The current count of countries and territories reporting COVID-19 cases stands at 82. South Korea, Iran, and Italy remain the only countries with counts in four figures (outside of China). Of these Iran is experiencing the greatest number of deaths, followed by Italy and South Korea. There may be some lessons there regarding the relative health systems of those countries.

The US count stands at 128 with 4 more cases added yesterday. One case is in my county here in California — the first not tied to the State Department returnees from Wuhan/Diamond Princess. The US deaths all occurred in the Seattle, Washington area.

@omegapaladin has brought to my attention a list of disinfectants that are believed to be effective in killing the COVID-19 virus on surfaces. “RTU” stands for “ready to use,” which refers to spray bottles that you typically have for dispensing disinfectants for home and office use.

The EPA published guidance back on January 29 for qualifying disinfectant manufacturers to “include an efficacy statement in technical literature distributed to health care facilities, physicians, nurses, public health officials, non-label-related websites, consumer information services, and social media sites.” My reading of this was green-lighting a marketing campaign to educate users on the efficacy of these disinfectants (and their uses) with respect to COVID-19.

[Note: Links to all my COVID-19 posts can be found here.]

Worldometers.com news:

March 4 (GMT):

• 1^st case in the Faroe Islands: a man who had been at a conference in Paris and returned on Feb. 24. [source]
• 15 new cases in the Netherlands [source]
• 5 new cases in San Marino, bringing the total to 15, of which 3 (aged 81, 80, and 76 years old) are in critical condition [source]
• 2 new cases in Hong Kong: [source]
  – a 43-year-old man, who is the “master” of a Buddhist worship hall in North Point, where 16 people were infected previously.
  – a 57-year-old female domestic helper of two previously confirmed patients, who lived in southern Hong Kong Island.
• 28 new cases in Spain, bringing the total to 193 cases, of which 190 active and 3 closed (2 discharges and 1 death). [source]
• 10 new cases in Belgium, 9 of which returned from a trip to northern Italy and are now isolated at home after developing an upper respiratory infection with a relatively mild flu-like condition. 1 patient, who had not traveled but is a contact of a previous case who had traveled to Venice, developed a more severe respiratory infection and was therefore admitted to the Saint-Pierre hospital in Brussels. [source]
  The European Defense Agency (EDA) in Brussels has confirmed that one of its employees has tested positive after returning last week from a trip to Italy, where the official had a meeting with around 30 officials from other EU institutions. EDA has canceled all scheduled meetings at its premises until March 13. [source]
• 586 new cases, 15 new deaths, and 117 new recoveries in Iran [source]
• 1^st case in Poland: a person who came from Germany and is now hospitalized in Zielona Góra (Lubusz Voivodeship) in good condition. All contacts have been placed into home quarantine. 584 tests have been performed in the country. [source]
• 1 new case in Portugal: a 44-year-old man who came from Italy and is hospitalized at the São João Hospital, in Porto in stable condition. [source]
• 1 new case in Greece: the husband of the previously confirmed case. [source]
• 10 new cases in Switzerland [source]
• 2 new cases in Belarus, briging the total to 6: 4 in Minsk and 2 in the Vitebsk Region. More than 5,000 tests have been carried out [source]
• 2 new cases in Iceland: a male and a female in their 60s who returned from Verona, Italythrough Munich, German. “They have what can be called traditional flu symptoms, not very sick”[source] 4 additional cases [source] are pending official confirmation.
• 5 new cases in Sweden. in the Värmland region, the Västra Götaland region and the Skåne region. [source] The risk of an outbreak in Sweden is judged as “moderate.” All cases in Sweden are linked to recent travel abroad (‘import case’) or contact with a confirmed import case. [source]Sweden’s Public Health Agency expands its list of regions in Italy where recent travelers are advised to be vigilant about possible symptoms to include Aosta Valley, Liguria, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Tuscany. [source]
• 2 new cases in Scotland (UK) [source]
• 3 new cases in Austria [source]
• 37 new cases in Germany [source]
• 20 new cases in Japan [source] [source] [source] [source] [source] [source]
• 14 new cases in Malaysia, all associated with a local cluster linked to case #26. So far, 21 out of the 50 cases have been linked to this cluster: 16 close contacts and 5 secondary contacts. [source]
• 3 new cases in Israel: one of the patients returned from Italy on Feb. 29 and all three have been quarantined.
• 4 new cases in the United States (California):
  1 in Los Angeles County [source]
  2 in Orange County in Southern California: a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s who had recently traveled to countries that have widespread reports of COVID-19, officials said. [source]
  1 in Contra Costa County in Northern California [source] .
• 21 new cases in India, including a group of 15 Italian tourists [source] [source]
• 3 new cases in Australia:
  – 1 in Victoria [source]
  – 1 in South Australia [source]
  – 1 in Queensland: a 26-year old man from Logan who had recently traveled to Iran. [source]
• 119 new cases, 38 new deaths (37 in Hubei) and 2,652 new discharges occurred in China on March 3, as reported by the National Health Commission (NHC) of China. [source]
• 435 new cases and 2 deaths in South Korea, including a 86 years old woman who had tested positive on Feb. 26. [source] [source] [source] [source]
• 3 new cases in Canada (British Columbia) [source]