Virus continues to spread around world with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Indonesia among countries reporting first cases.
Six people have died in the United States from the coronavirus with researchers warning the virus could have been circulating in the community for weeks, as more countries around the world reported their first cases of the disease on Monday.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Tunisia reported their first confirmed coronavirus cases, while the death toll in Iran rose to 66 – the highest outside China.
The Czech Republic, Scotland, and the Dominican Republic also confirmed their first cases. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim majority nation, also announced its first patients.
More than 89,000 people across 58 countries have now been diagnosed with the infection, while the death toll globally has exceeded 3,000.
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This is Hamza Mohamed taking over from Virginia Pietromarchi. Here are the latest updates:
Monday, March 2
20:05 GMT – Oman bans visitors from virus hit countries
Visitors from countries where coronavirus has spread are banned from entering Oman, the country’s foreign ministry said, without specifying countries.
This is a precautionary procedure and will be applied on all ports including land, sea and air, the ministry added.
19:50 GMT – Six people die from coronavirus in Washington state
Six people have died from coronavirus in the US state of Washington, according to health officials, in an outbreak centred around a nursing home in Seattle.
The total number of infections in the state was now 18, according to officials.
The virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the state, researchers say.
More on the story here.
19:30 GMT – German minister rebuffs Merkel’s attempt to shake hands
Awkward moment in Germany as interior minister rebuffed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s attempt to shake hands with him on Monday as the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 150.
When Merkel reached out to greet Horst Seehofer at a meeting on migration in Berlin, he smiled and kept both his hands to himself.
They both laughed and Merkel then threw her hand up in the air before taking a seat.
19:00 GMT – Senegal confirms coronavirus case
Senegal became the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to confirm a coronavirus case.
Health Minister Diouf Sarr said a French man who lives in Senegal visited France in mid-February, contracting the virus before returning to the West African country.
The patient, according to the minister, is now in quarantine in the capital, Dakar.
15:20 GMT – Italian coronavirus deaths rise to 52
The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy jumped by 18 over the past 24 hours to 52, the Civil Protection Agency said.
The accumulative number of cases in the country, which has been hardest hit by the virus in Europe, totalled 2036, up from 1,694 on Sunday.
The head of the agency said of those originally infected, 149 people had recovered.
The contagion came to light 10 days ago and is focused mainly on a handful of hotspots in the north of Italy, with isolated cases reported in many other regions.
16:40 GMT – Saudi Arabia announces first coronavirus case
Saudi Arabia’s health ministry announced its first coronavirus case.
The victim travelled from Iran to the Gulf kingdom through Bahrain, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
A test confirmed the man was infected with the virus.
Samples were taken from those in contact with the person, and results were expected soon, the health ministry said.
16:15 GMT – Number of cases jumps to seven in Qatar
Four new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Qatar, state news agency (QNA) reported on Monday, taking the total to seven.
Two Qatari citizens and two domestic workers who accompanied them to Iran were diagnosed with the virus, QNA quoted the health ministry as saying.
They were among a group of citizens who were evacuated by the government on a private plane from Iran on February 27, the ministry added.
The victims did not have any contact with the community since their arrival. The three earlier coronavirus patients were in stable condition and recovering, it said.
The risk level of coronavirus in the European Union has increased to “high”, EU Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference in Brussels.
“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,” von der Leyen told reporters.
Europe registered 2,199 cases and 38 deaths, most of them in Italy.
Follow the conference live here.
11:35 GMT – China closes first makeshift hospital, keeps strict control
As China marked its lowest number of infected cases since January 22, authorities closed the first of 16 hurriedly built makeshift hospitals after it discharged the last recovered patients, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Despite a sharp decline in new cases in Hubei province and the provincial capital Wuhan, controlling the outbreak remains at a crucial stage and strict prevention must be maintained, said Premier Li Keqiang during a meeting.
Chinese cities with high population mobility such as the capital, Beijing, must control channels and prevent the spread of the epidemic, the government said in a statement on its website.
11:02 GMT – Virus ‘greatest danger’ to global economy: OECD
Coronavirus presents the world economy with its greatest danger since the global financial crisis in 2008, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
A sharp slowdown in global growth is expected in the first half of 2020 as supply chains and commodities are hit, tourism drops and lower confidence grows.
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