COVID-19: Fear builds as infection numbers spike in Iran, Italy and South Korea

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COVID-19: Fear builds as infection numbers spike in Iran, Italy and South Korea

Last Updated : 28 Feb 2020 01:32:54 PM IST

Coronavirus spread

Iraq has announced a new case of novel coronavirus disease in the country's northern province of Kirkuk, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Middle Eastern country to 7. On the other hand, the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea increased to 2,022. Italy has confirmed 122 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 650, authorities said.

A statement by the Iraqi Health Ministry on Thursday said that it has detected a new case of coronavirus for an Iraqi man, 51, who returned earlier to Iraq from neighboring Iran. After being transferred to a hospital, he was tested positive and was kept in quarantine in accordance with the international procedures, Xinhua reported.

In South Korea, only two days ago, the number of infections exceeded 1,000.

More than half of newly confirmed cases were linked to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu, 300 km southeast of Seoul.

Of the 256 new cases, 182 are in Daegu, and 49 are in the neighbouring North Gyeongsang Province.

Since raising the virus alert level to "red", the highest level, on Sunday, health authorities have focused on halting the spread of the virus in Daegu, the epicentre of the virus outbreak in South Korea, and North Gyeongsang.

Experts said the number of confirmed cases is expected to jump in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

The government also ordered another 1,638 Shincheonji followers to self-isolate as they have shown symptoms, Yonhap News Agency said in its report.

Since the first coronavirus case; a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak -- on January 20, the pace of infections had not been alarming until February 18, when a 61-year-old woman who is tied to the Daegu religious sect tested positive for the virus.

Since then, the nation has seen an explosion in infections as it accelerated virus tests on potential cases.

Now coming to Italy, according to the Italian health authorities, fatalities linked to the disease rose to 17 on Thursday, after three more people died in northern Lombardy region, Xinhua reported.

"All three were in their 80s, and specifically two people aged 88 and one aged 82 -- and all had a delicate and critical clinical picture," Angelo Borrelli, chief of the Civil Protection Department and extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, told reporters.