Global coronavirus summary this morning

A man looks out of a window at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain, Wednesday, February 26, 2020. Spanish officials say the tourist hotel has been put in quarantine after an Italian doctor staying there tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and Spanish press says some 1,000 tourists residing at the complex are not permitted to leave. (AP)

One by one, an increasing number of countries are reporting cases of the new coronavirus. Governments and doctors on leading lines are scrambling for solutions and everyday life around the globe is being disrupted in a way that's not been observed in recent times.

The spread of the virus is having an impact all over the world. Here’s a listing of a few of the latest developments:

From California to Italy, France, Germany, Spain and beyond, more cases are showing up in which the way to obtain the virus remains a mystery. Individuals who weren't exposed through travel or connection with someone previously infected are testing positive. Health authorities in every these places will work hard to find the initial way to obtain infection using what's called contact tracing, or finding all of the people the most recent patients were in contact with. In an extremely mobile world, that's increasingly difficult.

U.S. President Donald Trump had reason to worry as stocks tanked further on fears about the virus' global spread. And not only Trump: all gains developed this year have been wiped out -- and more. No region is immune. On Wall Street Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each fell 4.4%. Britain's FTSE 100 index slid 3.5% and Japan's Nikkei ended 2% lower. It isn't looking far better on Wall Street, where both Dow Jones commercial average and the broader S&P 500 index are down. A worldwide pandemic that contributes to barriers and restrictions has the potential to earnestly disrupt the global economy by draining confidence and stalling activity. A far more protracted panic on stock markets could perpetuate the downturn _ and that is bad news within an election year.

Saudi Arabia has responded to the fears by banning foreign pilgrims from visiting Islam's holiest shrines. Which will change the face of the year's twelve-monthly hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and disrupt plans for millions of faithful from around the world who come to the kingdom to pray together. Your choice illustrates how tense the problem is over the Gulf region and the wider Middle East all together largely therefore of the spike in deaths and infections in Iran. Iran has seen more virus deaths than anywhere except China, where it first emerged by the end of 2019.

Japan, too, is increasingly worried, and determined Thursday that is certain to have its 12.8 million schoolchildren secretly celebrating. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants all elementary, middle and high schools nationwide to stay closed until spring holidays in late March. Japan now has a lot more than 900 cases, including hundreds from a quarantined cruise liner. France, Germany, Monaco and other countries near Italy are telling parents to keep their kids home from school if they are anywhere near the growing number of zones worldwide hit by virus outbreaks. One reason behind the institution warnings: growing concern about the rise in the number of untraceable cases of the virus.

U.S. health officials are confronting tough questions about testing to intercept the virus. The questions are not merely about who, when and how exactly to test for the condition, but how to ensure working test kits get out to the labs that require them. Those issues apparently came directly into play in the treating the woman in California, a case officials say may be the first community-spread instance of the disease in the usa. Following the case was reported, officials expanded their conditions for who should get tested, and took steps to improve testing.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says a significant conference for church members continues to be on for April, but it's discouraging people overseas from traveling to the function in Utah. Over fifty percent of the faith's 16 million members live outside the United States and the conference attracts nearly 100,000 people. The faith can be postponing an integral meeting of its top global leaders that was likely to take place prior to the conference. The leadership meeting, where in fact the faith's policies are discussed nowadays, has been rescheduled for October.

Germany is thinking ahead. To retroactively locate everyone and also require been subjected to an infected individual, the German government is introducing airport landing cards for passengers arriving from the countries hit hardest by the virus. The task started with China but has been expanded to add South Korea, Iran, Japan and Italy. Elsewhere, authorities are struggling to keep carefully the virus away. Pakistan halted flights to and from neighboring Iran. Slovakia is checking cars coming from Austria and everyone on flights into its three airports. Cyprus has a special problem: the Mediterranean island nation is ethnically divided, with an internationally recognized state in the south and a self-declared Turkish Cypriot state in the north. Authorities in the south are deploying police and health officials at the dividing line.

Given that there are more cases being reported outside China than inside, Chinese authorities are wanting to shed the virus stigma and questions about its early handling of the epidemic. President Xi Jinping said Thursday: "We've the confidence, the ability and the certainty to win this war against the epidemic.'' And famed Chinese respiratory disease professional Zhong Nanshan predicted China's outbreak ought to be "basically in order" by the finish of April. He credited strong measures taken by the federal government and the task of medical employees for helping curb the spread.