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WUHAN DOCTOR who tried to warn about the coronavirus dead from the CORONAVIRUS???? Was the doctor treating Russian sent by putin for ji?
11:26 a.m.
Chinese doctor who warned about coronavirus dies of disease
HANGZHOU, China — A Chinese doctor who was silenced by police for trying to share news about the new coronavirus long before Chinese health authorities disclosed its full threat died Thursday from the disease, his friends and colleagues said.
Li Wenliang, 34, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, became a national hero and a symbol of the Chinese government’s systemic failings last month. Li had tried to warn his medical school classmates on Dec. 30 about the existence of a contagious new virus that resembled the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Word began to spread in China thanks to Li, but his posts were censored and he was detained on Jan. 1 for “rumor-mongering.”
The full outlines of his story, which came to light in recent weeks as the Wuhan outbreak exploded into an international emergency, set off a swell of outrage in China, where citizens have long chafed at the government’s penchant for relentlessly snuffing out any speech deemed threatening to social stability.
By Gerry Shih
Coronavirus live updates: Ten more people test positive on quarantined cruise ship; Chinese doctor who tried to sound alarm has died from disease
1:20 p.m.
Philippines prepares to quarantine travelers returning from China
MANILA — A village that housed athletes during the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines has been converted to a quarantine facility for Filipinos returning from China amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Officials announced Wednesday that the Athletes’ Village in New Clark City, about a two-hour drive north of Manila, would house those repatriated from Hubei province, where the epidemic began.
A total of 45 Filipinos are expected to return to the country over the weekend, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Those exhibiting symptoms will be taken to hospitals, while asymptomatic passengers will stay for two weeks in quarantine.
Health officials said one room would be allotted per person, but a room could also fit a family of three.
“We will be providing the needed medical logistics including hygiene kits, disinfectant solutions, transportation, and other things that will be needed in the quarantine process,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
The Philippines has reported three confirmed cases of the virus, while 178 patients are under observation.
By Regine Cabato
Feb. 6, 2020 at 12:01 p.m. EST
The increase continues a trend of daily jumps in confirmed cases. China has reported more than 560 coronavirus deaths, including one in Hong Kong, and one person has died in the Philippines.
Here’s what we know:
● Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who became a symbol of the Chinese government's failings after sounding warnings about the disease in December, died Thursday after contracting the virus in Wuhan.
● China has begun imposing penalties on social media platforms publishing critical information about the outbreak, accusing them of promoting “illicit” content and instigating panic.
● Experts in Hong Kong have declared a community outbreak in the city, with the coronavirus spreading on its own without people coming from the mainland.
● Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan have expressed relief at returning to the United States after extended delays in leaving the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak.
12:35 p.m.
Hong Kong residents rush to buy toilet paper as fears over shortages rise
WASHINGTON — As coronavirus has spread across Asia, so have fears over shortages of supplies. In Hong Kong, where experts have declared an outbreak of the virus and one person has died, residents are urgently stocking up on face masks, soap, rice — and toilet paper. Lots and lots of toilet paper.
Photos shared on social media show empty supermarket shelves where rows of toilet paper would normally be. “Thought it was a joke but can confirm #HongKong has run out of toilet paper (and hand soap),” one person tweeted, sharing footage of vacant shelves.
A Bloomberg News reporter visited eight supermarkets in a busy neighborhood Wednesday evening and couldn’t find a single roll. Other videos shared online show people scrambling to get their hands on what’s left in stores, as employees in some cases try to limit purchases of paper towels and other goods to one package per person.
The city is already experiencing a shortage of face masks, which doctors are urging people to wear to limit the spread of infection.
The South China Morning Post’s Hong Kong edition tweeted that a leading supermarket chain is trying to debunk what they call rumors over the toilet paper shortage. But whether there’s an actual shortage or not, the panic buying doesn’t seem to be slowing down. On Wednesday, a Washington Post reporter saw one foreigner packing at least a dozen bags of toilet paper into his vehicle.
By Siobhán O’Grady
11:55 a.m.
Gates Foundation pledges $100 million to fight coronavirus
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday a commitment of $100 million toward the global response to the coronavirus epidemic.
