the corona virus is spreading Pakistan
being the latest to declare its first
cases and so is fear of the unknown as
government's urge people not to panic
there are the visible signs of it across
Europe and the empty supermarket shelves
in northern Italy and the hotels locked
down in quarantine in the sporting
events and public gatherings canceled
China remains the epicenter of the
disease with nearly 80 thousand cases
reported but for the first time new
cases outside the country have exceeded
new cases there South Korea has the
second largest number with over a
thousand infected the Middle East Iran
still has the most cases with others in
Bahrain Iraq Kuwait and Oman and now the
first reported case in Latin America in
Brazil in Europe Italy has the greatest
number of people infected with nearly
50% more cases reported in 24 hours
several other European countries have
announced their first infections
including Greece in Tenerife four cases
have meant hundreds of holidaymakers are
unable to travel home whilst air of the
thousands tested only 13 of court the
virus our international editor Lindsey
Hilsum reports on the global spread of
coronavirus praying for the sick is a
medieval ritual but this virus is
spreading by thoroughly modern means
those at the Pope's Ash Wednesday
audience today are amongst 50 million
people who fly in and out of Rome
annually from more than 230 places
worldwide Pope Francis says he feels
close to those suffering from the virus
and those who care for the sick his
doctors might advise him to limit
contact older people and those with
underlying conditions are most at risk
on the high-speed train from Rome to
Milan everyone is aware that there have
been more than 370 cases and 12 deaths
in Italy part of a trend in which
according to the World Health
Organization the number of new cases
outside China now exceeds those within
Malan itself is very quiet as the
authorities try to balance sensible
containment with preventing panic
lasagna star music aside I'm queerly we
should stay calm there is no reason to
be particularly afraid as a doctor the
only advice I can give is to tell people
who are more at risk the elderly those
with pre-existing conditions cancer or
weak immune systems to avoid going out a
wh o team is preparing to travel to Iran
where the authorities may have
underreported the outbreak centered on
the holy city of calm a statement from
one of the shrines today said the
material used to build it would deter
the virus a kind of magical thinking
that may be less than helpful
this report went viral the journalist
says the situation in calm is critical
they don't have enough doctors or
medicines and he begs the authorities to
close off the city even if it means food
shortages next door in the Iraqi city of
Najaf they're worried that Iranian
pilgrims will bring the virus with them
but they're also worried about no
pilgrims coming at all because they
depend on the income falling ill or
losing your livelihood what kind of
choice is that the number of Iranian
visitors had exceeded 4,000 people per
day but now there is not a single
visitor here and all the hotels are
empty a major concern as hotel owners
and Iraqis in general is the absence of
a health infrastructure the Iraqi health
system is broken the empty hotels of
Najaf are the least of it container
shipping from Asia to northern Europe is
down by about 50% since the virus
emerged that's a massive economic hit
not just for the shipping industry but
for Asian suppliers and for
manufacturers elsewhere in the world
from import of raw materials into China
there's been a
massive decrease in that because the
factories have stopped or are you
starting to recover now so and on the
finished goods side of it you've got
empty containers for example in in China
and you've got a shorter to contain you
to the States because the manufactured
goods are not getting after China and
being transported around the world so
it's affecting all the supply chain air
travel is down to as people cancel or
postpone trips good for the planet may
be a drastic way of reducing carbon
emissions that no one could or would
have planned all over the world they're
disinfecting classrooms in Bangkok are
getting the treatment trams in the North
Korean capital Pyongyang buses in Seoul
the w-h-o has not declared this a
pandemic saying that could amplify
unnecessary fear and stigma but it is
encouraging such precautions in Dublin
they've postponed the Six Nations rugby
fixture between Italy and Ireland at the
Aviva Stadium one of several
international sports events being
delayed and in the Philippines they're
sprinkling ash instead of smearing it on
the foreheads of the faithful avoiding
contact the head of the WH o said today
that we can contain the virus but the
impact of the measures required is being
felt across the world Lindsey Hilsum de
well here the health secretary Matt
Hancock told MPs that a wider public
information campaign will be rolled out
insisting the government had a clear
plan to contain delay research and
mitigate the corona virus outbreak
several schools have been closed across
the UK after fears the children
returning from skiing trips to northern
