The World Health Organisation warned Friday that Europe was now the “epicentre” for the global coronavirus pandemic and reporting more daily cases than China did at the height of its outbreak. This statement came as the outbreak continued to spread across the world, provoking further closures and travel bans in an attempt to contain it, and big swings on financial markets. Follow our FRANCE 24 live blog for the latest news as it happens.

“Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual press conference, describing the more than 5,000 deaths worldwide as “a tragic milestone”.

The Louvre Museum will be closing Friday evening at 6 until further notice following a French government directive banning gatherings of more than 100 people in a bid to contain the coronavirus’s spread. All schools, crèches and universities across France will be closed from Monday.

In France, 61 people have died of the virus. The number of cases was put at 2,876, an increase of 595 cases and 13 deaths from Wednesday.

Stock markets rebounded after Thursday’s plunge with European stocks staging a comeback, rising 8 percent by Friday afternoon after recording early losses. The Dow rose 773.20 points, or 3.6 percent, at opening to 21,973.82.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced a two-week state of emergency beginning Saturday.

Major sports events have been cancelled, including the Champions League and the  Premier League.

China reported its lowest-ever number of new coronavirus cases: just eight on Friday, with no new domestic infections outside Hubei province.

Italy, which has recorded nearly 15,113 coronavirus cases and 1,016 deaths, remains on a nationwide lockdown.

Culled from France 24

Spanish football team Real Madrid went into quarantine on Thursday as La Liga announced the country’s top two divisions will be suspended for at least two weeks over the coronavirus, as Spain’s toll from the disease has soared to nearly 3,000 cases – quadrupling in more than three days –- with 87 deaths. A cabinet member is among those infected.

La Liga authorities made the decision after Real Madrid confirmed its senior football team is in quarantine after one of the club’s basketball players tested positive for the virus. Real Madrid’s football and basketball players share facilities at Ciudad Real Madrid, the club’s training ground in Valdebebas.

A club statement read: “A player from our basketball first team has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

“Since then, the recommendation has been made to quarantine both the basketball first team and the football first team, given that the two squads share facilities in Ciudad Real Madrid. 

“Likewise, it has been decided to close the facilities at our training ground and it is also recommended that all Real Madrid personnel who work there remain in quarantine.”

La Liga has also followed Italy’s Serie A in suspending its matches, after a meeting on Thursday with the Spanish Football Federation and the Spanish Players Union (AFE).

It had been decided on Tuesday that games in Spain’s top two divisions would be held behind closed doors but those fixtures over the next 14 days will now be suspended.

Real’s second leg away to Manchester City in the Champions League last 16, scheduled for next Tuesday, is also in serious doubt.

Barcelona have already confirmed their tie against Napoli at Camp Nou on Wednesday will be played without fans, although UEFA is facing mounting pressure to postpone completely both the Champions League and Europa League.

Domestic league matches in France, Germany and Portugal have been put behind closed doors while Serie A in Italy has been suspended until April 3.

A La Liga statement read: “In view of the circumstances known this morning, referring to the quarantine established in Real Madrid and the possible positive tests from players at other clubs, La Liga considers that the circumstances now exist to continue with the next phase of action against COVID-19.”

“La Liga agrees to suspend at least the next two matchdays,” the statement added. “This decision will be re-evaluated after the quarantine at affected clubs and other possible situations that could occur have ended.”

And not just sport

The suspension of Spain’s iconic football league comes as equality minister Irene Montero tested positive for coronavirus and was quarantined along with her boyfriend, deputy prime minister and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, on Thursday.

“This morning, all members of the government will undergo testing,” the government’s statement added, indicating the results would be published later in the day.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will hold all meetings via video conference in response to Montero’s infection.

Sanchez will head a reduced cabinet meeting on Thursday only attended by the ministers whose presence is needed to approve new measures against coronavirus spreading.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

The World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic, expressing increasing alarm about mounting infections.

“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.

“All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response,” Ghebreyesus said.

The novel coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, has spread around the world, halting industry, bringing flights to a standstill, closing schools and forcing the postponement of sporting events and concerts.

The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern, its “highest level of alarm”, on January 30 when there were fewer than 100 cases of COVID-19 outside China and eight cases of human-to-human transmission of the disease.

Now there are more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have died, Ghebreyesus said, with the numbers expected to climb.

The WHO no longer has a category for declaring a pandemic, except for influenza.

