Iran’s neighbours slap travel bans as toll rises

tehran — Iran’s confirmed death toll from the new coronavirus rose to eight on Sunday, the highest outside China, sending neighbouring countries scrambling to contain the outbreak.

Turkey said it would ‘temporarily’ shut its border with Iran, while Pakistan also said it was closing its frontier with the Islamic republic and Afghanistan banned all ground and air travel between the two nations.

Jordan said it would bar entry to citizens of China, Iran and South Korea and other foreigners travelling from those countries. The Kuwait Port Authority announced a ban on the entry of all ships from the Islamic republic. —

seoul/ shanghai — International concern about the spread of coronavirus outside China grew on Sunday with sharp rises in infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.

The government in Seoul put the country on high alert after the number of infections surged over 600 with six deaths. A focal point was a church in the southeastern city of Daegu, where a 61-year-old member of the congregation with no recent record of overseas travel tested positive for the virus.

In Italy, the number of cases jumped to above 130 from just three before Friday. Authorities sealed off the worst affected towns and banned public gatherings in much of the north, including halting the carnival in Venice, where there were two cases, to try to contain the biggest outbreak in Europe.

Iran said it had confirmed 43 cases and eight deaths. China reported 648 new infections. But only 18 were outside of Hubei province, the lowest number outside the epicentre since authorities began publishing data a month ago and locked down large parts of the country. —

It has the fastest transmission, widest range of infection and has been the most difficult to prevent and control xi Jinping,

Chinese President