Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all, you should know that the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency due to the new coronavirus that been spreading out of Wuhan, China and the surrounding area the past few weeks, with the US and other countries imposing travel restrictions and quarantines.
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Over the three week period ending 08 February, the number of cases has exploded from 41 to over 37,000, and the death toll rose from 3 to over 800.
With a dynamic situation like this, the news has changed every day, and as a result the coronavirus news I’ve collected over the past week overwhelmed my other environmental news. Hence I made a decision to separate this batch of articles into a separate post, presented in chronological order.
HHS tells Congress it may transfer millions of dollars in funding to respond to coronavirus – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified Congress Sunday that it may need to transfer millions of dollars of funding in its b.udget to respond to the coronavirus. HHS could shift up to $136 million to key agencies responding to the coronavirus, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An HHS spokesperson said the notice was delivered “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure HHS’s ability to respond and adapt to a rapidly changing situation.” Federal law requires HHS to notify Congress before shifting appropriated funds from one account to another. A person familiar with the notice said HHS did not indicate which accounts it would be transferring the money from. The CDC has already dipped into a $105 million fund created by Congress last year to help federal agencies respond to public health emergencies. That funding was used to enhance laboratory capacity, communication and education efforts, and to provide a surge in support for ports of entry and CDC technical assistance. The CDC is performing enhanced entry screenings at five U.S. airports where passengers from Wuhan will arrive. The CDC is also increasing staff at 20 ports of entry where the CDC’s medical screening stations are located. “We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. The CDC has confirmed 11 cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. Nine of the patients had recently traveled in China. The other two patients contracted the virus from their spouses, who had recently traveled to China. President Trump declared a public health emergency Friday and banned foreign nationals from entering the U.S. if they had recently traveled to China. American citizens can continue entering the U.S. from Hubei province – the epicenter of the outbreak – but may be quarantined for up to 14 days in a facility. Other American citizens who have traveled in mainland China but not in Hubei may be self-quarantined in their homes.
The Trump administration has made the U.S. less ready for infectious disease outbreaks like coronavirus – As coronavirus continues to spread, the Trump administration has declared a public health emergency and imposed quarantines and travel restrictions. However, over the past three years the administration has weakened the offices in charge of preparing for and preventing this kind of outbreak. Two years ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that the world should be “preparing for a pandemic in the same serious way it prepares for war”. Gates, whose foundation has invested heavily in global health, suggested staging simulations, war games and preparedness exercises to simulate how diseases could spread and to identify the best response. The Trump administration has done exactly the opposite: It has slashed funding for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its infectious disease research. For fiscal year 2020, Trump proposed cutting the CDC budget by US$1.3 billion, nearly 20% below the 2019 level. As a specialist in budgeting, I recognize that there are many claims on public resources. But when it comes to public health, I believe it is vital to invest early in prevention. Starving the CDC of critical funding will make it far harder for the government to react quickly to a public health emergency.Every year since taking office, Trump has asked for deep cuts into research on emerging diseases – including the CDC’s small center on emerging and “zoonotic” infectious diseases that jump the species barrier from animals to humans. The new coronavirus is just the latest example of these threats.The CDC’s program focuses on infectious diseases ranging from foodborne illnesses to anthrax and Ebola. It manages laboratory, epidemiologic, analytic and prevention programs, and collaborates with state and local health departments, other federal government agencies, industry and foreign ministries of health. In 2018, Trump tried to cut $65 million from this budget – a 10% reduction. In 2019, he sought a 19% reduction. For 2020, he proposed to cut federal spending on emerging infectious and zoonotic diseases by 20%. This would mean spending $100 million less in 2020 to study how such diseases infect humans than the U.S. did just two years ago. Congress reinstated most of this funding, with bipartisan support. But the overall level of appropriations for relevant CDC programs is still 10% below what the U.S. spent in 2016, adjusting for inflation.
Public Health Officials Offer Scant Details On U.S. Coronavirus Patients – Disclosure this week of multiple cases in the United States of a new viral infection emerging from China – including the first confirmed cases of the virus passing from person to person in this country – is fueling public concerns about how easily the deadly virus can spread. It is also raising pointed questions about why authorities aren’t disclosing more information about the risk of exposure. The first person-to-person case, announced Thursday, involves a man in his 60s with underlying health issues who is married to a Chicago-area woman who contracted the virus while traveling in Wuhan, China, and was diagnosed upon her return. During a news briefing, state and federal health officials said they believe the threat from the virus remains low within the United States and remained cautious about sharing details about patients and their movements. Unlike the more detailed accounting of patients’ movements released during measles outbreaks, public health departments are not sharing precise timelines of people’s activities and locations in the days before they were diagnosed with the new coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that while there’s a risk for everyone who comes in contact with a person with the virus, it appears minimal for those with only casual contact, such as being in the same grocery store or movie theater. On Thursday, health officials declined to name the hospital where the infected couple are being treated, saying the patients are isolated and the risk to others in the hospital remains low. Health care workers who are caring for them and at a higher risk of contracting the virus are being monitored. Jennifer Layden, an epidemiologist with the state of Illinois, told reporters that the wife is doing well and the husband’s condition is stable. In Orange County, California, where a traveler from Wuhan was confirmed on Jan. 25 to have the virus, Health Care Agency officials said they have received questions from concerned community members about why the agency has not released a precise timeline with the patient’s whereabouts. Jessica Good, spokesperson for the agency, said given what public health officials understand at this point about how the virus spreads, no additional precautions are recommended for the public. “Our residents should go about their daily lives with no changes to planned activities,” Good said. Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, an epidemiology professor with the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA, is among the experts endorsing calm. The new coronavirus appears to be spreading through respiratory droplets, expelled by a sneeze or cough, that do not remain airborne for long and would require close contact for transmission, Kim-Farley said. Given that, he said, publishing a list of locations infected patients had visited would unnecessarily stigmatize businesses and public places.
China coronavirus: labs worldwide scramble to analyse live samples – With no sign that an outbreak of a new coronavirus is abating, virologists worldwide are itching to get their hands on physical samples of the virus. They are drawing up plans to test drugs and vaccines, develop animal models of the infection and investigate questions about the biology of the virus such as how it spreads. “The moment we heard about this outbreak, we started to put our feelers out to get access to these isolates,” says Vincent Munster, a virologist at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Montana. His lab is expecting to receive a sample in the next week from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, which has led the response to US cases of the virus. The first lab to isolate and study the virus, known provisionally as 2019-nCoV, was at the epicentre of the outbreak: in Wuhan, China. A team at the Wuhan Institute of Virology led by virologist Zheng-Li Shi isolated the virus from a 49-year-old woman, who developed symptoms on 23 December 2019 before becoming critically ill. Shi’s team found1 that the virus can kill cultured human cells and that it enters them through the same molecular receptor as another coronavirus: the one that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). A lab in Australia announced on 28 January that it had obtained virus samples from an infected person who had returned from China. The team was preparing to share the samples with other scientists. Labs in France, Germany and Hong Kong are also isolating and preparing to share virus samples they obtained from local patients, says Bart Haagmans, a virologist at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. “Probably next week we will get isolates from one of the different labs,” he says. The first genome sequence of the virus was made public in early January, and several dozen are now available. The sequences have already led to diagnostic tests for the virus, as well as efforts to study the pathogen’s spread and evolution. But scientists say that sequences are no substitute for virus samples, which are needed to test drugs and vaccines, and to study the virus in depth.
To fight coronavirus spread, the U.S. may expand ‘social distancing’ measures. But it comes at a cost — Cancelling large public gatherings. Asking students to stay home from school. Closing down borders. Many places around the world have already implemented such drastic steps in response to the new coronavirus outbreak that originated in China and has spread to at least 27 territories outside mainland China. If the U.S., which has 11 cases so far, begins to see sustained human-to-human transmission, health officials may also have to rapidly step up their own use of “social distancing” measures to prevent further spread. Just last week, the U.S. reported its first case of human-to-human transmission, where an Illinois woman in her 60s who had traveled to Wuhan passed on the virus to her husband, who hadn’t traveled with her. And late Sunday night, officials in California reported another such case. A 57-year-old man recently returned from China, and he and his wife – who did not travel to China – are now both sick with the virus. Public health officials there were quick to point out that the threat to the U.S. still remains low. “The virus is not spreading widely across the community at this time,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, told reporters last week, adding, “We are not recommending people in the general public take additional precautions such as canceling activities or avoiding going out of their homes.” But officials there and elsewhere in the U.S. are already thinking ahead for when they may have to put into place larger directives in communities to stop the spread of the virus, especially as the nature of the outbreak – which has infected more than 17,000 people and killed more than 360 – is changing rapidly. Already, federal health officials took the rare step late last week of quarantining all 195 American citizens evacuated from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak is believed to have originated. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the agency is “preparing as if this is the next pandemic,” meaning the worldwide spread of a disease. “If we take strong measures now, we may be able to blunt the impact of the virus on the United States,” she said.
U.S. flight rules on China visits will pose new airline challenges – (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued rules on Sunday to implement new restrictions on Americans who have recently visited China to address the threat of the coronavirus. Airline officials said Sunday the new rules will mean they must now ask all U.S.-bound passengers if they have visited mainland China. Airlines are expected to scrutinize passports of travelers, and warned the new rules could require passengers to arrive even earlier for U.S.-bound flights. American Airlines Inc said Sunday it encouraged U.S.-bound passengers “to arrive at the airport three hours early as we expect this additional screening will lengthen the normal check-in process.” The United States said Friday that for flights departing after 5 p.m. EST Sunday, it will bar entry to nearly all foreign visitors who have been in China within the last two weeks. The Trump administration is limiting flights from China and for Americans who have visited China within the last 14 days to eight major U.S. airports for enhanced screening: New York’s JFK, Chicago’s O’Hare, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dulles in Washington, DC. Three more airports – Newark, Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit – would be added on Monday, DHS announced on Sunday. The new rules do not impact cargo-only flights, DHS said.
The Novel Coronavirus Originating in Wuhan, China: Challenges for Global Health Governance JAMA – 30th On December 31, 2019, China reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, caused by a novel coronavirus, currently designated 2019-nCoV. Mounting cases and deaths pose major public health and governance challenges. China’s imposition of an unprecedented cordon sanitaire (a guarded area preventing anyone from leaving) in Hubei Province has also sparked controversy concerning its implementation and effectiveness. Cases have now spread to at least 4 continents. As of January 28, there are more than 4500 confirmed cases (98% in China) and more than 100 deaths.1 In this Viewpoint, we describe the current status of 2019-nCoV, assess the response, and offer proposals for strategies to bring the outbreak under control. China rapidly isolated the novel coronavirus on January 7 and shared viral genome data with the international community 3 days later. Since that time, China has reported increasing numbers of cases and deaths, partly attributable to wider diagnostic testing as awareness of the outbreak grows. Health officials have identified evidence of transmission along a chain of 4 “generations” (a person who originally contracted the virus from a nonhuman source infected someone else, who infected another individual, who then infected another individual), suggesting sustained human-to-human transmission. Current estimates are that 2019-nCoV has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days, with potential asymptomatic transmission.1,2 Multiple countries have confirmed travel-associated cases, including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States, and Vietnam. Vietnam identified the first human-to-human transmission outside China. Yet fundamental knowledge gaps exist on how to accurately characterize the risk, including confirmation of the zoonotic source, efficiency of transmission, precise clinical symptoms, and the range of disease severity and case fatalities.
Early evaluation of the Wuhan City travel restrictions in response to the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak – 2020.01.30 – From the abstract: An ongoing outbreak of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first reported in China and has spread worldwide. On January 23rd 2020 China shut down transit in and out of Wuhan, a major transport hub and conurbation of 11 million inhabitants, to contain the outbreak. By combining epidemiological and human mobility data we find that the travel ban slowed the dispersal of nCoV from Wuhan to other cities in China by 2.91 days (95% CI: 2.54-3.29). This delay provided time to establish and reinforce other control measures that are essential to halt the epidemic. The ongoing dissemination of 2019-nCoV provides an opportunity to examine how travel restrictions impede the spatial dispersal of an emerging infectious disease.
