Markets plunge, northern Italy locked down as virus spreads

ROME: Hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped from financial markets, oil prices crashed and millions of people in northern Italy were put under lockdown on Monday as the deadly new coronavirus disrupted economies and societies across the world.
The IMF called on governments to deploy “substantial” stimulus and international coordination to counteract the economic impact of an epidemic that has spread to more than 100 countries since it erupted in December in Wuhan, China.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the threat of a coronavirus pandemic is now “very real” but said the virus could still be controlled.
The virus has shuttered factories, disrupted travel, delayed conferences and sporting events as it infected more than 110,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,800.
Germany reported its first two coronavirus deaths on Monday, but the vast majority of fatalities have been in China, where there are signs the outbreak has peaked.
Elsewhere, there were announcements Monday to cancel the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin and postpone the annual commemoration march at the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.
In Europe’s hardest-hit country, Italy, officials are trying to close off a vast area including the cities of Milan and Venice — mimicking a lockdown at the disease’s epicenter in China.
Tens of millions of people are now in quarantine worldwide but there are fears that the disease will spread further and force several economies into recession.
Trading on Wall Street was temporarily halted early Monday as US stocks joined a global rout on crashing oil prices and mounting worries over the coronavirus. Brazil’s Sao Paulo exchange suspended trading briefly after a 10-percent plunge.
European stock markets slumped dramatically, after a dramatic downturn in Asia, with London’s FTSE index down more than seven percent at the close.
In Paris the CAC-40 index lost over eight percent, its worst daily drop since the 2008 financial crisis, while the Dax blue-chip index in Frankfurt saw its sharpest single fall since 2001. The exchange in virus-hit Milan plummeted more than 11 percent.
Equity markets fell more than five percent in Tokyo and seven percent in Sydney, wiping hundreds of billions of dollars from the value of companies and compounding weeks of losses.
Millions of people have seen daily life disrupted by school closures — with those announced Monday in Greece and Spain — as well as runs on basic household goods and travel restrictions.
But some traveling into and out of Italy’s coronavirus-hit north was continuing by rail, road and air on Monday — despite a government crackdown that was meant to isolate the region.
Italian officials faced a further headache after prisoners fearful of infection protested or rioted in 23 jails across the country — leaving several dead.
Sporting events continue to be severely disrupted, with tennis the latest sport to be hit — the Indian Wells tournament in California, one of the world’s biggest, has been canceled.
Top-flight football matches across Europe were being played behind closed doors, and international rugby matches have also fallen prey to the virus with several postponements.
There are mounting concerns that the United States — the world’s largest and most connected economy — could be the next COVID-19 hotspot.
At least 22 people have died in the country and the number of cases soared past 500 on Sunday as President Donald Trump’s administration struggled to deal with a virus-hit cruise ship stuck off the California coast.
The Grand Princess is due to dock in Oakland on Monday with 21 confirmed infections among its 3,500 passengers — Trump has argued they should stay on the ship but no plan has yet been announced.
The president has been accused of peddling misinformation on the outbreak, but he hit back on Sunday and accused the media of trying to make his government “look bad,” tweeting that the White House had a “perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan.”
Market researchers at ANZ Bank said Trump’s uncertain response was fueling global financial jitters.
US media reported that Trump will consider options later Monday for emergency economic assistance to Americans.
Some forecasters are painting a doom-laden picture for the global economy, with the UN Conference on Trade, Investment and Development suggesting the virus spread could hit foreign direct investment worldwide by as much as 15 percent.
Several central banks have already intervened to prop up faltering economies.
But the International Monetary Fund called for a coordinated global response that would help workers and businesses directly.
European Union leaders will hold an emergency videoconference on Tuesday aimed at coordinating their response to the outbreak.
But there were signs that the peak may have been reached in both China and South Korea.
China said it had closed most of the makeshift hospitals opened to receive coronavirus patients in the epidemic’s epicenter around Wuhan, as the number of new infections in the country hit a record low.
There were 40 new cases nationwide, the National Health Commission said, the lowest number of fresh cases since it started reporting the data in January. China has seen almost 75 percent of the global coronavirus cases.
The WHO reported that 70 percent of the people infected with the virus in China had recovered.
South Korea, which has one of the largest coronavirus totals outside China, reported its smallest daily rise in cases for two weeks.
A total of 248 cases were confirmed on Sunday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The increase took its total to 7,382.
But Iran on Monday announced 43 new deaths, bringing its toll to 237.
India meanwhile announced a ban on foreign cruise ships entering its ports and launched a 30-second coronavirus awareness message to be sent to via mobile phone.
It begins with the sound of coughing.