Welcome to the first edition of COVID-19 Briefing newsletter which will bring you the most important updates to read in 10-15 minutes, delivered (almost) daily to your inbox. The first edition covers developments from the last few days.

Over 1,700 new cases and 36 deaths globally since yesterday and over 5,600 cases and 163 deaths in the last three days. More statistics in “Numbers” section below.

Highlights of this edition

Six deaths in Washington state, USA.

There are no plans to cancel big events in the USA in March.

Health systems capabilities will become the main challenge and bottlenecks can heavily increase death ratio.

How to wear (and remove) N95 mask properly.

United States

BREAKING: Six people have died of COVID-19 in Washington state, four of them were linked to a nursing home near Seattle. Coronavirus may have spread undetected for the past 6 weeks in Washington State.

The USA now reports total 89 cases, up from 79 yesterday. The number is expected to rise quickly as testing capacity is improved. Five new deaths since yesterday for a total of 6.

New York reports its first case in a person who returned from Iran. New York’s own test got FDA approval and they will begin using it immediately.

Florida reported two cases and declared state of health emergency.

Organisers of Comic Con confirmed it’s going to happen as scheduled mid-March in downtown Seattle in a move described by many as irresponsible and selfish. SXSW conference is Austin is also confirmed, despite petition to cancel it having 22,000 votes (and counting). Similarly, Ultra Music Festival in Miami in late March is not expected to be cancelled. Each of these events usually attract around 160,000 attendees. This is in contrast to some events in Europe. Geneva Motor Show was cancelled few days ago after Switzerland government banned public gatherings of 1,000 people or more (Switzerland has 27 cases today and had 15 when the ban was announced).

Europe

Italy remains the most affected European country, with 352 new cases (2,043 total). Significant rise in France, Spain and Germany (numbers below in a separate section).

Shortage of healthcare professionals made one of Italy’s hospital to ask retirees and newly graduated nurses to come and work, offering three times the normal hourly wage. Lack of health care system capabilities seems to be the greatest risk with this virus, as can be seen in today’s deaths in Korea (more below).

Paris’ Louvre Museum has been closed, forced by staff who walked out and refused to return to work. France reports 61 new cases today for a total of 191 (47% more) and one more death (three total).

Russia reports its first case in Moscow in a person who recently returned from Italy. It’s the third Russian case and first new since January.

First cases in Latvia, Portugal, Andorra (Mar 2), Czech Republic (Mar 1), Ireland, Luxembourg (Feb 29).

Asia

Seven more deaths in South Korea, the most affected country besides China. Four of them were people in self-quarantine who met hospitalisation criteria, but were waiting for hospital beds being available.

This shows that death rate can skyrocket if patients won’t be able to get medical attention. The worst thing about this virus is that around 20% patients require hospitalisation (and most of them in intensive care unit). For comparison, it’s only 0.9% for influenza. The biggest challenge for every country will be shortage of hospital resources (beds, respirators, doctors, nurses). If these 20% severe cases won’t get hospital treatment, many more than expected will be dying.

Korea reported 599 new cases today (4,335 total) and 7 deaths (28 total).

India reports 2 new cases (first new cases since Feb 1) for a total of 5. Both of them were self-reported, which could mean that there are much more infected, but there’s not much effort to discover cases.

Numbers reported by China are declining. “It’s all about speed”: the most important lessons from China’s Covid-19 response.

First cases in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Indonesia (Mar 2), Armenia (Mar 1), Qatar (Feb 29).

Rest of the world

First local human-to-human case in Australia and first death. Australia has now 34 cases.

First cases in Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia (Mar 2), Dominican Republic (Mar 1) and Ecuador (Feb 29)

COVID-19 vs. Economy

Forbes expects that Coronavirus could be the end of China as global manufacturing hub. Port of Los Angeles is reportedly projecting a 25% drop in container volumes this month

How to wear (and remove) N95 mask properly

This excellent 2-minute video from Singapore’s SingHealth will show you how to properly wear a N95 mask to have maximum protection and how to remove it without touching potentially contaminated areas:

Numbers

Most new cases were in three most affected countries (excl. China):

599 in South Korea (4,335 total)

523 in Iran (1,501 total, but this is expected to be heavily underreported)

352 in Italy (2,043 total).

Countries with significant growth of reported cases:

47% growth in France (61 new cases, 191 total)

42% growth in Spain (35 new cases, 119 total)

22% growth in Germany (28 new cases, 158 total)

Interesting Stories

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