Japan closes schools as Saudi Arabia halts pilgrimages due to outbreak fears - as it happened

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Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergencies programme, said that no decision is impending on the fate of the Tokyo Olympics. He said:

My understanding is no decision will be taken in the near-term regarding the future of the Olympics ...

Everyone is working together to try to preserve what is a fantastic global event.

Tedros said the WHO is now more concerned about new cases outside China, especially the “epidemics” in Iran, Italy and South Korea.

He said:

It is what’s happening in the rest of the world – that’s now our greatest concern. Outside China, there are now 3,474 cases in 44 countries and 54 deaths. We’re at a decisive point. For the past two days, the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world has exceeded the number of new cases reported in China.

To countries that have reported their first cases in the last 24 hours, including Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, and Romania, Tedros said:

My message to each of these countries is, this is your window of opportunity. If you act aggressively now, you can contain this virus, you can prevent people getting sick, you can save lives.

The World Health Organization has urged people to keep calm, saying that ministers across the world need to be able to answer questions on how they are preparing to halt the spread of the virus.

The WHO’s message continues to be that the virus “has pandemic potential” and it is helping every country to prepare.

The director-general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, said countries needed to be ready to detect cases early and isolate patients. They needed the right measures at airports and border crossings.

He said countries needed to be ready to fight rumours and misinformation. “This is not a time for fear but a time for taking action now to prevent infection and save lives now,” Adhanom said.

“Fear and panic does not help,” he added.

The New York Times has some alarming detail about the first person-to-person transmission of Covid-19 within the United States (see earlier).

A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors’ suggestions.

Doctors at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center considered the novel pathogen a possible diagnosis when the person was first admitted last week.

But the federal agency that conducts the testing did not administer the test until days later because the case did not fit the agency’s narrow testing criteria, university officials said in a letter to the campus community.

The consumer healthcare giant Reckitt Benckiser (RB) says the coronavirus outbreak has helped to drive greater demand for its Dettol and Lysol hygiene products.

The company said it was working alongside public health authorities across the world in an attempt to provide people in areas affected by the virus with more information about the necessary hygiene measures.

It added that the outbreak had resulted in “increased online activity” for its consumers in China, but that the firm was “seeing some disruption to offline retailers, distribution channels and the supply chain connected to China”.

A man from Derbyshire who travelled to the H10 hotel in Tenerife for four nights has confirmed that British guests are desperate to return to the UK to avoid contracting the disease.

“None of the Brits staying here feel safe”, he told PA.

The 60-year-old said:

“We have been told to stay in our rooms but the hotel has no way of enforcing it. We have a WhatsApp group for all of the Brits and we don’t feel safe. We think this is going to end up worse than that ship [the Diamond Princess].

“I don’t think confusion would be the right word to describe it – they are just not able to enforce quarantine conditions. People are able to walk around the buildings and some are even going in the pool. People are walking about and interacting with each other and not wearing masks. They served a buffet-style dinner last night, and people were milling about without masks, touching utensils – the virus is bound to spread.

“It’s totally crazy. We feel we are just being quarantined until we eventually get it [Covid-19]. No one seems to be helping, and the consulate aren’t helping us – why can’t they bring us home? We are in a quarantine that is not being followed and it is not safe.

“I ran out of medication and visited the front desk as I was told more would be brought in. But they were unable to find my medication. Eventually, I was given some but I’ve been told now they won’t give out more than one day’s worth at a time, so I have already run out again and will need to go back. They couldn’t give me any information about why this was.”

Streets and shops in Codogno in northern Italy have been left eerily empty after the town was placed under lockdown due to the new coronavirus outbreak. The virus has so far killed 14 people in Italy, and cases across the country had reached 528.

Italian churches are stepping up measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, calling on priests not to distribute holy communion wafers directly on to worshippers’ tongues and urging congregations to avoid exchanging handshakes during mass.

The Catholic archdiocese of Messina in Sicily made the recommendations in response to the rapid rise in infections in Italy.

