Amid fears about where the next outbreak of a fast-spreading new virus would appear, infections and deaths continued to rise across the globe Sunday, emptying streets of tourists and workers, shaking economies and rewriting the realities of daily life.
The latest:
- U.K. prepares with ‘worst-case scenario’ plan.
- 1st cases reported in Armenia, Ireland and Ecuador.
- 20th case of infection reported in Canada.
- Chinese researchers calculate lower death rate.
- UN conference on women’s rights to be be drastically scaled back.
Britain is planning for the global coronavirus epidemic to get worse, health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday, describing the outbreak as a “very, very significant challenge.”
“We’ve got a clear strategy for dealing with coronavirus —- a very, very significant challenge,” Hancock told Sky News. “We’re also planning in case this gets worse, much worse.”
Hancock told the BBC’s Andrew Marr the government is planning for the “worst-case scenario” and that contingency plans would be published this week.
If the virus becomes more widespread, the U.K. government will look at registering retired health workers to work again, and whether encouraging people to work at home could delay its peak until summer when it can be more easily dealt with.
Britain currently has 23 confirmed coronavirus cases, and Hancock said on Sunday it was still in a containment phase. The issue will become a standing item for all cabinet meetings and there will be more media briefings from health officials.
Johnson wrote in the Sun newspaper that it was right to be concerned about the possible spread of the virus, but said a visit to a British hospital had left him “100 per cent confident in the medical resilience.”
Asked if cities could be shut down, Hancock said that would entail a “huge economic and social downside,” but added, “We don’t take anything off the table at this stage.”
Panic-buying of daily necessities emerged in Japan, tourist sites across Asia, Europe and the Mideast were deserted, and governments closed schools and banned big gatherings. Amusement parks have been shuttered and concerts cancelled. France’s Louvre Museum was closed on Sunday for a staff meeting, held to discuss efforts to prevent the virus from spreading.
China on Sunday reported a slight uptick in new cases over the past 24 hours to 573, the first time in five days that number has exceeded 500. They remain almost entirely confined to the hardest-hit province of Hubei and its capital, the epicentre of Wuhan.
The list of countries touched by the virus climbed to nearly 60, with Ireland and Ecuador reporting their first cases Saturday. More than 86,000 people worldwide have contracted the virus, with deaths nearing 3,000. Nearly 3,000 have died, mostly in China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak originated in December.
1st death from virus in U.S.
While the new coronavirus has extended its reach across the world, definite geographic clusters of infections were emerging, with Iran, Italy and South Korea seeing rising cases. The United States, meanwhile, recorded its first death, a man in his 50s in Washington state who had underlying health conditions but who hadn’t travelled to any affected areas.
“Additional cases in the United States are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover,” Presid