Top WHO official says it’s not too late to stop the new coronavirus outbreak – There is still reason to believe the growing coronavirus outbreak in China can be contained, a top World Health Organization official said Saturday, pointing to some evidence that the disease may not be spreading as rapidly as is feared. He also downplayed reports that people infected with the virus may be contagious before they show symptoms – a feature that, if true, would make it much harder to control. “Until [containment] is impossible, we should keep trying,” Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s Emergencies Program, said in an interview with STAT. The WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency on Thursday. The gargantuan efforts China is making to try to halt the spread of the virus is buying the rest of the world “precious lead time” to prepare for the possibility they might have to cope with it as well, he said: “We need to thank China for that opportunity.” “That is not to say that the disease won’t get ahead of the Chinese authorities completely or get ahead of the other countries that are containing it,” Ryan said. “But there’s enough evidence to suggest that this virus can still be contained.” There haven’t been many reports of health worker infections, a feature that fueled the earlier outbreaks of SARS and MERS, coronaviruses that are related to this new pathogen, provisionally called 2019-nCoV. Likewise, there has not been a lot of spread from cases discovered in other countries in tourists from China or people returning from China. Still, numbers of cases are growing in big leaps – China reported 2,102 new cases and 46 additional deaths on Saturday. And those numbers might be higher still but for the fact that China has a backlog of tests to be processed. Ryan said the problem isn’t testing reagents – the country has indicated it has adequate supplies – but the sheer number of tests that need to be run.
Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say NYT. Rapidly rising caseloads alarm researchers, who fear the virus may make its way across the globe. But scientists cannot yet predict how many deaths may result. The Wuhan coronavirus spreading from China is now likely to become a pandemic that circles the globe, according to many of the world’s leading infectious disease experts. The prospect is daunting. A pandemic – an ongoing epidemic on two or more continents – may well have global consequences, despite the extraordinary travel restrictions and quarantines now imposed by China and other countries, including the United States. Scientists do not yet know how lethal the new coronavirus is, however, so there is uncertainty about how much damage a pandemic might cause. But there is growing consensus that the pathogen is readily transmitted between humans. The Wuhan coronavirus is spreading more like influenza, which is highly transmissible, than like its slow-moving viral cousins, SARS and MERS, scientists have found. “It’s very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a pandemic,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. “But will it be catastrophic? I don’t know.” In the last three weeks, the number of lab-confirmed cases has soared from about 50 in China to more than 17,000 in at least 23 countries; there have been more than 360 deaths. But various epidemiological models estimate that the real number of cases is 100,000 or even more. While that expansion is not as rapid as that of flu or measles, it is an enormous leap beyond what virologists saw when SARS and MERS emerged. When SARS was vanquished in July 2003 after spreading for nine months, only 8,098 cases had been confirmed. MERS has been circulating since 2012, but there have been only about 2,500 known cases. The biggest uncertainty now, experts said, is how many people around the world will die. SARS killed about 10 percent of those who got it, and MERS now kills about one of three.
Coronavirus Concerns Spur Nigerian Authorities to Close Chinese Market in Abuja – Nigerian officials raided and shut down a popular Chinese supermarket in Abuja this week over concerns about the spreading coronavirus. The supermarket is a major gathering spot for Chinese citizens and expatriates living in the Nigerian capital. The aisles and checkout area of the Panda supermarket are usually packed with shoppers. But all were empty Friday, two days after officials of Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) closed the market. The head of the commission, Babtunde Irukera, said the market was closed because of concern about imported products that could carry the coronavirus. “The operatives of the place admitted that those things were imported from China,” Irukera said. “Our suspicion is not whether those products that we saw there are host carriers of the virus, but it was more of the fact that … is there a potential for a risk?” More than 200 people have died since the virus was confirmed in Wuhan, China, and nearly 10,000 others are infected and fighting symptoms that include fever and respiratory difficulties. The WHO has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency. So far, there have been no confirmed cases of the coronavirus on the African continent, although one suspected case has been reported in Botswana.
Myanmar migrant workers pour in due to virus fears – A total of 153 Myanmar migrant workers arrived back in Muse on the evening of 1 February due to the mounting fears of Wuhan coronavirus in China. The returnees went home asking for the help from Myanmar Counsel Office in China. A worker said: “Normally, the trip to Ruli-Kyalkhaung takes about one hour. Chinese authorities have restricted travels from region to region. We arrived at Myanmar border gate at 10 pm.” Normally, Nandaw China-Myanmar border checkpoint is closed at 8.30 pm. U Thaung Tun from Muse Philanthropic Organization said: “They returned to Myanmar due to the virus fears. Chinese employers are unable to return to their factories and plantations as they go home during the Chinese New Year. That’s why, workers face a shortage of food. Some workers got salaries while other did not get their salaries. Employers deduct an advance payment of 1,000 Chinese Yuan as the workers go home before the completion of work.” Myanmar migrants are from Lashio, Taunggyi, Kantbalu, Monywa and Butalin Townships. More workers are planning to go home. On 29 January, 116 Myanmar workers from Monywa, Kanbalu, Taungdwingyi and Kyaukpadung Townships went home from Ruli of China Likewise, Myanmar workers from sugarcane plantations in China are reentering Myanmar via Yanlongyaine and Chinshwehaw border checkpoints. Health staff in Myanmar are carrying out thermal screening on the returnees at the border checkpoints.
‘The results look good so far:’ Thai doctors tout promising treatment for Wuhan coronavirus Fortune – A cocktail of antiviral drugs appeared effective in treating a seriously ill coronavirus patient, a Thai health official said. The HIV medicines lopinavir and ritonavir, which are sold by AbbVie Inc. as the product Kaletra, was used on three patients in conjunction with the anti-flu medication oseltamivir, sold by Roche Holding AG and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. as Tamiflu, Somkiat Lalitwongsa, director of the Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok told reporters Monday. Kaletra is already being studied in a randomized, controlled trial — the gold standard for testing new medical products — in novel coronavirus patients in Wuhan, China. The decision by Thai doctors to give the flu drug was based on research that indicated it helped some patients afflicted with the more-deadly coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome. A study by researchers in France recommended it be used in these so-called MERS patients, but discontinued if tests show they don’t have the flu.“There’s not enough evidence to support the effectiveness just yet,” Somkiat said. “But we report to contribute to the medical community globally. The results look good so far.”Of three patients in Thailand on whom the unique three-drug therapy was initiated, two are continuing to receive the medications, Somkiat said. Treatment was discontinued in one patient who developed a rash. One of the two continuing to receive the medicines has tested negative to the 2019-nCoV virus, he said.“Because there’s no standard procedure yet, we’re trying new combinations of drugs,” Somkiat said. Thailand has 19 confirmed cases of the so-called 2019-nCoV virus. Eleven are hospitalized and the rest have returned home. The nation is also monitoring 311 people for possible infections in hospitals as of Sunday, according to a health ministry statement.
Coronavirus cases hit 20,000 as first death reported outside of China – As of Monday evening there were more than 20,000 confirmed cases in more than two dozen countries, the vast majority of them in China, according to the World Health Organization. There have been at least 425 deaths in China, and one in the Philippines. U.S. officials declared a public health emergency last week and, as a result, foreign nationals who have traveled to China in the last two weeks and aren’t immediate family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents will be temporarily banned from entering the U.S. Under the orders of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, anyone entering the U.S. who has been in China’s Hubei province in the last two weeks will be subject to a two-week quarantine. The first 195 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, are under federal quarantine and will remain at a military base in Southern California until mid-February. The government hasn’t issued such a quarantine order in more than 50 years.Of the 11 confirmed cases in the U.S., six are in California, one is in Washington state, one is in Arizona, two are in Illinois, and one is in Massachusetts. The State Department has warned Americans to avoid all travel to China due to the “rapidly spreading” outbreak. The decision came after the WHO designated the outbreak a global public health emergency. The State Department is organizing more charter flights out of China. CBS News has learned four military bases will be used to quarantine evacuees while they’re monitored for symptoms. Chinese officials announced Monday that 20,438 cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in the country, an increase of 3,235 cases from Sunday evening. Officials also reported that 64 people died in the Hubei province, bringing the country’s death toll to 425.
Coronavirus: India cancels valid visas to Chinese, foreigners who visited China in last two weeks As the coronavirus death toll mounted to 425, India on Tuesday further tightened visa rules by cancelling the existing visas for Chinese and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks. On February 2, India temporarily suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China in view of the coronavirus outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The death toll in China’s coronavirus rose sharply to 425 with 64 deaths on Monday and the number of those infected with the deadly disease rose to 20,438, Chinese health authorities said on Tuesday. “All those who are already in India (with regular or e-visa) and had travelled from China after January 15 are requested to contact the hotline number of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Government of India (+91-11-23978046 and email: [email protected],” the announcement by the Indian Embassy here said. About the validity of the visas, it said the “Embassy of India and our Consulates have been receiving several queries from Chinese citizens as well as other foreign nationals, who are based out of China or visited China in the last 2 weeks, as to whether they can use their valid single/multiple entry visas to travel to India.” “It is clarified that existing visas are no longer valid. Intending visitors to India should contact the Indian Embassy in Beijing ([email protected]) or th .. Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/coronavirus-india-cancels-valid-visas-to-chinese-foreigners-who-visited-china-in-last-two-weeks/articleshow/73929752.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
9,000 Hong Kong hospital workers are threatening to strike amid coronavirus outbreak if the government doesn’t close its border with mainland China – More than 3,000 hospital workers in Hong Kong have voted in favor of a strike that could begin as early as Monday in a move to pressure the Hong Kong government to close its borders with mainland China amid the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. According to a report Saturday from The South China Morning Post, 3,123 voted in favor of the strike. Just 10 people voted against the measure, while 23 others abstained, the South China Morning Post reported. The workers are members of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, formed in December and consisting of 18,000 doctors, nurses, and other hospital employees, per the SCMP. Members representing the organization told the SCMP that the low turnout was due to members who were working or not in the city to vote. More than 9,000 medical workers have signed a petition, pledging to join the potential strike, the SCMP reported. Non-essential hospital workers were expected to strike on Monday, with the rest of the workers beginning to strike throughout the rest of next week, the Hong Kong news outlet said. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority said it was closely monitoring the strike. There are around 77,000 total workers at the public hospitals, including 6,500 doctors and 27,000 nurses, the SCMP said.
Cruise ship passengers must stay on board in port near Tokyo during virus checks — The “Diamond Princess” cruise ship will remain in the Japanese port of Yokohama overnight, city officials announced Tuesday, after it was revealed that a former passenger has contracted the Wuhan coronavirus. Its operator, Princess Cruises, halted plans for passengers to leave the vessel at the end of a 16-day Asia cruise after it was informed that a man who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive with the virus several days later. “While on the ship he did not visit the ship’s medical centre to report any symptoms or illness. The hospital reports that he is in stable condition and the family members traveling with him remain symptom-free,” the cruise company said in a statement. Japanese authorities are racing to contain a possible outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus, locking down the vessel and the roughly 2,500 passengers and 1,000 crew on board. Health ministry officials said more passengers than expected need to be temporarily quarantined while being tested, and it could take another day to finish the screenings. No one is allowed to leave the ship while officials test the group. Officials would not confirm how many people are being tested. So far there are no confirmed cases of the virus on the ship.