In an official statement, the religious authorities of the Sicilian province wrote: “In the face of the spread of the coronavirus, it is considered appropriate to comply with some provisions and hygiene measures. As a precaution we are advising to distribute the Eucharist preferably into the hands of the faithful, and to avoid the physical contact from a peaceful handshake.”

Insurers and travel companies should not be asking people for GP letters to get holiday refunds for trips they cannot go on due to the coronavirus.

The Royal College of GPs said it had heard reports of businesses asking for GP letters in order for people to cancel holidays due to Covid-19.

Prof Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said:

Insurers and travel companies should be basing their decisions to offer refunds on advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Public Health England, not letters from GPs. It is not a good use of GPs’ time to be writing letters for patients who are not ill but have plans to travel – and GPs will always base their decisions on official advice.

Patients will undoubtedly have good and sensible reasons for not wanting to travel to certain places because of Covid-19, but this is not the same as being unable to travel due to existing illness, and it should not become the GP’s responsibility to give patients advice about where not to travel.”

Hammersmith Surgery in west London was closed this morning after a suspected coronavirus case, but those who work there said that they would be reopening at 1pm. Patients received a message saying that the surgery had to close “immediately” due to an “incident” and that any appointments booked would have to be frozen.

I am covering the live blog while my colleague takes a break. If you have any news tips, images, or information to share then please email me on sarah.marsh@theguardian.com, tweet @sloumarsh or send a direct message on Instagram (sarah_marsh_journalist). Thanks

Jacob Rees-Mogg expressed concern about the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is being held in Evin jail in Tehran.

He added that UK officials were trying to find out more information and said that, while the Iranian authorities had denied any outbreak of coronavirus at the prison, he would “not always take as authoritative” such remarks.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling to show her young daughter, Gabriella, to her parents in April 2016.

She was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Responding to concerns raised by Labour, Rees-Mogg told the Commons: “It is a particular concern that the coronavirus has been rumoured – but I emphasise rumoured and not confirmed – to be in the prison in Evin where Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is.

“The UK ambassador to Iran has raised this with the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs and we’re in contact with our international partners on this issue.

“The Iranian authorities have denied this at the moment, but I must confess I for one would not always take as authoritative denials issued by the Iranian government.”

He added: “The government is trying to do what it can in this very serious issue.”

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the Commons on Wednesday that the Foreign Office had been in touch with the estimated 160 British guests quarantined in Tenerife.

At the time guests in the hotel said they had had no contact with the Foreign Office. But overnight letters from the British consulate in Tenerife, were posted to every UK guest at the Costa Adeje Palace in La Caleta.

British guests at the hotel have demanded help getting home and fear that staying in hotel will increase their chances of catching the virus. The letter stopped well short of offering guests any help in getting home.

It said: “We aware of your situation at the hotel and would like to reassure you that we are in direct contact with the local authorities and hotel management daily.”

NHS staff have been asked to shave their beards to allow masks to fit more securely in an attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus, according to the Sun.

Bosses at Southampton University NHS Trust sent a mass email to tackle a “known problem” with ill-fitting masks on hairy faces.

The medical director, Derek Sandeman, attached an image with 36 different kinds of facial hair showing whether they were acceptable or not based on whether they fitted inside a mask.

Small, pencil-type moustaches such as the “Zorro” and “Painter’s Brush” are allowed, but fuller growths including “mutton chops” and the “chin curtain” are out, according to the image.

However, staff with beards for religious or cultural reasons are exempt.

The memo states:

“You will see that the presence of facial hair compromises the ability to protect any individual through a mask.

“I am writing to ask those who do not have a strong cultural or religious reason for a beard and who are working in at-risk areas to consider shaving.

“I recognise for some this is a big ask, that beards are so popular at present. However I do believe this is the right thing to do.”

Prof Christl Donnelly, a leading statistical epidemiologist, has warned that based on death tolls, the outbreaks in Italy and Iran are likely to be far greater than confirmed cases in both countries suggest.

