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.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
