Outbreak reaches Mid east as Xiwarns it’s yet to peak
Four reported dead in Iran; Lebanon, Israel confirm cases; WHO chief sounds alarm
DUBAI/BEIJING/JERUSALEM:Iran confirmed 13 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, two of whom have died, with the outbreak there coming just as the country voted in the parliamentary elections.
The new cases comprised seven people diagnosed in Qom, four in Tehran and two in Gilan. The total number of cases in Iran stands at 18, with four of those people having died.
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the ruling Communist party officials on Friday that the virus hasn’t yet peaked. “The battles to defend Hubei province and Wuhan should be well fought, and measures should be taken to contain the spread of the outbreak,” Xi said, South China Morning Post reported.
In Beirut, the Lebanese government confirmed its first coronavirus case on Friday after a 45-year-old woman arriving from Iran on Thursday tested positive.
The patient was taken directly to isolation from a plane arriving from the Iranian city of Qom after exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
An Israeli woman, who was a passenger aboard a virus-hit cruise ship, tested positive on return to her home country. She was one of 11 Israeli passengers who were brought back to Israel after being aboard Diamond Princess, which was quarantined off Yokohama since February 3. The woman was in quarantine in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv.
Two Australians evacuated from the ship have tested positive on their return home despite being cleared in Japan.
Meanwhile, six people tested positive in Italy in the first known cases of local transmission of the potentially deadly illness in the country. None of the six were believed to have visited China.
South Korea reported 100 new confirmed cases on Friday, taking the national total to 204. Most of those new cases have been traced to a 61-year-old woman who had taken part in services at the church.
In China, the epicentre of the epidemic, the death toll went up to 2,239 by Thursday midnight. Health commission officials reported 220 cases in Hubei. More than 120 deaths were reported overnight with the number of infections at more than 75,500.
The WHO director general has warned that the scope to stem the spread was shrinking. “Our window of opportunity is narrowing, that’s why we called on the international community to act quickly,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.