Iran has reported 22 deaths but just 141 cases, and Italy has reported 12 deaths and 470 case.

Donnelly, who works at the University of Oxford and WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling, at Imperial College London, said her research suggested the number of cases in both countries was likely to be over 1,000.

In a comment distributed by the Science Media Centre, she said:

“It is not surprising that we have seen additional cases today. The estimate from our work at Imperial College London is that about 1% of infections with the virus responsible for Covid-19 are fatal, so the total of 12 deaths to date in Italy suggests many more than the 470 cases detected so far.

Our best estimate would be over 1,000 cases. Each undetected case creates at least the potential for onward spread. This combined with frequent travel to and from affected regions, means that all countries are at risk of detecting cases both in travellers and those they came into contact with.”

One of the two new cases in the UK is likely to be a parent from Burbage primary school in Buxton, Derbyshire, which says it has had a confirmed case.

Parents were told the 350-pupil school would be closed on Thursday due to a “confirmed case of coronavirus amongst our parent population”.

The message said the closure was a “precautionary measure and to enable a deep clean to be completed”.

Buxton Medical Practice also shut its doors, saying it had a confirmed case.

More on the latest UK cases:

Two further patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of UK cases to 15, the Department of Health said on Thursday.

The virus was passed on in Italy and Tenerife, and the patients have been transferred to specialists at the Royal Liverpool hospital and the Royal Free hospital, London, the DHSC said.

Of the 13 people in the UK who had previously tested positive for Covid-19, eight have been discharged from hospital. Four of those who remain in hospital are Britons who caught the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and were flown back to the UK on Saturday. Another 168 Britons have been told to isolate themselves at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife.

An Israeli man who returned from Italy four days ago has tested positive for Covid-19, according to Israel’s health ministry. The unidentified man is the third Israeli with the virus, but the first who was not already in quarantine when tested. There are concerns he may have infected others.

The country’s interior minister, Aryeh Deri, said he planned to bar non-Israelis from travelling to Israel from Italy as a preventive measure. “What can I do, the virus has spread in Italy,” Deri told the local Ynet news site.

Israel has already barred entry to foreign nationals who were in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and South Korea in the past 14 days.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia cautions against reading too much into the case of a Japanese woman who has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time.

In remarks distributed by the Science Media Centre he said:

So there are a two possibilities

1. This is indeed a relapse of the illness – This was seen in Sars but in someone who was being treated with steroids. It is possible that the illness could be biphasic as suggested by Dr Tierno, though this is unlikely to be common, based on current information.

2. She has a prolonged excretion of virus from her initial infection and tests were either not done or were not done sufficiently well or enough to confirm clearance. It does appear that swabs for the virus are not 100% reliable. In this case it is even possible that the recent sore throat may be unrelated. Covid-19 tends to cause upper respiratory tract symptoms rather less frequently than did Sars.

I would caution against reading too much into this report, given the lack of information. However, the report reinforces the fact that we have to investigate all such findings really thoroughly and report such information if we are to make the best decisions based on sound scientific evidence. At this time I would counsel against changing management guidelines based on this case but we do need to always keep them under review.

Local health authorities have confirmed that a second person has tested positive for the coronavirus in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 14.

According to reports in the Spanish media, the man – who is showing mild symptoms of the virus – was among the 2,500 Valencia fans who travelled to Milan on 19 February to watch their team play Atalanta in the Champions League.

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has called the coronavirus outbreak a “crisis, an epidemic that is on the way”.

Macron was speaking to doctors and other healthcare professionals at a Paris hospital.

Buxton Medical Practice in Derbyshire has urged people not to go to the practice on Thursday due to a confirmed case of coronavirus, PA reports.

In a message to prospective patients, a spokesman said:

We have a confirmed case of the coronavirus. We are liaising with Public Health England and the CCG to ensure all appropriate actions are taken. Please do not come to the practice.

