BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions.
The following are the updates on the contagious illness.
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BEIJING -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday held separate phone conversations on the fight against COVID-19 with his Portuguese and Luxembourg counterparts, Augusto Santos Silva and Jean Asselborn, at their request.
COVID-19 is rapidly spreading in Europe and the situation is grim, said Wang, adding that the Chinese side identifies with the feelings of the people in Portugal and Luxembourg and extends its deep sympathies to them.
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HANOI -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Tuesday ordered a 15-day nationwide social distancing against COVID-19 starting from Wednesday, requiring people to stay at home, keep a distance of at least 2 meters from others and avoid gatherings of more than two people.
According to the order, from 0:00 a.m. on Wednesday, everybody can only go out for necessary reasons such as buying food and medicine or in emergency cases.
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JAKARTA -- Indonesia has decided to ban all arrivals and transits of foreign citizens into the country to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus which has killed 122 people and infected 1,414 others in Indonesia, a minister said Tuesday.
Holders of stay permits, diplomats and other official visitors will be exempted from the suspension, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said after a cabinet meeting.
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SEOUL -- South Korean banks' lending rate hit a record low last month on expectations for policy rate cut to tackle the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak, central bank data showed Tuesday.
Rate for banks' new loan to households stood at an annualized average rate of 2.90 percent in February, down 0.05 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
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KUALA LUMPUR -- The World Bank on Tuesday revised down Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection this year sharply to -0.1 percent from 4.5 percent, to reflect the severity of the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The World Bank said in a report that the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has led to major negative impacts on Malaysia's domestic economy including broad based disruption of economic activities.
