Coronavirus is now spreading faster outside China as Europe and South Korea case count climbs

That's all from me today, but in case you missed it here's a round up of the main points from today:

• Case count stands at more than 81,000 worldwide, with 2,770 left dead
• Italy reported 400 cases after 12 people die from the virus
• Greece, Brazil, Pakistan, North Macedonia, Georgia and Finland recorded their first cases today
• France recorded its second death after a 60-year-old teacher died in a Paris hospital
• Death toll rises in Iran to 19, with 139 infected
• 59 people in US test positive
• Energy group Chevron sent 300 traders at its Canary Wharf, London offices home amid virus fears
• Health Sectary Matt Hancock confirmed that Britons forced to self-isolate will be allowed to claim sick leave

Makes sure to check back in tomorrow for all the latest updates.

The Georgian health minister has said the country has identified its first case of coronavirus, the Guardian reports.

Face masks, travel restrictions and uncertainty... coronavirus paranoia doesn't seem to be fading, but Angela Buttolph has taken matters into her own hands.

Our writer spills her secrets here.

Hong Kong's government has said it will give a HK$10,000 (£992) handout to every permanent resident in a bid to jump-start an economy in recession after months of protests and hit further by the coronavirus outbreak, AFP reports.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan unveiled the cash gift in the annual budget, committing a colossal HK$120 billion to help alleviate the worst economic downturn the international financial hub has faced in a decade.

The cash handout to around seven million permanent residents will cost HK$71 billion, but officials hope consumers will plough much of the money back into local businesses.

Other measures announced in the budget included profits and salary tax breaks, as well as low-interest loans for businesses struggling to pay staff wages.

"Hong Kong's economy is facing enormous challenges this year," Chan said, predicting a range of 0.5 percent growth to a 1.5 percent contraction this year.

Yet public anger still simmers in a city where neither its leadership nor Beijing have addressed the issues fuelling years of rising resentment.

Finland has confirmed its first case of the virus in a citizen, according to the Helsinki Times.

The paper reported that the patient, a woman of “working age”, was being treated at hospital in the capital Helsinki.

The patient returned from a trip to Milan on Sunday and has reported having only been in contact with two other people in Finland since then.

Finland's first official case was confirmed on 29 January after a Chinese traveler from Wuhan fell ill with the disease and was isolation in Lapland’s central hospital in northern Finland.

The controversial religious group at the heart of South Korea's coronavirus crisis had meetings in the now quarantined Chinese city of Wuhan, the Telegraph's Asia correspondent Nicola Smith reports.  

The development has escalated fears that the Shincheonji church disease cluster could extend across international borders.

More than half of the almost 1,300 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Korea have been linked to Shincheonji's branch in Daegu, a city of 2.5 million people. They may be connected to a possible "super spreader", known as "patient 31", who attended four February services.

On Wednesday, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that members of the secretive group had held meetings in Wuhan, the original Covid-19 epicentre, until December.

"Rumours about a virus began to circulate in November, but no one took them seriously," one Shincheonji church member, a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher, told the paper.

"I was in Wuhan in December when our church suspended all gatherings as soon as we learned about it [the coronavirus]," she added, saying most members had returned home at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday late last month.

Read more here.

British Airways are allowing passengers to delay and rebook their flights to parts of Italy, following the news that more than 400 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus across the country.

In a statement on its website, the airline said:

"We continue to operate to and from Italy, and can reassure our customers that we are continuing to monitor the situation closely. 

"However, we recognise the increased uncertainty in some areas in Northern Italy may be causing our customers and have therefore introduced flexible rebooking options for customers booked to travel to/from some Northern Italian airports. 

"Customers booked to travel between London and the Northern Italian destinations including, Milan (Linate and Malpensa), Turin, Bologna, Venice, Bergamo and Verona up to 2 March 2020, can rebook to a later travel date up to 31 March 2020."

Italy now has 400 cases of coronavirus, according to Angelo Borrelli, head of Italy’s Civil Protection agency.

Cycling's governing body the UCI said it could not predict whether this year's Giro d'Italia will go ahead as the country deals with an escalating coronavirus outbreak.

The Giro begins in Budapest on May 9 and ends in Milan on May 31 with several stages in northern Italy.

Italy is the European country hardest hit by the spread of the virus with one more death and 52 new cases reported on Wednesday, all in the north. The death toll in Italy is 12.

The Milan-San Remo classic on March 21 is already at risk of being cancelled, according to organisers RCS, and with the Giro less than three months away organisers will soon face a dilemma, Reuters reports.

A UCI statement on Wednesday said it remains "in close contact with organisers of international cycling competitions and the health authorities of host countries" in order to contribute as far as it can to the limitation of risks of the virus spreading throughout the world.

"The current state of the epidemic naturally has consequences on the organisation of sporting and cultural events in different regions of the world, such as that of events on the UCI International Calendar, for example in Italy," the UCI said.

Royal Jordanian Airlines has suspended flights between Amman and Rome until further notice starting from Wednesday, the company said in a statement on its website.

The statement added that Royal Jordanian has consolidated several flights to destinations in what it termed the "far east", bringing average cancellations of weekly Asian operations to up to 50%.

The group's president and chief executive Stefan Pichler said the decisions were aimed at ensuring the safety of travellers in light of the increasing numbers of coronavirus infections in Italy and some Asian countries.

He added that the group was taking all possible measures to help Jordan stay virus free.

Draconian measures by China to curb the coronavirus have caused widespread hunger in the tightly controlled Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang, ethnic Uighur activists charged Wednesday.

The Uighur Human Rights Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, also voiced concern that the COVID-19 could spread in internationally condemned camps where more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are incarcerated.

China has come under international criticism for its treatment of the Uighurs, with activists and witnesses saying it is trying to forcibly integrate the mostly Muslim ethnicity and strip their Islamic heritage, AFP reports.

Beijing has described the camps as educational, saying it is providing minorities with training and discouraging Islamic extremism.

Germany is at the beginning of a coronavirus epidemic after new cases sprung up which can no longer be traced to the virus's original source in China, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Wednesday.

He urged health ministries in Germany's federal states as well as hospitals and employers to review their pandemic planning.

"The infection chains are partially no longer trackable, and that is a new thing," he told a news conference. "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."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday there were six more cases of the coronavirus among citizens evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, taking the total number of confirmed cases among Americans to 59.

The current total breaks down to 42 passengers who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, three people repatriated from China and 14 US cases.

U.S. health officials on Tuesday alerted Americans to begin preparing for the spread of coronavirus after infections surfaced in several more countries.

An overstretched health system may be to blame for the high death rate from the coronavirus in the city of Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak.

The mortality rate from the virus is above three per cent in Wuhan whereas in the wider province of Hubei it is about 2.9 per cent and in the rest of China the rate is 0.7 per cent.

In a letter to the Lancet medical journal, researchers from China and the Netherlands say that the difference in death rates is down to the "rapid escalation in the number of infections around the epicentre of the outbreak, which has resulted in an insufficiency of healthcare resources".

The researchers say other countries battling with the coronavirus outbreaks should take note. 