A woman working as a tour bus guide in Japan has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time, in what authorities say is the first such case, Reuters reports.

The woman, in her 40s and a resident of Osaka in western Japan, tested positive on Wednesday after developing a sore throat and chest pains, the prefectural government said. She first tested positive on 29 January and was discharged from the hospital after recovering on 1 February, before testing negative on 6 February.

The health ministry confirmed the case was the first in Japan where a patient tested positive for coronavirus for a second time after being discharged from hospital, Japanese media said.

Though a first in Japan, cases of second positive tests have been reported in China.

Saudi Arabia has taken the unprecedented step of banning foreign pilgrims from entering the country five months before the annual hajj pilgrimages, in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus, after 240 cases were confirmed around the Middle East, most of them in Iran.

Authorities in Riyadh said the ban was temporary, but did not say how long it might last. The country has yet to report a case of the virus.

“The kingdom’s government has decided to [suspend] entry to the kingdom for the purpose of umrah and visit to the prophet’s mosque temporarily,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.

There are now 18 confirmed cases of coronavirus in France and two people have died.

A 61-year-old man, a school teacher from the Oise region, who died overnight on Tuesday of a pulmonary embolism after contracting the coronavirus, was said to have had no link to any of the areas at risk.

The same goes for a 55-year-old French man, said to be a civilian member of staff at a military air base at Creil, also in the Oise, north of Paris, who is currently in a critical condition in intensive care in hospital in Amiens. The man was diagnosed as carrying the coronavirus on Wednesday.

A third man, aged 36, who returned from Lombardy in Italy with the virus, is in hospital in Strasbourg. His condition has been described as not serious for the moment.

“The two patients from the Oise have not been near the zones where there is a risk. That’s why they were not at first considered to be possible cases of coronavirus,” said Etienne Champion, director of the regional health agency.

“Our investigations are continuing to establish the source of these two contaminations,” Champion added.

The health authorities said they were contacting all those who might have come into contact with the technology teacher, including hospital staff, and his school colleagues, pupils from the four classes he taught and parents.

Champion said the teacher had been off sick since 12 February. The school at Crépy-en-Valois is currently closed for the half-term holidays.

“Knowing that the period between incubation and appearance of the illness is a maximum 14 days, only those children and adults who have been in contact (with him) and who show symptoms should make themselves known. We have passed the incubation period so anyone who is not ill today is not likely to have contracted it,” he added.

On Thursday morning, President Emmanuel Macron visited the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital where the teacher died after being transferred “in a grave condition” with breathing difficulties from a hospital in Creil.

The first death in France was an 80-year-old tourist from China.

The number of confirmed cases in Switzerland has increased to four, the Swiss health ministry has said.

At least one of the new cases is linked to the outbreak in northern Italy.

In a statement the ministry said:

A person from the canton of Geneva and two people in the canton of Graubünden have tested positive for the new coronavirus. The person in the canton of Geneva returned to Switzerland from the region of Milan a few days ago. All three are being treated in hospital in an isolation unit. Their health condition is good. The number of cases in Switzerland that have tested positive has therefore risen to four ...

In view of the rising number of confirmed cases around the world, and particularly in northern Italy, it is likely that further cases will occur in Switzerland. The medical services are well prepared to identify and deal with suspected cases and treat further patients.

There is no reason why schools should currently be closing due to fears about coronavirus, a government minister has said after some shut their doors following travel abroad by staff and pupils.

The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, also indicated that England rugby fans should still proceed with plans to attend the Six Nations fixture with Italy in Rome on Saturday week despite speculation that it may be cancelled.

Schools “will have to make their own decision” but the government had given clear advice based on medical opinion that there was no need to close, he told BBC Breakfast on Thursday.

Covid-19 fears have driven European stock markets down to a fresh four-month low this morning.

The latest two cases in the UK are among people who have travelled to Italy and Tenerife. The patients are being treated in Liverpool and London.

The chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said:

The virus was passed on in Italy and Tenerife and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres in Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, London.

It comes after the authorities in Italy reported that the number of people infected in the country grew to 400 and 12 people have died. And 168 Britons have been told to isolate themselves at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife.

The number of confirmed cases in South Korea has increased by 171 (more than 10%) from 1,595 to 1,766, according to the Yonhap news agency.

The official death toll from covid-19 cases in Iran has increased to 22 people, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It also confirmed 141 cases of the virus, a day after officials imposed travel restrictions and a suspension of Friday prayers.

A graphic published by the agency shows that the virus has spread to 20 of Irans 31 provinces.

The hardest-hit among them remained the province home to the holy Shia city of Qom, with 63 confirmed cases.

Experts fear Iran is underreporting the number of cases of the new virus as cases across the wider Persian Gulf have emerged in recent days linked back to the Islamic Republic.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Kuwait now has leapt from 26 to 43, according to a health ministry official.

The official said that all the cases involved people who had been to Iran, Reuters reports.

Updated advice from the Department for Education tells schools not to send pupils home unless they have had contact with a confirmed case of covid-19. The update comes after at least 13 schools closed amid accusations of inconsistent and conflicting advice.

The advice says:

Currently there are minimal cases outside the risk areas and therefore the likelihood of an individual coming into contact with a confirmed case is low.

There is no need to advise any of these pupils, student or staff to avoid normal activities or educational settings unless they have had contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19.

It says that pupils and staff should only be asked to self-isolate if they have travelled to a category 1 specified country or area in the past 14 days.

AP has the latest breakdown of confirmed cases and deaths from the virus:

Mainland China: 2,744 deaths among 78,497 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei
Hong Kong: 81 cases, 2 deaths
Macao: 10 cases
South Korea: 1,595 cases, 13 deaths
Japan: 894 cases, including 705 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 7 deaths
Italy: 447 cases, 12 deaths
Iran: 139 cases, 19 deaths
Singapore: 93
United States: 60
Thailand: 40
Taiwan: 32 cases, 1 death
Bahrain: 33
Australia: 23
Malaysia: 22
Kuwait: 26
France: 17 cases, 2 deaths
Germany: 21
Vietnam: 16
United Arab Emirates: 13
United Kingdom: 13
Spain: 12
Canada: 12
Russia: 5
Iraq: 6
Oman: 4
Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death
India: 3
Croatia: 3
Israel: 2
Pakistan: 2
Finland: 2
Austria: 2
Lebanon: 2
Egypt: 1
Algeria: 1
Afghanistan: 1
Greece: 1
North Macedonia: 1
Georgia: 1
Estonia: 1
Belgium: 1
Romania: 1
Nepal: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Cambodia: 1
Sweden: 2
Norway: 1
Denmark: 1
Switzerland: 1
Brazil 1

Another case linked to Iran: Iraq has confirmed its sixth case of coronavirus, in a young Iraqi man in Baghdad who had traveled from Iran, the health ministry said today.

North Korea, which has reported no cases of Covid-19, has postponed the start of the new school term.

From AFP:

“School breaks for students have been extended as a preventive measure against the infection,” the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported, according to Yonhap news agency.

The measure would apply to daycares, kindergartens and universities, it said, without specifying when schools would reopen.

The North has banned tourists, suspended international trains and flights and placed hundreds of foreigners in quarantine, under tight restrictions the Russian ambassador has described as “morally crushing”.

Pyongyang planned to maintain the entry ban on foreigners until the virus can be properly diagnosed, treated and cured, a health official told the Choson Sinbo, a North Korean propaganda outlet based in Japan.

Russia’s foreign ministry said it provided Pyongyang with 1,500 coronavirus diagnostic test kits at its request “due to the persisting risk of the new COVID-19”.

Chinese immigration authorities have said regions of the country which are at low risk for the virus should resume visa and passport services for foreign and domestic travellers.

