(Reuters) – The coronavirus that emerged in China late last year has reached over 80 nations, with the outbreak now spreading rapidly in other parts of Asia, Europe and the United States.
FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a face mask waits for vegetables purchased through group orders at the entrance of a residential area in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Hubei province, China March 5, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser)
DEATHS/INFECTIONS
* Globally, there have been over 98,000 cases and more than 3,300 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
* Mainland China reported 143 new cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 80,552. The death toll touched 3,042 as of end-Thursday, up by 30 from the previous day.
ASIA
* China’s central province of Hubei, excluding the provincial capital Wuhan, reported zero new cases over 24 hours for the first time during the outbreak.
* South Korea confirmed 196 new cases and seven more deaths on Friday, taking total infections to 6,284, with a death toll of 42. It declared a “special care zone” around the city of Gyeongsan, and the U.S. military confirmed two new cases among relatives of its troops in the country.
* Confirmed infections in Japan rose to 1,057 on Friday morning.
* Japan’s prime minister on Thursday ordered a two-week quarantine for all visitors from China and South Korea, and his government signalled the Olympics would go ahead as planned.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan planned for early April has been postponed.
* Thailand on Thursday reported four new cases, bringing its total to 47 since January.
* The outbreak has affected almost all of Iran’s provinces, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday. Iran has more than 3,500 confirmed cases with a death toll of 107.
* Iraq cancelled Friday prayers in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala, a day after the country reported its second coronavirus death in the capital Baghdad.
* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a 30-day state of emergency on Thursday and Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity was closed following the discovery of seven cases of coronavirus in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
EUROPE
* The death toll from an outbreak in Italy has risen by 41 over the past 24 hours to 148, the Civil Protection Agency said on Thursday, with the contagion in Europe’s worst-hit country showing no sign of slowing.
* Three more people have died from coronavirus in France on Thursday, taking the total to seven, while the number of confirmed infections rose by 138 to 423
* UK recorded its first death of a patient and confirmed cases rose to 115
* Germany’s new cases jumped by 109 in a day, to 349 on Thursday.
* Dutch health authorities said on Thursday they were planning the imminent return of around 900 students from a skiing trip in the north of Italy.
* Spain recorded 234 cases across the country. Three people have died of the coronavirus.
* The Stockholm region of Sweden reported 28 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, the local authority said, taking the total number of cases in the country to 88.
UNITED STATES
* The coronavirus outbreak radiated across the United States on Thursday, surfacing in at least four new states and San Francisco as Congress quickly approved more than $8 billion to fight the outbreak.
* Alphabet Inc’s Google on Thursday joined Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp in recommending employees in the Seattle area, the most affected by the virus in the country, to work from home.
AUSTRALIA
* Australia ordered its first school closure on Friday after a 16-year-old pupil tested positive for the coronavirus, as the country’s prime minister warned the public bill for treating infected patients could top A$1 billion (£509 million).
AFRICA
* South Africa confirmed its first case on Thursday.
* Senegalese authorities reported two new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total to four since the first case was confirmed there on Monday.
AMERICAS
* Colombian President Ivan Duque has tested negative for coronavirus after returning from a trip to the United States, the government said on Thursday.
* Brazil has confirmed eight cases of the new coronavirus as of Thursday, including the first instances of likely local transmission, as the infectious disease spreads up the coast to tourist hotspot Rio de Janeiro and neighbouring Espirito Santo state, the Health Ministry said.
EVENT CANCELLATION
* More luxury brands have postponed fashion shows worldwide.
* Russia has cancelled its flagship annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum this year as a precaution against coronavirus
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* The Asian Development Bank said the outbreak could slash global gross domestic product by 0.1-0.4%, with financial losses forecast to reach between $77 billion and $347 billion.
* The coronavirus epidemic could rob passenger airlines of up to $113 billion in revenue this year, an industry body warned on Thursday.
* The outbreak likely halved China’s economic growth in the current quarter compared with the previous three months, more severe than thought just three weeks ago and triggering expectations for earlier interest rate cuts, a Reuters poll found.
* Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s top venture capital firms, sent a note to the founders and CEOs of its companies on Friday describing the coronavirus as “the black swan of 2020” and urging them to brace for coming economic shocks.
* The Institute of International Finance (IIF) downgraded its economic growth forecast for the United States and China on Thursday, while warning that world growth could reach its weakest since the global financial crisis.
MARKETS
* Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell following another Wall Street rout as disruptions to global business from the coronavirus beyond China worsened, stoking fears of a prolonged world economic slowdown.
Compiled by Milla Nissi, Sarah Morland, Uttaresh.V, Shailesh Kuber and Sriraj Kalluvila