But WHO officials have signalled for weeks that they may use the word “pandemic” as a descriptive term, but stressed that it does not carry legal significance. The novel coronavirus is not the flu.

Under its previous system, the Geneva-based agency declared the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak a pandemic. It turned out to be mild, leading to some criticism after pharmaceutical companies rushed development of vaccines and drugs.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

China has reported an increase in its new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, reversing four consecutive days of decreases, and more countries are reporting their first infections.

Chinese health officials on Wednesday reported 24 new cases of COVID-19 infection and 22 deaths in mainland China over the previous 24 hours.

China’s National Health Commission said that of the new infections, 10 were imported cases, bringing the overall cases from abroad to 79.

Those figures bring China’s totals to 80,778 infections and 3,158 deaths since the outbreak emerged in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, in December last year.

Officials reported just 13 new infections in Wuhan — a city of 11 million people — on Tuesday.

Wuhan and several other cities had been under lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. Amid the decreases in tallies over the past days, a few cities in Hubei started to loosen restrictions on the movement of people and goods. But, at least one reversed that decision as new increases emerged on Tuesday.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus continues to grow in other countries, and some nations have reported their fist cases.

According to the latest figures from John Hopkins University, 98 out of the 195 countries in the world have so far reported cases of the coronavirus.

More than 4,200 people have died of COVID-19 across the world, and more than 113,000 people have also been infected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 64,000 people have also recovered from the illness, globally.

Turkey reports first case

Turkey announced its first case of the new coronavirus infection on Wednesday.

The patient is a male who had returned from Europe, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, without providing further personal information, citing the patient’s right to privacy.

Koca said the patient was isolated and his family members and other people who had come into contact with him had been quarantined.

Bolivia detects first cases

The coronvirus has also reached South America, with Bolivia reporting its first two cases on Tuesday.

Health Minister Anibal Cruz said the patients were two women over 60 years of age who arrived in the country from Italy initially without symptoms of the disease.

Panama registers first death

Meanwhile, Panama’s Health Ministry confirmed the country’s first death from the coronavirus, along with seven new cases of infection in the Central American nation.

South Korea reports jump in new cases

South Korea, the worst-hit country after China, reported a jump in new cases on Wednesday, after health officials detected a cluster of viral infections at an insurance company in the capital, Seoul.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday reported 242 new cases of coronavirus infection from the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 7,755.

Europe

In Europe, Italy has been hit the worst by the new coronavirus, with more than 10,000 infections and 631 deaths so far.

Authorities have imposed drastic quarantine measures to contain the spread of the pathogen.

Trains, planes, and vehicles leaving the country faced new restrictions on Tuesday; and many other countries, including Spain and Portugal, suspended air traffic to and from Italy for two weeks.

Austria, meanwhile, ordered a halt to flights and trains from Italy; and Slovenia said it would impose controls at its border with the country.

British Airways said on Tuesday it had canceled Italian flights. Air France and some low-cost carriers said they would scrap flights from the country’s airports until early April as well.

Air Canada also suspended flights to Italy until at least May 1.

Source: Presstv

The second person to be declared fully cured of HIV and AIDS has revealed his identity, The New York Times reports.

Forty-year-old Adam “LP” Castillejo, so far known as the “London patient,” revealed himself in an interview published Monday, a year after being declared virus-free.

“This is a unique position to be in, a unique and very humbling position,” he said. “I want to be an ambassador of hope.”

The London patient received a bone marrow transplant from a donor with cells containing a mutation that inhibits HIV.

“It’s really important that it wasn’t a one-off, it wasn’t a fluke,” said Richard Jefferys, a director at Treatment Action Group, an advocacy organization. “That’s been an important step for the field.”

Castillejo was only 23, when he was diagnosed with HIV, viewed by some as a death sentence.“

I do recall when the person told me and the panic set in,” he said.“It was a very terrifying and traumatic experience to go through.”

During his State of the Union speech last year, US President Donald Trump voiced concern over the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United Sates.

“My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years,” Trump said at the time. “Together, we will defeat AIDS in America.”

Timothy Ray Brown, known as the “Berlin Patient,” was successfully cured in 2008.

“I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, you’ve been chosen,’” Castillejo said. “No, it just happened. I was in the right place, probably at the right time, when it happened.”

Source: Presstv

Thousands of people stranded on a cruise ship off California after an outbreak of the coronavirus were due disembark Monday in what officials said would be an “unprecedented and difficult” landing.

