New Coronavirus News from 25 Feb 2020a

IOC senior member: 3 months to decide fate of Tokyo Olympics [WJXT News4JAX, 25 Feb 2020]

TOKYO – A senior member of the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that if it proves too dangerous to hold the Olympics in Tokyo this summer because of the coronavirus outbreak, organizers are more likely to cancel it altogether than to postpone or move it.

Dick Pound, a former Canadian swimming champion who has been on the IOC since 1978, making him its longest-serving member, estimated there is a three-month window — perhaps a two-month one — to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, meaning a decision could be put off until late May.

"In and around that time, I'd say folks are going to have to ask: ‘Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo or not?'” he said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

As the games draw near, he said, “a lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels. The media folks will be in there building their studios."

If the IOC decides the games cannot go forward as scheduled in Tokyo, “you're probably looking at a cancellation," he said.

The viral outbreak that began in China two months ago has infected more than 80,000 people globally and killed over 2,700, the vast majority of them in China. But the virus has gained a foothold in South Korea, the Middle East and Europe, raising fears of a pandemic. Japan itself has reported four deaths.

Pound encouraged athletes to keep training. About 11,000 are expected for the Olympics, which open July 24, and 4,400 are bound for the Paralympics, which open Aug. 25.

“As far as we all know, you're going to be in Tokyo,” Pound said. “All indications are at this stage that it will be business as usual. So keep focused on your sport and be sure that the IOC is not going to send you into a pandemic situation."

The modern Olympics, which date to 1896, have been canceled only during wartime. The Olympics in 1940 were supposed to be in Tokyo but were called off because of Japan's war with China and World War II. The Rio Games in Brazil went on as scheduled in 2016 despite the outbreak of the Zika virus.

Pound repeated the IOC's stance — that it is relying on consultations with the World Health Organization, a United Nations body, to make any move.

As for the possibility of postponement, he said: "You just don't postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics. There's so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can't just say, `We'll do it in October.'”

Pound said moving to another city also seems unlikely “because there are few places in the world that could think of gearing up facilities in that short time to put something on."
London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has suggested the British capital as an alternative.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike suggested the offer was an attempt to use the virus for political purposes.

Pound said he would not favor a scattering of Olympic events to other places around the world because that wouldn't “constitute an Olympic Games. You'd end up with a series of world championships.” He also said it would be extremely difficult to spread around the various sports over a 17-day period with only a few months' notice.

Holding the Olympics in Tokyo but postponing them by a few months would be unlikely to satisfy North American broadcasters, whose schedules are full in the fall with American pro football, college football, European soccer, basketball, baseball and ice hockey. Other world broadcasters also have jammed schedules.

“It would be tough to get the kind of blanket coverage that people expect around the Olympic Games,” Pound said.

He also cast doubt on the possibility of a one-year delay. Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a national audit board says the country is spending twice that much.

“You have to ask if you can hold the bubble together for an extra year,” Pound said. “Then, of course, you have to fit all of this into the entire international sports schedule.”

Pound said the IOC has been building up an emergency fund, reported to be about $1 billion, for unforeseen circumstances to help the IOC and the international sports federations that depend on income from the IOC. About 73% of the IOC's $5.7 billion income in a four-year Olympic cycle comes from broadcast rights.

“It's not an insurable risk, and it's not one that can be attributed to one or the other of the parties," he said. “So everybody takes their lumps. There would be a lack of revenue on the Olympic movement side."

Pound said the future of the Tokyo Games is largely out of the IOC's hands and depends on the course the virus takes.

“If it gets to be something like the Spanish flu,” Pound said, referring to the deadly pandemic early in the 20th century that killed millions, “at that level of lethality, then everybody's got to take their medicine.”

Coronavirus: Tokyo Olympics still 'business as usual', says IOC's Dick Pound [BBC News, 25 Feb 2020]

Preparations for the Tokyo Olympics are "business as usual" despite the outbreak of coronavirus, according to International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.

A number of sporting events in China have been cancelled, with football in Italy also affected.
Speaking to Associated Press, Pound told athletes to "keep focussed on your sport".

"As far as we all know, you're going to be in Tokyo," he said.

The outbreak in China has already led to the cancellation of April's Chinese Grand Prix, and cases in Italy led to the postponement of four Serie A games last weekend and the decision to play five behind closed doors this weekend.

Inter Milan's Europa League last-32 home match against Ludogorets will be played behind closed doors on Thursday, while organisers of the Six Nations are "monitoring very closely" the coronavirus situation, with Italy set to host England and Ireland in the coming weeks.

Japan's J-League has postponed all domestic football matches until the middle of March, while the Tokyo Marathon on 1 March will now be for elite athletes only instead of being a mass participation event.

With the Olympics due to begin on 24 July, Pound said any decision on whether the Games will go ahead does not need to be taken until late May.

"You could certainly go to two months out if you had to," the 77-year-old Canadian said. "A lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels, the media folks will be in there building their studios.

"This is the new war and you have to face it. In and around that time, I'd say folks are going to have to ask: 'Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo, or not?'"

Pound explained that the IOC will be led by decisions taken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and individual national governments.

"We're pretty good at dealing with sport problems, but a pandemic is beyond our pay grade," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It will depend on the WHO to make a call with respect to international travel and the places that should be avoided. It may come down to a government intervention in Japan, or other governments saying 'we don't want our citizens travelling there'."

Pound said that cancelling the Games is a "worst-case scenario" and that other contingencies, such as a postponement, or even dispersing events across the globe, may be already be under consideration.

"We have to think of alternatives," he said. "Could you still hold them this year? We would speak with the Japanese government to ask them if this 'bubble' can be held in place.

"Everything is on the table. You could disperse the Games, for example have some events in Canada, some in Britain, etc."

In a statement, an IOC spokesman said Pound had explained "very well" the current status of preparations for the Games.

