Iran reports spike in coronavirus fatalities
TEHRAN — Iran on Wednesday reported its single biggest jump in fatalities from the coronavirus as another 147 people died, raising the country’s overall death toll to 1,135.
Meanwhile, China’s Health Ministry said the virus epicenter of Wuhan and its surrounding Hubei province have reported no new cases.
The ministry said today that results over the previous 24 hours showed 34 new cases in the country, all detected in people arriving from abroad. Eight new deaths were reported, all in Wuhan.
In Iran, the nearly 15% spike in deaths — amid a total of 17,361 confirmed cases — marks the biggest 24-hour rise in fatalities since Iranian officials first acknowledged infections of the virus in mid-February.
Even as the number of cases grows, food markets were still packed with shoppers and highways were crowded as families traveled ahead of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, on Friday.
Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi urged the public to avoid travel and crowds, telling Iranians that the days ahead represent two “golden weeks” to try to curb the virus.
President Hassan Rouhani defended his government’s response to the outbreak in the face of widespread criticism that Iran acted too slowly and might even have covered up initial cases. He told his Cabinet that the government was being “straightforward,” saying it announced the outbreak as soon as it learned about it Feb. 19.
Iran also said it would close mosques for communal Friday prayers for a third consecutive week. Other Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have done so as well.
Millions of people across the Middle East were under curfews, quarantines or almost total lockdowns.
In Egypt, the Hilton Green Plaza hotel in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria was quarantined after a British guest showed symptoms. A hotel employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the press, declined to say how many people were in the hotel but added that the Health Ministry gave foreign guests the option of leaving to return to their home countries before a suspension of all flights goes into effect today. Egypt, which has reported 210 cases and six deaths from the virus, has also quarantined more than 300 families in a Nile Delta village, and it imposed a lockdown in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. All workers at hotels and tourist sites in Sharm el-Sheikh, Luxor and Aswan were ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days. In Israel, which reported 427 infections, authorities put the country in near-shutdown mode, ordering tens of thousands of people into home quarantine, turning unused hotels into hospitals and setting up drive-thru testing centers. Most controversially, the government instructed the Shin Bet internal security service to deploy phone surveillance technology to track movements of those infected.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority said it was barring entry to all foreign citizens. It was also closing its land borders to exits by Israeli citizens. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced a halt to all movement out of Bethlehem and two neighboring towns with coronavirus cases and urged Bethlehem residents to stay home starting Wednesday night. Palestinians also were instructed not to work in Israeli settlements or enter Israel starting Sunday. began In Iraq, in Baghdad, a weeklong allowing curfew pedestrians on the streets only to buy necessary food and medicine. Armed police patrolled the city and set up roadblocks. Some Iraqis flouted the curfew by reopening shops and taking family strolls. Some grocery stands and bakeries stayed open, but many appeared to be obeying the curfew. Iraq has had 11 deaths among 154 confirmed cases. Pakistan confirmed its first death from coronavirus: a 50-year-old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who visited China this week along with President Arif Alvi, said he is protectively quarantining himself. Pakistan has nearly 300 cases of the virus, with many having returned from Iran. Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies may hold a meeting next week about advancing a coordinated response to the pandemic. Saudi Arabia, which currently leads the G-20 presidency, said it is communicating with countries to convene the virtual meeting.
DEATHS IN ITALY
In Italy, more than 99% of coronavirus fatalities were people who suffered from previous medical conditions, according to a study by the country’s national health authority.
After deaths from the virus reached more than 2,500, with a 150% increase in the past week, health authorities have been combing through data to provide clues to help combat the spread of the disease.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government is evaluating whether to extend a nationwide lockdown beyond the beginning of April, the daily La Stampa newspaper reported Wednesday. Italy has more than 31,500 confirmed cases of the illness.
The new study could provide insight into why Italy’s death rate, at about 8% of total infected people, is higher than in other countries.
The health authority has examined medical records of about 18% of the country’s coronavirus fatalities, finding that just three victims, or 0.8% of the total, had no previous pathology. Almost half of the victims suffered from at least three previous illnesses and about one-fourth had either one or two previous conditions.
More than 75% had high blood pressure, about 35% had diabetes and one-third suffered from heart disease. Information for this article was contributed by Nasser Karimi,Aya Batrawy, Amir Vahdat, Aron Heller, Ilan Ben Zion, Samya Kullab, Munir Ahmed, Samy Magdy, Maggie Michael and Noha El-Hennawy of The Associated Press; and by Tommaso Ebhardt, Chiara Remondini and Marco Bertacche of Bloomberg News.