Rabu, 19 Februari 2020

Coronavirus quarantine ends for most on cruise ship in Japan as global deaths top 2,000 - CBS News

There were more than 75,000 people infected with the new coronavirus as of Wednesday morning, and it has killed more than 2,000. The vast majority of cases are in China, but even as Japan lifted the quarantine on a cruise ship with the biggest outbreak outside that country, dozens more passengers tested positive, and a new cluster of cases emerged in South Korea.

Global health officials have voiced cautious optimism as the daily rate of new infections in China has declined for two days in a row, and authorities have waged an aggressive campaign to find any cases still lurking in the locked-down epicenter city of Wuhan. The World Health Organization warned, however, that the decline could reverse, and the biggest concern has been any sign that the COVID-19 disease is spreading significantly between people in communities outside of China.

Japanese officials said another 79 cases had been confirmed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship Wednesday, bringing the new total to 621. Wednesday marked the end of the two-week quarantine imposed on the vessel when it docked in Japan, and hundreds of passengers who have tested negative for the virus were being allowed off the ship.

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A passenger disembarks from the Diamond Princess cruise ship - in quarantine due to fears of the new COVID-19 coronavirus - at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama on February 19, 2020.  CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty

Almost 340 American passengers have already been brought back to the U.S. - at least 14 of them hospitalized with the virus. More than 100 American cruise passengers who remained on the ship in Japan or were taken off and hospitalized in that country will have to wait another two weeks before they can return to the U.S.

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2020-02-19 11:14:00Z
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Beijing expels three Wall Street Journal journalists - CNN

Speaking at a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the expulsion was due to an opinion piece published by the US news organization on February 3, entitled "China is the real sick man of Asia."
"The editors used such a racially discriminatory title, triggering indignation and condemnation among the Chinese people and the international community," Geng said.
"Regrettably, what the WSJ has done so far is nothing but parrying and dodging its responsibility. It has neither issued an official apology nor informed us of what it plans to do with the persons involved. ... As such, it is decided that from today, the press cards of three WSJ journalists will be revoked."
Chinese authorities have increasingly used visa restrictions to show displeasure with or exert pressure over foreign media in China. Numerous foreign journalists have been placed on on short-term visas instead of the standard one-year visa.
But it is highly unusual for an international journalist to be expelled from the country.
In a statement Wednesday, the Foreign Correspondent's Club of China described the move to expel the three reporters as an "unprecedented form of retaliation against foreign journalists in China."
"FCCC member correspondents and their colleagues in China are suffering from an increasing frequency of harassment, surveillance and intimidation from authorities. The expulsion of these three WSJ reporters is only the latest, and most alarming, measure authorities have taken."
The FCCC confirmed to CNN that the decision represented the largest single expulsion of foreign correspondents since 1989, and the first outright expulsion of a foreign correspondent since 1998.
In an article about the expulsion on its website, the Wall Street Journal said its deputy bureau chief Josh Chin and reporters Chao Deng and Philip Wen had been given five days to leave the country.
Another Wall Street Journal reporter, Chun Han Wong, was effectively expelled from the country in August last year after the government declined to renew his press credentials following his co-authoring of a report on Chinese President Xi Jinping's cousin.
Wednesday's move comes less than one day after United States officials announced they would be treating five major Chinese state-run media companies as effective extensions of the Chinese government.
A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Xinhua, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily and People's Daily will be designated as "foreign missions," effective immediately.
The change will mean that the media companies will now need US government approval to buy or lease office space in the US and will have to register personnel changes with the US State Department.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the decision as "unreasonable and unacceptable" and maintained that China reserved the right to "respond further on this matter."
The expulsion of the three journalists follows a weeks-long campaign in Chinese state media attacking the Wall Street Journal over its decision to publish the opinion piece.
The controversially headlined article was written by US academic Walter Russell Mead and criticized Beijing's initial reaction to the coronavirus epidemic, hypothesizing what effect the outbreak might have on the country's economy and political system.
In a Twitter post Wednesday, the state-run tabloid Global Times claimed the headline was "racist" and published an opinion piece calling on the Wall Street Journal to "apologize."
"A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has also demanded a public apology from the paper. But the Wall Street Journal still has not apologized, nor has it taken any actions to correct the mistake. It continues to adhere to its arrogance and prejudice," the opinion piece said.
-- This is a developing story.

