Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
The news posted last week for the Wuhan coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, has been surveyed and articles are summarized here. Although there are indications the spread of the disease may or may not be slowing in China (experts disagree), there are concerns that hotspots may develop in other countries – Japan, South Korea, and Italy topping that list at present. News items about economic affects of the virus are reported separately in a companion article.
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Japanese Couple Tests Positive for Virus After Hawaii Visit: NYT – A married Japanese couple in their 60s tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home from a Hawaiian vacation, health officials said Saturday, according to the New York Times. The couple had returned to Nagoya, Japan’s fourth-largest city, on Feb. 7, and a day later he visited a hospital with a fever but was turned away. He was back after two days when he learned he had pneumonia, but he was then released. On Thursday, the man went by ambulance to a hospital. His wife checked into the hospital Friday with a fever. Both now have the virus. The disclosure of the post-visit infection has caused concern among Hawaii health officials, the Times reported. “All of the state agencies have been preparing for exactly this scenario, where someone visits the island and the virus is present,” Governor David Ige said at a news conference. The Japanese man grew ill on the second week of his vacation while the couple was in a time-share in Honolulu, authorities said. Before that, the couple was in Maui, but showed no symptoms. The husband started showing signs of illness on Feb. 3 and wore a mask when he went outside the Grand Waikikian by Hilton Grand Vacations in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, officials said.
Japan Says Cases Surge to 355 Aboard Luxury Liner: Virus Update -The U.S. and other nations are ready to fly home hundreds of passengers stuck on a quarantined ship in Japan, but infected travelers are staying behind. The Diamond Princess had 355 confirmed coronavirus cases, including at least 40 Americans.Malaysia stopped admitting passengers from the Westerdam luxury liner docked in Cambodia after an American traveler fell ill in Kuala Lumpur. Taiwan had its first death, a taxi driver in his 60s.China will act to cut corporate taxes and unnecessary government expenses as the virus hurts production. China has 68,500 total cases and 1,665 deaths. The global infection total is nearing 70,000. Key Developments:
- Taiwan reports first death from the virus, a taxi driver
- China pledges more economic stimulus
- Malaysia Bars Westerdam Cruise Passengers From Entry
- Cases soar aboard Diamond Princess in Japan
- Singapore, U.A.E. report new cases
- Hubei had 1,843 new cases, down from 2,420 a day earlier.
Quarantined cruise ship passenger speaks out against US coronavirus evacuation plan A passenger aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is currently quarantined off the coast of Japan amid a coronavirus outbreak, is speaking out against the United States’ plan to evacuate American passengers. Matthew Smith, who has been quarantined with his wife since Feb. 5, told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that he prefers to stay on the cruise ship. “Our greatest desire at this point is to maintain the quarantine that the Japanese health officials have established,” Smith said, “then get a test for the virus at the end of that quarantine so we can establish with relative certainty that we are not infected and be free to go. “Unfortunately, the State Department has thrown a monkey wrench into that,” he added. Approximately 400 Americans and their families on the Diamond Princess will be offered seats on two flights that could arrive at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., as early as Sunday, a CDC official told The Wall Street Journal. A CDC team will screen passengers and those exhibiting symptoms won’t be allowed on the flights. Smith, however, said he’s skeptical about the proposed plan. “I understand getting off the ship to be in another space, but under this circumstance, the offer is we’re going to put you on buses with other people who haven’t completed their quarantines and have not been tested for the virus,” Smith said. “We’re going to then put you on a plane with all these people and take you back to the United States, and because of the risk you still pose due to that situation we’re going to stick you in another quarantine.” Smith said he would rather stay put on the Diamond Princess ship. While the ship is “getting a bad rap” for its living conditions, Smith said he is content where he is.
Americans from quarantined cruise ship leave Japan -Two planes carrying Americans from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess have left Japan.The aircraft chartered by the US government departed Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in the early hours of Monday, Kyodo news agency reported.There were some 400 Americans on board the ship, which has been held since 3 February due to infections from the new coronavirus which has hit China.At least 40 US citizens are infected and will be treated in Japan.The Diamond Princess has been quarantined in Japan’s port of Yokohama with some 3,700 passengers and crew on board.The ship was held after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was found to have the virus.It has the largest cluster of coronavirus cases outside China. The Japanese authorities on Sunday said the number of new cases on board the ship had risen by 70 to 355. The Americans who are infected will receive medical treatment in Japan, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Face the Nation on CBS. It is not clear exactly how many are on board the evacuation flights which are expected to take them to Air Force bases. “If people on the plane start to develop symptoms, they’ll be segregated within the plane,” Dr Fauci said. Those entering the US will undergo a 14-day quarantine, on top of the time they have already spent confined on the ship.
Hundreds of Americans flown home from cruise ship, 14 with coronavirus – (Reuters) – More than 300 American cruise liner passengers, including 14 who tested positive for coronavirus, were flown home to military bases in the United States after two weeks under quarantine off Japan. The cruise ship Diamond Princess, which with more than 400 cases has by far the largest cluster outside China, has become the biggest test so far of other countries’ ability to contain an outbreak that has killed 1,772 people in China and five elsewhere. A ground crew in anti-contamination suits met the chartered jet that touched down at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, and passengers could be seen climbing down the stairs wearing face masks in the pre-dawn mist. Another flight landed at Travis Air Force Base in California hours earlier. Although U.S. officials had said passengers with coronavirus symptoms would not be repatriated, 14 passengers found at the last minute to have tested positive were permitted to board the planes. The U.S. State Department said the infected passengers were exposed to other passengers for about 40 minutes before they were isolated. Across mainland China, the total number of coronavirus cases rose by 2,051 to 70,635, according to the World Health Organization. That was slightly more new cases than were reported on Sunday, but hundreds fewer than reported on Saturday. Chinese authorities say the decrease is a sign that measures taken to halt the spread of the disease are having an effect. However, epidemiologists say it is probably still too early to say how well the outbreak is being contained within China and its central Hubei province, where the virus first appeared. Official figures of new cases have leveled off in the past, only to jump suddenly after changes in methodology.
‘Wholly inappropriate’ quarantine practices may have helped spread coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, experts say Quarantine efforts on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship may have actually helped the virus spread, some experts say. The ship, called Diamond Princess, is carrying about 3,500 passengers and crew. It has been on a 14-day lockdown in the port of Yokohama, Japan, since it was originally scheduled to dock on February 4. The ship has seen an unprecedented rate of infection, hosting more coronavirus cases than any country besides China. On Saturday, Japan’s Health Minister announced another 67 cases onboard, bringing the ship’s total number of infections up to 286. One quarantine officer has even tested positive for the virus. “There is now ample evidence that this [quarantine] is not preventing the spread of cases within the ship and it is also posing a risk of spread within the ship,” Tom Inglesby, an infectious-disease expert and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told TIME. Since the quarantine began, passengers have been confined to their rooms, with meals delivered to their door every day. People who test positive for the virus have been taken off the ship and transported to medical facilities, according the cruise ship company and Japan’s Ministry of Health. The main problem, several experts have said, has been the decision to keep passengers onboard the ship, especially those who have tested negative for the new coronavirus. “From a virologist’s perspective, a cruise ship with a large number of persons on board is more an incubator for viruses rather than a good place for quarantine,” Dr. Anne Gatignol, a microbiologist who studies viruses at McGill University, told the Montreal Gazette. As experts voice concerns over the quarantine’s effectiveness, people onboard the ship have expressed fear and unhappiness with the living conditions. “I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I could die from this cruise,” Gay Courter, a 75-year-old novelist confined to a cabin on the ship with her husband, told The Wall Street Journal. “I go look outside and there’s people in white hazmat suits.” “There are no clear, obvious precedents for what needs to happen,” Inglesby said.
