A man unpacks his shopping trolley in the carpark at a supermarket in central Christchurch, New Zealand.
Photo: Mark Baker/Associated PressGovernments world-wide are increasingly imposing mandatory restrictions on residents to force people to keep their distance from each other, stepping up efforts to slow the global spread of the coronavirus as cases surged past 350,000.
U.S. governors in Louisiana, Ohio and Delaware ordered residents to stay at home—joining some of the worst-hit U.S. states like New York and California, which imposed similar measures in recent days. The far-reaching measures vary in size and scope, though must have shuttered non-essential businesses.
Latest on the Coronavirus
- Global cases of coronavirus infection surge past 330,000 and death toll rises to 14,706
- India locked down a number of states, including Delhi
- New Zealand to impose a lockdown and move to the highest stage of alert
- The IOC said it is considering postponing the Tokyo 2020 Games
- General Electric Co. to lay off about 10% of the workers at its aviation unit
New Zealand said it would impose a lockdown and move to the highest stage of alert, closing schools starting Tuesday. Colombia ordered a three-week nationwide lockdown and sealed its borders. India started a lockdown on a number of states and Australia enforced a shutdown of restaurants and bars after saying relying on voluntary measures wasn’t doing enough to flatten the upward curve of new infections.
Globally, the death toll from Covid-19, the pneumonialike disease caused by the virus, hit 15,328.
The global health emergency has rattled markets with a growing likelihood of a recession. U.S. stocks opened lower, despite the Federal Reserve’s latest market intervention, a day after U.S. lawmakers failed to reach a deal on an economic rescue package.
A doubling of confirmed world-wide cases of the virus over the past week is testing the effect of measures from authorities to contain it.
Cases in the U.S. alone crossed 35,000, 10-fold from a week earlier. The U.S. now has the third-highest number of cases in the world, behind China and Italy. As state governors ordered mandatory stay at home measures in recent days, leaders sought medical supplies and moved to expand hospital capacity to prepare for an influx of patients.
New York state has emerged as the center of the crisis in the U.S., with nearly 17,000 cases early Monday and thousands more than any other U.S. state.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked the federal government to nationalize the acquisition of ventilators and other medical supplies as states compete with each other for a scarcity of resources, leading to price gouging. Other states were increasing efforts to acquire essential equipment for doctors and health-care employees while also tightening restrictions on people’s movement.
General Electric Co. said Monday that it would lay off about 10% of the workforce at its aviation subsidiary in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Indonesia, the number has been rising rapidly as the country’s medical system faces strains. As of Sunday, 514 people in Indonesia had tested positive for the virus and 48 people had died, a sharp increase from a week ago when there were fewer than 10 deaths.
Experts say the virus is likely even more prevalent than the numbers show because Indonesia—the world’s fourth most populous country with more than 250 million people—has tested only 2,409 people. Indonesia’s president has pledged to significantly ramp up testing capacity, and the Indonesian military transported around 150,000 testing kits from China on Monday.
The Indonesian Medical Association, a nongovernment group, issued a statement on Sunday that six doctors had died of Covid-19, though it later added that one of those had died instead from a heart attack brought on by exhaustion.
So far, the government has avoided some of the drastic actions taken by the country’s neighbor Malaysia, which last week shut down offices, schools, and places of worship amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
In China, the government reported 39 new cases Monday, all of them imported, as well as nine deaths in Wuhan.
As governments have tightened borders across the globe, efforts are intensifying to control the spread of the disease domestically.
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, unveiled measures that included barring nonresidents from entering the city by air for two weeks from Wednesday and moving to legislate a ban on the sale of alcohol at 8,600 venues with liquor licenses.
“If such a small group of people—wanting to go out to play a ballgame, have some noodles—end up infecting a large part of the community, how can they face those fighting the epidemic?” Mrs. Lam said, her voice choking up. “Can these friends really not sacrifice just for a little while longer so that Hong Kong can win this war?”
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New Zealand will move to its highest alert level in the next 48 hours, and any outside activity must be solitary, officials ordered Monday.
