Senin, 03 Februari 2020

Wuhan coronavirus: Inside new hospital panic-built to contain outbreak - Business Insider - Business Insider

  • The city of Wuhan, China, finished building its first emergency hospital for coronavirus patients on Sunday. The construction took just ten days.
  • The patients started arriving at the hospital on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
  • The 645,000-square-foot hospital is made up of two floors and has 30 intensive care units, several isolation wards, and 1,000 beds, the AP reported.
  • It also has special double-sided cabinets that connect patients‘ rooms to hallways so that staff to deliver supplies without entering the rooms, the news agency said.
  • Scroll down to see photos inside the brand-new hospital.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The city of Wuhan, China, finished building its first emergency hospital dedicated to treating patients of the deadly coronavirus on Sunday. It took just ten days from start to finish.

The first patients arrived at the panic-built Huoshenshan Hospital on Monday, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Their identities are not yet known.

The new hospital spans two floors and 60,000 square meters (645,000 square feet), and has 1,000 beds, the AP reported. China’s People’s Liberation Army has sent 1,400 medical workers to staff it, state media reported.

It is one of two buildings being panic-built in Wuhan to treat the rapidly-spreading virus, which has now killed 362 and infected more than 170,000. The second facility is to be completed later this week.

Take a look inside the Huoshenshan Hospital:


Construction on the makeshift Huoshenshan Hospital started on January 23.

Foto: This aerial photo was taken on January 24, 2020.sourceSTR/AFP via Getty Images

China geared up to build the hospital as quickly as possible after medical experts in the city described overcrowded hospitals and shortage of test kits and face masks.

Source: Business Insider


It only took 10 days to construct the 645,000-square-foot building. Seven thousand engineers, carpenters, electricians, and other specialists were brought in from around the country to speed up the process.

Foto: The hospital was built in a rush, in the hopes of containing the virus as soon as possible.sourceAP

Construction workers also worked throughout the Lunar New Year holiday, MailOnline reported last week, citing state media.

Source: AP


The building is made out of prefabricated buildings with several sections that stretch out from one main centerpiece.

Foto: The number of Wuhan coronavirus cases inside mainland China overtook SARS last week.sourceAP

The building’s design was based on the Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing, which was built in 2003 to fight the SARS epidemic at the time.

That hospital ended up treating one-seventh of the country’s total number of SARS infections, state media said.

Source: AP


The building is two-floors high.

Foto: sourceAP


The People’s Liberation Army has sent 1,400 doctors, nurses, and other medics to staff the facility, state media reported.

Foto: Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan on January 22, 2020.sourceSTR/AFP via Getty Images

Some of them already have experience fighting other outbreaks, including SARS, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

All of them are required to wear protective suits, the state-run CGTN news network reported.


There are four types of rooms in the hospital: Patients‘ wards, bathrooms, doctors‘ rooms, and nurse stations. This shows a shower room being built.

Foto: sourceCGTN

Workers were able to construct a water supply system for the bathrooms in just seven days, CGTN reported.


The hospital has 1,000 beds.

Foto: Beds and other hospital machinery being delivered to the hospital while it was under construction.sourceAP

Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese epidemiologist who played a major role during the SARS epidemic, told state broadcaster CCTV that the extra beds would massively help the outbreak because sick patients can now stay in hospital rather than be sent home, according to Sky News.


About half of it comprises of isolation wards, and there are also 30 intensive care units to treat more critical cases, the AP cited the Yangtze Daily newspaper as saying.

Foto: Many patients must be kept in isolation wards to not put the staff at risk.sourceAP

Source: AP


The building contains special ventilation systems and double-sided cabinets that connect patients‘ rooms to hallways, so staff can deliver supplies without entering the rooms.

Foto: sourceAP

This is likely to prevent medics from contracting the virus, which spreads from human to human.

Source: AP


The hospital has a lot of advanced medical machinery, such as this MRI machine being built here. A Chinese company also reportedly donated „medical robots“ to deliver medicines and test samples, the AP cited local media as saying.

Foto: An MRI machine at the hospital.sourceAP

Source: AP


Some rooms even appear to have TV screens installed. It’s not clear whether these are in patients‘ rooms or used for other purposes, though.

