Coronavirus cases surge in South Korea
BEIJING/SEOUL/DUBAI: South Korea reported its biggest surge in novel coronavirus cases on Saturday as the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its risk alert to its highest level.
Qatar has confirmed its first case, state media reported on Saturday, after a 36-year-old Qatari woman who was evacuated to Doha from Iran tested positive.
The virus has rapidly spread across the world in the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy.
South Korea has the most cases outside China, with 3,150 infections as 813 more patients were reported on Saturday - the country’s biggest increase to date. Three women in the Daegu area died of the illness, taking the national toll to 17.
The US has decided to postpone a meeting with leaders of Southeast Asian countries it had planned to host on March 14 due to worries about the outbreak, two US officials familiar with the matter said on Friday.
European nations are scrambling to contain the outbreak as new infections mounted in several countries - many linked to virus hot spot northern Italy.
Iran is preparing for the possibility of “tens of thousands” of people getting tested as the number of confirmed cases spiked again Saturday.
The illness has killed 43 people out of 593 confirmed cases in Iran, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said.
A Who-led team which carried out a 14-day investigation into the outbreak in China has said that Beijing should overcome “obstacles” against acting immediately on early alerts and share key disease data “more clearly” internationally.
Till Saturday, the infection had killed nearly 3,000 people and infected more than 82,000 globall y. China on Saturday reported at least 47 new deaths, taking the toll to 2,835 and added another 427 confirmed cases to take the number of total infections to 79,251, the national health commission said. Of the 427 new cases, four cases were reported from outside Hubei province.
China has sent a group of experts to Iran to help combat the epidemic, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. She said the Chinese experts are on their way to Tehran.