Hong Kong, Feb 26 (AFP/APP): A sea of red washed across Asian markets on Wednesday, with the coronavirus spreading rapidly around the world and health chiefs warning that governments were not prepared for the outbreak. The heavy selling, after a day of relative calm caused by bargain-buying, followed another rout on Wall Street where all three main indexes lost around three percent after officials said COVID-19 would likely take hold in the United States. With cases being reported in new countries — and lockdowns in some nations including Austria, Italy and Spain — traders are growing increasingly fearful about the impact on the global economy. The death toll is now at more than 2,700 while those infected are approaching 80,000 though new cases in China, the epicentre, are falling. At the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Bruce Aylward, who headed an international expert mission to China, hailed the drastic quarantine and containment measures taken by the country. But he told reporters that other nations were “simply not ready” for reining in the outbreak, adding: “You have to be ready to manage this at a larger scale… and it has to be done fast.” The WHO said countries must “prepare … Continue reading Asian markets take another hit as virus quickly spreads