Foto: sourceCGTN


The hospital even has a video system that enables doctors to talk to experts in Beijing, local media said. It said the system was installed in less than 12 hours from Wuhan Telecom Ltd.

Foto: The system was installed by a 20-member team.sourceAP

The video system links doctors in Wuhan to Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, the AP cited the Yangtze Daily as saying.

Source: AP


The Huoshenshan Hospital is one of two hospitals being panic-built in Wuhan to fight the coronavirus. The second facility is to be completed later this week, and will have an additional 1,500 beds.

Foto: A before-and-after image of the Huoshenshan Hospital being built in Wuhan, China.sourceGetty Images

The second facility is called the Leishenshan Hospital. Construction of that facility began on January 27, and is due to open on February 5.

Source: Business Insider

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2020-02-03 13:46:45Z
52780579291157

China's coronavirus hospital built in 10 days opens its doors, state media says - NBCNews.com

A 1,000-bed hospital built in just 10 days to handle the coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan, China, welcomed its first patients Monday.

Built specifically to handle patients infected with the novel coronavirus that has sickened thousands of people and left more than 360 dead, it took workers just 10 days to complete work on the Huoshenshan Hospital on the outskirts of the city with its 11 million residents, where the outbreak is believed to have originated.

On Monday, the hospital — which covers 60,000 square meters (645,000 square ft) — opened its doors and welcomed its first patients, according to Chinese state media. There was no information about the patients or their conditions.

Construction of the hospital began on Jan. 24 with a crew of 7,000 people working around the clock. Live video of the construction site was carried by Chinese state media and showed the sheer scale and speed of the project.

A second dedicated hospital with 1,300 beds is also expected to be ready later this week.

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

Medical equipment at the Huoshenshan temporary field hospital in Wuhan.AP

China's state news agency Xinhua reported Sunday the new hospital has a capacity for 1,000 beds, intensive care units and sections for diagnosis and infection control.

Hundreds of doctors and medical personnel have been drafted in from China's military to treat patients at the hospital, Xinhua also said.

Many of the 1,400 medical specialists have worked in the past to treat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which the novel coronavirus is related to, and the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the agency added.

The Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan seen from the air. AP

Project manager Fang Xiang whose team worked on the hospital was quoted by China Central Television (CCTV) Monday as saying that a project of this scale usually takes at least two years.

"It takes at least a month to construct a temporary building, not to mention a new hospital for infectious diseases," he said, according to CCTV.

Thousands of workers worked in shifts to complete the construction, CCTV said.

China's state CGTN network showed a video of several workers who said they slept only two hours in three days while completing the construction of the hospital.

It’s not the first time China has had to build a specialized medical facility on a tight deadline. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, a hospital in Beijing was constructed in just a week.

Wuhan has been on lockdown for nearly two weeks with millions of its inhabitants barred from leaving the city. The Chinese government has not yet signaled when the lockdown could be lifted.

Associated Press contributed.

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2020-02-03 12:57:00Z
52780579291157

China's coronavirus hospital built in 10 days opens its doors, state media says - NBCNews.com

A 1,000-bed hospital built in just 10 days to handle the coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan, China, welcomed its first patients Monday.

Built specifically to handle patients infected with the novel coronavirus that has sickened thousands of people and left more than 360 dead, it took workers just 10 days to complete work on the Huoshenshan Hospital on the outskirts of the city with its 11 million residents, where the outbreak is believed to have originated.

At 10 a.m. Monday (9 p.m. Sunday E.T.) the hospital opened its doors and welcomed its first patients, according to Chinese state media. There was no information about the patients or their conditions.

Construction of the hospital began on Jan. 24 with a crew of 7,000 people working around the clock. Live video of the construction site was carried by Chinese state media and showed the sheer scale and speed of the project.

A second dedicated hospital with 1,300 beds is also expected to be ready later this week.

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

Medical equipment at the Huoshenshan temporary field hospital in Wuhan.AP

China's state news agency Xinhua reported Sunday the new hospital has a capacity for 1,000 beds, intensive care units and sections for diagnosis and infection control.

Hundreds of doctors and medical personnel have been drafted in from China's military to treat patients at the hospital, Xinhua also said.

Many of the 1,400 medical specialists have worked in the past to treat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which the novel coronavirus is related to, and the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the agency added.

The Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan seen from the air. AP

Project manager Fang Xiang whose team worked on the hospital was quoted by China Central Television (CCTV) Monday as saying that a project of this scale usually takes at least two years.

"It takes at least a month to construct a temporary building, not to mention a new hospital for infectious diseases," he said, according to CCTV.

Thousands of workers worked in shifts to complete the construction, CCTV said.

China's state CGTN network showed a video of several workers who said they slept only two hours in three days while completing the construction of the hospital.

It’s not the first time China has had to build a specialized medical facility on a tight deadline. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, a hospital in Beijing was constructed in just a week.

Wuhan has been on lockdown for nearly two weeks with millions of its inhabitants barred from leaving the city. The Chinese government has not yet signaled when the lockdown could be lifted.

Associated Press contributed.

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2020-02-03 10:38:00Z
52780579291157

China’s reopened stock markets plunge as coronavirus outbreak set to become pandemic - The Washington Post

Jason Lee Reuters Security personnel wearing masks cross a road at the Financial Street in central Beijing, Feb. 3, 2020.

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. Here’s what we know:

● 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.

● Hong Kong has closed nearly all its border crossings with mainland China. Concerns are also rising about possible outbreaks in Japan and South Korea after indications of tertiary transmissions of the virus there.

● China’s new “super-fast” hospital has opened in Wuhan, taking just eight days to build. With 1,000 beds, it will relieve pressure on Wuhan’s overwhelmed medical facilities.

● 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.

5:00 AM: Facing hospital strike, Hong Kong further restricts border crossings, but avoids total closure

HONG KONG — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Monday said she would close more border crossings with mainland China, leaving only three open, but stopped short of fully closing the door to arrivals from the virus-hit country.

Her announcement on Monday came as thousands of medical workers in the city started the first wave of a strike designed to pressure the government into a full border closure. Medical workers are also demanding sufficient protective supplies like masks, which are in very short supply in the city. They are backed in their strike by a large swath of Hong Kong society.

Jerome Favre

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Supporters of medical workers rally to demand the government the closing of the border with mainland China in Hong Kong, Feb. 3, 2020.

Hong Kong had closed six of its 15 border checkpoints with mainland China last Thursday, but Lam said there was a need to take further steps on Monday “because of the latest developments in the outbreak.”

She said she hoped the closure would make it inconvenient for people to travel to mainland China, and discourage people crossing between the two territories. Hong Kong has its own immigration system, but Beijing has ultimate sovereignty over the territory.

The decision, Lam said, has “absolutely nothing to do” with the five-day strike launched by health care workers on Monday.

Tyrone Siu

Reuters

Medical workers hold a strike near Queen Elizabeth Hospital as they demand Hong Kong close its border with China to reduce the coronavirus spreading, Feb. 3, 2020.

“If anyone thinks that by resorting to such extreme measures, the government will be made to do something that is not rational or will harm the public good, they will not get anywhere,” she said.

The medical workers striking, which include doctors and nurses, are from a union — the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance — that was formed in the wake of anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong last year.

The pro-democracy union has some 18, 000 members, and they say they will expand their strike to include more of their members if the government does not respond to their demands.

By: Shibani Mahtani

4:57 AM: China shares closed nearly 8 percent lower as virus weakens the economy

TOKYO — China’s main share index closed down nearly 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 ended 7.9 percent lower, its biggest daily fall since an equity bubble burst in 2015. The Chinese yuan fell below 7 to a dollar, while commodity prices traded in Shanghai also fell sharply.

The fall was a reflection of 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 a drop-off in Chinese tourists is also impacting the economies of nearby countries in Asia.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed 0.2 percent higher after falling 5.9 percent last week, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.0 percent after falling 2.6 percent last week, while South Korea’s Kospi index was flat after falling 5.7 percent last week.

In Europe, London’s FTSE-100 index and Germany’s DAX opened slightly higher.

By: Simon Denyer

4:43 AM: Coronavirus got you stressed? Chinese therapists recommend a good cry — or hitting something

TOKYO — If the relentless negative news about coronavirus is all getting too much, or if you’re trapped at home in China feeling bored and fidgety, or starting to panic, Chinese psychologists have some suggestions.

Calligraphy and e-sports, reading, singing, exercise and meditation were just some of the ideas proposed at a news conference organized by China’s National Health Commission on Monday.

