The virus, known as Covid-19, has now infected close to 113,000 people worldwide and resulted in more than 4,000 deaths. The majority of these cases are in mainland China, where the outbreak first emerged -- but the rate of infection has been slowing in the country, and the situation stabilizing, even as the virus wreaks havoc elsewhere
In an apparent show of confidence, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in virus-stricken Wuhan Tuesday, his first visit to the city at the epicenter of the global outbreak since the crisis began. The trip comes as Chinese authorities recorded 19 new cases, 17 of which were in Wuhan, and two were imported from overseas -- marking the third straight day of no locally transmitted cases outside Hubei, the province of which Wuhan is the capital. Of the country's 80,754 patients, nearly 60,000 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
Other Asian countries like South Korea are also beginning to see a slowdown in the virus' spread. South Korea, which has carried out more than 190,000 tests as part of a free nationwide screening program, recorded it's lowest number of daily confirmed cases of the virus in weeks on Tuesday -- a sign that the country may has "passed the peak" of the outbreak, South Korean Health Minister Park Neunghoo told CNN.
But these cautious signs of progress throw into sharp relief the deteriorating situation in the West.
States across the US are declaring emergencies, with even congressmen being self-quarantined after exposure to a patient. And in Europe, the outbreak that began in Italy has spread far and wide, with nearby countries like Germany reporting dramatic spikes in daily cases.
All of Italy is under lockdown
In an unprecedented and potentially legally fraught move, all of Italy and its 60 million residents have been placed under lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Monday, part of a raft of sweeping quarantine measures intended to contain the outbreak.
The northern region of Lombardy and 14 other provinces had already been placed under lockdown -- but this new decree will extend those restrictions across the entire country, as the virus continues to spread throughout Italy and mainland Europe.
The drastic measures include blanket travel restrictions, a ban on all public events, the closures of schools and public spaces such as movie theaters, and the suspension of religious services including funerals or weddings.
To enforce the movement ban, military police, railway police, and health workers are carrying out checks on transportation sites like highways and train stations.
This lockdown represents the toughest coronavirus response to be implemented outside of mainland China, and comes as the country buckles under the weight of the epidemic.
Parts of Italy, particularly the northern regions, are seeing a "tsunami of patients," and the healthcare system is "one step from collapse," said Antonio Pesenti, intensive care coordinator in the Lombardy crisis unit.
So far, Italy has 9,172 cases and 463 deaths -- the most of any country outside of China.
The new lockdown may help slow the virus from spreading further -- but some, like the Lombardy president, fear it is "still insufficient" given the sheer scale and speed of the Italian outbreak.
The virus spreads across the US
The virus is rapidly spreading across the United States too, with new cases reported in at least 20 states on Monday.
The country now has 717 confirmed and presumptive positive cases and 26 deaths, spread out across 36 states and the capital, Washington, DC.
Washington state has been the hardest hit; 22 of the country's 26 deaths were in Washington, which has 180 cases. At least 10 states, including Washington, have declared states of emergency, which give state governments access to emergency funds and powers.
But there are signs of growing frustrations with the federal government's handling of the outbreak. On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing delays, and earlier this month, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee criticized the Trump administration for not sticking "to the science."
In some ways the friction began as early as February, when new federal travel restrictions ruffled state and local officials, who complained the rollout had been opaque and confusing. But these tensions are only ramping up now as the virus threatens to disrupt people's lives and livelihoods.
Multiple schools in Washington have already moved to online learning. Many large colleges like Columbia University, New York University, Stanford, and the University of Southern California are also beginning to hold classes remotely instead of in person.
And employers like Amazon and Boeing have begun asking employees in virus-hit areas to work from home, in an echo of the same measures rolled out across Asia just a month or two ago.
Markets are slowly recovering from Monday's crash
Coronavirus fears and an oil price war sparked a global panic on Monday, with markets entering into stunning decline.
Oil prices collapsed after Saudi Arabia launched a price war against onetime ally Russia -- and the crisis was only worsened by the coronavirus, which has slammed economies worldwide and weighed heavily on investors.
Wall Street had already faced heavy losses for several weeks because of the virus; the oil price war served a second blow, and the Dow ended the day with its biggest point drop in history, closing Monday down 2,014 points, or 7.8%.
On Tuesday, markets in Asia Pacific mostly stumbled, with South Korea's Kospi, China's Shanghai Composite, and Japan's Nikkei 225 all falling, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index swung between gains and losses.
