The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise how you can use these simple daily precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Video / CDC
Coronavirus is jumping borders, with more than 100 countries having now confirmed at least one case of infection.
Stock markets around the world have been savaged, millions of people quarantined, and countries are scrambling to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, implementing emergency plans and travel restrictions on the worst-affected places.
"The WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction," World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in a briefing.
"We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic."
The viral outbreak that began in China three months ago has infected more than 181,000 people globally and killed more than 7000 people.
People recovered from coronavirus prepare to leave the rehabilitation center after a 14-day quarantine for medical observation in Wuhan. Photo / AP
The epidemic is believed to have peaked in China between January 23 and February 2.
Most cases in other countries around the world have involved people who travelled from China, where the outbreak originated in the city of Wuhan.
While more than 3000 people have died from the disease in China, the WHO concluded on February 24 that the measures imposed by the Chinese government — sealing off cities, shutting down businesses and schools and ordering people to remain indoors — may have saved hundreds of thousands of people from infection.
"There's no question that China's bold approach to the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of what was a rapidly escalating and continues to be a deadly epidemic," said Dr Bruce Aylward, who led the WHO delegation.
The WHO said that of more than 80,000 people who have been sickened by COVID-19 in China, more than 70 per cent have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
"China has certainly peaked and there is certainly a decline," said head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove.
ITALY Confirmed cases: 31,506 Deaths: 2,503
Italy has been declared the epicentre of the virus outbreak in Europe, with more virus cases now being reported on the continent than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic, Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
A doctor watches a coronavirus patient under treatment in the intensive care unit of the Brescia hospital, Italy. Photo / AP
The Italian government have taken drastic action, closing all shops – except for pharmacies and those stocking food; ordering companies to shut their non-essential departments; closing venues and limiting movement to urgent medical or professional need.
Entry and exit to affected areas is forbidden, weddings and funerals banned, cinemas, gyms, pubs and museums closed. Anyone violating the new law can be arrested and fined.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has also restricted travel nationwide.
While infections and virus-related deaths continue to soar, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told the BBC he hopes his country will be the first in Europe to overcome the virus emergency.
"Italy was the first nation in Europe to be affected so badly," Mr Di Maio said.
"But I hope it also means that Italy is the first one to leave the emergency behind."
IRAN Confirmed cases: 16,169 Deaths: 988
Iran's entire population – of more than 81 million people – will likely be confined to their homes for the foreseeable future.
"During the next 10 days, the entire Iranian nation will be monitored through cyberspace, by phone and, if necessary, in person, and those suspected of being ill will be fully identified," Major General Mohammad Bagheri said.
An army commission had been set up to carry out the "emptying of shops, streets and roads" in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.
The New York Times have suggested that the country is rapidly expanding the number of graves at a cemetery near the city of Qom, where the outbreak was particularly severe due to people licking holy shrines.
SPAIN Confirmed cases: 11,826 Deaths: 533
SOUTH KOREA Confirmed cases: 8,413 Deaths: 84
South Korea is struggling to deal with the growing coronavirus crisis, as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise.
The fringe Christian group Shincheonji Church has been identified by authorities as the heart of the country's outbreak.
Jung Eun-kyeong, director of the South Korean Centre for Disease Control, suggested that "there is a possibility that the characteristics of many people sitting close together in a very confined space and holding service for more than an hour" would have led to "a few who were exposed infecting other infectees".
South Korea's president has declared southeastern parts of the country, hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, as "special disaster zones", a designation that makes residents there eligible for emergency relief, tax benefits and other state financial support.
Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, yellow, emerging from the surface of cells. Photo / AP
As the number of virus cases continues to rise in America, US President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency.
He announced on Saturday that he would sign a measure under the Stafford Act that would unlock up at US$50 billion in disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help federal and state governments fight the outbreak.
Some of the nation's most popular talk shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, have announced they will no longer film with a studio audience. Schools around the US have been closed, communities have cancelled public events, and in an unprecedented move, the NBA season has been suspended.
Trump also made one of the most dramatic actions of any country, by suspending all travel from Europe for the next month.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned the American public to prepare for an outbreak of the disease.
"We expect we will see community spread in this country," said CDC's Nancy Messonnier.
"It's not so much a question of if this will happen any more, but the rather more correct question to be asking is, 'When this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness?'"
SWITZERLAND Confirmed cases: 2,700 Deaths: 27
UK Confirmed cases: 1,960 Deaths: 72
JAPAN Confirmed cases: 882 Deaths: 29
Speculation is mounting as to whether the 2020 Olympic Games, which begin on July 24 in Tokyo, will be cancelled as a result of coronavirus.
While organisers, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) have all insisted cancellation is not being considered, one of the IOC's most senior members said that the future of the Tokyo Games is largely out of the IOC's hands and depends on the course the virus takes.
Dick Pound, the committee's longest-serving member, estimated there is a three, possibly even two, month window to decide the fate of the games, meaning a decision could be put off until late May.
University of Sydney Professor Robert Booy said the best-case scenario is just 20 per cent of people getting COVID-19.
The worst-case scenario is that half the population comes down with the virus.
A state of emergency has been declared in Victoria to deal with the spread of the virus, following Scott Morrison's announcement that while schools would remain open, public gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled. Mr Morrison also announced that Australia would adopt the same strict travel restrictions as New Zealand has imposed.
Now, anyone who has returned from overseas must self-isolate for 14 days.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that anyone caught ignoring the new restrictions would face a hefty fine and potential time in prison.
Five people have died so far from the disease: two women and one man who lived at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge nursing home facility at Sydney's Macquarie Park; a 78-year-old man from Western Australia, who was diagnosed with the virus after going on the infected Diamond Princess Cruise Ship; and a 77-year-old woman who flew from Brisbane to Sydney on Friday.