The statement continued: "Tokyo 2020 will continue to collaborate with all relevant organisations which carefully monitor any incidence of infectious diseases and will review any countermeasures that may be necessary with all relevant organisations. In addition, the IOC is in contact with the World Health Organization, as well as its own medical experts.

"We have full confidence that the relevant authorities, in particular in Japan and China, will take all the necessary measures to address the situation. The rest is speculation."

People on Twitter Are Losing It Over an Olympic Committee Member Named Dick Pound [Complex, 25 Feb 2020]

BY FNR TIGG

The Summer Olympics are officially in jeopardy.

Per the Associated Press, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is concerned about the spread of the coronavirus in Japan, and are considering cancelling the Olympics set to unfold in Tokyo in July and August. And although it's a very serious situation, people couldn't help but joke about long-serving IOC member Dick Pound, whose suggestive name was trending on Twitter shortly afyer her made the announcement.

Now that you've gotten your jollies, let's get back to the real issue at hand. Japan has reported four deaths due to the coronavirus, leading officials to worry about the virus taking a foothold in the country ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There have been several suggested plans in case the illness infects more people. One was to postpone the games until things are under control, but the complicated logistics of the Olympics make that prospect unrealistic.

"You just don’t postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics," Pound said. "There’s so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive
seasons, and television seasons. You can’t just say, 'We’ll do it in October.'"

Also, London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey threw out the idea of London being the alternative host city, but Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike claimed that this was just an attempt to gain political clout.

"[A] lot of things have to start happening. You’ve got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels. The media folks will be in there building their studios," Pound said. If not, then the Olympics will likely be cancelled.

IOC's Dick Pound discusses coronavirus threat to 2020 Tokyo Olympics [NBCSports.com, 25 Feb 2020]

TOKYO (AP) — A senior member of the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that if it proves too dangerous to hold the Olympics in Tokyo this summer because of the coronavirus outbreak, organizers are more likely to cancel it altogether than to postpone or move it.

Dick Pound, a former Canadian swimming champion who has been on the IOC since 1978, making him its longest-serving member, estimated there is a three-month window — perhaps a two-month one — to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, meaning a decision could be put off until late May.

"In and around that time, I'd say folks are going to have to ask: 'Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo or not?'" he said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

As the games draw near, he said, "a lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels. The media folks will be in there building their studios."

If the IOC decides the games cannot go forward as scheduled in Tokyo, "you're probably looking at a cancellation," he said.

The viral outbreak that began in China two months ago has infected more than 80,000 people globally and killed over 2,700, the vast majority of them in China. But the virus has gained a foothold in South Korea, the Middle East and Europe, raising fears of a pandemic. Japan itself has reported four deaths.

Pound encouraged athletes to keep training. About 11,000 are expected for the Olympics, which open July 24, and 4,400 are bound for the Paralympics, which open Aug. 25.

"As far as we all know, you’re going to be in Tokyo," Pound said. "All indications are at this stage that it will be business as usual. So keep focused on your sport and be sure that the IOC is not going to send you into a pandemic situation."

The modern Olympics, which date to 1896, have been canceled only during wartime. The Olympics in 1940 were supposed to be in Tokyo but were called off because of Japan’s war with China and World War II. The Rio Games in Brazil went on as scheduled in 2016 despite the outbreak of the Zika virus.

Pound repeated the IOC’s stance — that it is relying on consultations with the World Health Organization, a United Nations body, to make any move.

As for the possibility of postponement, he said: "You just don’t postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics. There's so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can’t just say, 'We'll do it in October.'"

Pound said moving to another city also seems unlikely "because there are few places in the world that could think of gearing up facilities in that short time to put something on."
London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has suggested the British capital as an alternative.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike suggested the offer was an attempt to use the virus for political purposes.

Pound said he would not favor a scattering of Olympic events to other places around the world because that wouldn't "constitute an Olympic Games. You'd end up with a series of world championships." He also said it would be extremely difficult to spread around the various sports over a 17-day period with only a few months' notice.

Holding the Olympics in Tokyo but postponing them by a few months would be unlikely to satisfy North American broadcasters, whose schedules are full in the fall with American pro football, college football, European soccer, basketball, baseball and ice hockey. Other world broadcasters also have jammed schedules.

"It would be tough to get the kind of blanket coverage that people expect around the Olympic Games," Pound said.

He also cast doubt on the possibility of a one-year delay. Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a national audit board says the country is spending twice that much.

"You have to ask if you can hold the bubble together for an extra year," Pound said. "Then, of course, you have to fit all of this into the entire international sports schedule."

Pound said the IOC has been building up an emergency fund, reported to be about $1 billion, for unforeseen circumstances to help the IOC and the international sports federations that depend on income from the IOC. About 73% of the IOC’s $5.7 billion income in a four-year Olympic cycle comes from broadcast rights.

"It's not an insurable risk, and it's not one that can be attributed to one or the other of the parties," he said. "So everybody takes their lumps. There would be a lack of revenue on the Olympic movement side."

Pound said the future of the Tokyo Games is largely out of the IOC's hands and depends on the course the virus takes.

"If it gets to be something like the Spanish flu," Pound said, referring to the deadly pandemic early in the 20th century that killed millions, "at that level of lethality, then everybody’s got to take their medicine."

Clock is ticking on Tokyo Olympics coronavirus decision [Cnet, 25 Feb 2020]

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

A decision on whether the games will go on as planned must be made by late May.

The Tokyo Olympics are still five months away, but organizers are already thinking about the effect the coronavirus outbreak could have on the international sporting event.

Former Canadian swimming champion Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the International Olympic Committee, told the Associated Press a decision could be put off until late May. But Pound said that if the Olympics are affected, it's more likely to be canceled than postponed or moved elsewhere.

"You just don't postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics," he told the AP.
"There's so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can't just say, 'We'll do it in October.'"

