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World in Uncharted Territory as US Virus Toll Rises - WHO Warns

World in Uncharted Territory as US Virus Toll Rises - WHO Warns
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By Staff, Agencies

The world has entered uncharted territory in its battle against the deadly coronavirus, the World Health Organization [WHO] warned, as new infections dropped dramatically in China Tuesday but surged abroad with the US death toll rising to six.

Globally, the virus has so far killed more than 3,100 people and infected over 90,000 even as a clear shift in the crisis emerges, with nine times as many new cases recorded outside China as inside, according to the UN health agency.

China has imposed draconian quarantines and travel restrictions to keep large swathes of the population indoors for weeks, a strategy that appears to have paid off as new cases have been generally falling for days.

While Italy has locked down towns, other countries have stopped short of imposing mass quarantines and instead have discouraged large gatherings, delayed sporting events and banned arrivals from virus-hit nations.

Twitter, relatively, told staff across the world to work from home.

South Korea, Iran and Italy have emerged as major COVID-19 hotspots. The virus is believed to have started at a market that sold wild animals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

With concerns growing about its impact on the global economy, G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs will hold talks on the issue on Tuesday.

South Korea, the biggest cluster outside China, approached 5,000 cases on Tuesday as 477 new infections were reported, with two more fatalities taking its death toll to 28.

By contrast, China reported 125 new cases on Tuesday -- its lowest daily increase in six weeks -- with all but 11 infections in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital.

The nationwide death toll rose to 2,943 with 31 more deaths, all in Hubei, with some 80,000 total cases.

China is even importing infections now, with 13 confirmed so far, including eight Chinese nationals who had worked at the same restaurant in northern Italy's Lombardy region.

"We are in uncharted territory," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

"We have never before seen a respiratory pathogen that is capable of community transmission, but which can also be contained with the right measures."

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