As of Monday, there are at least 113,255 confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and 3,964 deaths reported in 101 countries and territories, according to media reports.
CHINA
Mainland China has 80,735 cases and 3,119 deaths with the government announcing that the number of new cases has declined compared to recent weeks.
ITALY
Italy remains the worst hit in Europe with 9,172 cases and 463 deaths that prompted Prime Minister G
iuseppe Conte to declare a lockdown for the entire country.
SOUTH KOREA, IRAN, FRANCE, GERMANY
South Korea, meanwhile, has 7,382 cases and 51 deaths;Iran with 7,161 cases and 237 deaths; France with 1,191 cases, 21 deaths and Germany has 1,112 cases and two deaths.
CYPRUS
Cyprus, meanwhile, has reported its first COVID case.
As the disease continue to spread worldwide, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared “The threat of a pandemic has become very real,” stressing that “it would be the first pandemic in history that can be controlled”.
Stock markets fell sharply while oil prices had the lowest drop in price since the 1991 Gulf War.
UN economists say the coronavirus could cost the global economy between $1.0 and $2.0 trillion (877 billion-1.8 trillion euros) this year.
The Olympic Flame lighting ceremony for the Tokyo Games in July with be held on Thursday in Olympia without spectators.
The Indian Wells tennis tournament in the United States has been cancelled.
The other cancellations include, the annual March of the Living on the site of the former Auschwitz death camp in Poland, the new year speech of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and St. Patrick’s Day parades in Dublin and second city Cork.