No time has been given for the disembarkation Monday, but fences have been put up at Oakland port and buses and flights were lined up to ferry the more than 2,000 passengers, who will go into treatment, be placed in quarantine or returned to their home countries in the case of non-US citizens.

The Grand Princess, which has 21 confirmed novel coronavirus infections among its 3,500 passengers and crew, appeared to be moving toward the coast Monday, according to ship tracker Cruisin.

It had been sitting off the coast of nearby San Francisco for four days while authorities figured out how to get the people safely ashore without spreading the potentially deadly virus.

Local television stations showed footage of tents being set up on the quayside and a line of portable toilets as officials prepared for the operation.

“Disembarkation will commence in order of priority, as defined and directed by both state and local authorities,” Princess cruises said in a statement on its website.

“The US Coast Guard will be sending California Health & Human Services teams to assist with medical triage, screening and interviews, and prioritizing those who require the most acute care. To avoid delays, testing will be conducted when guests arrive at their onward destination,” it added.

Passengers who don’t require acute care will be quarantined for 14 days at US military bases.

The company said the crew would remain onboard after the passengers had disembarked and the ship would then leave San Fransisco bay. It said a plan for crew quarantine was still being worked on.

– ‘Stir crazy’ –

Margaret Bartlett, a 77-year-old British woman who was confined to a cabin with no balcony told the BBC she was going “stir crazy.”

“The food is rotten and terrible and we have to fight for it, it is not enough,” said the grandmother from Lancashire, who said a passenger 10 cabins down from her has died.

Medical officers boarded the ship late Sunday for what California Governor Gavin Newsom said would be a “two-three day process,” with the start time based on currents and tides.

“We are still working out the enormity of complexity of making sure we prepare the site and … prepare for a quick turnaround,” he said late Sunday.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would prefer to keep the passengers confined on the ship because letting them off would increase the number of infections in the United States.

“I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Trump said, but added he would leave the decision to Vice President Mike Pence, whom he has appointed to head the coronavirus taskforce.

The United States has at least 22 deaths from the coronavirus and 566 confirmed cases, according to a Johns Hopkins tally.

Source: AFP

Older Americans, especially those with chronic medical concerns, should probably avoid big social gatherings and airline flights, given the rapid spread of coronavirus, a top U.S. health official said on Sunday, as investors braced for another volatile week in financial markets.

Anthony Fauci, the head of the infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, also said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that after initial missteps distributing diagnostic tests, there should be 400,000 more kits available by Monday and 4 million by the end of the week.

The number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus reached nearly 550 on Sunday, including 22 deaths, according to state public health authorities and a running national tally kept by the Johns Hopkins University center tracking the outbreak.

More than half of the 50 U.S. states have reported infections, including the first cases in Virginia, Connecticut and Iowa, as well as the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico, documented on Sunday.

Warnings from Fauci and others about the need for greater “social distancing” – the practice of minimizing unnecessary contact in public settings – came amid the disclosure of a high-profile example of the risks now inherent in large gatherings.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said on Sunday he would self-quarantine after coming in contact at last month’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference with an attendee who had since tested positive for coronavirus. 

The Texas Republican and 2016 presidential candidate said he had “briefly interacted” with the infected person at the CPAC meeting in Maryland 10 days ago, but was not experiencing any symptoms and felt “fine and healthy.”

The coronavirus originated in China last year and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19. The outbreak has killed more than 3,600 globally.

As the outbreak spreads, daily life has been increasingly disrupted, with concerts and conferences canceled and universities telling students to stay home and take classes online.

To contain the outbreak in China, the government quarantined millions of people for weeks. Italy has announced similar measures, locking down 16 million people in the north of the country.

As recently as Saturday, President Donald Trump said he would continue to hold political rallies, which sometimes draw up to 20,000 people.

The Democrats competing to challenge him in the November 3 presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, have not cancelled any campaign events so far.

Germany, which has nearly 1,000 cases, on Sunday urged the cancellation of all events with more than 1,000 people.

‘Think twice’ 

Fauci said authorities in the United States may also need to consider steps to keep people out of crowded places if the virus continued to spread.

Still, he downplayed the likelihood of the type of large-scale mandatory quarantines imposed in China and Italy, while saying nothing could be ruled out.

“I don’t imagine that the degree of the draconian nature of what the Chinese did would ever be either feasible, applicable, doable or whatever you want to call it in the United States,” he said in an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” “But the idea of social distancing, I mean, obviously, that’s something that will be seriously considered.”