China virus toll nears 500, airlines cut Hong Kong flights, cases found on cruise ship – (Reuters) – The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China passed 490 on Wednesday, as two U.S. airlines suspended flights to Hong Kong following the first fatality there and 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined Japanese cruise ship. China’s National Health Commission said another 65 deaths had been recorded on Tuesday, bringing the toll on the mainland to 490, mostly in and around the locked-down central city of Wuhan where the virus emerged late last year. There have been two deaths outside mainland China. A 39-year-old man in Hong Kong with an underlying illness who had visited Wuhan city, the epicenter of the virus, died on Tuesday. A man died in the Philippines last week after visiting Wuhan, the first virus-related overseas fatality. Across mainland China, there were 3,887 new confirmed infections, bringing the total accumulated number to 24,324. Ten people on a cruise liner under quarantine at the Japanese port of Yokohama tested positive for coronavirus, Japan’s health minister said, a figure that could rise as medical screening of thousands of patients and crew continued. The 10 confirmed cases were among 31 results from 273 people tested so far. There are around 3,700 passengers and crew aboard the Carnival Corp (CCL.N) ship. Another 176 cases have been reported in 24 other countries and regions, according to the World Health Organisation. As the economic impacts of the virus spread, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the epidemic would delay a surge in U.S. exports to China expected from the Phase 1 trade deal set to take effect later this month, the first time a Trump administration official has said the outbreak would hamper the deal. “It is true the trade deal, the Phase 1 trade deal, the export boom from that trade deal will take longer because of the Chinese virus,” Kudlow said, adding he did not believe the virus would have a catastrophic effect on business supply chains.
Shocking Footage Inside China’s Newly-Constructed Hospitals, ‘Like Jail Cells Where You Go To Die’ – China has gone from constructing ghost cities to now erecting hospitals to treat coronavirus patients. As we’ve reported, China could be hiding the true number of confirmed cases and deaths, and in some cases, not reporting the deaths at all, and “immediately” hauling the bodies down the street to a local crematorium, effectively burning the evidence. The government’s official death toll on Saturday night topped 300, with more than 14,550 cases reported globally. China is attempting to show the world, it has been proactive and responsible during the outbreak, and in one way that it can optically please everyone that it has everything under control, is to build a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of where the deadly virus supposedly began.UK researchers have warned upwards of 75,000 could be infected in Wuhan, as more than 137,600 have been placed under observation across China. While China and the World Health Organization (WHO) attempt to calm fears of a deadly virus outbreak, the actions by Beijing in locking down dozens of cities and quarantining 50 million people or more, suggest the situation remains severe. RT News reports that Wuhan’s new 25,000-square-meter hospital, one of two new facilities commissioned in response to the coronavirus outbreak, has been completed. Construction started on Jan. 24, has made national press and headlines across the world for China’s quick response in handling the epidemic. State-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) published satellite images of the facility’s construction, declaring the hospital was completed on Saturday and can start receiving patients next week. Here’s another video showing the prefabricated building, basically built with shipping containers, will house several thousand beds.
China says Wuhan coronavirus victims who die should be quickly cremated without funerals as death toll rises – China has banned funerals, burials and other related activities involving the corpses of deceased victims of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, according to new trial regulations issued Saturday to slow the spread. China’s National Health Commission (NHC), together with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, issued new regulations Saturday stating that all victims who succumb to the virus must be cremated at the nearest facility. “No farewell ceremonies or other funeral activities involving the corpse shall be held,” the NHC announcement reads. The new regulations come as the death toll for the novel coronavirus (nCoV-2019) continues to rise. The NHC reported in a separate update that as of the end of Saturday, 304 people have died and 14,380 people have been infected by the virus, which has spread across all of China and to around two dozen other countries. In China, according to the NHC guidelines issued Saturday, if a coronavirus victims dies, the following measures are to be taken as quickly as possible. First, the medical staff at the medical facility where the person was being treated are required to disinfect and seal the remains. It is forbidden to open the remains once they have been sealed. Second, the medical staff will issue a death certificate and notify the family. At this point, the local funeral services facility will be contacted. Third, funeral services personnel will then collect the body, deliver it to the relevant facility, and directly cremate the remains. A cremation certificate will then be issued. No one is permitted to visit the remains during this process. Relatives will, however, be allowed to take the remains after cremation has been completed and documented, the NHC explained in its Saturday announcement. An earlier announcement from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, according to the state-run People’s Daily, has advised people to hold quick and easy funerals and avoid large gatherings to help prevent the virus from spreading further.
Tencent may have accidentally leaked real data on Wuhan virus deaths | Taiwan News – As many experts question the veracity of China’s statistics for the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Tencent over the weekend seems to have inadvertently released what is potentially the actual number of infections and deaths, which were astronomically higher than official figures. On late Saturday evening (Feb. 1), Tencent, on its webpage titled “Epidemic Situation Tracker”, showed confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019nCoV) in China as standing at 154,023, 10 times the official figure at the time. It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure. The number of cured cases was only 269, well below the official number that day of 300. Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day. Moments later, Tencent updated the numbers to reflect the government’s “official” numbers that day. Netizens noticed that Tencent has on at least three occasions posted extremely high numbers, only to quickly lower them to government-approved statistics. Feb. 1 chart showing higher numbers (left), chart showing “official” numbers (right). (Internet image) Netizens also noticed that each time the screen with the large numbers appears, it shows a comparison with the previous day’s data which demonstrates a “reasonable” incremental increase, much like comparisons of official numbers. This has led some netizens to speculate that Tencent has two sets of data, the real data and “processed” data. Some are speculating that a coding problem could be causing the real “internal” data to accidentally appear. Others believe that someone behind the scenes is trying to leak the real numbers. However, the “internal” data held by Beijing may not reflect the true extent of the epidemic. According to multiple sources in Wuhan, many coronavirus patients are unable to receive treatment and die outside of hospitals. A severe shortage of test kits also leads to a lower number of diagnosed cases of infection and death. In addition, there have been many reports of doctors being ordered to list other forms of death instead of coronavirus to keep the death toll artificially low.
Hundreds more Americans evacuated from coronavirus epicenter in China as death toll rises – The deadly new coronavirus continued to spread Tuesday, with more than 24,000 cases and at least 492 deaths confirmed worldwide. The vast majority of the infections, and all but two of the deaths, were in mainland China.The Pentagon said very early Wednesday that two more chartered flights evacuating about 350 Americans from the virus epicenter in Wuhan, China were scheduled to land in Southern California Wednesday. The first such flight brought 195 Americans to an Air Force Base there last week.Chinese officials have agreed to let American experts into the country as part of a World Health Organization team in the coming days, and senior members of the Communist Party have admitted “shortcomings and deficiencies” in the country’s response. President Xi Jinping declared “a people’s war of prevention” against the epidemic Monday, threatening punishment for anyone deemed to be neglecting their duties as control efforts ramped up. There were 11 cases confirmed in the U.S. as of Tuesday, including six in California, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, two in Illinois and one in Massachusetts. More than 80 other Americans were being tested for the virus. The U.S. government declared a public health emergency last week and barred foreign nationals from entering the country within two weeks of visiting China, unless they are immediate family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The State Department has warned Americans against all travel to China.
China Focus: Chinese cities on move to bail out epidemic-hit businesses – (Xinhua) — China’s local governments and e-commerce platforms are moving to reduce rents and offer financial support to help small businesses tide over the novel coronavirus outbreak. Starting on Sunday, cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao and Suzhou have rolled out policies to support small and medium-sized enterprises by reducing their burdens of loans, rent and social security payments. The city of Beijing has extended the collection period of social insurance premiums to the end of July for companies in tourism, catering and other hard-hit industries, allowing them to delay their payment during the novel coronavirus epidemic. Suzhou in China’s major export province Jiangsu has asked banks to increase financial support to small and micro-enterprises. It also said small and medium enterprises leasing state-owned properties will have their rent waived for one month and halved for another two months. Meanwhile, Suzhou, Shanghai and Qingdao have proposed to return half of the unemployment insurance premiums paid in the previous year to employers that do not lay off workers. The slew of supportive policies came as experts warned that small businesses, a major force in the job market and livelihood-related services, are more susceptible to the virus’s economic repercussions.
China Accuses US Of ‘Inciting Panic’ Over Coronavirus Outbreak – Over the weekend, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the ministry’s spokesperson Hua Chunying expressed outrage that some countries halted trade and flights to and from the country because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.Now Hua is back out bashing the US on Monday for allegedly intentionally spreading fear following the outbreak, reported Reuters.She said the US was the first country to withdraw embassy staff from the Wuhan region, and first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers (though we’re not certain that’s true).She also accused the US of failing to follow through with promised assistance.”The U.S. government hasn’t provided any substantial assistance to us, but it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Monday. #ChinaVirus – Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hua Chunying actually BLAMES #US for “spreading fear” about #coronavirus by withdrawing their diplomatic staff & banning travelers from #China, instead of “offering any assistance”. – well I just recall REJECTED @CDCgov three times. pic.twitter.com/1yfcNl8JgX – @Dystopia – #HongKong is NOT China (@Dystopia992) February 3, 2020During the briefing, she continued to single out the US for stoking fear and offering no significant assistance to support efforts to curb the outbreak (despite the fact that the Trump Administration has offered to send supplies AND personnel). The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency during its third straight day of emergency meetings in Switzerland last week. However, seemingly at the behest of the Chinese government, officials stressed that global trade and flights to China shouldn’t be halted.
The Pandemic of Xenophobia and Scapegoating – Even as public health experts race to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, a potentially more fearsome and shadowy pandemic – aimed at uninfected people unjustly fingered as potential carriers – grows. Calls for bans on the movement of all peoples of Asian descent – which would subject millions of people to unnecessary and potentially life-threatening entrapment – are trending on social media, while in real life, the normal rules of social cohesion have started to break down. Outside a Chinatown restaurant in Sydney, Australia on January 29, for example, a 60-year-old man died from cardiac arrest, while bystanders reportedly refused to provide CPR for fear of catching coronavirus. Societies facing novel pathogens have often engaged in scapegoating of marginalized populations, especially when the infective source can be linked to a distant place and the disease associated with a racially distinct “foreign” peoples. During the nineteenth century, rather than curtail commercial shipping, which ferried cholera around the globe, rattled cholera-stricken societies from New York to London turned their ire onto Irish immigrants instead. In 1832, a group of Irish immigrants, irrationally scorned as carriers, were first quarantined, and then secretly massacred and buried in a mass grave. Erroneously blamed for HIV in the early 1980s, Haitians were beaten and harassed. Falsely scapegoated as carriers of SARS in 2003, Canadians of Chinese descent were kicked out of their homes and their businesses avoided. There’s reason to suspect the pandemic of xenophobia in the wake of today’s novel coronavirus will wreak similar havoc. Public fears of contamination by invasive foreigners reached a fevered pitch even before the first case of pneumonia at the Wuhan seafood market hit the news. Right-wing populist leaders have for years singled out foreigners as vectors of crime, terror and disease, as if they alone posed such threats. In Bulgaria, a 2013 study of articles about migrants found that the two most commonly appearing words were “threat” and “disease.” In Greece, right-wing vigilantes have marched into hospitals to evict sickly migrants. In the US, Trump and his allies have long raised alarms about the contagiousness of unwanted foreigners, ignoring that of the rest of the populace. “Tremendous infectious disease,” Donald Trump falsely proclaimed as he announced his candidacy for the White House in 2015, “is pouring across the border.” In 2018, Fox News featured a commentator who claimed that Central American migrants would contaminate the country with smallpox and leprosy, an especially ludicrous claim, given that smallpox was eradicated in 1980.
Social Media Networks Vow To Censor Misinformation About Coronavirus – Yesterday, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, and search engine Google announced their intentions to censor – um, crack down on – so-called “misinformation” about the coronavirus that is spreading across the globe. Before we get started here, admittedly, there’s some absolutely terrible advice out there about preventing or curing coronavirus. There are some really wild stories about the origin of the virus which may or may not be true. But the issue here is that social media networks are setting themselves up as the arbiters of truth, making it seem as though the rest of us are incapable of separating good information from bad information. Facebook is taking action. Kang-Xing Jin, Facebook’s head of health, wrote: Our global network of third-party fact-checkers are continuing their work reviewing content and debunking false claims that are spreading related to the coronavirus. When they rate information as false, we limit its spread on Facebook and Instagram and show people accurate information from these partners. We also send notifications to people who already shared or are trying to share this content to alert them that it’s been fact-checked. We will also start to remove content with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities that could cause harm to people who believe them. We are doing this as an extension of our existing policies to remove content that could cause physical harm. We’re focusing on claims that are designed to discourage treatment or taking appropriate precautions. This includes claims related to false cures or prevention methods – like drinking bleach cures the coronavirus – or claims that create confusion about health resources that are available. We will also block or restrict hashtags used to spread misinformation on Instagram, and are conducting proactive sweeps to find and remove as much of this content as we can. (source) So, don’t worry, friends. “Independent fact-checkers” from the Ministry of Truth will protect you from conspiracy theories and false claims.
