Coronavirus cases spike in Italy, China says most new infections limited to Hubei, South Korea declares ‘red alert’
Live updates: China backtracks on plan to ease Wuhan coronavirus restrictions; Xi warns of crisis
(about 5 hours later)
The latest figures from China suggest that the novel coronavirus outbreak remains worst in locked-down Hubei province, where 398 new cases and 149 more deaths were reported early Monday.
China backtracked Monday on an earlier announcement that it would relax travel restrictions on the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan, amplifying concerns about the government response to the deadly outbreak.
Outside China, the outbreak continued to spread. South Korea said Sunday that it was raising its national threat level to “red alert,” the highest, as 169 new cases were confirmed Sunday and an additional 161 on Monday — making the country the most infected entity outside mainland China. In Italy, the number of cases spiked to 152, the largest number outside Asia.
A notice by Wuhan’s epidemic prevention and control headquarters said Monday that it would ease some of the more draconian travel restrictions on the locked-down city at the heart of the epidemic, allowing for the return of some residents trapped outside Wuhan since late January and permitting visitors stuck in the city to leave.
●The Italian government said it has 152 confirmed cases, up from three in a matter of days. Three people have died. Authorities have locked down about a dozen small towns and canceled events across the north, including Venice’s Carnival.
But hours later, Wuhan’s city government declared the earlier announcement invalid, saying it had been released without authorization. The confused responses coincided with the news that a number of provinces had lowered the severity of their emergency-response levels, and came as Beijing counts the costs of an extended outbreak that threatens to shake both the Chinese and global economy.
● South Korea raised its national threat level to “red alert,” the first time the country has used the highest setting since the H1N1 swine flu outbreak in 2009. The total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 763.
Speaking to Communisty Party officials on Sunday, President Xi Jinping warned that the outbreak was a “crisis” that would inevitably jolt the country’s economic development, but pledged that the disruption would be temporary and manageable.
● Iran has confirmed eight deaths related to the coronavirus, the most outside of China, media reported Sunday. South Korea confirmed its seventh death.
● Official figures released Monday showed there had been 409 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 150 new deaths from the outbreak by the end of Sunday, bringing the total confirmed cases to 77,150 with a cumulative death toll of 2,592. The majority of the new cases — 398 — were in Hubei province, as were all but one death.
●The Chinese government reported 409 new cases across the country on Monday and 150 deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 77,150, with 2,592 deaths.
● Wuhan’s epidemic prevention and control headquarters announced Monday that it would ease some restrictions on movement in the coronavirus-stricken city. Separately, six provinces lowered their health response levels as businesses reopened and workers ended their 14 day self-quarantines.
●Three cruise ships have docked in Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, to house medical workers to help the city’s overburdened health-care system. On Sunday, Wuhan’s Union Jiangbei Hospital announced that a 29-year-old doctor had died of coronavirus, the second death of a young doctor in Hubei in recent days.
● Xi spoke Sunday and gave some of his starkest public warnings about the virus, telling party members that the outbreak was both a crisis and a test for Beijing.
HONG KONG — Coronavirus outbreaks in South Korea and Italy continued to expand rapidly on Sunday as both countries reported a slew of new cases and Italian authorities raced to seal off hot spot towns.
● The outbreak continues to widen in other countries, with South Korea announcing Monday that it now had 763 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, seven of which had resulted in deaths.
Although the latest Chinese figures showed new cases largely concentrated in Hubei province, concern was growing about the virus in other parts of the world, including in Europe, which had yet to experience a large-scale outbreak until now, and where containment efforts could test the continent's open-border ideals.
MANILA — A total of 59 Filipinos on the Diamond Princess have tested positive for the coronavirus, health officials announced Monday, as the Philippine government postponed repatriation for its citizens on board.
South Korea reported a significant rise in cases on Monday, with 161 new cases, bringing the total to 763, and one more death, for a total of seven. Italy said the number of confirmed cases had reached 152, up from three in a matter of days.
Over 400 Filipinos were initially set to return to the country on Sunday. The government has not indicated when the rescheduled repatriation will take place.
