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EVENTS ACROSS THE world are being cancelled or curtailed as part of efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
France has cancelled gatherings of 5,000 people or more after 16 new cases were confirmed there yesterday, bringing the country’s total to 73.
Today’s Paris half-marathon and an agricultural symposium were among the events axed.
It has also put Ireland’s scheduled Six Nations rugby international against France in Paris on 14 March in serious doubt. Ireland’s fixture against Italy planned for Dublin next weekend has already been postponed.
The first Covid-19 case in the Republic of Ireland was confirmed last night after a seperate case was confirmed in Northern Ireland on Thursday.
Italy, the hotspot of the outbreak in Europe, saw a jump in new cases yesterday, with its number of infections exceeding 1,000 and the death toll jumping by eight to 29.
The outbreak forced the postponement of five matches in Italy’s top-flight Serie A football league, including the heavyweight clash between champions Juventus and Inter Milan.
In Japan, just 200 people took part in Sunday’s Tokyo marathon after it was reduced from a mass participation event of 38,000 runners to just elite athletes. And the sumo spring tournament which opens next Sunday will now be held behind closed doors due to the coronavirus.
In recent days, the epidemic has spread also to sub-Saharan Africa, while Qatar, Ecuador, Luxembourg and Ireland all confirmed their first cases on Saturday.
Governments around the world have scrambled to prevent the spread of the virus, from large-scale lockdowns of millions of people in China to flight bans and travel restrictions from disease hotspots.
Beijing’s drastic steps include curbing the movement of people, temporarily closing factories across China and quarantining Hubei, a key industrial province where the virus first appeared.
Despite these efforts, China has reported a fresh spike in coronavirus infections today.
While the numbers in China are still far lower than the huge daily increases reported during the first two weeks of February, Covid-19 has spread rapidly across borders, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as hotspots.
South Korea, which has the most infected people outside China, reported 586 new cases on Sunday, bringing its total to 3,736.
The total in South Korea is expected to rise further as authorities screen more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive entity often accused of being a cult that is linked to around half of the country’s cases.
Elsewhere, both the United States and China confirmed their first fatalities from the virus yesterday.
US President Donald Trump urged calm after the first death was announced.
“We’ve taken the most aggressive actions to confront the coronavirus,” President Donald Trump said at a hastily arranged White House press conference.
“Our country is prepared for any circumstance… There is no reason to panic at all.”
The fatality occurred in Washington state’s King County, which includes Seattle, a city of more than 700,000 people, health officials said.
Australia’s death was a 78-year-old man who had been evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
The virus has spread to more than 60 countries around the globe, prompting the World Health Organisation to raise its risk assessment to its highest level.
According to the most extensive study done so far, the novel coronavirus was benign in 80.9% of cases, “serious” in 13.8% and “critical” in 4.7%. The remaining 0.6% was not specified.
Part of the reason Covid-19 has been declared a public health emergency is due to the speed at which it has spread compared to other coronaviruses (like Sars and Mers) and the fact that there’s a lot about the disease we still don’t know – including how exactly it’s being transmitted.
© – AFP 2020 - with reporting by Rónán Duffy
Surely paddies day festivities in dublin will be cancelled?
@Brian Dunne: 100% it’s just a matter of when they face reality and possibly NYC which will ruffle feathers
@Brian Dunne: of course you don’t have to go anywhere if you yourself have concerns. No one has to wait to be told to not go.
@Brian Dunne: is mass included?
@Arya: and work?
@2thFairy: Yes but all of us could be impacted if cases escalate at a mass gathering like this. So in effect people should NOT be given the option for reasons of greater public safety.
@Arya: is mass included? Is mass a mass gathering?
It used to be – but in truth I think it is what people feel comfortable with. If people wish to self isolate themselves or their household there is no one forcing them to mass or mass gatherings… But I wonder how many are normally smokers or drinkers or travel in cars or planes – it is a dangerous world out there and many of the things we do are deadly to a few.
@Arya: All mass gatherings banned?
@Peter Carroll: You can watch mass on the telly or listen to it on the wireless. Stock up on a few bottles of Cab Sav and a few packs of wafers down in Aldi and you’ll still get into heaven.
@Brian Dunne: holding out long enough that they can cancel the parade but still have all the tourists arriving
Can’t help thinking that being pressed up face-to-face against dozens of people for 30 mins on the Luas every morning and evening isn’t a wonderful plan either.
@Tordel Back: yep glad we haven’t bowed to the greenie weenies and all have to move about in public transport, I’ll feel much safer in my own car listening to a nice podcast or some such
Very preventable virus but now we are gonna pay the price for our open boarders and weak government
@munsterman1: In no way is this a preventable virus. Did you not read the article? Part of the issue is the speed and ease at which it is spreading. And to be fair, paying the price for our open borders, give me a break. I would rather a small percentage of elderly and infirm die than live in North Korea.
@SomeGuy: ……yes, but passengers arriving from a virus hot spot should at least be met at the airport and asked how are they travelling on etc.
