Greece and Australia shut schools as WHO warns about local transmission
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Australia ordered its first school closure on Friday after a 16-year-old pupil tested positive for the coronavirus, as the country’s prime minister warned the public bill for treating infected patients could top A$1 billion ($661 million).
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he has written to Australia’s state governments to create a A$1 billion fund to treat coronavirus patients, though he cautioned more money may be needed.
Australia has recorded 60 cases of the coronavirus while two elderly people have died from the virus as authorities struggle to contain the outbreak.
Morrison in late February said a global pandemic of the coronavirus was likely, and on Friday he detailed the healthcare costs for the first time.
Greece is also trying to halt the spread of the coronavirus by closing schools and universities and cancelling large public gatherings, as the World Health Organization insisted the virus could still be “pushed back” if governments around the world took the necessary action.
Greece followed the lead of Iran and Italy, where deaths on Thursday rose to 148, by shuttering educational institutions and cancelling sports events and other public gatherings in three western regions.
The national public health organisation said the two-day shutdown included “a suspension of all mass gatherings” at theatres, cinemas, museums and sports events in the Peloponnese regions of Achaia and Ileia and the island of Zakynthos.
As the number of infections jumped from 10 to 31 in a single day, a health ministry official said it expected a significant rise in cases in the coming weeks.
Italy death toll from the outbreak has risen to 148, with 3,858 infections.
The French president Emmanuel Macron has said a coronavirus epidemic is “inevitable” in France. There are 423 infections and seven people have died.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said ountries should be preparing for sustained community transmission and called for governments to play their part in stopping the spread of the coronavirus within their own borders.
Tedros said: “Our message to all countries is: this is not a one-way street. We can push this virus back. Your actions now will determine the course of the outbreak in your country.”
He added that the organisation is concerned that the “level of political commitment” in some countries do not “match the level of the threat we all face”.
On Twitter, he wrote: “This is not a drill. Not a time to give up. Not a time for excuses.”.
Leadership from the top: We call on country leaders to mobilize their plans, coordinating every part of government, not just the health ministry – security, diplomacy, finance, commerce, transport, trade, information and more – the whole government should be involved. #COVID19
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 5, 2020
