AMERICA’s coronavirus chief has branded Europe the “new China” as cases top 22,000 – and 70 per cent of people could be infected.

The deadly bug is rapidly spreading across the continent after arriving from China, where it has infected more than 80,000 and killed more than 3,000.

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There are now at least 22,000 confirmed cases in Europe, including 12,000 in Italy and around 2,000 each in Germany, France and Spain.

Montenegro is now the only country in Europe without the deadly Wuhan virus, after Turkey reported its first case overnight.

And Robert Redfield, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said: “If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China.”

Donald Trump yesterday took the unprecedented step of suspending all flights from 26 European countries for next 30 days to try to stem the outbreak.

The UK and Ireland were exempted from the ban.

DEADLY SPREAD

The President said the European Union "failed to take the same precautions" as the US before announcing the travel restrictions – which will go into effect on Friday at 12am.

The killer bug now threatens to engulf the continent with up to 70 per cent of citizens – 500million people – at risk, leaders say.

Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borissov said: "Today at the video conference with my European council colleagues, specialist analyses were quoted that said that coronavirus would affect more than 70 per cent of Europe’s population."

And all European countries could enforce a total a coronavirus lockdown like Italy within 10 days, the ex-Italian PM has warned.

EUROPE ON LOCKDOWN

The Mediterranean country has been the worst hit by the virus outside China, accounting for more than half of the cases in Europe.

The whole country was placed on lockdown on Monday, with all public events banned, cinemas, gyms and pubs closed, funerals and weddings cancelled and sporting matches suspended.

Current PM Giuseppe Conte later said that all businesses in the country would closed except for pharmacies and grocers.

And former Italian PM Matteo Renzi sent an ominous warning on Wednesday that the rest of the continent could soon follow Italy's lead.

He said: “Today, the red zone is Italy,” but warned if containment measures fail, “the red zone will be Europe.”

Denmark has since become the second European country to be placed on lockdown, after a ten-fold spike in cases.

The government will shut all schools and universities and tell all employees with non-critical jobs to work from home for two weeks.

Gatherings of more than 100 people are also banned, meaning most bars and nightclubs will close.

Italy also slammed the EU for being too slow to come to its aid, after the country begged for emergency medical supplies.

Germany and France are among the EU countries to have imposed limits on the export of essential medical kit.

Italian ambassador Maurizio Massari said: “Italy has already asked to activate the European Union mechanism of civil protection for the supply of medical equipment for individual protection.

“But unfortunately not a single EU country responded to the commission’s call.

“Only China responded bilaterally. Certainly this is not a good sign of European solidarity.”

It comes as The World Health Organisation (WHO) today declared the outbreak a global pandemic as 126,000 people have been diagnosed with the killer bug across 114 countries.

More than 4,600 people have died – over 3,000 of them in China – after contracting COVID-19 across the globe.

Two more patients died from coronavirus in England on Wednesday bringing the UK toll to eight after the number of cases jumped to 460.

Denmark and Belgium have both reported more than 250 cases, while Sweden has more than 350.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the coronavirus was likely to infect about two-thirds of the German population.

Italy on lockdown

• Italians told to stay home and “limit social contact as much as possible”
• All public events banned, with sporting matches including Serie A games suspended
• Weddings and funerals cancelled, with cinemas, gyms and pubs closed
• Travel only allowed for “urgent, verifiable work situations and emergencies or health reasons”
• Public and private companies encouraged to put their employees on leave
• Mortgage payments suspended, with debt moratoriums offered to small firms and households

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