Moving the Olympics from Japan is also unlikely, Pound said, due to the difficulty of gearing up a new location in such a short timespan. The AP reported that "Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a national audit board says the country is spending twice that much."

As of Monday, there have been more than 77,000 cases of COVID-19 (the official name of the illness) and more than 2,600 deaths. The illness originated in Wuhan, China, and cases have been confirmed in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, with four deaths reported in Japan.

The Games of the XXXII Olympiad are set to take place from July 24 to Aug. 9 in Tokyo and surroundings. Japan last hosted the Summer Games in 1964, which was the first in Asia. The Winter Olympics were there in 1972 and 1998.

In 2016, the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, played out as scheduled despite scientists' warnings about the Zika virus.

Trump says U.S. in 'very good shape' on coronavirus. Health officials aren't so confident. [NBC News, 25 Feb 2020]

By Phil Helsel, Peter Alexander and Dareh Gregorian

"We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad," a top CDC official said

President Donald Trump said Tuesday said that the United States was in "very good shape" when it comes to preparing for the deadly coronavirus illness known as COVID-19, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that only it's a matter of when — not if — it will spread across communities in the U.S.

"Ultimately we expect we will see community spread in this country," Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call. While the CDC has been preparing for a possible outbreak, Messonier said hospitals and schools should be doing the same.

"These are things that people need to start thinking about now," Messonier said. "We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad."

Her comments came hours after Trump spoke about the coronavirus at a news conference in India, saying it is "very well under control in our country."

"I think that whole situation will start working out. Lot of talent, a lot of brainpower is being put behind it," Trump said.

The administration's mixed messaging was also evident on Capitol Hill.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told senators that "the threat right now remains low," and he said a vaccine was just months away. But Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told
Wolf that senators had been told in a briefing earlier in the day that a vaccine was further off.

"Your numbers aren't the same as CDC's," Kennedy said. "You don't know why you have a discrepancy?"

Wolf said he'd defer to the CDC. He told Kennedy that he wasn't sure how many Americans could be infected or how well-stocked the country was in items like masks and ventilators.

"You're supposed to keep us safe. And the American people deserve some straight answers on the coronavirus — and I'm not getting them from you," Kennedy said.

"I disagree," Wolf said.

In separate Senate testimony, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called COVID-19 an "unprecedented, potentially severe health challenge globally" and asked for an additional $2.5 billion to combat it on behalf of the Trump administration.

Republicans and Democrats alike said that might not be enough.

"If you lowball something like this, you'll deal with it later," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told Azar.

The White House requested the money as key government accounts are running low. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, had already tapped into an emergency infectious disease rapid-response fund and was seeking to transfer more than $130 million from other HHS accounts to combat the virus, but it is pressing for more.

The administration is requesting $1.25 billion in new funding and wants to transfer $535 million more from an Ebola preparedness account, which has been a top priority of Democrats.
The White House anticipates shifting money from other HHS accounts and other agencies to complete the $2.5 billion response plan.

The White House request includes more than $1 billion to develop a vaccine, as well as money for therapeutics and stockpiles of protective equipment like masks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that the administration's request "is long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency."

She accused the Trump administration of having left critical positions vacant at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security.

"And now, the president is compounding our vulnerabilities by seeking to ransack funds still needed to keep Ebola in check," Pelosi said.

"The president should not be raiding money that Congress has appropriated for other life-or-death public health priorities," she said, suggesting that the House would move forward with its own plan.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., defended the administration's handling of the outbreak, calling it "an all-hands-on-deck effort." As for the White House's funding request, he said, "we'll decide the final numbers."

In a meeting with business leaders Tuesday in India, Trump noted Monday's drop in the financial markets as the virus continues to spread. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down more than 1,000 points Monday over coronavirus fears, and the losses continued into Tuesday.

"I think it's going to be under control," Trump said in New Delhi.

Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dismissed the White House's effort as "too little too late."

"That President Trump is trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola — which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren't taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be," Schumer said in a statement.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that Schumer is "complaining, for publicity purposes only, that I should be asking for more money than $2.5 Billion to prepare for Coronavirus. If I asked for more he would say it is too much."

Schumer fired back on the Senate floor, accusing the administration of "towering and dangerous incompetence" in its response to the crisis and calling for the appointment of an independent "czar" to oversee the response. Schumer also called for $3.1 billion in new funding and for the president to leave the Ebola funds where they are. Doing otherwise, he said, would be "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

As for Trump's tweet about his earlier comments, Schumer said: "I'm glad he's noticed. Maybe he'll start taking this issue more seriously."

Mitt Romney of Utah, the lone Republican senator who voted with Democrats to remove Trump from office during his impeachment trial, said he'd "like to see us investing more than we have been and probably more than we're even planning in this stage to make sure that in the event that something comes to this country or it spreads that we're able to care for our people."

There have been no deaths from the coronavirus illness in the United States, but there are confirmed cases.

The CDC says that there have been two cases of person-to-person transmission in the U.S. and that the virus can be spread via respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The CDC says on its website that the virus is not currently spreading in the U.S.

The majority of deaths linked to COVID-19 have been in mainland China, where the outbreak began. There have been 12 deaths in Iran, eight in South Korea, seven in Italy and others elsewhere, according to public health officials.

In mainland China, the National Health Commission reported a total of 2,663 deaths linked to COVID-19 Tuesday morning local time.

There have been more than 77,600 confirmed cases in mainland China, according to the commission. The center of the outbreak has been in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.

Former CDC director: A coronavirus pandemic is inevitable. What now? [CNN, 25 Feb 2020]

By Dr. Tom Frieden

(CNN)Covid-19 will become a pandemic. We don't yet know how severe it will be, nor do we know if the virus will spread to all continents, but it's already spreading widely in China, South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere -- and thousands of undetected and infectious patients have been and continue to travel around the world.

