Virus cases up as Europe seeks to control spread

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Against the steady rise of infections, European businesses and governments sought ways yesterday to control the spread of the coronavirus.
The risk level for people in the European Union due to the spreading coronavirus has been raised from low-to-moderate to moderate-to-high in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's latest assessment, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels.
The European Commission launched a coronavirus response team yesterday, scrutinising medical risks as well as the implications for transport and mobility in the European Union, and the bloc's economy.
'While we should not give in to panic, the situation is likely to still get worse, EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said at a Brussels press conference yesterday.
Early yesterday, 2,100 cases had been confirmed in the 18 EU member states, with 38 deaths, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said.
Eighteen EU states have launched a joint procurement process to buy protective equipment, she added.
No EU country has so far indicated plans to introduce border checks within the Schengen free movement area.
EU finance ministers are to discuss the situation in a teleconference, Eurogroup president Mario Centeno said yesterday, to review recent developments and co-ordinate national responses.
Nevertheless, some businesses took things into their own hands.
British Airways cancelled hundreds of flights to Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Ireland and Switzerland, between March 17-28, citing the outbreak.
Ryanair also scaled back flights to Italy between March 17 and April 8.
Lufthansa and its subsidiaries likewise reduced flights to Italian and Asian destinations, the Frankfurt-based airline said yesterday.
Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, Swiss and Austrian Airlines, have already cancelled all flights to and from Chinese mainland destinations.
The new move is a reaction to the spread of the virus and affects flights scheduled for March and April to Italy, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Flights to mainland China have been cancelled until April 24 and to Tehran until April 30.
The number of cases also continued to tick up.
Portugal became the latest country to report its first case.
In Germany, cases rose to 150, the official disease control institute reported yesterday.
The Robert Koch Institute estimates the risk of the epidemic to be 'moderate.
Its head, Lothar Wieler, noted the situation continued to be extremely dynamic.
In the southern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria, pupils were ordered to stay home from school after last week's Carnival holiday if they had been in a high-risk area.
Several public events have been cancelled, most recently Munich's international craft trades fair (IHM).
The federal government said it did not believe the epidemic would end soon.
In France, the Paris book fair was cancelled due to government restrictions on indoor events involving more than 5,000 people.
In Italy, the first coronavirus case linked to the current outbreak was reported in Rome, affecting a police officer who came into contact with someone from Lombardy.
Italy now has 2,036 infections, a 20% increase compared to the previous day, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said.
The new figure includes 52 dead and 149 recoveries up from 34 and 83 on Sunday and 908 patients in hospital, with 166 in intensive care.
The outbreak remains concentrated in northern Italy, with 1,077 cases in Lombardy, 324 in Emilia-Romagna, 271 in Veneto, 51 in Piedmont and 34 in the Marche.
In the Nordic region, the number of reported coronavirus cases increased with four in Denmark, seven in Finland, three in Iceland, 25 in Norway and 15 in Sweden yesterday evening.
The king and queen of Sweden postponed an official dinner this week due to the cases, the palace said yesterday.
The Swedish foreign ministry has advised against all travel to Iran.
And after a government meeting addressing the outbreak, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven cancelled a visit to South Africa.
France has now confirmed 191 cases of coronavirus infection, up 61 from Sunday, national health director Jerome Salomon said.
In Austria, Viennese authorities set up a quarantine area for tourists infected with the virus, but with milder symptoms than would require a hospital stay, although no one yet fulfils this criterion.
In Poland, where no Covid-19 cases have been confirmed, a special parliamentary session was convened so that lawmakers could discuss measures to allow companies to order their employees to work remotely, and to exempt from rules of public tender the purchase of medical equipment.
The bill would also broaden the prerogatives of the country's Chief Sanitary Inspectorate in case of an epidemic.
As the virus spreads, the UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to take decisive action.
Of the 88,900 cases worldwide, 90% were reported from China, mostly in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, he said.
Outside China, 8,700 cases have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and four countries account for 81% of this figure, he said, naming South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan.
'This is not a one-way street. We can push this virus back, Ghebreyesus said.

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