Nations adopt bigger virus responses
Italy cancels all classes; Mecca journeys barred
ROME — Italy closed all schools and universities and barred fans from all sporting events for the next few weeks, as governments trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus around the world resorted to sweeping measures that transformed the way people work, shop, pray and amuse themselves.
With the virus present in more than 80 countries, Saudi Arabia barred citizens from making the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Iran canceled Friday prayers for a second week, and leader after leader pleaded with citizens to put an end to that traditional symbol of mutual trust, the handshake.
The Italian government decreed that soccer games and other sporting events will take place without spectators until at least April 3.
Italy is the epicenter of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak. More than 3,000 have been infected, and at least 107 have died, the most of any country outside China, where the illness began.
Italy also closed schools for
8.4 million students through March 15, after at least four other countries — Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Iraq — took similar action.
“I know it’s a decision with an impact. As education minister, I obviously want my students back in school as soon as possible,” Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said.
Italy, Iran and South Korea confronted fast-growing clusters of the disease that accounted for about 80 percent of new cases outside China, according to the World Health Organization. More than 95,000 people have contracted the virus worldwide, with more than 3,200 deaths.
In the United States, the death toll reached 11.
Iran reported 92 deaths among its more than 2,900 cases. Among the ill are dozens of members of the government. The Islamic republic canceled Friday prayers to avoid public gatherings.
“The virus has no wings to fly,” Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said. “We are the ones who transfer it to each other.”
WHO said about 3.4 percent of people infected with the COVID-19 virus globally have died, making it more lethal than the flu. But that figure was met with skepticism, with scientists noting that mild cases have probably gone undetected or unreported. A study last week in the New England Journal of Medicine of data from more than 30 Chinese provinces estimated the death rate at 1.4 percent.
In Daegu, the South Korean city at the center of that country’s outbreak, a shortage of hospital space meant about 2,300 patients were being cared for in other facilities while they awaited hospital beds.
South Korea reported 145 new infections Thursday, raising its total to 5,766, second-highest in the world.
In Israel, the country’s chief rabbi urged people not to kiss the mezuza, the small box containing a prayer scroll that is posted by Jewish people on their doorposts.