The New Coronavirus Is a Truly Modern Epidemic – On Thursday, Nahid Bhadelia left rural Uganda, where she had been helping to set up a center for studying viruses such as Ebola. Before she left, she was peppered with concerned questions about when 2019-nCoV – the new coronavirus that has rapidly spread through China – would appear there. The virus had already reached 23 other countries, and when Bhadelia, an infectious disease physician at Boston University School of Medicine, arrived in Amsterdam on Friday morning for a layover, she noticed that a quarter of the people in Schiphol Airport seemed to be wearing face masks. When she landed in Paris for a second stop, she paused to deal with the barrage of tweets and emails that she had been getting about the new virus. “I’m not as worried by the disease as from people’s reactions to it,” she told me over Skype. “People are freaking out.” The virus emerged in the city of Wuhan in December, and has infected more than 17,200 people. The large majority of cases have been in mainland China, but more than 140 have been detected elsewhere. At least 361 people have died in China, and one in the Philippines. In response, the World Health Organization recently declared a “public-health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) – a designation that it has used on five previous occasions, for epidemics of H1N1 swine flu, polio, Ebola, Zika, and Ebola again. The invocation of a PHEIC is a sign that the new coronavirus should be taken seriously – and as the sixth such invocation in a little more than a decade, it is a reminder that we live in an age of epidemics. Each new crisis follows a familiar playbook, as scientists, epidemiologists, health-care workers, and politicians race to characterize and contain the new threat. Each epidemic is also different, and each is a mirror that reflects the society it affects. In the new coronavirus, we see a world that is more connected than ever by international travel, but that has also succumbed to growing isolationism and xenophobia. We see a time when scientific research and the demand for news, the spread of misinformation and the spread of a virus, all happen at a relentless, blistering pace. The new crisis is very much the kind of epidemic we should expect, given the state of the world in 2020. “It’s almost as if the content is the same but the amplitude is different,” Bhadelia said. “There’s just a greater frenzy, and is that a function of the disease, or a function of the changed world? It’s unclear.”
Epidemiologist Warns, You Can’t Keep The Coronavirus Out Of The US — The United States has implemented travel restrictions in recent days to keep the fast-moving coronavirus that has crippled much of China from spreading across America. But one epidemiologist is warning it won’t work… “I have never seen instances where that has worked when we are talking about a virus at this scale,” epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security, testified before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Respiratory viruses like the one that’s sickened more than 24,300 across the globe and killed at least 490 in China “just move quickly,” she said, according to a report by CNBC. “They [new viral outbreaks] are hard to spot because they look like many other diseases. It’s very hard to interrupt them at borders. You would need to have complete surveillance in order to do that. And we simply don’t have that,” she said. She also says that worrying about stopping the spread of the virus, when you can’t do that is diverting resources away from fighting the disease. So far, the best way to fight the virus is to wear a face mask. Even a surgical mask is better than nothing. Masks have been slowly becoming available for purchase again, however, the price on them has risen quite a bit. There is obviously more of a demand than supply right now. Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation, announced the hearing last week. “While the threat of the coronavirus is relatively low in the United States at this time, we must be vigilant and prepared,” Bera said in a statement. “I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses on ways in which we can plan and respond to this virus. Congress needs to ensure the administration has the tools it needs to respond to and limit the outbreak.” The U.S. government has implemented mandatory quarantine measures for the first time in about 50 years, health officials said last week. Flights from mainland China are being funneled through 11 U.S. airports, officials said, where all passengers are being screened for symptoms. Travelers from Hubei province are being quarantined for 14 days.
The past 24 hours saw the highest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day – The most cases of coronavirus confirmed in a single day were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva Wednesday that there were 24,363 confirmed cases and 490 dead in China as of Wednesday.“In the last 24 hours we had the most cases in a single day since the outbreak started,” Tedros said. Health officials reported coronavirus infections in mainland China rose sharply on Tuesday, with 3,887 additional cases and 65 new deaths reported. WHO said the virus has also been confirmed in 191 cases in 24 countries and one death in the Philippines and another in Hong Kong. Of those, 31 cases are in people with no travel history to China, but all are close contacts of a confirmed case or of someone from Wuhan. “The relatively small number of cases outside China gives us a window of opportunity to prevent this outbreak from becoming a broader global crisis,” Tedros said. “Our greatest concern is about the potential for spread in countries with weaker health systems, and who lack the capacity to detect or diagnose.” Tedros said Wednesday WHO has tapped $9 million of funding from its contingency fund for emergencies. The organization has also sent medical supplies and diagnostic tests around the globe. WHO is also launching a “strategy preparedness and response plan,” and is requesting $675 million to “prevent, detect and diagnose onward transmission,” he said. Tedros urged people not to panic, saying, “We understand that people are worried and concerned – and rightly so. But this is not a time for fear – it’s a time for rational, evidence-based action and investment, while we still have a window of opportunity to bring this outbreak under control.”
Data suggests virus infections under-reported, exaggerating fatality rate – (Reuters) – Fatalities from the coronavirus epidemic are overwhelmingly concentrated in central China’s Wuhan city, which accounts for over 73% of deaths despite having only one-third the number of confirmed infections. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease, one person has died for every 23 infections reported. That number drops to one on 50 nationally, and outside mainland China, one death has been recorded per 114 confirmed cases. Experts say the discrepancy is mainly due to under-reporting of milder virus cases in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province that are grappling with shortages in testing equipment and beds. “In an outbreak your really have to interpret fatality rates with a very skeptical eye, because often it’s only the very severe cases that are coming to people’s attention,” said Amesh Adalja, an expert in pandemic preparedness at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. “It’s very hard to say those numbers represent anything like the true burden of infection” said Adalja, who estimates current fatality rates are likely below 1%. As of Tuesday, 24,551 cases have been confirmed globally. A 1% fatality rate would put total cases at over 49,000, based on the current death toll of 492.
Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed – Science. A paper published on 30 January in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) about the first four people in Germany infected with a novel coronavirus made many headlines because it seemed to confirm what public health experts feared: that someone who has no symptoms from infection with the virus, named 2019-nCoV, can still transmit it to others. That might make controlling the virus much harder.Chinese researchers had previously suggested asymptomatic people might transmit the virus but had not presented clear-cut evidence. “There’s no doubt after reading [the NEJM] paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring,” Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told journalists. “This study lays the question to rest.”But now, it turns out that information was wrong. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German government’s public health agency, has written a letter to NEJM to set the record straight, even though it was not involved in the paper. The letter in NEJM described a cluster of infections that began after a businesswoman from Shanghai visited a company near Munich on 20 and 21 January, where she had a meeting with the first of four people who later fell ill. Crucially, she wasn’t sick at the time: “During her stay, she had been well with no sign or symptoms of infection but had become ill on her flight back to China,” the authors wrote. “The fact that asymptomatic persons are potential sources of 2019-nCoV infection may warrant a reassessment of transmission dynamics of the current outbreak.”
Only a handful of children have been diagnosed with the coronavirus – and experts have a few guesses as to why – Scientists are still learning about the coronavirus outbreak that has killed nearly 500 people and infected more than 24,000 in China. One of the biggest mysteries is why so few children have gotten sick. The outbreak was first reported on December 31, but no children younger than 15 years old had been diagnosed as of January 22. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine said at the time that “children might be less likely to become infected or, if infected, may show milder symptoms” than adults.Since then, doctors have recorded a few one-off cases among children: a 9-month-old girl in Beijing, a child in Germany whose father was diagnosed with the virus first, and a child in Shenzhen, China, who was infected but displayed no symptoms. On Wednesday, Chinese authorities confirmed that an infant in Wuhan, China, had tested positive for the virus 30 hours after being born; the baby’s mother is a coronavirus patient.But for the most part, kids do not seem very vulnerable to the virus.“From everything that we’ve seen, and for reasons that are unclear to us, it does seem that this is primarily impacting adults,” Richard Martinello, an associate professor of infectious disease at the Yale School of Medicine, told Business Insider. “Some of the reports that have come out so far from China have been from adult hospitals and not pediatric hospitals, so it could just be that we’re not seeing that data yet.”
Novel coronavirus’ death rate going down – WHO – The case fatality rate of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is “going down,” the World Health Organization said Tuesday. WHO representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe noted that the 2019-nCoV’s death rate fell to about 2 percent, during a Senate hearing on the government’s preparations in addressing the 2019-nCoV outbreak, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The WHO previously said that the death rate was slightly higher — at 2.3 percent. As of Tuesday, a total of 427 people have been reported to have died after getting infected with the virus, with two of the deaths reported outside of China. The WHO representative said that 88 percent of the 427 deaths were over 60 years old. The most affected gender was male, comprising 76 percent of the overall deaths. Abeyasinghe also said that 70 percent of the fatalities had underlying diseases. The number of deaths from the 2019-nCov has overtaken that from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China in 2002, which was 349 deaths, CNN reported. On Saturday, a 44-year-old Chinese man who visited the Philippines died from health complications after he caught the new virus, making him the first reported 2019-nCoV related fatality outside of mainland China. The second death outside the world’s most populous country was recorded in Hong Kong, one of China’s special administrative regions, bringing the official global death toll to 427 as of Tuesday morning. Epidemiology While the 2019-nCoV’s death rate was going down, the cases are “rapidly increasing,” adding that the virus spread remains a health risk globally, Abeyasinghe said. The official said that 48.7 percent of the 2019-nCoV cases affect individuals aged 40 to 64 years old, and added that the second most affected age group is over 65 year-old.
Coronavirus Update: Governments Prepare for Pandemic – Just a couple of weeks ago, scientists held out hope the new coronavirus could be largely contained within China. Now they know its spread can be minimized at best, and governments are planning for the worst. “It is not a matter of if – it is a matter of when,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “There is not a doubt this is going to end up in most countries eventually.” The U.S., with 11 diagnosed cases so far, plans to quarantine at military bases potentially more than 1,000 Americans evacuated from China’s Hubei province. State health departments are activating emergency programs to isolate the potentially infected – a piecemeal approach that could range from specialized facilities to hotels. Some hospitals have tents in stock to use as emergency isolation wards. “This is about mitigation at this point, and keeping the global spread as minimal as possible,” said Rebecca Katz, a professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University. Other countries, including the U.K. and France, are also pulling some of their citizens out of China. The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern to guide developing countries that might not have robust health-care systems that could withstand the virus, which is known for now as 2019-nCoV. The outbreak has made more than 25,000 people sick in at least least two dozen countries. The vast majority of cases – and every death but two thus far – have been in mainland China, concentrated primarily in the Hubei province. Total containment isn’t in the cards, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Given the nature of this virus and how it’s spreading, that would be impossible. Our goal is to slow this thing down.” Measures taken in the U.S. have been criticized in China, where officials said the Americans are stoking fear and overreacting. The CDC responded that it has no choice. The infection is spreading rapidly and humans have no protection against it, Messonnier said. While most cases appear to be mild, the worry is that it will spread to a large number of people and turn deadly in those most vulnerable. “This is an unprecedented situation and we are taking aggressive measures,” she said. “We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic.”
