Crews scrubbed everything from money to buses, military bases were on high alert and quarantines were enforced from a beachfront resort in the Atlantic to a remote island in the Pacific, as the world worked to halt the COVID-19 outbreak that for the first time counted more new cases outside China than inside the nation where the epidemic originated.
Worries over the ever-expanding economic fallout of the outbreak also multiplied, with factories idled, trade routes frozen and tourism crippled, while a growing list of nations braced for the illness to breach their borders.
The WHO reported that the number of new cases outside China on Tuesday exceeded the number of new infections inside the nation for the first time. The number in China was 412, while the tally in the rest of the world was 459.
Photo: Reuters
“The sudden increases of cases in Italy, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Korea are deeply concerning,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
About 81,000 people worldwide have been sickened by the virus that keeps finding new targets.
With Brazil confirming the arrival of Latin America’s first case, the virus has a toehold on every continent but Antarctica.
In Europe, where Germany, France and Spain were among the places with growing caseloads, an expanding cluster of more than 440 cases in northern Italy was eyed as a source for transmissions.
In the Middle East, where cases increased in Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq, blame was directed toward Iran.
In Asia, where the crisis originated late last year in China, threats continued to emerge around the region, with South Korea battling a mass outbreak centered in Daegu.
In the US, which had 60 cases, US President Donald Trump declared that the nation was “very, very ready” for whatever threat the coronavirus brings and he put US Vice President Mike Pence in charge of overseeing the response.
The virus has now spread to at least 39 nations, WHO officials said.
“We are in a fight that can be won if we do the right things,” Ghebreyesus said.
Although the virus has pushed into nations both rich and poor, its arrival in places with little ability to detect, respond and contain it brought concern it could run rampant and spread easily elsewhere.
“We’re going to be trying to slow down the spread so that our hospitals are not overwhelmed in one big gulp, one big hit,” said Ian Mackay, who studies viruses at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Italy yesterday recorded more than 100 new infections, while Greece, North Macedonia and Romania became the newest nations to see a case of the coronavirus.
Saudi Arabia yesterday suspended visas for visits to Islam’s holiest sites for the umrah pilgrimage, an unprecedented move triggered by virus fears that raises questions over the annual hajj.
The kingdom, which hosts millions of pilgrims every year in the cities of Mecca and Medina, also suspended visas for tourists from nations with reported infections.
Saudi Arabia, which has reported no cases of the virus, but has expressed alarm over its spread in neighboring nations, said the suspensions were temporary, but it provided no time frame for when they would be lifted and the decision left tens of thousands of pilgrims preparing to visit the kingdom from around the world in limbo.
The measures came amid a spike in coronavirus cases across the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates has reported 13 cases, Kuwait has recorded 43, Bahrain has 33 and Oman is at four.
Iran has emerged as a major hot spot in the region, with 26 fatalities — the highest death toll outside China.
The umrah, which refers to the pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of year, attracts millions of devout Muslims from all over the globe.
A Bangladeshi travel association said that more than 1,000 pilgrims, many with non refundable tickets to Saudi Arabia, were “stranded at Dhaka airport” after being denied permission to board their flights following Riyadh’s abrupt announcement.
In Indonesia, the decision to suspend visas could affect up to 200,000 pilgrims, a local association said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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