Jason Lee Reuters
Coronavirus cases continue to surge in China while new infections are being reported around the world. Stock markets in China, reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday, recorded their sharpest falls in more than four years on Monday, reflecting increasing concern about the damage the outbreak is inflicting on the local economy.
● China’s National Health Commission reported Monday that there are now 17,205 confirmed cases in mainland China, plus 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao, as well as 10 in Taiwan. The World Health Organization reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China.
● China’s main share indexes plunged more than 8 percent, reopening after a 10-day break following the Lunar New Year holiday, as economists continue to revise down growth forecasts. Other Asian markets were calmer after large falls last week.
● Concerns are rising about possible outbreaks in Japan and South Korea after indications of tertiary transmissions of the virus there, not only in people who had visited Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak, but people two layers removed from that group.
● U.S. restrictions on travelers from China set to take effect as four more airports were added to list of those that can screen arrivals, raising the total to 11. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said more flights planned to evacuate Americans trapped at the outbreak’s epicenter.
4:15 AM: South Korea’s Moon calls for more intense measures to halt virus spread
SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Monday for “exhaustive” monitoring to prevent the spread of coronavirus, with hundreds of schools closing and evidence emerging of the tertiary spread of infections in the East Asian nation.
On Sunday, South Korea joined the growing list of countries to impose restrictions on travelers from China, with Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announcing a ban on foreigners who have traveled to Hubei Province in the past 14 days, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine on South Koreans returning from Hubei.
Opposition lawmakers called for a total ban on all travelers from mainland China but Moon resisted those calls.
“China is our biggest partner in human exchange and trade,” Moon told a meeting with aides in Seoul. “China’s hardship is directly connected to our own hardship.”
Heo Ran
Reuters
Tourists wear masks to protect themselves against the new coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 3, 2020.
The number of infected people in South Korea rose to 15 over the weekend. One was among 701 South Koreans evacuated from Wuhan by charter flight, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC), while nine others were South Korean and Chinese citizens who had recently been there.
But others contracted the disease through more indirect routes.
A 54-year-old South Korean man tested positive for the virus on Thursday, eight days after he had dined in Seoul with an infected person who had returned from Wuhan. On Friday, two members of his family were also diagnosed with the virus.
South Korea’s Education Ministry has recommended schools close to stop the spread of the virus and announced on Monday that 336 had done so.
The United States military in South Korea has also instituted a 14-day self-quarantine for service members returning from mainland China.
By: Min Joo Kim
4:03 AM: Russia can now deport those infected with coronavirus
MOSCOW — A new Russian plan to prevent the spread of coronavirus allows for the deportation of foreign citizens who test positive for the disease, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a government meeting on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.
The new coronavirus, which has infected thousands of people in China, has been added to the country’s list of dangerous diseases, he said.
“That will allow us to deport foreign citizens who test positive for the virus and to impose special restrictive measures, such as isolation and quarantine,” he added.
Russia announced its first two cases of coronavirus on Friday — both Chinese citizens — and Anna Popova, the head of the country’s consumer safety watchdog, said “there’s no threat of the situation’s spreading further” because they’re in isolation rooms, according to Interfax.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced that Russia will send aircraft to the locked-down Chinese city of Wuhan on Monday to evacuate Russian citizens currently staying there, estimating there are more than 130 there.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it would allot five planes with military doctors and virology specialists to the evacuation effort.
By: Isabelle Khurshudyan
3:44 AM: China accuses the United States of ‘overreaction’ to coronavirus outbreak
BEIJING — China accused the United States Monday of creating mass hysteria with its “overreaction” to the coronavirus outbreak, part of a broader effort to portray Washington as using the health crisis for political gain.
“The U.S. government hasn’t provided any substantial assistance to us,” Hua Chunying, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters during the daily briefing, which was carried out on the WeChat messaging app rather than the usual in-person news conference to avoid potential transmission of the virus.
