Coronavirus update: Spanish cases jump to 13,716, death toll in Iran reaches 1,135

The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Spain jumped to 13,716 on Wednesday from 11,178 on Tuesday, announced Fernando Simon, the head of the country’s health emergency centre. The number of fatalities in the country rose to 558 in the same period.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Iranian health ministry reported that the confirmed cases in the last 24 hours increased by 1,192 to 17,361. The death toll rose by 147 to 1,135 in the country.

Elsewhere, Zambia's health ministry confirmed the first two cases in the country, total infections in Malaysia rose to 790, confirmed cases in South Africa jumped to 116 from 85 and the Philippines reported 15 new infections to bring the tally up to 202.

Risk aversion

Flight-to-safety continues to dominate financial markets on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 futures hit the lower daily trading limit. As of writing, major European equity indexes were all erasing more than 5% on a daily basis.