Governments around the world are scrambling to contain the spread of COVID-19, which is growing globally even as transmission in China, where the virus originated at the end of last year, continues to show signs of slowing.
There are more than 93,000 cases around the world – the overwhelming majority in China – but as deaths are reported in Italy, Iran and the United States, authorities are considering new quarantine zones and travel restrictions.
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As the number of deaths rose in Iran and Italy, Poland, Morocco, Andorra, Armenia and Argentina all confirmed their first cases of the virus in the past 24 hours.
Here are the latest updates:
Wednesday, March 4
13:45 GMT – Facebook to help combat virus misinformation
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, is stepping up his effort to fight against virus-related misinformation.
“We’re focused on making sure everyone can access credible and accurate information,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook account.
“Given the developing situation, we’re working with national ministries of health and organizations like the WHO, CDC [US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and UNICEF to help them get out timely, accurate information on the coronavirus,” Zuckerberg posted, adding that the WHO will be given free advertising.
13:40 GMT – Iran cancels Friday prayers in major cities amid outbreak
Friday prayers in Iran have been canceled across all provincial capitals amid the country’s growing coronavirus outbreak, state television said.
Friday is the main congregational day of prayer in Islam, and traditionally an important event for Iran’s clerical rulers.
The announcement comes as Tehran and other areas canceled Friday prayers last week over the outbreak.
13:30 GMT – Italian tourists quarantined in India
A group of 17 Italian tourists taken to a quarantine facility in New Delhi have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The group entered India before the country began screening passengers from Italy. Their Indian tour bus driver was also found to be infected.
India has confirmed 28 cases of the coronavirus as of Wednesday, up from the earlier figure of five.
13:15 GMT – Italian govt to close schools, universities to contain coronavirus
The Italian government has decided to close schools and universities across the country until mid-March in a further attempt to contain the worst coronavirus outbreak in Europe.
The government shuttered schools and universities in the worst-affected regions in northern Italy some 10 days ago and quarantined a handful of towns at the epicentre of the outbreak.
However, the contagion has spread with at least 79 people dying and more than 2,500 infected.
Coronavirus: Italy to close all schools and universities
12:49 GMT – Saudi Arabia suspends Umrah pilgrimage
Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended Umrah pilgrimages to the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina for Saudi citizens and the kingdom’s other residents over coronavirus concerns, the state news agency SPA said.
The decision will be reviewed regularly and reversed when the situation changes, SPA said, citing an official source in the Saudi interior ministry.
11:07 GMT – Iran death toll rises to 92
Iran’s health ministry said the coronavirus has killed 92 people, up from 77 the day before, while the number of infections rose to 2,922.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced the new figures at a news conference in the capital, Tehran.
The virus has sickened top leaders within the Islamic Republic’s government. Iran stands alone in how the virus has affected its government, even compared to hard-hit China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
People wearing face masks in downtown Tehran [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]
10:45 GMT – Malaysia announces 14 new cases
Malaysian authorities announced 14 new cases of the coronavirus, adding that the spike was the result of a second wave of infections that began late last month.
“After 11 days of no reported cases, a second wave (of infections) began on the 27th February 2020,” Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of Malaysia’s health ministry, told a news conference in Putrajaya.
“This makes the total cases of COVID-19, so far, 50 cases, while 22 of them have been discharged,” he said.
10:36 GMT – Coronavirus affected almost all Iranian provinces
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the outbreak of novel virus has affected almost all of Iran’s provinces.
“This disease is a widespread disease,” he said, according to the official presidency website.
“It has reached almost all our provinces and in one sense it’s a global disease.”
10:32 GMT – Coronavirus deadlier than flu, but containable: WHO
COVID-19 has killed 3.4 percent of cases globally, a figure far above the seasonal flu’s fatality rate of below 1 percent, according to the WHO.
But the global spread of the new virus can still be controlled.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased to 240, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said.
According to RKI, fifteen of Germany’s 16 states have now reported cases of the virus, with North Rhine-Westphalia being most affected.