“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. All it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a bad example,” she continued, according to translated remarks supplied by the Foreign Ministry.
“The U.S. is turning from overconfidence to fear and overreaction,” she said, taking aim at the Trump administration’s decision to ban travelers from China — despite the fact that a host of other countries, from Australia and the Philippines to Iraq and Indonesia have done the same.
She noted that the coronavirus outbreak was far less deadly that influenza in the United States, quoting a Center for Diseases Control and Prevention report that said 19 million people were infected and at least 10,000 died from the flu in the United States in 2019 and the first part of 2020.
“We hope countries will make reasonable, calm and science-based judgments and responses,” she said.
Hua also noted that the World Health Organization, the United Nations agency, “continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”
“There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” she said.
Hua had previously slammed the “certain U.S. officials” for inappropriate remarks, an apparent reference to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who last week said the coronavirus could “help” to bring jobs to the United States as companies moved operations away from China.
By: Anna Fifield
3:38 AM: Chinese authorities authorize evacuation of Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan
HONG KONG — For weeks, Taiwanese authorities have been badgering counterparts in mainland China to allow them to repatriate the 500 or so Taiwanese stranded in Hubei province. On Monday, the first batch of Taiwanese people were finally allowed to evacuate, slated to fly back home in the evening.
Those stranded in Wuhan include business executives, some of whom were on short-term trips in the city, students and tourists. The Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Office had no immediate details on who were among the first batch of 200 allowed to leave. At least one of the Taiwanese people in Wuhan has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and will have to stay behind for treatment.
China has a tense relationship with the self-governing island of Taiwan, which it claims under the “one China” policy. Taiwan under the leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen has pushed back against that interpretation of the island’s sovereignty.
Taiwan has also been excluded from major international organizations over protests from China, which believes it should represent Taiwan in any international forums. Tsai and other Taiwanese leaders have repeatedly balked at this arrangement, particularly as the coronavirus outbreak spreads, and says it must be included and can contribute to the global fight against the disease.
The charter flight carrying the first batch of Taiwanese evacuated from Wuhan is due to arrive in Taiwan on Monday night.
By: Shibani Mahtani
3:15 AM: China’s ‘super-fast’ hospital opens for patients in Wuhan
TOKYO — It’s a race between the power of the Chinese construction industry and the fast-spreading coronavirus.
A new Chinese hospital opened in the virus-hit city of Wuhan on Monday, after taking just eight days to build, state media reported.
Ten ambulances were at the ready on Monday morning to take the first batch of patients to the Huoshenshan (“fire-god mountain”) Hospital, state China Central Television reported.
The hospital is designed to have 1,000 beds for patients with confirmed coronavirus infections and was handed over to military medics on Sunday. It will be staffed by 1,400 medical personnel from the People’s Liberation Army.
China Daily called it the “super-fast hospital.”
China Daily
Reuters
An aerial view shows the newly completed Huoshenshan Hospital, built in eight days to treat coronavirus patients, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China Feb. 2, 2020.
Its construction was modeled on a similar hospital build in Beijing in 2003 during the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and involved 7,500 construction workers.
But no sooner had worked begun on the hospital on Jan. 25, than it became apparent it would not be large enough to relieve the massive shortage of beds in Wuhan as the virus spreads.
Another hospital, Leishenshan (“thunder-god mountain”), is scheduled to be completed on Feb. 5 with a further 1,600 beds. Similar hospitals are also being built in Beijing and other Chinese cities.
According to official figures, there are more than 11,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the central province of Hubei, but medical experts believe the actual number is many times higher. Many residents of Wuhan are staying home even if they fall sick, because there are few testing kits and no beds at hospitals in the city, and they fear catching the virus there.
By: Simon Denyer
2:47 AM: War on mah-jongg! Chinese police smash up tables to prevent public gatherings
TOKYO — China’s Communist Party seems to be launching an unofficial war on the popular Chinese game of mah-jongg, as police intensify efforts to prevent public gatherings that might spread coronavirus.
