday to try to prevent the spread of the virus after staff members tested positive.
South Korea
South Korea reported nearly 500 new coronavirus cases Monday, sending the largest national total in the world outside China past 4,000.
Four more people had died, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, taking the toll to 22.
Infection numbers have surged in the world’s 12th-largest economy in recent days and the country’s central bank has warned of negative growth in the first quarter, noting the epidemic will hit both consumption and exports, while scores of events have been canceled or postponed over the contagion.
The figures are expected to rise further as authorities carry out checks on more than 260,000 people associated with the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a religious group often condemned as a cult that is linked to more than half the cases.
A 61-year-old female member developed a fever on February 10 but attended at least four church services in Daegu — the country’s fourth-largest city with a population of 2.5 million and the center of the outbreak — before being diagnosed.
Of the 476 new cases announced Monday — taking the total to 4,212 — more than 90 percent were in Daegu and the neighboring province of North Gyeongsang, the KCDC said.
Italy
Infections nearly doubled over the weekend in Italy, Europe’s hardest hit country with nearly 1,700 cases.
Rome said Sunday it would deliver $4 million in emergency aid to sectors affected by the virus.
United States
New York state has confirmed its first coronavirus case, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter Sunday evening, calling on residents to remain calm and not have any “undue anxiety.”
We have learned of the 1st positive case of COVID-19 in NY. The patient contracted the virus while in Iran & is isolated
There is no reason for undue anxiety—the general risk remains low in NY. We are diligently managing this situation &will provide info as it becomes available.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo)
Cuomo said the patient is a woman in her 30s who contracted the virus while traveling abroad in Iran. He said the woman is in quarantine in her home.
Health officials in Washington state said Sunday night that a second person had died from the coronavirus.
Researchers said the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the greater Seattle area.
In a statement, Public Health— Seattle & King County said a man in his 70s died Saturday. On Friday, health officials said a man in his 50s died of coronavirus. Both had underlying health conditions, and both were being treated at a hospital in Kirkland, Washington, east of Seattle.
Washington state now has 12 confirmed cases.
State and local authorities stepped up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew nationwide, with new infections announced in California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state.
Authorities in the Seattle area said two more people had been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus, both men in their 60s who were in critical condition, and two health care workers in California were also diagnosed.
A man in his 50s died in Washington on Saturday, and health officials said 50 more people in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, are sick and being tested for the virus. On Sunday night, the International Association of Fire Fighters said 25 members who responded to calls for help at the nursing facility are being quarantined.
The first US case was a Washington state man who had visited China, where the virus first emerged, but several recent cases in the US have had no known connection to travelers.
In California, two health care workers in the San Francisco Bay area who cared for an earlier coronavirus patient were diagnosed with the virus on Sunday, the Alameda and Solano counties said in a joint statement.
The health care workers are both employed at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, California, and had exposure to a patient treated there before being transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the statement said. That patient was the first person in the US discovered to have contracted the coronavirus with no known overseas travel.
Alameda County declared a state of emergency on Sunday following the news.
Elsewhere, authorities announced Sunday a third case in Illinois and Rhode Island and New York’s first cases as worried Americans swarmed stores to stock up on basic goods such as bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper.
The hospitalized patient in Rhode Island is a man in his 40s who had traveled to Italy in February. New York confirmed Sunday that a woman in her late 30s contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. The patient is not in serious condition. She has respiratory symptoms and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
As the fallout continued, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar sought to reassure the American public that the federal government is working to make sure state and local authorities are able to test for the virus. Both said during a round of TV talk show appearances Sunday that thousands more testing kits had been distributed to state and local officials, with thousands more to come.
“They should know we have the best public health system in the world looking out for them,” Azar said, adding that additional cases will be reported and the overall risk to Americans is low.
As the cases ticked up, some Americans stocked up on basic supplies — particularly in areas with diagnosed cases — and began to take note of the impact on daily life. Stores such as Costco sold out of toilet paper, bottled water and hand sanitizer outside Portland, Oregon, where a case was announced Friday. Sports games and practices were canceled into the coming school week. Some churches said they would not offer communion because of fears of viral spread.
ALGERIA
Algeria has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus infections, a woman and her daughter aged 53 and 24 years respectively, the health ministry said on Monday.
The cases brought to three the number of people infected with the virus in the North African country.
The two people were put in isolation in Blida province south of the capital Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.
The woman and her daughter in February hosted an 83-year-old man and his daughter based in France who were tested positive for coronavirus after their return to France, the statement said.
Algeria last week announced its first coronavirus case, an Italian national who arrived in the country on Feb.17. He was later flown home to Italy, which has almost 1,700 cases.
The latest figures reported by each government’s health authority:
— Mainland China: 2,912 deaths among 80,026 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei
— Hong Kong: 94 cases, 2 deaths
— Macao: 10 cases
— South Korea: 4,212 cases, 22 deaths
— Italy: 1,694 cases, 34 deaths
— Iran: 978 cases, 54 deaths
— Japan: 961 cases, including 705 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 12 deaths
— France: 130 cases, including one on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe; 2 deaths
— Singapore: 106 cases
— United States: 80 cases, 2 deaths
— Spain: 71 cases
— Germany: 66
— Kuwait: 45 cases
— Thailand: 42 cases, 1 death
— Taiwan: 40 cases, 1 death
— Bahrain: 38 cases
— United Kingdom: 35 cases, 1 death
— Malaysia: 29 cases
— Australia: 23 cases, 1 death
— United Arab Emirates: 21 cases
— Canada: 24
— Iraq: 19
— Norway: 19
— Vietnam: 16
— Sweden: 15
— Netherlands: 10
— Switzerland: 10
— Greece: 7
— Lebanon: 7
— Croatia: 7
— Finland: 6
— Oman: 6
— Austria: 5
— Israel: 5
— Russia: 5
— Mexico: 4
— Pakistan: 4
— Czech Republic 3
— India: 3
— Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death
— Romania: 3 cases
— Belarus: 2
— Belgium: 2
— Brazil: 2
— Denmark: 2
— Georgia: 2
— Algeria: 1
— Afghanistan: 1
— Armenia 1
— Azerbaijan: 1
— Cambodia: 1
— Dominican Republic 1
— Ecuador: 1
— Egypt: 1
— Estonia: 1
— Iceland: 1
— Ireland: 1
— Lithuania: 1
— Monaco: 1
— Nepal: 1
— New Zealand: 1
— Nigeria: 1
— North Macedonia: 1
— Qatar: 1
— San Marino: 1
— Sri Lanka: 1
