Home NEWS Coronavirus news – live: UK sees spike in infections as health minister admits virus sweeping country is ‘inevitable’ and global death toll hits 3,000

Coronavirus news – live: UK sees spike in infections as health minister admits virus sweeping country is ‘inevitable’ and global death toll hits 3,000

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Coronavirus news – live: UK sees spike in infections as health minister admits virus sweeping country is ‘inevitable’ and global death toll hits 3,000

Boris Johnson will say there is “little doubt” the coronavirus will present a “significant challenge” for the UK as he chairs a Cobra meeting to discuss the government’s response to the outbreak.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has warned it was now “inevitable” the deadly virus would “become endemic” in the UK as 13 more cases of Covid-19 were announced, bringing the total number to 36. The Cobra meeting will bring together senior ministers and the chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. Work will also start in the “war room” in the Cabinet office as experts come together to respond to public concerns about the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile the worldwide death toll from the disease has passed 3,000, with more than 80,000 cases worldwide. Several countries in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas have banned large gatherings and imposed stricter travel restrictions in an attempt to limit infections.

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2020-03-02T11:54:39.956Z

Paris book fair cancelled due to outbreak

Paris’ annual book fair, which was supposed to take place later this month, has been cancelled due to measures taken by the French government to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the French publishers’ union said in a statement.

“Following the government’s decision to forbid any gathering of more than 5,000 people in a closed space, it is with regret that we have taken the decision to cancel the 2020 edition of the Paris’ book fair,” the union said.


2020-03-02T11:40:53.620Z

Latest coronavirus tally

Here are the latest coronavirus figures reported by each government’s health authority:

— Mainland China: 2,912 deaths among 80,026 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei

— Hong Kong: 98 cases, 2 deaths

— Macao: 10 cases

— South Korea: 4,335 cases, 26 deaths

— Italy: 1,694 cases, 34 deaths

— Iran: 1,501 cases, 66 deaths

— Japan: 961 cases, including 705 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 12 deaths

— France: 130 cases, including one on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, 2 deaths

— Germany: 130 cases

— Singapore: 106

— United States: 80 cases, 2 deaths

— Spain: 71

— Kuwait: 56

— Bahrain: 47

— Thailand: 43 cases, 1 death

— Taiwan: 41 cases, 1 death

— United Kingdom: 35 cases, 1 death

— Malaysia: 29

— Australia: 24 cases, 1 death

— Canada: 24

— Switzerland: 24

— Iraq: 21

— United Arab Emirates: 21

— Norway: 19

— Vietnam: 16

— Sweden: 14

— Austria: 14

— Israel: 10

— Lebanon: 10

— Netherlands: 10

— Belgium: 8

— Croatia: 8

— Greece: 7

— Finland: 6

— Oman: 6

— India: 5

— Russia: 5

— Denmark: 4

— Mexico: 4

— Pakistan: 4

— Algeria: 3

— Czech Republic 3

— Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death

— Qatar: 3

— Romania: 3

— Belarus: 2

— Brazil: 2

— Egypt: 2

— Georgia: 2

— Indonesia: 2

— Afghanistan: 1

— Andorra: 1

— Armenia 1

— Azerbaijan: 1

— Cambodia: 1

— Dominican Republic 1

— Ecuador: 1

— Estonia: 1

— Iceland: 1

— Ireland: 1

— Lithuania: 1

— Monaco: 1

— Nepal: 1

— New Zealand: 1

— Nigeria: 1

— North Macedonia: 1

— Portugal: 1

— San Marino: 1

— Sri Lanka: 1


2020-03-02T11:29:00.820Z

EU raises coronavirus risk from moderate to high

The risk of coronavirus in the EU has risen from moderate to high, the president of the European Commission has said.

Ursula von der Leyen said: “The ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) has announced today that the risk level has risen from moderate to high for people in the European Union. In other words, the virus continues to spread.”

