The global march of the new virus triggered a vigorous appeal from the World Health Organization today for governments to pull out 'all the stops' to slow the epidemic, as it drained color from India's spring festivities, closed Bethlehem's Nativity Church and blocked Italians from visiting elderly relatives in nursing homes.
As China, after many arduous weeks, appeared to be winning its epic, costly battle against the new virus, the fight was revving up in newly affected areas of the globe, unleashing disruptions that profoundly impacted billions of people.
The UN health agency urged all countries to 'push this virus back,' a call to action reinforced by figures showing there are now about 17 times as many new infections outside China as in it. To date, the virus has infected nearly 97,000 people and killed over 3,300.
'This is not a drill. This is not the time for giving up. This is not a time of for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops,' WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a daily briefing in Geneva. 'Countries have been planning for scenarios like this for decades. Now is the time to act on those plans.'
Virus fears also affected the joyful Indian celebration of Holi, in which Hindu revelers celebrate the arrival of spring with bursts of color, including bright powders smeared on faces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders said they wouldn't attend Holi events and the Holi Moo Festival in New Delhi was canceled.
Palestinian officials closed the storied Church of the Nativity in the biblical city of Bethlehem indefinitely, weeks ahead of the busy Easter holiday.
The Christian holy site will close indefinitely from 4pm today after suspected virus cases emerged in the town.
The news is a blow to tens of thousands of worshippers who were expected to descend on the church for Easter next month.
Jeres Qumsiyeh, a spokesman for the Palestinian tourism ministry, said the church would be closed 'until further notice'.
All tourists have been barred from entering the West Bank, after four suspected coronavirus cases were found in Bethlehem, authorities said.
Most tourists to the West Bank visit Bethlehem and its fellow biblical city of Jericho.
As the rest of the world prepares anti-virus barriers, Chinese manufacturers gradually reopened their factories.
In Italy, the epicentre of Europe's outbreak, workers in latex gloves pinned 'closed' notices on school gates, enforcing a 10-day shutdown of the education system. Italy's sports-mad fans are also barred from stadiums until April 3.
A government decree that took effect Thursday urged the country's famously demonstrative citizens to stay at least three feet apart from each other, placed restrictions on visiting nursing homes and urged the elderly not to go outside unless absolutely necessary.
That directive appeared to be widely ignored, as school closures nationwide left many Italian children in the care of their grandparents. Parks in Rome overflowed with both young and old, undercutting government efforts to shield older Italians from the virus that hits the elderly harder than others. Italy has the world's oldest population after Japan. Italy's death toll climbed Thursday to 148, and its confirmed cases to 3,858.
Lorenzo Romano, making lunch for his grandchildren, saw a positive side.
'Altogether, it makes me happy, because then I have them around me more,' he said.
Further to its directive to 'pull out all the stops,'the WHO earlier warned that a 'long list' of countries are not doing enough to combat the deadly coronavirus.
It comes as the EU said it was considering drafting in medical students and retired healthcare professionals to bolster hospital work forces as the global number of those infected by COVID-19 neared 100,000, including 3,305 deaths.
WHO chief Mr Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Thursday he was concerned that many countries were not showing 'the level of political commitment' needed to 'match the level of the threat we all face.'
Meanwhile the EU warned it might be necessary to boost supplies of protective clothing with several countries facing shortages, as it confirmed it was mulling taking on health workers still studying for their qualifications.
EU health ministers are due to discuss the coronavirus outbreak at a meeting in Brussels tomorrow.
Iran, which has registered 107 virus deaths, has also closed schools and universities. Now it has introduced checkpoints to limit travel between major cities. Iranians were urged to reduce their use of paper money.
Amid the string of bad news, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged state television to offer 'happier' programs to entertain those stuck at home.
'I urge all artists, scientists, psychologists and all who can bring smiles to people's faces, come into the social media,' he said.
Brian Hook, the U..S. special representative for Iran, said the United States offered humanitarian assistance to help Iran deal with its outbreak but 'the regime rejected the offer.' He said the offer would stand.
In the United States, where 11 have died from the virus, hundreds of people were placed in self-quarantines due to cases in a New York suburb. A school district north of Seattle with 22,000 students announced it will close for up to two weeks because of coronavirus concerns.
Financial markets remained volatile, as investors continue to weigh the size of the epidemic's dent on the global economy. The U.S. stock market was down in early trading Thursday. Analysts say more yo-yo moves on global markets are likely as long as the number of new infections continues to accelerate.
The OPEC oil cartel called for a deep production cut to keep crude prices from falling further as disruption to global business from the coronavirus slashes demand from air travel and industry.
Oil ministers from the 14 OPEC countries decided at a meeting Thursday to push for a cut of 1.5 million barrels a day, or about 1.5% of total world supply.
Across the globe, travelers faced ever-greater disruptions, as countries sought to keep the virus out. But South Africa confirmed its first case Thursday, becoming the seventh African nation to report infections. Britain and Switzerland reported their first coronavirus deaths.
'The virus doesn't care about race and belief or color. It is attacking us all, equally,' said Ian MacKay, who studies viruses at the University of Queensland in Australia.
The outlook for the travel industry was increasingly grim. The International Air Transport Association said the outbreak could cost airlines as much as $113 billion in lost revenue. The struggling British airline Flybe collapsed Thursday amid sinking demand.