The mayor of Hungarian town Eger has ordered the city's swimming pool to be disinfected after its water polo team trained in it following their return from a match in Italy.

The Bitskey Aladár swimming pool in Eger, in northern Hungary, has been closed for an indefinite period as a precautionary measure after the local waterpolo team played a Champions League match in virus-hit Brescia, in northern Italy, last weekend.

The hotel at the centre of Tenerife's coronavirus scare has lifted restrictions on guests, allowing them to leave their rooms to sit by the pool and eat in the restaurant, one holidaymaker told Reuters.

More than 700 guests have spent a second day in lockdown at the four-star hotel on the Spanish island of Tenerife after four cases of coronavirus were detected there among a group of Italians.

One guest who is on holiday with her two young sons and elderly in-laws described the situation as "absolutely awful."

45-year-old Lara Pennington from Manchester told Reuters by phone that the family planned to stay in their rooms, even though authorities relaxed the rules on Wednesday, letting people displaying no symptom of illness go to the pool and other common areas.

"It's very scary because everyone is out, in the pool, spreading the virus - I won't go down to the restaurant and had to ring down and ask them to bring us food up to the room now that the restaurant has re-opened," Pennington said.

Another visitor told Reuters they had not been informed that the lockdown would last two weeks.

"We receive information by telephone or through staff knocking on our door, but we have no idea how long we are going to stay here," said Heidi, from Germany. "The hotel is really nice. We like it, but we really didn't have luck with all this."

The coronavirus can spread via droplets in the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or breathes out, and these can also contaminate surfaces such as door handles and railings.

"Asymptomatic hotel guests can have a normal life inside the hotel, with the required prevention measures, while the guests with symptoms will remain isolated in their rooms," regional government official Maria Teresa Cruz Oval said.

Stephen Griffin, an expert on infection and immunity at Britain's University of Leeds, said the best advice for guests was to minimise contact with one another and to remain in their rooms as much as possible.

"Much like the situation on the cruise ships, hotels have numerous communal areas, lifts and access points that could conceivably represent a means by which infection may be passed on," he said.

Pakistan's health minister confirmed the country's first two cases of the illness on Wednesday evening, our South Asia correspondent Ben Farmer reports.

Zafar Mirza said:

"Both cases are being taken care of according to clinical standard protocols and both of them are stable. No need to panic, things are under control."

As coronavirus continues to spread around the world it is a worrying and confusing time for holidaymakers. 

However, Katie Morley and Marianna Hunt are on hand to answer your questions and tackle any injustices you come up against.

Check out their excellent Q&A here.

Every continent apart from Antartica has now confirmed cases of coronavirus, but by current estimates the disease is less contagious than other airborne viruses.

Does this leave hope for containment? 

Dominic Gilbert breaks down the data and explains what it all means here.

A difficult travel question sent to our globalhealth@telegraph.co.uk email here. It comes from Ted, 70 who has a holiday booked to Vietnam and Cambodia in March.

The countries are not (currently) in the FCO's  'do not travel' zone so there will be no refund if he cancels. Ted has no health complaints but most of his friends are advising him not to go. " What is your advice please, and why?, he asks.

Paul Nuki, Global Health Security Editor, replies:

"Ah! It's difficult to say as so much depends on how you personally feel, Ted. If you go and take care to wash your hands frequently etc the odds are that everything will be completely fine and it will be a great holiday.

On the other hand, if you are very anxious about it that alone may spoil things. Either way, I would wait until the last minute to make a call on it. It may be that the FCO advice has changed by then anyway."

For more information on your rights, be sure to check out this Q&A by our consumer champion Katie Morley.

Professor David Heymann, infectious disease expert and adviser to the World Health Organization, has said that containment of the coronavirus is still an important part of the response.

“Containment to delay the onset of the disease is very important. If you can stop the chains of transmission in these individual outbreaks you decrease the chance that the virus will seed other outbreaks and you will get to almost zero,” he said. 

He was asked whether the outbreak should be declared a pandemic and said discussions over names were a “distraction”.

“No one is saying not to worry just because this [outbreak] is not called a pandemic. WHO has called it a public health emergency of international concern and we should all be very very concerned,” he said. 

Prof Heymann also praised the international academic community for providing free and open access to medical research on Covid-19, the official name for the disease:

“After Sars there was much concern that academics withheld data and did not publish data until they were ready and could get the credits they needed in academia.

"Today all the major medical journals are providing rapid peer reviews, online access, open access for any articles that are being proposed. Everybody has access, at no cost, to the current literature on this outbreak.

"That did not occur with Sars."

The United Arab Emirates, is ready for "worst case scenarios" as the coronavirus spreads in the Middle East, a government official said on Wednesday.

Three Gulf Arab states recorded their first new coronavirus cases this week. All of the reported cases were people travelling from Iran – the UAE's neighbour – which on Wednesday reported a total of 19 virus-related deaths and 139 cases.

Authorities in the UAE, which has reported 13 cases since 28 January have enough facilities to quarantine patients and will be carrying out surveillance on people entering the country, said the official from the UAE National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority.

"We are quite satisfied that we have taken all the necessary steps needed to preempt the spread of the virus at all levels, without pushing the country into a state of unwarranted panic," the UAE official said.

It was too early to ban public gatherings in the business, trade and tourism hub, added the official.

North Macedonia has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus infection, diagnosed in a woman who recently arrived from Italy, the health minister said on Wednesday.

"The patient tested positive for coronavirus... She is the first patient in North Macedonia to have tested positive for this pathogen," Venko Filipce said.

The woman, who sought medical help early on Wednesday, drove to North Macedonia from Italy in a van. All other passengers from the van are undergoing tests, Filipce said.

Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday a second case of coronavirus was confirmed in a woman who entered the country on the same flight from Tehran that carried the first case, AFP reports.

"A second laboratory-confirmed case of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 was recorded," the health ministry said.

The ministry said the patient was a woman who had been visiting religious sites in Iran and returned to Lebanon on February 20.

The woman infected with the second case was hospitalised on Monday, the ministry said, adding that her condition was stable.

Brazil is said to be tracking 20 people with suspected cases of the coronavirus, a health ministry official has said.

With the government backing a policy of self-isolation to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, Ben Gartside explains how to do it successfully here.

European markets have steadied out slightly today following a sharp drop at the open, as a furious sell-off loses steam.

Traders may be looking for chances to ‘buy the dip’ after markets turned blood red on Monday and Tuesday, wiping away all of 2020’s gains.

In London, the FTSE 100 is underperforming its continental peers, down about half a percentage point.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 is flat.

The biggest drag on the blue-chip index is Diageo, the world’s largest spirits maker, which said it is braced for a £200m profit hit as the coronavirus outbreak forces bars and restaurants across China to close.

As the world teeters on the edge of a potential pandemic, it might seem trivial to fret over holiday plans. But amid global health concerns, travel restrictions and consumer rights queries, it is essential to be informed. 

Hazel Plush has the lowdown on how coronavirus could affect your getaway this Easter or summer – and, potentially, beyond here.

The Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips and her husband, former England rugby player Mike Tindall, will not be self-isolating despite returning from a skiing trip in northern Italy, the Guardian reports.

