Coronavirus cases spiral in S Korea

South Korea reported an eight-fold jump in viral infections Saturday with more than 400 cases mostly linked to a church and a hospital, while the death toll in Iran climbed to six and a dozen towns in Italy went into lockdowns as health officials around the world battle coronavirus.

Some virus clusters have shown no direct link to travel to China. The spread in Italy prompted local authorities in the Lombardy and Veneto regions to order schools, businesses, and restaurants closed and to cancel sporting events and Masses. Hundreds of residents and workers who came into contact with an estimated 79 people confirmed infected in Italy were in isolation pending test results. Two people have died.

South Korea has reported 433 cases and its third death from the virus, a man in his 40s posthumously tested positive. There’s concern that the country’s death toll could grow.

In and around South Korea’s fourth-largest city, Daegu, health workers scrambled to screen thousands. Virus patients with signs of pneumonia or other serious conditions at the Cheongdo hospital were transferred to other facilities, 17 in critical condition, said Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip.

He said the outbreak had entered a serious new phase, but expressed optimism that it can be contained to the region surrounding Daegu.

Globally, nearly 78,000 people have been infected in 29 countries, and more than 2300 have died.

A team of global experts with the World Health Organisation is on the way to China’s Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Tedros also told a meeting of African health ministers that WHO is concerned about cases with “no clear epidemiological link, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case.” He is especially concerned about the growing number of cases in Iran.

Tedros said the top concern is the potential spread to countries with weaker health systems.

In some positive news, China said the daily count of new virus cases there fell significantly to 397, though

another 109 people died. Most of the new cases and all but three of the deaths were in Hubei province, where the outbreak started.

The new figures, along with an upward revision of Hubei’s earlier count, brought the total of cases in China to 76,288, with 2345 deaths.

In the United States, 35 people have tested positive for the virus, including 18 who returned home from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan and one new case in California.