Australia banned travelers from South Korea who aren't Australian citizens or permanent residents, following similar bans for China and Iran.
Indonesia announced restrictions on travelers from parts of Iran, Italy and South Korea after previously banning those coming in from China. The United Arab Emirates warned its people not to travel anywhere abroad.
South Africa has also confirmed its first virus case today, saying the patient was a a 38-year-old man who had travelled to Italy.
The case in South Africa is the first in the southern part of the continent and the latest confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and Senegal.
'This morning,... the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive,' Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.
The case was detected in the country's eastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
The patient and his wife were part of a group of 10 people who arrived back in South Africa from Italy on March 1.
Two days later, on March 3, he consulted a private general practitioner with a fever, headache, sore throat and a cough.
Germany's Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and Swiss said they will cancel all flights to and from Israel for three weeks starting Sunday after Israeli authorities announced tough restrictions on travelers from several countries because of the new virus.
Meanwhile, Indian PM Narendra Modi and other Hindu leaders say they will not attend Holi festival celebrations on March 10.
They advised people to exercise restraint at Holi, where people usually spray each other with squirt guns and colour each other with water-filled balloons.
The colourful spring festival in which Hindus smear each other's faces with red and yellow powders has drawn concern from health authorities who fear it could help the virus to spread.
Modi tweeted that he would not celebrate Holi while experts have advised people to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of the virus.
The message is reaching community leaders who are canceling street celebrations as well large gathering of people in condominiums.
Japan said visitors from China and South Korea would face a two-week quarantine at a government facility and be barred from public transit. Sri Lankans arriving from Italy, South Korea and Iran will be quarantined at a hospital once used for leprosy patients.
In South Korea, with the highest number of infections outside China, exports of masks will be prohibited beginning Friday and people will be limited to buying two masks a week.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in to express condolences over the health crisis.
In China, where hospitals were releasing hundreds of recovered patients, officials reported 139 new cases of infection and 31 more deaths. Overall, China has reported 80,409 cases and 3,012 deaths, and authorities say about 6,000 people remained hospitalized in serious condition.
A state visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping was postponed. It was to have been the first for a Chinese leader since 2008.
Meanwhile in Iran, the country's health minister Saeed Namaki urged people to reduce their use of cash to stop the spread of the virus.
Saeed Namaki made the announcement at a news conference where he also revealed that schools and universities will remain closed until at least March 20, which is Persian New Year.
In addition, Namaki said authorities will begin manning checkpoints to limit travel between major cities in the Islamic Republic.
He said people should stay in their vehicles at gas stations and allow attendants to fill their gas tanks to avoid the spread of the virus.
Namaki said Iran had begun a national plan to combat coronavirus which will start in the handful of locations most affected by the disease and expand to other parts of the country, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Families would be contacted by telephone to help identify possible cases and health teams will disinfect public spaces, he said, listing the provinces of Qom, Gilan and Isfahan as the locations where the plan would begin.
On Sunday, Namaki had said that 300,000 teams, including members of the Basij militia, would be sent out to perform door-to-door coronavirus screening.
The plan sparked criticism from Iranians online about the possibility of the teams spreading, rather than stopping, infections.
The latest plan announced on Thursday did not mention door-to-door screening.
'Our method is not going into homes,' Namaki said on state TV. 'We can use digital communications and ultimately the telephone. So we don't see a reason to go to the doors of peoples' homes.'
The telecommunications ministry is working on an app to enable people to register cases of suspected infections, he said.
Home visits will only take place if a patient requires assistance to be hospitalized, Namaki said, and health teams would wear full protective gear to help with transport and disinfection.
Home visits are possible in very rare circumstances, with prior coordination and out of complete necessity, he said.
Iran has been heavily criticised for its response to the crisis after refusing to shut down holy cities even as Shi'ite pilgrims spread the virus across the Middle East.
The regime's official figures show 2,922 confirmed cases and 92 deaths, although there has been suspicion that Tehran is covering up the true scale of the crisis.
Iran has also been facing shortages of face masks and other medical equipment, worsened by U.S. sanctions.
The country has also cancelled Friday prayers in major cities including Tehran.
The UAE today warned its citizens and its foreign residents not to travel anywhere abroad amid the ongoing worldwide coronavirus outbreak, a stark warning for a country home to two major long-haul airlines.
The warning from the UAE's health and community protection ministry comes as the capital Abu Dhabi, sent 215 foreigners it evacuated from Hubei into quarantine.
They include citizens of Egypt, Sudan and Yemen.
Health officials warned that those traveling abroad could face quarantine themselves at the discretion of authorities.
The UAE is home to some nine million people, with only about one million estimated to be Emirati citizens.
It is also home to Emirates, the government-owned airline based at Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel.
Abu Dhabi also is home to Etihad, the country's national carrier. Both airlines have encouraged staff to take time off because international travel has dropped due to the virus.
Saudi Arabia yesterday suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage over fears that coronavirus could spread to Islam's holiest cities.
The umrah - which, unlike the hajj, can be undertaken at any time of year - draws millions of Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia every year.
But the Gulf state yesterday decided to 'suspend umrah temporarily for citizens and residents in the kingdom', official media said.
Visitors are also barred from 'visits to the Prophet's mosque in Medina', the foreign ministry said.
Saudi Arabia on Monday confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus after one its citizens who had returned from virus hotspot Iran tested positive.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
