March 8 coronavirus news

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree early Sunday, which will put most of northern Italy under lockdown due to novel coronavirus.

The entire Lombardy region is included as well as 14 other provinces.

CNN is verifying exactly when the lockdown will go into effect.

Draft text:

The text of the draft proposal – sent to CNN by the press office of the Lombardy regional authority – says that people in Lombardy and other 11 provinces should "absolutely avoid any movement into and out (of) ... as well as within the same territories ... except for travel motivated by unavoidable working needs or situations of emergency."

The draft says the police, the fire brigade and armed forces could be used to enforce these measures. 

The measures also could include:

It's unclear if these measures are included in the prime minister's decree. It could impact more than 10 million people in Italy.

The Peruvian health ministry on Saturday said the country has six confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

Four of those cases are family members or a close friend of the country’s “case zero,” which authorities say is an imported case, the health ministry said.

The other coronavirus patient in the southern Arequipa region is a 29-year-old who had spent time in London.

Vietnam reported four additional cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday and Sunday, raising the nationwide tally to 21, according to a government report.

Of the four cases confirmed on Saturday, two are linked to a previously confirmed case -- a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman who traveled to the United Kingdom, Italy and France in February.

Another patient is a 27-year-old Vietnamese national who returned from South Korea on March 4, according to the report.

The case confirmed on Sunday is a 61-year-old man in the capital Hanoi, according to a tweet from the official Twitter page of the Vietnamese government.

Japan reported 47 more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the nation's total to 1,151, according to the the country's health ministry.

That tally include the 696 people who became infected onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined in Yokohama for two weeks.

South Korea announced 367 new infections on Saturday, bringing the country's total to 7,134, according to the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

It is the worst outbreak outside of China.

Six more deaths were reported on Saturday, with 50 in total.

Among the 367 new cases, 294 are from Daegu city and 32 are from North Gyeongsang Province, the most heavily infected areas in the country.

Macao has announced a mandatory quarantine on travelers from Germany, France, Spain and Japan due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, a government statement said on Sunday.

All travelers who have been to these four countries in the past two weeks will need to undergo a 14-day quarantine in designated facilities. 

Macao residents will be required to undergo a quarantine at home, while non-Macao residents will need to pay to stay in one of the hotels designated for quarantine.  

The measure will come into effect at noon local time on Sunday.

Do you have your "bug-out bag" (BOB) ready for when the "s*** hits the fan" (SHTF), or will you "bug in" for "the end of the world as we know it" (TEOTWAWKI)?

This jargon is well understood within niche "prepper" communities, whose members spend their lives preparing for armageddons -- natural disasters, pandemics or financial collapse.

The ideas that drive this culture are becoming increasingly mainstream as coronavirus panic sees people across the world stockpiling rations, sourcing gas masks and self-isolating at home.

Now, "civilians" are turning to expert preppers in droves for help in getting ready for the worst.

Read the full article here.

The first presumptive positive case of novel coronavirus has been identified in the state of Missouri, according to officials.

The patient is a woman in her 20s who recently traveled to Italy.

She lives in St. Louis County and went to a local medical provider with a fever and respiratory issues, officials said.

The woman is now in isolation at home with her family.

Of the 26 people who have been tested in the state, only one case has been presumptive positive. Three additional tests are in progress.

Presumptive positive is a term that refers to cases which have tested positive in a public health laboratory but are pending confirmation from the CDC. Confirmed cases have received positive results from the CDC.

There are currently 16 coronavirus deaths in the US state of Washington, and 14 of those are associated with a nursing home in Kirkland, according to a Seattle & King County Public Health press release. 

The Life Care Center is at the center the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

Two new coronavirus deaths in the state are linked to the facility. A man in his 70s, who was a resident at the care home, died on March 2, while a woman in her 80s, who was also a Life Care resident, died on March 5, according to the press release.

Worsening symptoms:

Some Life Care Center patients have gone from no symptoms to acute symptoms within an hour, according to Tim Killian, spokesperson for Life Care Center of Kirkland.

"We've had patients die relatively quickly under those circumstances," he said. 

Staff are caring for patients to the best of their ability but "we cannot make any promise that exposure, further exposure, within the facility is not happening," Killian said. 

The virus is "volatile, unpredictable," he said.

Employees infected:

There were 180 staff members employed at Life Care Center as of February 19 and 70 employees now have symptoms of novel coronavirus.

The Center of Disease Control has provided "extra nurses, practitioners and doctors," to the nursing home.

Family members of residents there are seeking more answers on the conditions of their loved ones, including residents who they claim have died without being tested for the coronavirus.