Coronavirus epicentre shifts to Europe as deaths soar in Italy and WHO declares a global pandemic

The coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China. But now Europe has been declared the new epicentre of the pandemic.

Europe has emerged as the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, as deaths skyrocket in Italy and Germany warns 70 per cent of its people may become infected.

Italy’s cases have soared again to 12,462 infections and 827 deaths – numbers second only to China – while Belgium, Bulgaria, Sweden, Albania and Ireland announced their first virus-related deaths.

Montenegro is now the only country in Europe without the deadly Wuhan virus, after Turkey reported its first case overnight. “If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China,” said Robert Redfield, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The World Health Organisation has now declared COVID-19 – which first emerged in China’s Hubei province in December – a global pandemic, as total cases approach 125,000 and the death toll climbs towards 5000.

Italy has stepped up a nationwide lockdown. Picture: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

ITALY

Italy says all stores except pharmacies and grocery stores are being closed nationwide in response to the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

Premier Giuseppe Conte thanked the public for co-operating with the already unprecedented travel and social restrictions that took effect on Tuesday.

But he said on Wednesday night on Facebook Live that Italy must “go another step” by closing all shops and businesses except for food stores, pharmacies and other shops selling “essential” items.

The tighter restrictions on daily life are the government’s latest effort to respond to the fast-moving crisis. Earlier, the country’s justice minister said 12 prison inmates died of drug overdoses and 16 others escaped during riots at more than two-dozen prisons sparked by new coronavirus containment measures.

Normal life has been increasingly up-ended, with Pope Francis live-streaming prayers from the privacy of his Vatican library as police barred access to St. Peter’s Square, emptying it of tens of thousands of people who attend the weekly papal address.

The new measures are on top of travel and social restrictions that imposed an eerie hush on cities and towns across the country. Police enforced rules that customers stay one metre apart and ensured that businesses closed by 6pm.

Milan shopkeeper Claudia Sabbatini said she favoured the stricter measures. Rather than risk customers possibly infecting each other in her children’s clothing store, she closed it. “I cannot have people standing at a distance. Children must try on the clothes. We have to know if they will fit,” she said.

Mr Conte emphasised fighting the outbreak must not come at the expense of civil liberties, suggesting that Italy is unlikely to adopt the draconian quarantine measures that helped China push down new infections from thousands per day to a trickle and allowed its manufacturers to restart production lines.

Italy’s government announced on Wednesday it was dedicating 25 billion euros ($A43 billion) to boost antivirus efforts and soften economic blows, including delaying tax and mortgage payments by families and businesses.

Spain has banned all air traffic from Italy. Picture: Cristina Quicler/AFP

SPAIN

Spain, which has 2231 infections and 54 deaths, said on Tuesday it would do “whatever is necessary” to avoid “the Italian scenario”, banning large indoor gatherings and shutting down schools in affected regions and barring all air traffic from Italy.

Roughly half of Spain’s cases and two-thirds of its deaths are in the Madrid region. Fernando Simon, director of Spain’s health emergency centre, said on Wednesday that Madrid’s fatalities were high because much of the contagion there is taking place in nursing homes.

Madrid and two regions in northern Spain are closing schools and universities for two weeks to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Long queues have formed at Madrid area supermarkets amid signs of panic buying.

“We are working on avoiding the Italian scenario,” Health Minister Salvador Illa told a news conference. “With these measures we believe that we can avoid it. And if we have to take additional measures, we will take them.”

Spain’s parliament is closing down for at least a week after far-right politician Javier Ortega Smith was diagnosed with the virus. “We will do whatever is necessary, wherever it is necessary and whenever it is necessary, and together we will overcome this crisis,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference.

Germany says it could hit 60-70 per cent of the world population. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

GERMANY

Germany, with 1908 infections but just three deaths, has issued a grim warning.

“Once the virus has arrived (in Germany), and we do not have immunity in the population at all to this virus, and yet there is no option for either vaccination or treatment, a high percentage of experts say 60 to 70 per cent of the population will become infected,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a press conference in Berlin.

But Ms Merkel made it clear Germany doesn’t intend to close its borders in the light of Europe’s coronavirus epidemic, arguing that it makes more sense for people arriving from badly hit regions to quarantine themselves at home.

