‘World is not ready for virus’

Faces of gloom: Revellers taking part in the Plague Doctors Procession at St Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, during the usual period of carnival festivities which have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak. — AFP

Beijing: The Covid-19 epidemic has swelled after deaths soared in Iran and infections appeared in previously untouched countries, prompting dire warnings that the world was not ready to contain it.

The virus has rapidly spread in parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East, even as the number of fresh cases and deaths decline at the disease epicentre in China.