From the Austrian Alps to an island off the coast of Africa. From an evangelical church in South Korea to a holy Shiite city in Iran. Governments and health workers around the world scrambled on Thursday to contain the rapidly spreading coronavirus, as the number of new cases outside China for the first time exceeded those inside the country where the epidemic originated.
More than 81,000 people have been infected with the virus that causes the respiratory disease Covid-19, and new cases have been documented in at least 47 countries and on every continent but Antarctica. So far, nearly 3,000 people have died, most of them in a single Chinese province, Hubei.
-
In Europe, France, Germany and Spain reported increases in cases, most likely tied to an outbreak in Italy’s Lombardy region, where more than 400 people have been infected. Cases were reported for the first time on Thursday in Denmark and Estonia.
-
In the Middle East, a dangerous cluster in Iran, where more than 240 people have been infected, spread across the region to Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia halted visits to some of the holiest sites in Islam, in the cities of Mecca and Medina.
-
In Asia, the authorities in China were slowly lifting citywide lockdowns that had ensnared more than 700 million people, as a major outbreak tied to a megachurch in South Korea ballooned on Thursday to 1,766, an increase of 505 from the previous day. And Japan said it would close all schools through March.
-
South America recorded its first case, a 61-year-old man in Brazil. And in the United States, a person in California who had not been exposed to anyone known to be infected tested positive for the virus.