A paradegoer holds a sign of support for China, at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, as participants in the Lunar New Year parade pass by in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Coronavirus outbreak LIVE Updates: A team of experts led by the World Health Organization (WHO) left for Beijing to help investigate China’s coronavirus epidemic as the death toll climbed to 908 in the mainland, surpassing the number of fatalities of the SARS epidemic of 2002-03. The total number of cases so far is 40,171 and the infection has spread to at least 27 countries. One death each outside China has been reported from Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the USA.
The government today eased some restrictions and workers began trickling back to offices and factories around China. On one of the usually busiest subway lines in Beijing, trains were largely empty. The few commuters sighted during peak-hour morning traffic were all wearing masks. Schools in many parts of China will be closed till February end.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday offered assistance to China to deal with the outbreak. In a letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping, PM Modi expressed solidarity with the premier and also conveyed his condolences at the unfortunate loss of lives due to the outbreak. (
Yokohama: Medical workers in protective suits lead a passenger tested positive for a new coronavirus from the cruise ship Diamond Princess at Yokohama Port in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. (AP)
Highlights
Scientists have found that the genome sequence of the coronavirus isolated from pangolins was 99 per cent identical with that separated from infected humans. Pangolins are considered to be one of the most trafficked animals in the world and are classified as a critically endangered species. Thousands of pangolins are poached every year due to their “medicinal value” and the consumption of their meat in countries such as China and Vietnam. Can pangolins be the source of the coronavirus? Find out here
Signs of support for the Chinese city at the center of a global virus outbreak marked floats at the Lunar New Year parade in Manhattan's Chinatown on Sunday as brightly colored puppets made their way through the streets in front of crowds of onlookers. A banner on one float read ``Support Wuhan! Let's fight the virus together!`` Another urged, ``Wuhan stay strong.`` Some of the paradegoers who filled the streets held signs expressing support for China, as well.
Oil prices on Monday extended their decline from an early January peak above $70 as the spectre of excess supplies loomed over the market after the spreading coronavirus outbreak hit demand in China, the world's largest oil importer. Brent crude hit a low of $53.63 a barrel and was at $54.09 by 0100 GMT, down 38 cents. U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 38 cents to $49.94 a barrel after striking a low of $49.56. Worries over supply were not alleviated on Friday when Russia said it need more time to decide on a recommendation from a technical committee that has advised the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies to cut production by a further 600,000 barrels per day.
Guo Qiang, a deliveryman, knows his family is worried that he’s returned to work during the coronavirus epidemic. The 29-year-old went back to his hometown in central China’s Henan province for the Lunar New Year, a once-a-year chance that many in China have to visit their families. When news broke about the fast-spreading coronavirus, he volunteered to return to Beijing. Click here to know more.
The death toll due to the novel coronavirus outbreak rose to 813 in China, surpassing the number killed globally by the 2002-03 SARS epidemic. However, on a positive note, Chinese officials said the number of cases had started declining for the first time after weeks of sharp rise. Nearly 774 people were killed globally by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that started in southern China.
(Reuters)
The Mizoram government has placed six students under home quarantine as a part of precautionary measures after they recently returned from China, officials said on Sunday. Blood samples of two of them have been sent to the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata for test, state nodal officer of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Dr Pachuau Lalmalsawma, told PTI.
Over two dozen large trade fairs and industry conferences in China and overseas have been postponed or hit by travel curbs and concerns about the spread of a coronavirus, potentially disrupting billions of dollars worth of deals, reported Reuters.
The local government of the city of Shenzhen in southeastern China said on Sunday it had not blocked plans by Apple supplier Foxconn to resume production, adding that the company would restart once inspections were completed, news agency Reuters reported. The Nikkei Business Daily reported on Saturday that China had blocked the company's plans to resume production amid concerns about the coronavirus.
China's central bank on Sunday said it will offer a 300 billion yuan (USD 43 billion) boost to help firms that are putting in efforts to fight the deadly coronavirus which has so far claimed more than 800 lives in the country, news agency AFP reported. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it will dispatch the first tranch of special re-lending funds on Monday to support financial institutions to offer loans to enterprises involved in prevention and control of the epidemic.
Officials in China put households under lockdown
A newly identified virus that emerged late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, causing an explosive outbreak of sometimes fatal pneumonia, has become a global health emergency. The culprit is a so-called coronavirus dubbed 2019-nCoV. It belongs to a family of viruses responsible for diseases that range in severity from the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which killed almost 800 people in a 2002-2003 outbreak. Click here to read more.
