Sharp Spike Of South Korea Cases, New Patients In Italy Signal Outbreak Is Picking Up Global Steam

Stat: The Coronavirus Is Spreading Outside China, Narrowing Hope To Eliminate It
There are worrying signs the coronavirus outbreak is entering a new phase, with spread outside of China — until recently at low levels — beginning to rapidly pick up steam. Experts point to the sharp rise of the number of cases in South Korea, which went from 30 on Monday to 204 by Friday, and in Italy, which had no cases at the start of Friday and 16 at the end of it. Five of the infected people in Italy are health workers. (Branswell, 2/21)

The New York Times: Europe Confronts Coronavirus As Italy Battles An Eruption Of Cases
Europe confronted its first major outbreak of the coronavirus as an eruption of more than 150 cases in Italy prompted officials on Sunday to lock down at least 10 towns, close schools in major cities and cancel sporting events and cultural touchstones, including the end of the Venice carnival. The worrisome spike — from fewer than five known cases in Italy before Thursday — shattered the sense of safety and distance that much of the continent had felt in recent months even as the virus has infected more than 78,000 worldwide and killed more than 2,400, nearly all in China. (Horowitz and Povoledo, 2/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Tests Europe’s Open Borders As Italy Death Toll Rises
Most of the 200 people who have been infected in Italy are in the wealthy region of Lombardy, concentrated in an area south of Milan. In 11 towns at the center of the outbreak—10 of them in Lombardy with a combined population of 50,000—residents are banned from leaving the area. The virus had also spread to other northern regions, prompting authorities to ban or restrict activities in an attempt to limit new infections. The regions affected by restrictions are home to more than 25 million people and include Italy’s core industrial regions around Milan, Turin and the hinterland of Venice. (Stancati and Sylvers, 2/24)

CNN: Italy Coronavirus Cases Soar As Authorities Scramble To Find Patient Zero
Officials have yet to track down the first carrier of the virus in the country. "We still cannot identify patient zero, so it's difficult to forecast possible new cases," Borrelli said at an earlier press conference. Strict emergency measures were put in place over the weekend, including a ban on public events in at least 10 municipalities, after a spike in confirmed cases in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto. (Borghese and John, 2/24)

The Hill: Venice Carnival Canceled Over Virus Fears 
Italy announced it would cancel its Venice Carnival, which would have run through next Tuesday, amid concerns about the novel coronavirus. The famed celebration was called off as part of measures in the region to prohibit large public gatherings after a third person in the country died from the virus, The Associated Press reported. Italy has seen 152 total cases, the largest number outside of Asia. (Budryk, 2/23)

The New York Times: South Korea Raises Threat Alert Level
President Moon Jae-in on Sunday put South Korea on the highest possible alert in its fight against the coronavirus, a move that empowers the government to lock down cities and take other sweeping measures to contain the outbreak. “The coming few days will be a critical time for us,” he said at an emergency meeting of government officials to discuss the outbreak, which in just days has spiraled to 763 confirmed infections and six deaths. “The central government, local governments, health officials and medical personnel and the entire people must wage an all-out, concerted response to the problem.” (2/23)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘The City Has Been Annihilated’: South Korea’s Coronavirus Epicenter Is A Virtual Ghost Town
Cafes here demanded orders must be takeout or delivery. A typically bustling market hollowed out. The rare flicker of activity occurred at stores selling face masks, though most had run out. These are the scenes of eerie silence unfolding in Daegu, South Korea’s fourth-largest city and an epicenter for a coronavirus outbreak that skyrocketed to 763 cases on Monday morning—a roughly 25-fold rise in just five days. In response, President Moon Jae-in raised the country’s virus-alert system to the highest of four levels, calling it a severe situation that requires “unprecedented, powerful” measures. (Yoon and Martin, 2/23)

Reuters: WHO Says No Longer Uses 'Pandemic' Category, But Virus Still Emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) no longer has a process for declaring a pandemic, but the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak remains an international emergency, a spokesman said on Monday. Fears of a coronavirus pandemic grew on Monday after sharp rises in new cases reported in Iran, Italy and South Korea, although China relaxed restrictions on movement in several places including Beijing as its rates of new infections eased. (Nebehay, 2/24)

Reuters: New Coronavirus Cases Rise In Italy, Korea And Iran But Fall In China
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said it no longer had a process for declaring a pandemic but the coronavirus outbreak remained an international emergency. "We are specially concerned about the rapid increase in cases in ... Iran, Italy and the Republic of Korea," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Sweden via video link. (2/24)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Close To Becoming A Pandemic, WHO Warns
At the beginning of any disease outbreak, public health experts painstakingly trace the contacts of every person who becomes sick. The experts build a family tree of possible illness, with branches that include anyone who might have shaken hands with, or been sneezed on, by an infected person. But with confirmed infections approaching 80,000 people, tracing contacts on a case-by-case basis could soon be impractical. (Johnson, Sun, Wan and Achenbach, 2/22)

The Associated Press: Health Officials Worry As Untraceable Virus Clusters Emerge
In South Korea, Singapore and Iran, clusters of infections are leading to a jump in cases of the new viral illness outside China. But it’s not the numbers that are worrying experts: It's that increasingly they can't trace where the clusters started. World Health Organization officials said China's crackdown on parts of the country bought time for the rest of the world to prepare for the new virus. (Ghosal and Neergaard, 2/21)

The Hill: Health Officials Worried By Untraceable Coronavirus Cases Outside China 
The inability to identify the first patient in mini-outbreaks outside China has officials concerned that the virus may be spreading too quickly for standard public health measures to be effective.(Johnson, 2/22)

Reuters: Iran Confirms Another Dead Because Of The New Coronavirus: Official
Iran said on Sunday an Iranian infected by the new coronavirus died in the country, head of the Medical Science University in the Mazandaran province was quoted as saying, bringing the number of deaths to seven in the Islamic Republic. (2/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Spreads Outside China As Officials’ Worries Mount
Pakistani officials said Sunday that the country had sealed its land border with Iran as a result of the outbreak there, though Islamabad made no official announcement. Pakistan is estimated to have the world’s second biggest Shiite population and about 500 people a day cross the border to Shiite-majority Iran. Travelers are being turned back by Pakistani authorities on the road as they approach the border, officials said. “This really is a new virus and we’re learning as we go along,” said Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. “We’re seeing some cases that don’t have a clear epidemiological link,” she said. (Purnell, 2/24)

The Washington Post: How Epidemics Like COVID-19 End (And How To End Them Faster)
Countries around the world are working to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Here’s how masks and quarantines fight the virus. (Fox, Shin and Emamdjomeh, 2/19)