The couple have recently returned from a trip to Bormio, a town in the virus-hit Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy.

It is said the couple are following government guidelines, but their management has confirmed that they do not currently have any symptoms and so would not be going into self-isolation.

A big question with readers (and office colleagues) this: "Is it safe to go skiing? And what about the holiday I have booked to Spain in 3 weeks time?"

Global Health Editor, Paul Nuki, says:

"There is no simple answer, you need to play it by ear as the situation evolves. Before travelling, check the government's official advice as this may impact your travel insurance.

But the bigger question perhaps is about your tolerance for a possible quarantine: can you afford to have to self-isolate for two weeks on your return if an outbreak occurs in the area you are holidaying?

What would they say at work? And what about the kids schools?"

Brazil's government has confirmed that a 61-year-old Brazilian man who travelled to Italy this month has Latin America's first case of the coronavirus.

"We will now see how this virus behaves in a tropical country in the middle of summer, how its behaviour pattern will be," Brazil's health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said in a press conference.

There have been 90 cases of the disease in Singapore which has a similar tropical climate. 

The Brazilian man spent two weeks in northern Italy's Lombardy region on a work trip, where he contracted the contagious virus, the health ministry said.

Authorities had already said on Tuesday evening that a first laboratory test for the Covid-19 virus was positive, and were waiting for a second test to confirm.

Brazil's national health agency Anvisa has been working to map all contact the man had with other people in the hospital, at home and on the plane returning to Brazil. Yesterday Anvisa requested the flight manifest to investigate other possible cases.

The Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and Italy, which was due to take place on 7 March, has been postponed due to coronavirus fears, the Irish Rugby Union has announced.

Our sports reporters have more on why that decision was made here.

Two pupils from Manchester High School for Girls have been put into self-isolation following their return from countries struck by the novel coronavirus, an email sent to parents has said.

Manchester High School for Girls is a leading independent all girls' school located in Fallowfield, South Manchester. It caters to girls aged 4 to 18.

The two girls in isolation are said to be members of the preparatory department.

The email addressed to parents reads:

"It has come to our attention that two MHSG Prep pupils have recently returned from one of the countries identified as category 1 in the latest Government advice on Coronavirus.

"The pupils will be self-isolating and staying at home for the next fortnight as a precaution but in view of the pupils having attended School on 24th and 25th February we wanted to make you aware of this situation."

In a statement to the Telegraph Mrs Claire Hewitt, head mistress of Manchester High School for Girls, said:

“As a school we are following all guidance issued by Public Health England, as well as our local education authority. We are in regular communication with the parents and guardians of our pupils, as well as our members of staff.

"We have two pupils self-isolating as a precaution and, like schools across the country, are continuing to monitor the situation very closely.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says that those who have doctors orders to self-isolate are entitled to take it off as sick leave.

He is also asked by Kevin Brennan MP whether coronavirus will affect upcoming sports events.

“Our goal is to minimise social disruption subject to keeping the public safe,” Mr Hancock says.

More in our politics live blog here.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is preparing a detailed Senate Democrat request for emergency coronavirus funding totaling $8.5 billion, a senior senate Democratic aide told CNN.

This sum far exceeds the $2.5 billion requested by the Trump administration. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he will be discussing with new Culture and Sports Secretary Oliver Dowden whether future Six Nations rugby games against Italy should go ahead.

Labour's Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) said:

"The Irish authorities have already advised the Irish Rugby Football Union to call off the Six Nations game against Italy, which indeed obviously affects the north as it is a Northern Ireland team as well, and England are due to play Italy in the Six Nations in a few weeks time.

"What discussions has the Secretary of State had with colleagues in DCMS (Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and with the sporting authorities about advising what to do in relation to the Six Nations championships and other sporting events?"

Mr Hancock said:

"Obviously DCMS are involved in the cross-Government decision making on these things. Our goal is to minimise social disruption, of which this is an important part for any rugby fan, subject to keeping the public safe.

"These are difficult balances to strike sometimes and I'll be discussing it with the new Secretary of State of DCMS."

Facebook said on Wednesday it would ban advertisements referring to any cures or prevention around the coronavirus outbreak, and those that create a sense of urgency around the situation, Reuters reports.

The announcement by the social-media giant comes as it faces increasing regulatory scrutiny over the type of content posted on its platform, specifically items reflecting extreme ideologies and fake news.

Last month, Facebook said that it would remove content about the virus "with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities", joining companies like TikTok and Pinterest.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said on Wednesday Moscow would suspend flights between Russia and South Korea from 1 March over coronavirus fears, except those operated by Aeroflot and Aurora.

Golikova said Russia would also stop issuing visas to some Iranian citizens from 28 February and was advising Russians against travelling to Italy.

Flights arriving from South Korea and Iran would be received at a dedicated terminal at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, she said.

Other restrictions related to the outbreak which have been previously announced, would be extended by one month to 1 April.

Residents of Italy's coronavirus quarantine zone have described living in a "nightmare" as police and soldiers blockade entire towns in a bid to control the rapidly growing epidemic.

More than 50,000 people in 11 towns were under quarantine on Monday as the Italian authorities confirmed that a seventh person has died in Europe's worst outbreak of the disease.

"Until yesterday I was more terrorised by the virus, but today I am much more scared by the isolation,” Paola, a resident of the locked-down town of Codogno Lodigiano, told The Telegraph by phone. "It is a nightmare that touches everyone here."

Our foreign correspondents have the story here.

South Korea and the US are considering scaling back or cutting short joint military exercises due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus, with analysts warning that an outbreak of the illness on a military base or aboard a warship could be “extremely serious”. 

During talks in Washington on Monday, the defence ministers of the two countries confirmed that an upcoming command training exercise is likely to be reduced in scale as both sides try to limit troop movements in order to limit the exposure of military personnel to the virus. 

Julian Ryall has more here.

A woman prays at a Catholic church during Ash Wednesday in Manila

A worker cleans a metro train in Tehran

Workers spray disinfectant as a precaution at Saemaeul traditional market in Seoul, South Korea

From finally sorting the wedding photos to catching up on box-sets – two weeks at home might not be be so bad, says Christina Hopkinson.

There's no denying that in a world of broadband, Netflix and never enough time, many of us can’t help but daydream about what we could achieve under fortnight’s house arrest.

Here are six things you could finally tick off your list.

Utilities and insurers are well placed to protect portfolios from coronavirus-induced market falls, writes Sam Benstead.

With stock markets under pressure, Telegraph Money has picked out the sectors and companies in Britain that are shielded from a damaging slow down in China and global trade.

Find out more here.

The rapidly spreading coronavirus has sparked an outbreak of market panic and sales warnings from businesses around the world.

A global stocks bloodbath knocked the FTSE 100 below 7,000 points this week on fears that Covid-19 will batter the global economy and corporate earnings in its wake.

Georgina Hayes and Tom Rees have all the details on how Covid-19 is taking its toll on retailers, airlines and manufacturing giants here.

The coronavirus epidemic is draining China’s reserves of a life-saving commodity: blood, Reuters reports.

