- The virus has killed 2,442 and infected 76,936 people in China, and slammed the brakes on the world’s second-largest economy.
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- International worries about the spread of coronavirus outside China grew, with the World Health Organization (WHO) expressing concern about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link.
- Outside China, there have been more than 1,400 cases in 28 countries, the WHO said on Saturday. That includes one confirmed case on the African continent, in Egypt.
- Italy is battling the largest flare-up of the disease yet seen in Europe, with three people dying of the illness since Friday and more than 150 cases reported.
- Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy and Veneto with a combined population of some 50,000 have effectively been placed under quarantine as authorities struggled to find out how the outbreak started.
- South Korea reported 161 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of infected patients to 763 on Monday, a day after the government raised its infectious disease alert to its highest level.
- Iran, which announced its first two cases on Wednesday, said it had confirmed 43 cases and eight deaths. Most of the infections were in the Shi’ite Muslim holy city of Qom.
- Hong Kong said it had 74 confirmed cases, up from 69 on Saturday. The death toll is three.
- South Korean airlines said they are suspending flights to Daegu, the country’s fourth-largest city with the largest number of coronavirus cases, for the time being.
