Not enough hospital beds in Korea for 2,300 virus patients

China prepared to close temporary hospitals while South Korea struggled to find enough beds for its sick Wednesday as the virus epidemic that began in Asia increasingly troubled the West.

“We have entered a phase that will last weeks and, undoubtedly, months,” said President Emmanuel Macron of France, where more than 200 people were infected.

As new cases were dropping in worst-hit China, worrisome clusters were growing sharply in South Korea, Italy and Iran, which each exceed 2,000 cases. Italy newly surpassed Iran with the most deaths outside China, with 79 as of Tuesday.

World Health Organization leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said though the virus caused more serious illness and death than the flu, data suggests it’s not as easy to catch.

“People are afraid and uncertain. Fear is a natural human response to any threat,” Tedros said. “But as we get more data, we are understanding this virus and the disease it causes more and more.”

In Daegu, the South Korean city at the center of that country’s outbreak, a shortage of hospital space meant about 2,300 patients were being cared for in other facilities while they awaited a hospital bed.

“I feel assured that we can absolutely overcome this situation,” said Prime Minister Chung Se Kyun in a meeting about quarantine strategies in Daegu.

China reported 119 new cases Wednesday, all but five in the outbreak’s epicenter of Wuhan. In a sign of the shifting threat, Beijing’s health commissioner said two new cases in the Chinese capital were apparently infected abroad, in Iran and Italy.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, was expected to gradually shut down its hastily built temporary hospitals, where thousands of beds were empty.

“We believe this decline is real,” WHO outbreak expert Maria Van Kerkhove said of China. The country has reported 80,270 infections and 2,981 fatalities. It has about 85 percent of the world’s cases and 95 percent of deaths from the disease.

Italy’s death toll rose sharply Tuesday, with 45, mostly in the northern region of Lombardy where its outbreak has been concentrated.-AP. Photo: Yonhap