Update (0900ET): Spain reported 18 new cases Friday afternoon, bringing its total to 32, although 29 of them have direct links to 'risk zones' abroad (including Italy in particular).
Still, Spanish doctors and epidemiologists haven't been able to trace the origins of 3 cases, contributing to anxieties that the outbreak might be much larger than presently detected.
Some 130 guests at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerifem the largest of Spain's Canary Islands, will be allowed to leave Friday after several days on lockdown. Four hotel guests have tested positive so far, as Spain's Health Ministry tested every guest.
With China's economy humming at less than 50% capacity, the Communist Party has decided to offer another 300 billion yuan (roughly $43 billion) in emergency loans to Chinese companies, particularly the SMEs who are in the most dire need of funding.
- CHINA TO GUIDE ANOTHER 300B YUAN LOW-INTEREST LOANS AMONG AIDS
* * *
Update (0820ET): After several scares, Mexico has finally confirmed its first case of coronavirus, according to Mexico's deputy health minister.
According to Reuters, the patient recently traveled to Italy and came up positive on the initial test. His case is only the second confirmed in Latin America, outside Brazil. The patient is said to be "not in a serious condition."
In corporate news, following Facebook, Goldman Sachs and a host of other companies, Kraft Heinz has taken the precautionary step of postponing its March conference in Chicago. The conference was supposed to host 250 of the troubled packaged-food company's best managers.
* * *
On Wednesday, the coronavirus outbreak reached a new milestone when the number of new cases confirmed in the world ex-China finally surpassed the number being confirmed on the mainland. Two days later, and we're almost at the point where the number of Thursday new cases confirmed by Iran was roughly half the total coming out of Wuhan.
As of Friday morning, the number of confirmed cases worldwide had passed 83,000, while the number of deaths topped 2,800.
Since yesterday, we we first noted this chart, the number of cases outside China has soared, particularly in South Korea and across Europe, as the number of new cases in mainland China (but outside Wuhan) dropped into the single digits. Vietnam joined the group of countries restricting South Koreans from entry, announcing Friday that it would stop issuing visas for South Koreans, according to CNN.
Of course, China still had nearly two months of lead time over the rest of the world, and it has been home to the bulk of cases so far.
Here's a rundown of deaths outside mainland China:
Iran: 34
Italy 17
South Korea: 14
Japan: 10
Hong Kong and France:...