Coronavirus crisis management group in the western German district of Heinsberg near Aachen [Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters]
09:23 GMT – First death reported in Iraq
A 70-year-old man has died in northern Iraq after contracting the coronavirus, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.
The death in Sulaimaniyah, in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, is Iraq’s first coronavirus death.
The man was diagnosed after his health deteriorated, the report quoted the Sulaimaniyah health directorate as saying.
08:57 GMT – Median incubation period 5-7 days, maximum 14
The Chinese Medical Association has said the median incubation period of the new coronavirus is five to seven days and the maximum 14 days.
Speaking at a press event in Beijing, Du Bin, chairman of the Critical Care Medical Branch of the Association, also said that while in Hubei province some individuals tested positive for the virus even after being discharged from hospital after treatment, there is no data tracking such cases.
He added there was no evidence yet that such patients can transmit the virus – which originated in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, late last year – to others.
08:33 GMT – How the Gulf responded to the outbreak
Gulf countries have responded to the coronavirus outbreak by introducing travel bans, stepping up screening measures at entry points and rescheduling – in some cases cancelling – significant sports and cultural events.
Read more about the measures taken by Gulf countries aimed at curbing the spread of the virus here.
08:28 GMT – Takeda Pharmaceutical says developing coronavirus drug
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said it is developing a drug to treat high-risk individuals infected with the coronavirus.
The Japanese company said in a statement it is also studying whether its currently marketed and pipeline products may be effective treatments for infected patients.
“As a company dedicated to the health and well-being of people around the world, we will do all that we can to address the novel coronavirus threat,” Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda’s vaccine business, said in a statement.
08:19 GMT – France to regulate price of antibacterial gel
France will regulate the price of antibacterial gels after prices were reported to have shot up since the coronavirus outbreak began in December last year, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
A decree regulating the price will be published during the day, Le Maire told French BFM Business radio.
A pharmacists’ union on Wednesday said the price rise was unacceptable and called for government intervention.
A sign reading ‘We are out of stock of hydroalcoholic gel’ on the counter at a pharmacy in Marseille [Daniel Cole/AP Photo]
08:12 GMT – Russia suspends export of masks
Russia has suspended the export of surgical masks and medical gear, including bandages and one-use chemical protection suits, according to a government resolution, amid fears over the spread of the coronavirus. It added that the suspension would not affect exports being made for humanitarian reasons.
Russia has not reported any confirmed cases of people contracting coronavirus while inside the country, though six people who got infected elsewhere have received or are receiving treatment in Russia.
“It is mainly necessary to prevent a so-called ‘artificial deficit’ in certain medical items – masks, respirators, antiviral agents that speculators can export abroad,” Industry Minister Denis Manturov said.
A passenger wearing a surgical mask travels on a Metro in Moscow [Maxim Shipenkov/EPA]
08:02 GMT – Poland confirms first case
Poland has confirmed its first coronavirus infection, Poland’s Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski said.
Szumowski said the patient is in hospital in Zielona Gora, western Poland, adding that he is in good condition.
07:55 GMT – India confirms new cases, bringing total number of cases to 28
India’s health minister has announced that 14 out of 21 Italian tourists have tested positive for the coronavirus.
In remarks to ANI news agency, said the total number of cases in the country now stood at 28. All flights and passengers will now be subject to universal screening, he added.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan: 14 out of 21 Italian nationals have found positive for coronavirus. They have been sent to at Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla. pic.twitter.com/IJqP1e13tT
07:47 GMT – Hong Kong residents due to arrive from Wuhan in first chartered flight
The first chartered flight evacuating residents of Hong Kong from Wuhan – the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – is scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong at 09:10 GMT.
07:04 GMT – Greece confirms eighth case
Greece’s health ministry has confirmed one more case, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to eight.
The new case in the second city of Thessaloniki is a Greek citizen who is closely related to an earlier infected person.
06:47 GMT – Japan’s Hokkaido island reports three new cases
Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido reported three more cases of coronavirus infections, bringing the total to 82 in the prefecture, which accounts for the highest number of infections among Japan’s prefectures.
The new cases are all men, one in his 50s and the other two in their 60s, the prefecture said on its website.
