China prepares to close temporary hospitals while South Korea struggles to find enough beds for its sick as the coronavirus epidemic that began in Asia increasingly troubles the West.
Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The coronavirus epidemic shifted increasingly westward toward the Middle East, Europe and the United States on Tuesday, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses.
As new cases were dropping in worst-hit China, worrisome clusters were growing sharply in South Korea, Italy and Iran, which each exceed 2,000 cases. Italy newly surpassed Iran with the most deaths outside China, with 79 as of Tuesday. In Daegu, the South Korean city at the center of that country’s outbreak, a shortage of hospital space meant about 2,300 patients were being cared for in other facilities while they awaited a hospital bed.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, was expected to gradually shut down its hastily built temporary hospitals, where thousands of beds were empty. Fear over the virus’ spread led even the Vatican to insist Pope Francis was not infected. He became ill last week, but the Vatican said Francis only had a cold.
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