WHO issues highest alert

South Korea reported its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases yesterday as concerns grew of a possible epidemic in the United States and the World Health Organization raised its risk alert to its highest level.

Meanwhile, a patient infected with the virus in Washington state died, a state official said, reports CNN. It marks the first death due to the virus in the US.

The virus has rapidly spread across the world in the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy.

More than 2,900 people have died and over 85,000 have been infected worldwide since it was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

The vast majority of infections have been in China but more daily cases are now logged outside the country, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as major hotspots.

South Korea has the most cases outside China, with 3,150 infections as 813 more patients were reported yesterday-- the country's biggest increase to date. Three women in the Daegu area died of the illness yesterday, taking the national toll to 17.

The virus has also spread to new zones in recent days, reaching 10 new countries including Qatar, Azerbaijan, Mexico and New Zealand, as well as reaching sub-Saharan Africa with Nigeria reporting its first case.

"We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Friday.

European nations are scrambling to contain the outbreak as new infections mounted in several countries -- many linked to virus hotspot northern Italy -- including in France where a surge of new cases was confirmed yesterday.

President Emmanuel Macron yesterday chaired a ministers' meeting on curbing the outbreak, after officials warned the epidemic had reached a "new stage".

Meanwhile in the US, health officials reported three more cases of the new coronavirus transmitted to people who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, indicating the disease was spreading in the country.

There are now four such cases in the United States, all on the Pacific seaboard, in addition to some 60 other infections in the country.

"The virus is here, present at some level, but we still don't know to what degree," said Sara Cody, director of public health for California's Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley where tech giants like Apple and Google are based.

Official data released in China yesterday showed the extent of the damage caused to the world's second-largest economy, with manufacturing activity falling to its lowest level on record as key industries ground to a standstill under drastic containment measures.

More global events were disrupted due to the epidemic, with the United States delaying a regional summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations due in Las Vegas next month.

"This is not a time for panic. It is time to be prepared -- fully prepared," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

While China reported 47 more deaths yesterday, it recorded 427 infections -- fewer new cases than South Korea -- following unprecedented quarantine efforts locking down tens of millions of people in the worst-hit cities.

In Iran, unnamed health sources told the BBC that at least 210 people had died of the coronavirus -- far beyond the official death toll, but Tehran angrily denied that figure.

The official death toll in Iran jumped to 43, a health official told state TV yesterday, adding that the number of infected people across the country has reached 593.

Meanwhile, an Indian official yesterday said all the 112 people, including 23 from Bangladesh, who are housed at a quarantine facility in New Delhi after being evacuated from Wuhan in China, have tested negative for coronavirus.

"The samples of all the 112 people were sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here and the reports are negative. The quarantine period will continue for about a fortnight," our New Delhi correspondent reported quoting a spokesperson for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Seventy six Indians and 36 foreigners were taken to the ITBP force quarantine centre in Chhawla area of south Delhi on February 27 after they were flown in from Wuhan city on an Indian Air Force transport plane.

"The second samples of the inmates will be taken on the fourteenth day of the quarantine period and all those whose results are negative will be released from the ITBP centre," the spokesperson said.