Four cruise ship passengers test positive in UK – as it happened

Here’s Angela Giuffrida, Patrick Wintour and Sam Jones’s roundup of today’s coronavirus developments across the globe.

Four of the 32 British and Irish Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers taken to Arrowe Park, Merseyside on Saturday have tested positive for coronavirus strain Covid-19, the chief medical officer for England has said.

Prof Chris Whitty said: “Four further patients in England have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 13.

“The virus was passed on in the Diamond Princess cruise ship and the patients are being transferred from Arrowe Park to specialist NHS infection centres.”

We are pausing the live blog now but will update it again is there are more major developments. There have been a lot of updates today in terms of how the coronavirus is spreading and what measures are being taken to stop it.

Here is a summary of the main points.

• Turkey and Pakistan have closed their borders with Iran in an effort to stop the potential spread of coronavirus. It comes after Iran reported 43 cases of the disease and eight deaths. Turkey will also be halting incoming flights and said all highways and railways at the border would shut at 5pm local time. A provincial official in Pakistan and the country’s Frontier Corps confirmed that it had also sealed its land border with Iran.
• More than 100 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Italy, as the government adopts measures to limit the spread of the outbreak. Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, announced that all schools would be closed from Monday. Universities in both Lombardy and Veneto have also been shuttered until early March.
• Italians across the country’s north prepared for weeks of quarantine on Sunday as lockdown measures hit tens of thousands. Over 50,000 residents in 11 towns – 10 in Lombardy and one in the neighbouring region of Veneto – now face what the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said on Saturday could be weeks of lockdown.
• The final two days of the Venice carnival have been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Fashion week in Milan was also also affected and Giorgio Armani, whose show was scheduled for 4pm on Sunday afternoon, announced on Saturday night that guests should not come to the venue. Instead, the collection would be shown to an empty room.
• In the UK, 118 people flown out of Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak, were leaving Kents Hill Park training and conference centre in Milton Keynes on Sunday for the first time in 14 days. They had been quarantined there.

The European Union sees “no need to panic” over a coronavirus outbreak in Italy that has killed two people and infected more than 100 in the country.

The bloc’s economic affairs commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said: “The EU has full confidence in the Italian authorities and the decisions they are taking.”

“We share concern for possible contagion [but] there is no need to panic.”

Venice carnival will close early this year due to concerns about the coronavirus, which has spread in northern Italy. Below is a photograph of a police officer wearing a protective face mask and standing next to a masked carnival reveller at the event.

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The Bank of Japan governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, has said that if the virus outbreak persists it may have a big impact on Japan and global economies through supply chain disruptions.

France should produce more vital goods, such as drugs and electric batteries, as the coronavirus outbreak highlights the danger of relying on imports from China, the country’s finance minister said.

Bruno Le Maire spoke to Reuters on Sunday as the virus spread in Europe, with Italy particularly affected.

Le Maire said the emergency called for accelerating a shift in industrial policy towards making key goods within national or European Union borders, using state aid when necessary.

“It’s not protectionism, it’s just responsibility,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of financial leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“It costs a lot at the starting point so you need the support of public funding. China is doing the same, the United States are doing the same, I don’t know why Europe would not do the same for strategic assets like electric batteries.”

The Irish singer Rebecca Harkin is among those who have been evacuated from the Coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess.

The musician is now in quarantine in Australia. She and her partner were working as musicians on the ship and were evacuated to Australia along with many others. They will spend two weeks in quarantine in Darwin.

Pakistan has closed its land border with Iran, as Afghanistan suspends travel to the neighbouring country amid concerns about the growing numbers of people being infected by new coronavirus.

“To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and protect the public, Afghanistan suspends all passenger movement (air and ground) to and from Iran,” the office of the National Security Council of Afghanistan said in a statement posted on Twitter.

A provincial official in Pakistan and the country’s Frontier Corps also confirmed that the country had sealed the land border with Iran.

Iran has now had eight deaths from the virus, the highest toll of any country outside China. The latest three deaths reported on Sunday were among 15 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus, bringing the overall number of infections to 43.

Four new infections surfaced in the capital Tehran, seven in the holy city of Qom, two in Gilan and one each in Markazi and Tonekabon, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said.

Authorities have ordered as a “preventive measure” the closure of schools, universities and other educational centres in 14 provinces across Iran from Sunday.

Afghanistan and Pakistan share porous borders with Iran that are often used by smugglers and human traffickers, while millions of Afghan refugees currently live in the Islamic Republic. Fears were raised that the virus could easily spread over the border.

Health authorities said that 18 of the 39 South Koreans from the south-eastern region who had made a group pilgrimage to sites in Israel later tested positive for the virus.

