Tunisia is impose a curfew from 6pm to 6am from Wednesday, its president has said. The country declared 24 cases, closed mosques, cafes and markets, closed its land borders and suspended international flights.
Elsewhere in the region, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has ordered the army to use field hospitals to help health services fight the coronavirus outbreak.
The country has confirmed 44 cases and two deaths. Most cases were found in Moroccans resident in Spain, Italy and France who had returned home for visits. Morocco has suspended all international flights, closed mosques, schools, entertainment and sports venues and non-essential shops as a precautionary measure against the pandemic.
One country already feeling serious economic effects is Bulgaria, where the prime minister Boyko Borissov has said the nation has already entered into a fiscal deficit.
Reuters reports that the Balkan country raised the salaries of medics involved in treating infected patients by 1,000 levs (£466.56) per month and extended 500m levs to support affected companies to service loans.
On Tuesday alone, confirmed cases in the European Union country jumped by 30% to 81, and the country sealed off the ski resort of Bansko.
Borissov said his main aim was to protect the small and open economy and carefully manage the state’s finances, discarding what he called populist calls for tax breaks and a freeze on payments of electricity and water bills.
We are already entering into a budget deficit. From a surplus, we are entering into deficit. If this crisis prolongs…it will be even bigger.
**Ireland expects to see 15,000 or more cases of coronavirus in the Republic by the end of the month and yet more in the following weeks, the taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Making a rare live broadcast on Ireland’s state broadcaster RTÉ, Varadkar said it had been a St Patrick’s day “like no other, a day that none of us will ever forget”. He warned the nation:
This is the calm before the storm, before the surge. And when it comes, and it will come, never will so many ask so much of so few. We will do all that we can to support them.
Varadkar said there was a global and national emergency caused by a pandemic the like of which had never been seen before.
In years to come, let them say of us when things were at their worst, we were at our best.
The taoiseach said more restrictions of social interactions would be introduced. He said the best strategies to deal with the virus focus on testing, contact tracing and social distancing.
Many of you want to know when this will be over. The truth is we don’t know yet … In short we are asking people to come together as a nation by staying apart.
Older people and those with a long-term illness will be asked to stay at home for several weeks at some point during the pandemic, Varadkar added.
We are putting in place the systems to ensure that if you are one of them, you will have food, supplies and are checked on. We call this ‘cocooning’ and it will save many lives, particularly the most vulnerable, the most precious in our society.
And he expressed pride in the work being done by Ireland’s healthcare workers.
I am so proud of all of them. Not all superheroes wear capes - some wear scrubs and gowns. All of our healthcare workers need us to do the right thing in the weeks ahead. Our community services and hospitals are being tooled up. Essential equipment is on the way. Retired staff are returning to service. People are training for changed roles.
Varadkar added that the economic impact is likely to be enormous.
Everyone in our society must show solidarity in this time of national sacrifice. For those who have lost their jobs and had their incomes reduced temporarily, there must be help and understanding from those who can give it, particularly the banks, government bodies and utilities.
We went into this crisis with a strong economy and the public finances in good order. We have the capacity and credit rating to borrow billions if we need to.
I am confident that our economy will bounce back but the damage will be significant and lasting. The bill will be enormous and it may take years to pay it.
The Irish government has already signed off a €3bn (£2.69bn) package for health, social welfare and support for businesses.
Varadkar has urged people to only access news from trusted sources, expressing concern about the impact of false information.
We need to halt the spread of the virus but we also need to halt the spread of fear. So please rely only on information from trusted sources. From government… from the HSE, from the World Health Organisation and from the national media.
Do not forward or share messages that are from other, unreliable sources. So much harm has already been caused by those messages and we must insulate our communities and the most vulnerable from the contagion of fear.
Fear is a virus in itself.
He closed his address with a message of solidarity to those countries currently worst hit by Covid-19.
To all of those across the world who have lost a loved one to this virus – we are with you. To all those living in the shadow of what is to come – we are with you.
Viruses pay no attention to borders, race, nationality or gender. They are the shared enemy of all humanity. So it will be the shared enterprise of all humanity that finds a treatment and a vaccine that protects us.
Tonight, I send a message of friendship and of hope from Ireland to everyone around the world this Saint Patrick’s Day.
Guardian
[ Sobering yet inspiring and, yes, it did make me tear up. 
]