One by one, more and more countries are reporting cases of the new coronavirus. Governments and doctors on the front lines are scrambling for solutions and everyday life around the globe is being disrupted in a manner that's not been seen in recent times.
The spread of the virus is having an impact around the world. Here are some of the latest developments:
Looking for connections
From California to Italy, France, Germany, Spain and beyond, more cases are popping up in which the source of the virus remains a mystery. People who weren’t exposed through travel or contact with someone previously infected are testing positive. Health authorities in all these places are working hard to find the original source of infection using what’s called contact tracing, or finding all the people the latest patients were in contact with. In a highly mobile world, that’s increasingly difficult.
Markets dive deeper
U.S. President Donald Trump had reason to worry as stocks tanked further on fears about the virus’ global spread. And not only Trump: all gains built up this year have been wiped out – and more. No region is immune. Standout losers Thursday were Britain’s FTSE 100 index, which slid 3.5% and Japan’s Nikkei, which ended 2% lower. It’s not looking much better on Wall Street, where both the Dow Jones industrial average and the broader S&P 500 index are down. A global pandemic that leads to barriers and restrictions has the potential to seriously disrupt the global economy by draining confidence and stalling activity. A more protracted panic on stock markets could perpetuate the downturn — and that’s bad news in an election year.
Hunting for patient zero
From California to Italy and beyond, more cases are popping up with no clear origin. These are people who did not travel abroad, or were not linked to another known case. Health authorities in all these places are working hard to find the original source, or "patient zero," using what's called contact tracing, or finding all the people the patients were in contact with them. In a highly mobile world, that's increasingly difficult.
Stay away, foreign pilgrims
Saudi Arabia has responded to the fears by banning foreign pilgrims from visiting Islam’s holiest shrines. That will change the face of this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and disrupt plans for millions of faithful from around the world who come to the kingdom to pray together. The decision illustrates how tense the situation is across the Gulf region and the wider Middle East as a whole largely as a result of the spike in deaths and infections in Iran. Iran has now seen more virus deaths than anywhere except China, where it first emerged at the end of 2019.
Japan skips school
Japan, too, is increasingly worried, and made a decision Thursday that’s sure to have its 12.8 million schoolchildren secretly celebrating. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants all elementary, middle and high schools nationwide to remain closed until spring holidays in late March. Japan now has more than 900 cases, including hundreds from a quarantined cruise ship. France, Germany, Monaco and other countries near Italy are telling parents to keep their kids home from school if they’ve been anywhere near the growing number of zones worldwide hit by virus outbreaks. One reason for the school warnings: growing concern about the rise in the number of untraceable cases of the virus.
Beefing up borders
Germany has a new way of trying to retroactively track down everyone who may have been exposed to an infected person. It's introducing new landing cards for people arriving from countries most hit by the virus. That's among measures around the world by authorities trying to keep the virus from spreading in their own countries. Pakistan halted flights to and from neighboring Iran. Prague suspended flights from South Korea. Cyprus is adding more police and health workers at crossing points between the internationally recognized state in the south and a self-declared Turkish Cypriot state in the north. But EU officials insisted that the virus doesn't stop at borders, saying that if a case is identified at the border, it's probably too late and the spread is likely anyway.
Who’s paying for it
France, like many countries, has seen years of funding cuts to its once-renowned public health care system – and the virus is exposing personnel and equipment shortages. So when French President Emmanuel Macron visited a Paris hospital Thursday to vaunt how his government’s preparations for an outbreak, staff members seized the moment to beg for money. “We’re at the end of our rope,” a leading neurologist pleaded. “Give us the means to do our jobs.” In the United States, the Trump administration and congressional leaders are scrambling for money to bolster virus preparedness after the Centers for Disease Control previously had its budget cut. Trump’s proposal: $2.5 billion. The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, wants $8.5 billion instead..
China’s growing confidence
Now that there are more cases being reported outside China than inside, Chinese authorities are eager to shed the virus stigma and questions about its early handling of the epidemic. President Xi Jinping said Thursday: “We have the confidence, the ability and the certainty to win this war against the epidemic.” And famed Chinese respiratory disease specialist Zhong Nanshan predicted China’s outbreak should be “basically under control” by the end of April. He credited strong measures taken by the government and the work of medical workers for helping curb the spread.
Angela Charlton in Paris, Pan Pylas in London, Chris Bodeen in Beijing, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Karel Janicek in Prague, Danica Kirka in London, Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed.
