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1/44 SLIDES © Alaa al-Marjani/Reuters
Passengers wear protective face masks at the airport, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, in Najaf, Iraq on March 5.
2/44 SLIDES © Laurel Chor/Getty Images
An almost empty British Airways passenger plane flies from Milan to London on March 5, in Milan, Italy. 
3/44 SLIDES © Mussa Qawasma/Reuters
A man wearing a mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus gestures as he speaks with a Palestinian policeman outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 5. The Church is to temporarily close after a suspected outbreak of coronavirus, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
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A baby wearing a face mask inside a stroller is seen in Shanghai, China on March 5.
 
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Thai officials prepare sets of face masks and hand sanitizers for sale at the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) pharmacy in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5. 
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A man uses his phone to take photographs of posters explaining the symptoms of coronavirus inside hospital premises in Kolkata, India on March 5.
7/44 SLIDES © Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters
Postal workers disinfect packages from overseas to contain the spread of coronavirus in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5.
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In the aftermath of the state's first death from the coronavirus, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency to deal with the virus at a news conference in Sacramento on March 4.
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A man wearing a protective mask walks in Jerusalem, Israel on March 4.
 
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President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, speaks during a coronavirus briefing with Airline CEOs in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 4 in Washington D.C.
11/44 SLIDES © Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Thai monks wearing masks arrive from India at Suvarnabhumi International airport on March 4 in Bangkok, Thailand.
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An Indonesian health worker wearing protective gear inspects quarantine rooms at a hospital in Aceh, Indonesia on March 4.
13/44 SLIDES © Marco Canoniero/LightRocket/Getty Images
Juventus stadium closed to fans for 30 days, due to the Italian government's decision to play matches in the Italian Serie A championship without fans, to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Torino, Italy on March 4.
14/44 SLIDES © Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A couple shops with surgical masks as fears of the coronavirus spreading through the U.S. increase on March 4 in New York City.
 
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An employee of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health wearing a mask and protective clothing takes a man's temperature on March 4.
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Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea on March 4.
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Indian security guards wearing protective masks stand inside a private school that was closed over fear of a coronavirus outbreak, in Noida, India on March 4. The school was closed after some students and teachers attended the birthday party of a boy whose father tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling back from Italy.
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Employees from a disinfection service company sanitize a KTX train at Seoul Railway Station on March 4.
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President Donald Trump is flanked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and National Institutes of Health Doctor Kizzmekia Corbett, research fellow at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, as he listens to Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci following a briefing at the Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland on March 3.
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A shop offering people free hand washing on Oxford Street in London, England on March 3.
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A passenger originating from China has his body temperature taken upon arrival on an international flight as he waits to be screened for signs of the coronavirus at Entebbe Airport in Entenbbe, Uganda on March 3.
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A sign at a Boots chemist after the retailer ran out of hand sanitizer on March 3 in Cardiff, Wales.
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Tourists wearing protective masks visit the Shwedagon pagoda on March 3 in Yangon, Myanmar.
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In the Central Medical Laboratory of the St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, a medical-technical assistant prepares patient samples for coronavirus testing on March 3.
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A medical staff member checks information of a patient as patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus leave from Wuhan No. 5 Hospital to Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built hospital for the COVID-19 coronavirus patients on March 3.
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Paramedics in protective suits and Israelis wearing masks and gloves stand near a dedicated polling station where people under quarantine from the coronavirus can vote in Israel's national election, in Tel Aviv, on Mar. 2.
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Harborview Medical Center's home assessment team, including (L to R) Michelle Steik, Lucy Greenfield, and Krista Reitberg prepare to visit the home of a person potentially exposed to novel coronavirus, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington on Feb. 29.
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Health workers wearing protective gear check Nepali citizens evacuated from China as they are under quarantine following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Nepal, on Feb. 29.
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French government officials, including French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (1st-L), French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (2nd-L), French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (3rd-L), French Health and Solidarity Minister Olivier Veran (4th-L) and French President Emmanuel Macron (3rd-R) attend a defense council concerning the coronavirus outbreak, in Paris, France, on Feb. 29.
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A tourist affected by coronavirus is transferred to a hospital from the hotel H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, on island of Tenerife, Spain, on Feb. 29.
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Employees work on the production line of an antimalarial drug that Chinese officials said has curative effect on the novel coronavirus disease, at a pharmaceutical company in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China, on Feb. 27. 
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Doctors at West China Hospital of Sichuan University use 5G technology to diagnose COVID-19 patients on Feb. 27, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China. 
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Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexico's Undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, holds a news conference on information about the new coronavirus, in Mexico City, on Feb. 27.
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Passengers remain onboard the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship in Cozumel, Mexico, on Feb. 27.  A cruise carrying 6,000 people which was turned away by Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member tested positive for flu, has docked in Mexico. 
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Policemen guard the entrance of a school, after authorities put the school under isolation because of suspicions of a coronavirus case, after a teacher returned from a travel in Northern Italy, in Vienna, Austria on Feb. 26
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Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan is seen on a screen as he delivers the annual budget at the legislative council in Hong Kong on Feb. 26. Hong Kong's government said it will give a 10,000 HKD (1,280 USD) handout to seven million permanent residents in a bid to jump-start a recession-hit economy after the coronavirus outbreak.
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Figures depicting the coronavirus vs "carneval virus" are pictured during the "Rosenmontag" (Rose Monday) parade on Feb. 24 in Duesseldorf, Germany.
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A man collects bags of his food order as a worker places it in a basket to prevent human contact following the coronavirus outbreak, in Beijing, on Feb. 23.
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Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers pose during an emergency meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the coronavirus outbreak in Vientiane, Laos, on Feb. 20.
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A man holds a Ukrainian state flag during a protest against the arrival of a plane carrying evacuees from China's Hubei province hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the village of Novi Sanzhary in Poltava region, Ukraine, on Feb. 20.
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A Chinese tourist (front right), who was tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus and was isolated for treatment, receives a kiss from Sri Lankan Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and medical staff after she was discharged from the hospital near Colombo on Feb. 19. The 43-year-old woman, the first and only COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka, was admitted to the hospital on January 25 and tested positive for COVID-19 two days later.
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Workers go about their duties at a section of the Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built makeshift hospital for novel coronavirus patients, in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 18. The first group of patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus was discharged from Leishenshan Hospital on Feb. 18, according to local media. 