Governments have struggled to balance the pressure for strict lockdowns advocated by many medical professionals with the need to keep economies functioning and essential services running.
France’s high court on Sunday instructed the government to clarify the terms of the country’s lockdown within 48 hours, including provisions that allow people to leave their homes to exercise and seek medical care. The court rejected a request from a group of French doctors demanding a more draconian lockdown, saying the proposed restrictions would further endanger the country by hobbling its ability to deliver health care, food and other essentials.
As of Sunday, 16,018 people in France had tested positive for the coronavirus and 674 people had died of Covid-19, health officials said.
In other countries, the debate has focused on whether measures should be voluntary, relying on the public to adhere to them.
Australia’s government decided to shut down gyms, bars, and casinos from noon Monday, and restrict restaurants to takeout service after a weekend in which Prime Minister Scott Morrison said people disregarded social-distancing practices and flocked to beaches and venues in major cities.
“We now need to take action because we can’t have the confidence as a group of leaders that the social distancing guidelines and rules that we’ve put in place won’t be followed to the level of compliance that we require to flatten the curve and to slow the spread and to save lives,” Mr. Morrison said.
In India, populous states such as Delhi, Rajasthan and parts of Maharashtra went into a government-ordered lockdown from Monday, except for essential services, in a bid to contain the virus.
Authorities in Syria announced the closure of the border with Lebanon, saying only cargo trucks would be allowed in and their drivers would be tested at crossings.
After nearly a decade of conflict, Syria is vulnerable. It has just one laboratory that can test for the coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. Aid groups have raised the alarm about the risks to millions of displaced Syrians crammed in camps, including 900,000 uprooted by a recent government offensive in the northwest of the country.
Many Syrians were skeptical of government assurances, maintained through last week, that the country was free of the coronavirus. On Sunday, Syria recorded its first case of virus—a man in his 20s who tested positive after returning from abroad.
Egypt’s military said an army major general who had taken part in disease prevention efforts and three other people had died on Sunday of Covid-19, bringing the country’s death toll to 15. The army has been deployed to disinfect open spaces and buildings.
Iran said Monday the number of deaths from Covid-19 had jumped by 127 to a total of 1,812 over the past 24 hours, the highest toll of any country except China, Italy and Spain. The number of reported infections had increased by 1,411 to a total of 23,049. They include at least 24 members of Iran’s parliament—a result, said Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, of face-to-face campaigning for parliamentary elections late last month.
The spread of the virus continued to affect major events. The International Olympic Committee said it is considering postponing the Tokyo 2020 Games, amid growing pressure from athletes, sports federations and public-health leaders to delay the event. The IOC didn’t detail possible postponement scenarios but said cancellation isn’t being considered. A decision is expected within the next four weeks.
As global travel implodes, Singapore Airlines said it would cut 96% of its flight capacity up to the end of April following an announcement of a border closure from the city-state.
Emirates, one of the world’s largest long-haul airlines, said it would suspend most of its passenger operations by Wednesday.
The British government said it would take over the country’s railway network, which has experienced a 70% decline in passenger numbers since the outbreak began.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, said it would shut down outlets across the U.K. and Ireland from 7 p.m. Monday. “I have been clear throughout this that we would only continue to operate whilst it was safe for our people and together with our franchisees,” said McDonald’s U.K. and Ireland Chief Executive Paul Pomroy.
In Colombia, inmates at several prisons launched coordinated nationwide riots over what they said were poor health conditions that exposed them to coronavirus, leaving 23 prisoners dead and 83 others injured in clashes with prison guards, the Justice Ministry said Sunday. Nine guards were reported wounded.
Colombia reported its first two deaths from Covid-19. Health authorities said 231 people have been diagnosed as infected with coronavirus.
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Note: Data begins when Johns Hopkins and WHO began publishing daily global case numbers. China first reported a pneumonia cluster in Wuhan in early December 2019.
Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com, Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com and Jennifer Calfas at Jennifer.Calfas@wsj.com
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2020-03-23 14:26:50Z
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