The_Times__6_March_2020

12 2GM Friday March 6 2020 | the times

News

5,700+

confirmed cases in Europe

European cases

FRANCE

423 (7)

BELGIUM

50 (0)

NETHERLANDS

82 (0)

GERMANY

545 (0)

LUXEMBOURG

2 (0)

CZECH

REPUBLIC

12 (0)

AUSTRIA

43 (0)

SWITZERLAND

118 (1)

LIECHTENSTEIN

1 (0)

CROATIA

10 (0)

SLOVENIA

6 (0)

PORTUGAL

9 (0)

SPAIN

282 (3)

Gibraltar

1 (0)

Faroe Islands

1 (0)

ANDORRA

1 (0)

ITALY

3,858 (148)

SAN MARINO

21 (1)

MONACO

1 (0)

DENMARK

20 (0)

SWEDEN

94 (0)

ICELAND

35 (0)

NORWAY

91 (0)

IRELAND

13 (0)

UK

116 (1)

UK

First fatality amid

warning NHS could

run out of intensive

care beds and

hotline is

overwhelmed

Sweden

An exclusive private

school linked to the

Royal Family is shut

after a student tests

positive

France

150 schools shut as

139 new cases are

identified in one day,

bringing the total to 423

Italy

Tourist numbers plummet

and public events cancelled

as case numbers soar by

769, the biggest increase

anywhere in the world

Jan Feb Mar

1031 62823

22

33

29

111

444

12 12

36

5

Confirmed infections in the UK

per day

confirmed

cases

116

new

cases

29

death

1

A string quartet played on Monday before an empty La Fenice opera house in Venice Source: Worldometer, as of 11pm GMT Mar 5

sweden

In Sweden the number of confirmed

cases rose to 94. An exclusive private

school in Stockholm, which counts

Swedish royalty among its pupils,

closed yesterday after a student tested

positive. The Campus Manilla school,

attended by Princess Estelle, grand-

daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and

second in line to the throne, draws its

pupils from the wealthiest families.

south korea

South Korea’s isolation deepened yes-

terday as more countries imposed trav-

el bans on its people and the govern-

ment declared a new hotspot for the

epidemic. A “special care zone” was an-

nounced around the 275,000 inhabit-

ants of Gyeongsan, close to the city of

Daegu, where the virus began to spread

rapidly last month. Australia has

banned foreign citizens from entering

South Korea, the latest of about 100

countries to impose such restrictions.

Five more people died from the dis-

ease overnight, bringing the death toll

to 50 and the number of confirmed

cases rose by 467 to nearly 6,100.

north korea

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader,

wrote to President Moon of South

Korea to express his sympathies. North

Korea has said that it has had no cases

of the coronavirus, a claim that some

experts regard as implausible given the

country’s long and porous land border

with China and its low standards of

public healthcare and surveillance.

china

President Xi of China has suspended a

planned trip to Japan intended to ease

tense relations with Shinzo Abe, the

prime minister. The Japanese govern-

ment will also cancel visas for visitors

from South Korea and China and reject

all tourists from those countries. The

Asian Sevens rugby tournament next

month is to be cancelled or reduced in

scale. Japan continues to insist that the

Olympics will go ahead in July and

August.

Wuhan, where the epidemic began,

has changed its criteria for discharging

patients. Several people have tested

positive for the virus after being “cured”

and discharged. In China, 160 new

cases and 32 deaths were reported. The

virus has claimed 3,013 lives and infect-

ed 80,430 people. The International

Monetary Fund has cut the economic

growth outlook for China from 6 per

cent to less than 5.6 per cent for this

year as a result of the epidemic. In Hong

Kong the health authorities believed

that a pet dog had been infected after its

owner was diagnosed with the virus.

iran

Iran reported 591 new cases, the second

biggest in the world after Italy. Saeed

Namaki, the health minister, an-

nounced new restrictions, saying that

schools and universities would remain

closed until the Persian new year on

March 20. Mohammad Mirmoham-

madi, a member of Iran’s Expediency

Council appointed by the Supreme

Leader, died this week after falling ill

with the new virus. The official death

toll stood at 108.

saudi arabia and iraq

Saudi Arabia has suspended the year-

round Islamic “umrah” pilgrimage, an

unprecedented move that raises uncer-

tainty over the annual haj. Iraq can-

celled Friday prayers in the Shia holy

city of Karbala.