He urged those most at risk to limit travel.

“If you’re a person with an underlying condition and you are particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, you need to think twice about getting on a plane, on a long trip, and not only think twice, just don’t get on a cruise ship,” Fauci said on “Meet the Press.”

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CNN that case numbers would rise, adding that the average age of death for people with the virus was 80, and the average age of those needing medical attention was 60.

“Unfortunately, you are going to see more deaths, but that doesn’t mean that we should panic,” he said. Communities need to “prepare for more cases so we can prevent more deaths,” Adams said.

In financial markets, talk about recessions and bear markets was growing as investors try to assess how badly the outbreak will damage global growth. Many strategists have turned more pessimistic in recent days and are anticipating further market drops and a possible end to the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.

Cruise ship crisis 

The hardest-hit place in the United States has been a nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, and Washington state is considering mandatory measures such as banning large gatherings but not necessarily imposing massive quarantines, the governor said.

The Life Care Center nursing facility has accounted for 13 of the 18 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in Washington state, which has reported a total of 136 cases overall to date, the most of any state.

In California, officials said on Sunday that the cruise ship Grand Princess, barred from returning to San Francisco last week due to a coronavirus outbreak on board, would send most of its 2,400 passengers to quarantine centers set up at four military bases across the country.

Those requiring immediate medical attention will go to hospitals. The crew of 1,100 will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship, unless they are in need of acute care off the vessel.

The ship was ordered to remain at sea last week after a group of passengers and crew developed flu-like symptoms, and health officials learned that some passengers from an earlier cruise aboard the same vessel had later contracted coronavirus. One has died.

Twenty-one people aboard the Grand Princess tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, and the ship has been redirected to a specially secured terminal across San Francisco Bay at the port of Oakland for a brief stop on Monday to let passengers off the ship.

As of Sunday, California’s tally of confirmed cases had risen to 114 statewide, including the two passengers aboard the Grand Princess who tested positive two days earlier, the state Public Health Department.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the number of cases in New York was now 105 and he expects that to rise as testing expands.

“What we are really trying to do here is avoid the massive disruption of closing everything down for two weeks the way China did, the way Italy is doing,” he said.

Cuomo said a lawyer from Westchester County who is believed to be at the center of the outbreak there had attended a number of large gatherings, contributing to the roughly 70 people in Westchester who have tested positive.

“It’s these large gatherings where you can expose a number of people in a very short period of time and then it’s like dominoes, right, then the tree continues to expand with branches.”

In New York state, the Scarsdale public school district said it was closing all its campuses for more than a week starting on Monday after a middle-school teacher tested positive.

Columbia University in New York City said it was suspending classes on Monday and Tuesday because someone on the campus was under quarantine from exposure to the virus.

(REUTERS)

Over the last two months, the world has been living in fear of another virus that has proven its destructive capacity in China. The Coronavirus, the virus that shares the same DNA with other flu-related viruses, is less virulent if compared to the Ebola virus that tore the West African economy into shreds in 2014, but very destructive and disruptive.

China, the country that first reported the arrival of the virus, is still struggling to contain this virus that is spreading around the world like wildfire. Despite China’s massive and effective healthcare infrastructure, the virus has succeeded to make mincemeat of the world’s second largest economy.

The global travel and hospitality sector is the virus’ number one victim, with many airlines and hotels already reporting huge financial losses. The virus is no respecter of persons and it heads to any country without seeking a visa or buying an air ticket. From China, the virus has made it to Japan, Italy, France, Hong Kong, South Korea, Iran, the United States, Canada, Morocco, and many other countries.

The world is really dealing with its first major pandemic in a century and the World Health Organization has recognized that if urgent measures are not taken, the Coronavirus will become a major health disaster on the hands of many national governments.

Many governments around the world are not waiting for the killer virus to land on their shores before they can start scrambling for a solution. Many governments are already thinking ahead of time and many are already deploying state-of-the-art technology and making policies that will slow down the virus if and when it shows up in their countries.

As usual, Africa is always a major concern. The continent is notorious for its lack of reliable and modern health facilities and this could spell disaster for many people, especially the elderly. Though the continent survived the 2014 Ebola virus attack that killed thousands, there is no telling if the Ebola eradication plan can still work against the Coronavirus that is sending shivers down the spine of many people around the world.