This is unprecedented. Other than influenza, no other respiratory virus has been tracked from emergence to continuous global spread. The last moderately severe influenza pandemics were in 1957 and 1968; each killed more than a million people around the world. Although we are far more prepared than in the past, we are also far more interconnected, and many more people today have chronic health problems that make viral infections particularly dangerous.

Based on extensive planning for an influenza pandemic by many national and international experts, we must do eight things -- some immediately and some in the coming months -- as we shift from the initiation phase of the pandemic to the acceleration stage:

1. Find out more about how Covid-19 spreads, how deadly it is and what we can do to reduce its harms. As many as half of people with infection have no symptoms, and at least 80% of those who do feel ill have only mild symptoms. In Wuhan, China, the reported proportion of diagnosed patients who die is now 3%. That's a substantial over-estimate; many patients weren't tested, many infected people don't have symptoms and hospitals were overwhelmed.

The proportion could be as low as less than 1 in 1,000 -- 30 times lower -- and is unlikely to be more than 1 in 100. The actual rate makes a huge difference, not only to patients but also to decisions about interventions.

2. Reduce the number of people who get infected. If it turns out that many of those infected become severely ill, this would justify drastic measures such as closing or curtailing hours of schools, limiting public gatherings and reducing social contact. The lower the risk of death from infection, the less sense it makes to take these and other actions that disrupt social and economic stability. In any case, spread can be minimized by quickly isolating those who are ill, cleaning potentially contaminated surfaces often and changing common routines.

We need to get serious about little things that make a big difference: washing hands, covering coughs and, if we're sick, staying home or wearing a mask when we go out. Let's stop shaking hands for a while. I prefer the traditional Southeast Asian hands-together namaste greeting, although the elbow bump is fun.

3. Protect health care workers. Even before Covid-19, far too many health workers and patients got infections in health care facilities. We need fast and drastic improvements in triage, treatment, cleaning and overall infection prevention. A shortage of medical masks is likely; we need to ensure health care workers have enough, as should household members caring for sick relatives and people who are ill and need to go outside. For health care workers, newer, longer-lasting technologies such as elastomeric and positive air pressure respirators could address an otherwise inevitable shortage of medical masks.

4. Improve medical care and prevention of Covid-19. A vaccine is at least a year away, and success is uncertain. Treatments that hold promise need to be evaluated rigorously. In a moderately severe pandemic, there wouldn't be enough ventilators to support patients' breathing. Health facilities and health departments in the United States can prepare for a worst-case scenario by preparing -- with training, equipment, and detailed operational plans -- for a surge in the number of patients who seek care and for the subset of those who need to be mechanically ventilated, including through ventilators available from the Strategic National Stockpile.

5. Protect health services. During the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, more people died because of disruptions of day-to-day health care than died from Ebola. Telemedicine needs to become much more accessible, and people with chronic conditions should receive three months of medications whenever possible, in case there are supply disruptions. Routine vaccinations and other preventive services need to be preserved.

6. Support social needs. Patients and their families will need support, especially those who are isolated and less familiar with virtual or delivery services. Continuing to support individuals and groups ranging from community centers to nursing homes will require detailed plans.

7. Protect economic stability. Continuing to plan, teach, learn and work will reduce disruption. Businesses need to be ready to maximize telecommuting, increase cross-training and operate with as many as 40% of their staff ill or quarantined. Mission-critical enterprises need practical plans to continue to operate.

8. Invest in public health. It will cost about $1 a person per year for at least a decade to build the health protection systems needed in Africa and Asia. That's a lot of money -- about $25 billion -- but a tiny fraction of what a preventable epidemic such as this one can cost. (SARS cost $40 billion; estimates for the potential cost of Covid-19 exceed $1 trillion.)

The virus and appropriate interventions will behave differently in high-resource than in low-resource areas, depending on crowding, capacity for diagnosis and treatment, and ability to reduce spread. We don't yet know if Covid-19 will result in thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of deaths.

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Above all, we must do no harm. We don't shut schools every year for seasonal influenza, and we didn't shut them for the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, for good reason: The severity level didn't merit it. If the virus did emerge from the wet market selling exotic animals for food in Wuhan, then China's failure to close such markets after SARS is the fundamental cause of this outbreak.

On the other hand, China's extraordinary cordon of Hubei province and other areas bought the world at least a month of lead time to prepare. The past week's news means that the world must take these steps, and fast, to limit the health, social and economic harms of the COVID-19 pandemic.

US Forces Korea, DoDEA says schools to remain closed this week as South Korea takes 'unprecedented' steps to fight virus [Military Times, 25 Feb 2020]

by Hyung-Jin Kim

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president said Sunday that he was putting his country on its highest alert for infectious diseases and ordered officials to take “unprecedented, powerful” steps to fight a soaring viral outbreak that has infected more than 600 people in the country, mostly in the last few days.

The Department of Defense Education Activity, the agency that oversees pre-K through 12 education programs for the Defense Department, and U.S. Forces Korea decided to keep schools in South Korea closed for the week of Feb. 24-28, according to a tweet by the U.S. Army’s Daegu Garrison. Only mission-essential soldiers will report to duty or as directed by their chain of command, a follow-up tweet from the garrison said. Most of the cases in South Korea have been reported in the city of Daegu.

China also reported hundreds of more infections for a total of about 77,000, and Iran raised its death toll from the virus to eight — the highest toll outside of China. While the number of patients worldwide is increasing, some virus clusters have shown no link to China and experts are struggling to trace where those clusters started.

The Iranian health ministry said there were now 43 confirmed cases in Iran, which did not report its first case of the virus until Wednesday.

In Italy’s northern Lombardy region, which includes the nation’s financial capital, Milan, the governor announced Sunday that the number of confirmed cases in the region stood at 89. Italy now has 132 cases, including two deaths.

Venice, which is full of tourists for Carnival events, reported its first two cases, said Veneto Gov. Luca Zaia, whose region includes the lagoon city. It wasn’t immediately known if the two infected had participated in Carnival festivities.