Videos circulating on Chinese social media and the Internet show police swinging hammers and axes to smash mah-jongg tables, not only the province of Hubei at the epicenter of the virus, but also in neighboring Anhui and in faraway provinces such as Yunnan in the southwest, and Gansu in the northwest.
Nicole Tung
for The Washington Post
Men play mah-jongg in a shop in the Prince Edward neighborhood of Hong Kong, S.A.R. on Wednesday, August 21, 2019.
Sichuan province in the southwest issued a ban on mah-jongg parlors on Jan. 28, and police in the capital Chengdu asked young people to report locations where their parents were playing mah-jongg, as many elderly people were apparently refusing to follow official advice to stay home. In Heilongjiang, in the far northeast, the owner of one parlor was among those arrested for defying a ban and keeping his parlors open, while players were “severely criticized and educated,” Heilongjiang Daily reported.
[Kimchi, cow poop and other spurious coronavirus remedies]
China’s provincial and municipal governments granted themselves far-reaching emergency powers last week to stem the spread of the virus, including enforcing blockades, closing business and schools and banning mass gatherings.
Mah-jongg, a strategic four-player game using small tiles, is one of the most popular pastimes in China, especially among the elderly, but it’s not the first time it has been in the Communist Party’s crosshairs.
Last October, police in several parts of China shut down unlicensed mah-jongg parlors, or those that they considered encouraged gambling, the BBC reported.
The latest videos drew a mixed reaction on China’s heavily censored social media platforms, with some people arguing people should wait to play until the virus had subsided, but others asking why the tables could not have been confiscated rather than smashed up.
By: Simon Denyer
2:35 AM: India reports third coronavirus case from Kerala, suspends visas from China
NEW DELHI — India on Monday confirmed a third case of coronavirus from the southern state of Kerala. The condition of the patient, a student, is stable. All three reported cases had recently returned from China, two of them from Wuhan, where the epidemic originated.
The cases have been reported from three different cities in Kerala, said Rajan Khobragade, a senior health department official in the state. As a precaution, he said, authorities have put nearly 2,000 people with a history of travel from Wuhan under house isolation.
India has asked its nationals to refrain from traveling to China. An updated advisory from the Health Ministry said that anyone coming from China post Jan. 15 could be quarantined. The Indian Embassy in Beijing temporarily suspended e-visas for Chinese passport holders and foreign nationals in China. Existing visas have been canceled. Over 58,000 incoming passengers from China have been screened at airports across the country.
Over the weekend, India evacuated over 600 nationals from Wuhan and are now quarantined for 14 days at an army-run camp, 55 miles outside of New Delhi.
By: Niha Masih
2:30 AM: ‘Handful’ more flights planned to evacuate Americans in Hubei
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that there will be a “handful more flights” to bring Americans stranded in China’s Hubei province back to the United States, according to Reuters news agency.
Pompeo spoke during the Uzbekistan leg of his Central Asia Trip. He said the flights would also bring medical supplies to China and could bring back other nationalities as well.
Hubei Province has been largely cut off from the rest of the country in a bid to stem the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak centered in the regional capital of Wuhan. Thousands of foreigners have been trapped in the city and surrounding province, prompting several countries to send evacuation flights.
By: Paul Schemm
1:40 AM: China backtracks on Holocaust comparison over Israel border closure
JERUSALEM — A Chinese diplomat compared Israel’s closure of its borders to visitors from China over coronavirus fears to the Holocaust, beseeching the country not to bar Chinese travelers as Jewish refugees were barred by many countries in the World War II era, according to Israeli media reports.
Acting Chinese Ambassador Dai Yuming made the comments Sunday at a Tel Aviv news conference after Israel joined a growing list of nations trying to insulate themselves from the pathogen’s spread. The government has halted flights from China and barred noncitizens who had traveled to China recently from entering Israel. The Health Ministry advised Israelis returning from China to quarantine themselves at home for two weeks.
