New infections in decline in China but which jump elsewhere in the world: the European Union has raised the level of risk linked to the coronavirus while the epidemic is accelerating in particular in the United States, hitherto rather preserved. EU health ministers were summoned for a special meeting on Friday in Brussels. In France, where several events were canceled and the Louvre museum remained closed, a third person died from the new coronavirus.
She is an 89-year-old woman tested post-mortem at Compiègne hospital, who "had other pathologies", specified the Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon.
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In Italy, the most affected country in Europe, the 50 dead mark was crossed Monday. The country is now officially divided into three zones. The "red zone" placed under quarantine, which covers 11 communes in the North, represents more than 50,000 inhabitants. The European Union has raised its risk assessment from "moderate to high", with a final assessment of 2,100 confirmed cases in 18 member countries.
Seven Chinese returned from Italy contaminated
For several days, the epidemic seems to be weakening in China, where draconian quarantine measures have targeted more than 50 million people since the end of January. But the eastern province of Zhejiang (east) announced that seven Chinese returning from Italy were carriers of the virus, confirming fears of recontamination of the country by importation.
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Nationally, authorities identified a total of 125 new cases of contamination on Tuesday. This is the lowest daily figure since January 21, even before the quarantine of the city of Wuhan (center), at the heart of the epidemic. According to Chinese authorities, Covid-19 has killed 31 people, all located in Hubei, the province of which Wuhan is the capital. The death toll thus amounts to 2,943 deaths across the country.
Acceleration outside China
The epidemic surpassed 3,000 deaths worldwide on Monday and is accelerating outside China. In South Korea, the second most affected country after China, the total number of infections on Tuesday was around 5,000, while the authorities announced 477 new cases. Two more deaths have also been reported, bringing the total to 28.
Saudi Arabia, which was the only Gulf country to date to report no cases on its soil, reported the first case of coronavirus on Monday. He is a person who tested positive after his return from Iran, the country where there are now the highest number of deaths linked to the disease after China (66 dead).
A vaccine "by the fall"?
In the United States, which were previously rather unspoiled, four new deaths were recorded Monday, bringing to six the number of deaths on the American territory. More than 90 patients have been identified, half of whom have been repatriated from abroad. Several patients diagnosed in recent days had no known link to an outbreak, suggesting that the disease is starting to spread across the country.
Wanting to be reassuring, vice-president Mike Pence, who coordinates the fight against the epidemic, announced that a treatment could be available "by the summer or the beginning of the fall". The first clinical trials for a vaccine could take place "within the next six weeks," he said.
Threat to the economy
G7 central bankers and finance ministers are scheduled to meet on the phone on Tuesday to coordinate their response to the impact of the new coronavirus on global growth. This mobilization comes at a time when global growth, already weakened by the China-United States trade war, has been hit hard by the slowdown in the Chinese economy and the impact of the coronavirus on the economy.
Last week, the New York Stock Exchange had its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. But Monday, Wall Street experienced a dramatic rebound, with investors hoping that the monetary authorities of the largest countries will develop a coordinated response for mitigate the economic impact of the new coronavirus. In the process, the main Asian stock exchanges opened Tuesday in the green: in Tokyo, the main Nikkei index climbed 0.84% while in the first exchanges the Shanghai Stock Exchange gained 1.21%.
The Australian central bank, however, lowered interest rates on Tuesday to a historically low level, dropping its key rate to 0.50%, against 0.75% previously, to cushion the economic impact of the epidemic. The equipment supplier Nike announced Monday close until Wednesday its European headquarters, located near Amsterdam, after a case of Covid-19 was detected in a member of staff. Nike’s European headquarters in Hilversum, about 30 km from the Dutch capital, employs some 2,000 people from 80 countries.