Blood collection centres around the country have reported sharp drops in donations, with one even issuing a “red alert” as stocks dwindle. Doctors and other medical personnel have been donating, according to doctors and reports in state media.

“Blood reserves have reached their lowest levels in history, and the blood supply for clinical use is facing an unprecedented challenge,” warned the blood collection centre in the city of Jining on social media platform WeChat.

While hospitals are postponing elective surgeries until after the epidemic is controlled, cancer patients, people suffering from blood diseases and critical care patients still need transfusions.

As Italian towns are put on lockdown due to coronavirus, travellers are beginning to ask: is it safe to visit Italy? 

Greg Dickinson has helpfully looked into all the latest Italy travel advice to let you know how the outbreak could affect your holiday here.

Dozens of passengers allowed off a coronavirus-stricken ship have since developed symptoms and will be asked to take more tests for the virus, Japan's health minister said Wednesday.

The news came as another death linked to the virus in Japan was reported and the government urged organisers of major events in the next fortnight to consider cancelling or downsizing them to help curb the spread of infections.

The government has contacted 813 former passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship and found "45 people had certain symptoms", Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament.

Around 970 people were allowed off the boat last week after testing negative for the virus, but several have subsequently been diagnosed with the illness.

Japan has come under increasing pressure over its handling of the crisis on the vessel, AFP reports.

"US in great shape," announced President Donald Trump as he declared that a news conference from the White House on the coronavirus epidemic will take place later today:

It comes as experts warn they expect it to spread in the United States.

Officials have urged Americans to develop plans to avoid mass gatherings amid dire warnings that countries are not ready to contain an outbreak that has infected 80,000 people, mostly in China.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways has suspended flights to Hong Kong until 28 March, the airline said on Wednesday, citing a drop in demand.

The UAE suspended all flights to mainland China, except Beijing, on 5 February amid the coronavirus outbreak there.

The Armenian government says it has closed its border with Iran.

Armenia shares a 27-mile border with Iran, but has not yet reported any coronavirus cases.

Armenian government spokesperson Armen Khachatryan told CNN the border had been effectively shut since Monday and will be in effect for two weeks, but that some vehicles would be excepted through.

French politicians have voiced concerns around fans of Italian side Juventus travelling to Lyon for Wednesday's Champions League tie due to the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, AFP reports.

Former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and National Assembly member Eric Ciotti have all expressed opposition to the decision to allow the visit of the Serie A champions to the central city.

"It seems illogical and I don't understand the opinion," Royal told France 2 TV.

Ciotti, from the main opposition Republicans party, said he failed to understand why children returning to France from Italy had been put in quarantine but "3,000 people are coming from a high-risk zone."

The French secretary of state for education and youth Gabriel Attal defended the decision saying "today, public health experts say it's not necessary" to stop the arrival of the supporters.

"Is the virus actively spreading in the Turin region? No," he told broadcasters BFM.

A school in Cambridgeshire and three schools in Lincolnshire have closed today after potential connections to coronavirus.

Lime Academy Watergall in Bretton, Peterborough, has closed the school to give it a deep clean as they have a family who has recently returned from Northern Italy.

Parents were seen collecting their children this morning from the school, which is set to stay closed until Monday.

A statement on the school's website says:

"We have taken advice from public Health England as we have had a family who have recently returned from Northern Italy.

"This is NOT a confirmed case of Coronavirus in the school, it is a precautionary measure. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. Please collect your child with immediate effect."

Lutton St Nicholas Primary School in Spalding, Lincolnshire, has likewise closed today because of a "potential connection" to the deadly disease by an individual at the school, who is now being tested.

Elsewhere, Gedney Church End Primary School and Shepeau Stow Primary School, both in Spalding, have also closed today for the same reason and will now be deep cleaned.

A number of pupils and staff at Ely College in Cambridgeshire have been advised to stay at home for two weeks after they were taken ill following a half term ski trip to Italy.

Iranian cyberpolice have arrested 24 people accused of online rumour-mongering about the spread of the coronavirus in the country, semi-official news agency ISNA reported on Wednesday.

The Islamic republic has been battling to control an outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has claimed 19 lives among 139 infections in the past week.

"Twenty-four people were arrested and handed over to the judiciary and 118 (internet) users were talked to and let go" after receiving warnings, said Vahid Majid, head of the Iranian police force's cyber unit.

The arrests were carried out after the establishment of a special unit to "combat rumour-mongers regarding the 'spread of coronavirus in the country'," he was quoted as saying.

"The police are monitoring all the news published in the country's cyberspace."

Majid said the unit would take action over news, pictures or videos that "contain rumours or fake news meant to disturb the public and increase concern in society".

The Vatican was going ahead with plans for Pope Francis to celebrate the Ash Wednesday ritual kicking off the Catholic Church's Lenten season, but elsewhere in Italy Masses were canceled over fears of the new coronavirus and other Catholic countries took precautions.

In the Philippines, Asia's only majority Roman Catholic country, priests sprinkled ashes on the heads of the faithful rather than making the mark of the cross on their foreheads to avoid physical contact, the Associated Press reports.

"Wherever the ash is placed, on the forehead or on the head, the feeling is the same, it's uplifting," Editha Lorenzo, a 49-year-old mother of two wearing a face mask, told The Associated Press in Manila.

At the Vatican, Francis held his general audience as usual in St. Peter's Square and sent his prayers to victims of the virus and the medical personnel treating them.

A handful of the thousands of people gathered wore face masks to protect against the virus, which originated in China and has infected thousands globally including more than 300 people in Italy.

"I want to again express my closeness to those suffering from the coronavirus and the health care workers who are treating them, as well as the civil authorities and all those who are working to help patients and stop the contagion," Francis said.

Worried questions coming in to our globalhealth@telegraph.co.uk email from Canary Wharf where US oil company Chevron has asked 300 traders to stay home after an unwell employee was tested for the coronavirus.

"Is it safe to be in this location at this time?,"asks Mashuda, an office administrator in the area.

"Yes, it's fine - roll up your sleeves up and carry on", says the Global Health Team. Chevron is reacting to a very specific circumstance in its own office.

Here are the key things Public Health England recommends employers consider in mitigating the impacts of a flu outbreak:

• Appoint a pandemic co-ordinator whose role is to prepare “robust and flexible” business continuity arrangements in the event of disruption
• Reduce the spread of infection, providing hand washing facilities and hand gels
• Encourage video conferencing instead of face-to-face client meetings and allow people to work from home where possible
• Consider staggering shifts to reduce overcrowding
• Restrict “non-essential” travel, especially to high risk locations
• If someone falls ill at work and they have visited a high-risk area in the last 14 days, they should be moved to a separate room. Then call NHS 111 for advice
• If an employee or member of the public has suspected or confirmed Covid-19, closure of the workplace is not recommended. A PHE Health Protection Team will be in touch to do a risk assessment if the case is confirmed.

Sources: Public Health England, ACAS, Civil Contingencies Secretariat

Here's a round up of today's events so far...