Spain confirmed its second case of the new virus from China on Sunday. The coronavirus case was detected in Mallorca, a popular vacation island in the Mediterranean Sea, Spain's National Microbiology Center said. A British man who lives on the island contracted the virus at the end of January at a French ski resort where he came into contact with an infected person, according to Fernando Simon, head of Spain's Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies. (Reuters)
A fourth case of the new coronavirus has been diagnosed in Britain after a patient contracted the illness from a previously confirmed British case while in France, news agency Reuters reported. "A further patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus in England, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to four," Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, said in a statement.
On Friday (February 7), scientists investigating the animal origins of the novel coronavirus said pangolins could be responsible for the spread of the virus to humans in China. The scientists, whose findings are yet to be published, have found that the genome sequence of the coronavirus isolated from pangolins was 99 per cent identical with that separated from infected humans. Click here to read more.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday offered India’s assistance to China to deal with the outbreak of novel Coronavirus that has claimed over 800 lives so far. In a letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping, PM Modi expressed solidarity with the premier and also conveyed his condolences at the unfortunate loss of lives due to the outbreak. PM Modi also thanked Xi Jinping for facilitating the evacuation of 647 Indian citizens from Hubei province earlier this month. Click here to read more.
Five persons with symptoms of coronavirus were rushed to hospital after they arrived in Pakistan from a flight from China, news agency PTI reported citing media reports.
The suspected patients were on the Air China flight carrying 177 passengers, which landed in Islamabad on Friday, The Express Tribune reported quoting airport officials. The five passengers were segregated as their body temperatures registered above normal during thermal scanning at the airport, the paper said.
The new coronavirus may have infected at least 1 in 20 people in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the global outbreak, by the time it peaks in the coming weeks, according to scientists modeling its spread. The typically bustling megacity, where the so-called 2019-nCoV virus emerged late last year, has been in lockdown since Jan. 23, restricting the movement of 11 million people. Click here to read more.
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The coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 800 people in China and sickened tens of thousands, comes as Xi has struggled with a host of other challenges: a slowing economy, huge protests in Hong Kong, an election in Taiwan that rebuffed Beijing and a protracted trade war with the United States. Click here to know more.
Indian government Sunday removed surgical masks and gloves from the list of banned export items, a notification said.
Last month, the government put a ban on exports of all kinds of personal protection equipment, including clothing and masks used to protect people from airborne particles amidst the outbreak of deadly novel coronavirus in China.
Two new cases of coronavirus infection have been detected in the UAE, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with the deadly disease to seven, the country's health ministry has said.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said on Saturday that "two new cases of coronavirus" were detected in the country through a routine check-up system set according to standards set by the World Health Organization.
The ministry said in a statement that the two new patients, a Chinese national and a Filipino, were receiving medical care as per the highest health standards available in the country. (PTI)
The northern Chinese province of Hebei will keep its schools shut until at least March 1 to control the coronavirus outbreak, the Communist Party-run People's Daily newspaper said on Sunday, citing the local education bureau.
Hebei, which surrounds the capital Beijing, is one of a number of provinces and municipalities to extend the school shutdown until the end of the month, with others including Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai. (Reuters)
Britain's final evacuation flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak, landed at a Royal Air Force base in central England on Sunday.
The British government said on Saturday the plane had more than 200 people on board, including non-British nationals. The passengers also included staff who facilitated the flight as well as medics. They will be quarantined for 14 days. (Reuters)
China's National Health Commission called for the "reasonable use" of protective suits in a statement on Sunday and cautioned against "excessive and disorderly" use of the clothing that would waste resources and could also increase infection.
The statement was issued as China faces a severe shortage of equipment, including suits, masks and goggles, to protect medical workers from infection amid a newly identified coronavirus that has killed more than 800 people. (Reuters)
Between January 24 and February 7, 604 samples have been tested at Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) in Pune that is at the centre of the country’s efforts to deal with the nCoV outbreak. So far, three of these samples have tested positive. Across the country, over 1,300 samples have been tested at 14 other virus research diagnostic laboratories (VRDLs), including those at the apex ICMR-NIV lab.
“Around mid-December, we started following reported cases of mysterious pneumonia in China. Even before nCoV hit the headlines, we had formed an outbreak response group of ICMR-NIV doctors trained in community health (epidemiologists).