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.

Xi defended the ruling Communist Party’s response as “timely and effective” in a video conference with officials in charge of anti-disease work, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

“The current epidemic situation is still grim and complex,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying.
“Prevention and control are at the most critical stage.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his government had decided to increase its anti-virus alert level by one notch to “Red,” the highest level. The step was last taken in 2009 to guard against a novel influenza outbreak that killed more than 260 people in South Korea. Under the highest alert level, authorities can order the temporary closure of schools and reduce the operation of public transportation and flights to and from South Korea.

Moon’s education minister, Yoo Eun-hae, said later Sunday that the new school year for kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools in South Korea has been put off by one week and will start on March 9.

Moon said that the outbreak “has reached a crucial watershed,” and that the next few days will be “critical.” “We shouldn’t be bound by regulations and hesitate to take unprecedented, powerful measures,” he said.

South Korea announced 169 more cases of the new virus, bringing the country’s total to 602.
The country also reported three more fatalities, raising its death toll to six.

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 the country from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The number of new Chinese cases has seesawed daily but has 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.

The central Chinese city of Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province, where the outbreak first emerged in December, remain under lockdown. More than 80% of the country’s cases are in Hubei, where the death toll has also been higher than in the rest of the nation.

Most of the South Korean cases have been reported in the country’s fourth-largest city, Daegu, and the surrounding area. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 320 cases have also been confirmed to have links to a branch of the local Shincheonji church in Daegu, which has become the biggest cluster of viral infections in South Korea.

Shincheonji, which has been viewed as a cult movement by mainstream Christian organizations, tried to defend itself from growing public anger directed at the church.

In a video statement posted on its website, church spokesman Simon Kim said Shincheonji has shut down all its 1,100 local churches and other facilities since one of its church members tested positive for the virus on Feb. 18, the first patient in Daegu.

Earlier Sunday, Daegu Mayor Kwon Yong-jin said there were concerns that the number of those infected in the city could see yet another massive increase because authorities were launching intensive examinations of church members with virus-related symptoms.

China’s Politburo, made up of senior officials of the ruling Communist Party, cautioned Friday that while the epidemic has been “preliminarily contained,” the country has yet to see a turning point.

Officials signaled that regular activities should gradually resume after the virus prompted an extension of last month’s Lunar New Year holiday. Many workplaces have opted to have their employees work remotely, and schools are conducting online classes.

In Beijing, most residential communities have implemented “closed management,” limiting the number of people per household who can go in and out using exit-entry cards and requiring those just returning to the Chinese capital to isolate themselves at home for 14 days.

A cluster of infections was reported out of Beijing’s Fuxing Hospital. The facility, which has 34 confirmed cases, has been closed off to protect the surrounding community, said a statement from Xicheng district authorities.

More than 500 cases also have been found in prisons across the country.

A cruise ship passenger who had been hospitalized after testing positive for the new virus died on Sunday, the third fatality from the Diamond Princess, Japan’s health ministry said.

The ministry also announced 57 more cases of infections from the ship, including 55 crew members still on board and two passengers who had infected roommates and are in a prolonged quarantine at a government facility.

With the new cases, 691 people have been infected on the ship, or nearly one-fifth of the ship’s original population of 3,711. Japan has confirmed a total of 838 cases and four deaths from the virus, which first emerged in China, including those on the ship.

Meanwhile, a diplomatic row erupted after Israel turned back a South Korean airliner, underscoring fear and tensions over the fast-spreading outbreak.

A Korean Air flight with 188 passengers that landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport Saturday evening was taxied away from the allotted terminal while authorities allowed only 11 Israelis to enter the country. The plane returned to South Korea with the rest of the passengers on Sunday, according to airline officials.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that it was closely monitoring the incident and providing active consular assistance to South Koreans staying in Israel. It said it will evacuate South Korean tourists from Israel if necessary.

Yonhap news agency cited South Korea’s Foreign Ministry as registering a strong protest with the Israeli government. The ministry told Israel that no excessive, unreasonable measures should be taken against South Korean nationals, according to the report.

South Korea earlier informed Israel that a group of tourists who traveled to Israel and the West Bank for a week this month tested positive for the virus upon returning home. Israeli and Palestinian health authorities asked people who were in close contact with the tourists to quarantine themselves.

South Korean health authorities said Sunday that 18 of the 39 South Koreans from the southeastern region who had made a group pilgrimage to sites in Israel later tested positive for the virus. She said the 21 others were being tested. Forty-one Catholic churches in their neighborhoods halted Sunday Masses and other gatherings.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued added travel warnings to South Korea and Japan due to the coronavirus, and the Health Ministry is ordering Israelis returning from those countries to remain in home quarantine, as previously ordered for those returning from Hong Kong, China, Macau, Thailand and Singapore.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be adding more restrictions on entry to Israel from additional countries, including Australia and Italy.

Jordan said it was denying entry of non-Jordanians coming from Iran and South Korea, on top of a previous ban on those coming from China. Nationals arriving from those countries will be quarantined.

Downtown Daegu was mostly deserted Sunday, with shelves at some supermarkets and stores empty. Many restaurants, bars, real-estate offices and tour agencies shut down as traffic nosedived and people stayed home, ordering food and supplies online.

Kim Mi-yeon, who opened her cake shop in Daegu on Sunday despite worries about infection, said she received only one group of customers.

“I’m also worried about being infected, but I still opened my shop today to make a living,” she said by phone. “On weekends, I used to hire five part-time employees, but I’ve recently told all of them not to come. How can I hire them at a time when I have fewer then 10 customers a day?”

Coronavirus live updates: CDC raises travel warning for South Korea, US airlines waive cancellation fees [CNBC, 25 Feb 2020]

by Dawn Kopecki, Berkeley Lovelace Jr. & William Feuer

This is a live blog. Please check back for updates.