She said it was important for European leaders to discuss “what are good and effective measures and what aren’t” and that “we in Germany, in any case, are of the opinion that border closures are not an appropriate response to the challenge”.

SWITZERLAND

Swiss customs authorities have shut down nine border crossings with Italy to channel border traffic through seven other sites.

The move announced on Wednesday follows a decision by Italian authorities to continue to allow cross-border traffic with Switzerland despite adopting strong quarantine measures across Italy. Neighbours Austria and Slovenia have barred travellers from Italy without a medical certificate.

Swiss customs officials are advising tourists from Italy to refrain from travelling to Switzerland by rail or road “insofar as possible”.

The Louvre has been closed. Picture: Ludovic Marin/AFP

FRANCE

France now 2281 infections and 48 deaths, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the country is “only at the beginning of this epidemic”. But the government has so far avoided more draconian quarantine measures, even as a cabinet minister and five MPs test positive.

Mr Macron’s own chief of staff is currently awaiting test results, having last week come into contact with someone who tested positive, and the weekly cabinet meeting has been moved to a bigger room so Mr Macron and his ministers can sit at least one metre apart.

The Louvre museum has been closed and gatherings of more than 1000 people banned. Sporting events and concerts are being cancelled, including Madonna’s Paris concerts this week.

Mr Macron said the country would take a “proportional”, region-by-region approach to the outbreak. “One must not expect that at a given moment, at a given hour in the country, there will be a big shift when everything changes,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Macron said Slovenia and Austria had made “bad decisions” by severely restricting travel with neighbouring Italy. “I sincerely believe that these are bad decisions,” Macron said following crisis talks on the virus with other EU leaders via videoconference.

Mr Macron said France, which also shares a long border with Italy, did not yet need containment measures as drastic as those taken in Italy or China, where the deadly novel coronavirus first erupted.

“Today for France, there is no need to go further than what we have determined … we are taking appropriate measures,” he said. But, he added, “if tomorrow or the day after there was a reason” to take more drastic measures, “we would take them”.

Mr Macron said that taking “disproportionate measures” when France was “only at the beginning of the crisis” would be “counter-productive”. The French leader emphasised that it was “much more effective” to take containment measures in affected regions.

Britain has announced a $59 billion stimulus package. Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP

UNITED KINGDOM

In the UK, where six people have died and 382 have tested positive, the country’s health minister has contracted the virus. Nadine Dorries first showed symptoms on Thursday — the same day she attended an event hosted by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“It’s been pretty rubbish but I hope I’m over the worst of it now,” she tweeted. “More worried about my 84-year-old mum who is staying with me and began with the cough today. She is being tested tomorrow. Keep safe and keep washing those hands, everyone.”

But the British government has rejected calls for parliament to be suspended. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday that “we will keep parliament open” so the government could be held to account.

“Our democracy is the foundation of our way of life,” he told parliament, while adding that “in some ways this house may have to function differently”.

Meanwhile, the government has announced a 30 billion-pound ($59 billion) economic stimulus package and the Bank of England slashed its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 0.25 per cent.

Sweden has reported its first coronavirus death. Picture: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

DENMARK

In Denmark, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that all schools, preschools and universities will close as of Monday, after the country reported a dramatic spike of 442 new coronavirus cases for a total of 1303.

Bars and cultural institutions will close immediately, all public sector employees not performing critical functions will be sent home on paid leave, companies are being urged to allow employees to work for home, and indoor events with 100 more participants are banned.

“This will have huge consequences, but the alternative would be far worse,” Ms Frederiksen told a press conference. “Under normal circumstances, a government would not present such far-reaching measures without having all the solutions ready for the many Danes concerned, but we are in an extraordinary situation.”

Ms Frederiksen said financial measures would be announced soon. “We will not get through this as a country without a cost. Businesses will close. Some will lose their jobs. We will do what we can to mitigate the consequences for employees,” she said.

SWEDEN

The death in Sweden of an elderly woman who had been in intensive care represented the first virus-related death for the whole Nordic-Baltic region.

A doctor with the regional hospital authority in Stockholm emphasised that the experience elsewhere indicates it’s “the elderly and especially the elderly with other underlying illnesses that have the most serious consequences of COVID-19”.

IRELAND

Ireland also recorded the country’s first death of a person infected with the new coronavirus. The Department of Health said the person had an underlying illness but gave no other details. There have been 34 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.