Virus fears grow as Iran toll, cases rise
IN UAE, IRANIAN COUPLE LATEST TO BE DIAGNOSED WITH COVID-19
Iran will close schools, universities and educational centres in two central cities to prevent a deadly coronavirus outbreak spreading, state TV reported yesterday.
It said the shutdown would begin today and last two days in Qom, where two people have died from the virus, and a week in Arak.
The decision came after two more died among 10 new cases, bringing the total number of deaths in Iran to six — the highest of any country outside the Far East. Also, Tehran shut all bistros and water fountains in subway stations. The number of cases has risen to 29 in Iran. The WHO has expressed concern over the speed at which COVID-19 has spread in Iran
In the UAE, the Ministry of Health and Prevention confirmed that two more people have been diagnosed with coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the country to 13.
Yesterday’s confirmed cases include a 70-year-old Iranian visitor and his 64-year-old wife. The husband, whose condition is said to be “unstable”, is being closely monitored.
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia announced that citizens and residents
of the kingdom are not permitted to travel to Iran and Kuwait said it will evacuate more than 700 people from Iranian city of Mashhad.
South Korea yesterday reported an eightfold jump in viral infections in four days to 433, most of them linked to a church and a hospital in and around the country’s fourth-largest city, where health workers scrambled to screen thousands of worshippers.
There’s concern that the death toll, currently at two, could grow. Virus patients with signs of pneumonia or other serious conditions at the Cheongdo hospital were transferred to other facilities, 17 of them in critical condition, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told reporters.
He said that the outbreak had entered a serious new phase, but still expressed cautious optimism that it can be contained to the region surrounding Daegu, where the first case was reported on Tuesday.
In some positive news, China said yesterday that the daily count of new virus cases there fell significantly to 397, though another 109 people died of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Most of the new cases and all but three of the deaths were in Hubei province, where the outbreak started.
Total numbers in China
The new figures, along with an upward revision of Hubei’s earlier count, brought the total number of cases in mainland China to 76,288, with 2,345 deaths. China has severely restricted travel and imposed strict quarantine measures to stop the virus from spreading.
A few Chinese provinces began easing those restrictions after reporting no new cases in recent days. Liaoning and Gansu provinces both lowered their emergency response level, and two cities in Shaanxi province resumed bus services and removed checkpoints at railway stations, bus stations and on some highways. Of the 229 new cases in South Korea, 200 are from Daegu and nearby areas, a region that has emerged as the latest front in the widening global fight against the virus.