Germany warned Wednesday that the coronavirus outbreak has turned into a global pandemic, as countries around the world bolstered supplies and boosted protective measures in a bid to slow the rapid rise of the deadly disease. While caseloads have steadily declined in the virus epicentre China, infections and deaths are rising in Asia and Europe, with cases appearing in new countries almost every day. Europe's virus hotspot Italy said it was closing schools and universities until March 15 as the death toll there passed 100 and other countries also mulled extreme measures to quell the outbreak.
The virus' global spread has also prompted panic buying, hoarding and theft, along with dire warnings from global health officials that stocks of protective gear are rapidly dwindling.
The number of novel coronavirus cases in the world rose to 94,810, including 3,245 deaths, across 81 countries and territories by 1700 GMT on Wednesday, according to a report compiled by AFP from official sources. Since 1700 GMT Tuesday, 2,089 new contaminations and 90 new deaths were identified.
China - excluding the territories of Hong Kong and Macau - where the epidemic emerged at the end of December, had 80,270 cases, of which 2,981 were fatal. There were 119 new infections and 38 deaths there between 1700 GMT Tuesday and 1700 GMT Wednesday.
Outside of China, a total of 14,540 cases have been recorded around the world since the epidemic began, including 264 deaths. There have been 1,970 new cases and 52 new deaths outside China since Tuesday at 1700 GMT. The most affected countries after China are: South Korea (5,621 cases, 32 deaths), Italy (3,089 cases, 107 deaths), Iran (2,922 cases, 92 deaths) and Japan (287 cases, 12 deaths).
Germany's health minister said Wednesday the outbreak had become a pandemic - defined as an epidemic that spreads throughout the world through local transmission. "The coronavirus outbreak in China has become a global pandemic," Jens Spahn told German lawmakers.
"The situation is changing very quickly... What's clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak." The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far stopped short of declaring a pandemic, though has said the world must prepare for the possibility. The virus has reached 81 countries and territories around the world, with South Korea, Iran and Italy emerging as hotspots outside China. One bright spot has been China's apparent progress in slowing the epidemic, with official figures on Wednesday showing 119 new cases, its lowest number since January, with most infections in central Hubei province's capital Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in December.
As the virus continues its march across the world, governments bolstered prevention efforts. Italy, where 2,500 people have been infected, was also mulling measures to ban kissing and handshakes to limit the virus' spread. It is not the only country to adopt unprecedented measures. Iran called on its citizens to refrain from travelling and going to events, while Israel ordered a two-week quarantine for people arriving from France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. It has already imposed similar measures on Italy and several Asian states. Israel currently has 15 confirmed cases of the virus but no deaths, while in Iran 92 people have died from the disease - the most outside China - with more than 2,900 infected.
The WHO said masks, goggles and other protective equipment used by health workers were running out due to "rising demand, hoarding and misuse". "We can't stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, noting that prices of masks have surged six-fold and the cost of ventilators has tripled.
Tedros said the WHO had shipped more than half a million sets of personal protective equipment to 27 countries, but warned that "supplies are rapidly depleting".
From South Korea to France and Hong Kong, supermarket shelves have been stripped of supplies in recent weeks, including toilet paper and hand sanitiser. Long queues formed outside a supermarket on Wednesday in South Korea, where the virus has infected more than 5,600 people and killed 32. In Indonesia, police seized 600,000 face masks from a warehouse after the country's first confirmed cases of coronavirus sparked panic buying.
"Mask prices have skyrocketed everywhere and there are shortages, most likely because hoarders are trying to make money at the public's expense," Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP.
In France where more than 200 people are infected, the government said it would requisition all face mask stocks and production in the coming months in response to the outbreak. Meanwhile in Russia the government banned the export of medical masks, and Italy said it was importing 800,000 of them from South Africa, though it needs 10 million in total.
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