Experts envision two scenarios if the new coronavirus isn’t contained — With the new coronavirus spreading from person to person (possibly including from people without symptoms), reaching four continents, and traveling faster than SARS, driving it out of existence is looking increasingly unlikely.It’s still possible that quarantines and travel bans will first halt the outbreak and then eradicate the microbe, and the world will never see 2019-nCoV again, as epidemiologist Dr. Mike Ryan, head of health emergencies at the World Health Organization, told STAT on Saturday. That’s what happened with SARS in 2003. Many experts, however, view that happy outcome as increasingly unlikely. “Independent self-sustaining outbreaks [of 2019-nCoV] in major cities globally could become inevitable because of substantial exportation of pre-symptomatic cases,” scientists at the University of Hong Kong concluded in a paper published in The Lancet last week. Researchers are therefore asking what seems like a defeatist question but whose answer has huge implications for public policy: What will a world with endemic 2019-nCoV – circulating permanently in the human population – be like? Experts see two possibilities, each with unique consequences: 2019-nCoV joins the four coronaviruses now circulating in people. “I can imagine a scenario where this becomes a fifth endemic human coronavirus,” said Stephen Morse of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, an epidemiologist and expert on emerging infectious diseases. “We don’t pay much attention to them because they’re so mundane,” especially compared to seasonal flu. Although little-known outside health care and virology circles, the current four “are already part of the winter-spring seasonal landscape of respiratory disease,” Adalja said. Two of them, OC43 and 229E, were discovered in the 1960s but had circulated in cows and bats, respectively, for centuries. The others, HKU1 and NL63, werediscovered after the 2003-2004 SARS outbreak, also after circulating in animals. It’s not known how long they’d existed in people before scientists noticed, but since they jumped from animals to people before the era of virology, it isn’t known whether that initial jump triggered widespread disease. On the decidedly darker side, a fifth endemic coronavirus means more sickness and death from respiratory infections. “I think there is a reasonable probability that this becomes the fifth community-acquired coronavirus,” Adalja said, something he expanded on in his blog. Webby agreed: “I have a little bit of hope that, OK, we’ll put up with a couple of years of heightened [2019-nCoV] activity before settling down to something like the other four coronaviruses.” The “seasonal” reflects the fact that viruses can’t tolerate high heat and humidity, preferring the cool and dry conditions of winter and spring, Webby said. That’s why flu, as well as the four coronaviruses, are less prevalent in warm, humid months. If the new coronavirus follows suit, then containment efforts plus the arrival of summer should drive infections to near zero. But also like flu viruses, that doesn’t mean it’s gone.
Single Coronavirus Patient Estimated To Infect 3.6 People: Study – A new study has put the reproductive number of the novel coronavirus — the average number of people who will contract the virus from one infected person — at up to 3.6. According to researchers at the University of Hong Kong, the so-called R naught of the virus is between 2.24 and 3.58, based on their analysis of data in China in mid-January. The figure is significantly higher than the earlier estimate of 1.4 to 2.5 people by the World Health Organization. To stop an outbreak, the reproduction number has to be brought below one. The new virus appears to be more contagious than seasonal flu and on par with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015. The study was published late last month in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Brace For Impact- Global Pandemic Already Baked In – 31 If we accept what is known about the virus, then logic, science and probabilities all suggest we brace for impact. Here’s a summary of what is known or credibly estimated about the 2019-nCoV virus as of January 31, 2019:
- 1. A statistical study from highly credentialed Chinese academics estimates the virus has an RO (R-naught) of slightly over 4, meaning every carrier infects four other people on average. This is very high. Run-of-the-mill flu viruses average about 1.3 (i.e. each carrier infects 1.3 other people while contagious). Chris Martenson (PhD) goes over the study in some detail in this video. Let’s say the study over-estimates the contagiousness due to insufficient data, etc. Even an RO of 3 means the number of infected people rises geometrically (parabolically). This matters because it negates any plan to track every potentially infected person who came in contact with a carrier. Coronaviruses tend to be contagious in relatively close contact (within two meters / six feet) but masks may not be enough protection, as it may spread by contact with surfaces and through the eyes.
- 2. Along with its contagiousness, the most consequential feature of this virus is that asymptomatic carriers can transmit it to other people, who will also be unaware they’ve been infected with the pathogen. This means carriers have no reason to self-quarantine until they develop symptoms, which may be a week or more after they’ve begun spreading the virus to others. It’s easy to imagine a situation where an asymptomatic carrier from Wuhan took a flight to Beijing, infecting passengers and people in the airport, who then got on flights going to international destinations, where a few days later they become asymptomatic transmitters of the virus. (The passenger from Wuhan might also have boarded a flight to the U.S. in Beijing, before flights from Beijing were restricted.) By the time the initial individual carrier from Wuhan develops symptoms, the virus has already gone through two geometric expansions and everyone infected has no idea they even have the virus.
- 3. Nobody seems to be tracking the origin point of travelers. If an asymptomatic carrier from Wuhan took a train or flight to Beijing last week (exposing other passengers to the pathogen) and then boarded a flight from Beijing to SFO (San Francisco), the presumption would be that the traveler is from Beijing. Tens of thousands of people have boarded flights in China over the past month and deplaned in international destinations. The likelihood that some consequential percentage of these travelers originated from Wuhan, or were infected by someone from Wuhan, is high.
Chinese doctor who raised early alarm over coronavirus dies; Beijing declares ‘people’s war’ – (Reuters) – One of the first Chinese doctors who tried to warn the world about a new coronavirus died on Friday from the illness, prompting an outpouring of sorrow on Chinese social media, as Beijing declared a “people’s war” on the fast-spreading outbreak. Li Wenliang, 34, was an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the city hardest hit by the outbreak. He and seven others were reprimanded by Wuhan police last month for spreading “illegal and false” information about the coronavirus after he warned doctors on social media about seven cases of a mysterious new virus to try to help other physicians. Many ordinary Chinese people on social media described Li as a hero and a tragic figure, reflecting the incompetence of local authorities to tackle the emergence of the virus early in the outbreak. On Friday, China’s Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, reported 69 new deaths, taking the total in China to over 600. It also reported nearly 2,500 new cases, taking the total in China to over 30,000, according to state television. Figures for all of mainland China were expected to follow shortly. Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to reassure his citizens and the world that China would beat the coronavirus. “The whole country has responded with all its strength to respond with the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures, starting a people’s war for epidemic prevention and control,” Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying in a telephone call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. In a striking image of the epidemic’s reach, about 3,700 people moored off Japan on the Diamond Princess faced testing and quarantine for at least two weeks on the ship, which has 20 cases.
Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific asks 27,000 staff to take three weeks of unpaid leave as coronavirus crisis hits the industry – Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific is asking its 27,000 employees to take up to three weeks of unpaid leave, CEO Augustus Tang said Wednesday, as the airline faces a crisis in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak. ‘I am hoping all of you will participate, from our frontline employees to our senior leaders, and share in our current challenges,’ Tang said in a video message posted online. The request lays bare desperate times at Cathay, which was hammered last year by months of political chaos and protests in Hong Kong and has now been hurt further by the fallout from the virus outbreak. The coronavirus, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, spread over the Lunar New Year holiday, which would normally be one of the busiest times for regional airlines. Instead dozens of international carriers have reduced or suspended flights to China in a bid to halt the pathogen’s spread and as passenger numbers fall off a cliff. In his video message to employees, Tang warned Cathay was experiencing ‘one of the most difficult Chinese New Year holidays we have ever had’ because of the virus.
Wuhan coronavirus cases spike again as outbreak shows no signs of slowing – (CNN) The death toll and number of people infected by the Wuhan coronavirus continues to grow, with no signs of slowing despite severe quarantine and population control methods put in place in central China.The number of confirmed cases globally stood at 28,275 as of Thursday, with more than 28,000 of those in China. The number of cases in China grew by 3,694, or 15%, on the previous day. There have been 565 deaths so far, all but two of which were in China, with one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.Two newborn babies in Wuhan, China, have been infected with the coronavirus, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV. The youngest baby was diagnosed at just 30 hours old.The baby’s mother was also infected with the virus, and CCTV suggested that “there may be mother-infant transmission,” where the mother passes the virus on to the baby in utero.Hong Kong announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all people entering the semi-autonomous city from the Chinese mainland, including residents. The move comes after all but three border crossings were closed to try and contain the virus.”It is expected that the measure will further reduce cross-boundary flow of people between Hong Kong and the Mainland, thus reducing the risk of transmission and spread of the disease in the community,” the city’s health authority said.Speaking Wednesday, the city’s leader Carrie Lam said they were “seeing a worsening trend of the outbreak,” as the number of confirmed cases grew to 21. At least three of those cases did not travel outside of Hong Kong during the incubation period, which suggests there may be community transmission taking place, Lam said.Hospital authorities have asked striking employees to return to work Thursday, as the number of cases in the city continues to grow. At least 7,000 healthcare workers walked out this week demanding a full closure of the border with China and extra gear for health workers.
China virus death toll jumps past 500, more cases on cruise ship off Japan – (Reuters) – Ten more people on a quarantined cruise liner in a Japanese port have tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Thursday, as the virus death toll in mainland China hit 563, with almost 3,000 new cases reported. About 3,700 people on Carnival’s Diamond Princess are facing at least two weeks quarantine on the ship, which has 20 virus cases and testing is continuing. Japan now has 40 virus cases. “We are hopeful that the U.S. government will be sending transport for the Americans on board,” Gay Courter, a 75-year-old American novelist aboard the ship, told Reuters. “It’s better for us to travel while healthy and also if we get sick to be treated in American hospitals.” In Hong Kong a cruise ship with 3,600 passengers and crew was quarantined for a second day on Thursday pending testing after three positive cases onboard. Authorities said 33 crew members on the World Dream had developed respiratory tract infection symptoms and three had been sent to a hospital for isolation and management after developing fevers. All but one of the 33 tested negative for the disease, with the remaining test pending, the city’s health department said in a statement late on Wednesday. Taiwan’s health authority banned all international cruise ships from docking at the island from Thursday. Another hotspot emerged with at least three people contracting the disease after attending a mid-January company meeting held with 94 overseas staff, including one from Wuhan, at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore. Authorities have not revealed the name of the company, but the World Health Organization said it was investigating. The case provided more evidence the virus is spreading through human-to-human contact outside China, which the WHO has said is deeply concerning and could signal a much larger outbreak. The virus death toll in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563 on Thursday, its third consecutive record daily rise, as experts intensified efforts to find a vaccine for a disease that has shut down Chinese cities and factories and could damage the world’s second-largest economy. Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, reported 70 new deaths on Wednesday and 2,987 new confirmed cases – more than 80% of the total reported by Chinese authorities. Hubei province in central China has been in virtual lockdown for nearly two weeks, with its train stations and airports shut and its roads sealed off. . There have been two deaths outside mainland China – in the Philippines and Hong Kong – both involving people who had been to Wuhan where more than 400 people have died. Nearly 260 cases have been reported in 31 other countries and regions outside mainland China, according to a Reuters tally based on official statements from the authorities involved.
Coronavirus live updates: Cruise ship in Japan reports 41 new cases, China death toll hits 636 – China says there were an additional 73 deaths and 3,143 new cases of the coronavirus in China as of the end of Feb. 6, the National Health Commission said in its daily update on Friday. This brings the total number of deaths in China to 636 and the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 31,161, the government said. Most of those who died on Thursday were from Hubei – the epicenter of the outbreak. A baby in Wuhan, who was born on Saturday, tested positive for the virus 36 hours after he was delivered, the Associated Press reported. Authorities said he was the youngest person known to be infected with the new coronavirus, according to the report. “The baby was immediately separated from the mother after the birth and has been under artificial feeding. There was no close contact with the parents, yet it was diagnosed with the disease,” Zeng Lingkong, director of neonatal diseases at Wuhan Children’s Hospital, told Chinese TV. It was not clear how the child got infected, AP said. An additional 41 people on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which arrived at the Japanese port of Yokohama earlier this week, have tested positive. This brings the total number of confirmed cases from the cruise ship to 61, said Japan’s health ministry. About 3,700 passengers and crew were placed under mandatory quarantine for two weeks after 10 people aboard the cruise liner tested positive. – Tan Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reportedly called on his government to take “all necessary steps” in order to limit the economic impact of the virus outbreak. That could include dipping into budget reserves, Reuters said. “There’s a risk the coronavirus outbreak could hurt consumption, so we need to watch developments carefully,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura was quoted as saying on Friday, reported Reuters citing Jiji Press. Japan, which is preparing to host the 2020 Summer Olympics in July and August, is also concerned about the impact on inbound tourism, the report said.