“Companionship from family and friends is important social support,” said Chen Xuefeng, the vice director of Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Science.

“Think about what valuable life experience you can get from this chapter of experience.”

China Daily

Reuters

Medical workers inspect the CT scan image of a patient at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Hubei province, China Feb. 2, 2020.

But for overworked medical professionals and community workers on the front line of the battle against the virus, more radical measures might be needed.

“They should master some methods and solutions to get the negative feelings off their chests,” said Yang Fude, the Communist Party chief of Beijing’s Huilongguan Hospital. “For instance, if you feel depressed, you can find a place with no one around and cry out loud for a few minutes,” he said. “You’ll really feel relaxed after crying. It’s like how a downpour of rain can clear a cloudy sky.”

Yang said work shifts need to be arranged so everyone can get a reasonable amount of rest.

“Also if conditions allow, you can put a sandbag or a punch bag in the workplace, and take some minutes to do some boxing, which will return you to a relaxed state right away.”

By: Simon Denyer

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, 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.

[Coronavirus infections predicted to grow exponentially; first death outside China; outbreak becomes political]

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

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiiwFodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vd29ybGQvYXNpYV9wYWNpZmljL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNoaW5hLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy8yMDIwLzAyLzAzLzdjMDcxZjBjLTQ2MTAtMTFlYS1hYjE1LWI1ZGYzMjYxYjcxMF9zdG9yeS5odG1s0gGaAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS93b3JsZC9hc2lhX3BhY2lmaWMvY29yb25hdmlydXMtY2hpbmEtbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLzIwMjAvMDIvMDMvN2MwNzFmMGMtNDYxMC0xMWVhLWFiMTUtYjVkZjMyNjFiNzEwX3N0b3J5Lmh0bWw_b3V0cHV0VHlwZT1hbXA?oc=5

2020-02-03 10:22:00Z
52780579291157

China’s reopened stock markets plunge as coronavirus outbreak set to become pandemic - The Washington Post

Jason Lee Reuters Security personnel wearing masks walk along the Financial Street in central Beijing, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, Feb. 3, 2020.

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.

● China’s new “super-fast” hospital has opened in Wuhan, taking just eight days to build. With 1,000 beds, it will relieve pressure on Wuhan’s overhwhelmed medical facilities.

● 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.

4:43 AM: Coronavirus got you stressed? Chinese therapists recommend a good cry — or hitting something

TOKYO — If the relentless negative news about coronavirus is all getting too much, or if you’re trapped at home in China bored, feeling fidgety and starting to panic, Chinese psychologists have some suggestions.

Calligraphy and e-sports, reading, singing, exercise and meditation were just some of the ideas proposed at a news conference organized by China’s National Health Commission on Monday.

“Companionship from family and friends is important social support,” said Chen Xuefeng, the vice director of Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Science.

“Think about what valuable life experience you can get from this chapter of experience.”

China Daily

Reuters

Medical workers inspect the CT scan image of a patient at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Hubei province, China Feb. 2, 2020.

But for overworked medical professionals and community workers on the frontline of the battle against the virus, more radical measures might be needed.

“They should master some methods and solutions to get the negative feelings off their chests,” said Yang Fude, the Communist Party chief of Beijing’s Huilongguan Hospital. “For instance, if you feel depressed, you can find a place with no one around and cry out loud for a few minutes,” he said. “You’ll really feel relaxed after crying. It’s like how a downpour of rain can clear a cloudy sky.”

Yang said work shifts need to be arranged so everyone can get a reasonable amount of rest.

“Also if conditions allow, you can put a sandbag or a punch bag in the workplace, and take some minutes to do some boxing, which will return you to a relaxed state right away.”

By: Simon Denyer

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.

