The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for more “aggressive” action to curb the coronavirus in Southeast Asia, after the European Union, now at the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, moved to seal off its borders.

Southeast Asia is facing a wave of infections that originate from an event at a mosque on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur attended by some 16,000 people. Malaysia now has the biggest outbreak in the region.

Europe has moved to close its external borders as hard-hit Italy reported an additional 345 deaths from the virus, and France imposed a draconian lockdown unseen during peacetime. In the United States, meanwhile, the virus has now spread to all 50 states.

Globally, the virus has infected 184,976 people and killed just more than 7,500, according to the WHO. Almost 80,000 people have recovered from the infection, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

Germany could be dealing with 10 million coronavirus infections in the coming months if its citizens do not adhere to measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, the country’s top disease control official said.

“We have an exponential development in the epidemic,” Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, said in Berlin.

He appealed to Germany’s 80 million people to limit contact with others.

Iran reported 147 more deaths from the coronavirus, its single biggest jump.

The 15 percent spike raised the death toll to 1,135 people nationwide.

The rise in deaths comes as the number of infections continues to grow each day, with some 17,361 people infected, according to Iran’s deputy health minister, Alireza Raisi.

Indonesia announced 55 new coronavirus cases, taking the total to 227, marking the biggest daily rise in positive cases.

Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, also told a news conference that the number of deaths from the disease rose to 19, with deaths recorded in seven different provinces, while 11 patients had recovered.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called upon his countrymen “not to panic” amid a spike in coronavirus cases in the country, warning that the spread of COVID-19 was inevitable and that Pakistan cannot currently afford the economic cost of shutting down its cities.

Source: Al Jazeera