Exclusive: Millions to be told ‘stay at home’ if coronavirus continues to spread – Telegraph – Anyone suffering flu-like symptoms could be ordered to “self-isolate” for a fortnight if the number of coronavirus cases in the UK hits the hundreds, in what would be a dramatic shift in Government strategy. Over the last week, hospitals across the country have created “isolation pods,” to ensure that anyone tested for the virus is kept away from other patients, with efforts to track all close contacts of confirmed cases. But The Telegraph understands that after a series of high-level meetings health officials are expected to change tack – and simply order anyone with possible symptoms of flu to stay at home – if the virus is not contained. That means millions of Britons with coughs and colds could end up quarantined at home, as part of attempts to dampen down spread of the virus….
Coronavirus cases in China’s Hubei fall for second day, Apple and markets feel impact – 17th (Reuters) – New coronavirus cases in the Chinese province at the epicenter of the outbreak fell for a second straight day, but deaths rose after the World Health Organization had cautioned there was not yet enough data to know if the epidemic had slowed. Hubei reported 1,693 new cases as of Tuesday, down from 1,807 the previous day and the lowest number in the province since Feb. 11. But deaths rose by 132, up from 93 the previous day. The latest figures bring the total number of cases in China to over 74,000 with about 2,000 deaths. The head of a leading hospital in China’s central city of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, died of the disease, becoming one of the most prominent victims since the novel virus first appeared at the end of last year. Illustrating the impact of the outbreak on worldwide growth and corporate profits, oil prices tumbled and equity markets slid after Apple Inc (AAPL.O) issued a revenue warning due to the disruption the disease is causing to global supply chains. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Chinese data “appears to show a decline in new cases” but any apparent trend “must be interpreted very cautiously.” Outside China, there have been 827 cases of the disease, known as COVID-19, and five deaths, according to a Reuters count based on official statements. More than half of those cases have been on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan.
China Quarantines Cash to Sanitize Old Bank Notes From Coronavirus China is disinfecting and isolating used banknotes as part of efforts to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 people, officials said Saturday (Feb 15). Banks use ultraviolet light or high temperatures to disinfect yuan bills, then seal and store the cash for seven to 14 days – depending on the severity of the outbreak in a particular region – before recirculating them, China’s central bank said at a press conference. The virus, which has infected more than 66,000 people in China and spread to more than two dozen other countries, has sparked a rush to disinfect public places and minimise contact between people. Pharmacies across the country sold out of disinfectants and surgical masks in just days after a lockdown was announced in late January on Wuhan city, where the COVID-19 illness is believed to have emerged. Office buildings have installed packets of tissue in elevators that tenants are encouraged to use when pressing buttons, while ride-hailing company Didi exhorts drivers to disinfect their cars daily. Fan Yifei, deputy governor of China’s central bank, said Saturday that banks have been urged to provide new banknotes to customers whenever possible. The central bank made an “emergency issuance” of four billion yuan in new notes to Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, prior to the recent Lunar New Year holiday, Fan added. The measures are intended to “secure the public’s safety and health when using cash”, Fan said.
Coronavirus: China announces drop in new cases for third straight day – China has announced a drop in new cases from the coronavirus outbreak for a third consecutive day. On Sunday, authorities reported 2,009 new cases and 142 more deaths nationwide. New cases spiked earlier in the week after a change in the way they were counted but have been falling ever since. In total more than 68,000 people have been infected in China, with the death toll standing at 1,665. Outside China there have been more than 500 cases in nearly 30 countries. Taiwan reported its first death from the illness on Sunday. The victim was a man in his 60s, who had not travelled abroad recently but who had diabetes and hepatitis B, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said. Four others have died outside China – in France, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan. The measures China has taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus are starting to have an impact, Mi Feng, a spokesman at the National Health Commission, said on Sunday. In other developments:
- The number of people who have tested positive on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is being held in quarantine in Japan, has risen to 355
- A Chinese tourist has died in France – the first fatality outside Asia
- An 83-year-old American woman has tested positive after disembarking another cruise ship that was turned away by a number of countries before being allowed to dock in Cambodia
- In the UK, all but one of nine people being treated have been discharged from hospital
China has imposed more restrictions on the 60 million people living under lockdown in Hubei province – the centre of the outbreak – in an attempt to control the epidemic.The use of private cars has been banned and residents have been told to stay at home unless there’s an emergency.Officials say there will be only one exception to this rule – every three days a single person from each household will be allowed out to buy food and other essential items. Meanwhile, authorities in the capital, Beijing, have ordered everyone returning to the city to go into quarantine for 14 days or risk punishment. China’s central bank will also disinfect and store used banknotes before recirculating them in a bid to stop the virus spreading.
Death toll from China coronavirus jumps to 1,770 – The death toll from China’s new coronavirus epidemic jumped to 1,770 after 105 more people died, the National Health Commission said Monday.More than 70,500 have now been infected nationwide by the virus, which first emerged in December in central Hubei province before spreading across the country.Chinese authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei and its capital Wuhan under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.New cases outside of the epicentre have been declining for the last thirteen daysThere were 115 fresh cases outside the central province, according to the commission on Monday — sharply down from nearly 450 a week ago.Local authorities elsewhere in China have introduced measures to try and stop the virus spreading, including a rule in Beijing requiring people coming to the capital to self-quarantine for 14 days, according to official media.Most cases are still in Hubei, where nearly 2,000 were reported Monday.The number of reported infections ballooned on Thursday last week after Hubei authorities changed their criteria for counting cases, retroactively adding 14,000 cases in a single day.Monday’s figures for new cases were around 100 higher than those on Sunday but still sharply down on those from Friday and Saturday.A spokesman for China’s national health authority said that the slowdown was a sign the outbreak was being controlled.However, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned it is “impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take”.International experts have arrived in Beijing and begun meeting with their Chinese counterparts over the epidemic, Tedros said on Twitter.Global worries about its spread remain high and the epidemic’s reach was highlighted by the US announcing that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan were infected.