There are some signs of recovery, with Dow futures jumping 500 points, or 2.2%, and Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was trading firmly in the green.
But the virus may prove harder to recover from; about $9 trillion was wiped off global stocks in nine days, Bank of America said in a research note on Thursday. And markets are still seeing wild swings, indicative of just how deep investor anxieties run.
The White House will discuss a possible economic relief package with Senate Republicans on Tuesday, it said, as fears over the new coronavirus prompted stunning declines in the stock market and major disruption to daily life.
The public response to the rapidly spreading virus has gone into overdrive, as schools shut down, colleges shift to online classes, offices tell employees to work remotely, and local governments scramble to contain the virus. Major events have been canceled, including Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade this weekend.
What became clearest on Monday, however, was the full extent of the virus’s potential economic impact. Wall Street experienced its worst day in over a decade, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling more than 2,000 points.
At a news conference, President Trump announced new plans to assist hourly wage workers, cut payroll taxes, and help airlines, cruises and hotels, all of which have been hit especially hard. More details about the administration’s response are expected on Tuesday.
“The main thing,” Trump said, “is we are taking care of the American public.”
Yet even as the virus sends some lawmakers — including the incoming White House chief of staff — into quarantine, questions continue to circle about whether enough testing is being done to keep up with the virus.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar could not say Monday how many Americans had been tested for the virus, citing internal tech issues. He promised that more than 4 million tests would be available by the end of the week.
On Tuesday, more passengers are expected to disembark the virus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship, which docked in Oakland, Calif., following days of uncertainty about what might happen to more than 3,000 people on board.
An unprecedented domestic operation is under way to care for and quarantine the Americans who may have been exposed to the virus, a chaotic effort that has already drawn frustration and anxiety from some local governments.
Still, on Monday morning, Trump dismissed the risk posed to the public, charging that Democrats and the media have been playing up the situation. Then, he landed in Orlando and shook hands with his supporters.
The president had not been tested for the virus, the White House said, and “remains in excellent health.”
"We are hoping that we have passed the peak, taking the numbers into consideration, and cautiously expecting we have passed the peak," South Korean Health Minister Park Neunghoo said in an exclusive interview with CNN.
More than 7,300 coronavirus infections have been confirmed throughout South Korea, killing more than 50. It is one of the largest outbreaks outside mainland China, where the deadly virus was first identified. However, the number of new daily infections in South Korea has declined in recent days.
Park said that while he believes the aggregate number of infections is high, he is confident in the job South Korea did to combat the virus' spread and would advise other governments who are dealing with outbreaks to focus efforts on early testing and global cooperation.
The South Korean government has been among the most ambitious when it comes to providing the public with free and easy testing options. It has the ability run about 15,000 diagnostic test per day and has conducted 196,000 tests to date nationwide, free of charge. Authorities in the city of Goyang even set up drive-thru testing booths.
"Detecting patients at an early stage is very important and we learned the simple lessons by dealing with this virus that this is very contagious -- and once it starts, it spreads very quickly and in very wide areas," Park said. "Raising the testing capability is very important because that way, you can detect someone who's carrying the virus, then you can contain the virus."
South Korean authorities also arranged facilities for patients who were only suffering from mild symptoms. Park said only about 10% of coronavirus patients required hospitalization, while the rest had strong enough immune systems to fight the virus on their own.
About three quarters of all the cases have been identified in the city of Daegu and 63% of all cases in the country are directly related to Shinchonji religious group, the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
South Korean authorities believe it's possible that the country's outbreak began with Shincheonji. Park said the number of cases linked to Shincheonji could be as high as 90% of all coronavirus infections throughout the country, when counting those directly and indirectly linked to the religious group.
He also said that while most members agreed to be tested for the virus, there were a few that refused, and that may have slowed down the government's response.
"That's why the government officials sought their consent," he said. "Of course had we been able to test them sooner it could have been easier for us to deal with it so that is a disappointing part of it."
"Without this particular group we might have been able to contain and cope in this fight against the virus but we encountered a very particular and unique religious group so we are trying to block and contain this infection while protecting freedom of citizens, and we are hoping to be able to see a resolution in a short time," he said.