The sudden outbreak in Italy caught authorities there off guard, while causing severe interruptions of the sort that have upended life in China. Universities across northern Italy, where the outbreak is concentrated, are shuttered; major soccer matches have been canceled. Venice's famed Carnival, which can draw more than 100,000 people daily, was suspended two days before its scheduled end.
Health officials said the delay was to allow their counterparts in Japan “to complete laboratory testing” and “comply with the established Japanese quarantine protocols.”
In the mostly smaller towns where the virus has been detected, checkpoints have been set up designed to prevent most people from entering or leaving. Video from the closed-off hot spot towns showed abandoned piazzas, boarded-up mini-markets and closure signs even on churches. Residents who went outside were largely wearing masks, and in one of the few supermarkets in the area that remained open, the line stretched out the door.
Only those who are asymptomatic will be allowed to return to the Philippines. The evacuees are set to spend two weeks in quarantine at a facility north of Manila.
"Since we're dealing with the risk of an epidemic, we cannot say we're certain that we can contain it," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview with Sky TG24, an Italian news channel. "But these are absolutely measures we deem effective — very rigorous — to contain the spread of the coronavirus, to limit the risk of contagion."
There were a total of 538 Filipinos on the Diamond Princess, only seven of whom were passengers, with the others working as crew members.
But authorities acknowledged that they were seeing cases, including two in Venice, that had no apparent connection to Chinese travelers or the closed-off Italian hot spots, which are mostly concentrated toward the south of Milan.
The rapid spread of the virus among crew members of the ship illustrated the importance of overseas workers to the Philippine economy. Some 2.4 million Filipinos work abroad, and the $33.5 billion they contributed in remittances last year is a key source of income for the Philippine government.
A broader outbreak would be particularly complicated in Europe, where countries maintain open borders. Conte said changing that policy would be "draconian" and could be devastating for the Italian economy, which is among the weakest on the continent.
Filipino citizens have also tested positive for the virus in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Singapore.
The Chinese government on Monday announced 409 more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total in mainland China to 77,150, with 150 more deaths from the outbreak bringing the total up to 2,592 across the nation.
TOKYO — Two more government officials who worked on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner have tested positive for the new coronavirus, Japan’s health ministry said Monday, reinforcing widespread concerns about infection control procedures on board the ship.
Within China, the outbreak remains worst in Hubei and its capital, Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged in December. The updated official figures showed that the vast majority of new cases confirmed across China — 398 — were in the province, as were all but one of the new deaths.
The latest cases, an official from the Health Ministry and a quarantine officer, bring to eight the number of people working on the ship or with its passengers who have now contracted the virus.
Hubei has been under lockdown since Jan. 23, an unprecedented organizational response to a health crisis. As of Sunday, three cruise ships had arrived in Wuhan to house medical workers for the city’s stretched health-care system, drawing mixed reactions from Chinese Internet users.
An infectious disease expert last week called conditions on board the ship chaotic and scary, describing inadequate infection controls.
Japan’s NHK reported the same day that cases had risen to 135 — not including the cases linked to the Diamond Princess, where at least 650 people who traveled aboard the ship are now confirmed cases and three passengers have died.
Rejecting the criticism, the government initially allowed scores of officials and medical workers to resume their normal duties after having worked on board the ship, not even testing them for the virus or imposing any quarantine on them.
The Diamond Princess outbreak alone has had a global impact. At least 18 Americans, seven Australians, four Britons and two Israeli nationals have tested positive for the virus after returning to their home countries. Medical authorities in the United States and Australia say they expect to find more cases as more tests are done.
After Japanese media pointed out the risks that these officials could carry the virus around the country, and especially into hospitals and medical vulnerable populations, the Health Ministry relented and announced it would test its government officials who had worked on board the ship.
Twelve Indian crew members have been confirmed as cases aboard the ship, India’s NDTV reported on Sunday.
But Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said over the weekend there was no need to test medical workers, arguing they understood infection control procedures.
With some new indications that the coronavirus may have an incubation period longer than 14 days and a variety of cases with no clear link to Hubei, as well as lingering worries about China’s counting methods, health officials remain concerned about the risk of a global pandemic.