Coronavirus: China reports 105 more deaths, taking global toll to 1,775, as some cases throw 14-day incubation into doubt – Mainland China’s health authority on Monday reported 2,048 new coronavirus cases and 105 deaths, taking its totals to 70,548 and 1,770 respectively as of midnight on Sunday. Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, accounted for 100 of the new deaths and 1,933 of the newly confirmed cases – of which 1,690 were in the provincial capital of Wuhan. The figures took the totals announced by the province’s health commission to 1,696 and 58,182 respectively, while the global death toll stood at 1,775. New infections for the province and the country were up on the previous day, when China had reported 2,009 newly confirmed cases and 142 fatalities. The number of new cases had previously dropped three days in a row after a near-10-fold increase in confirmed cases on Thursday when the diagnostic criteria were widened.Henan province in central China has reported two coronavirus cases that took much longer to confirm than the previously estimated incubation period of up to 14 days. Incubation is the time between exposure to the virus and beginning to show symptoms. The government of Xinxian county, in the city of Xinyang, on Sunday reported that one of its new cases had been confirmed 34 days after the patient returned from a mid-January visit to Wuhan. He had been sent to hospital with suspected symptoms on January 28, but twice tested negative before testing positive on February 16. A further two people who attended family gatherings with the man in Xinxian were reported as infected, while three were suspected cases or under hospital quarantine. The county government announced it would extend the home quarantine period from 14 to 21 days for residents who had been to Hubei or had contact with people who had been there. It also reported a case that was confirmed 94 days after the patient’s contact with a relative from Hubei. The patient had taken care of his father-in-law, who arrived from Wuhan on November 13 and died days later. The son-in-law continued to stay in the father-in-law’s house until January 31. However, the government statement said the origin of the son-in-law’s infection had yet to be identified.
When will the coronavirus outbreak peak? – Coronavirus infections in China continue to swell by thousands a day, prompting epidemiologists to estimate when the outbreak will peak. Some suggest the climax, when the number of new infections in a single day reaches its highest point, will happen any time now. Others say that it is months away and that the virus will infect millions – or in one estimate hundreds of millions – of people first. Although peak predictions can be illuminating, some researchers warn that accuracy is difficult to achieve, especially when the data used in models are incomplete. “If you revise your predictions every week to say that the outbreak will peak in a week or two, eventually you will be correct,” On 11 February, Zhong Nanshan, a prominent Chinese physician leading a panel of experts helping to control the outbreak, said that the coronavirus will possibly peak by the end of February. Zhong, who is famous for discovering the SARS virus, said the situation had improved with government control measures, such as travel restrictions and extended holidays, although he admitted that it was still a “difficult period” for Wuhan. At least one model aligns with Zhong’s estimate. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predict that the peak could occur anytime now. Sebastian Funk, a statistician who models infectious diseases and who coauthored the analysis, estimates that at the peak around a million people, about 10% of Wuhan’s population, will be infected. Some researchers find such predictions overly optimistic. People in most Chinese cities started returning to work last week after an extended public-holiday period – opening up the possibility of new chains of transmission, says Hiroshi Nishiura, an epidemiologist at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. Nishiura says he has used a model that estimates that the outbreak will peak sometime between late March and late May. At this point, he says, up to 2.3 million cases will be diagnosed in a single day. In total, he estimates that between 550 million and 650 million people across China will be infected, roughly 40% of the country’s population. Nishiura says that about half of those people will show symptoms.Nishiura says he has submitted a paper describing the model and its prediction to the preprint server medRxiv. To make such a prediction, he says that his team considered the transmission potential inherent to the new virus – the basic reproduction number known as R0, which is related to R, although it assumes that everyone in the population is susceptible to infection. The team estimates the R0 is between 1.5 and 2. He says that his model presents a relatively simplistic outlook because it assumes that everyone in the population is susceptible. It also reflects the view that many people who have been infected are asymptomatic or not unwell enough to seek medical treatment. If that is the case, the current number of reported cases massively underestimates the number of people infected, he says.
China’s Coronavirus Numbers Don’t Add Up, And The White House Doesn’t Believe Them – As we’ve been highlighting for weeks, China’s official coronavirus numbers aren’t adding up. The evidence is overwhelming; overloaded crematoriums in Hubei province, to the official death rate maintaining an improbable 2.1% (within + / – 0.1%) for weeks, to coronavirus deaths counted as pneumonia before they were able to test positive – and finally, all the bodies currently decomposing in apartments (government-sealed or not).Officially, there are currently 69,289 confirmed cases, and 1,670 fatalities, with 95% of those coming from China.To that end, Barron’s notes that China’s coronavirus numbers are “too perfect to mean much.”A statistical analysis of China’s coronavirus casualty data shows a near-perfect prediction model that data analysts say isn’t likely to naturally occur, casting doubt over the reliability of the numbers being reported to the World Health Organization. That’s aside from news on Thursday that health officials in the epicenter of the outbreak reported a surge in new infections after changing how they diagnose the illness. – Barron’s This week, the Trump administration said that it does “not have high confidence in the information coming out of China,” while CNBC notes that Beijing has been reluctant to accept help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and has been suppressing information about the outbreak from scientists that run counter to their prevailing narrative that everything is under control and the virus is peaking. U.S. officials’ mistrust of China goes as far back as the 1950s, when national authorities set unrealistic production quotas that led local officials to inflate data. Mishaps with the 2003 outbreak of SARS, which sickened 8,098 people and killed about 800 over nine months, and discrepancies in reporting of economic data over the past two decades has only hardened the U.S. government’s belief that China cannot be trusted, experts say. White House advisor Peter Navarro has even called China a “disease incubator.” – CNBC Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) – which receives the second-largest financial contribution from China after the United States – has been defending Beijing and praising their response while insisting that travel restrictions are unnecessary and racist (would spread “fear and stigma”).
We’re Reading the Coronavirus Numbers Wrong – NYT – Everyone wants to know how deadly COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is. The technical term for that is the case fatality rate – which is, put simply, the number of people who have died from the disease (D) divided by the total number of people who were infected with it (I), or D/I. As of Tuesday morning, at least 1,873 people were thought to have diedfrom the disease worldwide and 72,869 people to have been infected.But those figures may not mean what you think.The number of deaths (D) seems like it should be easy enough to determine: After all, dead is dead. And yet ascribing a cause of death can be tricky.The coronavirus might be blamed for the deaths of vulnerable people, especially seniors, already suffering from other illnesses, such as diabetes and other chronic conditions. On the other hand, some deaths will be attributed to other illnesses that might more accurately be ascribed to COVID-19. Even more problematic is figuring out the total number of infected people (I) – call that the mystery of the denominator. Patients who have tested positive and are hospitalized are included in that tally, of course. But what about those who are being treated without formally having been tested? Or those who might be infected and yet display no symptoms? Another complicating factor is the remaining number of unresolved or indeterminate cases: Medical experts still aren’t sure, for example, how long the infection’s incubation period may be.And then, in addition to the uncertainty inherent in the basic numbers, there are the distortions unintentionally created by the way those numbers are reported by medical officials and presented by the media.Last week, the authorities of Hubei, the province in China at the center of the epidemic, revised their definition of what it means to be infected by the new coronavirus: On Thursday, they started including people who displayed symptoms associated with COVID-19 – coughing, a fever, difficulty breathing – even if those people hadn’t been tested or had tested negative for the virus. As a result, the number of new daily cases increased by a factor of nine overnight. Yet when news outlets reported last week, after the revision in what counts as an infection, the largest jump in reported cases “in a single day and more than twice the previous record high,” readers could be forgiven for assuming that the situation had just taken a turn for the worse. Even articles that stated the broader circumstances of the increase could be misleading: Some, by announcing in their headlines a “dramatic spike” or a “surge” in the number of cases; others, by discussing the swell while stating that local officials had been sacked for it.
