Coronavirus live updates: WHO says world in 'uncharted territory'

UK draws up ‘feed the nation’ contingency plans as Australia considers banning mass gatherings and Italy records 52 deaths. Follow live news Italy’s coronavirus death toll rises to 52Six dead in Washington state as new cases reported across USEU raises risk level of coronavirus infection as global deaths pass 3,000Coronavirus: today’s developments at a glance 1.53am GMT And just on handshaking, Australia’s chief medical, Brendan Murphy, officer says people don’t need to stop doing this in general:Social isolation should be focused on people who have returned from countries or people who have symptoms that might suggest they have picked up this. The same as you would if you ink you have the flu, but if you have come back from SouthKorea or Italy or Iran, then we would certainly want you to practise some social distancing, not go to mass gatherings, and in that context, shaking hands, good hand hygiene is probably best to be avoided. We are not suggesting those practices should be considered by the broader general community. 1.38am GMT The Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, is talking about the low rates of infections for children. One of the very important reassurances for families is about on the evidence we have, limited transmissibility to children, which is very important for families and parents, and then the mild impact on those children on the evidence across the globe.I thank the evidence around the world is that when children are infected, they are incredibly mild, in fact so mild that they almost don’t have symptoms. The only child we have had in Australia infected feel that criteria. We are not entirely sure the extent to which they get the virus, but we do know that symptomatic significant disease is not a feature and we have been very little evidence of a significant problem in children, and that is quite different from flu where we often have some quite sick children. So that is a good positive message. Continue reading…
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