Italy might have been infected but what
is the official advice is Semyon Brown
400 to work here with Chevron the
morning memo was work from home as cases
of cupboard 19 build around Europe
Britain is bracing itself today the
government said they expect to see more
cases here but refused a shutdown of
schools calling it unnecessary if anyone
has been in contact with a suspected
case in a childcare or an educational
setting no special measures are required
while test results are awaited there is
no need to close the school or send
other students or staff home but some
schools have done exactly that
cranly school in north which has closed
its doors this week after students with
flu-like symptoms returned from a trip
to affected regions like here in
northern Italy in an age of global
tourism covered 19 commonly called
coronavirus has an international
passport so travelers from affected
regions those tested or been in close
contact of somebody tested positive have
been told herself isolated public health
England say hundreds of people have
already successfully done it but what
does it mean in practice the
government's aid means to separate from
those who live with including your
partner in children in a private room
with the door closed if you can use a
separate toilet and bathroom if not have
a rotor and clean thoroughly after use
the advice also suggests ordering food
and groceries using online services only
visit a doctor after a phone call and a
standard wash your hands regularly the
problem is that for those returning from
outbreak zones like this self isolation
is being applied differently by
different individuals and institutions
Diego Guillot returned to the UK from an
affected area in Italy whilst he's under
self-isolation he says his son was told
to return to school I'm fairly worried
because if by any chance I am a courier
and if I infect my kids or if by any
chance the kids going out for instance
my son going to school doesn't set
another child or another teacher that
might have another condition you know
that would cause serious
I think at the one there is no
structural check being done on the
population to ensure that there's
definitely not an infection in each
single individual the Spanish island of
tenerife is popular with UK holiday
makers but a KO bid 19 outbreak means
hundreds of guests at this hotel have
found themselves in lockdown and in
limbo
they've just recommended that we stay in
our rooms and if they see us out for too
long they tell us to go back to them but
that's all we really know we haven't
really been given instructions about
it's very very vague and whenever we
whenever we try and get more information
out of them they very much just say well
yeah we have no news this coming from
outside
despite the quarantine this is now the
hotel buffet who looks like back in the
UK this well-known faith is now in
self-isolation John snow must tested
temperature twice daily
but it's the mental test of self
isolation that would be a challenge I'm
more frightened by having to live with
myself for 14 days on my own that I am
of the virus illness for now as the
caters grow this man is under pressure
to get the public health response right
the global death toll rising the
consequences for getting it wrong
could be fatal we're joining me now is
dr. Richard Darwin who's a travel health
specialist at the Fleet Street clinic
and professor as origami an infectious
disease epidemiologist at Imperial
College London professor as reg honest
how cautious do you think people need to
be if you've got no symptoms but you're
still self isolating for whatever reason
how do you have to lock yourself in your
room or can you go out for a walk as
long as you're not contacting so this is
a precautionary measure really to try to
stop the further spread of anybody who
might potentially be infected so as you
say if you have no symptoms you really
have no cause for concern
but if you have traveled to one of the
affected areas and could have been
exposed it's really a public health
measure to try and contain me at wake
from spreading further so is it a kind
of moral duty to try and prevent the
spread to them very small minority who
face fatal consequences or is this
really over quarter
itself item so the principle behind it
is to stop person-to-person spread to
the extent that this virus might become
commonplace in the community so we're in
a phase as the health secretary said of
containment trying to identify cases
especially people who've been coming in
from areas with a higher rates of
infection and to stop person-to-person
contact that might allow the virus to
become established I think there's a
distinction I think it's very easy for
people to become obsessed with images of
people wearing masks and hazmat suits
and taking what seemed to be fairly
draconian precautions this is a public
health exercise we don't want the virus
to establish itself in the community
it's not because this is a dreadful
fearsome virus on the same scale as
Ebola or SARS or some of the other more
serious outbreaks so if and it might be
a win this doesn't become established
here there's no point wearing the masks
and self isolating is that right there
