As COVID-19 pandemic spreads, China’s ex-epicenter down to 1 new case

A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher at the Columbus Covid 2 Hospital in Rome, Monday, March 16, 2020. The new Columbus Covid 2 Hospital, an area fully dedicated to the COVID-19 cases at the Gemelli university polyclinic, opened today with 21 new ICU units and 32 new beds, in order to support the regional health authorities in trying to contain the pandemic. Sign at top in Italian reads "Admission COVID 19". For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher at the Columbus Covid 2 Hospital in Rome, Monday, March 16, 2020. The new Columbus Covid 2 Hospital, an area fully dedicated to the COVID-19 cases at the Gemelli university polyclinic, opened today with 21 new ICU units and 32 new beds, in order to support the regional health authorities in trying to contain the pandemic. Sign at top in Italian reads "Admission COVID 19". For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

By ARITZ PARRA and ADAM GELLER /The Associated Press March 17, 2020 6 min read

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MADRID (AP) – The battle to contain the coronavirus reached new urgency, as more governments locked down borders and ordered new closures and restrictions and pleas went out to funnel masks and ventilators to places struggling with soaring numbers of sick patients.

The growing sense of crisis rocked financial markets Monday, particularly on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 12.9%. Investors’ fears that the pandemic will throw the economy into a recession sent the market to its worst one-day loss since 1987.

The shift in the battle lines was made clear by tallies showing cases outside China have surpassed those inside it and Spain now has the fourth-most cases in the world. The central Chinese city that was the former epicenter where the viral illness was first detected in December was down to just one new case on Tuesday.