Scientists question China’s decision not to report symptom-free coronavirus cases – Researchers are concerned that China’s official reports on the number of coronavirus infections have not been including people who have tested positive for the virus but who have no symptoms. They fear the practice is masking the epidemic’s true scale. But public health experts say China is right to prioritize tracking sick patients who are spreading the disease.Since the early days of the outbreak, the country’s National Health Commission has reported daily infection counts, which infectious-disease researchers outside China have been relying on to model the outbreak’s spread and severity.Earlier this month, officials from Heilongjiang province in northeast China announced that 13 people who had tested positive for the virus with a lab test but who had no symptoms had been removed from the region’s list of confirmed cases. Officials said that they were following the commission’s guidelines for reporting infections, which state that such people should be classified as ‘positive cases’ rather than ‘confirmed cases’. Only confirmed cases are noted in the commission’s official daily reports.The situation in Heilongjiang has put a spotlight on China’s reporting guidelines. These had already been getting attention after they were updated on 7 February to allow physicians to confirm cases using images from chest scans rather than waiting days for lab tests. The change in diagnostic criteria saw infections in Hubei, the province at the centre of the epidemic, jump by nearly 15,000 cases in a single day last week. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, who helps to implement the guidelines, says that they have always required that positive cases not be counted as confirmed cases. Instead, those who test positive are isolated for 14 days and monitored by health authorities. If they develop symptoms in that period, they are classified as a confirmed case.
Coronavirus: Largest study suggests elderly and sick are most at risk – BBC -Health officials in China have published the first details of more than 44,000 cases of Covid-19, in the biggest study since the outbreak began. Data from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) finds that more than 80% of the cases have been mild, with the sick and elderly most at risk.The research also points to the high risk to medical staff.A hospital director in the city of Wuhan died from the virus on Tuesday.Liu Zhiming, 51, was the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan – one of the leading hospitals in the virus epicentre. He is one of the most senior health officials to die so far.Hubei, whose capital is Wuhan, is the worst affected province in the country. The report by the CCDC shows the province’s death rate is 2.9% compared with 0.4% in the rest of the country.The findings put the overall death rate of the Covid-19 virus at 2.3%. China’s latest official figures released on Tuesday put the overall death toll at 1,868 and 72,436 infections.
Hospital director in China’s coronavirus epicentre dies from disease himself – The director of the hospital in China’s coronavirus epicentre has died from the disease himself. Dr Liu Zhiming, director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, died today from the virus officially named COVID 19. The coronavirus death toll in mainland China reached 1,770 on Sunday, up by 105 from the previous day, the country’s National Health Commission has said. The number of new deaths in China’s central Hubei province from the coronavirus outbreak rose by 100 as of Sunday. Across mainland China, there were 2,048 new confirmed infections on Sunday. The total accumulated number so far has reached 70,548. The latest rise in the number of reported new cases of coronavirus in Hubei after two days of falls, comes as authorities imposed tough new restrictions on movement to prevent the spread of the disease. The tighter lockdown on the central province where the flu-like virus originated in December came as American passengers were taken off a cruise liner on Sunday to fly home after being quarantined for two weeks off Japan. Seventy new coronavirus cases were confirmed on board the Diamond Princess where 3,700 passengers and crew have been held since February 3. Some 355 people on board have tested positive for the disease, by far the largest cluster of cases outside China. Canadian, Italian, South Korean and Hong Kong passengers were expected to follow soon, after their governments also announced plans to repatriate passengers.
China postpones year’s biggest political gathering amid coronavirus outbreak China’s annual parliamentary meeting, which was scheduled for early March, will almost certainly be postponed because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The state news agency Xinhua reported that the standing committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) would discuss the delay later this month – effectively indicating that it would be put back. Zang Tiewei, a spokesman for the NPC legislative affairs commission, told Xinhua that deferring the March meeting would allow government officials to concentrate on controlling the outbreak, which has killed more than 1,700 people. Zang said one third of the national legislators were also local government officials who are currently working to stop the disease spreading. No new date for the meeting has been announced.Xinhua also reported that the leaders of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) had discussed delaying the full meeting in March and one for senior political advisers at the end of this month. A mainland source who is familiar with the preparations said the risks of going ahead with the annual sessions of the NPC and CPPCC – commonly known as the “two sessions” – were too high. “The health risk of convening the annual sessions early next month would be too high when the coronavirus outbreak has not yet been effectively contained,” the source said. “The risk of cross infections would be very high for nearly 8,000 people … as well as staff responsible for administering the meetings, under the same roof of the Great Hall of the People,” the source said.
Coronavirus ‘lab leakage’ rumors spreading – “Outbreak ‘could have started’ in Wuhan facility, as first patient never went to wet market identified as source“. A Wuhan lab affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has sought to dispel rumors that it “made and leaked” the highly infectious pneumonic virus that led to the still-raging global outbreak. While Chinese President Xi Jinping was briefed about the public health threat by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) in early January, the government decided against sounding the alarm because it did not want to “mar the festive vibe” during the Lunar New Year celebrations. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in the provincial capital of Hubei, which is the ground zero of the contagion, has been thrust into the media spotlight by the allegation last week that it leaked “bio-hazardous agents.” Posts circulating on WeChat and Weibo claim that a researcher at the institute was the first to be infected by the novel coronavirus, now called Covid-19 by the World Health Organization. The female virologist and a graduate from the institute, referred to as “patient zero,” had never visited the city’s shambolic wet market – also known as the “zoo” – where a range of wild animals were sold. The market has been identified by the authorities as the most probable source of the deadly pathogen. In a statement released on Sunday, the lab stressed that the researcher had left the city in 2015 and was in good health, refusing to release more information about her for privacy reasons.
Ukrainian villagers STONE buses bringing countrymen evacuated from Wuhan to coronavirus quarantine RT – Ukrainians evacuated from Wuhan, China, have been less than welcomed at a village hosting the coronavirus quarantine facility. Videos show locals throwing stones at buses with evacuees, burning tires and clashing with police. Dozens of villagers first attempted to block the road leading to Novye Sanzhary, in the Poltava region of central Ukraine, and stop the government’s plan to quarantine the Ukrainian evacuees from Wuhan there. Their roadblocks were removed by force, with police using armored vehicles and arresting several locals. Later on Thursday, the villagers gathered outside the local medical facility and threw stones at the buses bringing in the evacuees, smashing windows and damaging the vehicles. “I urge the protesters not to violate the law. All attempts to commit offenses will be stopped,” Ivan Vygovsky, head of the Poltava regional police, said in a statement. This is not the first such protest in Ukraine. Earlier this week, roadblocks were set up in the Ternopil and Lviv regions in the west, following rumors that the government was planning to set up quarantine facilities there.
Coronavirus: Joshua Wong’s Demosisto imports 100,000 face masks to give to underprivileged Hongkongers amid shortage Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong has said that his pro-democracy Demosisto group has purchased 100,000 face masks from the US for Hongkongers. They will be given to district councillors to hand to those in need. There have been 49 confirmed cases of the new SARS-like “covid-19” virus in Hong Kong, including one death. Globally, there have been 45,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths. Stocks of surgical masks around the city dried up several weeks ago with orders from overseas often cancelled before they were shipped. Wong said Tobias Leung – a standing committee member of Demosisto – started contacting mask manufacturers at the end of last month. Wong thanked contacts in Washington for securing the masks, including overseas Hongkongers and groups such as the Hong Kong Democracy Council and NY4HK. “Hongkongers owe them our deep gratitude for their generous support. When the Hong Kong government is reducing into a failed state and completely mishandles the coronavirus [outbreak], it proves once again that a robust civil society with strong international networks is the only way out for Hong Kong,” Wong said. “We gathered a large amount of funds locally so that we could transfer them to the US in order to block orders from mainland China from using cash to race against us,” Wong said. He added that there was a lack of cargo planes available and they had to pay more than triple the normal price to fly the masks to Hong Kong.