No country is safe. As people continue to travel around the world, the chances of this virus extending its reach are significant. This is exactly what happened in Cameroon, a small Central African country with an unreliable healthcare system, when a Franco-Cameroonian flew into Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, on February 24, 2020. He made his way to the city and even attended a funeral in a small community some 30 miles from the nation’s capital.

He was later confirmed as the country’s first case on March 4, 2020, and this has struck fear in many Cameroonian minds, especially as the first victim of the virus was not detected until after two weeks of his arrival in the country. Two weeks are long enough for the visitor to share the virus with other members of his family and even with friends.

Social life on the continent is different from what obtains in other parts of the world. The African is a social animal. Hugging and kissing are just normal components of the continent’s exciting social life, but those aspects of life that make life interesting in Africa will surely come back to bite the population in this era of the deadly Coronavirus, if care is not taken.

Cameroon has reported two cases and it has urged its citizens to remain calm. The second victim is the wife of the first victim and there are fears that some of those who got into close contact with the first and second victims might be bearing the virus without knowing. Fear is spreading across the country not just because the country does not have a sophisticated healthcare system, but because the contact tracing methods used in the country might not be effective.

Many of those who came in contact with the first victim might have already carried the virus to their homes and offices and this might trigger a massive health disaster in a country that lacks resources and is caught up in many conflicts that are robbing it of the little resources it could have used to fight this new insidious enemy – the Coronavirus – that respects nobody.

Cameroon’s announcement of the arrival of the Coronavirus comes a few hours after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it would make available about USD 50 billion through its rapid-disbursing emergency financing facilities for low income and emerging market countries that could potentially seek support. Of this, USD 10 billion will be available at zero interest for the poorest members of the IMF through the Rapid Credit Facility.

Cameroonians do not trust their leaders and they think the government’s announcement of the arrival of the virus on their shores is a gimmick to attract IMF interest-free money. But the Coronavirus is not something that can be hidden. It is like a corpse. You hide it, it will decompose and the smell will rent the air. The Coronavirus is invisible, but it is capable of bringing down an entire city in a few hours. China and Italy have more experience in this regard and they will be very glad to share that experience with anybody who still thinks the Coronavirus is a joke.

An entire economy can be disrupted and millions killed if proper measures are not taken. Cameroonian authorities therefore have an interest to be upfront with their citizens when it comes to the Coronavirus that is already threatening the country’s organization of the CHAN, a continental football jamboree designed for football players plying their trade on the continent.

The IMF is a global body and it understands that the economic and financial impact of the virus’ spread will be felt globally, creating uncertainty and damaging near-term prospects. In this regard, the IMF has reiterated its determination to provide the necessary support to mitigate the impact, especially on the most vulnerable people and countries. IMF member countries have called upon it to use all its available financing instruments to help member countries in need.

But IMF money has never come without conditionalities. The IMF is a well-oiled machine that will never let itself to be used as an ATM by any country. The global body has already indicated that the number one priority in terms of fiscal response is ensuring front-line health-related spending to protect people’s wellbeing, take care of the sick, and slow the spread of the virus. It is also emphasizing that the focus will be on stepping up health-related measures and ensuring that the production of medical supplies is at par with demand.

The IMF will surely channel its money towards the design of macro-financial policy actions that may be required to tackle the supply and demand shocks that may be brought about by the disruptive virus. Those actions should be timely and targeted to the sectors, businesses and households hardest hit by the virus.

The money will not be shared for some government officials in any country to line their pockets. The Coronavirus threat is real. The people and leaders of Cameroon must work together to ensure that their country is rid of this virus that is capable of taking up residence in the country because of the way Cameroonians have lived their lives over the last couple of centuries.

Whether genuine or not, the reported cases should be viewed as alarm bells that should jog Cameroonians out of their legendary indifference even in the face of the worst pandemic. They must understand that unlike HIV/AIDS, the Coronavirus has the potential to kill an entire family if heath advice provided by health professionals across the world is not respected and taken seriously.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey in Canada

US President Donald Trump has signaled that he does not plan to stop campaign rallies in spite of the increasing number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Speaking on Saturday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said his campaign events would continue even as a case was confirmed for the first time within miles of the White House.

“We will have tremendous rallies and we’re doing very well, and we’ve done a fantastic job with respect to that subject,” Trump said when asked whether there will be more “Keep America Great” campaign events.

Asked if he was worried about the first case of the coronavirus near the White House, the president said, “No, I’m not concerned at all.”

