Outbreak forces Biden and Sanders to cancel rallies as cases spike in Japan and Australia announces health spending package
The coronavirus outbreak has begun to wreak widespread disruption in the United States as the country recorded its 1,000th case, Democratic presidential candidates cancelled campaign rallies and two more states declared emergencies.
At least 35 US states and the District of Columbia had reported infections of Covid-19 by Tuesday night, increasing the national total by almost 50% in the space of 24 hours to 1,030. The global number of cases has risen close to 120,000.
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Italy, which has the highest death toll outside of China, began a lockdown of its entire population of 60 million on Tuesday.
In the UK, junior health minister Nadine Dorries went into self-isolation after testing positive for the virus. She was thought to have come into contact with hundreds of people in the past week, including the prime minister Boris Johnson.
Sport continued to feel the impact with Arsenal placing some of their players in self-isolation and postponing their Premier League match with Manchester City set for Wednesday night. The move came after it emerged that the unspecified number of players met the chairman of Greek club Olympiakos on 27 February week. He has since tested positive.
In South Korea, where authorities had hoped a severe outbreak was being contained, cases spiked again on Wednesday by 242 compared with fewer than 100 the day before.
Japan reported 59 new cases on Wednesday, its biggest one-day rise since the outbreak began. The nation was also forced to scale back ceremonies to mark the ninth anniversary of the triple disaster of tsunami, earthquake and Fukushima nuclear meltdown in March 2011.
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