06:42 GMT – Ireland confirms second case
Irish health authorities have confirmed a second case of the coronavirus in a woman in the east of the country who recently travelled to northern Italy, according to Ireland’s Department of Health.
“Today we are confirming that Ireland has diagnosed one new case of COVID-19. The case arises in a female in the east of the country and is associated with travel from northern Italy,” Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer with the Department of Health told reporters.
03:50 GMT – Air New Zealand deep-cleaning three planes after COVID-19 case
Air New Zealand is deep cleaning three of its planes after it was confirmed a woman diagnosed with the country’s first case of COVID-19 travelled on its flight from Singapore to Auckland, as well as on two regional flights.
In a statement on its website, the airline’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Ben Johnston said the airline was working with the Ministry of Health to identify and contact passengers who were on the flights.
02:50 GMT – South Korea’s Moon calls off Middle East trip
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has called off a mid-March trip to the UAE, Egypt and Turkey because of the coronavirus, according to the presidential Blue House.
“In response to the recent nationwide spread of COVID-19, we have decided not to go ahead with trips,” spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a statement.
The outbreak in South Korea is the largest outside China.
Remarks by Pres. Moon(@moonriver365) During Visit to Armed Forces Daejeon Hospital
“I’d like to extend gratitude to the military once again for doing all it can to respond to the outbreak.”
— The Office of President Moon Jae-in (@TheBlueHouseENG) March 3, 2020
02:45 GMT – Olympics will go ahead as planned
Sports events around the world have been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus, heightening speculation around the fate of the Olympics, which are due to start in Japan in a few months.
This morning, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told journalists Japan was planning to hold the games as planned.
On Tuesday, Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto had noted there could be a delay under Japan’s contract with the International Olympic Committee.
01:50 GMT Further slowdown in China
China’s data continues to show the outbreak there slowing. There were 119 new confirmed cases to the end of March 3, compared with 125 the day before.
An additional 38 people died on March 3, bringing the death toll in mainland China to 2,981.
China has now had 80,270 cases since the virus first appeared in Wuhan late last year.
01:40 GMT Further spike in South Korea cases
The latest data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) shows 516 new cases of coronavirus in the country – a day after President Moon Jae-in declared “war” on the infection.
South Korea now has 5,328 cases with 32 deaths in the largest outbreak outside China. The KCDC updates the data twice a day.
00:15 GMT – Nursing-home worker confirmed with virus in Australia
A woman who works in a nursing home in northern Sydney has been confirmed to have the coronavirus, raising concerns for the elderly people who live there.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper says the woman is in her 50s and picked up the virus locally – the third such case in Australia.
Breaking: A Sydney woman in her 50s, the third locally acquired case of coronavirus, has been identified as an aged care worker at a facility near Macquarie University https://t.co/7Bf59SfptC
00:00 GMT – Australian supermarkets ration toilet roll
Australia’s biggest supermarkets are rationing toilet paper after a wave of panic-buying.
#toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis were the top two hashtags on Twitter in Australia on Wednesday.
Australians are not the only ones panic-buying. We have seen it happen in Singapore and Indonesia, while on Tuesday, it seems New Yorkers were clearing shop shelves of cleaning products.
Shelves in a New York shop cleared of cleaning products amid a growing coronavirus outbreak in the US [Brendan McDermid/Reuters]
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s live blog on the coronavirus outbreak.
I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur, taking over from my colleague Usaid Siddiqui.
A recap of Tuesday’s developments:
The number of deaths surged in Italy and Iran.
In the US, the death toll now stands at nine with the outbreak centred on a nursing home but there are concerns the infection may have been spreading in the community for some time.
In more positive news, the number of new cases in China appears to be slowing. The WHO says global understanding of the virus is increasing and more governments are announcing concrete plans to deal with the outbreak.
TORONTO – Health Canada has authorized Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus.
The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.
It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago, which targeted the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron.
Health Canada recently asked provinces and territories to get rid of their older COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the most current vaccine will be used during this fall’s respiratory virus season.
Health Canada is also reviewing two other updated COVID-19 vaccines but has not yet authorized them.