[Coronavirus infections predicted to grow exponentially; first death outside China; outbreak becomes political]

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

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiiwFodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vd29ybGQvYXNpYV9wYWNpZmljL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNoaW5hLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy8yMDIwLzAyLzAzLzdjMDcxZjBjLTQ2MTAtMTFlYS1hYjE1LWI1ZGYzMjYxYjcxMF9zdG9yeS5odG1s0gGaAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS93b3JsZC9hc2lhX3BhY2lmaWMvY29yb25hdmlydXMtY2hpbmEtbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLzIwMjAvMDIvMDMvN2MwNzFmMGMtNDYxMC0xMWVhLWFiMTUtYjVkZjMyNjFiNzEwX3N0b3J5Lmh0bWw_b3V0cHV0VHlwZT1hbXA?oc=5

2020-02-03 10:00:00Z
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Coronavirus Live Updates: China Death Toll Is Greater Than in SARS Outbreak - The New York Times

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The death toll from the coronavirus has now exceeded that of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2002 and 2003 in mainland China. But nationwide, the number of people who have recovered has risen in recent days, suggesting that the fatality rate of the virus is relatively low.

China’s Health Commission reported on Sunday that there were 475 recoveries and 361 deaths nationwide. During the SARS outbreak, 349 people died in mainland China.

Health experts say they were encouraged by the steady rise in the number of recoveries and took it as evidence that the treatments meted out have been effective and showed that the virus does not appear to be as deadly as SARS.

SARS had a mortality rate of 9.6 percent, and about 2 percent of those reported to have been infected with the new coronavirus have died.

China first announced an outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia in the city of Wuhan on Dec. 31. It has been 12 days since the authorities began to place the city and much of the surrounding province of Hubei — home to tens of millions of people — under lockdown on Jan. 23.

In the province of Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, 80 patients had recovered on Sunday, compared with 56 deaths. On Saturday, 49 patients had left the hospitals, while 45 people had died.

But the number of infections from the new coronavirus is still climbing and has far exceeded that of SARS, suggesting that it could take a while before China declares an end to the outbreak. China had 17,205 confirmed infections as of Sunday. During the SARS outbreak, China had 5,327 cases, according to the World Health Organization.

Stocks in China plunged in Monday trading as investors returned from a long holiday to the prospect of the world’s No. 2 economy virtually shut down by the coronavirus epidemic.

Stocks in Shanghai dropped 7.7 percent by midafternoon, while shares in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen fell 8.4 percent. The markets had been closed since Jan. 23 for the Lunar New Year holiday, and government officials extended that closure until Monday while the authorities dealt with the outbreak.

Other markets in the region, which have already digested much of the impact, opened lower as well. Shares in Tokyo and Australia were down about 1.5 percent in early Monday trading. Stocks in Hong Kong opened about half a percent lower.

The damage could be confined to Asia. Futures markets that predict the performance of stocks in the next day forecast a positive opening for Wall Street and a mixed day for shares in Europe.

Separately, China’s central bank moved to pump $173 billion into its financial system on Monday in an emergency move to help government efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

From Amy Qin, a China correspondent, and Elsie Chen, a researcher, on the ground in Wuhan:

People desperate for treatment started descending on a new hospital in Wuhan on Monday that was built in just 10 days after the outbreak of the new coronavirus. But with workers still trying to finish construction on it for Monday’s opening, many were turned away.

Multiple road checkpoints had been set up to screen cars heading to the hospital. A sign at one checkpoint said: “Huoshenshan Hospital does not have an outpatient facility. Only diagnosed patients transferred from other hospitals can be admitted.” Officers at the checkpoint were telling the sickly arrivals and their relatives to instead call 120, China’s emergency number.

One man named Xue Ying was driving toward the hospital with his cousin, who had recently been tested for the coronavirus but had not yet received the results.

Mr. Xue believes his mother died from the coronavirus, but they could not secure a bed in a hospital and she was never tested for it. His aunt and uncle were also in a hospital. He said he was desperate to find help for his cousin.

“I can’t afford to lose anyone else,” he said, sitting dejectedly in the car with his sick cousin.

About 1,400 military medics will begin working at the new hospital, which covers roughly 365,000 square feet and has been fitted with 1,000 beds. A second facility in Wuhan, with 1,500 beds, is expected to be completed this week.

From Amy Qin, a China correspondent, and Elsie Chen, a researcher, on the ground in Wuhan:

Weak with fever, An Jianhua waited in line for seven hours outside the hospital in the cold, hoping to get tested for the new coronavirus, which doctors suspected she had contracted.

Ms. An, 67, needed an official diagnosis from a hospital to qualify for treatment, but the one she and her son raced to last week had no space, even to test her. The next hospital they were referred to here in Wuhan, the city of 11 million people at the center of the outbreak, was full, too, they said. They finally got an intravenous drip for Ms. An’s fever, but that was all.

