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Virus epidemic growing by day hits schools, concerts, parks Financial pain deepens as 57 countries exposed to virus
(about 3 hours later)
TOKYO — Japan’s schools prepared to close for almost a month and entertainers, topped by K-pop superstars BTS, canceled events as a virus epidemic extended its spread through Asia into Europe and on Friday, into sub-Saharan Africa. TOKYO — A deepening health crisis became an economic one too Friday, with the virus outbreak sapping financial markets, emptying shops and businesses, and putting major sites and events off limits.
The expectation that Japan would close all its elementary, secondary and high schools will send nearly 13 million children home and leave few people untouched by the virus in the world’s third-biggest economy. Sporting events and concerts in Japan have already been canceled, and Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea said, too, they would close until mid-March. As the list of countries hit by the illness grew to 57 with Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands reporting their first cases, the threats to livelihoods were increasingly eyed as warily as the threats to lives.
But the COVID-19 illnesss caused by a new coronavirus that emerged in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan has now stretched well beyond Asia and taken on a distinctly global character. Saudi Arabia cut travel to Islam’s holiest sites as cases in the Middle East reach into the hundreds. Italy’s surging outbreak was causing illnesses in other countries, including Nigeria, which confirmed the first sub-Saharan case on Friday. “It’s not cholera or the black plague,” said Simone Venturini, the city councilor for economic development in Venice, Italy, where tourism already hurt by historic flooding last year has sunk with news of virus cases. “The damage that worries us even more is the damage to the economy.”
The global count of those infected exceeds 83,000, with China still by far the hardest-hit country. But South Korea has surged past 2,000 cases, and other countries have climbing caseloads and deaths. Iran, with 26 deaths and more than 250 cases, has the most in the Middle East and travel there was connected to cases in countries as far away as New Zealand. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said the outbreak “has pandemic potential,” but whatever terminology officials used, the rippling effects were clear.
The cancellations of BTS’s concerts in Seoul will resonate in South Korea, which sees the internationally followed group as an emblem of its cultural and economic power. The band’s management agency said the scale of the outbreak in April, when the concerts were scheduled, couldn’t be predicted, and the large numbers of crew and concertgoers would have been a concern. Attractions including Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced closures and events that expected tens of thousands, including a tour by the K-pop group BTS, were called off.
U.S. rock band Green Day postponed upcoming Asia shows as well, and the U.S.’s National Symphony Orchestra canceled performances in Japan, after earlier canceling concerts in Beijing and Shanghai. Investors watched warily as stocks fell across Asia and girded to see if Wall Street’s brutal run would continue, while businesses both small and large saw weakness and people felt it in their wallets.
The closure of Disney resorts in Japan will last through March 15, their Japanese operator, Oriental Land Co., said Friday. Disney parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai remain closed. “There’s almost no one coming here,” said Kim Yun-ok, who sells doughnuts and seaweed rolls at Seoul’s Gwangjang Market, where crowds were thin Friday as South Korea counted 571 new cases — more than China. “I am just hoping that the outbreak will come under control soon.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had called for all schools to close until late March, though the decisions to do so were being made locally. In Italy, where the count of 650 cases is growing, hotel bookings were dropping and Premier Giuseppe Conte raised the specter of recession. Shopkeepers like Flavio Gastaldi, who has sold souvenirs in Venice for three decades, wondered if they could survive the blow.
“The most important thing is to prevent infections, so there aren’t many other options,” said Norinobu Sawada, vice principal of Koizumi primary school. “We will return the keys to the landlords soon,” he said.
In China’s epicenter around Wuhan, schools, public transit, offices and factories have been closed for weeks as the ruling Communist Party moved to contain the virus. Its National Health Commission reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths over the previous 24 hours, raising its totals to 78,824 with 2,788 deaths. The figures continue a downward trend for the hardest-hit nation, and show most of the new cases and deaths were still in Wuhan, where the COVID-19 illness emerged in December. The economic hurt came with anger in Bangkok, where tenants at the Platinum Fashion Mall staged a flash mob, shouting “Reduce the rent!” and holding signs that said “Tourists don’t come, shops suffer. “
In South Korea, much of the public health response has focused on testing and tracing the contacts of thousands of members of the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which has a big cluster of infections. Kanya Yontararak, a 51-year-old owner of a women’s clothing store, said her sales have sunk as low as 1,000 baht ($32) some days, making it a struggle to pay back a loan for her lease. She’s stopped driving to work, using public transit instead, packs a lunch instead of buying, and is cutting her grocery bills. The situation is more severe than the floods and political crises her store has braved in the past.
While officials are widening their screening to more than 300,000 Shincheonji members and trainees nationwide, they have also questioned whether the church’s opaque culture is influencing some churchgoers to hide their membership and avoid quarantine. “Coronavirus is the worst situation they have ever seen,” she said of the merchants.
Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin said the city will file a complaint against Shincheonji’s Daegu church for supposedly slowing quarantine efforts by initially providing an incomplete list of its members. Some saw dollar signs in the crisis, with 20 people in Italy arrested for selling masks they fraudulently claimed provided complete protection from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Police said they were selling them for as much as 5,000 euros ($5,520) each.
Of South Korea’s 571 new cases Friday, most were in Daegu and its surrounding province. South Korea now has 2,337 cases and 13 deaths. Japan’s schools prepared to shutter and the country’s Hokkaido island declared a state of emergency, with its governor urging residents to stay home over the weekend. The Swiss government banned events with more than 1,000 people, while at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, basins of holy water were emptied for fear of spreading germs.
Infections have also been gradually rising elsewhere, including the capital Seoul, where the headquarters of the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea was shut down after an employee tested positive. Some 800 employees were working at home while health workers disinfected the bank’s building. Globally, more than 83,000 people have fallen ill with the coronavirus. China, though hardest hit, has seen lower numbers of new infections, with 327 additional cases reported Friday, bringing the country’s total to 78,824. Another 44 people died there for a total of 2,788.
In the blue-collar town of Uslan, a Hyundai car-painting factory employing some 300 workers was shut down after one of the workers tested positive. South Korea has recorded 2,337 cases, the most outside of China. Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran, which has had 34 deaths and 388 cases, have in turn led to infections of people in other countries.
The COVID-19 crisis has also spilled over to South Korean sports, with the country’s professional baseball league cancelling its preseason. South Korea’ s soccer league has postponed the start of the new season, while the basketball league has banned spectators from league games.
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Kim reported from Seoul. Associated Press journalists Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report. Sedensky reported from Bangkok. Contributing to this report were Hyung-jin Kim and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo; Preeyapa Khunsong in Bangkok; Renata Brito and Giada Zampano in Venice, Italy; Angela Charlton in Paris; and Frank Jordans in Berlin.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.