Coronavirus live updates: China death toll hits 1,868, as more than 450 on cruise ship test positive – China’s National Health Commission said there were 1,886 confirmed new cases on the mainland and 98 additional deaths related to the new, deadly strain of coronavirus, most of them occurring in Hubei province (see 7 a.m. update). As of Feb. 17, the Chinese government said there was a total of 72,436 confirmed cases and 1,868 people have died so far. Out of a total of 1,723 passengers and crew members tested on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan, 454 people were confirmed to have been infected, Japan’s health ministry said. That included 189 asymptomatic carriers, or those who tested positive but did not show any symptoms, according to the ministry. Countries, including the United States, have started repatriating their stranded citizens on chartered planes. U.S. officials said they received notice that 14 passengers had tested positive and they were allowed to be evacuated while kept in isolation from other passengers. The ship had been quarantined since Feb. 3 after a previous guest tested positive for the disease six days after disembarking. German automaker Volkswagen told CNBC that its joint ventures in China are working to get production back to their normal schedule. SAIC Volkswagen, a joint venture with China’s SAIC Motor, postponed restarting production at their plants until Feb. 24. FAW-Volkswagen, a partnership with FAW Group, has started work in some factories and expects to resume full operations in the coming days. “We are working hard on getting back to our normal production schedule, while facing delays due to national supply chain and logistics challenges as well as limited travel options for production employees,” a spokesperson for Volkswagen Group China told CNBC. “Production feasibility at each plant is checked individually, resulting in different starting times.”
Japan issues guidelines to prevent rush on hospitals as COVID-19 cases surge The health ministry on Monday released guidelines for people who fear they have been infected with COVID-19 as officials said 99 more aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, including 43 Japanese citizens, had tested positive. The newly identified people raised the total toll from the vessel to 454. A total of 3,711 passengers and crew were originally aboard the liner, but the total has dropped to about 3,100 as many elderly were allowed to disembark and some were transported to a hospital on land. Meanwhile, many public events have been scrapped or scaled down due to fears of an epidemic. The government issued the guidelines – which cover issues like when to get checked at a hospital – after experts said the coronavirus outbreak in Japan had entered a new phase, spreading among residents not directly linked to China. Medical workers are concerned that large numbers of people suffering from cold-like symptoms, whether or not they are infected with the coronavirus, will flood hospitals and strain resources. The guidelines urge people to stay home if they have symptoms. If symptoms grow serious, they are advised to call a special consultation center set up by the government. “How patients go see a doctor is a crucial factor,” Takaji Wakita, the head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, said Sunday. “What we’ve come to know so far is there are many who only went through mild symptoms. … Those with mild symptoms are advised not to visit an outpatient doctor but call the consultation center.”
Coronavirus live updates: Iran confirms two deaths, IMF chief issues warning on global growth – Two Iranians have died in hospital after testing positive for the new coronavirus in the holy Shi’ite city of Qom, the head of the city’s University of Medical Sciences told Mehr news agency on Wednesday. “Two Iranians, who tested positive earlier today for new coronavirus, died of respiratory illness,” the official told Mehr. Iran’s health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur confirmed their death on Twitter. Iran confirmed earlier in the day its first two cases of the virus, government spokesman Ali Rabiei said, shortly after reports that preliminary tests on the two had come back positive.The health ministry said earlier that the patients had beenput in isolation. – Reuters International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva said the COVID-19 outbreak is the “most pressing uncertainty” for the global economy. The new coronavirus is going to slow China’s economic growth for the year – just how much depends on how well world leaders can contain the fast-spreading outbreak, she said in a blog post. “There are a number of scenarios, depending on how quickly the spread of the virus is contained,” she said. If it’s contained quickly, she said, China’s overall 2020 GDP growth will be hurt, but just slightly and cross-border spillover would remain minimal. “However, a long-lasting and more severe outbreak would result in a sharper and more protracted growth slowdown in China. Its global impact would be amplified through more substantial supply chain disruptions and a more persistent drop in investor confidence, especially if the epidemic spreads beyond China.”
As COVID-19 death toll exceeds 2,000, Russia imposes blanket ban on entry of Chinese nationals – International Business Times – On Tuesday, February 18, mainland China reported 1,749 new cases of COVID-19 infection along with 136 fatalities. This has led to the total number of fatalities exceeding 2,000, with over 99.75 percent reported in the mainland itself. 1,749 cases along with 136 new deaths were reported in the Chinese mainland. This has brought the total number of infection cases to 74,185 along with 2,004 deaths, Global Times reported. China’s hard-hit Hubei province, that has served as the epicenter of the virus outbreak, reported 1,693 new cases and 132 fatalities. Thus, the numbers have reduced from the previous day, where Hubei reported 1,749 cases and 136 fatalities. As of Tuesday, Hubei has reported a total of 61,682 infection cases and 1,921 fatalities. The number of cases outside Hubei has declined for the 15th consecutive day, with 56 cases reported on Tuesday. Hubei’s capital, Wuhan, where the disease is said to have originated from a local sea-food and wet market, reported 1,660 new cases along with 116 fatalities. Tuesday marked the first day where the number of recovered patients, 1,824, surpassed the number of newly confirmed cases, 1,749, Global Times reported. On Tuesday, Russia announced that it will impose a blanket ban on the entry of all Chinese nationals, from Thursday, February 20, onwards, South China Morning Post reported. “From 00:00 local time on February 20, 2020, the passage of citizens from the People’s Republic of China across the state border of the Russian Federation is temporarily suspended,” the statement by the office of Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Tatyana Golikova said. Till now, Russia has reported two coronavirus cases, both of whom are Chinese citizens who have been quarantined in Siberia. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, February 19, South Korea reported 15 new cases, bringing the total tally to 46, Reuters reported. Eleven of those cases were linked to a single patient, a 61-year-old woman. Ten of them attended the same church as the woman. She developed a fever on February 10 but refused to be tested for the coronavirus on the grounds that she had not traveled abroad recently. On Tuesday, she became the 31st confirmed case in South Korea.