“I feel bad and sad,” Dai said, according to the Times of Israel. “Because it actually recalled [for] me, the old days, the old stories, that happened in World War II, the Holocaust. Many Jewish [people] were refused when they tried to seek assistance. Only very, very few countries opened their doors. One of them is China. I hope Israel will never close their door to the Chinese.”
Thousands of European Jews traveled to Shanghai after Nazis rose to power, at time when many countries closed their doors to the growing flood of Jewish seeking safe havens. Historians here acknowledged China’s role, but many pointed out that the Chinese government actually had little control over Shanghai entry ports at the time.
The Chinese embassy backtracked after the comparison was criticized.
“Regarding the news conference held today by the Chinese Embassy in Israel, we would like to clarify that there was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens,” the embassy said in a statement conveyed by Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “We would like to apologize if someone understood our message the wrong way.”
By: Steve Hendrix
1:16 AM: Japan girds for coronavirus outbreak as transmission fears grow
TOKYO — Japan needs to brace for a major outbreak in coronavirus, a leading expert said on Monday, with evidence mounting that even people with mild or no symptoms can infect others, and a high probability that a transmission chain has already established itself in the country.
Behrouz Mehri
Afp Via Getty Images
A man wears a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus while praying at the Sensoji temple in Tokyo on Monday.
“My assessment is that the spread of this virus is inevitable in Japan,” said Hitoshi Oshitani, a virology professor at Tohoko University Graduate School of Medicine and an adviser to the World Health Organization during the 2002-3 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS.
“People have the ability to infect others even if they don’t have any symptoms or have very mild symptoms, so it’s not possible to find the whole transmission chain — an invisible transmission chain might already have been established in Japan.”
Japan has confirmed 20 cases of coronavirus. Eight of that number were Japanese citizens among more than 500 evacuated from Wuhan, and nine were Chinese tourists from Wuhan or people who had recently visited that city.
[Tokyo Olympics organizers look on anxiously as coronavirus menaces the Games]
But the other three had never been to Wuhan. A tour bus driver and tour guide fell ill after taking around a group of Chinese tourists from Wuhan, and another tour guide fell ill after working with the bus driver, taking around a different group of Chinese tourists from the northern city of Dalian.
Oshitani said Japan’s decision on Friday to bar foreigners who had visited China’s Hubei province probably came too late.
“Suddenly we may see a large number of cases somewhere in Japan,” he said. “It’s impossible to contain this virus.”
Oshitani believes there could be as many as 100,000 people infected with the virus in Wuhan, but says the mortality rate is “definitely” much lower than SARS, which killed nearly one in 10 of those infected. Still, the fact that the virus is so easily transmitted means a large number of cases “and more deaths unfortunately.”
By: Simon Denyer
12:04 AM: China markets, reopening after extended break, plunge on coronavirus concerns
TOKYO — China’s main stock indexes were down more than 8 percent on Monday, reflecting a buildup in negative sentiment during the long Lunar New Year holiday.
The CSI composite index of 300 leading shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen was 8.2 percent lower in early afternoon trade, marking the biggest one-day fall since an equity bubble burst in 2015, according to Bloomberg, and approaching the 10 percent limit which triggers a suspension in trade.
The fall reflected 10 days of unrelenting bad news since the Chinese markets were last open on Jan. 23, when the index also fell 3 percent. Many Chinese cities have postponed the reopening of nonessential businesses and offices, while many people are simply staying home.
Lian Weiliang, vice director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the key state economic planning agency, said the virus had its biggest impact on transportation, tourism, hotels and catering.
“It needs to be emphasized that the influence is interim and temporary, and it will not change the long-term good prospects of Chinese economy,” he told a news conference.
Aly Song
Reuters
A security guard stands at the Shanghai Stock Exchange building at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Feb. 3, 2020.
Other markets around Asia were calmer on Monday, but have all suffered from the fallout of the deadly virus.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.1 percent after falling 5.9 percent last week, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 percent after falling 2.6 percent last week, while South Korea’s Kospi index was flat after falling 5.7 percent last week.
