Iran raises death toll from new virus to 8
‘Unprecedented’ steps needed to fight virus: S. Korea leader
TEHRAN, Iran, Feb 23, (AP): Iran’s health ministry raised Sunday the death toll from the new virus to 8 people in the Middle Eastern country, amid concerns that clusters there, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told state TV that there were now 43 confirmed cases of the illness in Iran.
The outbreak in Iran has centered on the holy city of Qom, where officials say travellers from China brought the new coronavirus.
Iran reported its first case of the virus last Wednesday.
Jahanpour added that the 15 newly confirmed cases included 7 in Qom, four in the capital, Tehran, two in the northern Gilan province, one in the central Markazi province, and one from town of Tonekabon in the northern Mazandaran province, who died of the illness.
Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s health minister acknowledged that travel from China brought the new virus to the country.
Saeed Namaki told state TV that the virus came from China to the holy city of Qom in central Iran. He said that one the Iranians dead from the virus was a merchant who regularly shuttled between the two countries using indirect flights in recent weeks, after Iran stopped direct passenger flights to China.
Namaki also defended the government’s handling of the outbreak, saying it was being “transparent”. He said it would help make face-masks and sanitizers available for Iranians, amid concerns that stocks were running low in the capital’s pharmacies.
Iran is also producing kits for diagnosis of the infection, he added.
Namaki urged people not to visit Qom, which is a major destination for Shiite pilgrims.
“We obviously do not recommend traveling to Qom and other pilgrimage cities,” Namaki said.
The government has closed down schools and religious seminaries in the holy city of Qom, where the virus first killed two elderly patients last week. Schools in Tehran and four other cities were closed as well, starting Sunday for two days.
Iran has also set up 36 screening stations at different ports of entry to the country to check for possibly infected travellers, he added.
Iraq and Pakistan, which share borders with Iran, have already taken preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus from Iranian travellers.
Officials in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, which shares a long frontier with Iran, have declared an emergency as they seek to stop the spread of the virus via the Taftan border crossing with Iran.
Infected travellers from Iran already have been discovered in Lebanon and Canada.
Discovered
Lebanon’s first case of the new virus was discovered on a flight from the Iranian city of Qom this week.
Saudi Arabia has ordered anyone traveling from Iran to wait at least 14 days before entering the kingdom as it seeks to prevent the spread of the virus to the Muslim pilgrimage sites of Makkah and Medina.
South Korea’s president has put his nation on its highest alert for infectious diseases, saying Sunday that officials should take “unprecedented, powerful” steps to fight the outbreak of the new virus in the country.
President Moon Jae-in made the comments at the start of a government meeting as South Korean authorities reported 123 more cases, raising the country’s total to 556, with five deaths.
Meanwhile, a diplomatic row erupted after Israel turned back a South Korean airliner, underscoring fear and tensions over the fast-spreading outbreak.
Moon said his government had increased its anti-virus alert level by one notch to “Red”, the highest level. The step was last taken in 2009 to guard against a novel influenza outbreak that killed more than 260 people in South Korea. Under the highest alert level, authorities can order the temporary closure of schools and reduce the operation of public transportation and flights to and from South Korea.
Moon said that the outbreak “has reached a crucial watershed,” and that the next few days will be “critical”. “We shouldn’t be bound by regulations and hesitate to take unprecedented, powerful measures,” he said.
Mainland China reported 648 new infections for a total of 76,936. The daily death toll fell slightly to 97. In all, 2,442 people have died in the country from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
In Italy’s northern Lombardy region, which includes the nation’s financial capital, Milan, the governor announced Sunday that the number of confirmed cases in the region stood at 89. It pushed Italy’s total to 115 cases, with two deaths.
South Korea said its fifth fatality was a woman believed to be 57 years old who was suffering from chronic kidney disease when she became infected with the virus.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 113 of the 123 new cases came from the fourth-largest city of Daegu and surrounding areas. Centers chief Jeong Eun-kyeong told reporters that 309 patients, or 55.6% of the country’s cases, have been confirmed to have links to a branch of the local Shincheonji church in Daegu, which has become the biggest cluster of viral infections.
She said 534 of the 556 patients have been placed under isolation and that tests were underway on 6,039 other people.
Daegu’s first case on Feb 18 was a church member with no recent record of overseas travel. Officials said she attended church services and visited other places before being diagnosed with the disease, but they still believe it’s unlikely that the woman set off the chain of infections.
Earlier Sunday, Daegu Mayor Kwon Yong-jin said there are concerns that the number of those infected in the city could see yet another massive increase because authorities were launching intensive examinations of church members with virus-related symptoms.
Downtown Daegu was mostly deserted with shelves at some supermarkets and stores empty. Many restaurants, bars, real-estate offices and tour agencies have shut down as traffic nosedived and people stayed home, ordering food and supplies online.
Infection
Kim Mi-yeon, who opened her cake shop in Daegu on Sunday despite worries about infection, said that she received only one group of customers.
“I’m also worried about being infected but I still opened my shop today to make a living,” Kim said by phone. “On weekends, I used to hire five parttime employees but I’ve recently told all of them not to come. How can I hire them at a time when I have less then 10 customers a day?”
China’s Politburo, made up of senior officials of the ruling Communist Party, cautioned Friday that while the epidemic has been “preliminarily contained,” the country has yet to see a turning point.
Officials signaled that regular activities should gradually resume after the virus prompted an extension of last month’s Lunar New Year holiday. Many workplaces have opted to have their employees work remotely, and schools are conducting online classes.
In Beijing, most residential communities have implemented “closed management,” limiting the number of people per household who can go in and out using exit-entry cards and requiring those just returning to the Chinese capital to isolate themselves at home for 14 days.
A cluster of infections was reported out of Beijing’s Fuxing Hospital. The facility, which has 34 confirmed cases, has been closed off to protect the surrounding community, said a statement from Xicheng district authorities.
More than 500 cases also have been found in prisons across the country.