The virus that doesn't respect borders! : Covid-19 spreads in Middle East and beyond

New Delhi: Coronavirus has spread further around the world as a World Health Organisation expert warned that countries outside China are "simply not ready" for a pandemic.

The virus has proliferated in parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East in recent days, with the death toll rising in Iran, infections in South Korea passing 1,200 and the first suspected case recorded in Latin America.

Covid-19 has now reached dozens of countries with Austria, Croatia and Switzerland the latest to declare cases, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.

The death toll in China climbed to 2,715 with 52 new fatalities. More deaths have been reported in Iran and Italy, while South Korea on Wednesday said an 11th person had died of the disease there. Globally, at least 80,000 people have been diagnosed with the illness.

Several European countries have announced their first coronavirus cases, all apparently linked to the growing outbreak in Italy. Cases have emerged for the first time in countries such as Austria following the Italian outbreak.

Austria, Croatia and Switzerland said the cases involved people who had been to Italy, as did Algeria in Africa.

The first positive virus test has been recorded in Latin America - a Brazilian resident just returned from Italy.

Italy has in recent days become Europe's worst-affected country, with more than 300 cases and 11 deaths.

Health Ministers from France, Germany, Italy and the EU Commission committed to keeping frontiers open at a meeting on Tuesday as new cases of the virus emerged throughout Europe and in central and southern Italy.

"We're talking about a virus that doesn't respect borders," said Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza.

His German counterpart Jens Spahn said the neighbours were taking the situation "very, very seriously" but acknowledged "it could get worse before it gets better".

In the UK, schoolchildren returning from holidays in northern Italy have been sent home, with the government issuing new guidance to travellers.

In Austria, a young Italian couple who live in Innsbruck in the state of Tyrol were confirmed to have the virus. The couple's home was sealed off and a hotel that one of the pair worked at was put in lockdown.

Officials on Wednesday said the lockdown on the hotel had been lifted, while nine people had been put under quarantine "as a precaution" following medical tests

Switzerland said a man in his seventies living in Ticino, bordering Italy, had been infected in the city of Milan on February 15 and was now in isolation

On the Spanish island of Tenerife, up to 1,000 guests were locked down in a hotel after an Italian doctor and his wife tested positive for the virus.

France also confirmed the first death of a French national from the virus. The 60-year-old French man was the second fatality in the country, after an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died there earlier this month.