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2020-02-19 10:21:00Z
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China Expels Three Wall Street Journal Reporters - The Wall Street Journal

The move by China’s Foreign Ministry followed public anger at a headline on an opinion piece.

Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

China revoked the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters based in Beijing, the first time in the post-Mao era that the Chinese government has expelled multiple journalists from one international news organization at the same time.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the move Wednesday was punishment for a recent opinion piece published by the Journal.

Deputy Bureau Chief Josh Chin and reporter Chao Deng, both U.S. nationals, as well as reporter Philip Wen, an Australian national, have been ordered to leave the country in five days, said Jonathan Cheng, the Journal’s China bureau chief.

The expulsions by China’s Foreign Ministry followed widespread public anger at the headline on the opinion piece, which referred to China as “the real sick man of Asia.” The ministry and state-media outlets had repeatedly called attention to the headline in statements and posts on social media and had threatened unspecified consequences.

“Regrettably, what the WSJ has done so far is nothing but parrying and dodging its responsibility,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a daily news briefing Wednesday. “The Chinese people do not welcome those media that speak racially discriminatory language and maliciously slander and attack China.”

The three journalists work for the Journal’s news operation. The Journal operates with a strict separation between news and opinion.

Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Journal, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Dow Jones is owned by News Corp.

In August, the Chinese government didn’t renew press credentials for Chun Han Wong, a Beijing-based correspondent who co-wrote a news report on a cousin of Chinese President Xi Jinping whose activities were being scrutinized by Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Mr. Wen shared that byline.

Mr. Xi’s private life and those of his relatives are considered sensitive by Chinese authorities. The Foreign Ministry had warned the Journal at the time not to publish the article, warning of unspecified consequences.

Mr. Wong was the first China-based Journal reporter to have his credentials denied since the newspaper opened a bureau in Beijing in 1980.

Beijing has taken a more combative stance with the foreign media in recent years, as Mr. Xi’s government has exerted greater control over information and reasserted the Communist Party’s influence over citizens’ lives.

It has declined to renew the credentials of several reporters, but it is rare for it to expel a credentialed foreign correspondent.

Censorship has been more strictly imposed on domestic news outlets and social media, and authorities have strengthened internet firewalls designed to keep Chinese people from accessing foreign reporting that Beijing deems objectionable.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it had decided to identify the U.S. operations of state-run Chinese news outlets as foreign missions akin to embassies or consulates, the latest in a series of moves designed to pressure China’s Communist Party into loosening controls on diplomats and foreign media. Employees of those news organizations will now be required to register with the State Department as consular staff, though their reporting activities won’t be curtailed, U.S. officials said.

The phrase “sick man of Asia” was used by both outsiders and Chinese intellectuals to refer to a weakened China’s exploitation by European powers and Japan in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a period now described in Chinese history textbooks as the “century of humiliation.”

The Journal’s use of the phrase in a headline, on an opinion column by Hudson Institute scholar Walter Russell Mead that referred to the coronavirus epidemic in China, sparked waves of angry commentary on Chinese social media.

Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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2020-02-19 09:27:00Z
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China Expels 3 Wall Street Journal Reporters as Media Relations Sour - The New York Times

HONG KONG — China on Wednesday said it would revoke the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters working in mainland China, in a significant escalation of Beijing’s pressure on the foreign news media.

At a daily news briefing on Wednesday, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the credentials would be revoked in retaliation for a headline for an essay that ran in The Journal’s editorial pages earlier this month. The headline read, “China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia.”

Chinese officials have “demanded that The Wall Street Journal recognize the seriousness of the error, openly and formally apologize, and investigate and punish those responsible, while retaining the need to take further measures against the newspaper,” Geng Shuang, the ministry spokesman, said in a transcript provided by the Chinese government.

“The Chinese people do not welcome media that publish racist statements and smear China with malicious attacks,” he added.

