SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The coronavirus is spreading to ever more countries and world capitals — and the U.S. death toll has climbed to six — even as new cases in China drop to their lowest level in over a month.
A shift in the crisis appears to be taking shape: Hundreds of patients are being released from hospitals in China, while the World Health Organization says that over the past 24 hours, nine times as many new infections were recorded outside the country as inside it.
The number of new virus infections is rising worldwide along with fears of a weakening global economy.
The number of deaths worldwide from COVID-19 topped 3,000 with expanding clusters of infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.
The virus is reshaping routines around Europe and in the United States.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that the world economy risked contracting this quarter for the first time since the international financial crisis over a decade ago.
The spreading virus from China has been reported in more than 60 countries and puts the Tokyo Olympics at risk.
The Olympics are to open on July 24 — less than five months away. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 25.
The head of Tokyo’s organizing committee is holding talks this week with the International Olympic Committee about the next steps.
The torch relay in Japan is to start on March 26 and could see changes and restrictions.
Key test events are also coming up this month and in April. Some are to involve athletes from abroad. Others are already planned for only Japanese athletes.
The United Nations is drastically curtailing a conference that had been expected to bring up to 12,000 people from its 193 member nations to New York next week because of the spread of the coronavirus.
The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women decided Monday to hold a one-day event on March 9 so delegations in New York can adopt a draft political declaration commemorating the 25th anniversary of the U.N. conference in Beijing that adopted a wide-ranging plan to achieve equality for women.
But the commission decided to postpone the major event to a future date to be determined, when delegations from all countries and nongovernmental organizations can attend.
The commission stressed that there will be no debate on March 9, and all side events will be canceled. It discouraged delegations from all capitals from coming to New York for the March 9 event.
The Louvre Museum is closed again because its workers are worried about the potential spread of the new virus.
Most of the Louvre’s 9.6 million visitors last year came from other countries, and the museum welcomes tens of thousands of people every day.
The French government has banned any indoor gatherings larger than 5,000 people to prevent the spread of the virus, and that’s made Louvre workers worried about their own safety.
No compromises were reached at at meeting between unions and management, so the closure could drag on at the museum that’s home to the Mona Lisa. France has reported 130 cases of the virus.
The coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy has so overwhelmed the public health system there that officials are taking extraordinary measures to care for the sick.
Regional officials are seeking to bring doctors out of retirement and accelerate graduation dates for nursing students.
The region of Lombardy has been the epicenter of Italy’s outbreak, registering the first positive test and now counting more than 1,200 of Italy’s more than 2,000 cases.
Alarmingly, 10% of Lombardy’s doctors and nurses can’t work because they tested positive for the virus and are in quarantine.
Officials say they expect Italy’s numbers to keep rising for some 10 days until measures like quarantines begin to show effect.
A global agency says the spreading new virus could make the world economy shrink this quarter.
That would be a first since the international financial crisis more than a decade ago.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says the world economy is still expected to grow overall this year and rebound next year.
But it lowered its forecasts Monday for global growth in 2020 in a special report about the effect of the coronavirus.
It said China’s reduced production is hitting Asia particularly hard. It urged governments to act fast to prevent contagion and restore consumer confidence.
Mounting concerns about the economic impact of the new coronavirus outbreak have seen early gains in European stock markets wiped out.
Indexes are turning lower Monday despite hopes of stimulus measures from major central banks.
Wall Street is set to post more losses at the opening bell, coming on top of last week’s drop, which was the worst since the global financial markets over a decade ago.
The mood across markets turned sour after some cautious optimism in Asia, where some exchanges closed sharply higher. Gloomy forecasts for the world economy seem to have hurt sentiment.
Iran says there are 66 dead amid 1,501 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the Islamic Republic. That’s according to Iran Health Ministry spokesman Ali Reza Azizi, who gave the figure at a news conference Monday in Tehran.
Iran has the highest death toll from the virus outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Iranian officials are among those affected, with a member of Iran’s Expediency Council dying Monday.
The opening of the Japanese baseball season is in doubt because of the outbreak of the new virus Japan’s baseball and soccer leagues say they are tapping medical experts as advisers.
The panel will be up and running by this week. It will include representatives from each of Japan’s 12 professional baseball clubs and J-League soccer representatives.
It will come up with recommendations by the middle of this month.
The professional baseball season was set to start March 20. Preseason games have been played without fans.
The J-League has stopped its season and hopes to resume on March 18.
Schools across Japan are closing for up to four weeks in a government effort to slow the rapid spread of the new virus.
The sudden measure is a burden for working mothers, especially single parents or those with small children.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a plan last Thursday to close schools from Monday until the end of this month. He says the coming period is critical in determining whether Japan can take control of the outbreak.
Nearly 1,000 people, including 706 on a quarantined cruise ship, have been infected in the country and 12 have died.
An airline industry trade association says the new coronavirus has already cost Middle East airlines about $100 million.
The International Air Transport Association says a projected 4.6% growth in passenger demand in the Middle East could be cut in half if conditions don’t change.
The Persian Gulf city of Dubai, which is home to the world’s busiest airport for international travel, relies heavily on tourism and aviation.
The Gulf is a major transit hub for passengers connecting from Europe to Asia.
The United Arab Emirates has cancelled all flights to Iran, as have other Gulf countries. It has also limited flights in China to just Beijing to reduce the spread of the virus.
Across Africa, steps are being taken to prepare for — and to reduce the effects of — the spread of the new coronavirus.
Testing laboratories are being supplied, quarantine and hospital treatment facilities are being readied for patients, and public health advisories have been issued.
As of Monday, the continent of 1.2 billion people has just six confirmed cases of COVID-19 — three in Algeria, two in Egypt and one in Nigeria.
But 13 of Africa’s 54 countries have been identified by the World Health Organization as at risk of becoming centers for the disease on the basis of volume of traffic between China and weak health surveillance and treatment systems.
Copyright 2020 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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