All times below are in Eastern time.
• Total confirmed cases: More than 80,200
• Total deaths: At least 2,704
8
:47 am: US plans trial of Gilead drug remdesivir

The U.S. is planning a clinical trial of Gilead’s experimental drug for the novel coronavirus, according to a posting on a government clinical trials database. The trial, run by the University of Nebraska Medical Center along with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will be conducted at up to 50 sites globally, and will test the medicine, called remdesivir, against placebo, according to the protocol, which was posted Feb. 21. — Tirrell

8:18 am: Austria confirms first two cases

Austria has confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus, a spokeswoman for the health authority in the province of Tyrol said. The patients are two Italians who live in the province of Tyrol and were probably infected on a trip to Italy’s Lombardy region, Tyrol governor Guenther Platter was quoted as saying by local media. Tyrol and Carinthia are the two Austrian provinces that border northern Italy. TV station ORF said the two 24-year-olds had reported themselves to the authorities. They had a slight fever and are currently under isolation in an Innsbruck hospital. —Reuters

7:43 am: US airlines waive cancellation fees for South Korea flights after CDC issues travel warning

U.S. airlines on Monday said they would waive cancellation and change fees for travelers booked to South Korea as the coronavirus spreads beyond China, prompting a warning from government officials about travel there. Earlier on Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned travelers to avoid non-essential travel to South Korea, where the disease has sickened close to 1,000 people. Delta Air Lines’ travelers who booked tickets to the South Korean capital of Seoul through April 30 can change flights until May 31 or cancel their trips without paying a fee, the airline said on its website. American Airlines’ customers booked to Seoul through April 24 can change their flights without paying a date-change fee, or they can cancel the trip altogether. Those travelers can also change the origin or destination of their trips to the Japanese capital of Tokyo, and take another plane to or from South Korea. United Airlines issued a similar waiver for Seoul. —Josephs

6:45 am: Iran’s deputy health minister tests positive for coronavirus

Iran’s deputy health minister has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a report from the semi-official ILNA news agency. It comes shortly after a spokesperson for the Islamic Republic’s health ministry said 95 people had been infected with the coronavirus, with 16 deaths nationwide. Iran has recorded the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus outside of China. —Meredith

6:30 am: Chinese city announces 14-day quarantine in free hotels for travelers from Japan, South Korea

The eastern city of Weihai has announced that all travelers, both Chinese and foreign nationals, returning from Japan and South Korea will need to stay in hotels for a 14-day quarantine. Accommodation will be free. The move comes amid intensifying concerns on China’s social media platform Weibo over a growing number of coronavirus cases in South Korea. The measures, effective Tuesday, are meant “to minimize the chance of cross-infection” according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese-language announcement. Weihai, located in Shandong province, is about a two-hour flight from Seoul. —Wu

5:55 am: WHO says countries must be prepared for coronavirus ‘literally knocking at the door’

The World Health Organization has warned countries around the world must be ready for the fast-spreading coronavirus to be “literally knocking at the door.” Speaking in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier reportedly said that while many countries had so-called “pandemic plans” on standby, the United Nations health agency does not plan to make a “big announcement.” It comes amid intensifying concern about the coronavirus outbreak, with the deadly virus spreading to more than two dozen countries in recent weeks. As of Tuesday, China’s National Health Commission reported 77,658 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 2,663 deaths nationwide.

5:35 am: Iran urges people to stay at home as coronavirus death toll climbs to 16

Iran’s health ministry reportedly urged citizens to stay at home on Tuesday, following a sharp uptick of confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide. Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesperson for the Islamic Republic’s health ministry, said via state television that 95 people had been infected with the coronavirus, with 16 deaths nationwide. Iran has recorded the highest number of deaths from coronavirus outside of China. Several countries have suspended flights to Iran in a bid to prevent the outbreak, while some neighboring countries have closed their borders. —Meredith

A man wears a protective mask while riding a bus in the Iranian capital Tehran on February 24, 2020.

4:40 am: Canary Islands hotel reportedly under lockdown after tourist tests positive

Hundreds of staff and tourists staying at a hotel in Spain’s Canary Islands were reportedly put under lockdown on Tuesday, El Pais newspaper reported. It comes after one person that had stayed at the establishment was later found to have tested positive for the coronavirus. A spokesperson for the Canary Island’s health department told Reuters on Tuesday that health checks were underway for those who had contact with the patient — thought to be Spain’s third case of COVID-19. As of Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) had identified two cases of the coronavirus in Spain. —Meredith

Coronavirus cases among health workers climb, underscoring the chaos on an outbreak’s front lines [STAT, 25 Feb 2020]

By MEGAN THIELKING

Thousands of health care workers, largely in China, have been infected amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, a sign of the immensely difficult working conditions for medical staffers, who should be among those best protected against infection.

The infections, along with the deaths of several doctors in China, underscore the deeply challenging, chaotic environment that health care workers confront when toiling on the front lines of a major outbreak. They face long hours, changing protocols, potential medical supply shortages, and risks to their own personal health and that of their loved ones.

“You are expected to be there and stay there and take care of those people, but know that you are at risk and know that you have a family to go home to,” said Salah Qutaishat, an infection prevention epidemiologist who worked for the Marshfield, Wis., health system that identified the first U.S. case of monkeypox in a 2003 outbreak, and who also volunteered in a Toronto-area hospital during the SARS outbreak the same year.

Those fears are compounded when health care workers are working around the clock to combat a virus that isn’t well-understood, as is the case with the novel coronavirus. That uncertainty can create a stressful, unsettling, and, at times, frightening work environment for those on the front lines.

“As a nurse, I have a duty to care [for my patients]. I also have a duty to myself, my family, everybody who has a stake in my wellbeing,” said Cheedy Jaja, a nurse and nursing professor at University of South Carolina who cared for patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone during the 2014-2015 outbreak.

