Global Watch: South Korea’s ‘Drive-Thru’ Testing; Japan Closes All Schools; Italian Officials Trade Blame As Cases Climb; And More
Media outlets take a look at the global response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The New York Times:
South Korean Leader Said Coronavirus Would ‘Disappear.’ It Was A Costly Error.
There were 28 cases of the coronavirus in South Korea on Feb. 13. Four days had passed without a new confirmed infection. President Moon Jae-in predicted that the outbreak would “disappear before long,” while the prime minister assured people that it was OK not to wear surgical masks outdoors. As it turns out, the virus had been rapidly spreading at the time through a large, secretive church in Daegu, where it has since mushroomed into the largest epidemic of the coronavirus outside China, with 2,022 cases, including 13 deaths. (Sang-Hun, 2/27)
Reuters:
South Korea Launches 'Drive-Thru' Coronavirus Testing Facilities As Demand Soars
From inside his car, a driver is checked for any fever or breathing difficulties by medical staff in protective clothing and goggles who lean in through the window at a new drive-thru coronavirus clinic in South Korea. He drove off after the brief test showed he was clear. (Shin, 2/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
South Korea Spends Billions To Blunt Coronavirus’s Economic Impact
South Korea injected more than $13 billion in emergency funds to stoke economic activity sapped by the fast-spreading coronavirus, as China reported its lowest daily rise in new cases since it locked down the city where the epidemic started. (Yoon and Wong, 2/28)
ABC News:
South Korea Takes New Measures To Have Enough Face Masks Domestically Amid Coronavirus
The South Korean government has implemented draconian measures to secure and distribute face masks to the public amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Manufacturers of face masks must immediately cut down mask exports to less than 10% of their total production, and more than half of production must be supplied to government designated sellers, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced Thursday. (Lee, 2/27)
The New York Times:
Japan Shocks Parents By Moving To Close All Schools Over Coronavirus
After weeks of criticism that Japan was bungling its reaction to the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the drastic step on Thursday of asking all the country’s schools to close for about a month. With the number of cases steadily rising and Japan suddenly confronting talk that the Tokyo Olympics may have to be canceled, Mr. Abe is eager to show that he is moving aggressively to control the virus. (Rich, Dooley and Inoue, 2/27)
The New York Times:
Italy, Mired In Politics Over Virus, Asks How Much Testing Is Too Much
On the sixth floor of a skyscraper, two dozen epidemiologists and public health experts form the nerve center of the effort to contain a coronavirus outbreak in Italy that has alarmed Europe and put the wealthy Lombardy region at the center of global concern. They work the phones, pore over digital maps and study computer screens. They update databases with confirmed cases. They track those whom infected people might have had contact with. They coordinate with hospitals and laboratories to verify test results, sometimes for people with no symptoms. (Horowitz, 2/27)
The New York Times:
At A Locked Down Spanish Resort, Many Questions, Little Information
Among the hundreds of guests who remained stranded in a hotel in the Canary Islands on Thursday, after four guests were found to have the coronavirus early this week, an overriding question loomed: “What’s going on?” Romane Guilloux, 20, a guest from France, asked about the lockdown imposed on patrons of the hotel, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, a four-star resort in the south of Tenerife, the largest of the islands. (Peltier, 2/27)
The Associated Press:
First Virus-Free Guests Abandon Blocked Spanish Island Hotel
Some guests have started to leave a locked-down hotel in Spain’s Tenerife island after undergoing screening for a new virus that is infecting hundreds worldwide. Reporters at the scene saw several families and couples being screened for their temperatures on Thursday morning by what appeared to be medical personnel wearing protective outfits. (Mateu and Parra, 2/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Spreads To Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigeria’s health authorities on Friday reported the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa, adding to fears about the spread of the deadly virus on a continent already beset by some of the world’s weakest health-care systems. An Italian citizen who arrived in Nigeria from Milan, located in a region that is grappling with the biggest outbreak of the virus outside Asia, tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, two days after arriving in the commercial capital, Lagos, the health ministry said. Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said the individual has been quarantined in a specialized unit. (Bariyo and Parkinson, 2/28)
The Associated Press:
Parents Of 'Terrified' Africans Stranded In China Want Help
She wakes every day long before dawn to chat with her three stranded daughters on the other side of the world in China's locked-down city of Wuhan, anxious to see they have started a new day virus-free. “If I don’t get a reply it worries me, but if I get a reply from any of them I say, ‘’Thank you, Jesus,'" Margaret Ntale said. (Muhumuza and Onen, 2/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Were You On This Bus With A Coronavirus Patient? South Korea Is On The Hunt For Infections
In the weeks before she was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, South Korea’s Patient No. 31 busily went about her daily life. The 61-year-old resident of Daegu traveled to Seoul’s bustling Gangnam district to visit her company headquarters. She commuted to her work selling mobile gift certificates, ate her fill at a hotel buffet and went to a traditional medicine clinic after getting into a minor car accident. (Kim, 2/27)
Reuters:
Airlines At Center Of Storm As Coronavirus Spreads
European airlines stepped up their warnings over the coronavirus outbreak on Friday, with British Airways-owner IAG and Finnair flagging a hit to profits and easyJet reporting a big drop in demand into and out of a virus-affected region in Italy. All three airlines also joined rivals in announcing cost cuts to help weather a storm of unknown severity and duration. (Young and Davey, 2/28)
Reuters:
United Kingdom Has 19 Confirmed Cases Of The New Coronavirus
The United Kingdom now has 19 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus after Wales identified its first case and two new cases were found in England, health authorities said on Friday. "The total number of UK cases is 19," the health ministry said. Britain reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on Jan. 31. (2/28)
The New York Times:
He Drove Her To The Hospital. She Gave Him The Coronavirus.
The Chinese woman hailed the cab and said she wanted to go to the hospital. The Thai taxi driver got stuck in traffic because that’s what often happens in Bangkok. To pass the time, the woman took out her phone and, leaning forward, pointed out some tourist sites she might want to visit. Then she sneezed, the spray showering the cabby’s face. (Beech, 2/28)
The New York Times:
Iran Vice President Is One Of 7 Officials To Contract Coronavirus
A senior figure in Iran’s government, who sits just a few seats away from President Hassan Rouhani at cabinet meetings, has fallen ill with coronavirus, making her Iran’s seventh official to test positive, including one prominent cleric who has died. Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, Mr. Rouhani’s deputy for women’s affairs and the highest-ranking woman in the government, has a confirmed coronavirus infection and is quarantined at home, her deputy said Thursday. (Fassihi and Gladstone, 2/27)
Reuters:
Lithuania Confirms First Coronavirus Infection
Lithuania reported its first coronavirus infection on Friday, in a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italy's northern city of Verona, the government said, as the disease spreads rapidly worldwide. Italy is the European nation worst hit by the virus, with its death toll at 17, while the numbers of those testing positive for the illness increased by more than 200, to 350. (2/28)
Reuters:
First Dutch Coronavirus Infection Confirmed: Health Authorities
A patient in the Netherlands has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus Covid-19, Dutch health authorities said on Thursday, the first confirmed case in the country. The Dutch National Institute for Public Health said in a statement the patient in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg had recently traveled in northern Italy and is now being treated in isolation. Seventeen people have died in Italy and 650 have been infected, in Europe's biggest coronavirus outbreak. (2/27)
ABC News:
Canceled Flights, Quarantined Cruises And $30B Losses: How Coronavirus Has Upended The Travel Industry
The novel coronavirus outbreak has already upended an entire industry, resulting in canceled flights, resorts on lockdown, and a deadly cruise ship quarantine. With the world bracing for a pandemic, experts say the travel sector should prepare for even more uncertainty ahead.The outbreak is expected to cost the airline industry alone nearly $30 billion. (Thorbecke, 2/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Tracking The Coronavirus
Since China reported the emergence of a pneumonia-like illness in late December, the new coronavirus has spread quickly across the country, reaching nearly every province. Within weeks it began to appear elsewhere in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Chinese authorities identified a fish and livestock market in Wuhan as the likely source of the virus. (Wu, Wang and Moriarty, 2/27)
ABC News:
Growth Of New Coronavirus Fuels Questions Over Definition Of Pandemic
As the coronavirus continues its spread around the globe, a single word is coming from the mouths of experts at an alarmingly growing rate: pandemic. But what exactly is a pandemic and does this qualify? (Baldwin, 2/28)
