Welcome to COVID-19 daily briefing which is your place to discover daily news and numbers, backed by links to reputable and official sources.

Today’s highlights

Several European countries doubled their number of cases within one or two days.

First death in the United Kingdom.

Vaccine clinical trials starting in April.

Australian National University’s model predicts 15 millions worldwide deaths in ‘low severity scenario’.

Worldwide

WHO’s chief reminds national governments that current situation is not a drill and should be treated seriously:

WHO status report for March 05 is not available yet, but you can find recent numbers for several countries below.

United States

Yale professor says the US is way behind on testing and to expect number of cases to ‘explode’ in the coming days.

“It wouldn't surprise me if we were to learn that most major hospitals have coronavirus patients in them right now. It is well within the realm of possibility that there are 100,000 people infected with this right now in the United States.”

Trump has a ‘hunch’ that death rate is way under 1% and calls WHO’s estimated 3.4% a ‘false number’.

LAX Airport workers say they are forced to choose between their jobs and health.

Terrified about the coronavirus outbreak, airline worker Barbara Gomez refused her supervisor’s order to clean the interior of an American Airlines plane when it arrived from China at Los Angeles International Airport. Gomez, a cabin attendant for JetStream Ground Services, said she was given no gloves or a mask before being told to help wipe down the interior of the plane.

Florida does not follow “Any American can be tested” policy and advises health providers to test only people who fit a narrow criteria: a history of travel to a high-risk area or close contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient within 14 days of showing symptoms.

Washington county recommends all 2.2M residents to work from home, tells over 60's to stay indoors.

Europe

Number of cases in Italy jumps to 3,858 and deaths to 148. Both numbers daily increase was the biggest since the outbreak started. The worst hit region, Lombardy, recommended inhabitants not to go to hospital with anything other than urgent problems.

First patient died in the UK. They were an elderly patient with underlying health condition and it is believed they they contracted the virus in the UK. Number of UK cases increased to 115, including 25 in London. 18,083 people were tested so far.

Number of cases Germany doubles within two days to 482. A company operating several duty-free shops at Berlin airport is sued for prohibiting employees to wear masks.

Number of cases in France increases by 50% within a day to 423 and deaths almost double to 7.

Netherland’s cases more double to 82. The country tested around 300 people so far.

Number of cases almost doubles in Sweden, rising to 94, including 59 in Stockholm. Sweden's Public Health Agency announced starting routinely testing patients with respiratory symptoms without a known cause.

Belgium more than doubles number of cases to 50.

More cases start being confirmed in Greece: 21 new cases today [Greek], bringing the total number to 31.

Iceland has 10 new cases [Icelandic] today, bringing total to 26. All today’s patients were recently travelling in Italy or Austria. No cases has been traced to domestic sources yet.

Asia

Number of cases in South Korea increases to 6,088, deaths to 40. Health care system in Daegu is stretched beyond limits.

Officials said hospitals in the hardest-hit areas were struggling to accommodate new patients. Daegu city officials said 2,117 patients were waiting for rooms in the city.

Testing at South Korea’s drive-thru screening stations take as little as 5 minutes.

Thai postal service began disinfecting all packages received from overseas. There are 47 cases in Thailand and one person died.

Singapore developed new tests which have more than 99% accuracy and give results within three hours.

Japan prepares a state of emergency bill to be put in place next week. It would enable local governments to limit businesses’ operating hours, close schools, instruct people to stay indoors, use land and buildings without their owners’ consent for medical purposes. Japan currently has 348 cases and 6 deaths (not counting passengers from Princess Diamond cruise ship).

Iran closes all schools and universities for a month.

Two persons who traveled to Philippines were tested positive after returning to Taiwan and Australia. This raises question about real situation in Philippines which reported only 3 cases at beginning of February. All three were Chinese nationals arriving from Wuhan. No further cases or local transmission was reported.

Containment Measures

Head of University of Hong Kong's Centre for Infection says that a large-scale outbreak, like in Italy and Iran, was prevented in Hong Kong because almost 95% people started wearing masks.

Science

Pharmaceutical giant Inovio plans to start clinical trials of a vaccine next month in the US with hopes to start more trials in South Korea and China a month later.

"It’s not 100 per cent certain yet, but we’re going to be testing it on between 30 and 50 people. It will be at two sites in the US – one at the University of Pennsylvania and one in Kansas City. Immediately after the clinical trial in America we’re going to start a trial in South Korea and in China. The timescales depend on the authorities in both those countries, but we’re hoping to start a month after we start the trial in America.

New modelling from The Australian National University investigates seven scenarios and is called “the first wide-ranging global economic assessment of the effects of Covid-19”.

Even in the paper’s ‘low severity scenario’, the estimated loss to global GDP is $US2.4 trillion, with more than 15 million deaths globally. The costs rise sharply as the level of severity increases, with the highest potential cost to global GDP rising to $US9 trillion.

Economic Impact

International Air Transport Association warns that COVID-19 could cost airlines up to US$113 billion in lost revenue this year, more than three times a projection it made just two weeks ago.

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