WHO’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
However, while warning the virus was deadlier than the flu, which carries a fatality rate of less than 1 per
cent, he told reporters in Geneva he believed the virus could still be contained.
“To summarise, 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”, he said.
In response the world’s worst afflicted regions have begun to consider even more drastic measures to
contain the virus – with officials in Iran temporarily freeing prisoners with sentences shorter than five years
and considering the deployment of 300,000 militia members on a door-to-door sanitisation mission.
Iran has repeatedly been criticised for its response to the virus amid accusations it has not fully revealed the
number of people afflicted within its borders.
So far the nation has announced 2,336 confirmed cases and 77 deaths – although the real figure is suspected
to be far higher. Cases have been linked back to Afghanistan, Canada, Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain,
Iraq, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
The illness has also managed to spread across the upper echelons of Iranian society. Among the infected are
a number of senior officials including a vice president, the deputy health minister, the head of the
emergency medical services, and 23 members of its 290-strong parliament.
Meanwhile 71-year-old Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a senior adviser to Iran’s octogenarian supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khameni, is confirmed to have died after contracting the virus.
In South Korea, the worst affected nation outside of China, president Moon Jae In said the “entire country
has entered a war” against the virus as cases rose by 600 to nearly 5,000.
Calling the outbreak “a grave situation”, Mr Moon added his government would inject 30 trillion South
Korean won (£19bn) to fund clinics and aid small businesses.
Meanwhile in Italy, officials have considered increasing the scale of its quarantine as the outbreak in the
north of the country saw the death toll more than double in the space of two days from 34 to 79.
The Italian government set up two red-zones on 22 February - one centred on 10 towns in the region of
Lombardy, southeast of the country’s financial capital Milan, and another, smaller one in the neighbouring
region of Veneto.
Since then, a growing number of cases have emerged near Bergamo, northeast of Milan – with health chief
Silvio Brusaferro confirming the government were considering the introduction of a quarantine in the city.
The three nations most severely affected outside of China, Iran, Italy and South Korea have been the subject
of increasing restrictions from other countries including Shanghai, who have begun quarantining anyone
entering the city from virus-stricken nations for 14 days.
In the US, Donald Trump has said his administration may cut off travel to areas with high rates of
coronavirus, but said officials were not considering any restrictions on domestic travel.
So far Washington State has announced 27 cases of the virus, nine of which have proved fatal – an increase
of three in the space of 24 hours.
In congress politicians came close to an agreement on a spending package with as much as $9bn of funding
to tackle the virus – however Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said a dispute over the cost of a
potential future vaccine held up a deal.
Democrats are understood to be insisting that the spending bill contain language stating that any