Coronavirus Fever: An Infected Priest, a Murder Charge, and a Shortage of Tests

ROME—It is, by now, impossible to keep up with the fast-changing coronavirus statistics: the number of confirmed cases in new countries seems to roll like ticker tape. The latest confirmations include an American student studying in Italy who reportedly just tested positive for the coronavirus while on a weekend trip to the Czech Republic, one of the first three cases there. Add to that a dozen new cases in the U.K. and an increase by nearly half in Iran to 978 reported cases.

© Provided by The Daily Beast Jason Cairnduff /Reuters

Minute by minute, new countries announce deaths, too—the first in both Australia and Thailand followed the first in the U.S. state of Washington Saturday night.

But as the strange new world of life in the time of coronavirus takes hold, a few stories still manage to capture attention. On Sunday, U.S. vice president Mike Pence said on CNN that more than 10,000 test kits are “in the mail” to regional health officials trying to stem the spread, after confirming that only around 500 people in the whole of the United States have been tested. That is a shocking number when you consider that nearly 100,000 have been tested in South Korea and around 20,000 have been tested in Italy, considered two of the most significant outbreaks in the world.

In Hungary, the government is using the fear of the spread to close borders and transit zones to migrants on the move, though they are not the first to politicize the virus. President Donald Trump in the U.S. and far-right leader Matteo Salvini in Italy have done the same.

In Rome on Sunday, men in white hazmat suits swooped in to close the famous Luigi dei Francesi church next to Piazza Navona which houses three original Caravaggio paintings. A French priest who had been in Rome to celebrate Ash Wednesday mass had just tested positive in France, where the number of confirmed cases is growing. Italy has seen the number of cases climb past 1,000 and the number of deaths rise to 29, but—until now—it had not been a problem in Rome.

The spread in France caused the Louvre in Paris on Sunday to close its doors early amid growing concern by workers that they might be at risk. It is unknown how long one of the world’s most famous museums will be closed.

In South Korea, which has seen an explosion in the number of cases—now at 3,730—and 21 deaths tied to the Shincheonji religious sect, the founder and 11 others have just been charged with murder, causing harm and violating the Infectious Disease and Control Act.

To date, more than 85,403 cases have been confirmed in over 60 countries, according to the World Health Organization. More than 2,900 people have died worldwide.

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