They said this would help get the nation back to work, Reuters is reporting.

Medium-risk areas should do the same depending on the state of the epidemic within their borders, the China Immigration Administration also said.

The immigration authority said on its official Weibo account that it would roll out measures to facilitate such moves, without providing further details.

Some more detail from the AP on that new case in the US, which could be the first in the country with no known connection to travel abroad or another known case.

Health officials say this is a possible sign the virus is spreading in a US community.

California officials said the person is a resident of Solano County, northeast of San Francisco, and is getting medical care in Sacramento County. They said they have begun the process of tracking down people who the patient has been in contact with, a process known as contact tracing.

The patient was brought to UC Davis Medical Center from another Northern California hospital on 19 February but it was four days before the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for COVID-19, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday by the hospital’s interim CEO, Brad Simmons, and David Lubarsky, CEO of UC Davis Health.

The patient arrived on a ventilator and special protection orders were issued “because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition,” according to the email, which was sent to employees.

The hospital asked the CDC to test for the coronavirus but testing was delayed until Sunday “since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19,” the email said.

The hospital, which has treated other coronavirus patients, has been taking infection prevention precautions since the patient arrived. The email said officials believe there was only a small chance that others at the facility were exposed to the virus.

“Nevertheless, a small number of medical center employees have been asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures,” the email said.

In Australia, the Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos says hospitals have reported racism toward both medical staff and patients as fears of coronavirus grow.

Mikakos told reporters at the Royal Children’s hospital in Melbourne on Thursday:

“Fear and anxiety around this coronavirus is not an excuse for racist behaviour. We will not tolerate it here in our public hospitals. People cannot pick and choose the doctors and nurses that attend to them.”

The director of emergency medicine at the Royal Children’s, Dr Stuart Lewena, said a member of their medical staff was told by the parents of a child they were treating last week that “they weren’t comfortable with her treating their child due to the risk of coronavirus, and it was clear that message was said on the basis of her race.”

“We intervened on that stage to highlight to that family that message was not acceptable and we’ve been supporting that staff member.”

Lewena said three other staff members at the hospital had since reported that they had also had racist remarks directed toward them about coronavirus, but they had just “tolerated it.” He said staff had been told not to tolerate those comments, and the hospital provided staff with scripts for how to respond to racism linked to the coronavirus.

Lewena again:

“Understandably if a person is confronted with such a message often words don’t come easily to hand. So we thought it would be useful to give our staff some example scripts where we could both acknowledge the stress and the anxiety and the paranoia underlying that comment, but nonetheless express in no uncertain terms that we viewed that comment as inappropriate, that the department fully supports our staff to continue treating that patient, and that we don’t want to tolerate what we see as racism.”

OK we have sought confirmation and the plan announced by Austalia’s government today is this one, written about by my colleague Ben Doherty earlier this week.

The emergency response plans says impact of the outbreak will be determined by:

• the clinical severity of the outbreak (how severe cases are, and many people need to be hospitalised)
• its transmissibility (how easily it is spread, currently it has a preliminary reproduction number of 1.4 to 2.5)
• the capacity of the health system to treat infected patients
• the effectiveness of interventions to treat the illness or stop it spreading

There’s a question on economic impacts.

“Obviously the impact of a breakdown in supply chains or travel or right across the many sectors, there will be an impact on the economy,” says Morrison.

“And I anticipate it will have a very real effect.”

“As I said, it’s a health crisis, not a financial crisis. But it’s a health crisis with very real economic impacts and the Government is extremely mindful of that and we want to be able to get our responses right. I can say, though, in terms of broader, larger, fiscal stimulus-type responses, that is not the advice we’re receiving from Treasury.”

Q: Does Australia have sufficient quantities of medications like paracetamol.

We have a national medicine stockpile, and there is are surveys and monitoring of any supply chain risks, says Hunt.

Q: Will there be further extensions of the travel ban?

