Latest update on coronavirus worldwide – The Liberator
With new tolls and key developments, here is the latest in the coronavirus crisis.
– More than 3,800 deaths –
Since the novel coronavirus first emerged in late December, 2019, 110,564 cases have been recorded in 100 countries and territories, killing 3,862 people, according to an AFP toll based on official sources on Monday around 1100 GMT.
In mainland China, where the epidemic started, 80,735 cases have been registered, of which 3,119 deaths, but with a decline in new cases in recent weeks.
South Korea, the second worst affected country in terms of infections, has recorded 7,382 cases and 51 deaths. On Monday it announced its lowest number of new daily cases for two weeks.
Next hit is Italy (7,375 cases — but 366 deaths), Iran (7,161 cases and 237 deaths), and France (1,126 cases, 19 deaths). Germany has passed the 1,000-case threshold (1,112 cases, no deaths).
Albania on Monday announced its first cases.
– Oil, stocks plunge –
Stock markets around the world fall sharply, panicked by an historic crash in oil prices and by fears the coronavirus will affect the global economy.
Oil prices suffer the biggest drop since the 1991 Gulf War, collapsing by more than 30 percent in Asia, after Saudi Arabia unilaterally launches a price war.
In Paris the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that world consumption of oil is expected to drop this year for the first time since 2009.
Asian bourses from China to Japan plunge, while European stock exchanges open in the red.
– France tightens measures –
The second most badly affected European country after Italy, France, says the coronavirus is set to cause an economic downturn to perhaps under 1 percent of GDP.
France bans all gatherings of more than 1,000 people and closes schools in the most badly affected areas.
– Cancellations –
Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League last 16-second leg at home to German club Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday in Paris will be played behind closed doors.
The Six Nations clash between France-Ireland scheduled for Saturday in Paris is postponed.
Japan’s professional baseball season, originally set to open on March 20, is also postponed.
In Poland, the annual March of the Living on the site of the former Auschwitz death camp to remember victims of the Holocaust is called off.
In the United States the Indian Wells tennis tournament is cancelled.
– Restrictions –
In Vietnam, 13 people catch the coronavirus on a flight from London to Hanoi and are quarantined, leading the regime to tighten measures to contain the epidemic.
India bans foreign cruise ships from its ports.
Foreign diplomats are evacuated from North Korea after weeks of strict quarantine imposed by Pyongyang.
