Fears grow of a coronavirus pandemic as markets stumble again; Japan shuts schools

SEOUL — South Korea reported 256 additional cases of the coronavirus on Friday, bringing up the total to 2,022.

The jump was expected as the country’s health authorities expanded coronavirus testing. Over 12,000 people were tested since the previous day, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

More than two-thirds of the latest cases were in the southern city of Daegu, according to the KCDC.

The South Korean government has designated Daegu city and surrounding North Gyeongsang province as “special care zones” where virus support will be concentrated.

TORONTO — Public health officials in Quebec announced the province’s first case of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases in Canada to 14.

The affected woman had traveled to Montreal from Iran via Doha, Qatar, and is in self-isolation at home, the province’s health minister, Danielle McCann, told reporters.

She is believed to have had limited contact with others outside her immediate family. Officials do not believe she went to work or took public transit since arriving in Montreal on Monday.

With health officials now trying to prevent and prepare for the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, there’s a lot of panic, confusion and questions out there. Here are some key terms and facts to know:

Coronavirus: This term refers to a family of seven known viruses that can infect people. They range from coronaviruses that simply cause a common cold to the form that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV), which emerged in Asia in 2002, and the even deadlier Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), which appeared in 2012. The name comes from the fact that under a microscope, the virus looks like a blob surrounded by crown-like spikes, a corona.

Solano County, Calif., Health Officer Bela T. Matyas said Thursday that officials still did not know how a county woman — the first person in the United States to develop the new coronavirus with no travel or connection to individuals who visited affected countries — had acquired the illness.

The person was not connected to the repatriated evacuees at nearby Travis Air Force Base, he said.

“This individual has no connection whatsoever to that federal mission and to any of the personnel that have been involved in that evacuation process. This does appear to be a person who genuinely did acquire [the] illness in our community.”

The first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Nigeria on Thursday, the country’s health minister announced — marking the first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa.

In a statement, Nigerian Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said the case is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned Tuesday from Milan to Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. He said the patient is being treated at an infectious disease hospital in Yaba, a densely populated neighborhood of the city.

“I wish to assure all Nigerians that we have been beefing up our preparedness capabilities since the first confirmation of cases in China, and we will use all the resources made available by the government to respond to this case,” Ehanire wrote. His statement also listed a number of health-related precautions Nigerians can take to help protect themselves from infection.

Classes aren’t canceled, at least not yet, but colleges are taking extra precautions for students who have been exposed to the coronavirus patient being treated in Sacramento.

On Thursday afternoon, University of California at Davis announced that three students who lived in its Kearney Hall dormitory were in isolation and being monitored for symptoms of coronavirus. One of the three was getting a covid-19 test from the CDC, while the other two had shown no symptoms and would not be tested, as per current CDC guidelines.

The wording was unfortunate.

“Introducing Corona hard seltzer. Four delicious flavors. One splashy entrance.”

There’s a picture of a row of four Corona seltzer cans on the beach, the words “Coming ashore soon” in white against the blue surf. In light of fears of the coronavirus on American soil, the ad campaign slogan was wince-worthy.

Parent company Constellation Brands announced in January that it would spend $40 million, its single biggest investment ever, to launch a line of hard seltzers, a growth area for many companies when beer, especially light beer, has seen sluggish sales. It is unclear whether this “taking the beachhead” theme campaign was in the works before the virus reached near-pandemic levels, or whether this is Corona beer leaning into the confusion and ensuing memes surrounding the name similarity.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Thursday defended Vice President Pence’s handling of Indiana’s HIV outbreak five years ago, asserting that Pence’s efforts became a “model” for other jurisdictions.

Pence, appointed by President Trump to lead federal efforts to fight the coronavirus, has been criticized for his record in Indiana, where as governor in 2015 he oversaw the state’s response to its worst HIV outbreak. Researchers at Yale University found that the outbreak could have been prevented if not for Pence’s delayed response and opposition to a needle-exchange program.