“The funding will help strengthen detection, isolation and treatment efforts; protect at-risk populations; and develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostics,” the Seattle-based foundation said in a news release. In late January, it pledged $10 million for fighting the virus. That figure is included in the latest sum.
These funds will be channeled toward multilateral organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as to health authorities in China and other high-risk countries. The rest will be directed “to help public health authorities cover the initial cost of labor and supplies while international agencies and national governments appropriate the resources necessary to fund ongoing operations,” the foundation said.
By Miriam Berger
10:57 a.m.
WHO to hold forum to coordinate international efforts around coronavirus
WASHINGTON — The World Health Organization will convene a global research and innovation forum on Tuesday and Wednesday to coordinate international responses for containing and combating the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“The aim is to fast-track the development of effective diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Thursday in Geneva. “One of the key challenges is coordinating research funds to support key priorities.”
Tedros said scientists from all over the world, including China, would attend the conference both in person and by a remote video connection. The WHO is based in Geneva.
“A lot of donors want to help, but we need to direct them to support agreed priorities, rather than going off in different directions,” Tedros said of the forum’s intent. “I have said we need to be led by facts, not fears, and science, not rumors. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re letting science lead.”
By Miriam Berger
9:50 a.m.
Germany confirms 13th novel coronavirus case
BERLIN — German authorities confirmed the country’s 13th coronavirus case on Thursday. Eleven of them — including the latest patient — are linked to the same company in Bavaria, in southern Germany.
Germany’s first coronavirus patient was infected with the virus by a female Chinese colleague who participated in workshops at the automotive supplier’s offices at the end of January.
Authorities initially said the woman did not feel ill during her stay in Germany, which raised concerns that the virus may spread between humans before they show symptoms. The woman has since said that she in fact did notice symptoms before arriving back in China, where she was hospitalized.
Since her departure from Germany, eight workers at the company have been diagnosed with the virus. One of them also infected two of his children and his partner — the latest case announced on Thursday.
Authorities said last week that two citizens unrelated to the cluster in southern Germany who were flown out of Wuhan on an evacuation flight had tested positive for the virus.
By Rick Noack
9:45 a.m.
Britain confirms third case of coronavirus
WASHINGTON — The British government has confirmed its third case of coronavirus in the country in a statement from England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty.
Whitty said that the unnamed individual was being treated in a specialized health center run by Britain’s National Health Service and that the person had not acquired the virus in the country.
“The NHS is well prepared to manage these cases and we are now working quickly to identify any contacts the patient has had,” Whitty said.
The first two cases are of Chinese nationals. They are being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases center in Newcastle upon Tyne, the BBC reported.
The location of the newest case is not known, but Whitty’s statement said the patient is in England.
By Adam Taylor
9:40 a.m.
China cuts tariffs on U.S. goods amid coronavirus lockdown
China said it would halve tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. goods, pressing forward on the first phase of its trade pact with Washington even as the coronavirus crisis remains a significant hurdle to its economic engine.
The phase one agreement signed last month quelled the protracted trade conflict that tied up the world’s two most powerful economies, imperiled global growth and caused chaos for multinational corporations. The terms required both nations to de-escalate tariffs, and compelled China to buy an additional $200 billion in American goods over the next two years.
Levies will be slashed from 10 to 5 percent or from 5 to 2.5 percent on hundreds of U.S. products starting Feb. 14, China’s Finance Ministry said. The tariffs on cars, oil, soybeans and other goods date back to September and were implemented in response to additional tariffs the United States applied in the fall.
By Taylor Telford
Schools in Wales ordered not to keep students of Chinese heritage home over coronavirus fears
The government of Wales said a “small number” of schools had excluded from class students of Chinese heritage, or those who had traveled recently to China but were not sick, the BBC reported.
Officials ordered all schools to end such policies, which contravene the recommendations of Wales’s national public health agency.
Communities around the world have sounded the alarm over discriminatory responses to the coronavirus epidemic.
A top conservatory in Italy faced accusations of racism after barring East Asian students from class. In Canada, nearly 10,000 people signed a petition to keep Chinese students out of school temporarily before a local school board rejected it.
If you’ve seen or experienced discrimination, racism or xenophobia connected to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, The Washington Post wants to hear your story.
By Benjamin Soloway
8:43 a.m.
