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The end of the extended Lunar New Year holiday means China is theoretically returning to work. But with tens of millions still under lockdown and many more confined to work-from-home arrangements amid the coronavirus outbreak, life is a long way from returning to normal.
The number of deaths from the illness, now known as covid-19, has surpassed 1,100, Chinese officials said Wednesday. But a reduction in the number of new cases reported for a second consecutive day is offering some hope, not least for China’s ruling Communist Party, which is trying to manage an outpouring of public anger over its handling of the emergency.
Here are the latest developments:
● The number of new infections in China outside the epidemic hotspot of Hubei province has fallen for the eighth day in a row, even as the total number of deaths reaches new highs.
● Singapore’s largest bank evacuated hundreds of staff after a confirmed case of coronavirus at the lender.
● Renowned epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan predicts that the coronavirus outbreak will peak in China this month and could be over by April.
● The death toll from coronavirus rose to 1,113, nearly all of them in China, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 44,653.
5:30 AM: Supply chain disruptions due to China outbreak shuttering Cambodia textile factories
Supply chain disruptions are now affecting Cambodia’s garment and textile factories, among the country’s biggest employers, as raw materials from China dry up due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Local news reports, quoting the Garment Manufacturers’ Association, said some factories may be forced to close, as they rely on Chinese suppliers for more than 60 percent of raw materials. Chinese suppliers, the association said in the Khmer Times newspaper, “will not be able to provide raw materials to factories in Cambodia by the end of February or March.”
The Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training has also warned of an impact on the garment factories, which he says may be forced to lay off workers. The Labor Minister, according to the Phnom Penh Post, said Chinese suppliers are simply not taking orders because many businesses remain closed in China to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Cambodia is already bracing for heavy economic impact over an impending European Union decision to suspend its special trade preferences over human rights concern. That decision, which is expected Wednesday, could see Cambodia removed from the E.U.’s “Everything But Arms” trade program, which allows duty-free export of goods from developing countries into the European Union. That decision will be most heavily felt in the garment sector, as the E.U. is its biggest export market.
By: Shibani Mahtani
5:24 AM: ‘Practical issues’ prompted State Department to authorize departure of some staff in Hong Kong
HONG KONG — A State Department Official on Wednesday said consular staff have been permitted to leave Hong Kong due to uncertainties stemming from the coronavirus outbreak, and “practical issues” such as school closures.
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department authorized departure for non-emergency personnel working in the consulate, which is a separate mission from the U.S. Embassy in China. A similar authorization is in place for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and extends to U.S. consulates in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang.
The choice to leave is voluntary, however, and the State Department official said that most staff will stay in Hong Kong. Consular services will operate as usual.
“We have seen things like school closures, and the public facilities, many of them being closed for a couple of weeks in some cases,” the official said. “That is something that factors into the decision.”
The department, he added, “wanted to make sure that [staff] have a range of options.”
Schools in Hong Kong have been closed since late January, and will remain so until at least March 2, according to government officials. Most offices have implemented work-from-home arrangements, turning the usually bustling financial center appear decidedly sleepy in recent weeks.
Hong Kong has 47 confirmed coronavirus cases, and experts worry the virus is spreading more widely in the community.
By: Shibani Mahtani
5:11 AM: North Korean premier, wearing a mask, visits coronavirus prevention headquarters
SEOUL — North Korean Premier Kim Jae Ryong, wearing a surgical mask, has inspected the country’s “emergency anti-epidemic headquarters” to oversee efforts to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, apparently confirming reports that the pneumonia-like illness has arrived in the country.
The Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the Workers’ Party, reported Wednesday that Kim had urged “full preparations for rapidly coping with” the coronavirus, calling it “an important work concerning the state’s security and people’s lives.”
The paper carried a picture of a mask-clad Kim in a meeting with officials.
Kim visited “emergency anti-epidemic headquarters” in cities of Pyongyang and Nampho and other provinces. He stressed the need for “thoroughly conducting inspection and quarantine in the border passing spots and strictly keeping anti-epidemic discipline,” according to the paper.
AP
AP
In this photo distributed Feb. 12, 2020, by the North Korean government, North Korean Premier Kim Jae Ryon, right top, has a meeting at the emergency anti-epidemic headquarter in Pyongyang, North Korea.
North Korea has not reported a case of coronavirus infection, although nearly 200 cases have been confirmed in the northeastern Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Jilin that border the isolated nation.
The Daily NK, a defector-led news service in South Korea with contacts inside the North, last week reported that five people in North Pyongan Province, near the border with China, had suffered from high fever and flu-like symptoms, symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, and died.
Separately, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that a Pyongyang resident who recently returned from China has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, citing an unnamed source in North Korea.
North Korea banned foreign tourists and cut cross-border air and train routes last month in response to the epidemic. The official Korea Central News Agency said on Wednesday the country’s Red Cross is working with international organizations to contain the coronavirus.
