It’s been more than a month since Chinese state media reported a new viral outbreak had been detected in the country in what became the first in a steady stream of coronavirus headlines.

But, in the last 24 hours, there has been a shift in tone, with growing concern about the Covid-19 illness heightening fears the disease will become a pandemic.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned countries that the virus is “literally knocking at the door”, a worry borne out by a ballooning number of cases and increased preventative action, from manned checkpoints in quarantined towns and governments issuing travel warnings.

Sports events, including the Olympics in Japan, have been put in jeopardy with the Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and Italy in Dublin cancelled over coronavirus fears.

The crisis is engulfing parts of the world well beyond mainland China, with areas seen as among the worst-equipped to deal with an outbreak and some of the world’s richest nations taking action. The apprehension was reflected in sagging financial markets across the world. 

Deaths continue in China

In China, the total number of infections grows. In the last day, there have been 508 reported new cases and another 71 deaths, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan. The updates bring mainland China’s totals to 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths.

The number of new cases reported daily has, however, slowed from a peak of more than 4,000 earlier in the month.

But while China remains home to the vast majority of the world’s cases, attention has increasingly moved to where the outbreak would spread next.

South Korea appears to be an emerging hotspot after its caseload grew by 144 to a total of 977 people now recorded as having the illness. The country reported its 11th fatality from Covid-19 amid signs that the problem magnified nearly 15-fold in a week. In the country’s south-eastern city of Daegu and surrounding areas, panic over the virus has brought towns to an eerie standstill. 

South Korea’s professional basketball league said it will ban spectators until the outbreak is under control, while Busan City said the world team table tennis championships it planned to host in March would be postponed until June. South Korea’s military confirmed 13 troops had contracted the virus, resulting in quarantines for many others and the halting of field training.

Italy at centre of European spread

Italy, too, is struggling to keep the virus under control as it emerges as the virus epicentre in Europe. The number of people in Italy infected with coronavirus has increased by 45% in the last day, with the death toll rising to 11, officials said. Italian authorities reported 322 confirmed cases of the virus – 100 more than a day earlier.

They said that some of the new cases showed up in parts of Italy well outside the country’s two hardest-hit northern regions, including three in Sicily, two in Tuscany and one in Liguria.

Italy has taken Europe’s most stringent preventative measures against Covid-19, and yet it still became home to the biggest outbreak outside Asia.

The country has closed schools, museums and theatres in the two regions where clusters have formed, and troops are enforcing quarantines around 10 towns in Lombardy and the epicentre of the Veneto cluster, Vo’Euganeo. However, Italy has not yet identified the source of the outbreak.

The rest of Europe prepares

Two neighbours of Italy – Croatia and Austria – reported their first cases of the virus in the last day and Hungary and Ireland advised against travelling to Italy’s affected area.

Even in places where no cases have sprouted, leaders kept a wary eye. This includes Denmark, where two former military barracks were being prepared as quarantine centres.

Underlining Italy’s impact on the rest of Europe, a tourist hotel on the Canary Island of Tenerife was placed in quarantine after an Italian doctor staying there tested positive for Covid-19. Spanish media said around 1,000 tourists staying at the the H10 Adeje Palace hotel are not allowed to leave. 

The Canary Islands, an archipelago located some 62 miles west of the African coast, is a popular holiday destination that attracts many British tourists all year around.

Travel firms Tui and Jet2holidays are among those who use the hotel for package holidays, with Tui having around 200 guests there from different countries, including a small number from the UK.

One British holidaymaker likened their stay at the four-star hotel to a “holiday from hell” after being sent a letter saying the hotel is “closed down” and they must remain in their rooms until further notice. 

Hannah Green, 27, from Hertfordshire, arrived at the hotel on Saturday with her boyfriend, Court Amys, and their one-year-old son. They are supposed to be staying until Sunday.

She told the PA news agency that communication had been “non-existent”, adding: “People are moving around the hotel but we’re not. We’re in our room with the baby. We’re worried for the baby.”

Green said she would like to go home but added: “I don’t think we’ll be allowed to leave. We don’t want to be here. We’re fed up now.” 

UK schools on alert 

After students returned from ski trips in Italy, pupils have been sent home and two schools have closed as a precaution against coronavirus 

Cransley School in Northwich, Cheshire, and Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough have both been closed for the rest of the week.

Both schools said that this was to allow for a “deep clean” after pupils and teachers had returned from northern Italy.

Meanwhile, Sandbach High School in Cheshire said students and staff who visited Aprica, also in the Lombardy region, were to stay indoors and self-isolate.

A third Cheshire school, Brine Leas School in Nantwich, said on Twitter it had closed its sixth form due to staff shortages. The message followed an earlier tweet which said the academy was “following government advice regarding travel to Italy”.

Elsewhere, students from Penair School in Truro, Cornwall, were sent home on Tuesday morning after attending a ski trip.

Salendine Nook High School in Huddersfield, and Newquay Tretherras in Newquay have both advised some students and staff to stay at home after returning from skiing trips.

It comes as about 50 pupils and staff from a school in Ballymena in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, were sent home after visiting the same region in northern Italy.

UK health advice changes

In light of the various developments, the UK’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said official advice has been changed to say that those who have been to anywhere in Italy north of Pisa should self-isolate if they develop flu-like symptoms on their return to the UK.

Britons who have been in locked down regions of Italy – including Lombardy and Veneto – should self-isolate at home for 14 days even if they have no symptoms.

The advice comes as the Department of Health added Iran, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and parts of northern Italy to the list of places where travellers need to follow clinical advice. Channel 4 News host Jon Snow revealed he was in ‘self-isolation’ in the UK after covering the elections in Iran.

Vaccine unlikely before ‘under control’

Questions have been raised over a vaccine being developed against coronavirus. The WHO has said it could take more than a year to develop.

On Tuesday, Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he was sceptical there would be a vaccine to deal with coronavirus before the situation was brought under control.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t expect that there will be a vaccine available for millions of people who would need it before the end of the year.

“I am very sceptical that we will have a vaccine before this epidemic is brought under control. But it may be very useful to have one if this becomes seasonal and every year we have a wave of this.”

Meanwhile, England’s top doctor warned schools could be shut, whole families quarantined and transport reduced if coronavirus becomes a global pandemic.

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told reporters on Tuesday that there were a number of contingency plans if the virus spreads throughout the country.

He said: “There’s no secret there’s a variety of things you need to look at, you look at things like school closures, you look at things like reducing transport.”

Prof Whitty said that WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ warning the spread of the virus has the potential to become a pandemic was his view as well. He added: “That remains the situation, that’s our view. Equally, this is still potentially containable.”