The Journal identified the reporters as Josh Chin, its deputy bureau chief in Beijing and an American national; Chao Deng, an American; and Philip Wen, an Australian national.

A spokesman for Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Journal, did not have an immediate comment.

Like other media organizations, including The New York Times, The Journal runs its news and editorial departments as separate operations, meaning none of the newspaper’s reporters in China would have been involved in writing the essay’s headline.

The move comes just months after Chinese officials effectively expelled another Journal reporter, Chun Han Wong, from mainland China. Officials did not provide a reason, but the expulsion came after he co-wrote an article about a cousin of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

It also comes less than one day after American officials in Washington said they would treat five government-controlled Chinese news organizations — Xinhua, CGTN, China Radio, China Daily and People’s Daily — as foreign government functionaries, subject to similar rules as diplomats stationed in the United States.

The opinion piece with the “Sick Man” headline was written by Walter Russell Mead, a professor at Bard College. It criticized China's initial response to the coronavirus outbreak as well as the state of the country’s financial markets.

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2020-02-19 08:18:00Z
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Coronavirus Live Updates: Passengers Begin Departing Quarantined Cruise Ship in Japan - The New York Times

READ UPDATES IN CHINESE: 新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit...Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Passengers began disembarking on Wednesday from a cruise ship docked off Yokohama, Japan, as a two-week quarantine of the vessel was coming to an end even as a major coronavirus outbreak on board continued unabated.

An initial group of about 500 people were to leave the boat on the first day of what the Japanese authorities have said will be a three-day operation to offload those who have tested negative for the virus and do not have symptoms. Passengers who shared cabins with infected patients have been ordered to remain on the ship.

Several countries have arranged charter flights to take their nationals home after they leave the boat. Most if not all of these passengers face an additional two-week quarantine in their home countries.

The disembarkation is taking place even as at least 542 passengers aboard the ship, the Diamond Princess, have been infected with the virus. On Tuesday, the authorities announced an additional 88 cases on the ship, which originally carried about 3,700 passengers and crew members.

More than half of all the recorded cases outside China, the center of the epidemic, have been aboard the ship.

Many of the infected had already been removed from the ship and taken to nearby hospitals. More than 300 Americans, at least 14 of whom were infected, had also been taken off the boat earlier this week and placed in a 14-day quarantine at military bases in the United States.

But more than 100 Americans who were not evacuated on chartered flights cannot return home for at least two more weeks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The agency said in a statement that virus containment measures on the ship “may not have been sufficient to prevent transmission.”

The Coronavirus Outbreak

  • What do you need to know? Start here.

    Updated Feb. 10, 2020

    • What is a Coronavirus?
      It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.
    • How contagious is the virus?
      According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.
    • How worried should I be?
      While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.
    • Who is working to contain the virus?
      World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance.
    • What if I’m traveling?
      The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights.
    • How do I keep myself and others safe?
      Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

“C.D.C. believes the rate of new infections on board, especially among those without symptoms, represents an ongoing risk,” it added.

Passengers will not be allowed to return to the United States until they have been off the ship for 14 days, without any symptoms or a positive test for the virus, the agency said. The decision applies to those who have tested positive and are hospitalized in Japan, and to those who are still aboard the ship.

On Wednesday, the number of confirmed new cases in mainland China appeared again to be slowing, and was put at 1,749. That brought the country’s total number of reported infections to 74,185. Deaths in the previous 24 hours were put at 136, bringing the total in the mainland to 2,004.

Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Spread of the Outbreak

The virus has infected more than 75,100 people in China and 25 other countries.

Hong Kong reported its second death from the coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the number of deaths from the virus outside of mainland China to six.

The victim, 70, had underlying health conditions and had traveled to the mainland for a day in late January, according to statements from the Hong Kong Department of Health.

He was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital on Feb. 12 after suffering a fall at home, where he lived alone, the department said. The hospital said in a statement that the man died on Wednesday morning.

Hong Kong currently has 62 confirmed cases of coronavirus and has placed more than 100 patients under isolation as they await test results. The city has so far avoided a large-scale outbreak by imposing restrictions on the number of travelers entering from land ports.

