On Thursday morning, there were a total of 82,446 cases, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Along with an increased number of cases, the morning update included nine new countries, who reported their first cases, bringing the total number of infected countries to 47.
Eight of the nine countries that were added to the list—Norway, Georgia, Denmark, North Macedonia, Brazil, Romania, Estonia and Greece—each had one confirmed case. Pakistan, the ninth country, had two, according to the tracker.
Cases in Brazil, Denmark, North Macedonia and Greece involved people who recently traveled to Italy where officials are dealing with the largest outbreak in Europe. Cases in Georgia and Estonia and one in Pakistan dealt with people who entered the country after visiting Iran and Norway’s case was confirmed after a person returned from China.
Iran reported its first cases to the World Health Organization (WHO) on February 20. In the days since, cases have risen to 245, according to the tracker, and on Thursday morning, the Associated Press reported Iranian Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar tested positive for the virus.
It’s unclear where the person in Romania contracted the virus, but Health Minister Victor Costache said the man was in direct contact with an Italian citizen.
For about two weeks, South America was the only inhabitable continent to not report a case of the virus. On Wednesday, Brazil’s Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta confirmed a 61-year-old man who traveled to Italy had the virus and said it would be an opportunity to see how the virus “behaves in a tropical country in the middle of summer.”
Seventeen countries had an increase in cases since the time WHO issued its report on Wednesday. The largest jump, 505 cases, was in South Korea. As of Thursday morning, the country had 1,766 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker. Twenty countries had no change in cases.
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus on January 21, cases in the United States have risen to 60. The bulk of the cases, 45, involve people who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship or repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, on government-chartered flights.
Twelve people who tested positive for the virus recently visited China and known human-to-human transmission has been confined to the spouses of two confirmed cases. On Wednesday, the CDC confirmed a person in California tested positive for the virus despite having no relevant travel history or contact with a known COVID-19 patient.
This could indicate community spread, according to the CDC, the first time it’s happened in the U.S. It’s also possible that the patient was unknowingly exposed to someone who was infected, meaning community spread had yet to occur.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, deputy principal director at the CDC, said during a press conference on Wednesday that they expected to see more cases and urged businesses, schools, health care systems and the public to prepare in the event the virus turns into a pandemic
“The trajectory that we’re looking at over the weeks and months ahead is very uncertain,” Schuchat said.
