60 countries affected by COVID-19
THE coronavirus outbreak’s global impact grew more alarming yesterday.
Yesterday, Bahrain threatened legal prosecution against travellers who came from Iran and hadn’t been tested for the virus, and also barred public gatherings for two weeks.
Saudi Arabia said it would bar citizens of the Gulf Co-operation Council from Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina over concerns about the virus’ spread. The council is a sixnation group including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia closed holy sites to foreign pilgrims, disrupting travel for thousands of Muslims already heading to the kingdom and potentially affecting plans later this year for millions more ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan and the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Elsewhere around the world, slumping financial markets dropped even lower on Friday, while virus fears led to emptied shops and amusement parks, cancelled events, and drastically reduced trade and travel.
The list of countries touched by the virus has climbed to nearly 60.
China has seen a slowdown in new infections and yesterday morning reported 427 new cases over the past 24 hours along with 47 additional deaths. The city at the epicentre of the outbreak, Wuhan, accounted for the bulk of both.
South Korea, the second hardest hit country, reported 813 new cases yesterday — the highest daily jump since confirming its first patient in late January and raising its total to 3150.
Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran have led to infections of people in other countries. France and Germany were also seeing increases, with dozens of infections.
Streets were deserted in Sapporo on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, where a state of emergency was issued until the middle of this month.
The Archbishop of Paris asked all of the French capital’s parish priests to change the way they administered communion to counter the spread of the coronavirus. Bishop Michel Aupetit instructed that priests no longer put the sacramental bread in the mouths of worshippers during communion and instead place it in their hands. He also asked that worshippers not drink wine directly from a shared chalice, and that sacramental bread instead be dipped in wine.
The head of the World Health Organization on Friday announced that the risk of the virus spreading worldwide was “very high”.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday called on the public to co-operate in a “tough battle” to contain the outbreak in coming weeks as the country prepares to hold the Olympic Games in Tokyo as planned.
“We cannot win this battle through the efforts of the government alone,” Abe told a news conference two days after calling for all schools nationwide to be closed for more than a month. “I have decided we must make all efforts in the next one or two weeks to prevent the spread” of the virus, he said, while expressing confidence this was possible.
Abe said that Japan would go ahead with the Summer Olympics and a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, but added he would not hesitate to expand immigration curbs if needed. |