Iran has said it may use force to stop people travelling between cities, as it reported a big one-day rise in cases, while globally the number of confirmed cases rose above the 100,000 mark.
The possible measure was announced during a televised press conference by a health ministry spokesman, who said the authorities had confirmed 4,747 cases of the virus, a rise of 1,234 on the day before.
While he did not elaborate on the threat to use force, the spokesman acknowledged that the virus was present in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.
The threat may be aimed at stopping people from using closed schools and universities as an excuse to go to the Caspian Sea and other holiday spots in the run-up to the Persian new year, which falls on 21 March.
Semi-official news agencies in Iran posted images of long lines of traffic of people trying to reach the coast from Tehran on Friday despite authorities earlier telling people to remain in their cities.
Checkpoints on roads in Mazandaran and Gilan provinces were being operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in perhaps the most visible intervention by the state yet. There also appeared to be checks for those entering or leaving the holy city of Qom.
Friday prayers and football matches have already been cancelled but public trust in the authorities’ capacity to deal with the virus had been undermined by the government’s sluggish and complacent initial response to the outbreak, and by state’s secrecy over the killing of hundreds of street protesters in November.
The number of confirmed cases of the virus worldwide passed 100,000, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University, and the World Health Organization warned some countries were not showing the political commitment needed to “match the level of the threat we all face”.
Tehran has been stung by criticism of its handling of the outbreak, pointing to WHO assessments that have not challenged the government’s official figures. Health officials said the new figures may reflect the availability of more accurate testing kits.
In two further signs of rising concern about the situation in Iran, Christoph Hamelmann, the WHO country director, told senior overseas diplomats in Tehran that funding was urgently needed for a “rapid upscaling” of laboratory and clinical components, and Saudi Arabia called on citizens to declare visits to Iran in the past 14 days. Members of the kingdom’s Shia minority tend to keep their visits to Iran secret because of the bitter rivalry between the two countries.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, 12 new cases were reported among workers on a cruise ship in Egypt. A tourist who travelled on the same ship sailing between Luxor and Aswan tested positive for the virus on her return to Taiwan a week ago.
What is Covid-19 – the illness that started in Wuhan?
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.
Have there been other coronaviruses?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.
What are the symptoms caused by the new coronavirus?
The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
UK Chief Medical Officers are advising anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and who is experiencing a cough or fever or shortness of breath to stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere.
How many people have been affected?
As of 4 March, the global death toll was 3,190, while more than 93,000 people have been infected in more than 80 countries.
The death toll has passed 3,000 in China, where there have been over 80,000 cases. South Korea, the nation worst hit by the outbreak outside China, has had 5,328 cases. More than 44,000 people in China have recovered from Covid-19.
There have been 87 recorded cases and no fatalities to date in the UK. There are 53 confirmed cases in Australia, with two deaths.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2% at the centre of the outbreak, Hubei province, and less than that elsewhere. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Another key unknown is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population – elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems – to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important. One sensible step is to get the flu vaccine, which will reduce the burden on health services if the outbreak turns into a wider epidemic.
Is the outbreak a pandemic?
A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed outside China, but by no means in all 195 countries on the WHO’s list. It is also not spreading within those countries at the moment, except in a very few cases. By far the majority of cases are travellers who picked up the virus in China.
Should we panic?
No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people, and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact. Generally, the coronavirus appears to be hitting older people hardest, with few cases in children.
In Europe, Germany, France and the UK have all reported big rises in cases in the past 24 hours. On Friday, the first confirmed cases were reported in Cameroon, Serbia, Bhutan and Vatican City.
Germany on Friday reported 134 new cases, taking its total to 534. There are now 423 confirmed cases in France, where seven have died. In the UK, cases doubled in two days to 128 on Friday, while thethe first death was reported on Thursday. Dutch health authorities reported the first death there on Friday.
In Asia, a diplomatic row erupted between Japan and South Korea after Tokyo said it would quarantine all passengers arriving from the country, which has the highest number of Covid-19 cases outside China.
From Saturday, anyone arriving in Japan from South Korea will be placed in a two-week quarantine at government-designated sites, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said on Thursday.
Seoul described the move as “unreasonable, excessive and extremely regrettable”, accused Japan of failing to address its own outbreak properly, and threatened retaliatory measures.
The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have insisted the Games will open as planned on 24 July, but speculation is growing that they will have to be cancelled.
Meanwhile, schools in parts of China are set to reopen as the central province of Hubei – excluding the provincial capital Wuhan – reported no new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours for the first time since the outbreak began last year.
In a sign that parts of China are returning to normal, schools in provinces that have logged no new cases for more than a fortnight began to set dates for school reopenings.
On Thursday night, the WHO repeated its warning that individual countries were responsible for dealing with the disease within their borders – and that some governments needed to do more.
“This is not a drill,” said the organisation’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “This epidemic is a threat for every country, rich and poor.” While he did not single out any culprits, Tedros said not all countries were demonstrating “the level of political commitment” required to “match the level of the threat we all face”.
As the outbreak continued to spread in the US, the Trump administration was forced on to the defensive, amid criticism of its approach to the virus.
The president, who last week claimed the risk in the US was “very low” and that the number of cases would be zero in “a few days”, faced questions at an election town hall event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday night. His vice-president, Mike Pence, who is in charge of the US response, admitted the country did not have enough testing kits to meet demand.
Additional reporting by Lily Kuo in Hong Kong and Justin McCurry in Tokyo
