Over 100 Countries Have Been Hit By The Rapidly-Spreading Coronavirus

Over 100 countries have reported cases of the rapidly-spreading coronavirus that has infected over a lakh people and killed over 3,800, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Eight new countries have reported cases in the last 24 hours. Maldives, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Malta, Martinique and Republic of Moldova are the latest countries to be affected by coronavirus or COVID-19.

India has reported over 40 coronavirus cases with the government taking several preventive measures such as not letting any foreign cruise ship to dock at Indian ports, suspended visas and e-visas to people from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan.

China - excluding the territories of Hong Kong and Macau - where the outbreak emerged at the end of December had over 80,000 cases, of which 3,097 were fatal.

More than 15 million people in Italy, second worst-hit country after China, are in lockdown Sunday as the government announced a spike in deaths, with infections soaring past 7,000, overtaking South Korea as the country with the highest number of cases after China.Italy's quarantine zones are home to a quarter of the country's population.

Urging  all countries to "prepare for the potential arrival of COVID-19 by readying emergency response systems", the WHO has asked governments to increase capacity to detect and care for patients and also to ensure that hospitals have necessary facilities and staff. The global health body also urged countries to "develop life-saving medical interventions".

In Russia, where 17 cases have been reported to date, authorities warned Moscow residents that anyone not respecting quarantine measures risked five years jail if such a violation resulted in a death.

South Korea currently has some 7,313 cases, and the country on Sunday said its rate of infection was slowing.

And in China itself, the number of new cases reported Sunday was the lowest in weeks, with nearly all 44 of them in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicentre of the outbreak.

(With inputs from AFP)