In a research note, Oxford Economics said it was revising down its China growth prediction by two percentage points for the first quarter, and to 5.4 percent from 6 percent for the year as a whole, but warned “a more serious and long-lasting impact cannot be ruled out.”
By: Simon Denyer
10:02 PM: China virus cases jump to 17,205, with 361 fatalities
BEIJING — The National Health Commission in China reported Sunday that there have been 17,205 confirmed cases of illness caused by the coronavirus, plus 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao. The WHO reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday confirmed an additional case in California, involving a patient who had recently returned to the United States from Wuhan. That brings the U.S. case number to nine, with no deaths.
Aly Song
Reuters
People wearing masks are seen on a bridge in front of the financial district of Pudong, in Shanghai, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, February 3, 2020.
Scientists suspect the true number of infections may be many times higher than the official count. So far, 361 people have died, all but one in China.
The most serious illnesses appear to be in the elderly and people with preexisting medical problems, and it is highly contagious. Unless contained soon, it could become a pandemic — a disease that travels almost everywhere on the planet in the same manner as influenza.
By: Anna Fifield
7:35 PM: Officials add four additional airports to those already screening for the coronavirus
On Sunday evening, just as new restrictions on passengers arriving in the United States took effect, the Department of Homeland Security added four additional airports to the seven where passengers arriving from China would be funneled for screening.
In additional to airports in New York, Atlanta, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, passengers will also be funneled to airports in Dallas, Detroit, Newark and Washington’s Dulles International, where they will be screened for the coronavirus.
Under new protocols announced Friday, U.S. citizens who have been in Hubei province within 14 days of their return will be subject to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they receive proper medical care. Those citizens who have been in other areas of mainland China within 14 days of their return will been screened when they enter the U.S. and may be subject to up to 14 das of self-quarantine to ensure they haven’t contracted the virus. Under the policy, non-U.S. citizens who have traveled in China within 14 days of their arrival will not be allowed to enter the U.S.
David Paul Morris
Bloomberg
Travelers wearing disposable face masks check-in at the Air China Ltd. counter at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.
According to U.S. Department of Transportation data analyzed by Airlines for America, an industry trade group, there were an average of about 49 daily passenger flights between the U.S. and China for the 12-month period that ended in July. That number includes flights on both U.S. and foreign carriers.
However, the number of flights between the United States and China has dropped dramatically since the outbreak of the virus after Chinese officials closed the airport in Wuhan and began restricting travel in the country. Several U.S. carriers also canceled some flights. The U.S. Department of State also raised its China travel advisory to Level 4, its highest level of caution and said Americans should not travel to the region.
[Perspective: Past epidemics prove fighting coronavirus with travel bans is a mistake]
Last week, three major U.S. carriers — American, Delta and United, announced they would stop flying to and from China. American began halting flights on Friday, but Delta and United said they would continue operating some flights until this week to give customers and its own employees the ability to leave China.
Delta officials said their last China-bound flight will leave the United States on Monday. Its last flight from China is set to depart Wednesday. United said it will suspend all operations between its hub cities in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai beginning Thursday.
By: Lori Aratani
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiiwFodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vd29ybGQvYXNpYV9wYWNpZmljL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNoaW5hLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy8yMDIwLzAyLzAzLzdjMDcxZjBjLTQ2MTAtMTFlYS1hYjE1LWI1ZGYzMjYxYjcxMF9zdG9yeS5odG1s0gGaAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS93b3JsZC9hc2lhX3BhY2lmaWMvY29yb25hdmlydXMtY2hpbmEtbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLzIwMjAvMDIvMDMvN2MwNzFmMGMtNDYxMC0xMWVhLWFiMTUtYjVkZjMyNjFiNzEwX3N0b3J5Lmh0bWw_b3V0cHV0VHlwZT1hbXA?oc=5
2020-02-03 09:38:00Z
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