Vietnam reports two new cases of coronavirus
DUBAI — Vietnam reported two new cases of coronavirus, bringing its national total up to 12, with both people having been in contact with previous patients, the Health Ministry said in a statement reported by Reuters.
Vietnam, which shares a long border and close trade ties with neighboring China, said the crisis is expected to have deep effects on the economy.
The Ministry of Trade said exports to China could drop up to $600 million in the first quarter of 2020, according to the Vietnam News — assuming the outbreak is brought under control in the next three months.
“For the last two weeks, the outbreak has quickly made direct impacts on Vietnam’s economy in trade, tourism, transport, the stock market and production,” said the ministry.
Like many countries in the region, Vietnam hosts large numbers of Chinese tourists. China is also the largest market for Vietnam’s food and vegetable exports, many of which have been stuck at the border.
Minister of Trade Nguyen Chi Dung expressed doubt that the country would achieve its gross domestic product growth target of 6.8 percent.
By Paul Schemm
8:14 a.m.
France and Romania declare flu epidemics, underscoring dangers of influenza amid global attention on coronavirus
Romania declared a flu epidemic Thursday in an effort to contain the viral outbreak that’s killed 18 people in recent weeks. France did the same Wednesday after 26 people died of the virus since November.
It’s a reminder of the seasonal influenza’s yearly toll. In the United States, at least 10,000 people have died of the flu in the last four months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)
As the world anxiously watches the march of the coronavirus outbreak, health officials have repeatedly reminded worried publics that the flu remains a relatively far deadlier threat in many parts of the world — and simple acts like vaccinations and hand washing can go a long way in preventing its spread.
In both France and Romania, children, the elderly and people with preexisting health problems were the most likely to face serious flu cases, according to reports from health officials.
Last year in France, 9,500 people died of the flu, and up to 6 million people were affected, according to the Local.
By Miriam Berger
8:00 a.m.
Chinese airlines won’t cancel flights, Beijing says
WASHINGTON — China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Chinese airlines would not suspend flights to the country, criticizing foreign airlines that have done so for breaking with the advice of the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization.
“Hard to find outbound flights from China soon? Absolutely wrong! China’s airlines won’t suspend flights and will take Chinese nationals home,” the ministry wrote in a Twitter message.
Scores of international airlines have canceled all flights to mainland China, but most with routes to Hong Kong still fly there. American Airlines and United Airlines have announced temporary restrictions on flights to Hong Kong.
Some Chinese carriers, including China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, have suspended some flights to North America, but China’s central civil aviation authority has refused to suspend flights overall.
In is unclear how many Chinese citizens are stranded abroad because of flight cancellations. State media have reported that chartered flights have brought home more than 1,500 people to the province of Hubei so far.
By Adam Taylor
7:15 a.m.
China vows to minimize virus spread as migrant workers head back to cities
BEIJING — China vowed Friday to take strict measures to minimize the spread of the coronavirus as millions of migrant workers returned to cities around the country.
“Staff workers are going back to work, heightening the epidemic risk for destinations of human migration,” Cai Tuanjie, deputy director of transport service at the Ministry of Transport, told a news conference Thursday.
“We are working to come up with targeted solutions, to resolutely prevent the epidemic from spreading on public transport, and to reduce the imported risks brought by passenger arrivals.”
The measures include compulsory temperature checks, strengthened disinfection, better ventilation and higher hygiene standards in both vehicles and terminals. Those showing symptoms of fever will be immediately handed over to health departments, he said.
China Railway will ensure an occupation rate of no more than 50 percent on trains, while civil aviation authorities have asked airlines to reserve a “quarantine zone” on the plane and seat passengers as apart as possible.
Cai said local governments are prohibited from shutting down expressways or blocking artery highways without permission. He also urged provinces and cities, Hubei excluded, to make plans about resuming intercity buses, taxis and other public transport.
“More importantly, I would love to remind every citizen and every passenger to wear a face mask whenever you take the public transportation. It is for protecting yourself as well as for protecting other people,” Cai said.
The Lunar New Year produces the largest human migration on Earth, with billions of trips made in a 40-day holiday period. This year, the spread of the coronavirus epidemic has forced many to cancel their trips and postponed business and school openings.