Health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said 2,100 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in 18 of the 27 EU states, and 38 EU citizens had died because of the disease


2020-03-02T11:16:20.990Z

British cruise ship passengers finally returning from Caribbean cruise

Hundreds of British cruise passengers are finally heading home from the Caribbean, four days late, after the Dominican Republic refused to allow their ship to dock, Simon Calder reports.

 


2020-03-02T11:06:58.260Z

Australia sees first community transmissions of coronavirus

An Australian woman and a male doctor have contracted coronavirus, becoming the first cases of community transmissions in the country, health officials said.

New South Wales state ninister for health, Brad Hazzard, said a 31-year old doctor has tested positive for coronavirus, though it is not clear whom he contracted the virus from.

The state government said a 41-year woman was tested after her brother returned to Australia from Iran.


2020-03-02T10:55:51.790Z

Flight cuts

The biggest airline grouping in Continental Europe, Lufthansa, has announced another wave of flight cuts, Simon Calder reports.

 Flights from Munich to Hong Kong will be suspended from 6 March to 24 April, with passengers rebooked via Frankfurt or Zurich. Some individual flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Seoul will also be cut over the next two months.

The German airline is suspending some flights to Italy and cutting back frequencies on many domestic routes from Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich.


2020-03-02T10:46:40.653Z

‘Wash your hands is the national anthem,’ Jacob Rees-Mogg says

Arriving for the Cobra meeting, the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, advised people to “wash your hands”.

Speaking outside the Cabinet Office he said: “Coughs and sneezes catch diseases, put it in your handkerchief.

“Wash your hands is the national anthem.”


2020-03-02T10:29:04.966Z

Iran toll update

Iran has said 66 people have died amid 1,501 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the Islamic Republic.

Iran has the highest death toll from the virus outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

 


2020-03-02T10:24:09.036Z

Widespread transmission will see reduction in social contact

 

Prof Cosford added it was important that people remembered the coronvirus infection was mild in most cases.

“The vast majority of people will make a recovery from it and it is a relatively mild illness,” he said.

 

“Children and otherwise healthy adults seem to be at much lower risk of getting into serious complications you get with this sort of disease.

 

“It’s older people and people with severe underlying conditions that we will be particularly concerned about.”

 

He warned that there will come a point “where we reduce social contact if we see more widespread transmission.”

 

Asked whether it was okay still to offer handshakes, he said he thought so, but added that the next stage of dealing with the outbreak could involve asking “people to isolate themselves at home if there’s a member of their family who’s infected”.

 

He said: “We may well get to a position where we say carry on going to school, carry on going to work, but if you can work from home that’s a very sensible thing to do, and think of all the different ways you can reduce your social contact outside of those activities.”


2020-03-02T10:17:52.380Z

Public urged to wash hands and throw away used tissues

Prof Paul Cosford was also interviewed for Radio 4’s Today programme, where he said it was increasingly likely there would be more widespread transmission of Covid-19 in the UK.

Public Health England’s emeritus medical director also called on the public to take simple steps such as washing their hands and throwing away used tissues.

He said: “I think the increase in number that we are seeing, coupled with the the increases in countries nearby in Europe and of course in south-east Asia, do make it much more likely we will get more widespread transmission in the UK.

“It’s still the case that the vast majority of the cases we’ve got in the UK, we can trace a link to countries where there’s infection and people returning from those countries, but we’ve not been able to identify that in every single case now, so that’s something we are looking at extremely carefully to understand where the source of those infections may be.

“I think we now have to expect there to be more widespread infection in the UK that we will need to deal with. We’ve got to be prepared for that, we’re not there yet but we’ve got to be prepared for it, and it will give us some challenges.”


2020-03-02T10:10:18.386Z

New cases

Portugal has registered its first two cases of coronavirus, local TV reported.

One case was discovered in a man who had recently travelled to Italy and another one in a man who had returned from Spain, the SIC TV channel reported. Both were taken to hospital in Porto.