Yosuke Kita, a senior health ministry official, told reporters on Monday that in his opinion medical workers should be among a “second batch” of people who should get tests.
Wuhan’s Union Jiangbei Hospital on Sunday announced that Xia Sisi, 29, a front-line doctor from the department of gastroenterology, had died of coronavirus on Sunday morning. Xia had been hospitalized since Jan. 19, the hospital said.
Defending the failure to impose a quarantine on them, he said anyone who worked on the ship who is now suffering from a fever or other symptoms is now working remotely through telework.
The toll on health workers in Hubei has been heavy. China Daily reports that Peng Yinhua, another 29-year-old doctor in Wuhan, died Thursday after postponing his wedding to help treat the outbreak.
“We need to set up some criteria for working after duty on the ship,” he acknowledged.
China is bringing in seven cruise ships to help house medical workers for the coronavirus response, with the first, named Blue Whale, arriving on Friday evening followed by Changjiang Fu Tai and Changjiang Fu Tai No. 2 on Saturday.
SEOUL — The recent surge in coronavirus cases in South Korea is disrupting international and domestic air travel.
In total, the ships will provide 1,267 beds for health workers, according to local media reports, and China has taken extensive efforts to provide a safe environment, including having a dedicated ship to dispose of waste. But on Chinese social media, opinions were split about the idea, with some comparing it to the situation aboard the Diamond Princess.
Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines said Monday their flights to the southern city of Daegu will be temporarily suspended. Nearly two-thirds of South Korea’s coronavirus cases are traced to Daegu city, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
Just days ago, Italy had only three cases, including two Chinese tourists. But its experience shows the difficulty that countries might face in containing the virus, which can be carried by people who don’t immediately show symptoms.
Korean Air said it would suspend flights to Israel from Monday until next month after some 130 South Koreans aboard one of its aircraft were denied entry to Israel when the jet landed there on Saturday.
At the beginning of the weekend, Italy had cases in two of its largest northern provinces, Lombardy and Veneto, mostly spread around smaller towns. But authorities said Sunday that there were also cases in Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna, also in the north.
The flight landed in Tel Aviv shortly after Israel had banned entry of visitors from South Korea due to the coronavirus cases there.
Neighboring countries expressed concern about their proximity to a high volume of infected patients. Austria on Sunday halted its train traffic to and from Italy for several hours, while a member of France’s parliament asked for reinforced border control during this time of year, when thousands of Italians typically flock to French festivals.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry lodged a complaint against Israel for placing the ban without giving a prior notice.
South Korea’s case total has risen more than twentyfold in a week, from 30 last Monday to 763.
Israel and Bahrain have restricted entry of visitors from South Korea, while nearly a dozen countries, including Britain, have imposed quarantine restrictions of varying degrees to those arriving from South Korea.
The country’s military has reported 11 cases as of Monday. Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo instructed soldiers not to leave the barracks other than for exceptional situations, placing the military under a near-lockdown.
Over the past week, major Asian airlines including Philippine Airlines and Thai Airways have suspended or reduced flights to South Korea.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in told an emergency meeting that the country was now at a “crucial moment” that called for all-out efforts from the government and public alike in the face of the virus. Moon raised the national alert level to red, the highest, a first for South Korea since the 2009 epidemic of H1N1 swine flu.
Philippine Airlines has canceled its flights to Incheon from Manila, Cebu and Clark through next month. The airline has also reduced flights from Manila to the South Korean city of Busan, according to the company website.
The majority of South Korea’s coronavirus cases have been linked to two clusters at a church in the southern city of Daegu and a nearby hospital in Cheongdo County in North Gyeongsang province.
Thai Airways has reduced flights from Bangkok to Incheon and Busan for the month of March, due to the “decreased number of passengers” following the coronavirus outbreak, according to the company website
More than half of South Korea’s cases are traced to the Daegu church, which is a branch of Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. Shincheonji, a fringe religious sect, is often described as a cult by critics.
Other airlines that reduced flights to South Korea include Air Macau and Japan Airlines.