• Total confirmed cases reaches more than 81,000 with 2,768 thought to have died
• Energy group Chevron has asked traders at its Canary Wharf offices to stay home after an unwell employee was tested for the coronavirus
• Holidaymakers stuck in a hotel in Tenerife are to be isolated for 14-days, officials confirm
• France records its second death as a 60-year-old teacher dies in a Paris hospital
• Greece confirms first case: a 38-year-old Greek woman who had travelled from an area of northern Italy
• Italy's death toll from the coronavirus now stands at 12, while the number of confirmed cases has risen to 374
• Brazil confirmed its first case: a 61-year-old Sao Paulo resident who had traveled to Lombardy
• 25 have tested positive in Kuwait
• Death toll rises in Iran to 19
• Two more have died in Japan as officials consider cancelling large sports events
• And the Chinese Embassy in Moscow has reportedly complained about coronavirus-related racial profiling in the Russian capital

For all the latest news be sure to keep following our live blog.

Japan reported two more deaths linked to the coronavirus on Wednesday as the government called for organisers to reconsider holding major events in coming weeks to limit the outbreak, AFP reports.

The news came as dozens of passengers allowed off a virus-stricken cruise ship were reported to have developed symptoms including fever, and will be asked to be re-tested for the virus.

A Tokyo man in his 80s who tested positive for the infection died of pneumonia, the health ministry said.

He had not travelled to China recently and there was no sign he had contact with known infected individuals, it said in a statement.

Another elderly person in the Hokkaido region of northern Japan died of viral pneumonia, the ministry said.

Testing done after the death confirmed the infection of the individual, whose details have not been released at the request of the family.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a cabinet task force meeting on the outbreak:

"In light of the significant infection risks, we will ask that national sporting or cultural events that will attract large crowds be either cancelled, postponed or downsized for the next two weeks."

Hundreds of guests who have been locked down in a hotel on the Spanish island of Tenerife, will remain in isolation for 14 days, a senior regional government official said on Wednesday.

It comes after two more of the group of 10 Italian holidaymakers tested positive for the infection, the official Maria Teresa Cruz Oval, told a news conference.

More than 7,000 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in the Commons earlier today. 

Of those, 13 have tested positive. Eight have since been discharged. 

Mr Hancock also said there was "no need to close the schools or send students or staff home".

The Government plans on rolling out a wider public information campaign in the coming days, but the Health Secretary reiterated the advice for the general public to use tissues and to wash their hands more. 

Mr Hancock said the Government's plan is four-fold - contain, delay, research and mitigate. 

The country  recorded its first suspected death from the coronavirus overnight, our Berlin correspondent Justin Huggler reports..

The body of an Italian tourist who died in the southern Carinthia region is being tested for the virus, with the results expected later today.

A school in central Vienna was sealed off on Wednesday morning amid concerns a teacher who had just returned from holiday in Italy could be infected. Parents were told they could not collect their children until test results are available later today. Lessons are continuing but children are not allowed to leave their classrooms.

Twelve people are still in quarantine in Innsbruck after coming into contact with two people who tested positive for the virus. The two infected people are reportedly recovering and are expected to be able to leave hospital at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Germany recorded its first serious case on Tuesday night. A 47-year-old man is in critical condition in intensive care.

According to German media reports he suffered from a pre-existing illness. His wife is being monitored for the virus, and schools and creches in the couple's home district of Heinsberg have been ordered closed.

Actress and 'wellness' influencer Gwyneth Paltrow has made a joke about her role in the deadly virus film Contagion as she posted a photograph of herself to Instagram wearing a mask as she travelled to Paris.

"En route to Paris," reads the caption. "Paranoid? Prudent? Panicked? Placid? Pandemic? Propaganda? Paltrow’s just going to go ahead and sleep with this thing on the plane."

"I’ve already been in this movie. Stay safe. Don’t shake hands. Wash hands frequently."

Paltrow played patient zero in the 2011 movie, who died after contracting a virus from a chef in Hong Kong who handled a slaughtered pig that had been infected by a bat. 

So far two people are reported to have died from the Covid-19 coronavirus in France. The latest case, a 60-year-old teacher, died after being rushed to a Paris hospital in a serious condition on Tuesday evening.

Confirmed cases in the country currently stand at 17.

Good question sent to our globalhealth@telegraph.co.uk from Brian who regularly imports small items from China:

"Could it be that the virus can survive in packaging, and should I open my next delivery?"

The answer is that you are safe, says Paul Nuki, our global health security editor. The World Health Organization says the virus can't survive for long on surfaces and lists worries about post from China as a "myth".

If you want a belt and braces just wash your hands after opening the package.

For more information, check out Jordan Kelly-Linden's coronavirus myth-buster here.

Europe is still in the containment phase of the coronavirus outbreak but countries must prepare for more cases, the European Union commissioner for health and food safety has said.

Dr Stella Kyriakides, who was speaking during a joint World Health Organization and EU mission to Italy to investigate an outbreak in the north of the country which has so far claimed 12 lives, urged people to remain calm.

She said the coronavirus, officially known as Covid-19, was a “situation of concern but we must not give in to panic”.

She added: “In the EU we are still in a containment phase. It’s important to underline this. But given how quickly the situation can change, even if we are currently in the containment phase our public health care response across the EU must be ready to deal with an increasing number of Covid-19 infections.”

When asked why Italy was at the epicentre of the outbreak in Europe Dr Andrea Ammon, director the European Centres for Disease Prevention and Control, said: “In my view it could happen anywhere.” 

The coronavirus is threatening to spread throughout Europe, with cases reported in Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Croatia. The holiday island of Tenerife has also been hit. 

With the illness now impacting destinations closer to the UK, more and more travellers are concerned about the implications for their easter, and summer, holidays. 

If you have questions and concerns, including whether you are due compensation and what the declaration of an official pandemic means for your insurance, our travel editor Hugh Morris has helpfully answered them all here.

If you have questions about the coronavirus outbreak, the Telegraph Global Health Security team are happy to try and answer them.

Please email globalhealth@telegraph.co.uk or Tweet to @TelGlobalHealth and we will post answers here as they come in. 

The Chinese Embassy in Moscow has reportedly complained about coronavirus-related racial profiling in the Russian capital, our Moscow correspondent Nataliya Vasilyeva writes.

The respected Novaya Gazeta newspaper on Wednesday published what appears to be a letter from China’s Embassy in Moscow urging city officials to back down on what described as discriminatory measures against Chinese nationals.

The letter follows multiple reports in the Russian media about racial profiling spurred by coronavirus fears. Several media outlets quoted sources working for the Moscow transport system last week, saying that bus drivers were told to contact a dispatcher if they spotted Chinese nationals on their buses.

The Moscow overground transportation operation has denied the reports.

The letter dated Monday and published by Novaya Gazeta on Wednesday decried the checks:

“Such a thing as special monitoring of Chinese nationals in Moscow does not exist in any foreign country including the United States,” the letter said.

“This is worrying and baffling for Muscovites and Chinese nationals living in Moscow and harms the friendly atmosphere for developing Russia-China ties.