As of Wednesday, road and train trips had decreased by at least a third from last year’s levels. Since Jan. 29, train and road trips fell to around 13 million a day, down 70 percent from the same period last year, while airlines reported an average 45 percent occupation rate, half of last year’s level.
By Lyric Li
6:50 a.m.
Fearing another cruise liner crisis, Japan says ‘no thanks’ to new ship coming from Hong Kong
TOKYO — In a bid to head off another cruise liner crisis, Japan announced Thursday that foreign passengers on board the cruise ship Westerdam sailing from Hong Kong would not be allowed to disembark in Japan.
There are already nearly 3,700 passengers and crew sitting in quarantine on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner in the port of Yokohama, with 20 people testing positive for the virus on board the ship and taken to local hospitals. Another 171 are still waiting for their test results.
With the Westerdam approaching Japan from Hong Kong, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that foreigners on board the ship would be barred from disembarking unless there are special reasons for them to do so.
Japan has barred entry only to foreign nationals who have been in China’s virus-hit province of Hubei in the past two weeks, as well as holders of Chinese passports issued by the Hubei provincial government.
On that basis, there would not be any grounds to issue a blanket ban on foreigners on board the Westerdam, but Abe is obviously keen to avoid another headache such as that posed by the Diamond Princess.
Already, the 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus on board that ship have pushed up the number of cases in Japan to 45, putting it in second place in the World Health Organization’s table of countries affected by the virus. More than 99 percent of confirmed coronavirus cases are in China.
By Simon Denyer
6:30 a.m.
Japan bristles after Micronesia restricts entry to all citizens of virus-hit countries
TOKYO — Japan’s government objected Thursday to a decision from the Federated States of Micronesia to ban anyone from entering the country if they have traveled to a country with confirmed cases of coronavirus within the past 14 days.
Micronesia, a federation of thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean, has also strongly urged its citizens not to undertake unnecessary travel to those countries.
Japan’s main government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said that Japan’s ambassador to Micronesia met the country’s foreign minister on Wednesday to explain the measures Japan had taken to control the spread of the virus.
“Japan respects the position of Pacific island nations highly vulnerable to infectious diseases, but we also will continue to give thorough explanations to Micronesia and other countries which impose similar measures,” he told a regular news conference.
The restrictions, which took effect Monday, completely bar citizens of Micronesia from travel to mainland China and ban anyone from entering the country if they had traveled “directly or indirectly” from China. Suga said the island nations of Tuvalu and Niue have imposed similar restrictions.
Japanese citizens reacted with alarm to the decision by Micronesia, fearing that their country would soon be in the same boat as China, with travel restrictions to and from the country growing by the day. Sensitivities are also high after reports that Japanese citizens have also suffered discrimination in the West over the virus.
There has been a debate in Japan about whether the country should have moved more quickly to bar arrivals from China, or whether it should work with Beijing to fight the virus together.
Japan has recorded 45 cases of coronavirus, including 20 passengers and crew on board a cruise ship docked in Yokohama. It is among 24 countries — not including China and Taiwan — where the virus has been found, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO database shows 28,276 cases of coronavirus around the world, more than 99 percent of them in China.
By Simon Denyer and Akiko Kashiwagi
5:46 a.m.
With close ties to China, Africa prepares for possible coronavirus onslaught
DAKAR, Senegal — After Africa’s first suspected case of the Wuhan coronavirus emerged last month in the Ivory Coast, doctors sent a sample from the coughing college student to the closest equipped lab — 4,500 miles north, in Paris.
Officials said the wait for the results, which came back negative, highlighted a need to rapidly expand testing capacity on the continent, where health authorities are scrambling to prepare for a potential outbreak.
No cases have been confirmed so far in any of Africa’s 54 countries, but the risk of an outbreak is high, World Health Organization leaders say. Africa is home to 1.2 billion people, including an estimated 1 million Chinese nationals, who tend to work in business, construction, oil and mining — a testament to Beijing’s increasingly tight relationship with Senegal, Nigeria, Ethiopia and other countries.
Flights from the Asian power bring at least 1,000 travelers to the continent each day. But as of this week, only six labs could test for coronavirus. (In the United States, all cases were tested at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta until Wednesday, when test kits were sent to more than 100 state labs.)