The samples arrive at the centre in a three-layered packing in a virus transport medium from across the country, and are handled carefully in the biosafety cabinet by technologists in protective gear. The samples are then separated into small portions and carefully labelled. They are then sent to another unit where nucleic acid extraction followed by the real-time polymerase chain reaction tests are conducted to detect whether the sample is positive or negative for nCoV. Every sample is checked for, besides nCoV, 18 other respiratory viruses, a process which takes about four hours. Read more
Bangladesh has scrapped plans to bring back its 171 nationals stuck in coronavirus-hit China after it failed to arrange a flight following refusal from crew members to fly to the affected country, according to media reports on Sunday.
State-run Biman Airlines' Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft on February 1 brought back 312 Bangladeshis, including 12 children and three infants in the wake of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China, that has claimed 811 lives and infected over 37,000 others.
“We can't send any flight. No crew member agrees to go there either. So, we've told them [stranded Bangladeshis] to wait,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com. (PTI)
A Chinese delegation's visit to Goa has been put on hold by tourism industry stakeholders here in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the neighbouring country, an official said on Sunday.
The delegation, comprising photographers, models, online and offline booking experts and marketing strategists from China, was supposed to arrive here on Sunday, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Savio Messias said.
"But, their visit has been now put on hold in view of the present situation following the outbreak of the coronavirus in China. The delegation was part of a marketing strategy planned by Goa tourism industry stakeholders to attract visitors from China," Messias said. (PTI)
Struggling to contain the spread of the disease, Chinese authorities told businesses to tack up to 10 extra days onto holidays that had been due to finish at the end of January as the rising numbers of dead and infected cast a pall over the country.
Many of China's usually teeming cities have almost become ghost towns during the past two weeks, as the Communist Party rulers ordered virtual lockdowns, cancelled flights, closed factories and kept schools shut.
The sight of an economy regarded as a workshop to the world laid so low has also taken a toll on international financial markets, as shares slumped and investors switched into safe-havens like gold, bonds and the Japanese yen.
As millions of Chinese prepared to go back to work, the public dismay and mistrust of official numbers was evident on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.
'What's even more frustrating is that these are only the 'official' data,' said one user. (Reuters)
A suspected coronavirus patient in Odisha, who was admitted in a state-run hospital in Cuttack, was discharged after he tested negative, PTI reported.
Earlier, two medical students admitted to the hospital had also tested negative, they said.
The remaining patient, who was admitted to the coronavirus isolation special ward of the SCB Medical College and Hospital, was discharged on Saturday after reports from Pune's National Institute of Virology verified he was not infected, hospital authorities said.
The person, who hails from Jagatsinghpur district, is an engineer working with a Beijing-based firm and had recently visited Hong Kong, they said.
With the novel coronavirus outbreak in China stalling import of crucial Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), the government has asked all state Food and Drug Administrations (FDAs) to reach out to drug manufacturers and understand how much stock each has of 58 crucial APIs.
APIs are a raw material used to make a pharmaceutical drug. India relies on China for 65-70 per cent of its annual API requirement. Stocks may last another two months, several domestic drug manufacturers said.
The province of Hubei, where novel coronavirus was first reported in December, is a major hub of API manufacturers, apart from two other provinces in China. Since January, Hubei remains in a state of lockdown to limit the spread of the virus. Read more
For Kerala, the virus is a fresh challenge after the deadly Nipah outbreak of 2018 and 2019 that had claimed 17 lives, all in 2018. The state has been on vigil since January 17, when the Centre sounded an alert for coronavirus. By January 30, the figure of those under observation had touched 1,053. Within the next five days, with the three positive cases being reported, Kerala declared a state ‘calamity’. At 418, Malappuram district has the highest number of persons under observation for suspected exposure to the virus.
To tackle the challenge, the state health department has fallen back on its past experience in managing the Nipah outbreak and put in place a multi-level mechanism for surveillance and control of the infection. Read more
The new coronavirus may have infected at least 1 in 20 people in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the global outbreak, by the time it peaks in coming weeks, according to scientists modeling its spread. “Assuming current trends continue, we’re still projecting a mid-to-late-February peak” in Wuhan, said Adam Kucharski, an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology, in an email Sunday. “There’s a lot of uncertainty, so I’m cautious about picking out a single value for the peak, but it’s possible based on current data we might see a peak prevalence over 5%.” (Bloomberg)
The death toll in China due to novel coronavirus surged to 811 on Sunday, surpassing the number of fatalities of the SARS epidemic of 2002-03. SARS had killed 774 people and sickened 8,098, mainly in mainland China and Hong Kong. Overall, the new virus has affected 37,198 people so far.