A: It’s being monitored weekly, says Morrison. “The advice we received today was that on the balance of risks, further travel bans were not recommended.”

Q: Will you be screening everyone off any flight, who looks sick?

A: “This is what we’ve tasked the Commissioner of Border Force to come with a plan for us.”

Questions now, and the first one is: what does this plan mean in practical terms?

Hunt: “The position in relation to quarantine powers actually came with the activation of the biosecurity act and the chief medical officer’s declaration on January 21. What this does is it now moves to a full preparation phase for all of the supply chains, the medicines, we’re working on national inventories and the national medical stockpile.”

Hunt will meet with the council of Australian governments tomorrow.

We are well into this announcement by Morrison that Australia is getting ahead of the World Health Organisation and is implementing a pandemic response plan, despite the WHO not declaring a pandemic.

He is yet to provide any detail of what this plan is, or how/if it will change anything for Australian people’s daily life.

When we have some, we’ll bring it to you.

While Morrison’s announcement has some sense of alarm to it, he is also reassuring people.

“There is no need for us to be moving to having mass gatherings of people stop. You the football and the cricket and play with your friends down the street, you can go after the concert and you can go out for a Chinese meal. You can do all of these things becauseAustralia has acted quickly, Australia has gone ahead of this at this point in time. But to stay ahead of it we need to now elevate our response to the next phase.”

The Australian Border Force commissioner will report to government “as possible on additional measures that would be required a tour various ports of entry to ensure we are able to identify any persons coming from wherever in the world that may require additional information in terms of being self quarantined or other forms of quarantine that may be necessary

The education minister will engage with state counterparts on the management of schools.

An “even greater abundance of caution” is needed to take care of children, even though there’s no evidence they are any more at risk than other people.

The minister for home affairs will oversee “continuity” between states and federal governments.

Australia’s health minister, Greg Hunt earlier told the country’s parliament that they were as well-prepared as anywhere else.

“The arc of the virus continues to expand,” he said, noting the growing list of countries diagnosing cases.

“We are not immune but we are well prepared.”

The Australian prime minister and health authorities will have a detailed update shortly. The country has more than 20 cases, including a number from the Diamond Princess cruiseship, but no community transmissions.

Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the coronavirus.

Here’s a quick summary of the latest developments. If you’re looking for more detail you can catch up with the earlier blog over here.

• 
  China’s health authority has reported another drop in the number of new cases. There were 433 new confirmed cases and 29 deaths in mainland China on Wednesday.
• There are 334 new cases in South Korea, mostly in Daegu.
  
• Pakistan, Georgia, Norway, North Macedonia, Greece and Romania are among countries to report their first case of coronavirus in the last day.
• US vice-president Mike Pence will lead and coordinate the US’s response to the coronavirus.
• President Donald Trump said the risk to Americans is “very low” but that plans are in place for a spread of the virus, which he doesn’t think is inevitable, in contradiction to US health authorities who expect to see more cases.
• Anne Schuchat, deputy director of the US CDC, said “the trajectory of what we are looking at over the weeks and months ahead is very uncertain”, and authorities should “dust off” their pandemic preparedness plans.
• US secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar, says “we can expect to see more cases in the US”, and while containment is working, “the degree of risk can change quickly”.
• The National Institute of Health said a vaccine is at least 12-18 months away, so will not help this current outbreak, but may assist a seasonal return. The answer right now is containment.
• Trump said “it’s not the right time” to extend travel restrictions to other affected countries like Italy and South Korea.
• Stock markets in Asia saw mounting losses on Thursday’s open.
• Prestigious sporting events are at risk, with organisers of the Six Nations, the Cheltenham Festival, the Giro d’Italia, Euro 202 and the Tokyo Olympics all monitoring the situation.
• A number of countries have extended travel bans due to virus fears, including Fiji, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. About 40 nations and regions so far have prohibited or restricted South Korean visitors, according to Lee Lee Tae-ho, Seoul’s second vice minister of foreign affairs.