Coronavirus live updates: China’s economic growth forecast downgraded as infections pass 30,000 – latest news -Here is a global rundown of the latest figures for cases and deaths reported by health authorities around the world so far. China: 636 deaths and 31,161 confirmed cases on the mainland. In addition, Hong Kong has had one death, and 22 cases. Macao has had 10 cases.
Japan: 86 cases
Singapore: 30
Thailand: 25
South Korea: 24
Australia: 14
The ratings agency S&P has slashed its forecast of China’s economic growth for this year by 0.75 percentage points, saying the coronavirus will deliver a big temporary hit to the country’s economy that will spill over to the whole world. S&P said it now forecast Chinese GDP growth of 5%, down from its previous estimate of 5.7%, but cautioned that it was less confident in its figures than usual because of continuing uncertainty over the severity of the outbreak. This will flow through to the global economy because China accounts for a third of worldwide growth, S&P said. “The global impact will be felt through four real economy channels: sharply reduced tourism revenues, lower exports of consumer and capital goods, lower commodity prices, and industrial supply-chain disruptions,” it said. “If the virus cannot be contained, a material risk, the economic impact could develop exponentially with significant credit implications.” The agency said it expected a rebound next year that would make up lost ground, increasing its estimate of 2021 GDP growth from 5.6% to 6.4%. North Korea has reported its first case of the coronavirus, according to South Korean media. The patient, a woman from Pyongyang, recently returned to the North from China, the Joongang Ilbo, a daily newspaper, said on Friday, citing state-run media. The reports did not give details of when the woman was diagnosed or her state of health. The country has taken several measures to guard against the disease – which has affected all of its neighbours – amid warnings that an epidemic could put an intolerable strain on its poor healthcare infrastructure. North Korea has suspended flights from China and Russia and closed train routes across its borders with those two countries and. It has also imposed a ban on foreign tourism and suspended operations at a liaison office it runs with South Korea just north of the demilitarised zone, the heavily armed border separating North and South Korea.
Royal Caribbean Ship With 12 Quarantined Passengers Docks In NJ; Ambulances, CDC On Scene –A Royal Caribbean cruise ship that has 12 passengers quarantined over fears of coronavirus has docked in Bayonne, New Jersey, this morning with ambulances on the scene.The “Anthem of the Seas” arrived in New Jersey just hours ago, at about 6AM, in thick dense fog, according to ABC 6. Several ambulances were on standby at the scene. The passengers in quarantine will all be tested by the CDC, who was also awaiting the arrival of the ship on the scene. The passengers of the ship are all Chinese nationals – many of whom started exhibiting symptoms while aboard the ship, which was coming back from the Bahamas. The NY Post reported that some of the passengers “have pulmonary issues”. Royal Caribbean said in a statement: “We are closely monitoring developments regarding coronavirus and have rigorous medical protocols in place onboard our ships. We continue to work in close consultation with the CDC, the WHO, and local health authorities to align with their guidance and ensure the health and wellbeing of our guests and crew.”Robert Isaacson, whose 75 year old mother is on the ship, said that crew members have not alerted passengers to the sick people on board. “We have been chatting throughout the cruise and she has not brought any mentions of the crew alerting the passengers of a potential situation involving sick passengers,” he said, referring to conversations with his mother. This news follows last night’s news “Nightmare at Sea” news that 42 additional cases of coronavirus, including an infected passenger who got on the ship in Japan, had been discovered on the Diamond Princess cruise ship which is anchored in Yokohama, Japan.
American diagnosed with new coronavirus died in Wuhan, China — A U.S. citizen diagnosed with the new coronavirus died in Wuhan, China on Thursday, the U.S. embassy said in a statement. “We can confirm a 60-year old U.S. citizen diagnosed with coronavirus died at Jinyintian Hospital in Wuhan, China on February 6. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss. Out of the respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment,” the embassy said. It is the first known American death in an outbreak of a new coronavirus. Wuhan is the center of the outbreak and the capital of Hubei province, where most deaths and confirmed cases are located. Earlier Saturday, China’s National Health Commission said the virus has killed more than 700 people and infected over 34,000. Of those, 699 deaths and nearly 25,000 confirmed cases occurred in Hubei, according to the province’s figures. Hubei said 545 people in Wuhan have died in the outbreak as of the end of Friday. In January, the World Health Organization declared the fast-spreading virus a global health emergency. The designation enables the international agency to mobilize financial and political support to contain the outbreak. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued mandatory quarantine orders for the people it evacuated from Wuhan. It was the first time the agency had issued such orders in 50 years. Washington has continued to evacuate Americans from Wuhan and quarantining them at military bases across the U.S., including: March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California; Camp Ashland in Nebraska; Travis Air Force Base in California; Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego; and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The Trump administration also announced that it would commit up to $100 million in existing funds to help the WHO, China and other infected countries fight the coronavirus outbreak. The WHO has been asking member countries for donations to help with response efforts after tapping $9 million from its contingency fund for emergencies earlier this week.
Xi talks with Trump over phone on novel coronavirus outbreak (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke over phone with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday morning. Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic, the Chinese government and people have been making all-out efforts to battle the disease, Xi said. China, he added, has carried out national mobilization, across-the-board deployment and swift responses, adopted the most comprehensive and rigorous prevention and control measures, and launched a people’s war against the epidemic. Noting that China’s efforts are gradually yielding positive results, Xi stressed that China has full confidence and capability to prevail over the epidemic and that the trend of the Chinese economy maintaining long-term growth will not change. Xi pointed out that China is dedicated to safeguarding the lives and health of not only its own people but also people all over the world. With an open, transparent and responsible attitude, China has kept the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as relevant countries and regions, including the United States, posted on the epidemic, and invited WHO and other experts to conduct field visits in Wuhan, the central Chinese city that is the epicenter of the outbreak, he said. He added that China is the first line of prevention and control against this epidemic, and its timely, decisive and effective response measures have been highly appreciated by the WHO and many countries. Noting that China and the United States have maintained communication over the prevention and control of the epidemic, Xi said he appreciates Trump’s positive comments on China’s efforts on multiple occasions, and is grateful for the supplies donated by various sections of U.S. society. For his part, Trump said the United States fully supports China’s fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic and is willing to send experts to China and offer assistance in various other forms. He said the fact that China completed building special hospitals for novel coronavirus patients in an incredibly short time is impressive, and shows China’s outstanding organizational and response capabilities.
WHO warns of global shortage of coronavirus protective equipment – The world is facing a chronic shortage of gowns, masks, gloves and other protective equipment in the fight against a spreading coronavirus epidemic, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. The U.N. agency has been sending testing kits, masks, gloves, respirators and gowns to every region, Tedros told the WHO Executive Board in Geneva. “However the world is facing a chronic shortage of personnel protective equipment, as you might imagine. “This afternoon I will be speaking to the pandemic supply chain network to identify the bottlenecks and find solutions and push (for) fairness in distribution of equipment,” he said. As of 6 a.m. Geneva time (0500 GMT) there were 31,211 confirmed coronavirus cases in China and 637 deaths, as well as 270 cases in 24 other countries with 1 death, Tedros said. “For the last two days there had been fewer reported infections in China, which is good news, but we caution against reading too much into that. The numbers could go up again,” he said.Coronavirus: Hong Kong imposes quarantine rules on mainland Chinese Hong Kong has begun a mandatory two-week quarantine for anyone arriving from mainland China, in a fresh effort to contain the new coronavirus.Visitors must isolate themselves in hotel rooms or go to government-run centres, while returning Hong Kong residents must stay inside their homes.Anyone caught flouting the new rules faces a fine and a prison sentence.Tens of thousands of travellers queued at the Chinese border city of Shenzhen ahead of the midnight deadline.Hong Kong has seen 26 confirmed cases of the virus and one person has died. The number of confirmed cases in mainland China stands at 34,546, with 722 deaths.Outside China, 270 cases have been confirmed in at least 25 countries, with one other fatality – in the Philippines. Meanwhile, another 41 people on a quarantined cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases on board to 61. There was some positive news on Friday when the World Health Organization (WHO) said there had been fewer reported infections in China in the past two days. However, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned against reading too much into those figures. He also told reporters that the outbreak had caused a global shortage of protective medical equipment such as gowns, masks and gloves.”When supply is short, and demand is high then there could be bad practices like hoarding in order to sell them at higher prices,” he warned, urging suppliers to “uphold the protection of humanity” rather than looking to increase profits. The WHO also released new data from 17,000 patients that suggested 82% had a mild form of the disease, with 15% considered severe cases and 3% critical.
Video shows interior of new Wuhan ‘hospital’ resembles prison (Taiwan News) – Video has surfaced allegedly shot from inside the instant “hospital” hastily constructed in Wuhan appearing much more like a prison than a center to care for sick patients. On Monday (Feb. 3), Communist China claimed to have completed the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan to house 1,000 of the city’s residents infected with the novel coronavirus (2019nCoV). The rapid construction of the hospital was widely trumpeted by Chinese state-run mouthpieces and parroted by Western media outlets as an example of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) superior ability to quickly respond to crises, while a de-emphasis was placed on the initial slow response that arguably allowed the virus to mushroom out of control. However, the dissident organization Himalaya Global released a video on its Twitter page Monday which was apparently secretly filmed by a Chinese contractor inside the new facility. The video starts with the contractor introducing the Spartan interior of Ward 1. The man starts out by ominously saying, “Once you are in, you can’t get out.” He then asserts that patients would be better off staying at home than checking into the new compound. The camera then focuses on the tiny windows that he said would be used to serve food to patients. In the background, another man can be heard saying that “the dead will be removed from that door.” Incredibly, it is clear that each room has a small window with distinct vertical prison bars. The contractor says that those who do not recover “will be sent to the crematorium.” Next, the man shows the interior of one of the rooms and points out that the food window can be opened from inside. However, he says that there is no way for the patients to escape because the only door to the room has a lock on the exterior and can only be opened from the outside. Netizens were shocked at the facility’s strong resemblance to a prison, with many speculating that it was made from prefabricated components for the internment camps in Xinjiang. “I knew it. It’s not so much a hospital as a “medical” internment camp.” “Yeah all those rooms are prefab jail cells and nobody is asking why China has thousands of prefab jail cells ready to go at all times, which isn’t creepy at all and is very normal to have.” “I don’t know of any hospitals where doors open one way.” “Looks eerily like they used a prefab meant to build a Xinjiang internment/death camp. Considering how quickly they could scramble this together, it’s not unlikely they took what they already had.”
Doctor Warns Up To 30% Of Medical Staff Working In Wuhan Hospital Now Infected With nCoV – As we noted earlier, the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, which was confirmed early Friday by Wuhan City Central Hospital, the same hospital where Dr. Li worked, and where he was punished for warning medical students about the novel coronavirus in a private chatroom. Li and seven others were punished for their early warnings about the virus. Now, Li he has joined the more than 600 other Chinese who have succumbed to the virus’s pneumonia-like symptoms and his death has ignited nationwide morning and demands for more free speech. His portrait has become a symbol of resistance during an extremely difficult time on mainland China, where nearly 1/3 of the country’s population is being held captive in their homes by China’s sprawling security apparatus. Over the last two days, Beijing has made a big show of opening two new hospitals in Wuhan that were built in under two weeks. Videos like this one have circulated widely in the western press – China’s target audience.Time-lapse video shows new hospital being built in China in just 10 days. Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan has been built to help deal with coronavirus patientshttps://t.co/IBxpG8lIRt pic.twitter.com/aXhiX7KqyT – BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 3, 2020 We’ve already reported how the hospitals look more like prisons with medical equipment. But come to find out that most of the hospitals are actually being run by their patients. Dr. Feigl-Ding, the Harvard epidemiologist who is one of many academics slammed as an alarmist for telling the truth, tweeted that nearly one-third of the patients in one hospital in Wuhan are also medical staff. There’s a common trope to describe this: something about lunatics running the asylum? 29% – that’s the % of the 138 #coronavirus infected patients who are actually infected medical staff in one Wuhan hospital. Almost 1 in 3 patients being hospital healthcare workers is just insane. New case series report in JAMA: https://t.co/j7HPV8j8dp pic.twitter.com/3Hmu3MaE7m – Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 7, 20202) In addition to 29% medical staff, 12% of patients had gotten #coronavirus as hospital-acquired🦠. Quote: “Hospital-associated transmission was suspected as the presumed mechanism of infection for affected health professionals (40 [29%]) and hospitalized patients (17 [12.3%]).”
