South Korea seeks coronavirus murder charges
Over 3,000 dead worldwide • Iran death toll rises to 66, with 34 deaths in Italy
South Korea sought murder charges against leaders of a secretive church at the heart of its ballooning novel coronavirus outbreak on Monday as the global death toll rose above 3,000 and the Chinese province at the epicenter reported a fall in new cases.
World stock markets regained some calm as hopes for global interest rate cuts to soften the economic blow of the virus steadied nerves after last week’s worst plunge since the 2008 financial crisis.
The global death toll was up to 3,044, according to a Reuters tally.
In the largest outbreak outside China, South Korea has had 26 deaths and reported another 599 infections on Monday, taking its tally to 4,335 following Saturday’s biggest daily jump.
Of the new cases in South Korea, 377 were from the city of Daegu, home to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, to which most of South Korea’s cases have been traced after some members visited China’s Wuhan city from where the disease emerged.
The Seoul government asked prosecutors to launch a murder investigation into leaders of the church, a movement that reveres founder Lee Manhee. Seoul Mayor Park Wonsoon said that if Lee and other heads of the church had cooperated, preventive measures could have stopped fatalities. Seoul’s city government said it had filed a criminal complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, asking for an investigation of Lee and 12 others on charges of murder and disease control act violations.
“The situation is this serious and urgent, but where are the leaders of the Shincheonji, including Lee Man-hee, the chief director of this crisis?” Park said on Facebook late on Sunday.
In India, an Italian national tested positive for coronavirus in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, a major tourist destination, a hospital official said on Monday, taking the number of people who have tested positive in the country to six. The patient had initially tested negative for the virus but a second test came out positive, a hospital official in Rajasthan’s capital city of Jaipur told Reuters, declining to be named since he is not authorized to speak to the media.“The patient has been moved to an isolation ward,” the official said, adding that a third test would be conducted.
Separately on Monday, the Indian government said two other people had tested positive for the coronavirus. The news hammered already rocky stock markets.
In Iran, the death toll from the coronavirus rose to 66 on Monday, including an official on a top council, as a World Health Organization team headed to Tehran.
“The definite latest numbers we have are 523 new infections and 12 new deaths, so the total number of those infected is 1,501 until now and the number of deaths is 66,” Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi announced on Iranian state television.
Among the dead was Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council, a body intended to resolve disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Several top officials have been infected with coronavirus including Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women and family issues, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi.
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said that a the closure of Iran’s schools would continue through the end of this week, the official IRNA news agency reported. It had been announced on Saturday because of the outbreak. Iran has the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus outside China, where the outbreak began.
In Italy, all members of the local government of Italy’s Lombardy region, the area worst hit by the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, will undergo tests after a councilor tested positive for the illness, authorities said on Monday.
Around 90% of the 1,694 cases in Italy are concentrated in the wealthy northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna where regional authorities have a central role in combating the spreading crisis.
The region said that a planned visit to hospitals in three of the towns in Lombardy at the center of the crisis had to be called off while the tests were completed. Once results were known “we will activate the procedures envisaged by the protocols of the region, the Health Ministry and the ISS National Health Institute,” the regional government said in a statement.
Italy, the European country worst affected by the outbreak so far, has recorded 34 deaths and seen economic sectors from manufacturing to tourism hit by a plunge in orders. Several international airlines including Lufthansa Delta Airlines and countries, such as the Czech Republic, have reduced or suspended flights to Italian cities, including Milan.
Jordan said on Monday that a man who had flown in from Italy had tested positive for the new coronavirus, the first case confirmed in the country, state news agency Petra reported. The Jordanian citizen had flown back nearly two weeks ago on a plane with around 100 passengers, health minister Saad Jaber told a news conference. The man was quarantined at his home with strict controls on his movement and was in “stable” condition, Jaber said.
Another Jordanian was under close observation, the minister added. (Reuters)