Two Cruise Deaths Reported; South Korea Cases Soar: Virus Update – Two people from the quarantined cruise ship in Japan have died, NHK reported, while coronavirus cases in South Korea more than doubled in one day, with a surge of infections tied to a church. Stocks came under pressure on signs the outbreak was spreading more rapidly beyond China. The death toll in mainland China rose to 2,118 as Hubei province added 108 fatalities. China’s banks lowered the benchmark borrowing costs for loans as Beijing seeks to blunt the economic impact of the outbreak. The novel coronavirus is shed in the feces of infected people, which may help explain why it’s spread so fast, according to Chinese researchers. The finding of live virus particles in stool specimens indicates a fecal-oral route for coronavirus, which may be why it’s caused outbreaks on cruise ships with an intensity often seen with gastro-causing norovirus, which also spreads along that pathway. More than 600 Covid-19 infections were confirmed among passengers and crew aboard the Diamond Princess, the ship quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan. “This virus has many routes of transmission, which can partially explain” its rapid spread, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Saturday. The agency recommends strengthening sanitation and hygiene measures to prevent fecal-oral transmission in epidemic area. Japan said two people who were on the cruise ship off Yokohama died from the novel coronavirus, NHK reported, citing an unidentified government official. The fatalities were a man and woman, both Japanese nationals in their 80s, who had existing medical conditions, NHK reported. Confirmed coronavirus cases in South Korea have more than doubled within a day, to 82, with a surge tied to a church whose members may have contracted the virus from a single person.South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that of the 31 new confirmed cases, 24 attended the “same Korean cult” with at least five of them having an “epidemiological link” to a patient confirmed with the coronavirus earlier this week. The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, formerly known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus, said in a statement on its website that the patient identified as No. 31 by KCDC attended a worship service in one of its churches in Daegu. The pastor told local media that some 1,000 people attended the same service. The outbreak in Daegu, a city about 235 kilometers (150 miles) south of Seoul, has raised renewed concerns about the virus in South Korea after a lull in reported cases last week.
Coronavirus outbreak in South Korea linked to Shincheonji Christian sect – South Korea has reported a large boost in the number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases, the majority of which have been linked to a minor Christian sect in the country. Authorities confirmed 73 new cases, 42 of which were directly or indirectly connected to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony – a religious movement which worships its founder Lee Man-hee as the second coming of Jesus Christ. The mayor of the central Korean city of Daegu, where the affected Shincheonji congregation is based, urged its 2.5 million people to refrain from going outside as new cases spiked. Mayor Kwon Young-jin made the appeal in a nationally televised news conference, pleading for assistance from the central government. Mr Kwon also asked Daegu citizens to wear masks even indoors if possible. South Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention described the outbreak there as a “super-spreading event.” A 61-year-old woman known as “Patient 31” is thought to have spread the disease to dozens of people who attended religious services at the church. Patient 31 assumed she was suffering from the common cold and kept coming to her Daegu church because she did not travel overseas, church officials said. “The Daegu branch has been shut down since this morning and is conducting prevention measures,” the statement said. “We think it’s deeply regrettable … for causing concerns to the local community.” One other person, who came in contact with her at a hospital, has also come down with the virus.
34 Coronavirus Cases Confirmed in the United States: CDC — Thirty-four patients have tested positive for the new coronavirusin the United States, federal officials said on Friday, after another patient tested positive late Thursday. Twenty-one of the patients were repatriated from foreign countries by the State Department. Groups were quarantined at military bases after being repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where hundreds of infections emerged, and Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged in December 2019.All but three of the 21 patients were passengers on the ship, which is docked in Yokohama, Japan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The other 13 patients weren’t among the groups that were repatriated. The number is one less than the number that the CDC has listed on its website as of Friday afternoon. The last patient to test positive was in Humboldt County, California. That patient returned from mainland China, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a top CDC official, told reporters in a phone call on Friday. The Department of Health and Human Services said that a close contact of the patient is showing symptoms and is being tested. Both “are doing well and self-isolating at home,” the department said in a statement.
Hospitals across the US prepare for coronavirus outbreak to become global pandemic – A larger spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus across the U.S. could overwhelm emergency rooms and cause supply shortages of some crucial medical supplies. The threat of the new virus comes at an already busy time for most U.S. hospitals: Seasonal flu is at its peak. “This is the time to open up your pandemic plans and see that things are in order,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, a top official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged hospitals last week as an outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus ravaged much of China. “For instance,” she continued, health-care providers need to plan for a “surge at a hospital, the ability to provide personal protective equipment for your workforce, the administrative controls and so forth that you might put place in a health care setting.” Schuchat’s warning came as U.S. and world health officials increasingly sound the alarm of a possible pandemic outbreak of the deadly new coronavirus that has killed more than 2,100 people in China in the last seven weeks. The COVID-19 epidemic in China has not yet met world health officials’ designation of a global pandemic that spreads far and wide throughout the world. While it has spread to more than two dozen countries, international health officials say there’s very little transmission on local levels outside of China right now. But they’ve warned that could quickly change. The virus is proving to be far more contagious than the flu, having spread from 300 people in mid-January to more than 75,700 as of Thursday morning. While a majority of those cases are in China – with just 15 confirmed in the U.S. – the CDC has been working with the health-care sector to prepare for the virus to “take a foothold in the U.S,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters Feb. 12.”At some point, we are likely to see community spread in the U.S. or in other countries,” she warned.
Coronavirus live updates: Air travel set to decline for first time since 2009, FBI stocks up on hand sanitizer and masks – Global air travel demand is set to decline for the first time since 2009 because of coronavirus, the International Air Transport Association said Thursday. Pauses in corporate travel and overall slumping demand due to warnings of the rapidly-spreading illness have prompted carriers to suspend service or drastically reduce China service. The outbreak will cost Chinese airlines $12.8 billion in revenue and nearly $29 billion for carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, IATA estimated. The trade group, which represents most of the world’s airlines, had forecast demand growth in 2020 of 4.1%, which it’s now revised to a contraction of The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has ordered $40,000 of hand sanitizer and face masks “in case the coronavirus becomes a pandemic in the United States,” according to the acquisition document. The FBI’s “pandemic preparedness” supply order includes face masks from manufacturer 3M and disinfectants, including hand sanitizer, from PDI Healthcare, the document said. In its purchase order, the FBI said it needs to have those items on hand if the coronavirus, or COVID-19, spreads widely throughout the U.S. The masks and disinfectants “are to be stored throughout the country for distribution in the event of a declared pandemic,” according to the document, which was signed Friday and gave the companies a week to fulfill the order. World health officials said that the new coronavirus has not yet spread widely around the world, but emphasized that the virus could break out globally at any time. “The number of cases in the rest of the world is very small compared to what we have in China, but that may not stay the same for long,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva on Thursday. Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new virus outbreak plunged into chaos Thursday as local residents opposing the move engaged in violent clashes with police. Several hundred residents of the village of Novi Sanzhary in Ukraine’s central Poltava region blocked the road to a sanitarium intended to host the evacuees. Demonstrators put up road blocks, burned tires and clashed with riot police who moved to clear access. More than 10 people were detained, and Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov personally visited the site of the protests to try to calm the crowd down. Avakov urged the protesters “not to fall for provocations and be understanding of the necessity for these temporary measures.”
