Coronavirus: South Korean city faces ‘unprecedented crisis’ after surge in cases – latest news | World news

UK companies have begun to flag up the economic impact of the coronavirus. Aveva, which is one of Britain’s biggest tech groups and makes 5% of its revenues in China, said Chinese sales had been knocked by coronavirus disruption. Shares in the FTSE 100-listed firm dropped 4% after its update.

Kitchen and bathroom supplier Norcros saw its stock plummet 13% after it alerted over profits as the spread of the disease has affected Chinese-based suppliers.

And recruitment group Hays says its business in China has slowed. Its chief executive, Alistair Cox, told the PA news agency that recruitment in China had been “very subdued”. “Everyone has been concerned about their own health and safety and that of their families – it has to be everyone’s priority.”

US military forces in South Korea have just issued a statement about their response to the situation in Daegu.

The measures are intended to restrict unnecessary travel, and schools and children’s centres used by military staff are closed.

Daegu, which is two hours south of the capital, Seoul, accounts for nearly half the confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country. Infections have centred on a controversial “cult” church. A 61-year-old woman who worships there has been linked to the 37 other members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus who have been confirmed as infected.

Daegu’s mayor, Kwon Young-jin, has said the city faces “an unprecedented crisis”.

While, naturally, people’s health is the primary concern with the coronavirus outbreak, it is also undoubtedly having a global economic impact as well.

Air France-KLM, Qantas, and the global container shipping giant Maersk have become the latest businesses to warn about the financial impact from the continued spread of the coronavirus.

My colleague Joanna Partridge has the full story.

There is some more detail from Iran of the coronavirus cases there. Three cases have been confirmed today, in addition to the two people who were known to have died from it.

The cases have all been in Qom, which is around 140km (86 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. According to the official IRNA news agency all schools and universities, including religious Shia seminaries, were shut down in the city.

Mohammad Mahdi Gouya, Iran’s deputy health minister, said the three people with the coronavirus did not appear to have had any contact with Chinese nationals. Authorities were now investigating the origin of the disease, and its possible link with religious pilgrims from Pakistan or other countries.

British Airways have announced a further round of flight cancellations. A spokesperson for the airline said: “In line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s continued advice against all but essential travel to mainland China, we are cancelling flights to and from Beijing and Shanghai until April 17 2020. We continue to fly to and from Hong Kong. We will keep the situation under review.”

The company said it would be contacting customers on cancelled flights to discuss their travel options, which includes the possibility of rebooking on to other carriers, refunds, or flying on a later date.

Here’s a summary of the main events so far today.

• Two Japanese passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise liner have died after becoming infected onboard. Both were in their 80s.
• China’s national death toll stands at 2,118, with 74,576 confirmed infections in total.
• New cases of the virus in China have dropped, partly because the way cases are counted was changed for the second time in a week.
• UK passengers on the Diamond Princess are expected to be flown out from Tokyo on Friday. They will land at Boscombe Down airbase in Wiltshire. The Foreign Office is also helping Britons who were on the Westerdam cruise ship come home from Cambodia.
• The South Korean city of Daegu is facing an “unprecedented crisis”, its mayor has said, after a cluster of cases at a church grew to account for nearly half of the nation’s total virus cases.
• Iran has reported two deaths from the coronavirus.
• Australia has extended its travel ban for arrivals from China into a fourth week. It will last until 29 February.

PA is reporting that the plane carrying British passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship will land at the MoD base Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. Around 70 Britons will be on the repatriation flight, which is expected to leave Tokyo late tomorrow night.

Sources have told the PA news agency that the Britons in Cambodia who left the Westerdam cruise ship are being assisted by the Foreign Office to make their way home. They are being quite coy about it though – refusing to disclose how many Britons are involved, or indeed whether they may have already arrived back in the country.

The group, who have all tested negative for coronavirus while in Cambodia, are receiving health advice and being helped with commercial flight bookings.

Public Health England said airport health teams would meet the flights and speak to Westerdam passengers about any symptoms, and they would be asked to self-isolate at home for 14 days.

Hong Kong’s Information Services Department has issued some photos of passengers arriving at Hong Kong international airport on a flight from Tokyo. A total of 106 Hong Kong residents, who were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise liner in Yokohama, were permitted to leave Japan and have flown back to Hong Kong. Upon arrival they were taken straight to a designated quarantine site.

A British couple who published video diaries from a cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan have confirmed that they have the coronvirus as they posted Facebook updates from hospital.

Sally and David Abel, who were among thousands of passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, said that Japanese doctors had told them that vaccinations which they had in the past for the flu had stopped the virus from spreading further.

The were not displaying any symptoms and were in good spirits, their son Steve added in a live post on Facebook as they awoke on Thursday morning to see photos of his smiling parents in two beds in the same hospital room.

David Abel posted: “Outside the hospital I came over a bit weird and nearly passed out. Every pore on my body opened and i was wheelchaired to our room.”

“Full health inspection and now we know what’s going on. We both contracted a cold (unaware of) and it has not yet turned into pneumonia. (we do have corona virus).

“Tomorrow the big tests commence. chest x-rays, ECG, chest scan, urine + more.”

Three Iranian patients have tested positive for the new coronavirus disease, according to the state’s semi-official ISNA news agency.

The latest development in Iran comes after its health ministry said on Wednesday that two people had died after preliminary tests came back as positive for Covid-19.

ISNA reports that five hospitals have been designated for the treatment of cases.

A Japanese government official has described coronavirus as the biggest risk to the economy in a country which has already been heavily criticised by others, including US authorities for its handling of quarantined cruise ship passengers.

His comments came monthly report said that the Japanese labour market remained solid, but warned about risks to the outlook from the coronavirus epidemic.

Japan’s financial watchdog has begun conducting an emergency survey on domestic financial institutions with business operations in China to gauge how the coronavirus outbreak could affect credit costs.