“Our greatest concern is about the potential for spread in countries with weaker health systems,” which lack the capacity to detect the virus, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.
To address that concern, medical teams from 15 African nations are convening in Dakar on Thursday for an emergency workshop on the first layer of readiness: diagnosing the new virus. WHO officials said 24 countries, encompassing most of Africa’s population, will receive the material needed to conduct the tests by the end of the week.
By Danielle Paquette, with Max Bearak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and and Lenny Bernstein in Washington
5:15 a.m.
China gave World Health Organization wrong figures about Taiwan, says self-ruling island
BERLIN — Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said China provided incorrect figures of Taiwanese coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization, in the self-ruling island’s latest criticism of Beijing.
Whereas Beijing reported 13 cases for Taiwan, officials there said the real figure was 10. (By Thursday, that figure had risen to 13.)
In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it received the numbers in question from the island’s officials.
Taiwan’s latest criticism of China reflects lingering tensions between Taipei and Beijing over the island’s status. Whereas the Chinese Communist Party sees the island as part of “one China” under Beijing’s authority, officials in Taipei say Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy.
The dispute has prevented the island from being able to join the WHO, as Beijing has objected to its independent membership.
“For the rapidly evolving coronavirus, it is a technical imperative that WHO present visible public health data on Taiwan as an affected area and engage directly with Taiwan public health authorities on actions,” Andrew Bremberg, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Thursday.
The WHO has referred to the self-governing democracy as “Taipei and environs” or simply “Taipei,” among other terms, over the last few weeks. In WHO situation reports, the island is categorized as a “Province/Region/City” in China — a description to which Taiwanese officials objected on Thursday.
“We beseech the WHO not to put Taiwan’s information under China, creating mistake after mistake after mistake,” said Ou, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council — a Chinese government agency — countered in a statement on Thursday that “[we] will continue to make arrangements for Taiwan to obtain information on the prevention and control of the epidemic as part of China, but we will never allow Taiwan to use it as an opportunity to seek ‘Taiwan independence,’” according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.
The statement accused the island’s ruling party of seeking to use the crisis to expand its “international space.”
By Rick Noack
5:00 a.m.
China penalizes social media, Web companies for spreading ‘panic’ over virus
TOKYO — China’s Internet watchdogs have imposed penalties on apps, social media platforms and web portals for publishing “illicit” content about the spread of the new coronavirus and instigating panic.
The Communist Party in Wuhan has been widely accused of covering up the spread of the virus in January, and even now forbids many medical staff from talking to the media about the chaotic state in the city’s hospitals or the true number of infected patients.
Nevertheless, ordinary citizens and medical staff have published comments and videos that have provided a valuable window into the situation on the ground.
On Wednesday night, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced penalties it had imposed on apps, social media, and Web portals for allowing those reports on their services. It said it took the steps to foster a “good online environment for winning the battle against the epidemic.”
China’s vast system of censorship relies in large part on forcing social media and Internet companies to be responsible for content that appears on their platforms, and thus to censor politically sensitive content themselves.
Pipi Gaoxiao, a new social networking platform that includes video-sharing and discussion forums, has been removed from iOS and Android app stores after having published short videos and spread content “that instigated public panic,” CAC said in a statement.
China’s biggest Internet search engine, Baidu, and an entrepreneurs’ online community, Huxiu, have also been summoned by government censors for talks and asked to suspend “problematic sections” and tighten information management related to the epidemic.
Cyber regulators sent teams of inspectors to investigate the offices of Sina Weibo and apps owned by Tencent and ByteDance. NetEase Finance and several influential WeChat blogs were disciplined for “doing unauthorized reporting and spreading fake news.”
The punishment decision came after a Tuesday meeting in which CAC officials joined the country’s propaganda department in making the decision to “tighten control on online media” and “amplify positive propaganda.”
“We will tighten supervision and control on online media, urge websites and their owners to fulfill their respective obligations in operations and management, and ensure that cyberspace regulators of all levels take supervision responsibilities, so as to guarantee substantial cybersecurity for epidemic prevention and control,” they said.
By Simon Denyer and with Lyric Li in Beijing
4:00 a.m.
Coronavirus outbreak has begun in Hong Kong, says scientist who helped discover SARS
YANGON, Myanmar — A leading microbiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of Hong Kong has declared a community outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Hong Kong, as new cases continue to be discovered in the city, according to the South China Morning Post.
Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, who was part of the team that led the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, virus in 2003, said an increasing number of the city’s confirmed coronavirus patients had not visited mainland China. According to the South China Morning Post, he is now warning that every possible measure must be taken to minimize the spread including further border closures.
“The local transmission chain has begun, and if we do nothing to control it, Hong Kong will become another mainland city that has suffered lots of cases,” he said.
Hong Kong will start putting in place a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arrivals from mainland China, a measure that will take effect on Saturday. Critics say the government should have acted sooner in locking down the border with mainland China, where thousands pass through every day, to prevent the spread of the virus. A medical workers strike, which has affected emergency services in the city and involved thousands of doctors and nurses, is ongoing in the hope of pressuring the government into a full closure of the border with mainland China.
Meanwhile, panic buying has gripped the city — not just for protective equipment such as masks and alcohol-based sanitizer, but also basics like toilet paper, rice, pasta and instant noodles. Dozens of grocery stores across the territory were completely cleared out of these items on Wednesday and Thursday.
By Shibani Mahtani
3:37 a.m.
Russia could face garlic shortage amid supply disruptions in China
MOSCOW — Russia could face a garlic shortage because of the coronavirus epidemic in China, Russian Agricultural Bank’s Center for Industry Expertise forecast, according to the Interfax news agency.
A whopping 80 percent of Russia’s garlic supply comes from China, and there’s concern over logistical disruptions due to the outbreak.
“Overall garlic imports amount to about 50,000 tons and the gross harvest is about 260,000 tons, but most of it is produced in personal garden plots and private farms,” said Andrei Dalnov, head of the Center for Industry Enterprise. “In practice, this means that in the event of disruptions in Chinese supplies, garlic will disappear from chain stores for a time.”
Garlic is a popular home remedy for colds here. Russia’s top five imports from China in 2019 were citrus fruits, worth about $200 million, and frozen fish and vegetables, with each group worth about $100 million, the bank said in a news release. The two countries did about $110 billion in trade with each other last year.
Russia’s second-largest food retailer Magnit said on Monday it is suspending fruit and vegetable imports from China due to the spread of the coronavirus and logistical complications, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Russia might reduce its fish supplies from China, too, the head of the Federal Agency for Fishery Ilya Shestakov told reporters on Wednesday.
Russian “fish producers will be able to substitute available volumes of the domestic market,” Shestakov said.
By Isabelle Khurshudyan
3:30 a.m.
Chinese patient thanks South Korea doctors for healing her
SEOUL — The first person to be diagnosed with the coronavirus in South Korea last month has fully recovered and will be released from the hospital soon, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Thursday.
The Chinese woman wrote to express her “most sincere gratitude” to the doctors who had treated her when she suffered what she called “this disaster,” according to the Incheon Medical Hospital.
“I have been deeply moved by your neighborliness, you gave me meticulous care,” she wrote in the handwritten letter. “As the saying goes in China, ‘the healer has benevolence’ to me. You are more than that. All of you are my heroes, and I will never forget this experience.”
She was the second in South Korea to have recovered from the coronavirus, following a South Korean patient who was released from the hospital on Wednesday.
She flew from Wuhan to South Korea’s Incheon airport on Jan. 19, was isolated upon entry due to symptoms related to the virus, and spent 18 days in quarantine.
“Thank you and your government once again for all you did for me,” she said, adding that all are welcome to her Chinese hometown “when we get over this illness.”
By Min Joo Kim
3:20 a.m.
Saudi Arabia bans its citizens from traveling to China over virus fears
DUBAI — Saudi Arabia announced Thursday that its citizens and residents were banned from travel to China in light of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
The announcement carried by the state news agency came from the directorate of passports, which added that noncitizen residents who violated the measure would not be allowed to return to Saudi Arabia.
The new directive comes on top of earlier measures that screened all arrivals to the country for any respiratory ailments. Travelers were earlier told to declare if they had visited China any time in the last 14 days.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that 10 Saudi students were evacuated from Wuhan at the epicenter of the outbreak and were virus-free.
So far cases of the coronavirus have only been reported in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East — five Chinese tourists.