American dies of coronavirus in China; five Britons infected in French Alps – (Reuters) – A 60-year-old American has died of the new coronavirus, the first confirmed non-Chinese death of the illness, U.S. officials said, as millions of Chinese began returning home after a Lunar New Year break that was extended to try to contain the outbreak.While the vast majority of cases have been in China, the virus has spread to some two dozen countries abroad, including five British nationals infected in a French mountain resort. The American man died on Thursday in Wuhan, epicenter of the virus outbreak in the central Chinese province of Hubei, a U.S. embassy spokesman said in Beijing on Saturday. He did not elaborate.A Japanese man in his sixties and hospitalized with pneumonia in Wuhan, capital of Hubei, also died after suffering symptoms consistent with the new coronavirus, Japan’s foreign ministry said. The virus has been a blow to China’s already-slowing economy, with Goldman Sachs cutting its first-quarter GDP growth target to 4% from 5.6% previously and saying a deeper hit is possible. “It’s certainly not going to be a return to normal next week,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore. The death toll in mainland China rose to 723 on Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, looking likely to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Most of the deaths in China have occurred in and around Wuhan. Across mainland China, the number of cases stood at 34,598, the WHO said. The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people. Two deaths have been reported outside mainland China – in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both victims were Chinese nationals. China’s Communist Party rulers have sealed off cities, canceled flights and closed factories, a response that has dented the world’s second-biggest economy and had ripple effects globally for financial markets and businesses dependent on China.
Coronavirus: First U.S. citizen dies in China as new cases keep increasing. – The number of cases of the new coronavirus continue to increase as the death toll rose to 772, including the first U.S. citizen. It marked the first confirmed non-Chinese death of the new virus and came at a time of increased criticism of the way Beijing is handling the epidemic. Very little is known so far about the U.S. citizen who died of the virus on Thursday in Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak. The person was around 60 years old and died at a hospital. The New York Times hears word that the person was a woman and “had underlying health conditions.” The total number of cases increased by almost 3,400, reaching 34,546 amid anger inside China directed toward the ruling Communist Party over the death of Li Wenliang, the doctor who was threatened by police after he tried to raise a red flag about the new virus more than a month ago. The doctor was hailed as a hero on social media, where mourning turned into attacks against the government and demands of freedom of speech. The topics “Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology,” and “We want freedom of speech” quickly trended on Weibo, the heavily censored Chinese platform that is similar to Twitter. They were deleted. The fact that the messages were even allowed to stay up for a few hours seemed to suggest that officials were having a hard time figuring out how to deal with the outrage. The outrage inside China comes as experts abroad were still trying to get access to China. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been trying to send a team of experts but has not been invited to enter China. The World Health Organization tried to be diplomatic and said they were just “sorting out arrangements” but for now its experts haven’t been allowed to assess the situation personally. U.S. experts are included on a list proposed by the WHO. Officials think that China’s top leaders may not be eager to accept foreign assistance out of fear that it would be interpreted as a sign that China needs outside help to deal with the epidemic. For now, experts say that it is still difficult to know just how deadly the new virus is and how quickly it is spreading.
Coronavirus Deaths Hit 806, Surpassing Total From 2003 SARS Outbreak – Summary:
- Officials reported an additional 81 deaths in Hubei on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 806: more than the total from the entire 2002-2003 SARS outbreak
- WHO reported 31,481 confirmed global cases on Friday, up by 3,000+ cases from Thursday; SCMP says total cases closer to 35k
- First American citizen has died
- First Japanese citizen suspected of succumbing to virus
- France elevates travel advisory to orange after 5 Britons fall ill in ski resort
- Roundup of suspected infected in Wuhan continues
- Beijing appoints Xi protege to help lead virus response
- Vigil for Dr. Li held in Hong Kong
- China blocks Foxconn plan to reopen factories
The coronavirus outbreak has just reached another grim milestone: The death toll has eclipsed that of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak. China’s Hubei province has also reported 2,147 additional cases as of Feb. 8 (early Sunday in Beijing), lifting the total of cases in Hubei alone to 27,100, though the number of new cases being reported out of Hubei continued to slow. Reported cases in China alone exceed 36,693 less than two months after surfacing in late December in Wuhan. SARS sickened just 8,100. We noticed over the past few days that the ‘anti-alarmists’ who claimed that the outbreak wasn’t even as deadly as the seasonal flu have gradually gone quiet. Everybody who played down the seriousness of this outbreak is been unequivocally proven wrong. To put this all in perspective: Confirmed death toll:
2020 Coronavirus: 806 (in 29 days)
2003 SARS: 774 (in 9 months)
If you’re looking for a visual, here’s a useful one (though this chart is slightly out-of-date): Within the next 24 hours the number of people killed by novel coronavirus in 6 weeks will exceed the number killed during the 9-month SARS outbreak. Pausing to mourn and commemorate the lives of those lost and re-dedicate to reducing future losses as effectively as possible. pic.twitter.com/okM2ZpXiPR – Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) February 8, 2020
Senator Tom Cotton Shreds China’s Official Virus Story, Warns Of Super Laboratory Proximity – A United States senator is casting major doubt on the Chinese government’s official story on the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, instead hinting that a biosafety laboratory working with the deadliest pathogens in the world could be the true source. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas dismantled a claim from China’s communist regime Thursday that pinned the coronavirus outbreak on a market selling dead and live animals.“China claimed – for almost two months – that coronavirus had originated in a Wuhan seafood market,” Cotton wrote on Twitter.“That is not the case.”In a video accompanying his post, Cotton explained that the Wuhan wet market (which Cotton incorrectly referred to as a seafood market) has been shown by experts to not be the source of the deadly contagion.Cotton referenced a Lancet study which showed that many of the first cases of the novel coronavirus, including patient zero, had no connection to the wet market – devastatingly undermining China’s claim.“As one epidemiologist said: ‘That virus went into the seafood market before it came out of the seafood market.’ We still don’t know where it originated,” Cotton said.“I would note that Wuhan also has China’s only bio-safety level four super laboratory that works with the world’s most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus.”Watch Cotton’s full comments below.China claimed – for almost two months – that coronavirus had originated in a Wuhan seafood market. That is not the case. @TheLancet published a study demonstrating that of the original 40 cases, 14 of them had no contact with the seafood market, including Patient Zero. pic.twitter.com/PdgqgHjkGy – Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 30, 2020Cotton appears to be referring to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the country’s foremost virus research facility.The Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, which is part of the institute, is located only 20 miles from the Wuhan wet market, the “official” source of the outbreak according to China.Snakes, bats and other animals were identified as possible originators for the coronavirus in early investigations. The rapid spread of the virus, which makes previous contagions like SARS and swine flu look benign by comparison, seems to lend weight to the theory that the novel coronavirus is a tailored bioweapon.
India To Probe Wuhan Institute Of Virology – The Indian government has ordered an inquiry into a study conducted in the Northeastern state of Nagaland (close to China) by researchers from the U.S., China and India on bats and humans carrying antibodies to deadly viruses like Ebola, officials confirmed to The Hindu. The study came under the scanner as two of the 12 researchers belonged to the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases, and it was funded by the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). They would have required special permissions as foreign entities.The study, conducted by scientists of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the U.S. and the Duke-National University in Singapore, is now being investigated for how the scientists were allowed to access live samples of bats and bat hunters (humans) without due permissions.The results of the study were published in October last year in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, originally established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Bill Gates, the man who tops the Forbes richest person in the world list had issued a grave warning about a potential Coronavirus-like catastrophe that could kill 30 million people at the Munich Security Conference held in Germany in 2017: “Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10 to 15 years.”
White House Asks Scientists To Investigate Whether 2019-nCoV Was Bio-Engineered – A week ago, we published details that raised questions about the source of the Wuhan novel coronavirus, specifically questioning the official theory for the spread of the Coronavirus epidemic, namely because someone ate bat soup at a Wuhan seafood and animal market as a fabricated farce. The real reason behind the viral spread, we suggested, was that a weaponized version of the coronavirus (one which may have originally been obtained from Canada), was released by Wuhan’s Institute of Virology (presumably accidentally ), China’s only top, level-4 biohazard lab, which was studying “the world’s most dangerous pathogens.” At the time we summarized the series of dots and asked “real reporters” to connect them:
- One of China’s top virology and immunology experts was and still works at China’s top-rated biohazard lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which some have affectionately called the real Umbrella Corp.
- Since 2009, Peng has been the leading Chinese scientist researching the immune mechanism of bats carrying and transmitting lethal viruses in the world.
- His primary field of study is researching how and why bats can be infected with some of the most nightmarish viruses in the world including Ebola, SARS and Coronavirus, and not get sick.
- He was genetically engineering various immune pathways (such as the STING pathway in bats) to make the bats more or less susceptible to infection, in the process potentially creating a highly resistant mutant superbug.
- As part of his studies, Peng also researched mutant Coronavirus strains that overcame the natural immunity of some bats; these are “superbug” Coronavirus strains, which are resistant to any natural immune pathway, and now appear to be out in the wild.
- As of mid-November, his lab was actively hiring inexperienced post-docs to help conduct his research into super-Coronaviruses and bat infections.
- Peng’s work on virology and bat immunology has received support from the National “You Qing” Fund, the pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the major project of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Of course, that is all ancient history and Zero Hedge was permanently banned from Twitter for raising such a conspiracy theory about a publicly-searchable person working a publicly-searchable place. But, bygones being bygones, we moved on… until today when no lesser entity than The White House began asking questions about the origin of the deadly coronavirus.As ABC News reports, the director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in a letter to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, requested that scientific experts “rapidly” look into the origins of the virus in order to address both the current spread and “to inform future outbreak preparation and better understand animal/human and environmental transmission aspects of coronaviruses.” Specifically, ABC News’ Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton asked the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease about concerns that stem from misinformation online that the novel coronavirus could have been engineered or deliberately released.
Virus threatens U.S. companies’ supply of Chinese-made parts and materials – WaPo – The battle to contain the Chinese coronavirus threatens to cut off U.S. companies from parts and materials they need to produce iPhones, automobiles and appliances and drugs to treat medical conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure and malaria. Some of the United States’ best-known manufacturers such as General Electric, Caterpillar and the Big Three automakers, along with many smaller American businesses, depend on what is made in Chinese factories. Now, they confront life without those items. Major airlines in the United States and Europe are halting their cargo and passenger flights to China for up to two months. Recent visitors to the country are barred from entering the United States. After four decades of growing integration with the rest of the world, China almost overnight has become an economic island. Its temporary isolation – no one knows for how long – will hurt companies that depend upon Chinese inputs as well as those that sell to Chinese customers. Consumer electronics makers are among the most vulnerable, because many game consoles, smartphones and tablets are made in China. On Saturday, Apple announced that it had closed all of its corporate offices and retail stores in China – where it booked $44 billion in sales last year – until Feb. 9 because of the virus. “The concern is not the zombie apocalypse with people dying in the streets. The concern is that a huge chunk of the global economy gets put out of commission as people wait it out,” said Patrick Chovanec, managing director at Silvercrest Asset Management in New York. White House advisers so far have played down the disease’s effects, with President Trump’s top economic aide, Larry Kudlow, saying last week that he expects the virus to have “no material impact” on the U.S. economy. Most Wall Street economists, likewise, say the economic damage will be limited. Economists at JPMorgan Chase Bank on Friday cut their first-quarter global growth estimate by 0.3 percentage points to 2.3 percent. But they predicted a swift rebound that would return China and the global economy to their pre-crisis trends by midyear.
