WHO calls coronavirus a ‘pandemic’ as Europe scrambles to contain it

GENEVA—The World Health Organization (WHO) called the new coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on Wednesday, issuing a grim warning that the global spread and severity of the illness was due to “alarming levels of inaction.”

The call came as Europe faced a mounting number of cases, including a slew of new countries clocking first deaths, prompting governments to roll out increasingly tough measures to slow the rapid spread of the virus.

The number of cases across the globe has risen to more than 124,000 with 4,500 deaths, including a jump in fatalities, particularly in Iran and Italy, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally.

The majority of cases have been in China where the outbreak first emerged in December, but as the number of new infections has steadied in the country, hot spots have emerged elsewhere, namely Ita­ly, Iran and Spain.

The head of the United Nations’ top health body for the first time characterized the outbreak as a pandemic, meaning it is spreading in several regions through local transmission.

Never seen before

“We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, adding that the declaration would not change the organization’s response to the outbreak.

“We’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.”

He did not single out any nation for not doing enough or what further measures were needed. He instead called on “countries to take urgent and aggressive action.”

Signs of a widening European crisis emerged on Wednesday, with Ireland, Albania, Belgium, Sweden and Bulgaria registering their first deaths, while Italy clocked more than 2,300 new cases in the last 24 hours and infections in Spain jumped by a quarter to more than 2,100.

The surge brought Europe’s total number of cases to more than 22,000, with 930 deaths, and the United States said it was considering issuing a ban on travelers from the continent. Millions of people in Italy are grappling with a nationwide clampdown that has emptied streets, shuttered shops, and disrupted train and air travel.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday that Italy would shut all stores except for pharmacies and food shops to curb the disease.

Factories and other big businesses can remain open as long as they adopt “appropriate security measures to prevent contagion,” Conte said.

His government vowed to spend up to 25 billion euros ($28 billion) to help contain fallout from the pandemic, including cash injections for hard-hit hotels and restaurants and allowing families to suspend some mortgage payments.

Even places with no significant outbreaks like Poland and Ukraine announced school closures and other restrictive measures. Austria said it would shut museums and halt train services to and from Italy.

In the Middle East, hard-hit Iran reported 63 new deaths, its highest single-day toll that brought total fatalities to 354. It has yet to impose quarantines but has closed schools, universities and hotels and called on people not to travel.

The WHO’s Tedros said the country, which has 9,000 cases, was “doing its best” to control the spread of the virus but that it needed more supplies to cope.

Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait said it was suspending all commercial flights in and out of the country, after it and other Gulf nations had already adopted travel restrictions.

Sliver of hope

Offering a sliver of hope to the rest of the world, China again announced negligible new daily infections and only a relatively small number of deaths.

The National Health Commission said on Thursday that the peak of the coronavirus epidemic had passed, reporting just eight new cases in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Some businesses in China’s Hubei province where the virus was first detected in December were told they could restart work, reducing fears of a prolonged disruption of supply chains.

“Broadly speaking, the peak of the epidemic has passed for China,” said Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission.

But China remains the worst-affected country with more than 80,000 confirmed cases and over 3,000 deaths.

Although Panama confirmed its first death on Tuesday, Latin America, along with Africa and Oceania, has so far reported only small numbers of cases.

And the United States saw its first signs of an emergency footing with the New York city government forming a containment zone around a suburb at the center of an outbreak.

Wall Street stocks suffered another brutal rout on Wednesday, pushing the Dow into a “bear market,” or 20 percent from its peak, after the latest series of event cancellations and company warnings rattled investors.

Disruption to supply chains from China, flagging demand and wildly fluctuating stock markets have sparked a series of profit warnings from companies and pushed governments into action.

The United Kingdom promised a $39 billion fiscal stimulus and the central bank slashed its main interest rate to 0.25 percent following a similar move by the US Federal Reserve last week, intended to make borrowing cheaper and boost economic activity.

Europe travel ban

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suspended travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days in a “tough” new effort to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.

The ban will not include travelers from the United Kingdom, which recently left the European Union, Trump said.

In a prime-time address from the Oval Office to a worried nation, Trump sought to rebuff critics who say his leadership has been lacking during the crisis, insisting that “the virus will not have a change.”

“This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history,” he said.

He announced a series of measures designed to ease the financial burden for people having to take weeks off from work while on quarantine.

But his most far-reaching announcement was the halt on European travel.

Schedules disrupted

While markets remain uneasy, COVID-19 continued to rip up the schedules of musicians, sports stars and cultural figures as governments around the world banned large gatherings.

England’s top-flight football league saw its first cancellation with Wednesday’s match bet­ween Arsenal and Manchester City postponed, while E3, the world’s premier video game trade show, due to be held in June in Los Angeles, was called off.

In an unprecedented move, NCAA officials on Wednesday closed the US national college basketball tournament to paying fans. The first games will be played on Tuesday.