Fears grew on Monday that the coronavirus
outbreak in China will grow into a pandemic with disruptive and
deadly consequences for countries around the world, after sharp
rises in infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.
* The virus has killed 2,442 and infected 76,936 people in
China,
and slammed the brakes on the world's second-largest economy.
* International worries about the spread of coronavirus
outside
China grew, with the World Health Organization (WHO) expressing
concern about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological
link.
* Outside China, there have been more than 1,400 cases in 28
countries, the WHO said on Saturday. That includes one confirmed
case on the African continent, in Egypt.
* Italy is battling the largest flare-up of the disease yet
seen
in Europe, with three people dying of the illness since Friday
and more than 150 cases reported.
* Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy and Veneto with a
combined
population of some 50,000 have effectively been placed under
quarantine as authorities struggled to find out how the outbreak
started.
* South Korea reported 161 new cases of the virus, bringing
the
total number of infected patients to 763 on Monday, a day after
the government raised its infectious disease alert to its
highest level.
Workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus at a market in Seoul, South Korea. Picture: Ahn Young-joon/AP
* Iran, which announced its first two cases on Wednesday,
said it
had confirmed 43 cases and eight deaths. Most of the infections
were in the Shi'a Muslim holy city of Qom.
* Hong Kong said it had 74 confirmed cases, up from 69 on
Saturday. The death toll is three.
* South Korean airlines said they are suspending flights to
Daegu,
the country's fourth-largest city with the largest number of
coronavirus cases, for the time being.
* Austria suspended train services over the Alps to Italy
for
about four hours late on Sunday before restarting them after two
travellers tested negative for coronavirus.
* New Zealand has extended a ban on arrivals from mainland
China
into a fourth week to contain the risk of exposure to the
coronavirus.
* A third passenger from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in
Japan
died on Sunday.
* Four passengers tested positive for coronavirus in England
after
being evacuated from the virus-infected cruise ship.
* The Trump administration has backed off plans to
quarantine
patients from the cruise ship at a federal facility in Alabama.
Tourists wearing sanitary masks walk in downtown Milan, Italy. In Lombardy, the hardest-hit region with 90 cases Coronavirus infections, schools and universities were ordered to stay closed in the coming days, and sporting events were cancelled. Picture: Antonio Calanni/AP
* Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund predicted the
outbreak would lower China's growth this year to 5.6% and shave
0.1 percentage points from global growth.
* Finance chiefs of the world's top 20 economies vowed to
monitor
the virus impact on global growth and act if needed, as they
said loose monetary policy and easing trade tensions would
prompt a pick-up in 2020 and 2021.
* China will step up policy adjustments to help cushion the
blow
to the economy from the virus that authorities are still trying
to control, President Xi Jinping said.
* China's trade council says 3,325 force majeure
certificates have
been issued to protect firms from legal damages stemming from
the virus outbreak as of Feb. 21, covering a total contract
value of around 270 billion yuan ($38.43 billion).
A volunteer sits on a chair keep guard as residents stand near the barricades blocked a residential area in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Warning that China's virus epidemic is "still grim and complex," President Xi Jinping called for more efforts to stop the outbreak, revive industry and prevent the disease from disrupting spring planting of crops. Picture: Chinatopix via AP
* Argentine beef exports to its top buyer China fell almost
a
third in January due to a price dispute with Chinese importers
and the effects of the outbreak.
* Beijing's containment measures look set to delay the
rollout of
5G as tenders for six big projects have been postponed since
Jan.31.
* Global shares and oil slid while safe-haven gold surged as
the
spread of the coronavirus outside China darkened the outlook for
world growth.