Jaja did two stints in Sierra Leone, his home country, as a volunteer with the nonprofit Partners in Health. He worked long days, stopping only to sleep or eat. While he worked, Jaja was frequently afraid he had contracted Ebola. Every sensation that felt a little out of the ordinary fueled panic.

“It was a heightened sense of alertness, a constant fear,” he said. While Jaja remained healthy, colleagues he worked with were among the hundreds of medical staffers infected during the outbreak. A 2015 WHO report found that, depending on their role, health workers were up to 32 times more likely to be infected with Ebola than adults in the general population.

Many infections in health care workers can be prevented with the right planning, training, and protective equipment. But in China and elsewhere around the globe, the coronavirus outbreak has put a strain on medical supplies. Those shortages fuel stress among health care workers and employees who need to protect themselves from exposure — not just for their own health, but to stem the spread of a pathogen. Equipment used to protect health care workers from infection is in short supply as demand — and prices — for personal protective equipment, or PPE, has soared.

Last week, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions released a statement demanding that all frontline health care workers who might be exposed to the virus be protected, at a minimum, with a N-95 respirator, a hard, domed mask used to protect against the spread of respiratory pathogens in hospitals.

Using those respirators and other PPE, too, presents a source of stress for hospital staff, some of whom have to learn how to wear gear they’ve never used before. During the SARS outbreak, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto had to train staffers without any clinical expertise in how to take temperatures and screen people entering the hospital for symptoms, said Lynn Nagle, who supervised the SARS response as the hospital’s chief information officer. The hospital had to teach those individuals how to properly don a gown, gloves, and a mask.

Staff must also follow protocols that can quickly change as an outbreak evolves. Nagle said new recommendations from health officials — whether about PPE use or screening questions — “came down fast and furious” during the SARS outbreak. They had to constantly update the staff about new information — and acknowledge what still wasn’t known.

“The biggest challenge for them, and for all of us trying to protect them, was the uncertainty as this thing unfolded,” said Nagle, who is also a professor of nursing at the University of Toronto.

Even health care workers who aren’t on the front lines feel the impact of an outbreak. In 2014, Amy McCarthy was a nurse in the mother and baby unit at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, where the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. was being treated. Two nurses who cared for the patient contracted Ebola, one of whom later alleged in a lawsuit that the hospital had offered no formal guidance or training in what type of personal protective equipment to wear.

At the time, McCarthy’s unit wasn’t directly affected. But her patients and their families peppered her with questions. Some came in wearing paper masks, fearful of being exposed, but not fully understanding how the virus was actually transmitted.

“It was a time of real anxiety for everyone involved,” she said. “We had to do a lot of comforting and education about Ebola.”

For those on the front lines of an outbreak, the experience can take a significant emotional toll, even years later. Jaja was quarantined after returning to the U.S. after his first tour in Sierra Leone. It was a hard pivot, from a high-stress situation to being stuck at home with nothing to do.

“That’s when the mind starts playing tricks on you. That’s when you start reflecting. That’s when, out of left field, the psychological trauma kicks in,” he said.

Jaja realized he wasn’t the only person in the cohort he traveled with feeling that way. Soon, he and about a dozen other colleagues, all across the country, started video-chatting every day.
They talked about what they saw and experienced, and how, during that quarantine, they felt a complicated mix of anger, sadness, and relief.

“It was that sense of, we all went to battle together, that helped us pull through the trauma,” he said.

WHO warns countries the coronavirus will be 'literally knocking at the door' [CNBC, 25 Feb 2020]

By Sam Meredith

KEY POINTS
• It comes amid intensifying concern about the coronavirus outbreak, with the deadly flu-like virus spreading to more than two dozen countries in recent weeks.
• Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said some countries had so-called “pandemic plans” on standby in a bid to prevent the outbreak, Reuters reported.
• But, while many were ready to act upon them depending on their situation, Lindmeier said the WHO was not planning a “big announcement.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned countries to be prepared for the coronavirus to be “literally knocking at the door.”

It comes amid intensifying concern about the coronavirus outbreak, with the deadly flu-like virus spreading to more than two dozen countries in recent weeks.

Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said some countries had so-called “pandemic plans” on standby in a bid to prevent the outbreak, Reuters reported. But, while many were ready to act upon them depending on their situation, Lindmeier said the WHO was not planning a “big announcement.”

Late last month, the WHO declared China’s fast-spreading coronavirus a global health emergency.

Lindmeier’s comments appeared to confirm the United Nations health agency would not declare the deadly flu-like virus as a pandemic over the coming days.

As of Tuesday, China’s National Health Commission reported 77,658 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 2,663 deaths nationwide.

South Korea, Italy and Iran have all recorded a sharp uptick in cases of the coronavirus in recent days, with many other countries imposing travel restrictions on virus-hit areas worldwide.

The WHO’s Lindmeier said officials meeting in Rome to discuss measures implemented in Italy had been “pretty strong.”

A WHO mission to Iran has been delayed, Lindmeier said, with no new date for departure. The mission was initially scheduled to arrive in the Islamic Republic on Tuesday.

Italy admits hospital mess-up as officials scramble to contain coronavirus outbreak [CNN, 25 Feb 2020]

By Angela Dewan and Sharon Braithwaite

(CNN)Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has admitted that a hospital in the country's north had contributed to the spread of the deadly coronavirus, raising questions about whether the European nation is capable of containing the outbreak.

Italy now has the highest number of coronavirus infections outside Asia, as 54 new cases were detected in the country's north overnight, bringing the total to 283, the Italian civil protection agency said Tuesday. The cases are heavily concentrated in the region of Lombardy where 212 infections have been confirmed. Seven people have so far died from the virus in the country.

"Obviously we cannot predict the progress of the virus. It is clear that there has been an outbreak and it has spread from there," Conte told reporters Monday evening, referring to the hospital where the first case was confirmed.