very little scientific evidence to
suggest that a mask will protect you as
such so certainly for those who have
very strong symptoms and may be a source
of cold symptoms it may protect onward
from onward transmission but the
evidence is quite patchy and really in
that particular case if you have
symptoms just like if you had flu you
are really better off staying at home
but if as you say you know this is not
like Ebola you know we've got that clear
is it overcautious then to be closing
schools in this country to be cancelling
sporting fixtures already well at the
moment there's no scientific
justification for doing that so I would
certainly cause shouldn't people against
overreacting and taking you know putting
in place measures that have no chance of
being effective there's not enough you
know so far we've got 13 cases in in the
UK shutting down sporting events in the
UK will not make any difference
as things that obviously the situation
may evolve differently
and you know and we rely on the science
we rely on the Magnificent work that is
being done from units like Professor
ghani's do you have even a model what's
you know to model the effect of
different interventions yes I mean
absolutely we consider all these
different impacts and as the health
secretary said today if the spread in
the UK then we may ultimately be moving
to a phase of mitigation and that's
really where these essentially what we
call social isolation measures might
come into place that's not of course
complete isolation that's just reducing
contact and one of the clear ways you
can do that is perhaps just stay a
little bit further away from people stop
the handshake stop the handshakes and
good hygiene so when you've had dozens
of countries now affected you've got
person-to-person transmission in
multiple countries why do you think that
pandemic hasn't been declared it would
it be helpful if it was well the
situation may change at the moment out
of the 30 or so countries where the
current virus has been found the vast
majority have got cases that number in
you know single or double digits only so
there's not a lot of evidence that the
virus is becoming established in those
countries there's increasing faster
outside what it is we know that there's
been travel from China some of the cases
that have been recorded are people
who've been evacuated from China so
they're not they've not been let loose
in the community to me what's much more
worrying is where you hear about what's
happening in Iran for example where
instead of cases being identified
you've got deaths being identified
before the cases which suggests to me
that the public health infrastructure
there is really not up to it
would it be helpful particularly in
developing countries for a pandemic to
be declared by the w-h-o actually I
think it's just a term and it probably
isn't going to make what we do different
so those countries are really at risk
because of the weaker health systems the
poorer surveillance and therefore that
is of major concern and really the focus
should be on trying to contain and
mitigating the impact of this as far as
possible to protect both those
in our own country but also the wider
world professor Ezra garni and dr.
Richard Dawood thank you very much for
joining me now thanks Catherine in the
United States President Trump has laid
into the media accusing them of fuelling
fears about the corona virus and
insisting that his administration was
doing a great job is due to hold a press
conference later today let's go over to
our Washington correspondent Siobhan
Kennedy Siobhan tell us more well Donald
Trump matt is under pressure from
criticisms that his administration
simply isn't doing enough to cope if
there's a sudden increase in cases here
in the US to be fair so far the numbers
are pretty low about 60 citizens in
total have been affected the majority of
those were rescued from that cruise ship
in Japan and the rest are Americans who
have flown back here from disease
infected virus-infected areas they are
all either in quarantine or in hospital
nobody has died so so far the numbers
are low but the panic does appear to be
rising we saw that in a stock market
this week which failed more than a
thousand points on two consecutive days
and then yesterday the Center for
Disease Control really dialed up the
rhetoric with a fresh warning let's hear
from one of its officials now hear what
she had to say now it's not so much a
question of if this will happen anymore
but rather more a question of exactly
when this will happen and how many
people in this country will become
infected and how many of those will
develop severe or more complicated
disease well Donald Trump did not
appreciate that he's gone into defensive
mode on Twitter as you said earlier he's
blaming journalists for panicking the
markets and he's insisting that the u.s.
he says is doing a great job with
respect to coronavirus we know he's
requested that two and a half billion
dollars be set aside though the
Democrats say that's not nearly half
enough we'll hear the latest Matt as you
said in that press conference that the
President himself is hosting in the
White House in just over three hours
time