‘We’re Very Close’: WHO Teeters On Brink Of Deeming Outbreak A Pandemic, But Still Holds Back

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Epidemic Is Close To A Pandemic, WHO Says
The new coronavirus is now close to becoming a pandemic, the World Health Organization said Monday, a day in which global financial markets plummeted and Italian officials extended a lockdown for the entire country. “We’re reaching that point,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said in a Monday news conference. “We’re very close.” The WHO generally defines a pandemic as a disease that has become widespread around the world. The viral epidemic reached a new stage globally Monday, with confirmed cases outside China tripling over the past week. (Calfas, McKay and Ping, 3/9)

The Associated Press: Coronavirus Outbreak Sure Looks Like A Pandemic, Except To The WHO
The World Health Organization has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word “pandemic” might spook the world further and lead some countries to lose hope of containing the virus. “Unless we’re convinced it’s uncontrollable, why [would] we call it a pandemic?” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week. The U.N. health agency has previously described a pandemic as a situation in which a new virus is causing “sustained community-level outbreaks” in at least two world regions. (3/9)

Reuters: Canada Reports First Coronavirus Death As Number Of Infected Climbs
Canada on Monday reported its first death from the new coronavirus as the number of people in the nation who have contracted the disease rose to above 70, officials said. The dead man had been living in a nursing home, the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, British Columbia’s chief health officer Bonnie Henry told a news conference. (3/9)

The New York Times: Italy Announces Restrictions Over Entire Country In Attempt To Halt Coronavirus
Italy on Monday became the first European country to announce severe nationwide limits on travel as the government struggled to stem the spread of a coronavirus outbreak that has hobbled the economy, threatened to overwhelm public health care and killed more people than anywhere outside China. The measures, announced in a prime time news conference by the country’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, sought to adopt the kind of drastic limits that may be working to control the virus in China, an authoritarian regime. (Horowitz, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: As Virus Spreads, Italy Locks Down Country
Italy placed its entire national territory under quarantine, only two days after it locked down much of the country’s north, marking the most dramatic step by any country so far to contain the coronavirus epidemic. Facing the biggest outbreak of the virus outside China, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said all of the quarantine measures imposed in the north of Italy in recent days will apply to the whole country, with effect from Tuesday morning. (Sylvers and Legorano, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Italy, With Aging Population, Has World’s Highest Daily Deaths From Virus
The coronavirus has killed more people in Italy than in China over the past week. Doctors are warning that a shortage of beds to treat the severely ill could push the Italian death toll higher still. In less than three weeks, Italy has gone from having just three coronavirus cases to the biggest outbreak after China. And the data point to a troubling trend: Those infected in Italy appear more likely to die. (Stancati, 3/9)

And elsewhere —

The Wall Street Journal: China’s Xi Visits Wuhan, City At Center Of Coronavirus Epidemic
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the quarantined city of Wuhan on Tuesday for the first time since the coronavirus was identified there, underscoring Beijing’s belief that the epidemic’s domestic spread has been largely contained. In a previously unannounced trip, Mr. Xi arrived by airplane in the stricken metropolis of 11 million people to visit front-line medical workers, military personnel and community workers, state media said. (Wong and Cheng, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Sends Food Prices Soaring In China, As Producer Prices Slump
Falling prices for industrial wholesale goods combined with consumer food inflation at a decade high present Chinese policy makers with a worsening dilemma as the coronavirus continues to freeze economic activity in China and around the world. Chinese producer prices fell back into deflation territory in February, the product of sluggish demand and prolonged shutdowns that have left factories idle for weeks. (3/10)

ABC News: UNICEF Warns Of Scam Coronavirus Messages Circulating Through Social Media 
UNICEF is warning the public about the spread of coronavirus misinformation after a scam message purporting to be from the humanitarian aid organization started circulating around social media. The fake message had been translated into several languages and appears to indicate “that avoiding ice cream and other old foods can prevent the onset of the disease,” among other things, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships Charlotte Petri Gornitzka said in a statement. (Jacobo, 3/10)