February 25 coronavirus news

People have been asked to remain in their rooms at the Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, Spain, as a male Italian guest tested positive for coronavirus in a first test Monday night.

“Following the report of a possible coronavirus case detected in a customer from Italy, staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, H10 Hotels has implemented all health and operational recommendations from the health authorities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of customers and employees," a communications representative for the H10 hotel group said in a statement.

"Additionally, we are providing customers and hotel staff all the necessary care and attention so that, despite the inconveniences this situation may cause, they are taken care of in the best way possible," they added.  

A spokeswoman for the Canary Island health department told CNN: "We are not calling it a quarantine, we are monitoring and undertaking health checks on all people that might have had a contact with the coronavirus patient -- that includes people from the hotel, not all of them."

"The regional government will hold a meeting this morning to evaluate the situation," she added.

Iran’s deputy health minister has tested positive for the coronavirus, the country's ILNA news agency reported Tuesday, according to Reuters.

In an interview with state television, a spokesman for the health ministry confirmed that Deputy Minister Iraj Harirchi had been infected and has been quarantined, Reuters reported. 

The current number of confirmed cases across Iran is 95, while there are 15 confirmed deaths.

Croatia has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, a civil servant in the press office told CNN, confirming comments made by the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

The patient is a young male Croatian national with mild symptoms, and is quarantined in the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases Dr. Fran Mihaljevic in Zagreb, Croatia.

The man recently traveled in Italy, the Prime Minister’s office said.

The number of coronavirus cases in Italy has jumped to 283, Angello Borreli, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency said in a briefing on Tuesday. 

Of the cases, 212 are in Lombardy, 38 in Veneto, 23 in Emilia Romagna, three in Piedmont, three in Lazio, two in Tuscany, and one in Sicily.

The case recorded in Sicily is the first occurrence of coronavirus in southern Italy. 

Out of the 283 total cases in Italy, seven patients have died, and one has recovered.

Iran has reported 34 new confirmed cases and 1 new death from coronavirus, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a ministry Telegram channel on Tuesday.

The current number of confirmed cases across Iran is 95, while there are 15 confirmed deaths.

Iran struggling to contain outbreak: Across the Middle East, flights from Iran have stopped and borders with the country have been closed as the region tries to keep the spread of a deadly coronavirus at bay.

Economic sanctions imposed against Iran by the United States and other bodies have made tackling the disease harder, a board member of Iran's Association of Medical Equipment Importers said yesterday.

Another novel coronavirus patient in South Korea has died, bringing the total number of deaths linked to the virus to 11 in the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The cause of death is still being investigated for the patient, a 35-year-old Mongolian man who reportedly had a pre-existing liver condition.

There are now nearly 1,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in South Korea, after authorities there announced Tuesday that 114 more people were infected.

Of the total 977 cases, the highest concentration are in three locations, including 543 in the southern city of Daegu, 248 in North Gyeongsang Province and 43 in the port city of Busan. 

Flights suspended and religious group self-isolating: All flights have been suspended to Daegu, the southern city where the initial outbreak occurred. Several countries and territories have announced restrictions on travel from South Korea, or new warnings for citizens traveling to the country.

The Daegu outbreak had centered around the Shincheonji religious group, but the virus appears to have spread now beyond practitioners.

Several hundred members of the group have tested positive for the virus, and more than 9,000 practitioners have been put into self-isolation while they are tested by health authorities. 

President Donald Trump has expressed optimism that the novel coronavirus will be a short-term problem, which won't have a lasting impact on the global economy.

The President, who is in India on a two-day state visit, noted a plunge on Wall Street Monday, but said futures were higher ahead of Tuesday's market open.

"Things like that happen and you have it in your business all the time," he told gathered executives. "It had nothing to do with you. It was an outside source."

Trump outlined the administration's efforts to contain the virus, claiming the US had "essentially closed the borders."

He also heaped praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his efforts to contain the virus, despite the leader coming under withering criticism from others.

Japan’s professional soccer league, “J League,” has announced it will postpone all games until March 15. In a statement, the league said it is fully committed to stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The announcement comes after a government panel of experts recommended that the public avoid gatherings and large crowds.

Cases in Japan: Japan has confirmed 840 cases of novel coronavirus; nearly 700 of those are linked to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was docked in Yokohama for two weeks while under quarantine. Four people have died.

A survey of small enterprises in China found that only 30% have resumed business, Shu Chaohui of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said at a news conference on Tuesday. 

The survey applied to businesses in several industries with 100 employees or fewer.

Shu called the situation “grim," and said that the smaller the business, the lower the resumption rate was.

“We have launched taxation and social insurance policies to support these enterprises,” Shu said. 

Fan Zhenyu of China's Ministry of Transport said that 27 provinces have resume inter-provincial buses to transport people back to work.

More than 100 cities have already resumed public transportation within epidemic guidelines and have reduced the number of health check points from 17,000 to 9,000, Fan reported.

Global economic damage: Factory closures in China, as well as reduced demand for goods and services, were already expected to slam China's economic growth in the first quarter, weigh on trade and rattle global markets. But the spread of the virus further afield increases the risk of substantial damage to economies that were growing at a much slower place than China, or -- as in the cases of Germany, Italy and Japan -- already at risk of recession.