Vietnam moves to block coronavirus risk to supply chain – The port city of Haiphong, a rising manufacturing hub in northeastern Vietnam, has ordered companies to divulge their number of Chinese workers there daily, in an attempt to curb the risk posed by the coronavirus outbreak. The Haiphong People’s Committee acted shortly before manufacturers in Vietnam fully resume operations Monday, with thousands of workers from China possibly returning from a Spring Festival holiday extended there until Sunday. Vietnam shares a border of more than 1,200 km with China, where the epidemic originated. Haiphong’s initiative to contain the repercussions of the epidemic came as the Chinese government seeks to cushion the impact on financial markets through such steps as a massive injection of liquidity. Haiphong recorded gross domestic product growth of more than 16% for 2019 thanks to an influx of foreign direct investment, giving the city a greater role in the region’s supply chain. But a cluster of manufacturers has come under pressure, as the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global emergency Friday. “Foreign companies must limit workers returning to factories in Haiphong from Hubei Province and other affected Chinese provinces,” a statement posted Friday on Haiphong’s municipal website said. “Areas for isolation must be arranged for those who must be present at the sites, in order to carry out health inspection and supervision.” The People’s Committee convened an emergency meeting Friday morning for representatives of the 90 companies operating in the Haiphong Economic Zone that have investment from mainland China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. Most attendees represented manufacturers. These companies employ more than 1,600 Chinese workers, including 104 from Hubei, according to Haiphong Economic Zone Authority. Haiphong hosts more than 530 foreign investment enterprises, according to local media. As many as 3,000 Chinese workers are registered across the city. Le Van Thanh, the Communist Party chief of Haiphong, ordered a temporary ban on entry to the city by any Chinese citizen from Hubei during the epidemic effective Feb. 1, according to local reports. The labor ministry on Sunday adopted a nationwide step asking businesses across Vietnam to keep Chinese and other foreign workers who have traveled to coronavirus-affected locations from returning at this time. Names and other information on those who have come back from China must be reported per the authorities’ requests. The returnees must be quarantined two weeks for health checks, starting from the day of reentry. Vietnam’s state-owned broadcaster, citing labor ministry figures, reported Friday that 91,500 Chinese nationals had permission to work in the country before Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. At least 40% of them visited their homes in China during the holiday.
The Global Supply & Demand Shock Of The Coronavirus – Our analysis of the impact of the Coronavirus is a work in progress and nobody knows the endgame. It is still the early days of the epidemic, and its dynamics will take time to understand. The scale of the impact will depend on how contagious and lethal it reveals itself.There is a supply shock to global manufacturing as many factories in the world’s supply chain will be shuttered for longer, which shifts the global supply curve left, increasing-price and production pressures. Ergo component shortages, higher prices, and lower production.The 2 percent decline in the U.S. stock market and collapse in bond yields are signaling a potential global aggregate demand shock that offsets the supply shock. As of Friday, 10,000 cases have been confirmed by China, surpassing the total from the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic. The new virus has killed 171 people in China. The epicenter of the outbreak is Wuhan, one of China’s largest manufacturing centers. Foxconn and Pegatron have operations there, as do memory manufacturers such as XMC (nor flash) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (non-volatile memory). Auto producers, such as General Motors, Honda, Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler also populate the region.The electronics industry is poised for a cascading disruption that could change industry growth forecasts for the year. Bill McLean, president of semiconductor research firm IC Insights, said the virus has exacerbated the economic unease that has stalled semiconductor capital investment.“Brexit, trade issues and now the coronavirus are causing global uncertainty,” he said at a Boston-based forum. “Uncertainty causes [businesses and consumers] to freeze.” Worldwide, semiconductor capital spending is forecast to decrease by roughly 6 percent this year, from $103.5 billion in 2019 to roughly $97.6 billion.Zhang Ming, an economist at government-backed think-tank the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, warned that the virus could push China’s economic growth below 5 per cent a year in the first quarter, reported the Financial Times. Economic consensus currently puts China’s GDP growth at 5.7 percent. That average has steadily declined since 2018, according to McLean. – EE TimesMore than 300 of the Global Top 500 companies have a presence in Wuhan, including Microsoft and Siemens. Wuhan is located in the Hubei Province. Wuhan has 10 car factories, including those Honda, Renault, PSA and General Motors. The car industry represents around 20 percent of the city’s economy and employs 200,000 people directly and more than a million indirectly.
Coronavirus forces world’s largest telework experiment – Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, working from home is no longer a privilege, it’s a necessity. While factories, shops, hotels and restaurants are warning about plunging foot traffic that is transforming city centers into ghost towns, behind the closed doors of apartments and suburban homes thousands of businesses are trying to figure out how to stay operational in a virtual world. “It’s a good opportunity for us to test working from home at scale,” said Alvin Foo, managing director of Reprise Digital, a Shanghai ad agency with 400 people that’s part of Interpublic Group. “Obviously, not easy for a creative ad agency that brainstorms a lot in person.” It’s going to mean a lot of video chats and phone calls, he said. The cohorts working from home are about to grow into armies. At the moment, most people in China are still on vacation for the Lunar New Year. But as Chinese companies begin to restart operations, it’s likely to usher in the world’s largest work-from-home experiment.That means a lot more people trying to organize client meetings and group discussions via video chat apps, or discussing plans on productivity software platforms like WeChat Work or Bytedance’s Slack-like Lark. The vanguards for the new model of scattered employees are the Chinese financial centers of Hong Kong and Shanghai, cities with central business districts that rely on hundreds of thousands of office workers in finance, logistics, insurance, law and other white-collar jobs. One Hong Kong banker said he’s going to extend an overseas vacation, as he can work from anywhere with a laptop and a phone. Others say they are using the time typically spent wining and dining clients to clear their backlog of travel expenses. One said he’s shifted focus to deals in Southeast Asia. One of the most unsettling factors for employees is the fast-changing impact of the virus, which is prompting daily changes in corporate directives.
Woman wearing face mask attacked in possible coronavirus hate crime A woman wearing a face mask was attacked at a Chinatown subway station after allegedly being called a “diseased bitch” – in what police are treating as a possible hate crime sparked by coronavirus fears. Shocking video shared by the NYPD’s hate crimes unit shows a violent confrontation involving a woman with her face completely covered by a yellow face mask, glasses and the hood of a parka. An eyewitness claimed the victim had already been hit on the head when she ran to confront her attacker – who unleashed a flurry of blows after missing with a flying kick, eventually pushing her into a wall. “Don’t f – ing touch me! Don’t f – ing touch me, n – er,” the attacker screams as the woman shooting the video tries to pull him away. He had first confronted the victim over her face mask, according to a social media post by the woman who says she shot the footage at Grand Street station at 6 p.m. Sunday. “I clearly heard the words ‘diseased bitch,'” @x_ginko insisted in her post. “I also heard her asking him to go away.” Instead, the man “suddenly got very close to the woman’s face” and “hit her on the head with an audible sound,” @x_ginko insisted, saying she then started recording.
Interim List of Household Products and Active Ingredients for Disinfection of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) National Environment Agency. Many general household products contain the appropriate concentrations of active ingredients (A.I.) that are known to inactivate coronaviruses. For general precautionary cleaning, detergent and water are adequate. For disinfection of areas that are very likely to be contaminated with nCoV (e.g. bedroom of a person confirmed to have a CoV infection), disinfectant/cleaning products listed in Table 1 can be used. The product list is based on currently available data and active ingredients known to be effective against coronaviruses (Table 2). Both tables will be updated as data from more products are gathered, and as more products are assessed to be appropriate. Every product needs to be used in the right way and according to specification. NEA will not be responsible for any loss or damage arising from or incidental to any use of products/services in the listing. In addition to the use of cleaning agents, other treatments effective against coronavirus include steam and heat treatment. (Singapore, but many of the brands are global, and ingredients are listed.)
Coronavirus: The hit to the global economy will be worse than SARS – The new coronavirus outbreak will be worse for the global economy than the 2003 SARS epidemic was, data analysis firm IHS Markit predicts. While both outbreaks originated in China, nearly two decades separate the SARS outbreak from the new coronavirus outbreak. In that time, China has grown from the world’s sixth-largest economy to the second biggest today behind the U.S. The country has been a main growth driver worldwide, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that China alone accounted for 39% of global economic expansion in 2019. “Coronavirus will have a larger negative effect on the global economy than the SARS outbreak in 2003,” IHS Markit wrote, adding that China accounted for 4.2% of the global economy in 2003. The report says China now commands 16.3% of the world’s GDP. “Therefore, any slowdown in the Chinese economy sends not ripples but waves across the globe.” SARS, which stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome, first emerged in China’s Guangdong province before spreading to other countries. The virus infected about 8,000 people, claimed almost 800 lives worldwide and shaved 0.5% to 1% off China’s growth in 2003, according to various estimates. Though estimates vary, economists say that the SARS outbreak in China cost the global economy about $40 billion. Most of the economic cost of the outbreak, though, “is not related to the virus,” said CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council Gloria Guevara, who was the tourism minister for Mexico during the H1N1 outbreak. “It’s related to the panic.” The long-term economic impact of the new coronavirus outbreak will be determined largely by China’s containment measures, IHS Markit’s report says. The Chinese government has quarantined Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and, by IHS Markit’s count, 11 provinces have extended the Chinese New Year holiday to keep workers at home and prevent the spread of the virus. “If the current and unprecedented confinement measures in China stay in place until the end of February, and are lifted progressively beginning in March, the resulting economic impact will be concentrated in the first half of 2020,” the report says, “with a reduction of global real GDP of 0.8% in Q1 and 0.5% in Q2.” If China ends those restrictions on Feb. 10, as is currently scheduled, the impact on the global economy will be much more limited, the report says. Most factories in China would be closed around this time for observance of the Chinese New Year, which is factored into expectations. However, the report says the outbreak threatens to severely hamper several industries, especially automotive manufacturing.
China Seeking Flexibility On Phase 1 Trade Pledges As Its Economy Grinds To A Halt – Last night, when we reported the plunge in the yuan below 7.00 vs the dollar – traditionally a level that has been seen as triggering the US Treasury into screaming fx manipulation – we noted that it is only a matter of time before the US and China sat down to discuss just how viable the terms of the Phase 1 trade “superdeal” are, now that China’s economy is grinding to a halt, with even official GDP expected to slump to 4.5% or lower (the accurate, if unofficialy number, may well turn negative) if only in the short term, as the country reels from the fallout of the Coronavirus epidemic which has led to tens of millions of Chinese citizens living under mandatory or self-imposed quarantine, and crippling critical supply chains. We didn’t have long to wait, because moments ago, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials “are hoping the U.S. will agree to some flexibility on pledges in their phase-one trade deal” as Beijing tries to contain the fallout from the health crisis that has infected over 17,500 and killed over 360. The Phase 1 trade deal which was signed on Jan. 15 – just one day before China finally started reporting virus data – and is supposed to take effect in mid-February, has a clause that states the U.S. and China will consult “in the event that a natural disaster or other unforeseeable event” delays either from complying with the agreement. It’s unclear whether China has formally requested such a consultation yet, but according to Bloomberg sources the plan “is to ask for it at some point.”As the report goes on to note, Chinese officials are evaluating if the target for economic growth this year should be softened as part of a broader review of how the government’s plans will be affected by the deadly virus outbreak, read: hoping to convince Trump to further ease existing tariffs. However, so far it does not appear that the US is rushing to concede to Chinese demands, especially since Larry Kudlow last week said that the U.S. hasn’t seen any major effects on its economy from the epidemic. “This is principally a public health problem and the pandemic of course is in China, not the U.S.,” Kudlow said Thursday in an interview on Fox Business Network. “Insofar as the economy, we see no material impact.” Curiously, the Bloomberg report comes about an hour after the WSJ reported that the Trump administration has been granting fewer exemptions to tariffs on Chinese imports, with the approval rate recently plunging to 3% in the third round of levies from 35% in the first two.
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