Coronavirus spreading fast outside China, airports to increase screenings

Coronavirus spreading fast outside China, airports to increase screenings

GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - The new coronavirus appears to now be spreading much more rapidly outside China than within, and airports in hard-hit countries were ramping up screening of travelers.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said almost eight times as many cases had been reported outside China as inside in the previous 24 hours, adding that the risk of coronavirus spreading was now very high at a global level.

At a briefing in Geneva, he said outbreaks in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan were the greatest concern, but that there was evidence that close surveillance was working in South Korea, the worst affected country outside China, and the epidemic could be contained there.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said that within 12 hours, airports across South Korea and Italy will screen all travelers for coronavirus. Pence, who has been put in charge of the U.S. response to the outbreak, also said U.S. travel restrictions may expand.

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said U.S. industry expects to have the capacity to perform 1 million coronavirus tests by the end of the week.

The global death toll exceeded 3,000, with the number of dead in Italy jumping by 18 to 52. Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Morocco reported cases for the first time, bringing the total to more than 60 countries with the illness known as COVID-19.

But equity markets surged after their worst plunge since the 2008 financial crisis last week, encouraged by the prospect of government action to stem the economic impact. In the United States, the Dow jumped nearly 1,300 points, or 5%, while the S&P 500 closed 4.6% higher.

Finance ministers of the G7 group of leading industrialized democracies were expected to discuss measures in a conference call on Tuesday, sources told Reuters.

Oil prices jumped 4% amid hopes of a deeper output cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

MORE THAN PREDICTED

A senior U.S. official said he was concerned about a likely jump in the number of cases in the United States, which has had more than 90, with six deaths. More testing will almost surely lead to more confirmed cases.

“When you have a number of cases that you’ve identified and they’ve been in the community for a while, you’re going to wind up seeing a lot more cases than you would have predicted,” Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the infectious diseases unit at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told CNN.

South Korea has had 26 deaths and reported another 599 infections on Monday, taking its tally to 4,335.

Of the new cases in South Korea, 377 were from the city of Daegu. That is home to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, to which most of South Korea’s cases have been traced after some members visited the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the disease emerged.

The Seoul government asked prosecutors to launch a murder investigation into leaders of the church. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said that if founder Lee Man-hee and other heads of the church had cooperated, fatalities could have been prevented.

Lee knelt and apologized to the country, saying that one church member had infected many others and calling the epidemic a “great calamity”.

It was not immediately known how many of South Korea’s dead were members of the church.

‘OUTBREAKS ARE CURBED’

But Wuhan itself, at the center of the epidemic, shut the first of 16 specially built hospitals that were hurriedly put up to treat coronavirus cases, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

There was also a steep fall in new cases in Hubei, the province around Wuhan, but China remained on alert for people returning home with the virus from other countries.

The virus broke out in Wuhan late last year and has since infected more than 86,500 people, mostly in China.

Only eight cases were reported in China beyond Hubei on Sunday, the WHO said.

China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun at a news conference said: “We definitely believe that with the coming of spring we’re not far from the coming of the victory of the final defeat of COVID-19.”

Outside China, there are now more than 8,700 infected and over 125 deaths.

Iran, one of the worst-hit nations, reported infections rising to 1,501, with 66 deaths, including a senior official. With stocks of gloves and other medical supplies running low in pharmacies, authorities uncovered a hoard of supplies including millions of gloves.

In Britain, which has 40 confirmed cases, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to be prepared for a further spread.