The Red Cross in North Korea has mobilized 500 volunteers in four provinces near the Chinese border, Xavier Castellanos, Asia Pacific regional director at International Federation of Red Cross was quoted as saying in Voice of America on Wednesday.
By: Min Joo Kim
4:22 AM: Tibet now clear of coronavirus
Tibet has been ruled clear of coronavirus after the sole confirmed patient was discharged from hospital in Lhasa on Wednesday afternoon.
The patient, known only by his family name Zhang, has tested negative in two separate assessments and was found to have fully recovered after two weeks of treatment at Tibet Third People’s Hospital, authorities there said.
Zhang took a slow train from Wuhan, just as the outbreak was intensifying in the city, and arrived in Lhasa on Jan. 24. He sought medical treatment a day later and was put under quarantine. On Jan. 29, he became the first confirmed case in Tibet, triggering the highest level of health emergency response from the regional government.
Zhang is expected to leave Lhasa by train Wednesday.
Tibet is now the only region or province in China that is free of the coronavirus.
By: Lyric Li
3:40 AM: Beijing restricts sales of fever and cough medicine to stop self medicating
BEIJING — Beijing has become the latest city to restrict the sales of over-the-counter fever and cough medicines, part of an effort to stop sick people — and people potentially infected with coronavirus — treating themselves instead of seeking medical help.
Pharmacies in Beijing have been instructed to register the real names and identity numbers of customers who purchase fever and cough medicines, the capital city’s unit for preventing and controlling the coronavirus announced.
Beijing joins Hangzhou, in the badly-affected province of Zhejiang, and Shenzhen in equally-badly-hit Guangdong province, in requiring pharmacies to record and report this kind of information.
By: Liu Yang
3:35 AM: Shanghai starts disinfecting parcels and the ones delivering them
BEIJING — The city of Shanghai, which has 311 confirmed cases of coronavirus, has implemented new rules to try to prevent couriers from spreading the virus as they go around delivering packages.
All parcels arriving in Shanghai will be disinfected, and all facilities and equipment used for deliveries must be disinfected at the beginning of each shift, according to new rules announced Wednesday by Yu Hongwei, vice director of the Shanghai Postal Administration.
Delivery staff will have their temperatures checked before they start work each day and will have to wear a mask while on the job, Yu said at a news conference in Shanghai, according to The Paper. Establishments that receive customers must carry out disinfection every two hours.
Noel Celis
Afp Via Getty Images
A man wearing a protective face mask commutes on a road as it rains in Shanghai on Feb. 11, 2020.
As Shanghai authorities try to get the city back to work as much as possible, it has implemented a range of new rules designed to stop the virus from spreading. These including banning air-conditioning and heating on public transportation, including buses and ferries, and mandating open windows for ventilation.
Trains and railway stations must have their air ventilation systems running around the clock. And construction sites have been required to set up “health observation points” to monitor workers, and report the results to authorities daily.
By: Wang Yuan
3:20 AM: Singer finds humor in coronavirus woes with ‘Torn’ parody
BEIJING — The coronavirus has changed daily life across China and other infected areas, like Hong Kong and Macao, with people unable to go to work and school and shortages of basic goods in some places.
So Hong Kong-New Zealand performer Kathy Mak struck a chord with a coronavirus song she performed in Hong Kong, a rewrite of “Torn” originally by Natalie Imbruglia.
“So glad my parody of #torn has received so much love and made, many people laugh!” she wrote on Twitter after the video clip was widely shared in Hong Kong and among expats in China.
She sings about hibernating and using hand sanitizer so much her hands dry out. But this reporter’s favorite lines:
“There’s nothing left at the grocery store
I can’t find bok choy no more
There’s just white people things
Like pasta, cheese and corn.”
By: Anna Fifield
3:10 AM: Outbreak epicenter of Wuhan facing shortage of oxygen tanks
BEIJING — Wuhan is facing a shortage of medical oxygen tanks — critical to fighting a respiratory ailment like the new coronavirus — as hospitals continue to cope with a large number of severe cases
Frontline doctors in Wuhan say their daily work has been “greatly incapacitated” by a shortage in medical supplies as hospitals find medical oxygen tanks are increasingly become a “luxury.”
“Many of our doctors and nurses are spending a lot of time replacing oxygen tanks, very heavy ones. And even the wheelies for the tanks are not enough. We don’t know how long it takes until the next batch of oxygen tanks will arrive here,” a doctor from Sichuan told Caixin magazine on condition of anonymity. “The whole city of Wuhan is fighting for oxygen tanks.”
Thousands of doctors and nurses from around the country have been dispatched to or are volunteering at the virus-stricken city since late January, and they have to haggle over daily quotas of the most basic medical supplies, such as masks and oxygen.
