The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak, which has spread to at least 114 countries around the world, a pandemic.
“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”
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President Donald Trump announced new measures to address the United States growing outbreak, including a Europe travel ban that will take effect from midnight on Friday.
Italy has further tightened the quarantine it imposed across the country earlier this week – with all but essential services and shops to close for two weeks – after leaders from the European Union promised to do “whatever it takes” to tackle the coronavirus, which first emerged in China at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, the virus continued to spread in the United States and appeared in new countries including Bolivia, Honduras and Turkey, while Indonesia, Bulgaria and Sweden recorded their first deaths.
More than 66,000 people have recovered from the illness around the world, according to John Hopkins University, which is tracking the virus.
Here are the latest updates:
Thursday, March 12
03:10 GMT – State department urges US citizens to reconsider all overseas travel
The State Department is urging all US citizens to reconsider travel overseas amid the deepening coronavirus outbreak.
02:50 GMT – New York postpones annual St Patrick’s Day parade
New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade has been postponed because of the coronavirus, governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Hundreds of thousands usually line the streets of Manhattan for the parade, which was due to take place on March 17 this year.
NEWS: The organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in NYC have agreed to postpone the parade given the evolving #Coronavirus situation.
I thank the parade’s leadership for working cooperatively w/ us.
We believe postponing the parade is in the best interest of public health.
02:40 GMT – Hanks and wife, Rita Wilson, in isolation in Gold Coast hospital
Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson are in isolation in a hospital on Australia’s Gold Coast after being confirmed to have the coronavirus, Queensland state health officials said.
Hanks and Wilson, who are both 63, are in Australia to shoot an Elvis Presley biopic. Work on the film has now been suspended.
02:30 GMT – South Korea expresses concern over cases at Seoul call centre
Authorities in South Korea warned a new cluster of cases in a Seoul call centre could see the coronavirus spread in the capital.
Around 100 people linked to a call centre in the city have tested positive for the virus in recent days.
“This could lead to a ‘super spread’ in the metropolitan area, where half of the entire population are concentrated,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting on Thursday.
So far, about 90 percent of the country’s cases have been in the southern city of Daegu and the neighbouring province of North Gyeongsang.
02:05 GMT – NBA suspends US basketball season after positive test
The National Basketball Association said on Wednesday that it was suspending the season until further notice after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the coronavirus.
The test result was reported shortly before the start of the Utah Jazz game with Oklahoma City Thunder.
The league said the affected player was not in the arena.
“The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice,” the league said.
“The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.”
01:55 GMT – Asian Development Bank, Philippine Senate closed over coronavirus
The Philippines Senate has been sealed off and the Manila headquarters of the Asian Development Bank closed after visitors to both buildings were confirmed to have the coronavirus.
The parliament building is being disinfected and President Rodrigo Duterte will be tested for the virus as a precaution, his office said.
ADB staff have been told to work from home, while the building is deep-cleaned and disinfected.
“The safety of staff, visitors to the Bank, and their families is of utmost importance to us. We are providing support to staff who interacted with the visitor,” ADB Vice President for Administration and Corporate Management Deborah Stokes said in a statement posted on the ADB’s website.
01:40 GMT – Guyana, French Polynesia record coronavirus cases
Guyana, and French Polynesia have announced their first cases of coronavirus.
The person with the virus in Guyana was diagnosed after a trip to the US last week, while the case in French Polynesia involves Maina Sage, one of the islands’ representatives in the National Assembly. She returned from Paris at the weekend.
01:25 GMT – Actor Tom Hanks says he has been diagnosed with coronavirus
The Hollywood actor Tom Hanks says he and his wife have been diagnosed with the coronavirus after feeling a bit tired and having a slight fever while visiting Australia.
“To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus,” he wrote in a statement posted on social media.
South Korea has given the first of its two daily updates of the coronavirus. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there were 114 new cases, as well as six more deaths.
With the new cases, South Korea has 7,869 people with the virus, and a total death toll of 66.
01:15 GMT – China announces 15 new cases of coronavirus, 11 deaths
China, the country where it all began, has given its daily update on the situation there.
The National Health Commission says it had 15 new cases – the lowest since the outbreak began at the end of December – and 11 deaths.
The hardest-hit province of Hubei and its capital Wuhan continue to account for the bulk of the country’s 80,793 cases and 3,169 deaths.
01:10 GMT – US to suspend all travel from Europe, except for UK
US President Donald Trump is speaking on the coronavirus from the White House.
He’s suspending all travel from Europe to the United States, with the exception of the United Kingdom, from midnight on Friday.
The ban will remain in force for a month.
He also announced a range of other measures, seeking to rebuff those who’ve criticised his response to the outbreak.
“This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history,” he said.
President Donald Trump speaks on the coronavirus from the Oval Office at the White House. He said all travel between the US and Europe, with the exception of the UK, would be suspended [Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP Photo, Pool]
00:15 GMT – Australia announces $11.4bn stimulus plan
Australia announced a 17.6 billion Australian dollars ($11.41bn) economic stimulus plan on Thursday that includes wage subsidies and cash payments for small businesses to counter the effect of the coronavirus.
“Both this financial year and in the next two financial years, the gross impact of that stimulus is A$22.9 billion ($14.82 billion). That’s 1.2 percent of GDP (gross domestic product),” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
