A WORLD IN CHAOS
Global death toll nears 5,000 New York cases double overnight Five countries close all schools Rome orders churches to shut
CORONAVIRUS panic tightened its grip worldwide yesterday as scores of countries dramatically upped their response to the deadly pandemic.
There were 6,729 new cases recorded globally, bringing the total confirmed number to 134,317. The death toll also rose by 351 to 4,968.
It led to several countries being effectively put into lockdown as they closed schools, mass events and shops, while in the US, the mayor of New York declared a state of emergency in the city.
The death toll in Italy – the hardest hit country after China – climbed from 827 to 1,016 and total infections soared by 21 per cent to 15,113. In an unprecedented move for modern times, Rome’s more than 900 Catholic churches were ordered to shut. Previously, only Masses had been cancelled.
The decree by the Pope’s vicar for the Rome archdiocese will remain in effect for at least three weeks and temporarily excuses Catholics in the area from their obligation to attend Mass.
The move follows a decision by the Italian government on Wednesday to close all shops apart from pharmacies, food shops and other essential stores.
In the north of the country, a couple who had been together for 60 years died from the coronavirus just two hours apart.
Severa Belotti, 82, and Luigi Carrara, 86, spent the last days of their lives in lockdown, in their hometown of Albino, in the province of Bergamo.
Their son, Luca Carrara, claimed they were confined to their home for eight days, without medical assistance, running a fever of 39C.
He told how he was unable to see his parents before they died and had to say his goodbyes to them on Facebook.
Five more countries – France, Ireland, Austria, Turkey and Norway – announced the closure of all schools, universities and nurseries.
French president Emmanuel Macron said the closures would come into force on Monday, as he unveiled a raft of emergency measures to help France deal with the crisis.
He warned the country, which yesterday had a total of 2,876 confirmed cases and 61 deaths, was facing ‘its most serious health crisis in a century’.
Public transport would still run but people should keep travel to an absolute minimum, he said. People over 70 or with underlying health conditions were urged to limit their contact with the outside world.
Spain became Europe’s second worst-affected country with 3,004 cases and 84 deaths. The government announced a £12billion injection into the economy.
Every Spanish cabinet member had to be tested after equality
‘This is going to be a long, long battle’
minister Irene Montero tested positive. Her partner, the deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias, has been put in quarantine.
Across the Atlantic in the US, the mayor of New York declared a state of emergency as the number of cases in the city doubled overnight to 95.
Bill de Blasio said the world had been ‘turned upside down’ and predicted there would be more than 1,000 cases by next week.
Although schools will remain open, many municipal workers are being urged to work from home. The state of emergency will allow the mayor to activate a range of extreme measures including a curfew, closing down public transport, prohibiting people from being on the streets, rationing and limiting alcohol use.
Theatres on Broadway also lay empty last night after New York State announced a ban on gatherings of more than 500 people.
Mr de Blasio warned: ‘This is going to be a long, long battle. We are going to lose some of our fellow New Yorkers. That is inevitable.’
In California, Disneyland closed its doors for only the fourth time in the park’s history. The other closures followed the 9/11 attacks, JFK’s assassination and a local earthquake in 1994.
California banned non-essential gatherings of more than 250 people until at least the end of March, with smaller events only allowed if organisers can implement social distancing of six feet per person.
A senior health official warned that the US’s coronavirus testing system is failing. At least 11,079 people have been tested since January, with more than 1,100 confirmed cases and 40 deaths.
‘The system if not really geared to what we need right now… let’s admit it,’ Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
The US has carried out far fewer tests for the virus than many other affected countries.
In contrast, more than 29,700 people have been tested so far in the UK and more than 210,000 in South Korea, which is doing almost 20,000 tests per day.
Meanwhile, the Indian government took the drastic move of suspending visas for visitors from all other countries for a minimum of a month in a huge blow to the country’s tourism industry.
Tourism has also taken a massive hit in other countries across Asia.
In Thailand, a striking photo showed hundreds of hungry monkeys swarm a deserted square to battle over a single banana in the absence of tourists to feed them in the city of Lopburi.
In China, where the outbreak originated, the peak appears to have passed with just eight new cases in Hubei province, once the virus epicentre, on Thursday.
The country recorded only 18 new cases yesterday, suggesting its extreme quarantine measures were working. It has now had a total of 80,796 cases, with 62,826 of those recovered.
‘We’re going to lose people’