Moscow officials have ordered police raids of apartment buildings, hotels and businesses to track down the Chinese nationals suspected of breaking a 14-day self-quarantine period imposed upon their arrival to Russia. Chinese citizens were also reportedly stopped on Moscow’s sprawling underground.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin last week called the raids an “unpleasant” but “necessary task.”

The Chinese Embassy was not available for comment Wednesday morning.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of the letter, and the Moscow City Hall’s Transport Department dismissed suggestions of racial profiling, saying that authorities were “checking everyone.”

Two nurses treating patients in Wuhan have pleaded with the international medical community to come to China to help manage the epidemic.

In a heartfelt letter to the Lancet medical journal, Yingchun Zeng and Yan Zhen, who travelled to Wuhan from Guangzhou province to help their overwhelmed colleagues, say the conditions and environment in the city “are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined”. 

It is highly unusual for health staff to speak out and a Chinese doctor who warned about the virus when it first emerged last year was silenced by authorities. 

They write:

“There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through. 

“Due to the need for frequent hand washing, several of our colleagues’ hands are covered in painful rashes. As a result of wearing an N95 respirator for extended periods of time and layers of protective equipment, some nurses now have pressure ulcers on their ears and forehead."

As Tenerife sees its first case of coronavirus, and hundreds of tourists are tested for the virus, travellers are beginning to ask: is it safe to visit Tenerife?

Greg Dickinson has all the latest Tenerife travel advice here.

Holidaymakers isolated in a hotel in Tenerife say picnic breakfasts and medication have been delivered to their rooms.

"Everything is very quiet," Christopher Betts from Leicestershire told Reuters by telephone. 

Mr Betts is one of more than 700 guests spending a second day in lockdown at a four-star Tenerife hotel after four cases of coronavirus were detected there among a group of Italians.

"We are fine, but pretty bored. We cannot go anywhere, just to the restaurants to have tea or coffee," said Mr Betts. "We had no news since we were tested for temperature yesterday."

Guests found out about the lockdown when they woke up on Tuesday morning via a note slipped below their door, he said.

Confined to their room for the day, he and wife spent their time watching TV and surfing the internet, he said, but were looking forward to being allowed to use the hotel's pool and garden again on Wednesday.

The lockdown was imposed after an Italian doctor staying at the hotel tested positive for the virus late on Monday.

His wife and two more people who travelled with them tested positive on Tuesday.

The four, who have been hospitalised, were part of a group of 10 who had travelled to Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, a popular winter sun destination for European tourists off the coast of West Africa, Reuters reports.

Betts said guests had been brought picnic breakfasts in their rooms. He was provided with blood pressure tablets after telling medical staff he did not have any left.

A group of a hundred tourists who arrived at the hotel on Monday and did not have contact with the Italian guests would be allowed to leave the hotel, the Canary's regional authorities said late on Tuesday. Most hotel guests show no symptoms, they said.

Latin America officially confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, after a 61-year-old Sao Paulo resident who had traveled to Lombardy, in northern Italy, tested positive for the disease.

The diagnosis comes during Brazil's carnival holiday, a peak time for domestic travel when millions of revellers throng major cities for boisterous street celebrations.

Albert Einstein Hospital said in a statement that the man tested positive on Monday and it notified Sao Paulo state's epidemiological agency on Tuesday.

Italy's death toll from the coronavirus now stands at 12, while the number of confirmed cases has risen to 374, an increase of more than 50 on the day before, the head of the Civil Protection agency said on Wednesday.

Angelo Borrelli told reporters that the dead man was 69.

All those who have died so far in the outbreak, which came to light on Friday, have been elderly and most had underlying health problems, Reuters reports.

Greece has confirmed it's first case of Covid-19 coronavirus, Reuters reports.

The patient was a 38-year-old Greek woman who had travelled from an area of northern Italy, said Sotiris Tsiodras, a representative of the Ministry of Health

A health ministry spokesman said the 38-year-old woman was in a Thessaloniki hospital and in good condition.

As a country that finds itself in the eye of the global coronavirus storm, the prosperous island city-state of Singapore might provide some useful tips on how British officials can best contain the outbreak without plunging the entire country into complete paralysis, writes our defence editor Con Coughlin.

Read his take here.

BBC presenter Nick Robinson is in self-isolation while awaiting test results after returning from holiday in southeast Asia:

A further seven people have tested positive for the virus in Kuwait – the country's total now stands at 25, officials report.

Drinks group Diageo, the maker of Guinness stout and Smirnoff vodka, on Wednesday said the coronavirus would slash annual sales by up to £325m.

Diageo, which also produces Baileys liqueur and Johnnie Walker whisky, said sales for the group's financial year ending June 30 would be impacted by between £225m and £325m owing to the spreading virus.

Operating profit would be hit by between £140m and £200m, it added.

Read more here.

Energy group Chevron has asked traders at its Canary Wharf offices to stay home after an unwell employee was tested for the coronavirus.

In a statement this morning, the company said:

Chevron continues to monitor the situation very closely, utilizing the guidance of international and local health authorities. Our primary concern is the health and safety of our employees and we are taking precautionary measures to reduce their risk of exposure.

Chevron’s headquarters in Westferry Circus are in the heart of Canary Wharf, near banks including HSBC, Citi and Barclays.

More in our business live blog here.

The coronavirus sweeping the globe has led to the largest mass exercise in remote working in corporate history.

Across China, Japan, South Korea and parts of northern Italy, office blocks are silent and factory floors are abandoned. School is cancelled and blue collar workers are being forced to log into video chats and workplace messenger apps to keep up with their jobs.

The impetus for staff to work from home has spread rapidly, but it has also divided opinion. 

Matt Field discusses how technology is helping businesses launch flexible hours and remote working here.

A 60-year-old man has become the first French victim of the coronavirus in the country, the health ministry announced on Wednesday.

The man died after being rushed to a Paris hospital in a serious condition on Tuesday evening, bringing the death toll in the country to two, said the ministry's deputy head Jerome Salomon.

The latest victim, who worked at a junior-high school in the town of Crepy-en-Valois, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Paris, is not believed to have travelled to an area affected by the global coronavirus outbreak, the education ministry said.

The first victim was an 80-year-old Chinese tourist, who died in hospital in mid-February.

France has reported four other new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, including two people returning from Italy, bringing the total number of infections to 17. Eleven other people have recovered from the disease.

One of the four people still being treated in hospital, a 55-year-old man, is listed in critical condition in the northern city of Amiens.

Two of the four had recently returned from the Lombardy region of Italy, which is at the centre of Europe's biggest outbreak of the disease with 10 dead.

Kuwait has reported an additional six cases of the disease, taking the country's total up to 18.

The number of people to die of the novel coronavirus in Iran has risen to 19 as state TV reports another 44 confirmed cases.

This takes the total case number in the country to 139.

French authorities have reported three more cases of the coronavirus, taking the total up to 17. There has also been one more death, taking the total number of deaths to two, the head of the French public health service has said. 

Middle east correspondent David G Rose has the latest from Iran where the deputy health minister has tested positive for the coronavirus. He writes:

Coronavirus must not become an "enemy weapon" that holds back business in Iran, the country's President has said, as he attempted to reassure people about a major outbreak.  