He added that it was clear "there has been a management of the hospital not entirely proper according to prudent protocols, which are recommended in these cases, and this has certainly contributed to the spread."

Conte did not elaborate on what protocols were breached.

Italian authorities have not been able to identify Patient 0, the term given to the person who brought the coronavirus into the country, a crucial piece of information that could potentially prevent new clusters of cases.

The rapid spread of the virus in Italy has sparked fears of contagion across the European Union. The EU's Schengen Area allows people in most member states, as well as many tourists, to move freely between countries without border checks.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Tuesday announced the country's first coronavirus case, a "younger" male Croatian who had recently traveled to Italy.

He said the man was exhibiting mild symptoms and was being kept in isolation at a specialized clinic for infectious diseases in Zagreb.

The UK Department of Health put out a new travel advisory saying British travelers returning from northern Italy -- areas north of Pisa, Florence and Rimini -- should self-isolate if they display flu-like symptoms. The advice was issued the week after some schools took half-term breaks, a period when many British families travel to other European countries.

A team of health experts from the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control arrived in Italy on Monday to assist local authorities.
Italian officials announced sweeping restrictions over the weekend for parts of the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, effectively putting around 100,000 people in quarantine.

Tourist attractions have been closed, private meetings have been banned and schools have been shut. People in these areas are being asked to stay inside and avoid contact with others.

The measures also include transport restrictions in some places and the surveillance and quarantine of individuals who may have been exposed to the virus, according to Italy's health minister.

Coronavirus: Worst-hit countries boost containment efforts [BBC News, 25 Feb 2020]

The worst-hit countries are intensifying their efforts to contain the deadly coronavirus as the number of cases globally surpassed 80,000.

In South Korea, infections have risen again, taking the total to 977. Americans have been warned against all but essential travel to the nation.

Italy and Iran are both battling to contain outbreaks of the virus.

In Japan shares slumped on Tuesday, reacting to a global plunge on Monday sparked by fear of further outbreaks.

Wall Street and London had both suffered big drops.

The World Health Organization said on Monday the world should do more to prepare for a possible pandemic - a situation where an infectious disease spreads easily between people in many countries.

The WHO said it was too early to label the outbreak as such, but countries should be "in a phase of preparedness".

More cases of the virus, which causes respiratory disease Covid-19, continue to emerge, with the vast majority still in China. The proportion of infected people who die appears to be between 1% and 2%, although the WHO cautions that the mortality rate is not known yet.

What's the latest from China?

The Chinese government has announced a ban on the consumption of wild animals and a crackdown on the hunting, transportation and trade of prohibited species, state media say.

It is thought that the outbreak originated at a market in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, selling wild animals.

China also said it would postpone the annual meeting of the National People's Congress next month, to "continue the efforts" against the coronavirus. The body, which approves decisions made by the Communist Party, has met every year since 1978.

On Monday, the country reported 508 new infections, compared with 409 on Sunday. The bulk of the new cases were in Wuhan.

The death toll in China rose by 71 to 2,663. More than 77,000 people in the country have been infected.

The state-run Global Times reported that scientists had made progress on developing an oral vaccine, with a professor at Tianjin University taking four doses with no side effects.

But experts warn that until full clinical trials have taken place it is unclear how safe or effective the vaccines will be and it could still be months before they can be made widely available.
Hong Kong has extended school closures again, this time up to 20 April.

What about other countries?

In South Korea, 10 people have now died after contracting the virus.

Many of the people infected are members of the secretive religious sect known as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Health authorities have now been given the details of a quarter of a million members to check they have no symptoms.

President Moon Jae-in has visited the worst-hit city of Daegu. He said time was of the essence in controlling the virus and announced further resources for the region, but also faced protesters demanding more masks.

The head of the Daegu Doctors' Association issued an emotional appeal for more doctors, saying those on duty were passing out with exhaustion or becoming infected themselves, given the overwhelming number of patients.

Japan on Tuesday urged companies to introduce staggered working hours and teleconferencing to prevent the spread of the virus, the country's NHK broadcaster reported.

Japan has now confirmed more than 850 infected people, most of them on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise liner.

NHK also reported a fourth death among the ship's passengers.

Italy has the largest number of cases in Europe, 231, and announced a series of drastic measures over the weekend to try to contain the outbreak.

In the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, a lock-down is in place in several small towns. For the next two weeks, 50,000 residents will not be able to leave without special permission.

A number of top-flight football matches will be played in empty stadiums next weekend.

Seven people have died.

An Italian doctor from the Lombardy region has tested positive for the virus while on holiday in Tenerife, Spain, and has been put in quarantine.

Three more deaths have been recorded in Iran, state media say, raising fatalities there to 15.

The country has introduced school closures and the daily disinfecting of the Tehran underground system.

The United States plans to spend $2.5bn (£1.93bn) fighting the coronavirus, with funds for quarantine, vaccine research and aiding affected states, US media reported. There are 53 cases in the US so far.

What did the WHO say?

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Monday that the number of new cases in recent days in Iran, Italy and South Korea was "deeply concerning".

However he added: "For the moment we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus and we are not witnessing large scale severe disease or deaths.

"Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet."

But Mike Ryan, head of WHO's health emergencies programme, said now was the time to "do everything you would do to prepare for a pandemic".

What are the symptoms?

The main signs of infection are fever (high temperature) and a cough as well as shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
• How a misleading coronavirus map went global
• Watching loved ones die without care in Wuhan

What should I do?

Frequent hand washing with soap or gel, avoiding close contact with people who are ill and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands can help cut the risk of infection.

Catching coughs and sneezes in a tissue, binning it and washing your hands can minimise the risk of spreading disease.

What does 'pandemic' mean?

• A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease
• The H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, was declared a pandemic by the WHO in 2009
• The WHO no longer formally labels an outbreak of disease a "pandemic" but says the term may be used "colloquially"
• Its advice to countries - to limit the infections while preparing for wider spread - remains the same