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As new cases of the coronavirus spiked on two continents, the World Health Organization warned on Monday that the world was not ready for a major outbreak, even as it praised China’s aggressive efforts to wrest the epidemic under control. After two weeks on the ground in China, a team sent by the W.H.O. concluded that the draconian measures China imposed a month ago may have saved hundreds of thousands of people from infection. Such measures — sealing off cities, shutting down businesses and schools, ordering people to remain indoors — have provoked anger in China and could be difficult to replicate in democratic countries with a greater emphasis on protecting civil liberties. (Myers and Wee, 2/24)

The WHO said it isn’t yet clear whether a world-wide spread is inevitable. The virus could be contained, develop a regular pattern of continual or seasonal transmission, or become a pandemic, said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s chief of health emergencies, speaking at a news conference. The agency said the outbreak doesn’t currently qualify as a pandemic—defined as widespread transmission on multiple continents, with impacts on society—and new cases are on the decline in China, where the majority of illnesses have occurred. (McKay, Stancati and Yoon, 2/24)

The World Health Organization said the coronavirus outbreak that has swept from China to a number of countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe is not yet a pandemic, but it urged countries to prepare for its arrival on the assumption that a declaration may come. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries should be working to protect health workers, engaging groups that are at highest risk — for instance, the elderly — and striving to contain spread of the virus to the highest degree possible to slow its arrival in countries that don’t have the means to respond to its threat. (Branswell, 2/24)

At a media telebriefing in Geneva today, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said the team learned more about the transmissibility of the virus, its severity, and the measures China took. He said the decline in China's cases is real, and that the epidemic peaked and plateaued between Jan 23 and Feb 2 and has been steadily declining since then. He said the group found that the fatality rate ranges from 2% to 4% in Wuhan, but is lower at 0.7% outside of the city. For people with mild disease, recovery takes about 2 weeks, but patients who experience severe or critical disease it may take 3 to 6 weeks to recover. (Schnirring, 2/24)

South Korean health authorities said on Tuesday they aim to test more than 200,000 members of a church at the center of a surge of new coronavirus cases as President Moon Jae-in said the situation was "very grave". South Korea's tally of cases of coronavirus cases rose to 977, fuelling fears the outbreak, which is thought to have begun in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December, is developing into a pandemic. (Shin and Smith, 2/25)

About 68% of South Korea's cases are linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, where the outbreak is believed to have begun with a 61-year-old woman. It is not known how she became infected. The church said it would provide authorities with the names of all members in South Korea, estimated by media at about 215,000 people. The government would test them all as soon as possible, the prime minister's office said."It is essential to test all of the church members in order to contain the spread of the virus and relieve public anxiety," it said in a statement. (2/25)

Shincheonji’s founder, Lee Man-hee, said in a statement posted on the group’s website that it would provide the government a complete membership list, though former members said that is unlikely. Shincheonji Church dispatches undercover “reapers” to other churches to recruit new members, they said, and revealing their identities would sabotage the church’s mission of expanding. Members often hide their religion from their families, they said. (Martin and Yoon, 2/25)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Americans against unnecessary travel to South Korea on Monday amid growing concerns about the outbreak of a novel form of coronavirus originating from China. A notice on the CDC's website Monday evening urged travelers to "avoid all nonessential travel to South Korea," citing limited access to medical services in areas where the coronavirus outbreak has been reported. (Bowden, 2/24)

Religious pilgrims, migrant workers, businessmen, soldiers and clerics all flow constantly across Iran’s frontiers, often crossing into countries with few border controls, weak and ineffective governments and fragile health systems. Now, as it struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Iran is also emerging as the second focal point after China for the spread of the disease. Cases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates — even one in Canada — have all been traced to Iran, sending tremors of fear rippling out from Kabul to Beirut. (Kirkpatrick, Fassihi and Mashal, 2/24)

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday banned all flights to and from Iran over the outbreak of the new coronavirus, just a day after its spread from the Islamic Republic was announced across multiple Mideast nations. Iran meanwhile raised the official death toll from the virus to 15 killed amid 95 confirmed infections. (Gambrell, 2/25)

A hotel on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife was placed under a police cordon on Tuesday after an Italian guest tested positive for the new coronavirus, the authorities said. According to local news reports, about 1,000 guests are booked at the hotel, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, a resort popular with British tourists. It was initially unclear the extent to which the hotel had been locked down and whether an official quarantine had been put in place. (2/25)

The two Italian regions most affected by the virus—Lombardy, where Milan is the capital, and Veneto, home to Venice—account for almost a third of the country’s economic output and about 40% of Italy’s exports. The northern part of Italy is the country’s most affluent area and a large market for other European countries’ goods, meaning that dislocation in Italy is likely to affect its neighbors. (Sylvers and Fairless, 2/24)

Passengers aboard the cruise ship Westerdam who have returned to the United States no longer need to isolate themselves and can resume normal activities, despite the fact that one passenger tested positive for the new coronavirus in Malaysia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised. A spokesman for the agency said on Saturday that the passenger’s diagnosis, confirmed twice by health officials in Malaysia, was a false-positive and noted that no other infections among passengers aboard the ship had been reported. (Rabin, 2/24)

All 16 people in Vietnam infected with a new coronavirus have been cured, the health ministry said on Tuesday, adding that no new cases have been recorded since Feb. 13. The last known patient, a 50-year-old man infected by his daughter who returned from China's central city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, has recovered and is in good condition, the ministry said in a statement. (2/25)

Will novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19, morph into a global pandemic? Health officials worldwide are concerned about incidents of human-to-human transmission of the illness, although it continues to have a relatively low death rate. Amna Nawaz reports and Georgetown University’s Dr. Lawrence Gostin, who has advised the World Health Organization on pandemic preparedness, joins Judy Woodruff. (Nawaz, 2/24)

Despite worrisome new outbreaks in Iran, Italy and South Korea, the coronavirus disease called COVID-19 is not currently a pandemic, the World Health Organization said today. In fact, there are some encouraging trends, especially in Hubei Province, where most of the cases have been reported. (Harris, 2/24)

COVID-19 is the name of the new illness caused by a coronavirus that was first identified in China in late 2019. (2/24)