They are Pfizer’s Comirnaty, which is also an mRNA vaccine, as well as Novavax’s protein-based vaccine.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
TORONTO – Sanniah Jabeen holds a sonogram of the unborn baby she lost after contracting listeria last December. Beneath, it says “love at first sight.”
Jabeen says she believes she and her baby were poisoned by a listeria outbreak linked to some plant-based milks and wants answers. An investigation continues into the recall declared July 8 of several Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages.
“I don’t even have the words. I’m still processing that,” Jabeen says of her loss. She was 18 weeks pregnant when she went into preterm labour.
The first infection linked to the recall was traced back to August 2023. One year later on Aug. 12, 2024, the Public Health Agency of Canada said three people had died and 20 were infected.
The number of cases is likely much higher, says Lawrence Goodridge, Canada Research Chair in foodborne pathogen dynamics at the University of Guelph: “For every person known, generally speaking, there’s typically 20 to 25 or maybe 30 people that are unknown.”
The case count has remained unchanged over the last month, but the Public Health Agency of Canada says it won’t declare the outbreak over until early October because of listeria’s 70-day incubation period and the reporting delays that accompany it.
Danone Canada’s head of communications said in an email Wednesday that the company is still investigating the “root cause” of the outbreak, which has been linked to a production line at a Pickering, Ont., packaging facility.
Pregnant people, adults over 60, and those with weakened immune systems are most at risk of becoming sick with severe listeriosis. If the infection spreads to an unborn baby, Health Canada says it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or life-threatening illness in a newborn.
The Canadian Press spoke to 10 people, from the parents of a toddler to an 89-year-old senior, who say they became sick with listeria after drinking from cartons of plant-based milk stamped with the recalled product code. Here’s a look at some of their experiences.
Sanniah Jabeen, 32, Toronto
Jabeen says she regularly drank Silk oat and almond milk in smoothies while pregnant, and began vomiting seven times a day and shivering at night in December 2023. She had “the worst headache of (her) life” when she went to the emergency room on Dec. 15.
“I just wasn’t functioning like a normal human being,” Jabeen says.
Told she was dehydrated, Jabeen was given fluids and a blood test and sent home. Four days later, she returned to hospital.
“They told me that since you’re 18 weeks, there’s nothing you can do to save your baby,” says Jabeen, who moved to Toronto from Pakistan five years ago.
Jabeen later learned she had listeriosis and an autopsy revealed her baby was infected, too.
“It broke my heart to read that report because I was just imagining my baby drinking poisoned amniotic fluid inside of me. The womb is a place where your baby is supposed to be the safest,” Jabeen said.
Jabeen’s case is likely not included in PHAC’s count. Jabeen says she was called by Health Canada and asked what dairy and fresh produce she ate – foods more commonly associated with listeria – but not asked about plant-based beverages.
She’s pregnant again, and is due in several months. At first, she was scared to eat, not knowing what caused the infection during her last pregnancy.
“Ever since I learned about the almond, oat milk situation, I’ve been feeling a bit better knowing that it wasn’t something that I did. It was something else that caused it. It wasn’t my fault,” Jabeen said.
She’s since joined a proposed class action lawsuit launched by LPC Avocates against the manufacturers and sellers of Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages. The lawsuit has not yet been certified by a judge.
Natalie Grant and her seven year-old daughter, Bowmanville, Ont.
Natalie Grant says she was in a hospital waiting room when she saw a television news report about the recall. She wondered if the dark chocolate almond milk her daughter drank daily was contaminated.
She had brought the girl to hospital because she was vomiting every half hour, constantly on the toilet with diarrhea, and had severe pain in her abdomen.
“I’m definitely thinking that this is a pretty solid chance that she’s got listeria at this point because I knew she had all the symptoms,” Grant says of seeing the news report.
Once her daughter could hold fluids, they went home and Grant cross-checked the recalled product code – 7825 – with the one on her carton. They matched.
“I called the emerg and I said I’m pretty confident she’s been exposed,” Grant said. She was told to return to the hospital if her daughter’s symptoms worsened. An hour and a half later, her fever spiked, the vomiting returned, her face flushed and her energy plummeted.
