Wuhan walks back an announcement that it will ease a lockdown.

The announcement was striking: Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus epidemic, would begin easing a sweeping lockdown imposed by officials in late January by allowing some people to leave.

But just hours after news of the change on Monday, the authorities backtracked, saying the announcement had been made in error.

The reversal prompted anger and confusion in China and added to fears that the government was mishandling its response to the virus. The government in Wuhan, a city of 11 million, has previously come under attack for acting too slowly and concealing information about the outbreak.

I just went to the bathroom and the policy was changed when I came out, one user wrote on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media site. Who is Wuhan listening to?

In the initial announcement, the authorities in Wuhan said that healthy people who did not reside in the city, as well as locals who required specialized medical treatment, would be eligible to leave.

Such a decision the first relaxation of a lockdown that has kept millions of people indoors for weeks would most likely have required approval from the central government in Beijing.

But a few hours later, the government reversed course, deleting the original announcement.

In a fresh statement, the authorities in Wuhan said that the original directive had been issued without the approval of top leaders, and that it would seriously criticize the people responsible for the error.

Death toll in Iran rises to at least 12, drawing fears of further spread in the Middle East.

The outbreak has killed at least 12 people in Iran as of Monday, state news outlets reported the largest number of coronavirus-linked deaths outside China.

Experts have said that, based on the number of dead, the total number of cases in Iran is probably much higher, as the illness linked to the virus appears to kill about one of every 50 people infected.

Iran said just days ago that it was untouched by the virus, and the sudden increase in cases has raised concerns that it may be experiencing a significant outbreak. The countrys health ministry said on Saturday that 43 people had tested positive, with eight deaths, state-run Press TV reported. Tehran announced a weeklong closure of schools, universities and cultural centers across 14 provinces in an effort to curb the coronavirus.

Updated Feb. 10, 2020

Amid evidence that the virus may be spreading elsewhere in the Middle East with cases confirmed in both Bahrain and Kuwait linked to Iran neighboring nations have put measures in place to try to limit transmissions. Pakistan and Turkey temporarily closed their borders with Iran on Sunday.

Pakistans 596-mile border with Iran is mostly porous, and controlling a potential spread of the coronavirus poses a major challenge.

Afghanistans National Security Council said on Sunday that all travel to Iran would be reduced to essential humanitarian needs, and the first case of the disease was confirmed in the country on Monday.

Within Iran, long lines have formed outside pharmacies, and there is a shortage of masks and disinfectants, according to health officials and people in Iran. Officials have warned that hospitals are overstretched and said that people should refrain from going to the emergency room unless they have acute symptoms.

Although the origin of the outbreak in Iran is unclear, the Fars news agency on Sunday quoted the countrys health minister as saying that Chinese carriers of the virus were a source of the outbreak in the country.

Ahmad Amir-Abadi, a lawmaker who represents Qom in the Iranian Parliament, criticized the governments response and said that the death toll was much higher than reported, according to Irans Labor News Agency. He said that 50 people with the virus had died in his constituency.

But Eraj Harirchi, Irans deputy minister of health, called those claims false and vowed to resign if they proved to be true.

We reject the death of 51. No one has the authority for announcing such news, Mr. Harirchi said, according to state-run Fars news agency, maintaining the death toll was still at 12.

South Korea on Monday reported 231 more cases of the virus that causes the disease Covid-19, bringing the nations total to 833 cases and seven deaths.

President Moon Jae-in on Sunday put South Korea on the highest possible alert in its fight against the coronavirus, a move that empowers the government to lock down cities and take other sweeping measures to contain the outbreak.

The coming few days will be a critical time for us, he said at an emergency meeting of government officials to discuss the outbreak. The central government, local governments, health officials and medical personnel and the entire people must wage an all-out, concerted response to the problem.

Many of South Koreas coronavirus cases are in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has essentially been placed under a state of emergency, though people are still free to enter and leave the city.

More than half of the people confirmed to have been infected are either members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious sect with a strong presence in Daegu, or their relatives or other contacts.

On Monday, the United States Forces Korea confirmed that a dependent of a member of the armed forces living in Daegu was among those who tested positive for the virus.

Europe confronts coronavirus as Italy scrambles to contain spike in cases.

As Italy scrambled on Sunday to contain the first major coronavirus outbreak in Europe, a new nervousness pervaded the continent, with officials in nearby countries pledging to keep the outbreak from spreading further.

The virus presents Europe with perhaps its greatest challenge since the 2015 migration crisis, which radically altered the politics of the European Union and exposed its institutional weaknesses. If the virus spreads, the fundamental principle of open borders within much of Europe so central to the identity of the bloc will undergo a stress test, as will the vaunted but strained European public health systems, especially in countries that have undergone austerity measures.

A European commissioner said the European Union was in constant contact with the authorities in Italy. And Frances health minister, Olivier Veran, said at a news conference on Sunday that the country was watching the problematic situation in Italy closely.