Since then, Ms. An has quarantined herself at home. She and her son eat separately, wear masks at home and are constantly disinfecting their apartment. Ms. An’s health is declining rapidly, and even keeping water down is a struggle.

“I can’t let my mom die at home,” said her son, He Jun. “Every day I want to cry, but when I cry there are no tears. There is no hope.”

For some people, like Gan Hanjiang, the city’s new hospitals for treating the coronavirus cannot be built fast enough.

Last month, his father came down with a severe fever and cough. He was tested for the coronavirus, but the results were negative. Ten days after the onset of symptoms, however, his father died, Mr. Gan said.

The hospital classified the cause as “severe pneumonia,” Mr. Gan said, but he believes it was the coronavirus. Several experts have recently conceded that several rounds of testing may be needed for an accurate diagnosis of the virus.

On the day his father died, Mr. Gan began to show the same symptoms, he said. But without a car, he has not been able to go to one of the designated hospitals to get tested for the coronavirus.

“Getting treatment is so difficult,” he whispered slowly by telephone from a small hospital near his home where he was being treated for viral pneumonia. “We can’t get admitted to the hospitals. And there’s not enough medicine.”

A day after New York City’s health authorities said that a woman hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital Center might have the new coronavirus, the authorities on Sunday announced that two more patients might also have the virus.

Samples from all three patients must first be tested at a laboratory in Atlanta that is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether any of the patients do in fact have the new coronavirus.

The turnaround time for receiving the results is usually at least 36 hours, but often longer. Local health departments are not yet able to test for the new illness themselves.

But based on a number of factors — the type of symptoms. the patients’ recent travel in China and the exclusion of influenza and some other common illnesses through testing — the New York City health authorities are taking quite seriously the possibility that these patients may have the virus.

Three more cases were confirmed in California on Sunday, bringing the total in the United States to 11.

Hundreds of Australian citizens and permanent residents became the latest evacuees from Wuhan on Monday, after a complicated debate over who would pay for the flights that highlighted the challenge and cost of global containment efforts.

Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, said the evacuation prioritized “vulnerable and isolated Australians,” including 89 passengers under 16 years old and five passengers younger than 2 years old.

In all, 243 passengers were flown out of the coronavirus epicenter by Qantas to an air force base in Western Australia. From there, Australian officials said, they will be transported by military planes to Christmas Island, a location previously used to house detained asylum seekers, where they will be separated into their families and quarantined for two weeks.

The process has been tainted from the start by criticism and errors. Human rights advocates questioned the use of Christmas Island, and Australian citizens were initially told they would have to pay 1,000 Australian dollars ($670) for the flight, causing many to reject the offer of repatriation.

On Sunday, Australia’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg said no Australians would be charged. The government is subsidizing the cost, and Qantas is covering the rest, including flying people back to their home cities after the two-week quarantine.

“We needed to get them out of Wuhan,” said Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Qantas. He said that after the flight, the plane will undergo two or three days of “deep cleaning.”

While the world’s attention is focused on China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, medical experts worry about looming problems in Southeast Asia, which now has the largest cluster of patients with the new coronavirus outside China.

The Times’s Southeast Asia bureau chief, Hannah Beech, reports that some governments there have either played down the threat of the epidemic or openly expressed worry about offending China, a superpower whose economic heft can propel their economies.

On Sunday, the first overseas death from the virus, a 44-year-old Wuhan resident who had died a day earlier, was reported in the Philippines. The virus has spread to about two dozen countries.

Medical experts worry that a delayed response to the coronavirus in Southeast Asia could hasten the spread of the disease.

“Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general.

In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen told a packed news conference last week that he would kick out anyone who was wearing a surgical mask because such measures were creating an unwarranted climate of fear. And in Indonesia, Terawan Agus Putranto, the health minister, advised citizens to relax and eschew overtime work to avoid the disease, saying, “to prevent it is very easy as long as your immunity is good.”

Reporting was contributed by Sui-Lee Wee, Alexandra Stevenson, Austin Ramzy, Carlos Tejada, Cao Li, Gerry Mullany, Amy Qin, Joseph Goldstein and Hannah Beech.

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2020-02-03 09:14:00Z
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