it's more than three hours drive from
the center of Italy's coronavirus
outbreak but panic buying has set in
finally there are pasta party Marcos
esta su Chilean oh my goodness cookie I
seek only a little perhaps this is human
nature when fear sets and reach for
comfort food Italy now has the highest
number of covered 19 cases outside Asia
two hundred and nineteen people have
tested positive and six people have died
it's currently centered around Lombardy
and Veneto and northern Italy
several towns have been placed in
lockdown here they're stockpiling I'm
sure when they'll be allowed to leave
yet do they really have more cases than
the rest of Europe we spoke to one of
the doctors treating coronavirus
patients the question is did we find
cases because we perform a lot of swabs
and the other didn't didn't perform the
wards because there was no reason
according to international protocols so
in other word that there are other
outbreaks in Europe that we don't know
because authorities didn't look for it
or we are so unlucky to were the only
outbreak in needham globally 80% of
people who contract the virus have mild
or no symptoms it can be hard to find
but there's another theory for Italy's
outbreak maybe in our country we have a
collective social life that is very
florid very expressive we have lots of
contacts we shake hands we kiss each
other we hug each other
the fools are indeed the virus has now
officially been detected in 28 countries
and more than 2,000 deaths have been
confirmed but despite the spread the
World Health Organization has today said
that this is not yet a pandemic
potential absolutely it has the message
though is be prepared and South Korea's
fourth largest city Daegu they've sent
police officers out to track down
members of the church identified as the
source of hundreds of infections while
in Iran officials said the number of
deaths from covered 19 were now 12
rejecting claims of a much higher death
toll Wuhan and Hebei province remains
the worst affected region and the w-h-o
said today that it has the highest death
rate in China for covered 19 between two
to four percent of cases the number of
new infections though is continuing to
decline Allah made our friend we cured
65 patients with 0 death rates and none
of our teams was affected across the
rest of China the death rate is now
thought to be naught point 7 percent
lower than first thought though still
seven times higher than seasonal flu
weather that similar in other countries
they still don't yet know
well fears over the corona virus have
sent financial markets tumbling around
the world
investors have become increasingly
nervous that the virus could have a big
impact not just on the Chinese economy
but the worldwide one to our business
and global trade correspondent Paul Matt
Minar McNamara joins us now from the
city of London Paul how bad are things
been on the markets today yeah pretty
bad I mean pic pretty much any stock
market around the world Cathy and tight
I can show you a red line
tumbling downwards let's start with
Italy tonight their stock exchange down
5.4 percent not all that surprising
given a lot
down you saw only one of Italian towns
but it's not isolated there though in
the u.s. a short time ago the Dow Jones
down 3.3% and that was echoed here in
the UK the foot see tonight close down
3.3% okay it's a 3.3 percent how bad is
that pretty bad 3.3 percent is the
biggest single loss in a day in more
than four and a half years three point
three percent means that right now the
hundred biggest companies in the UK are
worth about fifty billion pounds less
than they were this morning now
obviously some companies have fared
worse than others the big losers today
travel companies so easyJet down a huge
seventeen percent I AG the owners of
British Airways down nine percent and
cheery the world's largest tour operator
down ten percent and all of these losses
come back to coronavirus lots of
eye-watering numbers so just take us
through why investors are so worried
well one economist was saying to us
today it's not so much the virus they're
worried about it's the response to the
virus and actually saw in that report
earlier on the response has been locked
down and so you can see easy to see why
travel off races and travel companies
are being clobbered but why is everyone
else being hit well it's not just
tourism which is seizing up it's real
life in quarantine zones no one's going
to work in China manufacturing has been
hit slowing down massively which means
components aren't being shipped to
factories across the world which means
Goods aren't being made which means they
will not be sold and just to give you an
indicator of how important China is now
to the world economy back in 2003 when
SARS truck tire of China accounted for
about four percent of global output in
2020 it's expected to be about 17
percent it's quadrupled so the question
now is what does central banks do to
boost the economies well speculation at
the moment is that the US Federal
Reserve might be getting ready to slash
interest rates and if they do pressure
the amounts on the Bank of England to do
exactly the same Paul thanks very much