News Coronavirus

Holiday plans

abandoned

as cases rise

around globe

russia

Officials have drafted an emergency

plan to shut Moscow and impose a cur-

few as a last-resort measure to tackle an

outbreak. A report by Vedomosti, the

Russian business newspaper, said that

under the proposals police officers and

the National Guard would patrol the

city. Anyone violating the curfew

would be arrested. Movement in and

out of the city of 12 million people

would also be curtailed.

Only one Russian citizen has been

officially diagnosed with coronavirus

inside the country. Two Chinese citi-

zens fell ill last month in Siberia but

have since recovered. Three other Rus-

sians caught the virus while on board

the Diamond Princess cruise ship in

Japan. Yesterday an Italian citizen who

arrived in Russia last week was con-

firmed to have coronavirus.

germany

All people entering Germany will be

asked to fill out forms at the border so

the authorities can trace who they were

in contact with and where they are

going. All asylum seekers will go

through health checks for signs of coro-

navirus. Patients who suspect they have

the disease are strongly advised not to

go into GP surgeries but instead to stay

at home. Consumers have been advised

to go shopping just once a week to limit

any possible contact with the virus.

The city of Nuremberg is seeking to

cancel a football match between the

Italian and German national sides

scheduled for the end of the month, cit-

ing concerns that fans from northern

Italy could spread the disease. In Ger-

many the number of cases rose to 545.

france

In France, where 150 schools have been

shut, President Macron ordered the

authorities to requisition all unsold face

masks and to distribute them to health

professionals and people with corona-

virus. Bruno Le Maire, the economy

minister, said that he had asked the

consumer fraud office to investigate

claims of profiteering and was prepared

to regulate the price of masks and gel “if

the abuses are numerous”. The death

toll rose to seven with 139 new cases

taking the number of patients to 423.

ireland

Seven new cases of coronavirus have

been confirmed in the Republic of Ire-

land, bringing the total number to 13.

Tony Holohan, the chief medical offi-

cer, said that the country was in the

containment phase but it was a “rapidly

evolving situation”. Four of the latest

cases are linked to northern Italy,

involving four males from the east of

Ireland. Two are associated with close

contact with a confirmed case and in-

volve two females in the west of the

country. The seventh case is a male,

whom the Department of Health de-

scribed as being “associated with Cork

University Hospital” and is the first case

of community transmission.

Millions of people are

cancelling foreign trips

as countries step up

emergency measures to

tackle the outbreak

More than ten million tourists will
abandon plans to visit Italy in the next
three months, wreaking havoc on the
economy, an expert has warned as cor-
onavirus deaths rose to 148 yesterday.
The slump in visitor numbers will
cost Italy about €10 billion (£8.7 billion),
according to Alberto Corti, the head of
tourism at Italy’s Confcommercio busi-
ness lobby group.
Italy’s civil protection agency an-
nounced 41 new deaths linked to the
virus yesterday, taking the total to 148.
The agency said that cases had risen to
3,858 — the largest number in Europe
and a huge leap of 769 in a day, meaning
that Italy’s daily increase continues to
outpace China’s.
Roberto Gualtieri, the finance minis-
ter, announced a €7.5 billion stimulus
plan yesterday, which he said would be
spent on the country’s health service,
civil protection agency and police.
Airlines including British Airways,
Ryanair and Easyjet have cancelled
some flights to Italy because of falling
demand and other countries have
restricted entry to Italians.
Tourists were thin on the ground in
Rome yesterday, with crowds at the
Trevi fountain down by about two
thirds. “If we don’t die of coronavirus
we’ll die of starvation,” Adele, a souve-
nir seller at the fountain, said.
An exhibition of Raphael, the
Renaissance artist, opened in the city
yesterday, the day after a government
decree banned all public events unless
people were able to stay a metre away
from each other. Ushers walked up and
down the queue outside the exhibition,
reminding people to stand apart.
Mario De Simoni, the head of the
Scuderie del Quirinale, where the show
is being held, said: “We calculated that
we can let in 800 at a time and keep the
metre distance between people in front
of the paintings but to be safe we will
keep it to 300.”
Felice Egisto, 61, who was waiting in
line with his wife, said: “If any of the
rooms look too crowded we won’t go
in.”
Speaking earlier this week, Neil Fer-
guson, of Imperial College London’s
faculty of medicine, suggested that the
number of coronavirus cases in Italy
could be more than 40 times higher
than the official total.
Professor Ferguson estimated that
there would be “at least” 100,000 cases
in the country on Wednesday, when the
official tally was 2,500.
He told Toda y on BBC Radio 4: “For
every person who dies we think there
might be 100, maybe even 200 people
infected.”

italy