More than 83,000 cases of the COVID-19 disease have now been confirmed in more than 50 countries. While about 36,000 of those people have recovered, fast-growing outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran — along with the first case confirmed in Nigeria — show the battle to contain the virus is still in its early stages. Officials have worried the disease could spread widely in countries with weaker public health systems, specifically in Africa and Latin America.
In the U.S., at least 62 people were being treated for COVID-19 as of Thursday, most of them evacuated from Asia. The origin of one case, a woman in California, has been impossible for doctors to trace, leading the CDC to warn the U.S. has likely seen its first case of “community spread.”
The head of the World Health Organization said that kind of transmission, of unknown origin and possibly from the general population, represented the third of four outbreak stages that every nation must be prepared for: “Every country must be ready for its first case, its first cluster, the first evidence of community transmission, and for dealing with sustained community transmission,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“We are not defenseless,” insisted Tedros, urging “every country and every person” to help ensure cases are detected early and that authorities are able to trace contacts, provide care and prevent widespread community transmissions.
New coronavirus cases among cruise ship passengers quarantined in U.S.
Two more people who were evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan earlier this month have tested positive for the coronavirus, Dr. Nancy Messonnier with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Friday. The U.S. evacuated more than 300 people from the Diamond Princess nearly two weeks ago, and 44 of them have contracted the COVID-19 disease.
Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, didn’t provide additional details about the two new cases. All U.S. evacuees from the cruise ship and from the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, have been ordered to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
Coronavirus quarantines in U.S. appear inevitable, doctor says
Amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak, one doctor suggested that Americans worried about quarantines should begin preparing. CBS News medical consultant Dr. David Agus predicted the question would be “not if but when and where” quarantines will be occurring during an appearance on “CBS This Morning.”
“The death rate is very low with this virus. Most people will survive this virus,” he said.
Agus advised asking companies what their work from home policy would be, and being aware that children in the household may have to take school from home.
“Get a week of food, dry food in your house. And be ready for this. There’s no reason to panic, we’re all going to do fine,” he said. “But there’s going to be a new way of life, and we have to prepare for that way of life.”
Agus also recommended stocking up on two to three weeks of medicines.
Bloodbath on Wall Street as stocks continue to sink
Financial markets opened sharply lower on Friday, putting stocks on track for a seventh straight day of losses as investors brace for the economic fallout from the widening coronavirus outbreak.
The Dow plunged 1,026 points, or 4%, to 24,741 in morning trading, following a nearly 1,200 point drop on Thursday. The broader S&P 500 stock index fell 3.7% in early trading, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite declined 3%.
The value of U.S. equities has tumbled more than $3 trillion from their market highs last week amid turbulence caused by the widening outbreak. The downdraft puts stocks on track for their worst week since October of 2008, when markets cratered during the financial crisis.
WHO upgrades global risk of virus spread to “very high”
The United Nations health agency on Friday upgraded the global risk from the new coronavirus to “very high.” The World Health Organization said the continued increase in cases and countries affected was “clearly of concern”.
“We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
World Health Organization (WHO)✔@WHO
“The continued increase in the number of #COVID19 cases, & the number of affected countries over the last few days, are clearly of concern”-@DrTedros #coronavirus
World Health Organization (WHO)✔@WHO
“Our epidemiologists have been monitoring these developments continuously, and we have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of #COVID19 to very high at a global level”-@DrTedros #coronavirus
Iran warns “tough week ahead” as it grapples with growing virus outbreak
Iran’s success or failure in combating the coronavirus will have an impact far beyond the country’s 80 million people, as the majority of cases in the Mideast now link back to Iran.
“We will have a tough week ahead,” Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki warned Friday. “The main peak of the coronavirus will be in next week and coming days.”
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour again reported a huge spike in cases, saying there were 388 confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran and 34 deaths as of Friday. In brief remarks from Tehran, he cautioned the number of cases would likely further spike as Iran now has 15 laboratories testing samples.
