Virus’s spread continues
S. Korea cases top 550; Iran sees 6 deaths; Italy towns on lockdown.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea reported an eightfold jump in viral infections today with 556 cases mostly linked to a church and a hospital, while the death toll in Iran climbed to six and a dozen towns in Italy effectively went into lockdowns as health officials around the world battle covid-19 that has spread from China.
Meanwhile, two senior officials in the Trump administration said the president was upset that 14 U.S. citizens who had tested positive for the virus were permitted to return this week to the United States.
Officials at the State Department decided to bring back the citizens, who had been quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, after consulting with a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention objected, concerned that the passengers, among hundreds of Americans being evacuated from the ship, could spread the virus.
In South Korea, 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 54 people confirmed as infected in Italy were in isolation pending test results. Two people infected with the virus have died.
South Korea has reported 556 cases and its third death from the virus, a man in his 40s who was found dead at home and posthumously tested positive.
Globally, nearly 78,000 people have been infected in 29 countries, and nearly 2,500 have died.
A team of global experts with the World Health Organization is on the way to China’s Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday.
Tedros also told a meeting of African health ministers that the 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. Iranian health authorities Saturday reported the country’s sixth death from the virus.
But Tedros said the top concern is the potential spread to countries with weaker health systems, including in Africa. The 20% of virus patients with severe or critical disease require intensive care equipment that is “in short supply in many African countries,” he said. Just one case of the virus has been confirmed in Africa, in Egypt.
As of today, mainland China reported 648 new infections for a total of 76,936. The daily death toll fell slightly to 97. In all, 2,442 people have died in that country from covid-19.
The number of new Chinese cases has seesawed daily but remained under 1,000 for the past four days. Several changes to how the infections are counted, however, have made it difficult to draw conclusions from the figures.
China has severely restricted travel and imposed strict quarantine measures.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 113 of the 120 new cases were reported in the fourth-largest city of Daegu and surrounding areas. By Saturday morning, the city of 2.5 million and surrounding areas counted two fatalities in the Cheongdo hospital. Both patients had pneumonia.
The central government has declared the area a “special management zone” and is channeling support to ease a shortage in hospital beds, medical personnel and equipment.
Rallies were banned in downtown Seoul, but hundreds went ahead with an anti-government protest Saturday.
In Japan, new cases of the virus include a middle school teacher in her 60s, prompting concern for the health of other teachers and students in Makuhari in Chiba prefecture southeast of Tokyo.
Saudi Arabia barred travel to Iran and said anyone coming from there can enter only after a 14-day quarantine.
In the United States, 35 people have tested positive for the virus, including those who returned home from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan and one new case reported Friday in California.
News organizations reported on the decision to return the affected Americans on Monday, and the passengers arrived in the United States that day. Word of President Donald Trump’s concern about the matter had already begun circulating among officials Tuesday morning. The Washington Post first reported on it on Friday.
Separately, State Department officials say thousands of Russia-linked social media accounts are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, including a conspiracy theory that the United States is behind the outbreak.