Coronavirus spreads across globe as measures hurt economy

BEIJING — The world watched with worry Tuesday as the new coronavirus that started in China seemed to strike in ever more countries, with more people infected and security measures designed to prevent infection gumming up the gears of the world’s economy.

Meanwhile, a United States soldier stationed in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the first U.S. service member with the virus, the U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 23-year old male soldier is stationed at Camp Carroll, about 15 miles northwest of the city of Daegu, and is in self quarantine at his off-base residence, the USFK said.

Countries around the world have yet to adopt the necessary aggressive tactics for fighting outbreaks of COVID-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — a senior U.N. health official said Tuesday, calling on governments to copy China’s tough response to the virus, which has included quarantining entire districts.

Having led a joint investigative mission by the World Health Organization and Chinese experts to China, Bruce Aylward said one of his conclusions for the rest of the world is “it’s simply not ready.”

Countries should ask themselves whether they can quickly turn entire hospital wards into COVID-19 centers, whether they have sufficient respirators to keep severe cases alive, and whether they have 1,000 staff trained to track down people who have come into contact with patients.

“This virus will show up,” Aylward said at a Geneva news conference. “Think (as if) the virus is gonna show up tomorrow.”

Although there are five main hotspots — China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran — the rest of the world is dealing with the disease, as reports of new cases in Algeria, Croatia, France, Germany and Switzerland, among others, emerged, sometimes by showing up in parts of the country where the disease had never been seen before.

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they expect the novel coronavirus to spread in the United States.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a briefing.

“We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” she said.

Messonnier says the U.S.’ “aggressive containment strategy” has been largely successful at slowing the introduction of the virus into the country so far. “But as more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” she warned.

That take undercut comments by Larry Kudlow, the top economic adviser to President Donald Trump, who said the U.S. has largely contained the spread of the new coronavirus.

“As far as the U.S is concerned ... We have contained this, I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight,” he said on broadcaster CNBC, adding that he was not worried about shortages of medical supplies.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an economic tragedy at all.”

But markets weren’t listening, as trading house after trading house around the world reported losses as investors pondered how the global economy will work in a world that relies on goods being designed, manufactured and fitted together in multiple countries, but is now seeing borders drawn up due to fears about the virus’ spread.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in described the situation in the country as “very grave” Tuesday during his first visit to the virus-stricken Daegu area since the outbreak, according to his office.