Travel restrictions, school closures, and soccer games being played behind closed doors. WSJ's Eric Sylvers shows what life looks like in Milan as roughly 17 million Italians are on lockdown. Photo: Flavio Lo Scalzo/Reuters
The novel coronavirus epidemic reached a new stage globally, with confirmed cases outside China tripling over the past week and governments warning of more infections among people who recently traveled to countries where infection rates are rising.
Financial market turmoil intensified. Stock markets around the world plunged again on Monday, though also behind the selloff was a crash in oil prices caused by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Investors worried that this could trigger broader financial problems just as the global economy takes a severe hit from the virus outbreak. Oil prices fell more than 20%, and the 10-year Treasury note yield dipped below 0.4%, a historic low.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases was more than 110,000 Monday, with infections in 108 countries and regions, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There were 29,306 cases outside mainland China, versus around 10,000 a week ago. The U.S. tally rose to 554 cases, with 21 deaths.
The Latest on the Coronavirus
110,000 coronavirus cases world-wide; infections in 108 countries and regions
U.S. tally rises to 554 cases; 21 deaths
Italy infections rise to 7,375; deaths at 366
South Korea virus spread slows, 165 new cases reported, total rises to 7,478
29,306 cases outside mainland China, versus about 10,000 a week ago
The world-wide death toll stood at 3,825—the bulk of which were in China, especially in the central city of Wuhan, which first reported the pneumonia-like virus in December. Italy has the second-highest number of deaths at 366, and the total number of confirmed infections in the Mediterranean country climbed to 7,375 over the weekend, almost catching up with South Korea’s 7,478 cases.
Italy on Monday began ratcheting up its lockdown of almost 17 million people living across its north, including the cities of Milan and Venice, as the country tries to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.
Police began stopping people at train stations and airports in the north, asking them to produce a written form explaining why their trip was necessary.
The increased enforcement of the lockdown comes as Italy’s virus outbreak, with 7,375 total infections, approaches the level of South Korea’s, behind only China. In Italy, 366 people with the virus had died by Sunday, far more than in South Korea, where there were 53. Doctors in northern Italy have warned that they are running short of intensive-care beds for severe cases.
In the U.S.,
Carnival Corp.
’s Grand Princess cruise ship is expected to dock in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, after staying off shore for days amid concerns over the new coronavirus. One former passenger died, becoming California’s first Covid-19 death, and 21 current passengers, including 19 crew members, on the boat tested positive for the virus. Once the ship docks, all those on board will be quarantined.
Tracking U.S. Cases of the New Coronavirus
Authorities are closely tracking confirmed positive cases of the virus in America.
Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering
Elbert Wang, Vivien Ngo, and Dylan Moriarty/The Wall Street Journal
Other Princess Cruises have also been affected by the virus’s spread. The Regal Princess docked at Port Everglades in Broward County, Fla., late Sunday after U.S. authorities ordered the ship to be held off the state’s coast. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a no-sail order to the Royal Princess in Los Angeles, the company said.
Officials warned Americans over the weekend to avoid cruise ships, and Vice President Mike Pence, who met with industry leaders over the weekend in Florida, said ships will implement stronger screenings, among other measures.
The number of positive cases grew in the hardest-hit U.S. states in recent days, with about 136 positive cases in Washington state, 105 in New York and 114 in California. At least eight states have declared states of emergency as the virus has spread to new locations, including Washington, D.C. There are at least 566 U.S. cases thus far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins Monday morning. At least 22 Americans have died, with the majority of deaths following an outbreak at a Kirkland, Wash., nursing home.
The virus’s quick spread across the U.S. over the past week has prompted universities and school districts to cancel in-person classes, businesses to ask their employees to work from home, organizations to cancel high-profile events and local officials to implore residents avoid large crowds.
The death toll from the virus in Iran rose to 237 on Monday, up from 194 the day before, according to the country’s health ministry. The ministry also confirmed 595 cases of infections, bringing the total number of patients to 7,161 patients.
In a sign of the toll the disease is taking, dozens of Iranian officials have contracted the coronavirus and several have died. Among the newly infected is the head of Iran’s National Disaster Management Organization Esmail Najjar.
The former deputy commander for political affairs in Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Farhad Tazri, was confirmed dead on Monday, according to the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency. A prominent former reformist politician, Mohammadreza Rahchamani also died, said the semiofficial ISNA news agency.
Iran has released roughly 70,000 prisoners due to the risk of contracting the coronavirus in prison, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan Online said.