In Tehran and other cities, authorities canceled Friday prayer services to limit crowds. Universities are to remain closed another week. Schools will be closed for at least three days, Namaki said. Parliament also will be closed, state television said, citing a lawmaker.
Questions remain over Iran’s true coronavirus case count. Experts, including at the World Health Organization, worry the Islamic Republic may be under-counting, or underreporting the number of cases in the country.
– CBS/AP
U.K. passenger from virus-stricken cruise ship dies in Japan
A British man who was on board a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo has died, Japan’s health ministry said on Friday.
The ministry confirmed the man’s nationality and death on Friday without giving any identifying details.
The man was the first foreigner to have died from the illness after spending time aboard the Diamond Princess. Another five Japanese nationals on the vessel have died and more than 700 others tested positive for the disease.
– AFP
Mexico reports first cases of virus
Mexico’s assistant health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. Hugo Lopez-Gatell said one of the patients is in Mexico City and the other in the northern state of Sinaloa, and neither is seriously ill.
At least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. He said one of the men had contact with someone who had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak.
Brazil on Wednesday confirmed Latin America’s first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in a man who traveled to Italy this month.
– Associated Press
Azerbaijan reports first case of coronavirus
Azerbaijan confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus disease on Friday, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
“This is a Russian citizen who arrived in Azerbaijan from Iran. He is placed in the infectious unit of the special regime (quarantine),” the country’s emergency coordination office was quoted as saying by Interfax. The patient was reportedly in stable condition.
Health officials were tracing the patients’ contacts. Azerbaijan is the 53rd nation to confirm the presence of the new disease, which is estimated to kill between 1 and 2% of those infected.
California monitoring 8,400 for virus as they try to track origin of mystery case
California is currently monitoring 8,400 people for the new coronavirus as doctors try to work out how a woman in the state contracted the illness without any connection to a likely origin.
Multiple health care personnel who were exposed to the patient in the days before her diagnosis were also being kept in isolation and even quarantine. Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that federal officials have promised to send more testing kits as part of the government’s emergency initiative to increase coronavirus testing capabilities nationwide.
Russia imposes new travel restrictions on Iranians, South Koreans
Russia decided Friday to temporarily bar the entry of all Iranian citizens as the coronavirus outbreak in the Islamic Republic grew quickly and spread from their across the Middle East. Similar restrictions were imposed on South Korean citizens, but the restrictions would not apply to official delegations from either country wishing to visit Russia.
“Citizens of the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), crews of aircraft, members of official delegations and persons holding a residence permit in Russia, coming from Iran, are not subject to the restrictions,” according to the official Russian government order.
Flights to and from South Korea were to be banned starting March 1, but Russia’s government was not, as of Friday, planning to evacuate nationals from South Korea, home to the largest COVID-19 outbreak outside China. The Russian Embassy in Seoul did not rule out such evacuation flights in the future, however.
– Tucker Reals and Svetlana Berdnikova
U.S. schools brace for coronavirus
Schools across the United States are canceling trips abroad, preparing online lessons and even rethinking “perfect attendance” awards as they brace for the possibility that the new coronavirus could begin spreading in their communities.
Districts have been rushing to update emergency plans this week after federal officials warned that the virus, which started in China, is almost certain to begin spreading in the U.S. Many are preparing for possible school closures that could stretch weeks or longer, even as they work to tamp down panic among students, parents and teachers.
President Trump has worked to minimize fears about the virus, but on Wednesday he also recommended that schools to start planning for arrival of the COVID-19 virus “just in case.”
– Associated Press
“Slightly unwell” Pope Francis nixes public events amid Italy’s virus outbreak
Pope Francis, still feeling “slightly unwell” after appearing to cough and wipe his nose earlier this week, cancelled all of his public audiences Friday amid a growing and deadly outbreak of the new coronavirus in Italy. The Vatican said Francis would, however, hold all of his scheduled afternoon appointments at his residence.
There has been no suggestion the pope himself might have COVID-19 disease, and the Vatican has not mentioned a fever — considered the most common symptom of it.
