Paris (AFP)

The assessment of the epidemic of new coronavirus exceeded Monday the 3,000 deaths in the world and continues to have serious consequences everywhere around the planet, in particular in Italy where the number of cases explodes and in France where the museum of the Louvre has closed.

Authorities in China announced 42 new deaths on Monday, bringing the country's disease toll to 2,912 and the global death toll to more than 3,000. The 202 new cases reported on Monday in mainland China, however, represent the lowest daily figure since the end of January.

Outside of Hubei province, at the epicenter of the epidemic, a resumption of activity, paralyzed since the end of January, is perceptible in the country, with the reappearance of some traffic jams in Beijing during rush hour.

In Italy, some 500 new cases were identified Sunday, a spectacular jump which brings the number of contagions to nearly 1,700 in the country. Five new deaths have also been reported, bringing the death toll to 34 dead in the peninsula, still in three regions in the north of the country: Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.

France, a new acute center of contamination in Europe, lists 130 cases and two deaths.

- The infected writer Luis Sepulveda -

The Louvre Museum, an emblematic place of tourism in the French capital which welcomed 9.6 million visitors in 2019, remained closed on Sunday. Staff have invoked their right to stop work in case of danger, management announced, without specifying whether it would reopen on Monday.

The Paris Book Fair, a major meeting for French-language publishing that was to be held from March 20 to 23, has been canceled. And the famous Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda, who lives in the north of Spain, contracted the coronavirus, according to the health authorities of Portugal where he recently visited.

Germany records 129 cases. More than half of the German patients come from North Rhine-Westphalia (west), where an infected couple participated in the Heinsberg carnival at the end of February.

Iran reported 11 new deaths on Sunday, bringing the official death toll to 54. The BBC's Farsi service, however, evokes a much heavier toll, at least 210 dead, a figure denied by the authorities.

As for South Korea, the second most affected country after China, it recorded Sunday 586 additional cases, for a total of 3,736 contaminations, including 18 fatal.

The epidemic raises fears of a global economic crisis. Markets suffered their largest tumble last week since the 2008 financial crisis, but the Tokyo Stock Exchange picked up on Monday.

Some companies or large groups are starting to feel the effects of the spread of the coronavirus on their turnover. Israeli airline El Al said on Sunday that it plans to lay off 1,000 of its 6,000 workers due to financial losses caused by the cancellation of several overseas flights linked to the epidemic.

Several countries like Germany and Italy are already planning aid measures and allocating funds for the affected sectors.

- Grand Prix canceled -

The epidemic is also changing the sports calendar. The Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix, scheduled for March 8 at the opening of the world championship, has been canceled. In Italy, several matches in the football championship (Serie A) have been postponed.

In addition to a first death in Washington State, 21 cases have been recorded in the United States, to which are added 47 patients repatriated to the country. Several patients diagnosed in recent days had no known link with a focus of the epidemic, which suggests that the disease begins to spread on American soil, still very spared.

The World Health Organization (WHO) raised this weekend to "very high", its highest threat level. She warned that believing herself to be safe from the Covid-19 would be a "fatal error".

The UN agency recalled that the symptoms are mild for most patients, serious (pneumonia) for 14% of them, and that 5% of those affected are in critical condition.

The mortality rate seems to be 2 to 5%, according to the WHO, which urged countries around the world on Sunday to obtain medical devices for respiratory assistance, essential to treat patients with the severe form of disease.

burx-rock / hh

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