The South Korean government temporarily shut down Shincheonji’s 1,100 churches and annex buildings nationwide in an attempt to control the spread of the virus among members and their surrounding communities. President Moon Jae-in called the shutdown “a fair and inevitable step” to ensure community-wide safety and said there was “no intention to limit religious freedom.”
Just hours after Wuhan’s epidemic prevention and control headquarters announced it would be easing some of the strictest travel restrictions in place on the coronavirus-hit city, a post on the city’s social media account said that the announcement was not authorized and that travel restrictions would not be lifted.
South Korea also confirmed its seventh coronavirus death: a 62-year-old man linked to a hospital in North Gyeongsang province, where four people have died from the virus. The confined environment of the hospital’s locked psychiatric ward possibly helped the virus spread there, according to the KCDC.
In a post on Weibo, the Wuhan city government said that officials had made the “invalid” announcement on Monday morning without the appropriate permission. The city would “strictly control the vehicles and personnel going through Wuhan” in line with Xi’s orders to present the outbreak from spreading, the message said.
State officials in Afghanistan and Armenia have closed their borders to neighboring Iran as a preventive measure after Iran’s Health Ministry confirmed 43 cases and eight deaths in the country on state television Sunday.
The apparent reversal of a high-profile decision drew confusion within China, with the independent news outlet Caixin using an unflattering idiom in a headline about the backtrack. The idiom, which roughly translates as “issue an order in the morning and rescind it in the evening,” is a well-known reference to government dysfunction.
Afghanistan reported its first suspected cases of the coronavirus in the western city of Herat on Sunday, according to the health chief of the province, also called Herat. Three people, all elderly men, had recently returned to the city from Iran, Abdul Hakim Tamana told The Washington Post by phone.
BEIJING — Guangdong province on Monday revised down its health emergency response to level two as more businesses reopened and workers returned to their offices after 14 days’ quarantine at home.
“We do not know at this stage whether they are suffering from cold, pneumonia or possibly coronavirus,” Tamana said.
Under the Chinese system, level one is the highest grade of tresponse, used in the case of “extremely severe” public health incidents. Guangdong had been enforcing the highest level of response measures since Jan. 23, when Wuhan announced a total lockdown.
Thousands of people travel back and forth every day between Afghanistan and Iran because of trade, employment and family ties. Afghan officials were testing all people crossing the border for coronavirus symptoms. But many who travel between the two countries also use informal routes, where screening doesn’t take place.
Five other Chinese provinces also adjusted their emergency responses: Shanxi revised down to level three, indicating intermediate or lower risk, while Gansu, Guizhou, Liaoning, Yunnan lowered the emergency response to level two from level one.
The outbreak has increased tension between Iran, already isolated by sanctions, and its neighbors. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the threat of coronavirus had been exaggerated by the country’s enemies who hoped to cast doubt upon Friday’s parliamentary election.
Currently, 25 out of China’s 31 provinces, regions, and municipalities remain on alevel one response.
On Saturday, however, Iran itself ordered the closure of schools and universities in a bid to prevent the outbreak from spreading further.
HONG KONG — A preprinted research paper by Chinese scientists claims to provide further evidence to indicate that Wuhan Seafood Market may not be the source of the current outbreak of coronavirus.
In Israel, reports that a group of South Koreans who tested positive for the infection had visited some of the country’s most popular religious and tourist spots prompted concern across the country.
Co-authored by researchers from three Chinese institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published on the academy’s website last Thursday, the study attempts to trace how the virus emerged and evolved. The authors analyzed the genomic data from 93 samples of the novel coronavirus and concluded that it was likely to have spread to the market from somewhere else.
Dozens of students who may have been in proximity to the South Korean tourists were directed to stay in home-based quarantine for two weeks, as were hotel housekeepers and employees of Masada, Tel Ber Sheeva and other national parks.
“The crowded market then boosted SARS-CoV-2 circulation and spread it to the whole city in early December 2019,” according to the research. It also pointed out that human-to-human transmission of the virus might have existed in Wuhan as early as late November. The market was closed on Jan. 1.