By Paul Schemm
3:08 a.m.
China starts clinical trials of drug to treat coronavirus, applies for patent
TOKYO — China began clinical trials in the virus-hit city of Wuhan to determine whether coronavirus patients can be treated with the antiviral drug remdesivir.
Professor Wang Chen and Cao Bin, pulmonologists from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, said Wednesday that they would study 761 adult patients in two trials — one to assess 453 severely infected patients, the other on 308 with mild or moderate symptoms — at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital.
“We anticipate good results to be achieved in the clinical trials,” Sun Yanrong, deputy director of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology, told a news conference in Beijing earlier this week.
Gilead Sciences, the U.S. company that originally developed remdesivir for ebola and Marburg virus infections, is offering the drug free to support the Chinese trials, which are expected to be finished on April 27.
Remdesivir has not been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration, although doctors can pursue “compassionate use” of a drug in the event of a serious health condition.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has applied to patent the use of Gilead’s remdesivir to treat the current coronavirus outbreak, a move that could spark fresh tension with the United States over intellectual property and technology transfer.
Gilead’s patent application, filed in China in 2016 before the virus was identified, cites only the overall family of coronaviruses.
“Gilead has no influence over whether a patent office issues a patent to the Chinese researchers,” company spokesman Ryan McKeel told the Associated Press.
“Their application has been filed more than three years after Gilead’s filing and will be considered in view of what is already known about the compound and pending patent applications.”
The Chinese researchers said they had made their patent application “from the perspective of protecting national interests,” the institute said in a statement.
“If relevant foreign companies plan to contribute to China’s epidemic prevention and control, we both agree that if the state needs it, we will not require enforcement of rights given by the patent,” it said.
By Simon Denyer and with Lyric Li in Beijing
1:58 a.m.
Taiwan widens travel restrictions on China visitors
YANGON, Myanmar — Taiwan on Thursday expanded travel restrictions on visitors from China, announcing a ban on foreigners who have visited or lived in the semiautonomous Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao within the past 14 days.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was including the financial center and gambling hub as part of what it considers an epidemic-hit area. The announcement widened restrictions that were imposed on travelers from mainland China and all mainland Chinese passport holders. All Taiwanese residents returning from those places must self-quarantine for 14 days, the statement added.
In Hong Kong, pressure is mounting on officials to completely shut the border to mainland China, as fears grow that more countries may impose travel restrictions against Hong Kong similar to those in place for mainland China. The Hong Kong government on Wednesday announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine period for all travelers arriving from mainland China.
By Shibani Mahtani
1:34 a.m.
Chinese expert says real level of infections much higher than official figure
TOKYO — A Chinese expert in respiratory diseases said that the real number of people infected with the new coronavirus could be much higher than official figures suggest, and it remains too early to predict a “turning point.”
The comments from Wang Chen, president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union Medical College, contrast with an earlier official forecast that it could take up to six weeks to see a drop in infections.
“We have to see that the increase in confirmed cases is not the total number of infections in reality, but only reflects those who had tested positive in nucleic acid tests; and not all patients had gone through the tests,” Wang said in an interview late Wednesday with state China Central Television.
“Therefore, the reported new cases are just newly confirmed cases, and there could be more people out there.”
Wang said the number of infected people was “unknowable” and the true scale of the epidemic unclear, adding that there was still a great risk of transmission by unquarantined people.
“Should there be no effective control measures, there’s no way to predict such a turning point,” he said. “In addition, the virus is likely to go on mutating, making it impossible to pinpoint its communicability and pathogenicity. Human migration and a warmer weather could also be influence factors.”
On Tuesday, National Health Commission epidemiologist Li Lanjuan told CCTV that it would take up to six weeks to fully contain the epidemic and see a drop in infections.
By Simon Denyer and Lyric Li in Beijing
12:49 a.m.
Three Americans among 20 passengers who tested positive for virus on quarantined ship
TOKYO — Another 10 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on board the quarantined cruise liner the Diamond Princess, moored at the Japanese port of Yokohama, Japan’s Health Ministry said Thursday.
Princess Cruise Lines said the latest group to test positive included four Japanese passengers, one from Taiwan, two Americans, two Canadians and one from New Zealand, adding that they would be disembarked immediately and taken to local hospitals.