“We are here as reinforcement, but even the most experienced of us have found it hard to work with so few ‘weapons,’” the Sichuan doctor said, adding that on most days their oxygen tanks would be depleted by noontime.
China Daily
Reuters
A medical worker removes her protective suit after her shift at a hospital in Caidian district in Wuhan, Hubei province, China Feb. 6, 2020.
“A lot of patients are going to deteriorate because of a lack of oxygen supplies. On top of our daily to-do list is not waiting for the medicine, but for the oxygen tanks,” he added.
The oxygen shortage is particularly taking a toll on hospitals and quarantine facilities that have housed critical cases with breathing difficulties, who need 10 times of more of oxygen intake than mild cases.
“I know that it’s in short supply in the entire Wuhan, because every hospital has been using so much oxygen every day. We have a lot of heavily infected patients at Tongji Hospital, so it is more serious for us than other hospitals,” said a logistics coordinator at Tongji Hospital, one of the major facilities for critical cases in Wuhan.
At a news conference on Feb. 7, government officials and doctors said that a centralized oxygen supply could no longer sustain daily operations in hospitals and many facilities were running at the maximum capacity.
“The oxygen supply in every hospital could have been designed for radical circumstances, but the problem now is that life support machines have to run on oxygen. When we fail to get more oxygen, then we have no way to keep more machines going for the critical cases, which has greatly incapacitated our treatment of patients,” said Peng Peng, director of Wuhan Pulmonary Department Hospital. “And I think this is true for all hospitals out here.”
By: Anna Fifield
3:00 AM: Taiwanese denied entry into Philippines over virus fears decry ‘one China’ policy
MANILA — At least 80 Taiwanese passengers were denied entry to the Philippines due to an expanded travel ban amid the coronavirus outbreak — a measure driving frustration regarding China’s claim over the self-ruled island.
Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval said most of those affected returned to their port of origin by Wednesday.
But Taiwanese passengers said this did not go smoothly, citing confusion and a lack of coordination on the ground.
The ban was initially reported to cover just China, Hong Kong and Macao. When Philippine authorities confirmed Taiwan’s inclusion due to the “one China” policy, officials there were taken by surprise. Flights to and from Taipei were not canceled until 11 p.m. on Monday.
When one passenger, Robert Chen, landed just past midnight, he said there was no embassy representative and a Chinese-speaking attendant was not immediately available to explain what had happened.
He and around a dozen other Taiwanese were “really disappointed, angry, helpless, and overwhelmed.”
In a video he sent The Post, an irate Filipino passenger in the same terminal could be heard saying, “Those people are waiting out there! We’re tired, okay?”
Chen’s companions boarded a return flight after three hours, but Chen waited almost 12 hours to be accommodated.
An estimated 500 Taiwanese were stranded across the country after the ban, which some government critics see as a politically motivated measure to curry favor with China.
Taiwan has only 18 confirmed cases of the virus, compared to tens of thousands in mainland China.
“We are not part of China … We have our own government, we have our own passport,” said Momo Lin, a businessman based in Manila with whom Chen was supposed to spend his stay. “We can totally understand why Philippines wants to follow the “one China” policy, because they have a lot of co-work, co-construction … However, we also have really good connection with Philippines. Most Filipinos know Taiwan is not part of China.”
By: Regine Cabato
2:52 AM: Japanese health worker who boarded quarantined cruise ship is now infected
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Japan’s Health Ministry said a quarantine officer who worked on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner has tested positive for the new coronavirus and been sent to hospital, marking the first case in the country recorded among health service staff.
The officer, from the ministry’s infectious disease quarantine office, worked on the ship on Feb. 3 and 4, as part of a team carrying out a survey of passengers to ascertain who needed to be tested for the virus, collecting questionnaires and taking temperatures.
He then returned to work in his office from Feb. 5 to 7, before falling ill with a fever on Feb. 9, public broadcaster NHK and other media reported.
“We will examine how he was infected, confirm which routes he took, and what he did,” Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters. “While doing so, we will thoroughly implement measures to prevent quarantine officers from getting infected.”
The officer was wearing masks and gloves, in line with World Health Organization guidelines, and disinfected his hands and fingers after dealing with each passenger, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. But he was not wearing a protective suit or goggles, and he did enter some cabins.
Kim Kyung-Hoon
Reuters
A passenger waves a towel to the media as another waves a Japanese flag on the cruise ship Diamond Princess in Yokohama, Japan Feb. 12, 2020.
With Japanese media concerned he could have infected other people, the Health Ministry said his family and co-workers have been advised to stay home.
The ministry said on Wednesday said a further 39 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive for the virus, among 53 people whose test results came back. That brings the total to 174 people infected, out of 492 who have been tested for the virus, more than one in three.