Chinese Coronavirus Patient Reinfected 10 Days After Leaving Hospital – As we first reported on Monday, shortly after the US decided to break the quarantine surrounding the Diamond Princess cruise ship which had emerged as the single-biggest locus of coronavirus cases outside of China, hundreds of weary, homesick Americans were on their way home, U.S. officials wrestled with troubling news: new test results showed that 14 passengers were infected with the virus. The problem: the U.S. State Department had promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board the planes. At this point, according to the Washington Post, a fierce debate broke out in Washington, where it was still Sunday afternoon: The State Department and a top Trump administration health official wanted to forge ahead. At this point, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagreed, contending they could still spread the virus. The CDC believed the 14 should not be flown back with uninfected passengers. In the end, the State Department won the argument. In retrospect, the CDC will soon be proven correct in its dire warning that repatriating a full plane of both infected and healthy individuals could be a catastrophic error, because it now appears that not only can the virus remain latent for as long as 42 days, 4 weeks longer than traditionally assumed, resulting in numerous false negative cases as infected carrier slip across borders undetected, but far more ominously, it now appears that the diseases can re-infect recently “cured” patients, because as Taiwan News reports, a Chinese patient who just recovered from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) has been infected for the second time in the province of Sichuan, according to local health officials.On Wednesday (Feb. 19), the People’s Daily reported that a man in Sichuan’s capital Chengdu had tested positive for the virus during a regular check-up just ten days after being discharged from the hospital. The report said he had previously been cleared of the virus by medical staff.The Sichuan Health Commission confirmed the news on Friday (Feb. 21) and issued a community warning announcement in the patient’s neighborhood. The announcement said that the man and his family had been transported to a nearby health facility on Thursday morning (Feb. 20) and that health officials had sanitized the entire community, reported Liberty Times.According to ETtoday, the patient and his family had been under home quarantine and had not left the house since Feb. 10. The authorities are still investigating the cause of the reinfection. The news has stirred up heated reactions from Chinese netizens. Some suspect that the hospital discharged the man before he was fully recovered, and many have expressed concern about the worsening epidemic. Several doctors from Wuhan, the epicenter of COVID-19, said last week that it is possible for recovered patients to contract the virus a second time. They warned that a recurring infection could be even more damaging to a patient’s body and that the tests are susceptible to false negatives.
29 Year-Old Doctor Treating Patients in Coronavirus Epicenter Dies From Disease – Peng Yinhua passed away from the COVID-19 coronavirus on Feb. 20, and became the latest medical staff in China to succumb to the disease. Peng, 29, was a doctor at the Jiangxia district People’s No. 1 Hospital in Wuhan City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. When his condition became critical, he was given a plasma transfusion. But he could not recover. This month, there were two other confirmed cases of doctors who died from the disease after contracting the virus from treating patients: Liu Zhiming, director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, and Li Wenliang, a whistleblower doctor from Wuhan Central Hospital. According to a Feb. 17 study published by a group of doctors from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology magazine, 3,019 medical staff across the country have been infected with the coronavirus between Dec. 8, 2019 to Feb. 11. According to their tally, five of them passed away (not counting Liu and Peng). In July 2019, Peng started working at the respiratory and critical medicine department of the Jiangxia district People’s No. 1 Hospital in Wuhan. On Dec. 21, 2019, the hospital received its first COVID-19 coronavirus patient. Since then, Peng began treating virus patients, according to the Yangtze River Daily. On Jan. 25, Peng showed symptoms of the virus. A CT scan showed that his lungs were infected. His colleagues arranged for him to receive treatment in the hospital. “He [Peng] was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Jan. 30, and was transferred to Jinyintan Hospital, the designated coronavirus hospital. On Feb. 10, his condition deteriorated,” Peng’s wife Zhong Xin told state-run media The Paper on Feb. 21. His wife is pregnant with their first child. “We registered to be husband and wife two years ago. We planned to have a wedding ceremony on Feb. 1,” Zhong said. “Because he didn’t know where the outbreak was headed, we decided to postpone the ceremony.”
China says spread of deadly coronavirus slowing; death toll climbs – China reported a further fall in new virus cases to 889 on Friday as health officials expressed optimism over containment of the outbreak that has caused more than 2,200 deaths and is spreading elsewhere. Containment of the illness has been a struggle far from the epicenter in central China as a major South Korean city urged residents to stay indoors. New infections in China have been falling for days, although changes in how it counts cases have caused doubts about the true trajectory of the epidemic. “The downward trend will not be reversed,” insisted Ding Xiangyang, deputy chief secretary of the State Council and a member of the central government’s supervision group said on Thursday. China’s figures for the previous 24 hours brought the total number of cases to 75,465. The 118 newly reported deaths raised the total to 2,236. More than 1,000 cases and 11 deaths have been confirmed outside the mainland.
Death toll in China’s coronavirus jumps to 2,236; confirmed cases cross 75,400 – The death toll in China’s novel coronavirus has gone up to 2,236 with 118 more deaths reported, mostly from the hard-hit Hubei province, while the overall confirmed infection cases have climbed to 75,465, Chinese health officials said on Friday. The number of deaths is higher than the previous day when 114 people died of the disease, but the country reported the lowest number of new infection cases in nearly a month, fuelling hopes that Beijing’s epidemic control efforts were working. ..
Coronavirus- South Korea ’emergency’ measures as infections increase – South Korea has stepped up measures to contain the spread of the deadly new coronavirus, as confirmed infections increased sharply for a second day. PM Chung Sye-kyun said it was now an emergency as 100 new cases and the country’s second death were confirmed. The virus has also spread in Iran, which reported two further deaths among 13 new cases, bringing the total number of deaths there to four. Lebanon also announced its first confirmed case. In Iran the outbreak is centred on the holy city of Qom, south of the capital Tehran, but health ministry official Minou Mohrez said the virus may already have spread to “all cities in Iran”. The case in Lebanon was a 45-year-old woman who had travelled from Qom, Lebanese Health Minister Hassan Hamad said. World Health Organization (WHO) officials said both Iran and Lebanon had the basic capacity to detect the virus and the WHO was contacting them to offer further assistance. “The measures China and others have taken have given us a fighting chance of containing the spread of the virus,” WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Our window of opportunity is narrowing so we need to act quickly,” he added. The southern cities of Daegu and Cheongdo have been declared “special care zones”. The streets of Daegu are now largely abandoned. All military bases are in lockdown after three soldiers tested positive. About 9,000 members of a religious group were told to self quarantine, after the sect was identified as a coronavirus hotbed. The authorities suspect the current outbreak in South Korea originated in Cheongdo, pointing out that a large number of sect followers attended a funeral of the founder’s brother from 31 January to 2 February. On Friday, a second person who contracted the coronavirus died.
“It Looks Like A Zombie Apocalypse” – City Streets Deserted Amid Surge In Korean COVID-19 Cases – Seemingly overnight, the public attitude toward the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea has gone from simmering apprehension to full-blown paranoia. And nowhere is that more apparent than in Daegu, the country’s fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.5 million people – roughly one-tenth of the South’s total population.As the South Korean government debates whether to raise the alert level, the mayor of Daegu has asked all of the city’s residents to avoid venturing outside as the government tracks down, tests and quarantines all the members of a church where an infected woman is believed to have spread the virus to more than 40 people.As a result, the usually bustling streets of Daegu have suddenly gone quiet: Residents who spoke to Reuters described empty streets in the city center, deserted storefronts and a pervasive “climate of fear”.On social media, some Koreans are trying to inject a little levity into the conversation. Following a news report where a local described the environment as “a Zombie Apocalypse”, some posted clips from the infamous Korean zombie movie “Train to Busan.” Overnight, South Korea reported its first virus-linked death, and on Thursday malls, storefronts, bars and restaurants were all empty, along with the streets of Daegu.The most crowded streets in the city were abandoned. “It’s like someone dropped a bomb in the middle of the city. It looks like a zombie apocalypse,” Kim Geun-woo, a 28-year-old resident told Reuters by telephone.