In comments published on his official website, President Hassan Rouhani predicted that life would return to normal in the country from Saturday, adding: "Corona should not be turned into a weapon of our enemies for shutting down work and production in the country."

Public events have been cancelled in Iran and schools and universities closed this week after the country reported at least 95 cases of Covid-19 infections and 19 related deaths.

But President Rouhani said last night: "From Saturday, activities across the country must continue like previous weeks and spreading fear and attempting to halt the country's activities is the enemies' conspiracy."  

Iran’s deputy health minister, who has himself tested positive for coronavirus, also insisted that the state will be “victorious” against the Covid-19 virus.  

"I had a fever as of last night and my preliminary test was positive around midnight," Iraj Harirchi said in a video released yesterday.

"I've isolated myself in a place since... and now I am starting medication. "We will definitely be victorious against this virus in the next few weeks," the minister added.

The government is planning for up to 80 per cent of the population becoming infected with the coronavirus in a worst-case scenario.

According to a leaked memo seen by the Sun newspaper the “reasonable worst case” would result in around half a million people in the UK dying from the disease. 

The document by the National Security Communications Team warns: “The current planning assumption is that two to three per cent of symptomatic cases will result in a ­fatality."

It predicts infection rates will snowball for two to three months once the virus starts spreading.

A government spokesman told the newspaper every eventuality had to be planned for but warned “this does not mean we expect it to happen”.

In his final answer on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Prof Cosford addressed the treatment for coronavirus.

At the moment there aren't specific drugs for the virus. 

But what we do know is that the vast majority of people have a mild illness and then make a full recovery. 

And that children and healthy adults seem to be at the lowest risk of having severe complications from the illness. 

The people who we will be most concerned about is older people and people with existing serious illness. 

These are the poeple who are more likely to suffer and who we will be supporting.

We'll be looking to see if there are any drugs that will specifically treat the virus. 

But as with most respiratory viruses, people develop complications such as pneumonia as a result of having the virus in the first place. 

Prof Cosford added: 

The issue is that we're in the containment stage at the moment. 

At the moment it seems like our effort to identify anybody with coronavirus who has returned to the UK are working really quite well. 

We isolate them, we look at all their contacts, we isolate the ones that need to be isolated and we follow them up for 14 days. 

That appears to be working well as we speak, but they can change on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis. 

This testing will tell us whether there's evidence of infection more widespread than we think there is. 

We don't think there is at the moment, but the other thing it will do is if we do get to a position of more widespread infection across the country then it will give us early warning that it is happening. 

That's very important to allow us to move to the next stage if we need to. 

Prof Cosford was asked whether or not Public Health England would follow in Italy's footsteps in putting towns in lockdown or closing down public transport. 

Here is his response in full:

Of course, there is a range of things that are being thought of. 

I think you have to be cautious about the idea of closing down communities, towns, and so on. 

But what will happen is when we see - if we do get to the position of a more widespread infection - we will monitor that as it develops. 

We will take the best scientific advice to how we may be able to delay transmission further and if that includes actions to isolate more widely then of course we will do that. 

But I think at the moment this is unlikely. 

The important thing is that if we do see more widespread infection, we will do all that we can to delay that onset so that [it doesn't get to] a point where it gets to greater pressures where the NHS has through the winter period and more able to deal with extra cases. 

He continues:

What we are doing is working with 11 hospitals across the country with 100 general practices so that when they see patients who have got similar symptoms such as shortness of breath and fever but have not been to one of the countries concerned, then there's random testing of those people that we will undertake. That's to check if there has been any transmission that we are not aware of. 

Public Health England are not advising people against travelling to towns across the world on lockdown because of the coronavirus. 

Prof Cosford told Today: "Each of us have a decision to make on whether we should go there," adding that the foreign office was not advising people against travelling.

He added the advice for people who have come back from places such as northern Italy and south east Asia recently is: "If you develop symptoms such as a cough, fever, shortness of breath, then you should self-isolate and call 111. They can take you through the steps to see if you need to be tested."

Prof Paul Cosford, the medical director of Public Health England, is talking about the outbreak on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He says, on news that some schools are closing: "We are not saying there is blanket advice that schools should close." However, he says it is a difficult decision for schools to make.

Austria has quarantined 12 people who were in close contact with a couple who were the country's first coronavirus cases, one of whom works as a hotel receptionist (see 02.22 post).

Shortly after the Italian couple tested positive for the virus on Tuesday the authorities sealed off the hotel where the woman worked in Innsbruck,  locking in guests and staff while they tested 62 of them for the virus.

"The health condition of all 62 tested people is good," Tyrol's provincial government said in a statement on Wednesday morning, adding that nine of those people had been put in a two-week quarantine for having been in close contact with the woman, as had three more from the couple's immediate social circle.

The broadcaster ORF said the nine people from the hotel were  staff who worked with the woman rather than guests.

A spokesman for the provincial government said the lockdown at the 108-room hotel opposite the city's main rail station had ended overnight.

This is just in from local media in South Korea: The country is reporting 115 additional cases, bringing the total to 1,261.

This morning the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks.

His call came after a Tokyo baseball team said it would play games in an empty stadium this weekend.  Japan's home Davis Cup tie against Ecuador next week will be played behind closed doors, and the country's sumo governing body is yet to decide whether to go ahead with a major tournament in Osaka scheduled to begin on March 8.

Japan has close to 170 cases of infections, separate from 691 reported from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Tokyo earlier this month.

"Taking into account that the next one to two weeks are extremely important in stopping the spread of infection, the government considers there to be a large risk of transmission at sports, cultural events and large gatherings of people," Mr Abe said in parliament.

In the early hours, Dick Pound, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, said the Olympic Games - due to take place in Tokyo in five months - would more likely be cancelled than postponed or moved should the virus threat enforce any change in schedule.

"The IOC is preparing for the Tokyo Games as scheduled," Minister Seiko Hashimoto said in parliament when asked about Mr Pound's comment. "We will continue our preparations so that the IOC can make sound decisions."

Some virologists are warning that the coronavirus is now at 'pandemic' stage. The World Health Organisation defines the term as 'an outbreak of a new pathogen that spreads easily from person to person across the globe'. But what happens in that event, and what is the economic impact? The markets are already wobbling, as we reveal in our previous post. 

Thankfully, our brilliant global health team have the answers here. 

Asian shares fell as the US warning to Americans to prepare for a pandemic drove another Wall Street tumble and pushed yields on safe-haven Treasuries to record lows.

In the past four trading sessions about $3 trillion has been wiped off the value of the MSCI World, a market cap weighted stock market index of 1,644 stocks globally.

Bahrain announced on Wednesday that the number of coronavirus infections has risen to 26 after 3 new cases were confirmed, according to the state news agency.

The three were identified as Bahraini women who arrived at Bahrain international airport on indirect flights from Iran.

Vietnam banned tourists from coronavirus-hit areas of South Korea on Wednesday, a blow to a tourism industry already reeling from a collapse in Chinese visitor numbers.

