WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has played down fearsof a major coronavirus outbreak in the United States, even as infectionsricochet around the world, prompting Saudi Arabia to ban pilgrims from visitingIslam's holiest sites. China is no longer the only breeding ground for thedeadly virus as countries fret over possible contagion coming from otherhotbeds of infection, including Iran, South Korea and Italy.
There are now more daily cases being recorded outside Chinathan inside the country, where the virus first emerged in December, accordingto the World Health Organization. More than 2,700 people have died in China andsome 78,000 have been infected. There have been more than 50 deaths and 3,600cases in dozens of other countries, raising fears of a pandemic.
"I think that there's a chance that it could get worse,a chance it could get fairly substantially worse, but nothing'sinevitable," Trump told reporters at the White House. His commentscontradicted US health officials who urged Americans to be ready to cancel massgatherings and work from home. There are 60 cases in the US so far.
Following Trump's upbeat assessment, the US Centers ofDisease Control and Prevention said it had detected the first case of unknownorigin in the country, signalling that the virus may be spreading withincommunities. The US and other countries are also bracing for more cases to beimported from abroad, with growing concern for poorer nations with weak healthcare systems.
With the virus spreading in the Middle East, Saudi Arabiasuspended visas for visits to Islam's holiest sites for the umrah pilgrimage,an apparently unprecedented move, raising questions over the hajj which startsin July. The foreign ministry said it was also suspending visas for touristsvisiting from countries where the new virus is a "danger".
Several governments have now also advised against travel toItaly -- which has 400 cases and 12 deaths. Iran's neighbors have shut theirborders, while Mongolia has suspended flights from South Korea and Japan.
Infections outside China
Trump said the US was considering travel restrictions onItaly and South Korea, which has almost 1,600 cases, the highest number outsideChina. The US already restricts arrivals from China. Even China -- which sealedoff an entire province and shut down cities across the country to contain thevirus -- is now worried about importing cases and ordered people arriving inBeijing from virus-hit countries to go into 14-day self-quarantine.
The virus is believed to have originated in a market in thecentral Chinese city of Wuhan, where it is suspected of having hopped fromanimal to human before spreading across the country and proliferating abroad.China reported 29 more deaths yesterday -- its lowest daily tally since January-- and 433 new cases, most of them in hard-hit Hubei province and well belowmassive increases from just a week ago.
Zhong Nanshan, a respected scientist who advises thegovernment, said the country would have had much fewer cases if action had beentaken as early as December -- a rare critique from a prominent insider. Hubeiofficials have been accused of initially covering up the outbreak and silencinga whistleblowing doctor who later died from the disease. Nevertheless, Zhongsaid he expected China to bring the epidemic under control by late April.
But other countries have now become sources of concern. InLatin America's first case, the 61-year-old patient had travelled to Italy'sLombardy region. In Romania, a man was infected after coming in contact with avisiting Italian. Countries from Denmark to Spain and Algeria have alsoreported infections linked to Italy.
The first cases in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Estoniainvolved people who had been in Iran. Iran has emerged as a major hotspot inthe region, where 22 people have succumbed to the disease -- the biggest deathtoll outside China. The Islamic Republic imposed domestic travel restrictionsfor people with confirmed or suspected cases and slapped curbs on visits tomajor Muslim pilgrimage sites, but it said it was not quarantining cities.
'No panic'
Fears over the epidemic's spread have rocked global marketsin recent days, while sports matches and festivals across Europe have beencancelled. The US and South Korea's militaries on Thursday postponedforthcoming joint exercises because of the outbreak. A Six Nations rugby matchbetween Italy and Ireland in Dublin on March 7 has been called off, and nextmonth's alpine skiing World Cup Finals in Italy will be held without fans onthe slopes.
The WHO has urged countries to prepare for a potentialpandemic, though it stopped short of declaring one. Australian Prime MinisterScott Morrison, however, said his government was "effectively operatingnow on the basis that there is one -- a pandemic". But EU HealthCommissioner Stella Kyriakides appealed for calm. "This is a situation ofconcern, but we must not give in to panic," Kyriakides said. - AFP