@SomeGuy: What a horrible thing to say, I hope you don’t have elderly or infirm relatives who don’t seem to matter to you.
@munsterman1: ah don’t be an arsehole
@munsterman1: how do you mean by open boarders? The fact that Irish people are allowed to leave the country and go on holidays?
@munsterman1: I agree we should not have open boarders, free boarders or even half boarders. Best that we have a policy of Full Board only
@SomeGuy: So long as your not elderly or infirm.
@munsterman1:
The Irish Government weak? I guess that makes every country who has reported cases has a weak Government as well. Oh wait. you are just using the coronovirus to have a dig at the caretaker Government
@SomeGuy: who’s asking you to live in North Korea you imbecile
@munsterman1: borders
@Goose Gosling: BORDERS
If the governments of the world all agreed to enforce a 2 week country lockdown where everyone self isolates, sick or not. Would it. A. Kill the Coronavirus and B. Would a side affect be that it eradicates all other flu virus too?
@Peter Cavey: I love that idea.
@Peter Cavey: no wages, no food, no electricity, no running water, no doctors or hospitals… we don’t all type shite into a keyboard or talk on the phone all day, some people have things that need to be done in the real world.
@Tordel Back: It’s a time to be kind to people Tordel.
@Tordel Back: so true. We can’t just walk out of hospitals, prisons, fire stations, old folks homes etc etc and self isolate!!
@Tordel Back: what is this real world you speak of Tordel?
@Tordel Back: I’m not saying do it, I’m simply asking would it work? Would it kill all flu?
@Peter Cavey: In theory it does sound like an idea to kill it off but it can’t happen, something like that would cripple economies and stock markets..
@Peter Cavey: the only country in Europe who banned all flights from China was Italy and look how that turned out.
@Peter Cavey: Yes aside from essential services and this is how China have managed to get a hold of it, the capitalist west countries would be far more reluctant to close down the economy though.
@Peter Cavey: it is an interesting idea but my understanding is that both the coronavirus family and flu virus family are hosted in the animal kingdom, as is ebola, etc., and when a mutation occurs, and it does in viruses quite often, then the virus can infect humans.
So eliminating the current cold and flu could work as it has for ebola, but lurking somewhere is a new copy ready to be transmitted to humans.
So we would have to eliminate all the host animals too. Bats and snakes and camels and monkeys and birds and swine are all hosts of viruses that have a history of mutating and infecting humans.
@Peter Cavey: won’t work. Most people don’t live on their own, and given the incubation period can be up to 14 days and the illness lasts up to 4 weeks, family members infecting others, you’d have to lock everyone in their homes for 2 months, 3 months to be sure it won’t spread further beyond the household it infects.
@Peter Cavey: it’s why now there are more people recovering in China than getting infected. Most people stayed in their homes for a month, only going out for food. Ireland at least has the advantage of not being as densely populated.
@Rochelle: I think if western counties did what China did they would have all keyboard warriors and the snowflake generation on here up in arms over freedom of movement etc !!!
@Peter Cavey: it killed pollution over China….that’s a start. NASA took an aerial shot looking nice and clean. Amazing to see before and after photos.
@Peter Cavey: a = no and b = no
Everyone just relax, bloody hell. It’s a bad cold that will run its course in the coming months.
Mortality rate no higher than a weak strain of flu. Media having a circus on this.
@James Keane: you’d think it was the Black Death the way some people are going on.
@James Keane: mortality rate is higher than ordinary seasonal flu…
@James Keane: …..Totally not true… it spreads way more easily than the ordinary flu and the method of spread is not fully understood yet. It is also 15 to 20 times more fatal to those at higher risk……this is not just an ordinary “flu”
@James Keane: covid 19 mortality is roughly 1%, that makes it 10 times more deadly than seasonal fly. I hate media driven ‘fear, fear, fear’ as much as anyone else but this is not a normal epidemic. Normal seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 650,000 every year. If covid-19 gets as rampant and widelyspread as seasonal flu, that means it’ll kill alot more. Plus we still don’t know exactly how it spreads or have any vaccine against it for the next few months to a year.
@James Keane: “Mortality rate no higher than a weak strain of flu”
The figures for mortality rate are easy to find so what led you to believe something so radically false?
@James Keane: Seriously just a bad cold? It is someone like you that need to wake up and take this virus more seriously.
@James Keane: ‘flu doesn’t trigger my asthma. The common cold, caused by a corona virus, does. This is worse than the common cold.
I’m not panicking,but I’m taking increased precautions compared to what I would for a ‘flu, specifically because of the respiratory issues.
@James Keane: youd be singing a different tune if you had it lol
@James Keane: ok i agree there are probably people panicking and scaremongering is rampant on social media, but you’re so wrong about the mortality rate. 10% of cases progress to seriously ill or critical, no health service in the world could cope with that, and the knock on effect of over stretched health services on non corona seriously patients would also affect the mortality rates. And the economic consequences of an out of control pandemic would be akin to the economic crash of ten/12 years ago. So yes, it needs to be taken seriously.
@James Keane: Id1ot!
