Three new countries have reported their first cases of COVID-19 as of March 9. The three countries are Bangladesh, Albania, and Paraguay.
Around the world, there are now more than 111,600 people with COVID-19 infections as of Monday night. Of that, 3,9993 are new cases. At the same time, total deaths are now at 3,809 worldwide. Two hundred twenty-five new deaths were reported within the last 24 hours.
As the virus continues to rattle the world, China reported no new locally transmitted virus outside Hubei which is the epicenter of the virus. This has been ongoing in the last three days. Wuhan in Hubei reported 17 new cases. While there are two new cases each in Beijing and Guangdong, China's health authorities these patients are from abroad.
To date, China now has 80,904 confirmed infections and 3,123 deaths since December 2019. The World Health Organization, however, noted that more than 70% of the patients have recovered and been discharged. Some observers also noted that it was only expected that China has the highest cases since the epicenter is in the country and that the Asian nation has more or less 1.3 billion people. Put that number side by side the confirmed cases and the number of infected people eclipsed.
Outside China, there are 28,673 confirmed cases. Of that, 3,948 are new cases. The overall fatalities are 686, with news deaths reported at 202. This is the cumulative figures from 104 countries, territories or areas.
Bangladesh has just confirmed its first cases. Three people tested positive on Sunday. Two of them are relatives and returned from Italy. At the same time, two other people were placed under quarantine and strict observation because they have come in contact with the infected patient.
Albania reported its first COVID-19 patients on Monday. The patients are two men, one 28-year-old, who traveled from Italy. Four family members of the 28-year-old patient contracted the virus as well, including his high-risk elderly father. The Albanian government is doing all necessary to contain and stop further spread of the virus as there are more than 400,000 citizens are living in Italy. The government was compelled to implement punishment for those who don't self-quarantine once they are identified as at risk of contracting the virus.
Paraguay also joined the list of countries with confirmed COVID-19 cases but the local government ha yet to divulged details as of publication.
In his speech on March 9, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of all the cases reported globally, so far 93% are from four countries: China, Italy, South Korea, and Iran.
Iran has 6,566 total confirmed cases and has just reported 743 new infections as of Monday night. The country also has 194 fatalities. Of that, 49 were just reported in the last 24 hours. It was believed that reported infections in the Middle East region - in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Irag, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates - all have ties with Iran.
Italy has a total of 7,375 infections (1,492 are new) and total deaths of 366 (132 are new). The country is now under nationwide lockdown with health experts estimating there could be more than 18,000 patients to be infected by the end of March.
South Korea reported 35 new cases as of Monday night, bringing the total to 7,513. The republic has the highest cases of infections next to China. However, health officials are under the impression that the virus has already peaked in the country and expects a slowdown in the coming days.