Israel’s foreign ministry issued added warnings about travel to South Korea and Japan due to the coronavirus, and the health ministry is ordering Israelis returning from those countries to remain in home quarantine. This was previously ordered for those returning from Hong Kong, China, Macau, Thailand and Singapore.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be adding additional restrictions on entry to Israel from countries including Australia and Japan.

Iran has seen the lowest parliamentary election turnout since 1979, with senior figures blaming the new coronavirus outbreak.

“The turnout across the country was 42.57% ... In Tehran, it was around 25%. Across Iran, over 24 million people voted,” interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told a televised news conference.

The final results showed big gains by hardline loyalists close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters.

Khamenei, who on Friday said that voting was “a religious duty”, blamed the low turnout on the “negative propaganda” about the new coronavirus by Iran’s enemies.

“This negative propaganda about the virus began a couple of months ago and grew larger ahead of the election,” said Khamenei, according to his official website.

“Their media did not miss the tiniest opportunity for dissuading Iranian voters and resorting to the excuse of disease and the virus.”

The turnout is seen as a referendum on the popularity of the Islamic Republic’s rulers. It was 62% in the 2016 parliamentary vote and 66% of voters cast ballots in 2012.

Giuseppe Conte says cases of the the Covid-19 virus in Italy have risen dramatically in the past two days. The prime minister told a press conference Italy would not try and suspend the Schengen treaty as such a draconian measure would be disproportionate.

Schools in Milan will be closed, however, and people will not be allowed in and out of affected areas. Social and sporting events in Lombardy and Veneto have also been cancelled.

As of Sunday morning, there were 89 confirmed coronavirus cases in Lombardy (with two in its industrial centre, Milan) 16 in Veneto, three in Piedmont (including two in Turin) and two in Emilia-Romagna

The virus can be spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Hand-washing is a first line of defence

Here is a roundup of the areas where cases of Covid-19, the virus’s official designation, have been confirmed:

China: 77,000 people have been infected and 2,442 have died.

South Korea: 602 people have been infected by the virus and five people have died.

Japan: more than 130 people have been infected and four have died.

Singapore: 85 people infected.

Thailand: 35 cases.

Malaysia: 22 cases.

Taiwan: 26 cases, including one death.

Australia: 17 cases.

Vietnam: 16 cases.

Philippines: three cases, including one death.

India: three cases

Nepal: one case.

Sri Lanka: one case.

Cambodia: one case

United States: 35 cases.

Canada: eight cases.

Italy: 132 cases, two deaths.

Germany: 16 cases.

France: 12, including one death.

Britain: nine cases.

Russia: five cases.

Spain: two cases.

Finland: one case.

Sweden: one case.

Belgium: one case.

Iran: 43, eight deaths, the largest number of fatalities of any country outside China.

United Arab Emirates: 11 cases

Israel: one case.

Lebanon: one case.

Egypt: one case.

Turkey will close its border with Iran as a precautionary measure to halt the possible spread of coronavirus.

It comes after reports emerged of 43 cases of the disease in Iran, with eight deaths – the highest death toll outside of China.

The Turkish health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Sunday that all highways and railways would be closed as of 5pm (14.00 GMT). Flights from Iran were suspended, he told reporters.

The Japanese government faces growing questions about whether it is doing enough to counter the coronavirus, after 773 cases were announced by early Sunday evening.

Most of the infected people were from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined near Tokyo. A third passenger from the ship – a Japanese man in his 80s – died on Sunday.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, instructed government agencies to urgently prepare medical provisions and draft a comprehensive plan to curb the spread.

Jordan will not allow entry to citizens of China, Iran and South Korea and other foreigners travelling from those countries in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The minister of state for media affairs, Amjad Adayleh, said the decision was part of “pre-emptive measures ... following the rise in cases of coronavirus in South Korea, Iran” and China.

Adayleh said the ban would be “temporary” and imposed on all non-Jordanians coming from the three nations among the worst affected by the illness.

“Jordanians who come from those countries will be placed in quarantine for two weeks to ensure they have not contracted the coronavirus,” he said.

Milan fashion week has also been affected by the outbreak. Giorgio Armani, whose show was scheduled for 4pm on Sunday afternoon, announced on Saturday night that guests should not come to the venue. Instead, the collection would be shown to an empty room.

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“The decision was taken to safeguard the wellbeing of all his [Armani’s] invited guests by not having them attend crowded spaces,” said a press release.

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On Sunday, the head of the civil protection department, Angelo Borrelli, said during a press conference that thousands of beds were at the ready in military barracks or hotels to house quarantined or sick individuals, if needed.

The number of those infected with the virus had now grown to 132, including the two people who died, Borrelli said.