The spike in Italy has already prompted an aggressive response from Italian officials. The country locked down more than 50,000 people in 10 towns in the northern Lombardy region, where a sizable cluster of coronavirus infections has emerged, and passed emergency measures that apply throughout the country.

Residents on lockdown were supposed to leave or enter their towns only with special permission. Police and armed forces personnel were deployed to monitor the entrances to the towns. Officials closed schools and canceled the last two days of the Venice carnival, which draws thousands of people from around the world, and canceled trade fairs, opera performances and soccer matches.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy rose to 152, officials said on Sunday, from three on Thursday. More than 100 of those cases are in the Lombardy region. At least four people have died, including a 77-year-old woman and a 78-year-old man, and at least 26 are in intensive care, officials said.

Markets fall in response to outbreaks spread.

European and Asian markets fell on Monday as investors worried that the economic disruption already seen in China because of the coronavirus outbreak might have impacts elsewhere.

In Europe, most stock markets were down more than 3 percent. The FTSE MIB index, which measures stocks on the Borsa Italiana in Milan, fell 4.3 percent. Italy locked down at least 10 towns over the weekend in response to an outbreak of the virus.

Oil prices also slid, and futures markets suggested Wall Street was headed to a rough opening.

In Asia, the South Korean market slumped nearly 4 percent after a surge in cases of the coronavirus confirmed there over the weekend. The Australian market dropped over 2 percent, while the Hong Kong market fell 1.8 percent.

The Shanghai stock market was down only slightly, while shares in Shenzhen rose. The worse the virus outbreak, the better the chance the central bank will release more money into the financial system, which would tend to support share prices, said Hao Hong, the research director for the international operations of Chinas Bank of Communications.

The stock market in Japan was closed on Monday, a public holiday there in honor of the emperors birthday.

The coronavirus epidemic in China has already severely curtailed economic growth in the country. Factories have been slow to reopen, partly because mass quarantines have prevented many employees from returning to their jobs but also because demand in China has at least temporarily collapsed for a wide range of goods. Auto sales plummeted 92 percent in the first two weeks of February compared to the same time last year.

One of the big questions facing investors now lies in whether economies elsewhere will be similarly affected. In addition to the reports in Italy, South Korea also now faces a rapidly growing number of cases as well, and President Moon Jae-in on Sunday put the country on its highest level of alert.

Samsung, the worlds largest smartphone maker, said on Monday that it had restarted operations at a factory in South Korea that was shut down over the weekend after an employee there tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Also on Monday, the fellow South Korean gadget maker LG Electronics said it had closed a research facility in Incheon after an employees family member was confirmed to have contracted the virus. The facility is expected to reopen on Tuesday, an LG spokesman said.

Samsungs plant, in the southeastern city of Gumi, is not far from the city of Daegu, which South Korean officials have essentially placed on lockdown after discovering a large number of infections there.

Disease control experts are watching South Korea closely, concerned that it could become another hot zone for the new virus outside of China. South Korea has so far reported 763 infections and seven deaths. President Moon Jae-in put the nation on the highest possible alert on Sunday, empowering the government to lock down cities and restrict peoples movements.

Samsung, a pillar of the South Korean economy, manufactures mobile devices in Vietnam and India in addition to its home country.

An employee at the Gumi complex was found to be infected with the new virus on Saturday, Samsung said, and the facility was shut the same day. A company spokeswoman said the floor where the infected employee worked would remain closed until Tuesday.

Afghanistan on Monday declared a state of emergency in the western province of Herat after health officials confirmed the countrys first case of coronavirus, in a region that shares a porous border with Iran.

The case was identified right away and measures taken the patients health is under control and there isnt concern about the individuals health at this point, Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz said.

Mr. Feroz said it was estimated that over the past few weeks, more than 1,000 Afghans from Herat had traveled to Qom, Iran, a place of pilgrimage for Shia Afghans because of its many shrines, and the site of the first coronavirus cases in that country. He said officials were identifying those people for more screening and tests. Five were staying in an 80-bed quarantine center that had been established in Herat, he added.

The patient was among five Afghan citizens who had been in Qom, where the first cases and fatalities were reported in that country. They transited through Dubai before coming to Herat in Afghanistan, where they are now in quarantine, Mr. Feroz said.

On Sunday, Afghanistans National Security Council announced that the country had suspended air and ground transport to neighboring Iran and asked for consular services to be limited to essential humanitarian needs. Usually, huge numbers of Afghan migrant workers travel back and forth across the border.

Beyond that, the border between the two countries is punctured by extensive smuggling routes, leaving concern even after official measures to limit formal movement.

Reporting and research was contributed by Choe Sang-Hun, Raymond Zhong, Russell Goldman, Javier C. Hernndez, Albee Zhang, Elisabetta Povoledo, Austin Ramzy, Motoko Rich, Makiko Inoue, Salman Masood, Mujib Mashal, Steven Lee Myers, Claire Fu and Amber Wang.

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Coronavirus Live Updates: Outbreaks Around the World Raise Fears of Pandemic - The New York Times