On Wednesday, the ship was placed in a 14-day quarantine after nine passengers and one crew member tested positive for the virus, out of 31 people whose test results were analyzed. That group composed of two Australian passengers, three Japanese, three from Hong Kong, and one American, as well as one Filipino crew member.
On Thursday, another 71 test results came back, showing another 10 people have the virus. A further 171 people on board have been tested for the virus — out of the total of 3,711 passengers and crew on board the ship. Their test results are still pending.
“The health and safety of our guests and crew remains our top priority,” the company said in a statement. “We continue to work closely with the Japan Ministry of Health on all protocols and procedures while ensuring the comfort of our guests.
Passengers on board the vessel have been confined to their cabins during the quarantine period, but the crew are still working.
In parliament, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the quarantine would “in principle” end in 14 days, in line with advice from the World Health Organization, but added the ministry would conduct additional tests “as necessary,” especially if one person fell ill inside a shared cabin.
“We are thinking of testing broadly, but there is a limit to how many we can process each day,” he said. “Given that, we will give priority [to those in most need] and will respond to the situation thoroughly.”
By Simon Denyer
12:30 a.m.
‘Encouraging’ signs in Japan as most coronavirus patients recovering, stable
TOKYO — Japan’s Health Ministry said on Thursday it was encouraged by data showing most of the initial batch of patients diagnosed with coronavirus were recovering from the disease.
Out of 22 patients whose condition was listed on the ministry website, four have not developed symptoms, two are cured, seven are on the mend, five in stable condition and only four defined as “under treatment.”
So far in Japan, 45 people have been confirmed as carrying the virus, including 20 passengers and crew from a quarantined cruise liner. All patients who still have the virus remain in hospital.
Daigo Yamada, a section chief in the ministry’s tuberculosis and infectious diseases control division, said that while the spread of the virus is worrying, the data were “encouraging.”
“These are the facts, and a source of relief,” he said. “And we haven’t seen cases of people seriously ill or dying.”
The figures coming from Japan support the idea that the virus may be more contagious than previously believed and very difficult to control, but less deadly than first believed and much less deadly than severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which left hundreds dead across Asia in 2002-2003.
By Simon Denyer and Akiko Kashiwagi
12:20 a.m.
Auto factory in China converts production line to make face masks
TOKYO — An auto factory in China said on Thursday it is converting one of its plants to make face masks, to combat the growing shortage as the novel coronavirus continues to spread.
SAIC-GM-Wuling, a joint venture between General Motors and two Chinese carmakers, said it would set up 14 production lines in the city of Liuzhou in Guangxi province to make masks in a dust-free environment.
Four of the production lines will produce the N95 masks — which are believed to be more effective against virus-borne diseases but more difficult to breathe through — and 10 will produce general medical protective masks, the company said in a statement.
Production is expected to start this month and reach 1.7 million masks a day, to help to alleviate the shortage in Guangxi, the company said.
Masks are in extremely short supply all over China, with some cities introducing rationing or even lotteries to distribute limited inventory.
So intense is the shortage that the city of Dali in the southwestern province of Yunnan appropriated a delivery of nine parcels of masks from a supplier in the province that were intended for the megacity of Chongqing, where the shortage is acute.
When a Chongqing new coronavirus epidemic prevention and control group wrote to Dali to ask for the masks, Dali’s Health Commission responded that the masks had already been distributed and could not be given back, the Economic Observer reported.
By Simon Denyer and Liu Yang
What you need to know about coronavirus
Follow our updates: China virus cases soar past 28,000, with more than 560 deaths. Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan have expressed relief at returning to the United States after extended delays in leaving the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak.
Are you in isolation or quarantine because of coronavirus? We want to hear about it. Have you seen or experienced any discrimination, racism or xenophobia connected to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic? Share your story.
Mapping the spread of the new coronavirus: The United States, Germany, Sri Lanka, France, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Vietnam, Macao and South Korea have all confirmed cases of the infection.
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Federal health officials confirmed there are 11 U.S. cases of the coronavirus, with a couple from central California falling ill after the husband’s trip to China’s Hubei province.
What is coronavirus and how does it spread? Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses whose effects range from causing the common cold to triggering much more serious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Here’s what we know so far.
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