It's 'war' in S. Korea as cases top 5,000

SEOUL－South Korea's president declared "war" on the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, placing all government agencies on a 24-hour emergency footing, as the number of cases in the country passed 5,000.

"The crisis in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province has reached its peak, and the whole country has entered a war against the infectious disease," President Moon Jae-in said in a meeting with masked Cabinet ministers and senior health officials.

Moon ordered all of the government's organizations to shift to a"24-hour emergency situation room system", citing the need to bolster readiness to handle quarantine and economy-related measures.

The coronavirus caseload in South Korea, the worst-hit nation outside China, saw a sharp increase of 851 on Tuesday, taking the total number of infections to 5,186.

Moon also ordered masks to be stockpiled as a strategic item so suppliers can produce them without the risk of surpluses.

Vice-Health Minister Kim Ganglip said that authorities will expand the testing on the general population in Daegu as they have completed testing Shincheonji followers who have shown symptoms, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

The virus began to spread rapidly in South Korea after it entered the congregation of a fringe Christian group－the Shincheonji Church of Jesus－in Daegu, making the city the biggest cluster in the country.

Founder and sect leader Lee Man-hee tested negative for the virus on Monday, having been threatened with arrest unless he agreed to be examined.

The government will set up more isolation facilities in Daegu by early next week to admit some 2,000 virus patients, Kim said.

Biggest increase in Iran

Iran, the epicenter of the outbreak in Middle East, announced on Tuesday that 11 more people had died from the coronavirus in the past day, bringing the Islamic republic's overall death toll to 77.

In all, 2,336 people have been infected, including 835 new cases－the biggest increase in a single day since the COVID-19 outbreak began in the country nearly two weeks ago. It now has the highest death toll for any country outside China.

On Monday, Iran received medical supplies from the World Health Organization for combating the novel coronavirus, according to official IRNA News Agency.

The supplies include medicines, test kits, gloves, surgical masks and respirators. Also, a six-member medical team of doctors, epidemiologists and laboratory specialists arrived in the capital Teheran on Monday to help Iran handle the outbreak.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday his government was ready to deploy further fiscal stimulus measures if needed to protect the country's already fragile economy from the effects of the coronavirus.

Abe, who has come under fire for his handling of the crisis, has pledged to focus over the next couple of weeks on halting the spread of the virus in Japan, where the number of infections has almost reached 1,000. Twelve people have died.

Pakistan on Tuesday reported a new coronavirus case, taking the total in the South Asian nation to five since the first cases were confirmed last week, officials said.

"We have now the 5th confirmed case in federal areas," Zafar Mirza, the country's health minister, said on Twitter.

The patient is stable and being managed well, he said, without giving further details.

The local Geo television station said the patient is a 45-year-old woman from the northern mountainous region of Gilgit Baltistan, who arrived from Iran a few days ago.

She is being treated at a hospital in Gilgit, it said, and her family members are being tested for the virus. Local schools have been closed following the confirmation of the infection.

Most of the cases reported so far in Pakistan involve people with a history of travel to Iran.

The southern province of Sindh on Monday extended the closure of all educational institutions following the confirmation of a second case in Karachi, the country's largest city.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.