Live updates: Fears grow of a coronavirus pandemic as markets stumble again; Japan shuts schools

South Korea announced 505 new cases Thursday, bringing its total to 1,766, including a U.S. soldier stationed on the peninsula.Elsewhere, officials canceled or postponed events including religious pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia, as doubts grow over Tokyo’s plans to host the 2020 Olympics.Here are the latest developments:Mapping the spread of the coronavirus | What we know about the virusWhen President Trump announced on Wednesday that Vice President Pence would lead federal efforts against the spread of the coronavirus, he said Pence was the right person for the task because of his experience.“He’s got a certain talent for this,” Trump said at a White House briefing about the virus, which has infected nearly five dozen people in the United States so far.The announcement has revived scrutiny of Pence’s record as a lawmaker and his handling of a major public health crisis during his time as governor of Indiana. And stock investors might be well served by watching them to confirm that any rally has legs.”Read more here: U.S. markets poised to extend losing streak as coronavirus grips global economyBERLIN — With an increasing number of cases detected outside China, countries around the world are moving ahead with preparations for more widespread outbreaks this week.In Canada, a top health official said Wednesday that the country is pushing ahead with preparations for such a scenario.Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Howard Njoo said Canada is considering whether “we need to start looking at canceling certain mass gatherings or public events [and] what we need to be doing with schools, students attending schools and people sick in the hospital, and so on,” according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.“So that’s all in the future,” Njoo said. One of the patients is in serious condition.Meanwhile, in France, President Emmanuel Macron faced criticism over what some critics have described as a health system weakened by a lack of sufficient public funding.Macron rejected the criticism, according to the Reuters news agency, saying, “I am counting on you, and you can count on me.”ISTANBUL — Iran’s Health Ministry on Thursday reported more than 100 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bring the number of infections in the country to 245 amid a widening outbreak.Twenty-six people have died in Iran after contracting the virus, which causes the disease known as covid-19, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said.In a news conference carried by Iranian state television, Jahanpur warned that the infection rate was rising and urged citizens to avoid public gatherings and nonessential travel. The virus first appeared in the holy city of Qom and has since spread to 20 provinces and five other countries in the region.Several Iranian officials, including influential lawmakers and the head of Iran’s counter-coronavirus task force, said they have tested positive for the virus.PARIS — Additional novel coronavirus cases were confirmed across Europe on Thursday, as authorities struggled to contain the outbreak and assuage rising public anxieties.By midday Thursday, the British government reported that two new cases had been confirmed in England, and Swiss authorities announced three new cases of the virus. Seven people have died of the disease in Japan.ISTANBUL — An influential Iranian lawmaker said Thursday that he tested positive for the new coronavirus, in the latest infection to hit Iran’s political elite as the number of cases in the country rose to 141.Mojtaba Zonnour, head of the national security and foreign policy commission in parliament, released a video announcing that he has contracted the virus, which originated in China.Zonnour is a Shiite cleric and conservative politician from the holy city of Qom, where the virus first appeared in Iran. China hopes to get parts of the country not directly effected by the coronavirus outbreak to resume economic activity, in the hope of avoiding a prolonged financial impact.Experts have said the effects of the coronavirus could slash China’s growth this year, compounding a years-long slowdown and the impact of the Trump administration’s trade war.Wang Yuan contributed reporting from BeijingSaudi Arabia said Thursday that it would halt all travel to some of the holiest sites in Islam, including the holy city of Mecca and the Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina, due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.“Saudi Arabia renews its support for all international measures to limit the spread of this virus, and urges its citizens to exercise caution before traveling to countries experiencing coronavirus outbreaks,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Australia has got ahead at this point in time, but to stay ahead we need to now elevate our response to this next phase.”HONG KONG — Asian stocks resumed their slide on Thursday, as the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak continued to stoke fears about the epidemic’s growing economic impact.Japan’s Nikkei index was hit worst, falling 2 percent by mid-afternoon local time, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down by 0.8 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also fell 0.8 percent.Oil also took a hit, with U.S. crude futures falling below $48 a barrel as investors sought safety in gold and Treasury bonds.Despite a White House news conference from President Trump on Wednesday evening that aimed to dispel fears that an outbreak could soon grip the United States, Dow Jones futures were down by more than one percent, suggesting a rough day ahead for Wall Street ahead once markets open.TOKYO — A Japanese woman who was one of the first cases of coronavirus in the country but was released from hospital nearly four weeks ago, apparently cured, has now tested positive again for the virus, officials say.The woman, in her 40s, served as a guide on a tour bus carrying tourists from the Chinese city of Wuhan. But it does not mean it originated in China.”SEOUL — South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young had a phone call with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun on Thursday and urged the United States to refrain from “excessive measures that could unnecessarily discourage bilateral exchanges between the two countries" after the State Department urged Americans to reconsider travel to the country amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.The call, which was announced by South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, came on the same day that South Korea confirmed 334 new virus cases.South Korea’s national tally of cases now stands at 1,595, including a U.S. soldier stationed in the country. The day before, the U.S. Department of State issued a Level 3 travel advisory for South Korea — urging citizens to reconsider their need to travel to the country due to the risks.The Trump administration has suggested it may restrict travel to virus-hit countries outside China, but said it would not do so immediately.At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump responded to a question about travel restrictions on Italy and South Korea, two countries with large numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases, saying that “at the right time we may do that. Right now it’s not the right time.”He said the two countries have been “hit pretty hard” from the coronavirus.Taylor reported from Hong KongBEIJING — The Chinese government has sent a team of investigators to Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, to determine how a woman infected with the virus had been released from a prison in the city and fled to Beijing despite a mandatory travel lockdown.The team, headed by Vice Minister of Justice Liu Zhiqiang and consisting of members of the military, police, and prosecutors, will travel to Wuhan to investigate how the woman had been allowed to return to the Chinese capital while displaying fever symptoms.Ying Yong, the newly appointed Communist Party chief for Hubei province, also called for a thorough investigation into the case even if higher-level government officials are involved. However, Wuhan Women’s Prison — where Huang was alleged to be released from — said on Wednesday that it hadn’t released any inmates recently due to the latest wave of confirmed infections in jail.As of Feb. 23, Wuhan Women’s Prison had reported 279 confirmed cases among its inmates, accounting for 85 percent of prison infections across the wider Hubei province.HONG KONG — The Chinese government announced 433 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Thursday morning local time, as well as 29 new deaths.The numbers, released daily by China’s National Health Commission, continued to show a downward trend for coronavirus in China, where a global outbreak originated in the city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, late last year.Still, health officials have urged caution about the Chinese statistics, especially as there are lingering questions about the novel coronavirus’s incubation period and its transmissibility.According to the Chinese government, 409 of the new cases were in Hubei, which is now under tight government restrictions on movement.