Coronavirus news – live: ‘Super-spreading event’ sparks panic as entire city told to stay at home after quarantine declared across Daegu

Follow latest updates

World Health Organisation gives an update on coronavirus

The mayor of Daegu, South Korea’s fourth largest city, has urged its 2.5 million population to refrain from going outside amid a spike in coronavirus cases within the region.

Kwon Young-jin said the city was facing “an unprecedented crisis”, with 49 reported patients traced to an infected individual who had attended a local church.

But the World Health Organisation director general insisted the number of South Korean cases is “really manageable”, adding he hopes officials can contain the outbreak at an “early age”.

It comes as the Japanese government confirmed the death of two citizens, both in their 80s, who contracted the virus while aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. More than 620 people onboard the ship – which was carrying 3,700 passengers – have tested positive for the condition.

Meanwhile in the UK, a total of 5,549 British nationals had been tested as of 2pm on Thursday. Nine cases of the virus have been discovered so far.

Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load:

Key Points

• South Korean city in lockdown after 'super-spreading event'
• Two infected passengers from stricken cruise ship die
• Worldwide death toll surpasses 2,110
• BA announces further cancellations for flights to China

[20 February 2020 07:46 · Samuel Lovett]

Good morning and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. There have been a number of major developments over the past 24 hours. Here's what we know:

- The mayor of Daegu has urged the city's 2.5 million population to refrain from going outside amid a spike in cases

- A total of 35 new cases were reported on Thursday. The majority of those have been linked to a local church in the city where an infected individual is believed to have spread the virus

- South Korea now has a total of 82 confirmed cases

- The Japanese government said on Thursday that two people from the cruise ship berthed in Japan, both in their 80s, have died from coronavirus infections

- At least 621 people on the ship have tested positive for the virus, the biggest cluster outside mainland China

- As of Thursday morning, the worldwide death toll for the virus had risen by 114 to 2,118

- In China, 74,576 people have been infected

[20 February 2020 07:50 · Samuel Lovett]

 Two police officers and a community support officer in Burton have been taken into quarantine after an arrested woman was tested for coronavirus.

A Staffordshire Police for the force said: "Three members of Staffordshire Police are staying at home as a precautionary measure after reports that a woman who had been detained in custody was unwell.

"The woman, who is a non-UK national, was arrested in Burton and taken to Northern Area Custody in Stoke-on-Trent yesterday."

[20 February 2020 08:09 · Samuel Lovett]

More on Daegu

Mayor Kwon Young-jin has also asked citizens to wear masks indoors if possible. He expressed fears that the rising infections in the region will soon overwhelm the city's health infrastructure and called for urgent help from the central government in Seoul.

The explosion of infections in Daegu and the neighbouring southeast region, as well as some new cases in the Seoul metropolitan area, have raised concern that health authorities are losing track of the virus as it spreads more broadly in the country.

"National quarantine efforts that are currently focused on blocking the inflow of the virus (from China) and stemming its spread are inadequate for preventing the illness from circulating in local communities," Kwon said.

In addition to the cases that have already been linked back to the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony - where the recent outbreak originated in Daegu - a further 90 people from the 1,000-strong congregation are showing symptoms, Kwon said.

"We plan to test all believers of that church and have asked them to stay at home isolated from their families," he said.

[20 February 2020 08:23 · Samuel Lovett]

What's behind the drop in new confirmed cases?

China has reported the lowest number of confirmed cases since late January, partly due to a change in diagnostic criteria for patients in the Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The National Health Commission (NHC) yesterday announced 394 cases, down from 1,749 on Tuesday in what is the lowest daily figure since 23 January.

Just how cases are diagnosed and confirmed has had a big impact on official tallies of cases, and changes in the method have raised questions about the extent to which daily tallies accurately reflect the state of the outbreak.

Initially, authorities were using nucleic acid tests to identify the presence of the virus, but such tests require days of processing.

Last week, Hubei introduced a new, quicker diagnostic method through computerised tomography (CT) scans, which use X-rays, to reveal lung infections, and to confirm the presence of the virus.

This led to a surge of more than 15,000 new coronavirus infections for 12 February, and sparked unfounded fears that the virus was suddenly spreading much faster.

But on Wednesday, the NHC said it was removing that category of clinically diagnosed cases from its criteria for confirmed cases. 

[20 February 2020 08:30 · Samuel Lovett]

BREAKING

South Korea's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the country's first death from coronavirus, according to local reports.

More to follow on this.

[20 February 2020 08:37 · Samuel Lovett]

Britons to be flown home

The British nationals stuck on the stricken cruise ship berthed in Yokohama, Japan will be flown home on Friday, the UK's foreign secretary has said.

"We’ve organised an evacuation flight for British nationals on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship to depart Tokyo on Friday," said Dominic Raab.

"Details have been sent to those who have registered for the flight. We urge other British nationals still seeking to leave to contact us.

"We will continue to support British nationals who wish to stay in Japan."

There was a total of 78 British passengers on the cruise ship when cases of the coronavirus began to emerge.

[20 February 2020 08:43 · Samuel Lovett]

 South Korea's first death

South Korea has reported the country's first death from coronavirus, alongside a further 22 cases to bring the total to 104.

The exact cause of death is being investigated, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

Most of the new cases confirmed are in the city of Daegu where a person who was infected with the virus attended local church services and visited a hospital before testing positive.

[20 February 2020 08:46 · Samuel Lovett]

Two deaths confirmed in Japan

Two people have died after contracting coronavirus on board a cruise ship quarantined in Japan.

The Japanese couple, who were in their 80s, died in hospital after being taken off the Diamond Princess last week.

They both had underlying health conditions and one died from the Covid-19 virus, while the other died from pneumonia, according to local reports.

It raises Japan’s death toll from the virus to three.

Read more on this story below:

[20 February 2020 09:10 · Samuel Lovett]

Ukraine protests against arriving evacuees from China

Protests have broken out in central Ukraine against the arrival of a plane carrying evacuees from China's Hubei province amid rising fears of a coronavirus outbreak.

Angry protesters from the village of Novi Sanzhary blocked the road leading to a sanatorium where the evacuees are due to be held in quarantine for at least two weeks to make sure they were not carrying the virus.

Hundreds of police were dispatched to keep order, and some were seen dragging some protesters away from the crowd at the demonstration, which the authorities said had started overnight.

The protest prompted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to issue a statement reassuring Ukrainians that there was no danger and that the authorities had done everything possible to make sure the virus would not spread to the country.

"But there is another danger that I would like to mention. The danger of forgetting that we are all human and we are all Ukrainian," he said.

"Attempts to block routes, block hospitals, not allow Ukrainian citizens into Ukraine - this does not show the best side of our character. Especially when you consider that most passengers are people under 30 years of age. For many of us, they are almost like children." 

In addition to 45 Ukrainians, there were 27 citizens of Argentina on the plane that landed in Ukraine on Thursday, as well as citizens from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica and other countries.

 

(The plane carrying evacuees from China arrives in Kiev)

[20 February 2020 09:22 · Samuel Lovett]

More cases confirmed in Iran

Three more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Iran, according to the ISNA news agency.

This follows the death of two Iranian nationals, marking the first recorded fatalities in the Middle East.

ISNA reports that five hospitals have been designated for the treatment of cases.