Non-Israeli travelers from South Korea and Japan have been barred from entering the country, according to local media reports, and Israelis arriving from multiple Asian countries face two weeks of mandatory quarantine. South Korean tourists began to return home on Sunday after initially being stranded in Israel because of the country’s ban on travel to South Korea, Reuters reported.
Chinese health authorities announced Jan. 22 that they believe the novel conoravirus had originated from the Wuhan seafood market. The peer-reviewed study is the latest to challenge this, however, following another study which analyzed the first 41 patients in Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan published in The Lancet on Jan. 27.
More than 800 people in Japan have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, though the bulk of those cases come from the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship — which has reported an additional 57 cases, bringing the total up to 691. Most of the new Diamond Princess cases were among crew members still aboard the ship, officials said.
BEIJING — Wuhan’s epidemic prevention and control headquarters announced Monday that it would be easing some of the restrictions on movement in the coronavirus-struck city.
An additional 147 cases that are not connected to the ship also have been reported, the Japanese Health Ministry said.
The announcement said that vehicles that need to enter the city for epidemic prevention and control, the functioning of the city, transportation of epidemic prevention materials, as well as Wuhan residents and vehicles stranded outside the city will be allowed to enter the city following necessary procedures.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that a third passenger had died after leaving the ship. The cause of death was pneumonia, Japan’s health minister said, but the ministry did not disclose whether the man, who was in his 80s, had coronavirus.
Additionally, the announcement said that people stuck in the city due to the lockdown would be able to leave if they were involved in similar procedures and if they do not have any of the symptoms related to the coronavirus outbreak.
In light of the death, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said officials will closely monitor the health of passengers who disembarked from the ship after the quarantine ended, including through daily phone calls.
Wuhan was placed under a strict lockdown on Jan. 23 with restrictions placed on movement throughout the city, home to almost 11 million people.
The United States and other countries have imposed an additional 14-day quarantine on passengers returning from the ship, out of concern the virus was still spreading around the vessel during the initial period, but Japan has insisted its arrangements to isolate passengers and prevent the virus spreading were sound.
HONG KONG — The Chinese government announced 409 new cases of novel coronavirus on Monday, along with 150 new deaths.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito, in his first news conference since ascending the throne, said on Sunday that he was looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics in the summer but that he was concerned about the spread of the new coronavirus, Reuters reported.
The vast majority of the new cases of the coronavirus in China continued to be in Hubei province, the epicenter of the current outbreak. The Chinese government imposed an unprecedented lockdown on the province and its capital city Wuhan in January.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered a government task force to prepare for a potential surge in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus, NHK reported.
Some 398 of the new cases were in Hubei, with 24 of China’s 31 provinces, regions and municipalities reporting no new cases. Of the 150 new deaths, all but one were in Hubei.
Abe said the outbreak has entered a “crucial phase” with cases emerging around the country where the infection route or a link to China could not be traced. He said authorities need to prepare for a possible jump in patient numbers, by focusing efforts on preventing infected people from becoming seriously ill.
HONG KONG — Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Sunday that the novel coronavirus is a crisis for China and that the country should not announce victory until the outbreak is contained.
The State Department on Friday raised its travel advisory for Japan and South Korea to Level 2 on its four-level scale, urging older travelers and people with chronic medical conditions to consider delaying unnecessary travel.
Xi’s remarks, made during a speech to Communist Party members in Beijing on Sunday and widely reported in Chinese state media on Monday, were among his starkest yet about the challenge the coronavirus presents for his leadership.
Harlan reported from Rome, Kim from Seoul, and Mettler and Iati from Washington. Stefano Pitrelli in Rome, Simon Denyer in Tokyo, Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem and Liu Yang in Beijing contributed to this report.
“This is both a crisis and a big test for us,” Xi said, according to state news agency Xinhua, before pointing to some of the positive trends seen in containing the outbreak so far.
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
“No victory should be lightly announced until there is a complete win,” he said, according to Xinhua, adding that the situation remained grim and complex.
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
The comments came amid growing concern about the effect that a prolonged outbreak could have on both the Chinese and the global economy. The Chinese leader said Sunday that the outbreak would inevitably deal a relatively big blow to China’s economic and social development, but it would ultimately be temporary and managable, Xinhua reported.