Virus cases jump in S Korea to 346, China daily count drops — South Korea on Saturday reported a six-fold jump in viral infections in four days to 346, most of them linked to a church and a hospital in and around the fourth-largest city where schools were closed and worshipers and others told to avoid mass gatherings. Initial infections were linked to China, but new cases in South Korea and Iran – where there have been four deaths – don’t show a clear connection to travel there. In an emerging cluster of illnesses in northern Italy, the first to fall ill met with someone who had returned from China on Jan. 21 without experiencing any symptoms of the new virus, health authorities said. China said Saturday the daily count of new virus cases there fell significantly to 397, with another 109 people dying of the disease, most in the epicenter of Hubei province. The new figures bring the total number of cases in mainland China to 76,288 with 2,345 deaths, as strict quarantine measures and travel bans continue to contain the disease that emerged in China in December and has since spread worldwide. The daily figure is down from 889 on Friday. Of the 142 new cases in South Korea, 131 are from Daegu and nearby regions, which have emerged as the latest front in the widening global fight against COVID-19. South Korea’s Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said Saturday that the outbreak had entered a serious new phase, but still expressed cautious optimism that it can be contained to the region surrounding Daegu, where the first case was reported on Tuesday. By Saturday morning, the city of 2.5 million and nearby areas counted 283 cases, including South Korea’s first two fatalities in Cheongdo hospital. The central government has declared the area as a “special management zone” and is channeling support to ease a shortage in hospital beds, medical personnel and equipment. “Although we are beginning to see some more cases nationwide, infections are still sporadic outside of the special management zone of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province,” Kim said during a briefing. He called for maintaining strong border controls to prevent infections from China and elsewhere from entering South Korea. Nationwide, the numbers told of a ballooning problem. There were 20 new cases reported Wednesday, 53 on Thursday and 100 on Friday. Around 170 of those have been directly linked to a single house of worship, a Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, where a woman in her 60s attended two services before testing positive for the virus. Officials are also investigating a possible link between churchgoers and the spike in infections at the Cheongdo hospital, where 111 people have so far been infected, mostly patients at a mental illness ward. Kim said health officials were screening some 9,300 of the church followers who were in self-quarantine at their homes, and that about 540 have exhibited cough and other symptoms. The virus patients at the Cheongdo hospital were transferred to other facilities, but 17 of them were in critical condition, Kim said without elaborating.
New coronavirus cases fall in China but fears grow over global spread – (Reuters) – China reported a sharp fall in new deaths and cases of the coronavirus on Saturday but world health officials warned it was too early to make predictions about the outbreak as new infections continued to rise in other countries. Chinese authorities said the mainland had 397 new confirmed cases on Friday, down from 889 a day earlier. The numbers surged elsewhere, though, with outbreaks worsening in South Korea, Iran, Italy and Lebanon. In South Korea, authorities said on Saturday the number of new infections had doubled to 433, and suggested the tally could rise significantly as more than 1,000 people who attended a church at the center of the outbreak reported flu-like symptoms. The World Health Organization welcomed the reported decline in new Chinese cases, but said it was concerned about the number of new infections elsewhere with no clear link to China such as travel history or contact with a confirmed case. “Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for COVID-19 (the new virus) to spread in countries with weaker health systems,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. The U.N. agency is calling for $675 million to support most vulnerable countries, he said, adding 13 countries in Africa are seen as a priority because of their links to China. ADVERTISEMENT
Coronavirus: more deaths confirmed as authorities around the world struggle to contain outbreak – as it happened – More than 78,000 people around the world have been confirmed to have been infected by the Covid-19 virus, with most cases in mainland China, though clusters that have unclear origins have emerged in Singapore, Iran and South Korea. Five people have now died from the coronavirus in Iran, prompting World Health Organization head to say Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus he was especially concerned about the country. Carnival celebrations were banned in some Italian towns after they were placed on lockdown following the deaths of two people from the coronavirus. The UK residents who were trapped on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan for more than two weeks were sent to an isolation facility on Merseyside for a further 14 days of isolation at a facility after landing back in the south of England on a Ministry of Defence flight. A British couple diagnosed with the coronavirus also have pneumonia, after spending two weeks in quarantine onboard the coronavirus-stricken Princess Diamond. The family of David and Sally Abel, from Northamptonshire, said they had been moved to a “prison”-like hospital. Around 100 more passengers were allowed to disembark from the cruise ship on Saturday, as Japan’s health minister apologised after 23 others were allowed to leave without being properly tested. Around 150 people brought to a hotel in Milton Keynes earlier this month after being evacuated from Wuhan will be discharged tomorrow following a two-week period in quarantine. There is uncertainty in Singapore, where eight out of 85 infections appear to have no links to previous cases, and in South Korea, where links to a controversial church are being investigated. Samsung shut a mobile device factory in South Korea after a worker tested positive for coronavirus, while organisers for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics postponed training for volunteers because of the spread of the coronavirus.
China coronavirus outbreak: All the latest updates | Al Jazeera – The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus has intensified around the world, with South Korean cases more than doubling to reach 433 – the highest number outside of China. Italy on Saturday confirmed its first two deaths from the virus as authorities moved to close schools, bars and other public spaces in 10 northern towns. Meanwhile in the Middle East, Iran’s health ministry reported a sixth death on Saturday, a day after Israel and Lebanon confirmed their first cases. Mainland China noted a significant fall in the number of new cases, with 397 reported on Saturday. The total number of cases in mainland China to 76,288 and there have been 2,345 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the window of opportunity to stem the deadly epidemic was “narrowing” amid concern about a surge in cases with no clear link to China. Israel has expanded quarantine regulations, requiring all those returning from South Korea and Japan to remain in isolation for two weeks. Quarantine was previously mandated for Israelis returning from China, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. The move came as Israel’s Health ministry said nine South Korean nationals who visited Israel and the West Bank in February have tested positive for the virus. The Palestinian Interior Ministry issued a similar instruction on Saturday. All the nine tourists returned to South Korea and it is currently unknown whether they were infected with the virus before or after arriving in Israel. More and more countries are reporting cases of the new coronavirus, with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warning that the window of opportunity for containment is narrowing. The UN health agency has been criticised for a slow response to the epidemic as well as previous health emergencies. Al Jazeera’s Inside Story programme discusses whether a change in approach is needed. Read more here and watch the full video below.
Bats In China Carry 400+ Coronaviruses With The Potential To Spill Over Into Humans – Three years ago, NPR accompanied disease ecologist Kevin Olival on a field trip to Malaysian Borneo. Olival, who is with the nonprofit research group EcoHealth Alliance, was there to trap bats and collect samples of their body fluids. He and his collaborators would then test the samples for viruses. Bats are known for carrying some dangerous ones, particularly viruses that have the potential to kick off global outbreaks through what’s called “spillovers” – instances of an animal virus jumping into a human. So the researchers were on a hunt for the next big threat. The results of their work put the current coronavirus outbreak in China in a wholly new light. Scientists say it was caused by a spillover event. And the findings from the sample collection project suggest these kinds of spillovers have actually been quietly taking place in China for years. Olival says what they found is alarming: “We found evidence for, in total, from all the sampling we did in China, about 400 new strains of coronaviruses.” That means 400 potential candidates to spark another outbreak. After all, a coronavirus caused a massive outbreak in China back in 2002 – severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. And this current outbreak is from a SARS-related coronavirus.
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