“The Holy Father celebrated Mass this morning and at the end, as usual, greeted the participants, but he decided to postpone today’s official audiences,” the Vatican said in a statement. In spite of guidance from global health experts for people, particularly in countries with significant outbreaks of the new virus, to limit direct contact with others, the Vatican confirmed to CBS News that the pope had greeted participants at the Mass as usual, shaking their hands and exchanging a few words with them.”
It was not clear Friday whether Francis had been tested specifically for the new disease. Now 83, he has generally enjoyed good health, but he had part of a lung removed as a young man due to an infection, and the coronavirus is known to be particularly dangerous for older patients and those with underlying health conditions.
– Anna Matranga and Tucker Reals
Hong Kong virus patients’ pets to be quarantined after dog tests “weak positive”
Dogs, cats and other mammals owned as pets by confirmed COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong must now undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine after a pet dog tested “weak positive” for the virus, Hong Kong health officials said Friday.
The semi-autonomous Chinese city’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in a statement that the dog was not showing any symptoms, and there was no evidence to suggest pets could be infected, or be a source of infection for humans, despite the preliminary test result on the animal.
The dog was being quarantined at a veterinary facility and undergoing further tests to determine whether it had genuinely contracted the new coronavirus, or whether the test result might have come from environmental contamination of its mouth and nose, the agency said.
If confirmed, the dog would be the first case of a pet catching the new coronavirus.
– Grace Qi
Lithuania becomes 50th country to confirm presence of coronavirus
Lithuania confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus in a woman who returned from Italy, the government said on Friday. The 39-year-old, who returned from Verona on Monday and immediately went on sick leave, has been isolated in hospital in the Baltic state’s northern city of Siauliai and has mild symptoms. Her family members are being monitored.
“We are putting all efforts to establish all people who contacted the infected person so that we can adopt preventive measures and (stop) the spread of the virus,” Deputy Health Minister Algirdas Seselgis said in a statement.
The government also decided to deploy troops at airports to help take down the contact info of people arriving from infected regions. Health experts are also on duty for consultations and, if needed, medical check-ups.
– AFP
South Korea coronavirus cases top 2,000
South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 256 new coronavirus cases Friday, according to Reuters. That brings the total number of infections there to at least 2,022.
Nearly 200 of the new cases came from Daegu, the southeastern city at the center of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak, Reuters added, citing the KCDC.
Nigeria reports first confirmed coronavirus case
Nigeria confirmed its first coronavirus case Thursday in Lagos State, according to a tweet from the country’s Federal Ministry of Health.
Health officials added that the patient is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria, and returned from Milan on February 25. The patient, who has no serious symptoms, is being cared for at a hospital in Lagos.
Nigeria was the 49th country to report a coronavirus case, but one of the first in Africa.
China reports 327 new confirmed cases, 44 new deaths
Chinese officials reported 327 new cases of the coronavirus and 44 new deaths Friday morning. That announcement brings the global death toll to more than 2,800, and the total number of cases in China to more than 78,000.
First case of coronavirus confirmed in the Netherlands
The first case of coronavirus in the Netherlands was detected on Thursday, the national public health institute announced. The patient had travelled to northern Italy, the worst-hit area in Europe.
All those who have been in “close contact” with the person involved have been checked out and the patient has been placed in isolation, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said. The public health body advised everyone in the country to be careful to avoid more infections.
– AFP
Pelosi says bipartisan agreement close on coronavirus response bill
Congress is working on a bill to fund the federal emergency response to coronavirus, and both Republicans and Democrats said now is not the time to play politics. “We’re coming close to a bipartisan agreement in the Congress as to how we can go forward with a number — that is a good start,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is pointing a finger at the Chinese government. “If China would’ve allowed our doctors and our scientists in earlier, the world would be safer,” he said.
Congress is set to receive a fourth briefing on the coronavirus from the Trump administration on Friday. On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence met with the coronavirus task force.
“The president has no higher priority than the health and safety of the American people,” he said.
– Skyler Henry
Exposing the Big Game 