Indonesia confirms first cases of coronavirus amid test warnings

Indonesia had until Monday insisted that it had no cases of infection, even though the virus has spread to almost all of its neighboring countries – including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines – and despite a number of people testing positive for coronavirus after transiting or on vacation in Indonesia.

Indonesia has only tested 333 people for the virus despite a population of around 270 million people. Neighboring countries have performed thousands of tests on much smaller population groups.

Separately, the Jakarta Post reported on Monday that three people – two Singaporeans and a Myanmar national – tested positive for the virus after traveling to Singapore from Batam on the Indonesian island of Riau.

Last week, The Sydney Morning Herald and L & # 39; age revealed that the United States' top diplomat in Indonesia had expressed concerns to the Minister of Health, Terawan Agus Putranto, regarding Indonesia's management of the coronavirus epidemic and that the country should carry out tests more broadly.

Terawan has repeatedly insisted that Indonesia has remained coronavirus-free due to the power of prayer. He attacked The Herald and L & # 39; age for revealing that in the days following the epidemic, Indonesia initially lacked the specific reagents to quickly detect the virus. The country now has the test.

Washington state health officials in the United States have confirmed the death of a second person with coronavirus, fearing that the virus will circulate there without being detected and infected over a period of time six weeks.

The researchers reported the potential threat that the virus had spread after performing the genetic sequencing of two virus samples: one a patient who visited the state of China in mid- January, the other a high school student with no known exposure to the virus.

The two victims – one 50-year-old and the other 70-year-old – had underlying health conditions and were being treated at a hospital west of Seattle. The state has only 12 confirmed cases of the virus.

New York State has also registered its first official case of the virus, the cause of the disease named COVID-19.

As of Monday afternoon, the United States had only 86 confirmed cases of the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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The country's general surgeon urged American citizens to stop buying masks, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if health care providers cannot get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk! " he said in a Twitter message.

In Europe, the spread of the virus has resulted in nearly 1,700 cases in Italy and 130 in Germany and France, where the worsening of the situation has forced the closure of the most visited museum in the world.

Workers at the Louvre in Paris on Sunday refused to open the iconic museum, fearing that visitors would contaminate staff with COVID-19.

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Union leader Christian Galani told AFP news agency that staff met before the doors opened on Sunday and decided the risk was too serious given that the French government had announced the day before the ban on indoor gatherings of 5000 people or more.

"The Louvre is a confined space that welcomes more than 5,000 people a day," he said. "There is real concern from the staff."

In Italy, the hardest hit country outside of Asia, the government has announced a 3.6 billion ($ 6.08 billion) stimulus package for businesses affected by a dramatic drop in tourism.

Milan, Venice and Rome have been hit hard by reports that some hotels have reduced their bookings for March by 80%.

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The Australian government has improved travel advice for Italy to urge citizens to reconsider their need to travel to isolated cities by local authorities.

The cities are Codogno, Castiglione dAdda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo, San Fiorano and Vo Euganeo. The updated advice indicates that travelers should "exercise great caution throughout Italy".

American Airlines has announced that it will immediately cease all flights to Milan, the capital of Lombardy, until the end of April, due to a lack of demand.

In Iran, the number of people infected with the coronavirus jumped 65% to 978 on Sunday according to official figures – but observers still fear that the number of cases there remains massively underreported.

with the Washington Post, AAP