The city of Bethlehem was on lockdown on March 6, after the first Palestinian cases of the deadly coronavirus were discovered there.

The Palestinian government announced a month-long state of emergency after the seven cases were identified, while the Israeli defence ministry said it had imposed emergency measures on Bethlehem, with all people “forbidden from entering or leaving the city”.

It said the lockdown had been imposed “in coordination with the Palestinian Authority”.

The Church of the Nativity, built on the site that Christians believe was the birthplace of Jesus, was closed on March 5 and is among places expected to be shuttered for a month.

Deaths and infections

* Globally, there have been more than 98,000 cases and more than 3,300 deaths.

* Mainland China reported 143 new cases on March 5, bringing the total number of cases to 80,552. The death toll touched 3,042, up by 30 from the previous day.

Asia

* China’s central province of Hubei - excluding the provincial capital Wuhan - reported zero new cases over 24 hours for the first time during the outbreak.

* South Korea confirmed 196 new cases and seven more deaths on March 6, taking the total infections to 6,284, with a death toll of 42.

* Confirmed infections in Japan rose to 1,057.

* Japan has ordered a two-week quarantine for all visitors from China and South Korea, and the government signalled the Olympics would go ahead as planned.

* Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan planned for April has been postponed.

* Thailand reported four new cases on March 5, bringing its total to 47 since January.

* The outbreak has affected almost all of Iran’s provinces, President Hassan Rouhani said. Iran has more than 3,500 confirmed cases with a death toll of 107.

Europe

* The death toll from an outbreak in Italy has risen by 41 over the past 24 hours to 148, the Civil Protection Agency said on March 5, with the contagion in Europe’s worst-hit country showing no sign of slowing down.

* Three more people died from the virus in France on March 5, taking the total to seven, while the number of confirmed infections rose by 138 to 423.

* The UK recorded its first death of a patient and the confirmed cases rose to 115.

* Germany on March 6 reported 134 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The number of cases rose to 534, up from 400 reported on March 5. More than half of the cases, 281, are in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state.

* Spain recorded 234 cases across the country. Three people have died of the coronavirus.

* The Stockholm region of Sweden reported 28 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on March 5, the local authority said, taking the total number of cases in the country to 88.

US

* The coronavirus outbreak radiated across the US on March 5, surfacing in at least four new states and San Francisco as Congress quickly approved more than $8 billion to fight the outbreak.

* Google joined Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft in recommending employees in the Seattle area, the most affected by the virus in the country, to work from home.

Africa

* South Africa confirmed its first case on March 5.

South America

* Colombian President Ivan Duque has tested negative for coronavirus after returning from a trip to the US, the government said.

* Brazil has confirmed eight cases of the new coronavirus as of March 5, including the first instances of likely local transmission, as the infectious disease spreads up the coast to tourist hotspot Rio de Janeiro and neighbouring Espirito Santo state.

Economic fallout

* The Asian Development Bank said the outbreak could slash global gross domestic product by 0.1-0.4 per cent, with financial losses forecast to reach between $77 billion and $347 billion.

* The coronavirus epidemic could rob passenger airlines of up to $113 billion in revenue this year, an industry body warned.

* The outbreak likely halved China’s economic growth in the current quarter compared with the previous three months, more severe than thought just three weeks ago and triggering expectations for earlier interest rate cuts.

* Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s top venture capital firms, sent a note to the founders and CEOs of its companies describing the coronavirus as “the black swan of 2020” and urging them to brace for coming economic shocks.

* The Institute of International Finance (IIF) downgraded its economic growth forecast for the US and China, while warning that world growth could reach its weakest since the global financial crisis.

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