[Anderson:] What a sight, hey. Welcome back to Jaffa Gate. Called a search because it said, it's a three-day walk to Jaffa from here. And speaking of things coming in threes, just tomorrow morning, Israeli voters will head to the polls to pick who runs this place. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, it's the third election in less than a year. And unprecedented achievement is sought schools by unprecedented political deadlock here. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger Benny Gantz have each tried to form a government with no success. Neither of their parties will get a majority by itself, so, coalition talks will be crucial to reach that magic number of 61 seats in the Knesset. Well, meantime, the World Health Organization raising its global risk alert of the novel coronavirus to its highest level. The group says this should be a reality check for governments around the world to prepare. U.S., Australia, and Thailand, now confirming their first deaths adding to the global death toll of almost 3,000. And the list of countries reporting new cases is getting longer. Here in Israel, seven cases in total. The government denies entry to dozens of foreign nationals from several countries. And Iran now reporting nearly 1,000 cases and 54 deaths. There are concerns that people are being infected in prisons. This woman Nazanin Zaghari -Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian mother jailed in Iran on espionage charges. She believes she has the virus. She has not been tested, and we have not heard from the government there. Well, fears over the outbreak resulting in historic market lows. U.S. President Trump has put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of his coronavirus task force. They are trying to calm investors and the public's worries. He spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper earlier.
[Mike Pence, Vice President Of The United States:] Most people that contract the coronavirus, they will recover. They will deal with a respiratory illness, we'll give them treatment. But for people that have other conditions that would militate toward a worse outcome that we could have more we could have more sad news, but the American people should know, the risk for the average American remains low.
[Anderson:] That's the Vice President Mike Pence. So, there seems to be new cases everywhere you look. South Korea reporting nearly 600 new cases, bringing the total there to over 3,700. Nearly two-thirds of them linked to a single religious group. Paula Hancocks reports that the outbreak is affecting the nation's youngest and most vulnerable.
[Paula Hancocks, Cnn International Correspondent:] Well, Becky, we've had confirmation of the youngest patient yet here in South Korea. A 45-day-old baby has been confirmed with testing positive for the novel coronavirus, this, according to Korea's CDC. We understand the baby and the family is being quarantined at home at this point. And with these numbers rising all the time, we now know that around 60 percent of confirmed cases in this country are still surrounding and linked to this one particular religious group, Shincheonji. Now, they've come under tremendous pressure here and criticism from the public, also from officials. And they've been on a bit of a P.R. offensive this weekend fighting back. I spoke to one of them this Sunday morning. And the first question I asked was, how did it take a week to get from making the link between the group and the virus to giving the full list of members to authorities?
[Kim Shin-chang, Director, International Missions For Shincheonji:] We tried as quickly as possible to provide all the info the government has been asking for. Our administration efforts have been delayed. So, unfortunately, we may not have lived up to the expectations of the people, but we did our best to provide it as quickly as possible.
[Hancocks:] But
[Kim:] On the 25th, our headquarters give a list of all the members including domestic and overseas. I'm sure the Daegu City also received this and the KCDC. And we also gave the list of all those have been educated at the centers on the 27th.
[Hancocks:] Mr., can you say your group has been very transparent? But we know that 600 police officers had to be drafted to try and track some of the members down because they weren't answering phones. This slows things down. I mean, this is this is the accusation that this has slowed down the fight to be able to stop the spread of this virus.
[Kim:] Within the list, we have those who are currently in the military, those who may be overseas for work, and those who have changed their numbers and failed to report it to us, and those who were unable to pick up their phone because they were busy. The authorities didn't take that into consideration and thought the members unreachable if they didn't pick up their phone twice.
[Hancocks:] The United States has also raised the alert level to the particular area of South Korea that's worst hit, which is Daegu and its surrounding areas in the southeast of the country. They've raised it to level four, which means that Americans should not go to that area. Becky.
[Anderson:] Paula Hancocks, reporting for you. We'll new cases also spreading up around Europe. France advising against cheek kissing, the very normal greeting there, of course. Our Ben Wedeman is in Milan in northern Italy, the epicenter of what is the largest outbreak outside of Asia. And Ben, any evidence that Italian authorities are getting this thing under control, contained?
[Ben Wedeman, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Certainly if you look at the numbers, Becky, it does appear that they haven't been able to sort of slow down the increase yet. Yesterday, when the Civil Protection Agency reported their figures at 6:00 p.m. local time, it was 1,128. We're expecting new figures within the next hour and a half. And certainly, there will be more probably well over 200 at this point. Now, one disturbing statistic that has come out is that 10 percent of those who have been afflicted with the coronavirus are medical personnel. And that sort of numbers would suggest that the Italian authorities may have trouble in the future. And dealing with, they also say, they're going to have a problem dealing with new cases because they are running out of, at least, here in Lombard, in the Lombardy region, they're running out of beds in the intensive care units. Now, looking across Europe, not only are the French advising their citizens not to kiss on the cheek, the Louvre, the most visited museum on earth closed this Sunday. France has 100 reported cases and has seen two deaths. In Ireland, they saw their first case of coronavirus. In the U.K., 12 new cases, and the government is considering the possibility of drafting retired doctors and nurses if the need arises. So, it does appear that throughout Europe, coronavirus continues to spread and that the medical services are challenged. Becky.
[Anderson:] Ben, away from Europe and into the Middle East and Iran. We know that is sort of become a petri dish as it were, for the spread of this virus around this region that we're in here of the Middle East. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian mother jailed in Iran on espionage charges says that she believes she has contracted the coronavirus. Ben, her husband saying that prison authorities are refusing to test her.
[Wedeman:] Yes, she's been in under arrest in Iran since 2016, accused of espionage. She's currently in the Evin Prison, which is the largest prison in Tehran. And according to the Free Nazanin campaign, who had received a message from her, she is suffering from what appears to be the symptoms of coronavirus. She has a sore throat, occasional fever, she doesn't feel well. So, and it appears that the prison authorities are not basically checking her to see if indeed she has it. We understand that in the prison, the authorities have stopped face to face visits between family members and the prisoners, but it does not appear that they are taking at least her case particularly seriously. And the situation in Iran is really one for concern. Now, officially, they report 978 cases of coronavirus and 52 deaths. That number of deaths compared to the cases is particularly high. Well over the two percent that other areas have seen. And BBC Persian reportedly spoke to a medical official in Iran, who says that the death toll is actually over 200. So obviously, Mrs. Zaghari- Ratcliffe's situation in that prison is cause for serious concern for her husband, Richard, and for all of the family. Becky.
[Anderson:] Sure, of course. Ben, thank you. Ben Wedeman is in Italy for you, reporting from then. Now, the impact on the Chinese economy can be seen literally from space. Satellite images show pollution, dropping dramatically since the outbreak started this businesses in factory shot. Remember, we saw almost 800 million people under some kind of travel restrictions in the past month or so. That is one in 10 people on earth. Remarkable, isn't it? This is CNN. We'll be back right after this.