The remarks by Trump come as over half of all US states have reported cases of the coronavirus, with the number of Americans tested positive standing at around 425, according to a case count by Johns Hopkins.

So far, nineteen people have succumbed to the virus nationwide after two more died in Washington state.

A state of emergency was declared in New York on Saturday after the number of confirmed cases there rose to 89.

While visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday, Trump had warned about the quickly spreading coronavirus.

Hours later, however, Vice President Mike Pence walked back some of those comments, saying, “The president’s exactly right that for the state laboratories, for the communities that have been impacted, that have concerns about the coronavirus, we have been able to respond to requests for tests.”

Meanwhile, a leaked document published in media revealed US hospitals were preparing for a major coronavirus outbreak with unprecedented scale. The document estimates a death toll of 480,000 from 96 million coronavirus infections in the US.

According to media reports, hospitals and healthcare workers were already starting to feel the impact of the outbreak as it hits the cities across the US.

Source: Presstv

Italy has placed entire areas — including the financial capital, Milan — under forced quarantine in an attempt to contain an already widespread outbreak of the new coronavirus.

The new measures, announced by Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte early on Sunday and taking immediate effect, imposed a lockdown on Lombardy, Italy’s northern rich region, as well as 14 provinces in four other of the country’s 19 regions. Some of the major cities included are Milan, Venice, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini.

“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency. We have been applying precautionary measures from the beginning and we are facing the situation with awareness and without underestimating it,” Conte said in a televised speech as he announced the draconian measures.

The measures included the closure of all museums, cultural centers, cinemas, theaters, and other public venues and events in the affected areas, impacting a total of 16 million people in the country of 60 million.

“We want to guarantee the health of our citizens. We understand that all these measures will create inconveniences… But this is a time when we must take responsibility for ourselves. We need to understand that all of us need to adhere to the measures. We need to protect our own health, the health of our dear ones,” the Italian prime minister added.

The decree also banned city commute within the designated areas other than for emergencies or “essential work reasons.”

“There will be no movement in or out of these areas, or within them, unless for proven, work-related reasons, emergencies or health reasons,” Conte said.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency announced in a statement that the number of coronavirus cases in the country reached 5,883 on Saturday, the biggest daily rise since the epidemic began just over two weeks ago.

Angelo Borrelli, the head of the agency, also told a news conference that the number of fatalities had risen to 233 people, up by 36.

Italy is now the country with the highest deaths after China, where the virus first emerged.

The measures taken by the Italian government on Sunday are similar to those adopted in China’s central Hubei Province, whose nearly 60-million-strong population has been kept under quarantine since late January.

The total number of the people diagnosed with the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has passed 100,000 worldwide, while 3,500 people have lost their lives across 95 countries and territories.

China quarantine hotel collapse claims six lives

Meanwhile, six people were confirmed dead on Sunday following the collapse of a hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in the eastern Chinese city of Quanzhou.

The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said rescuers had also retrieved 38 survivors from the rubble — with five in critical or serious condition — out of the 71 people initially trapped in the building.

The hotel’s first floor had been under renovation before the collapse of the building in the coastal city on Saturday evening.

Over 3,600 released from quarantine in North Korea: Reports

Also on Sunday, media reports said North Korea had released some 3,650 people quarantined over the new coronavirus after imposing strict restrictions and closing its borders in order to prevent the outbreak.

The individuals had been kept under quarantine in Kangwon and Chagang provinces, North Korea’s state radio reported, according to Yonhap news agency.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency also announced on Friday that 221 out of the 380 foreigners who were under “strict medical monitoring” had been discharged from isolation.

Pyongyang has banned tourists and suspended international trains and flights to and from the country.

Maldives reports first coronavirus cases

In a related development, the Maldives reported its first two cases of the coronavirus infection on Sunday.

Local authorities said the two infected individuals — both of them staffers at a Kuredu Island resort facility — had tested positive late on Saturday and were suspected to have contracted the disease from an Italian tourist who had also tested positive after returning to his home country.

The Maldives restricted movement on Kuredu and several other resort islands.

Ali Waheed, the tourism minister of the country, said the two individuals had been quarantined.

“The period for the temporary restrictions will be decided by the medical teams. Right now, we have identified people who were in contact with the patients and they are in self-isolation along with secondary contacts. At this time we can say that these individuals will be monitored for 14 days,” he added.

The Maldives had already suspended direct air links with China, the epicenter of the virus.

Source: Presstv