The global outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has reached worrying heights.
The world’s financial markets are tinkering on the edge of collapse and there is absolutely nothing available to stop the virus from spreading at the rate it has been since it broke out in Wuhan, a city in mainland China, three months ago.
What is the current coronavirus death toll?
According to a situation report compiled and published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the global death toll of COVID-19, as of Tuesday 10 March, stands at a total of 4 012, with 113 702 confirmed infections.
Five new countries, Brunei Darussalam, Mongolia, Cyprus, Guernsey and Panama have reported cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
“As of 9 March 2020, a total of 45 States Parties informed WHO of additional health measures they implemented in relation to COVID-19 and provided the public health rationale for these measures. WHO reiterates that measures that restrict the movement of people during this outbreak should be proportionate to the public health risk, short in duration and reviewed regularly as more information about the virus, the disease epidemiology and clinical characteristics becomes available. For more information, please see ‘subject in focus’.”
World Health Organisation, Situation Report 50 of 10 March 2020
South Africa sees growth in new cases
In South Africa, the virus has started to spread. Since recording its first case in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Thursday 5 March, the country has seen 12 cases of coronavirus pop up in a span of six days.
At this time, the health department hasn’t indicated any shortfalls in their attempt to track down every person the patients may have come in contact with.
However, we know for a fact that the virus is spreading in KZN, Gauteng and the Western Cape.
These festivals have been cancelled due to coronavirus
In Europe and the United States (US), matters are a lot more severe. Italy is regarded as the worst-hit country in Europe after it reported its highest coronavirus death toll in 24 hours.
As reported by Al Jazeera, 168 people were killed by COVID-19 between Monday 8 March and Tuesday, taking the tally of deaths up to 631 in the region.
In the US, more than 1000 cases of coronavirus infections have been reported, 31 of which have resulted in deaths.
Fearing a global pandemic, many industries have been forced to either shut down or operate at a very minimal capacity in an effort to implement strict social distancing measures.
Consequently, a string of live events have been moved or cancelled as a result of coronavirus.
This is a complete list of all the festivals that have been cancelled due to COVID-19:
- Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
- St Patricks Day parades
- Cherry Blossom Festival
- Tuscon Festival of Books
- Google I/O Developer event
- New York International Auto Show
- Miley Cyrus Australian tour
- Madonna France tour
- South by Southwest (SXSW)
- Pearl Jam North American leg of Gigaton tour
- Stormzy Heavy Is The Head tour
- Mariah Carey Hawaii concert
- Avril Lavigne Zurich concert
- BTS Seoul concerts
- Green Day Asia tour
- Slipknot Asia tour
- Mabel Italy concert
- Foals Japan concerts
- The National Tokyo concerts
- Sam Fender Zurich concert
- The Pixies Asia tour
- New Order Asia tour
At this time, no South African events have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