2020-03-02T09:59:49.453Z

Nike closes European headquarters after employee tests positive

Nike will close its European headquarters in the Netherlands today and tomorrow after an employee was infected with the coronavirus, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Citing an internal email, ANP reported the office in Hilversum would be disinfected overnight. The employee was staying home in isolation for 14 days, it said.

Roughly 2,000 Nike employees from 80 countries work at the site. Dutch health authorities have reported 10 coronavirus infections since 28 February.


2020-03-02T09:53:12.463Z

Andorra records first case

A 20 year-old man with mild symptoms who was recently in Italy has become the first coronavirus case registered in Andorra, the country’s government has announced.

The man was recently in Milan and was hospitalised on Saturday.

The tests have shown a positive infection, and he will remain in hospital for further tests and his immediate social circle will be monitored, the government said in a statement.


2020-03-02T09:39:56.723Z

British woman jailed in Iran showing symptoms of coronavirus, husband says

A British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran is showing “all the symptoms” of coronavirus but is yet to be tested, her husband has said.

Richard Ratcliffe said Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was desperately trying to get tested, but claimed the prison where she is being held is “obviously under orders” to not allow it.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Mr Ratcliffe said: “It [coronavirus] has swept through the prison. There are prisoners showing all the symptoms of coronavirus, a cough, temperature, body pain all over, fatigue. Nazanin at the middle of the week was showing all these symptoms.

“The prison ran out of cleaning materials, disinfectants, it ran out of medicines. But of course the whole country has run out because it was blindsided. The prison is obviously under orders not to test anyone.”

Mr Ratcliffe said he last spoke to his wife on Saturday and she was “desperate” to get tested.

“The other prisoners were keeping away from her because she is showing all the symptoms,” he said.


2020-03-02T09:30:04.446Z

German cases rise to 150

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen to 150 from 129 yesterday, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said.

More than half of the cases, 86, are in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, where several schools and daycare centres will be closed today to try to prevent the spread of the virus after staff members tested positive.


2020-03-02T09:17:24.686Z

Shadow health secretary would support shutting down cities

The shadow health secretary, Jonathon Ashworth, has said he would support shutting down cities to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Asked if he would support shutting down cities to prevent the spread within the UK on BBC Breakfast, Mr Ashworth said: “If the medical advice and the scientific advice is to take measures along those lines, of course we would support them.

He continued: “It would be a move by government so drastic that we hadn’t seen it. And I’m not sure how practical it could be in reality.

“However this virus is serious and appears to spread very easily and we need to contain it and slow down the spread. If the medical advice is to do something like that then of course we should support it.

“That is why I am keen, however, that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, comes to the House of Commons today after the Cobra meeting to update MPs on plans. We just need clarity from government.”


2020-03-02T09:05:39.960Z

UK will see widespread infection ‘fairly soon’, Public Health England warns

 

The UK can expect to see widespread infection of coronavirus “fairly soon”, Public Health England’s emeritus medical director has warned.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Paul Cosford said: “The extent of infection we are seeing in other countries suggests it is likely that we will see more widespread infection in the UK and that is what we have to be prepared for.

 

“We should expect at times that might be quite challenging for us, it is therefore very important that we do everything we can to reduce the spread of infection.

 

“At the moment, the vast majority of cases we see in the UK are still linked to countries where there is more widespread infection, either in Italy or south east Asia.

 

“It is true to say there is a small number now where it is much more difficult to find that link, and that is leading us to think we may well see more widespread infection in the UK fairly soon.

 

“It could happen in the next few days or it could take a little longer.”


2020-03-02T08:56:22.043Z

Louvre museum closed

 

(EPA/YOAN VALAT)

The Louvre museum in Paris has shut its doors to the public early as management and workers held a meeting over the risks associated with the coronavirus.

A sign in multiple languages on the museum’s main entrance read: “Today the opening of the Louvre is delayed. We will inform you about a potential opening time as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.”


2020-03-02T08:42:18.303Z

South Korea reports 123 new cases

South Korea has reported 123 new coronavirus cases, taking the country’s total infections to 4,335, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing health authorities.

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