Before the ship was placed in quarantine last week, there were 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew on board, but more than 110 have already been taken off the ship for medical treatment. Ambulances and medical staff clad in white protective suits continued to evacuate people on Wednesday.
The number of infected crew members rose by 10 to 20 people. Crew members say they are not segregated as passengers are, but forced to live and work in close proximity, and they’re worried they will catch the virus off each other. Medical experts say there is also a risk that infected crew members could pass the virus on to passengers.
By: Simon Denyer
2:50 AM: Ten Hong Kongers stranded in Hubei have become infected with coronavirus
HONG KONG — The Hong Kong government on Wednesday said 10 Hong Kong people in Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, have become infected.
Those 10 people are from three families, a spokesman for the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said. Seven of those people are in Wuhan, and three are in Enshi, a smaller city in the central area of the province.
When Hubei province went under lockdown in late January, a move taken to contain the outbreak, more than 1,300 people Hong Kong people were trapped across 30 cities in the province. Hong Kong is a semiautonomous territory with its own immigration system and its own passports, but falls under China’s sovereignty.
Dozens of countries and territories — including self-governing Taiwan — have evacuated their people from the virus-hit province. The Hong Kong government has been under pressure to do the same, but has not announced any concrete steps or evacuation plans.
The spokesman for Hong Kong’s mainland affairs office said six of the affected people have been admitted to local hospitals in coordination with “relevant authorities,” while the other four have “made their own way” to seek medical treatment from hospitals. All are “generally in stable condition,” the spokesman added. The statement offered no details on potential evacuations.
Those trapped in Wuhan say they are worried about overcrowded hospitals and shortage of medical supplies. Hospitals are turning people away, as they struggle to treat the mounting number of cases.
By: Shibani Mahtani
2:44 AM: Chinese expert predicts coronavirus outbreak will be over by April
BEIJING — Renowned epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, a member of the National Health Commission’s expert panel advising on the coronavirus, has predicted that the outbreak will peak in China this month and could be over by April.
“I hope this outbreak or this event may be over in something like April,” Zhong told Reuters in an interview at a hospital run by Guangzhou Medical University, where 11 coronavirus patients were being treated.
He voiced optimism that the outbreak would soon begin to lose its momentum, and using mathematical modeling, recent events and government action, he forecast a peak in the middle or end of February, followed by a plateau and then a decrease. Zhong had previously predicted the outbreak would hit its peak between Feb. 12 and 17.
“We don’t know why it’s so contagious, so that’s a big problem,” Zhong told Reuters.
The 83-year-old, who was also central to China’s response to the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003, wiped away tears when asked about Li Wenliang, the Wuhan ophthalmologist who was censured for trying to raise the alarm about the virus, then died from it earlier this month.
“The majority of the people think he’s the hero of China,” Zhong said. “I’m so proud of him, he told people the truth, at the end of December, and then he passed away.”
When asked about Zhong’s analysis, however, the chief medical officer of Australia, Brendan Murphy, told the Australia Brodcasting Corp that such predictions were “premature” and it would require weeks more data before such a conclusion could be drawn.
By: Anna Fifield
2:40 AM: Singapore bank evacuates staff after confirmed virus case
Singapore’s biggest bank was forced to evacuate 300 staff from its head office in the city-state on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing an internal memo, after discovering a confirmed case of coronavirus.
The memo sent to staff by DBS Singapore country head Tse Koon She said the bank was taking a “precautionary measure” and evacuating all staff who worked on the 43rd floor of Marina Bay Financial Center Tower 3, the agency reported. DBS is the anchor tenant of that office tower. All of the affected staff will now work from home.
Feline Lim
Reuters
DBS bank signage in Singapore on Oct. 28, 2019. The bank has evacuated hundreds of staff.
As the number of coronavirus cases has risen to 47 in Singapore — including a worker at one of the city’s two casinos — its financial center, where some of the world’s largest corporations have offices, have been bracing for impact.
Since the outbreak of the virus, Singapore residents have continued to go to work, unlike cities like Hong Kong and in mainland China which have put in place work-from-home measures. School has also continued, since the emergency response level is not yet at its highest level in Singapore.
Many office buildings in Singapore have begun mandatory temperature checks, and have mandated staff to make health declarations, forcing them to self-quarantine if they have recently visited mainland China.
By: Shibani Mahtani
2:15 AM: Situation in Hubei remains dire despite drop in rate of new cases nationwide
BEIJING — There were 377 new infections reported in provinces outside Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, on Tuesday, according to official National Health Commission statistics, as Chinese authorities searched for positive signs as they try to get the country back to work and some sort of normalcy.
But inside Hubei, the situation remains dire. There were 94 deaths from coronavirus inside the province, and the number of confirmed cases climbed to 33,366.
By: Anna Fifield
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2020-02-12 10:42:00Z
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