Coronavirus: Virus now spreading faster outside China

The world is battling to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus that for the first time counted more new cases outside China.

The world is battling to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus that for the first time counted more new cases outside China than inside the country where the epidemic originated.

Worries over the ever-expanding economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis multiplied with factories idled, trade routes frozen and tourism crippled, while a growing list of countries braced for the illness to breach their borders.

On Tuesday, 412 new cases of the COVID-19 disease were reported in China, while 459 were reported outside the country, the World Health Organisation said.

The novel coronavirus has killed almost 2800 people and infected more than 81,000, the vast majority in China.

New cases linked to Italy — the hardest hit European country — have emerged in several countries in Europe and beyond, amid warnings from health experts that nations are not ready to contain a global outbreak.

Greece confirmed its first case, a woman who had recently travelled to northern Italy; while a suspected case was reported in Brazil — a traveller recently returned from Milan.

If confirmed, it would be Latin America’s fist case of the virus. Croatia, Austria and Algeria have all reported cases linked to Italy, while a hotel in Spain remained under lockdown after an infected Italian tourist was hospitalised with the virus.

“The sudden increases of cases in Italy, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Korea are deeply concerning,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

A World Health Organisation official warned that nations were “simply not ready” to contain the outbreak. “You have to be ready to manage this at a larger scale... and it has to be done fast,” said WHO’s Bruce Aylward, who headed an international expert mission to China to assess containment measures.

Several governments, including Australia, have advised against travel to Italy, particularly to outbreak epicentre in the north, and introduced checks for passengers arriving from the country.

Italy has confirmed 401 cases of the disease and 12 deaths, and says the virus has spread to some southern regions as well.

German authorities say the nation is heading for a coronavirus epidemic and can no longer trace all cases. Germany, which has around 20 cases, said it was already impossible to trace all chains of infection, and Health Minister Jens Spahn urged regional authorities, hospitals and employers to review their pandemic planning.

But even as new cases continued to multiply beyond China’s borders, the European Union sought to head off hysteria over the outbreak. “This is a situation of concern but we must not give in to panic,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told reporters in Rome.

“We must also be vigilant when it comes to misinformation and disinformation,” she added.

US President Donald Trump pushed back against criticism that his administration isn’t doing enough to meet the virus threat, as calls grew for more funding than the $US2.5 billion the White House has requested from Congress.

US President Donald Trump will hold a press conference about the virus in Washington on Thursday.

A day after he sought to minimise fears of the virus spreading widely across the US, Mr Trump prepared to hold a White House press conference on Thursday with experts from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr Trump tweeted that the CDC, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and others in the administration are “doing a great job with respect to Coronavirus!” and accused some news outlets of “panicking markets.” The White House said that it had faith in Azar and was not considering appointing a virus czar.

Virus, fires: 1.5 million visitors to Australia lost

Up to 1.5 million international visitors will be lost to Australia due to the coronavirus and bushfire crises, in a crippling blow to tourism as the disease — now threatening the Tokyo Olympics — forces Scott Morrison to prepare for “last resort” closures of schools and cancellations of football matches.

A draft Deloitte Access Economics report has found that a spike in mass cancellations will result in Australia suffering at least a 10 to 15 per cent drop in international visitors in 2020, though these numbers could worsen if the epidemic is not contained.

The drop equates to between 900,000 and 1.5 million visitors cancelling trips this year.

The impact of the coronavirus on air travel is expected to be greater than the 9/11 terrorist ­attacks in 2001 and the 2003 SARS epidemic, as more airlines slash flights in response to shrinking demand.

 

The Morrison government ­advised Australians visiting northern Italy to show extreme caution as it updated its travel ­advice. The Japanese embassy said on Wednesday there was no need for Australia to impose a China-style travel ban on Japan, which is grappling with its own outbreak of the disease, fuelling concerns that the Tokyo Olympics could be called off.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said on Wednesday there was about a three-month window in which to decide whether the Games, which are due to begin in July, would proceed.

The Morrison government has already activated its coronavirus pandemic response plan and states and territories are on standby to provide fever clinics and quarantine areas if there is a community outbreak. Health Minister Greg Hunt said schools could be closed and football matches cancelled as a last resort, in the event of a community outbreak.

“So, the possibility of events is always there, but that is a last ­resort,” Mr Hunt said.

“The way we think of this is as rings of containment. There’s a very well thought through plan which we’ve enacted in relation to those community transmission cases, and I think that is important to recognise: that at this point, ­although we are not immune to the virus, we are well prepared.”

His comments came as two more Australians evacuated to Darwin from the Diamond Princess cruise ship were tested for the virus, with eight cases already confirmed.

The Prime Minister this week paved the way for a government retreat on the budget surplus, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg warning that the coronavirus crisis would have a bigger impact on the economy than the bushfires.

Deloitte Access Economics partner and tourism sector expert Adele Labine-Romain said the coronavirus had triggered the ­biggest decline in tourist ­numbers, and warned the sector might not rebound before the end of the year.

“We have not seen any drop of this size before,” Ms Labine-­Romain said. “There were declines after 9/11 and some after other economic crashes or terrorist events, but this is a drop of 10 to 15 per cent in visitors in 2020.

“This is a very significant drop. China alone sends 1.5 million tourists to Australia each year, and the coronavirus has hit at the most important time of the Lunar New Year. And we saw in Western markets — the US, UK, Europe — that holidaymakers immediately sent through cancellations around new year’s when the bushfires were at their peak. The problem here is the tourism sector may not rebound. It’s very resilient but every airline seat not filled, every hotel room unfilled, cannot be recouped.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is preparing for “last resort” closures of schools and cancellations of football matches due to coronavirus.

China tourism consultant Andy Jiang, a former Tourism Australia destination manager, has released data showing there were just over 12,000 arrivals from China in February, compared with 144,228 in the same month last year. He warned that the decline had imposed a total cost to the national visitor economy of $838m.

“I think with coronavirus being somewhat contained within ­mainland China and accelerated outbreaks outside of China, there will be a sentiment shift among Chinese that it might be safer to stay in China than to travel elsewhere,” Mr Jiang said.

Ms Labine-Romain said that, if the virus was not contained, it was likely small businesses and airlines would start to suffer. The sector would struggle to service any tourists who returned when the travel bans were lifted.

“In the scenarios we are drawing up and — if this is not contained soon — the coronavirus will not just be a travel shock, it will flow significantly out into the rest of the economy,” she said.

“If it’s not contained, and it goes into several growth cycles in both the global and Australian economies, we will have people with less money, and therefore less capacity to travel.

“If it continues, will aviation be damaged? Will businesses that are really struggling now go under?

“We are already seeing businesses reducing hours and cutting staff altogether. The challenge is then (when the travel bans are ­lifted) will we have the capacity to service these tourists and will they have much money when they travel here.”

A Japanese embassy spokesman said that there was no need for even a partial travel ban to outbreak areas, and that Japan was working closely with the Morrison government.

“We do not consider it necessary to introduce any restrictions on travel between both countries at this time,” the spokesman said.

Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said this week he could not rule out travel bans on Japan and South Korea, with both experiencing severe outbreaks.

The Prime Minister and the ­national security committee of cabinet are due to decide whether to extend the current travel ban on foreign nationals leaving from mainland China — plus any other extra bans — by Friday.