Mar 10, 2020 10:18 PM

Coronavirus Live Updates (Tuesday): Italy Cases Top 10,000; Part of U.S. Missed Containment Chance, CDC Chief Says

Wednesday, March 11, 3 a.m.

The focal point of the Covid-19 outbreak is shifting away from China as the infection count worldwide surpassed 117,700, including more than 36,000 from outside China, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Total infections reached 10,149 in Italy Tuesday, making it the worst-hit country in Europe even after the government announced a nationwide lockdown.

Infection cases in Iran topped 8,042 Tuesday, while South Korea reported the third-most cases outside China with 7,513. The global death toll reached 4,259, including 3,140 in China.

After a two-month battle with the virus, China reported 20 new cases Monday, the lowest daily increase since January. That prompted officials in Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, to encourage business resumption and to relax restrictions that have been in place since late January.

Meanwhile, the top U.S disease control official said the window for fully containing the coronavirus passed in some parts of the country. The failure to quickly roll out tests for the virus impeded the nation’s early efforts, Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, said Tuesday.

A total of 804 cases were confirmed in the U.S. as of Tuesday with 27 deaths.

In other efforts to contain the coronavirus:

• New York will close large, public gathering spaces to slow down the outbreak in the suburbs of New York City, the first state to take such a step. New York had 173 confirmed infections as of Tuesday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed the National Guard to New Rochelle, a hotspot of the outbreak north of New York City, to assist in containing the disease.

• Austria said it will impose a ban on travelers from Italy, who will be barred from entering unless they can present a medical certificate demonstrating health, Austria Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Tuesday.

• The Japanese government unveiled a second batch of $4 billion of spending measures to bolster the economy amid the outbreak.

• U.S. universities including Harvard, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are moving part of their classes online to allow students to study from home amid concerns of the outbreak.

Compiled by Han Wei

Tuesday, March 10, 6 p.m.

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday visited Wuhan for the first time since the outbreak began. Globally, new cases continued to surge with Italy, Iran and South Korea the hardest hit.

As of Monday in Iran, at least 27 people (link in Chinese) had died from alcohol poisoning after a rumor circulated that drinking alcohol could help prevent the coronavirus infection, state news agency IRNA reported. Drinking alcoholic beverages is banned in Iran, causing some people to turn to consuming rubbing alcohol. A total of 218 people had been hospitalized for methanol poisoning in the western province of Khuzestan, Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences spokesperson Ali Ehsanpour told local media.

Iran is one of the countries worst hit by the virus. It has reported 8,042 coronavirus cases, giving it the third-highest total behind China and Italy. A total of 291 people have died from the virus in the Middle Eastern country.

• In Italy, riots broke out in 27 prisons across the country after all family visits were suspended (link in Chinese) as the government implemented measures to contain the epidemic. Six inmates had been confirmed dead as of Monday in the wake of clashes at the Saint Anna penitentiary in the northern province of Modena.

As of Monday, the coronavirus has infected a total of 9,172 (link in Italian) people and killed 463 in Italy.

• In the U.S., more than 3,500 people aboard the Grand Princess, which has docked at the Port of Oakland on Monday in the U.S., begin disembarking (link in Chinese) after being stuck on the cruise ship for five days.

• In the Middle East, the coronavirus has spread across at least 15 countries and regions and infected more than 8,000 people as of Tuesday. Countries including Iran, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Qatar have announced (link in Chinese) suspensions at local schools. Saudi Arabia has partly closed the Islamic holy site Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca for sterilization. It has also suspended international travel to and from nine virus-stricken countries, including South Korea and Italy.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) said the coronavirus outbreak is on the cusp of becoming a pandemic. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, made the remark Monday at a daily briefing after the virus had spread across more than 100 countries worldwide, Bloomberg reported.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, said in a statement that “now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real.”

“But it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled,” said Tedros, because governments, businesses, communities, families and individuals can make decisions that can influence how the epidemic turns out.

In other related coronavirus news

• As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, at least 20 people were confirmed dead (link in Chinese) after a hotel being used as a coronavirus isolation facility in East China’s Fujian province collapsed late Saturday. Of the 71 people trapped in the debris, 61 people, including the deaths, have been found by rescuers and 10 remain trapped.

• China’s consumer inflation remained high in February, rising 5.2% year-on-year for the month as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted supply chains and unsettled consumers.

• The Hong Kong government said that all travelers, residents or nonresidents in Hong Kong who have been to Italy in the last 14 days will be placed in a mandatory 14-day quarantine in centers set up by the government, according to a statement on the website of the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong. The measure will take effect Friday.

• Hong Kong’s property market experienced strong sales over the past week (link in Chinese), bucking a global trend of declining real estate sales due to the coronavirus outbreak. Ocean Marini, a new real estate project developed by Wheelock Properties (Hong Kong) Ltd., was around nine times oversubscribed after it sales began over the weekend.

There was also an uptick in existing home sales in Hong Kong. From March 2 to Sunday, 101 transactions were recorded in the market, the highest number in nearly five months, according to Hong Kong real estate agent Midland Realty International Ltd.

• Australia’s Qantas Airways said it would reduce international flights by 25% over the next six months as the coronavirus outbreak has caused a plunge in travel demand.

Compiled by Tang Ziyi

Tuesday, March 10, 11 a.m.

• Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Wuhan, epicenter of the coronavirus, on Tuesday morning, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. This marks his first visit to the city since the coronavirus outbreak began.

Tuesday, March 10, 10 a.m.

Global fight against coronavirus intensifies

• As of Tuesday morning, at least 109 countries and regions outside China had reported a total of at least 33,240 infections, including 877 deaths, according to government data and media reports compiled by Caixin.

• Italy, South Korea and Iran remain the worst-hit countries outside China. The situations in France, Japan, Germany, Spain and the U.S. are also worrisome due to growing numbers.

• Italy extended travel restrictions nationwide on Tuesday local time, two days after it locked down the northern part of the country, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced at a press conference, according to its government website (link in Italian). Italy reported a total of 9,172 cases as of Monday afternoon, giving it the second highest number of coronavirus cases behind only China.

• U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he will seek a payroll tax cut and other measures (link in Chinese) to ease the economic impact from the outbreak. He announced the plan after U.S. stocks plunged more than 7.5% on Monday, triggering a circuit breaker installed after the 2008 financial crisis.

As of Tuesday morning, the U.S. had reported a total of 724 coronavirus cases and 26 deaths.

• The Boao Forum for Asia, which China hopes to position as Asia’s answer to the World Economic Forum in Davos, has been postponed to help with epidemic control, the organizer said on its website on Monday.

The annual conference, which was set to be held in South China’s Hainan province on March 24 to 27, became the latest in a series of major global conferences and exhibitions to be affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Cases in China show signs of stabilizing

• On Monday, China reported just 20 new confirmed cases, bringing its total to 80,924, according to the latest data (link in Chinese) from China’s top health body.

The new infections include 17 in Central China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of outbreak, and one from Hong Kong. The other two were imported cases. On Monday, Beijing reported one imported case from the U.K. (link in Chinese), and South China’s Guangdong province reported one imported case from Spain (link in Chinese), according to local health commissions.

• On Monday, China reported an additional 17 deaths, all in Hubei province.

• Suspected cases on the mainland, which have declined for about a month from a peak of nearly 29,000 (link in Chinese) on Feb. 8, totaled 349 on Monday.

Compiled by Tang Ziyi

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