In China, health authorities reported 40 new cases on the mainland in the past day, bringing its total number of confirmed infections to 80,735, up about 1% from a week ago. More than two-thirds of those taken ill have recovered.
While China also has by far the highest death toll from the respiratory disease, at 3,119 fatalities, its officials have said lockdowns of cities, strict quarantine measures, and widespread workplace and school closures have helped limit infections across the country.
A few weeks ago, China was reporting thousands of new cases daily. In late January the government locked down much of Hubei province, where Wuhan is, to stem the spread of the virus, and hasn’t lifted those restrictions.
In recent days, major cities including Shanghai and Beijing have seen people returning to malls, shops reopening and other business activities gradually resuming. On Monday, Shanghai government officials said some major tourist spots and sports facilities had reopened after being closed for more than a month.
Walt Disney Co.’s Shanghai Disney Resort said it would partially resume operations as a first step in reopening in phases, while the main Shanghai Disneyland theme park would remain closed until further notice.
Global Spread
Locations ordered by date of first reported infection.
Cumulative daily reported infections
Updated March 8, 2020 11:20 a.m. ET
*Cruise ship docked in Japan
Note: Data begins when Johns Hopkins and WHO began publishing daily global case numbers. China first reported a pneumonia cluster in Wuhan in early December 2019.
Sources: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the Lancet, Associated Press
Vivien Ngo/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Governments are preparing for a new wave of coronavirus cases among people who have traveled to countries other than China. Health authorities in Hong Kong, which has 114 confirmed cases, said several people who tested positive for the virus in recent days had been on a tour to India in February. India has reported 39 coronavirus infections.
On Monday, South Korean Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said the spread of the coronavirus appears to be slowing in the country but that new infections could come from people returning from abroad.
The country added 165 cases, the lowest daily new numbers since Feb. 25, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
China said it has a total of 67 imported cases, including people who recently traveled to Italy and Iran.
In Japan, a new rule kicked in Monday that effectively bans tourists from China, Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea until the end of March, as the country seeks to prevent more new imported infections. Japan reported 488 cases on Monday, up 33 from a day earlier.
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Several people died and more than 20 others remained missing after a hotel being used as a quarantine center collapsed in China. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images
France’s central bank said the impact from the coronavirus epidemic on French businesses will slash 0.2 percentage points from the country’s economic growth in the first quarter. Gross domestic product will rise 0.1% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the prior quarter, according to the Bank of France’s monthly survey of business activity.
The declining growth projections are another signal of the economic slowdown from the virus, infections of which have started to spike in France to more than 1,100 as of Sunday, second in Europe behind Italy. Health officials have closed schools in two regions of France and many workers are being urged to stay home.
Stocks markets in Europe plunged Monday as part of the global rout. France’s CAC-40 was down more than 7% in early trading, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100, also influenced by a collapse in oil prices, was down more than 8.5%.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle start copyrighting their Instagram photos to 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex' after the Queen banned them from using 'Sussex Royal' in their branding
Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, have made subtle change to Instagram
Couple have started to credit photographs to 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex'
Up until a week ago, they attributed the copyright to the 'Sussex Royal' brand
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have started to copyright their Instagram photographs 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex' following the Queen's decision to ban them from using 'Sussex Royal' in their branding.
The couple took to the Sussex Royal Instagram account and shared a picture from Saturday, where they joined veterans, serving members, world-class musicians, composers and conductors of the Massed Bands of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines for the annual Mountbatten Festival of Music — an event to help raise funds on behalf of the Royal Marines Charity.
However, there was one subtle difference on their social media page - the copyright of the pictures had changed from previous, with the credit instead being attributed to 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.'
It was a stark difference to just a week earlier, where a snap of Prince Harry launching a new eco-friendly travel firm in Edinburgh had been credited to 'Sussex Royal' - the last time the brand appears to have been used on their Instagram.
The Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, attributed this photograph of Prince Harry at the Travelyst conference in Edinburgh to the 'SussexRoyal' brand on February 26
The last time the couple used the 'SussexRoyal' trademark on their Instagram account was one week ago (pictured)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex received a long round of applause and a standing ovation from the audience in the Royal Albert Hall in London as they took their seats at the Mountbatten Festival of Music
Following the event, the royal couple shared a photograph to their Instagram account alongside the credit: 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex' (pictured)
Harry and Meghan first began using the Sussex Royal branding this time last year, after they split their household from that of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – known as Kensington Royal.
