© AP
A medic moves a patient in a ward dedicated to people infected with the coronavirus at Forqani Hospital in Qom, the most affected region in Iran, on February 26.
Iran has canceled Friday Prayers in Tehran over the coronavirus outbreak, state media report, as the authorities confirmed that infected cases in the country spiked by more than 100.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on February 27 that
the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus outbreak in Iran has increased by seven to 26 over the past 24 hours -- the highest death toll outside of China, where the disease emerged in December.
A total of 245 people had tested positive for the virus --
an increase of 106 on the previous day, Jahanpour told a news conference, adding that the large number of new cases came from more labs now testing for the virus.
More than 82,000 people in about 40 countries have been infected with the new coronavirus, mainly in China. COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 2,700 people globally.
The Middle Eastern country has become the main hot spot of the virus in the region, where
more than 350 cases have now been reported. Many of those cases have been linked to travelers who had gone to the Islamic republic for religious visits.
As governments ramped up measures to battle a looming global pandemic, Iranian authorities announced domestic travel restrictions for people with confirmed or suspected infections, and placed curbs on access to major Shi'ite pilgrimage sites.
In affected areas,
school closures will be extended for three days, and universities for another week starting from February 29, Health Minister Saeed Namaki told a news conference.
State TV later reported
Friday Prayers in Tehran had been called off, and semiofficial news agencies quoted officials as saying the prayers would also be canceled in other cities.
Comment: Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iranian vice president for women and family affairs, has
contracted the virus, as has Mojtaba Zonnour, head of Iran's Parliamentary Security and Foreign Relations Commission. Germany's health minister says his country is facing the beginning of an
epidemic (there are 18 confirmed cases):
Spahn claimed earlier that "detection and containment" efforts in Europe were working to hold back the spread of the virus, but an explosion of cases in northern Italy and at least 13 other European countries have forced him to reevaluate the situation. At his last press conference on Tuesday, Spahn admitted "it could get worse before it gets better."
Tracking the 'infection chains' - noting the previous travel and social encounters of the infected - is vital to understanding the spread of the illness. Thus far, the majority of patients in Germany were found to have recently traveled from Italy or China, or had contact with travelers.
"The infection chains are partially no longer trackable, and that is a new thing," Spahn said on Tuesday. "Large numbers of people have had contact with the patients, and that is a big change to the 16 patients we had until now where the chain could be traced back to the origin in China."
Italy saw its death toll rise to 14, with 528 total cases (100 more than the previous day). Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, however, says that the "
infodemic" is more damaging to the country than the virus:
"The epidemic of misleading information will do more damage to Italy than the risk of the virus epidemic itself," Di Maio told reporters Thursday. "We have gone from an epidemic risk to an 'infodemic' one."
The spread of "misleading" reports damages not only the fragile economy of the country — that has seen three recessions in just over a decade — but also the reputation of its scientific community, the minister added.
Italian scientists are "addressing the situation brilliantly," while the media scare blows the situation out of proportion, he argued. So far, the outbreak affects only 0.089 percent of the country's population, including infected and quarantined, the official explained.
"Without wanting to play things down, there are just over 10 towns and cities involved in Italy at the moment," Di Maio said. "If our children go to school in most cases it means that foreigners can come here as tourists and investors."
The first American case of
local transmission turned up in California (the individual had no known contact through travel of exposure to someone already infected). But in China, deaths are declining (29 new deaths reported today, lower than previous daily figures). One Chinese city is
offering over $1k rewards for self-reporting symptoms in order to help stop the spread of the virus.
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