@James Keane: read and increase your knowledge before expressing ignorant comments.
The fact both our cases arose from the one well publicised European hotspot means serious questions should be answered. Why did we not take measures to cancel all incoming flights from that area? With exception of school kids etc coming home – then self isolate those at home for two weeks. Why not take more extreme prevention measures in the first stages of prevention? If things remained relatively stable I’m sure we’d all forgive Simon Harris coming out in a couple of months apologising that their response was unneeded and way too extreme. The man is incompetent and the last person capable of providing leadership in this situation.
@Toon Army: harris is only a figurehead in a crises like this. The advice is coming from experts.
Cheltenham is going ahead …yeeeeehaww
@Fergal Doyle: I doubt it, listening to the UK minister on telly today.
If the entire population of the planet self isolated themselves for a month, it will still not stop this or any other virus from spreading, because that’s was viruses do…
It will run it’s course and the majority will survive, what will sadly also survive is the fear, isolationist attitudes and bigotry against particular nationalities that are deemed to carry this virus, by ill informed morons looking to use this as a means to further their anti foreigner agendas..
@David Van-Standen: Dud you make that up all by yourself? I have not read anything about nationalities/ people from certain country’s etc. All people want is OUR government to get their heads out if their arses and do something to help stop the spread of this thing. You are the only person Iv read commenting about bigotry and racists.
@Olivia Smith: I have actually – all over the world the effects on Chinatown’s and even Chinese restaurants and takeaways is serious. Even here a few weeks ago the Chinese restaurants were affected – here is an rte report on the issue from a few weeks ago.
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2020/0213/1115144-coronavirus-discrimination/
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: Thanks. But I think you know what he is trying to say. He is making it about bigotry and racism from the Irish. Any article Iv read on here people just want Harris to stop travel to and from the most affected country in Europe.
I think the case fatality rate is seriously skewed as people won’t report sick. I’ve seen how scared people are in Italy but it’s not necessarily of the disease, it’s the social pariah and stigma associated with it. Unable to visit family or friends, kids isolated etc. This is the main reason this is unstoppable.
@Lee Brennan: there is also an issue in places like the USA where health care is not free. It is reported that a man in Miami followed protocol after returning from China, got in contact with hospital, admitted and tested. When negative he was sent home and the bills started to follow and even his insurance are arguing that they are not covering the cost as the man was not ill but just had a common cold or mild flu. So there is a real danger anywhere where the test process is not free.
Will we get to the point of enforced isolation, the days of the plague or black death could be upon us – caused by media hype and fear – we need to be cautious and rational and not allow unreasonable and irrational fear dictate. About 1.25 million die on the roads every year yet we still travel by car.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I agree – decent provision needs to be made for anyone affected either way. People shouldn’t find themselves in debt by taking reasonable precautions. US insurance companies are notorious for denying coverage, and in that case, the man did everything right voluntarily. Sure enforcing debts will only lead to more people becoming homeless and isolated. Better to treat people.
@Lee Brennan: It’s as if they haven’t heard of Skype. Sure it’s only a fortnight, could they not manage that much on their own, to help contain the spread?
Ligue 1 football matches going ahead this weekend in France, no mention on French radio news about the rugby being at risk
@Lesidees: that’s because the ban only affects indoor events with 5000 people or more so outdoor sporting events can go ahead . Also indoor events are going ahead but only 4999 people to attend.
Totally incomprehensible ban as is the cancellation of the IRL -ITA rugby game!
If there’s an incubation period, wouldn’t it be best practice to just ask everyone in Ireland to wear masks? Any sort of preemptive measure surely is a good thing….
@Arthur Pewty: There isn’t enough masks for everyone, the HSE only has 1.7m and they’re meant to be disposed of daily so they’ll keep them for frontline staff.
We’re not prepared for this at all.
@Rochelle: Ig you have day 1 mask could it not be washed and used again? I managed to buy 7 for family members the other day as that’s all the chemist had. Surely having 1 and keeping it hygienic is better than nothing.
@Olivia Smith: “if and say”
@Arthur Pewty: wearing masks if you’re not infected will likely increase your chances of getting it as your will continually touch your face and mask as you constantly adjust it. The clear advice is for those infected to wear masks so as to stop them spreading it & for healthy people to wash hands with soap regularly and avoid contact with face and eyes as much as possible – wearing a mask if not infected makes the latter harder
@Rochelle: wearing masks if not infected is counter productive Rochelle… advice is not to wear one & only wear one if you have symptoms so as to protect your carers & loved ones. Wearing a mask makes you touch face a lot and that’s counter productive
@Olivia Smith: you only wear a mask if you have virus symptoms. The WHO has been clear that wearing a mask if not infected is useless as a protection against acquiring it and actually may increase your risk as mask wearers constantly touch their faces adjusting their masks
@BMJF: Yes I know that. That’s not what I asked. Thanks
Spreading faster than a niall Boylan opinion
France have banned gatherings of more than 5000 in closed spaces so open air events like rugby and soccer games have not been cancelled.
It would help if you could accurately report the situation!
have your say