Grant says they were sent to a hospital in Ajax, Ont. and stayed two weeks while her daughter received antibiotics four times a day until she was discharged July 23.
“Knowing that my little one was just so affected and how it affected us as a family alone, there’s a bitterness left behind,” Grant said. She’s also joined the proposed class action.
Thelma Feldman, 89, Toronto
Thelma Feldman says she regularly taught yoga to friends in her condo building before getting sickened by listeria on July 2. Now, she has a walker and her body aches. She has headaches and digestive problems.
“I’m kind of depressed,” she says.
“It’s caused me a lot of physical and emotional pain.”
Much of the early days of her illness are a blur. She knows she boarded an ambulance with profuse diarrhea on July 2 and spent five days at North York General Hospital. Afterwards, she remembers Health Canada officials entering her apartment and removing Silk almond milk from her fridge, and volunteers from a community organization giving her sponge baths.
“At my age, 89, I’m not a kid anymore and healing takes longer,” Feldman says.
“I don’t even feel like being with people. I just sit at home.”
Jasmine Jiles and three-year-old Max, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Que.
Jasmine Jiles says her three-year-old son Max came down with flu-like symptoms and cradled his ears in what she interpreted as a sign of pain, like the one pounding in her own head, around early July.
When Jiles heard about the recall soon after, she called Danone Canada, the plant-based milk manufacturer, to find out if their Silk coconut milk was in the contaminated batch. It was, she says.
“My son is very small, he’s very young, so I asked what we do in terms of overall monitoring and she said someone from the company would get in touch within 24 to 48 hours,” Jiles says from a First Nations reserve near Montreal.
“I never got a call back. I never got an email”
At home, her son’s fever broke after three days, but gas pains stuck with him, she says. It took a couple weeks for him to get back to normal.
“In hindsight, I should have taken him (to the hospital) but we just tried to see if we could nurse him at home because wait times are pretty extreme,” Jiles says, “and I don’t have child care at the moment.”
Joseph Desmond, 50, Sydney, N.S.
Joseph Desmond says he suffered a seizure and fell off his sofa on July 9. He went to the emergency room, where they ran an electroencephalogram (EEG) test, and then returned home. Within hours, he had a second seizure and went back to hospital.
His third seizure happened the next morning while walking to the nurse’s station.
In severe cases of listeriosis, bacteria can spread to the central nervous system and cause seizures, according to Health Canada.
“The last two months have really been a nightmare,” says Desmond, who has joined the proposed lawsuit.
When he returned home from the hospital, his daughter took a carton of Silk dark chocolate almond milk out of the fridge and asked if he had heard about the recall. By that point, Desmond says he was on his second two-litre carton after finishing the first in June.
“It was pretty scary. Terrifying. I honestly thought I was going to die.”
Cheryl McCombe, 63, Haliburton, Ont.
The morning after suffering a second episode of vomiting, feverish sweats and diarrhea in the middle of the night in early July, Cheryl McCombe scrolled through the news on her phone and came across the recall.
A few years earlier, McCombe says she started drinking plant-based milks because it seemed like a healthier choice to splash in her morning coffee. On June 30, she bought two cartons of Silk cashew almond milk.
“It was on the (recall) list. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I got listeria,’” McCombe says. She called her doctor’s office and visited an urgent care clinic hoping to get tested and confirm her suspicion, but she says, “I was basically shut down at the door.”
Public Health Ontario does not recommend listeria testing for infected individuals with mild symptoms unless they are at risk of developing severe illness, such as people who are immunocompromised, elderly, pregnant or newborn.
“No wonder they couldn’t connect the dots,” she adds, referencing that it took close to a year for public health officials to find the source of the outbreak.
“I am a woman in my 60s and sometimes these signs are of, you know, when you’re vomiting and things like that, it can be a sign in women of a bigger issue,” McCombe says. She was seeking confirmation that wasn’t the case.
Disappointed, with her stomach still feeling off, she says she decided to boost her gut health with probiotics. After a couple weeks she started to feel like herself.
But since then, McCombe says, “I’m back on Kawartha Dairy cream in my coffee.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