The Sussexes' Instagram page, @sussexroyal, has amassed 11.2million followers – the same number of fans as William and Kate's account.
But at the end of February, documents filed at the Intellectual Property Office showed a request to use the names Sussex Royal and Sussex Royal Foundation for commercial and charity activities in the UK had been removed.
It followed the Queen's decision that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could not use the 'Royal' label after deciding to step down as working royals and move to North America.
The Sussex Royal Instagram account also credited this photograph, where Meghan Markle visited the Southbank theatre's Immersive Storytelling Studio on 5 March, to 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex'
The couple first made the subtle Instagram account change two days ago, when they shared this photograph of Meghan Markle
A statement they released at the time struck a more hostile tone in some sections, and said that neither the government nor the Queen herself own the word 'royal' internationally - but they would nonetheless stop using the title.
The statement read: 'While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy or Cabinet Office over the use of the word 'Royal' overseas, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use 'Sussex Royal' or any iteration of the word 'Royal' in any territory (either within the UK or otherwise) when the transition occurs Spring 2020.'
Additionally, a statement issued by the palace stated that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer use their HRH titles.
Meghan and Harry's statement states, however, that they will keep the prefixes His and Her Royal Highness.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's new flashy website, sussexroyal.com, featuring their new branding
Authorities in China reported the fewest number of new cases of coronavirus since infections started being tracked in January, but the epidemic is continuing to spread rapidly elsewhere around the world Monday, rattling global stock markets.
In the latest update from China's National Health Commission, the country said it detected 40 new cases of the virus in the past 24 hours, down from 44 new cases the previous day. China now has 80,735 total cases, among which 19,016 remain in treatment and 58,600 have been released. More than 3,000 have died.
Coronavirus live updates:Grand Princess to dock in California with 21 infected people; State Department issues warning
New infections in South Korea also appear to be slowing.
Other international-related coronavirus developments Monday:
An exclusion zone in northern Italy came into effect as the number of cases there jumped to 7,375. Italy is the worst-hit nation in Europe. The Italian government is shutting down its museums, which include access to the Sistine Chapel, until April 3. Italy's quarantine order locks down 16 million people – a quarter of its population – across a large swath of its territory in the north close to Milan.
Stock markets in London and Frankfurt dropped sharply after big losses on bourses in Tokyo and Shanghai. Investors have been on edge about the surging economic costs of the virus but further aggravating sentiment Monday: A squabble between Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major producers about how much to cut oil output to prop up prices amid the virus outbreak. Oil prices plunged more than 20%.
France is banning events of more than 1,000 people to limit the spread of the coronavirus and recruiting recently retired medics and medical students to help deal with growing numbers of infections. The country reported 1,126 cases as of Sunday, up 19% from the day before. So far, 19 people in France have died.
Israel is considering requiring all Israelis and foreign nationals arriving from abroad to go into self-quarantine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted.
Iran has suspended all flights to Europe. Iran says the new coronavirus has killed another 43 people, pushing death toll to 237 amid 7,161 confirmed cases. Iran has released 70,000 prisoners to try to contain the virus spreading in jails.
Saudi Arabia has suspended pilgrimages to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. It has also cordoned off access to many towns in the east of the country.
The torch lighting ceremony for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo may be held in Olympia, Greece, without spectators, according to a Reuters report. As coronavirus spreads, organizers face a ticking clock over whether to cancel the summer Games. The event is due to be held in Japan from July 24 to August 9.
A Holocaust remembrance march in southern Poland has been postponed this year because of fears about the new coronavirus sweeping the globe. The event was expected to draw 110 delegations from around the world.
Games in Germany’s Bundesliga soccer league will take place without fans.
Britain is holding meetings to decide to whether to implement a policy of "social distancing" to limit the outbreak's spread. This would involve banning large gatherings, mandating that people work from home where possible and limiting contact with transportation hubs and other densely populated areas.
In South Korea, with the number of new cases slowing Monday to 367 from 483 the day before, Health Minister Park Neung Hoo said the outbreak – once the biggest outside of China, now it's in Italy – appeared "a little bit stagnant."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has established a "no-touch" policy between himself and members of the public as the virus spreads in the country. Duterte, 74, has previously spoken about various health issues he faced over the years.
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