The government said in a news release that people from those areas who needed to come to Vietnam for other reasons must be quarantined for 14 days when entering the country. The move came after the number of cases of the new coronavirus reported in South Korea rose above 1,100.

South Korea accounted for a quarter of Vietnam's 18 million tourists last year - the biggest group after Chinese visitors, whose travel had already been curtailed because of the virus.

In the southern resort of Nha Trang, beaches are empty, tour buses sit idle and many shops are shut down at what would normally be a busy season.

The Philippines on Wednesday barred travellers from South Korea's coronavirus-impacted North Gyeongsang province from entering the country in an effort to contain the spread of the pathogen.

Philippine presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a media briefing the government would also conduct a risk assessment within 48 hours to determine if the travel ban needed to be expanded to other parts of South Korea.

South Korea reported 169 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, pushing the total tally to more than 1,000, with the numbers expected to rise as the government widens its testing.

The Philippines has confirmed three cases of the coronavirus at home, all Chinese nationals, including a 44-year-old man who died.

Sao Paulo's governor says the first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Brazil, and South America.

A 61-year-old Brazilian man who recently returned from Lombardy, northern Italy, is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in the southern part of the city of Sao Paulo.

It was feared on Tuesday the man had contracted the virus and the results of a second test  on Wednesday  came back positive for COVID-19. 

The United Arab Emirates is "well prepared and equipped for the worst case scenarios" as the coronavirus spreads in Middle East, an official from the UAE National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority told Reuters on Wednesday.

The UAE has enough facilities to quarantine patients and relevant bodies have been instructed to undertake "a complete surveillance of all people entering the country", the official said.

The UAE has reported 13 people have been diagnosed with the infection, of whom three have recovered and two are in critical condition. Iran, UAE's neighbour across the Gulf, reported on Tuesday a total of 16 virus-related deaths, the most outside China

Thailand reported three new cases of a coronavirus on Wednesday, taking total infections to 40, a health ministry official said.

Two of the new patients, all Thai nationals, had returned from vacation in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and came into contact with the third, said Sukhum Kanchanapimai, permanent secretary at the ministry. 

Japan's health minister says dozens of passengers who were allowed off a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship have developed symptoms - including fever - and will be asked to take tests for the virus.

The government has contacted 813 former passengers of the Diamond Princess. Around 970 were allowed off the boat last week after testing negative for the virus, but several have subsequently been found to be carrying the disease.

The ministry found "45 people had certain symptoms," health minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament.

"We asked all of them (who have symptoms) to see a doctor and to take tests," Mr Kato said.

Japan has come under increasing pressure over its handling of the crisis on the vessel, particularly after it emerged that some passengers allowed to disembark after testing negative were subsequently diagnosed with the virus.

Those allowed off the ship after a 14-day quarantine were asked to stay inside, but no formal measures restricting their movement were imposed.

President Donald Trump and his chief economic adviser said on Tuesday that the new coronavirus is under control in the US, even as the government's top disease fighters warned Americans to prepare for an outbreak.

The mixed messages came as the stock market tumbled for a second straight day and lawmakers of both political parties questioned whether the White House's request for $2.5 billion in virus response funding will be enough to prepare the nation.

Speaking earlier in the day from New Delhi, India, Mr Trump said "we have very few people with it." A "lot of talent" and a "lot of brainpower" is being tapped for the coronavirus response, he added.

He said the situation is "very well under control in our country".

The Hong Kong government is set to announce handouts of HK$10,000 (£987) to every permanent resident during its annual budget on Wednesday, the South China Morning Post reported, as it seeks to cushion the blow from the coronavirus outbreak and months of protests.

The US military says one of its soldiers based in South Korea tested positive for the new coronavirus, the first US service member infected.

A US military statement said on Wednesday that the 23-year-old man is in self quarantine at his off-base residence.

It says the soldier was originally based in Camp Caroll in a town near the southeastern city of Daegu, where most of South Korea's virus cases are clustered.

On Wednesday, South Korea said it had almost 1,150 cases of the virus, the biggest outbreak outside mainland China.

About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea.

A second European hotel was in lockdown on Wednesday as authorities around the world battled to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Austria sealed off the 108-room Grand Hotel Europa in the Alpine tourist hub of Innsbruck after an Italian receptionist tested positive for the virus.

Italy has become a frontline in the global outbreak of the virus, with 280 cases and 11 deaths, most in Lombardy and nearby Veneto.

The receptionist and her partner, who also tested positive, visited their home in Lombardy last week.

Italians or people who had recently visited the country tested positive in Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Romania, Spain and Switzerland on Tuesday.

China on Wednesday reported 52 new coronavirus deaths, the lowest figure in more than three weeks, bringing the death toll to 2,715.

All the new deaths were in the outbreak epicentre Hubei province, which accounted for 401 of the 406 new infections also reported on Wednesday, the National Health Commission said.

 The total number of coronavirus cases in mainland China has now reached 78,064.

South Korea's coronavirus case total has jumped well into four figures. Authorities reported 169 new infections, taking the overall tally to 1,146, by far the largest outside China.

An 11th person had died of the disease, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) added - a Mongolian man in his 30s who became the first foreign national to fall victim to the outbreak.

Yonhap news agency reported that he had been in hospital in the South awaiting a liver transplant.

The vast majority - 90 percent - of the new infections were in Daegu, the country's fourth-largest city and the epicentre of the outbreak, and the neighbouring province of North Gyeongsang.

Relatives are concerned about an 82-year-old widower staying at the Tenerife hotel which is on lockdown because of a coronavirus outbreak.

Retired builder Alan Cunliffe, from Wigan, is on holiday and was due to fly home later this week.

"My uncle is stuck in the hotel currently on lock down due to the coronavirus," said Mr Cunliffe's nephew, Jon Butler.

"He was supposed to be flying home on Friday. He's 82 and is there all alone. He has been stuck in his room all day without any information, no food, only water and is very concerned.

"He has not been contacted by the Foreign Office or any other officials, it seems and is in total limbo. Nor has the hotel or their staff been any help at all."

Mr Butler, 39, who lives near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, added: "I have tried calling the British Consulate in Tenerife several times without success and have left messages."

 

The number of confirmed cases on Spain's mainland has risen to three tonight.  

Catalan regional health authorities said a 36-year old Italian woman, a Barcelona resident, had tested positive after a recent trip to the north of Italy. Twenty-five people who came into contact with her will be quarantined at home for two weeks.

Shortly afterwards, authorities in Valencia and Madrid confirmed two more cases.

However, Spain's health minister, Salvador Illa, played down the severity of the outbreak, emphasising that all cases have been imported from abroad and there has not yet been any domestic transmission of the infection.

Two more coronavirus cases have emerged in Tenerife, where British families are trapped in a locked-down hotel.

The four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel was closed after an Italian doctor on holiday on the island tested positive for the virus on Monday. His wife tested positive on Tuesday, the regional government said.

Local authorites have now said two more Italians who had travelled to Tenerife with the couple were diagnosed with the infection, Reuters reported. 

The couple had been moved to a hospital isolation ward, and other hotel guests and staff would be tested for the virus, a process that will take some days, health authorities said.