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Jay Butler, Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases addresses the media about response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) as Senior Adviser Ed Rouse looks on, at the Emergency Operations Center inside The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Feb. 13 in Atlanta.
44/44 SLIDES © Alissa Eckert, Ms; Dan Higgins, MAM / CDC/ HANDOUT / Reuters

The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29.

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New Zealand's prime minister said on Friday that the country has confirmed its first case in the novel coronavirus outbreak that began in China and is now rapidly spreading around the world.

Separately, Nigeria's health ministry said it too had received its first case, an Italian man who arrived from Milan three days ago in Lagos, the most populous city on the African continent.

Speaking in Sydney, New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern said the infected person was a New Zealand citizen who returned to the country from Iran.

The patient, a person in their sixties, was in a "stable, improving condition" in isolation at Auckland Hospital, Ms Ardern said.

"A pandemic plan always exists in New Zealand. We've been well prepared. We are rolling out all of the protocols as we would expect," she added.

Earlier, health minister David Clark had announced temporary restrictions on incoming travellers from Iran, where the death toll from the virus of 26 is by far the highest of any country outside China.

Jacinda Ardern standing in front of a building © Provided by The Independent

"This means people will not be able to travel from Iran to New Zealand and anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days will need to self-isolate," Mr Clark said in a statement.

New Zealand also decided not to allow any exemptions for overseas students from China to enter the country, and that there will be extra health staff to meet flights arriving in New Zealand from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

Meanwhile, Nigeria's health ministry wrote in a tweet that its first confirmed case - which is also the first anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa - is an Italian who works in Nigeria, and arrived back in the country on 25 February.

Health minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement that the patient's infection was confirmed by lab testing carried out by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. 

"The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms," said the minister, adding that he was being treated at a hospital in the Lagos district of Yaba.

"We have already started working to identify all the contacts of the patient, since he entered Nigeria," Mr Ehanire said.

Mainland China reported just 327 new cases on Friday, the lowest number since 23 January, taking its total cases to more than 78,800 with almost 2,800 deaths.

But with countries other than China now accounting for about three quarters of new infections, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said all nations should prepare.

"This virus has pandemic potential," Tedros said in Geneva on Thursday. "This is not a time for fear. This is a time for taking action to prevent infection and save lives now."

Including New Zealand and Nigeria, about 12 countries reported their first virus cases in the past 24 hours.

Outside China, the virus has now spread to 46 countries, where about 3,700 cases and 57 deaths have been reported, according to the WHO.

Ratings agency Moody's said a coronavirus pandemic would trigger global and US recessions in the first half of the year.

Additional reporting by agencies

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