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Coronavirus Updates:

> Total confirmed cases: More than 119,292

> Total deaths: At least 4,300

> Total Recovered: 66,582

> The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 119 countries and territories around the world and 1 international conveyance (the Diamond Princess cruise ship harbored in Yokohama, Japan).

· South Korea reported a jump in new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as authorities tested hundreds of staff at a call center where the disease appeared this week, reversing 11 days of slowing infections, health officials said.

Another 242 new cases were reported compared with only 35 a day earlier, bringing the total in Asia’s worst outbreak outside mainland China to 7,755, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The death toll rose by one to 60.

· Shops and restaurants closed, hundreds of flights were canceled and streets emptied across Italy on Tuesday, the first day of an unprecedented, nationwide lockdown imposed to slow Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus.

Just hours after the dramatic new restrictions came into force, health authorities announced the death toll had jumped by 168 to 631, the largest rise in absolute numbers since the contagion came to light on Feb. 21.

· China announced Wednesday that key companies will be allowed to resume work in coronavirus-hit Wuhan, in another sign authorities are confident the quarantined city is winning its battle against the epidemic.

The decision came a day after President Xi Jinping paid his first visit to the capital of Hubei province since it was placed under lockdown in late January after the outbreak became a national emergency.

· China’s foreign ministry on Monday objected to the expression “Wuhan coronavirus” — saying the name will “stigmatize” the country — following remarks from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The objection marks the latest from Beijing leaders and the country’s state-controlled media, which have gone as far as to claim that the coronavirus outbreak, which was first reported in the central province of Hubei, may not have started in China at all.

· With the new coronavirus now spreading globally, countries around the world must be prepared the economic aftermath of the outbreak could last at least a year, said Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

“The genie’s out of the bottle,” Balakrishnan told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia,” adding that the disease had “exploded” after it spread beyond Asia to countries such as Iran, Italy and the U.S.

The minister — who’s a trained medical doctor — said there are two possibilities on how the current outbreak could pan out:

1) The virus spread turns into “a global pandemic” with potentially “horrendous” impact;

2) It becomes endemic, which means it turns into one of the usual viruses that cause illnesses in people.

· As U.S. coronavirus cases rose steadily, the White House and Congress negotiated measures on Tuesday to bolster the U.S. economy and Americans’ paychecks against the outbreak’s impact, although there was no immediate sign of a deal..

Almost three-quarters of U.S. states have confirmed cases of COVID-19. A running national tally kept by the Johns Hopkins University center tracking the outbreak puts the number of cases at 1,025, with 28 deaths. Washington state’s governor warned of tens of thousands more cases without “real action,” and New York’s governor deployed National Guard troops as a containment measure in a hard-hit New York City suburb.

· The global business travel sector is expected to take a revenue hit of about $820 billion, with China accounting for nearly half of the losses, as corporates curb travel plans in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, an industry body said on Tuesday.

Business travel to Asia has been the worst hit, with at least three out of every four companies reporting they have canceled or suspended all or most business trips to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asia-Pacific countries, according to a survey by Global Business Travel Association

· The dollar resumed its descent against the safe-haven Japanese yen and the Swiss franc on Wednesday as investors worried over how much governments and central banks can do to limit the economic damage from the coronavirus epidemic.

The moves mirrored falls in U.S. equity futures and U.S. bond yields in Asian trade on Wednesday, as the spread of the virus in major economies threatens to brake business activity and curb consumer spending.

The dollar lost 0.8% to 104.67 yen JPY=, down more than a full yen from Tuesday's high of 105.915.

The dollar had fallen to as low as 101.18 on Monday. While Japan may already be in recession, its currency normally rises at times of major financial market stress because of the country’s current account surplus and its net creditor status.

The Swiss franc gained 0.45% to 0.9358 franc per dollar CHF= while the euro also rose 0.5% to $1.1336 EUR=.

· U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will ask Congress for a payroll tax cut and other “very major” stimulus moves, but the details remain unclear.

“It is too early to say the market sentiment has turned positive. Yesterday’s rebound in the dollar and in risk assets is a type of a rebound you often see in a downtrend,” said Shinji Ishimaru, senior currency analyst at MUFG Bank.

“In addition to economic measures, the focus will be on how much the U.S. can contain the infections to keep the economy going. That is a very big unknown,” he said.