But the virus has begun to spread among people who had not recently traveled to mainland China. Several confirmed patients had no recent travel history outside Hong Kong, and some transmissions may have occurred between colleagues, neighbors and friends who had shared meals, officials have said.

Additionally, 53 of the 260 Hong Kong residents quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan have been infected with the virus. Officials in Hong Kong have said they will charter two planes to repatriate residents.

South Korea reported 15 more cases of the new coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of patients infected with the disease to 46.

Of the 15 new patients, 13 were residents of Daegu, 186 miles southeast of Seoul, said the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a daily news briefing.

Ten of those infected were members of the same church, it said.

Of the new patients, 11 were believed to have contracted the disease through contact with a 61-year-old woman in Daegu who had earlier been diagnosed with the virus.

Officials said they have shut down or quarantined hospital emergency rooms in Daegu where the patients passed through.

South Korea has tested more than 10,000 people for the virus. Of those 46 who have tested positive, and 12 have been discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, officials said.

Economic fallout from the epidemic continued to spread on Tuesday, with new evidence emerging in manufacturing, financial markets, commodities, banking and other sectors.

HSBC, one of the most important banks in Hong Kong, said it planned to cut 35,000 jobs and $4.5 billion in costs as it faces headwinds that include the outbreak and months of political strife in Hong Kong. The bank, based in London, has come to depend increasingly on China for growth.

Jaguar Land Rover warned that the coronavirus could soon begin to create production problems at its assembly plants in Britain. Like many carmakers, Jaguar Land Rover uses parts made in China, where many factories have shut down or slowed production; Fiat Chrysler, Renault and Hyundai have already reported interruptions as a result.

U.S. stocks declined on Tuesday, a day after Apple warned that it would miss its sales forecasts because of the disruption in China. Stocks tied to the near-term ups and downs of the economy slumped, with financials, energy and industrial shares the leading losers.

The S&P 500 index fell 0.3 percent. Bond yields declined, with the 10-year Treasury note yielding 1.56 percent, suggesting that investors are lowering their expectations for economic growth and inflation.

With much of the Chinese economy stalled, demand for oil has fallen and prices were down on Tuesday, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate selling for roughly $52.

In Germany, where the economy depends heavily on global demand for machinery and automobiles, a key indicator showed economic sentiment has tumbled this month, as the economic outlook has weakened.

Reporting and research was contributed by Motoko Rich, Alexandra Stevenson, Choe Sang-Hun, Russell Goldman, Hannah Beech, Richard C. Paddock, Tiffany May and Elaine Yu.

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2020-02-19 08:07:00Z
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Live updates: China strikes upbeat note on coronavirus as businesses reopen; Hong Kong reports second death - The Washington Post

Carlos Garcia Rawlins Reuters A woman wearing a face mask rides a scooter along a street in Beijing on Wednesday.

BEIJING — Chinese leader Xi Jinping is striking an increasingly confident note that the country can control the coronavirus outbreak and manage the economic and social fallout as some Chinese health experts predict a peak in infections by the end of the month.

In phone calls with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday, Xi said he believed the epidemic would only have a “temporary” impact on China’s “resilient” economy and the country’s development targets could still be reached this year.

Chinese leaders, eager to kickstart economic activity, have dismantled some highway checkpoints while businesses have begun to reopen, although as of Wednesday restrictions on personal mobility remained tight, suggesting wariness about rising infections. A district in Beijing went a step further, announcing it would seal off residential compounds — one of the strictest control policies in the capital.

China on Wednesday reported new case numbers continuing to decline, when national authorities tallied a total of 1,749 new infections and 136 deaths through the end of the previous day. China now has a cumulative total of 74,185 infections and 2,004 deaths, the overwhelming majority still occurring in central Hubei province. Meanwhile, Hong Kong confirmed its second death from the virus early Wednesday.

International experts, including U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, say they are wary of declaring that the pace of worldwide infections is slowing, despite the steady drop in new daily cases China has reported.

Here are the latest developments:

● Beijing’s central Xicheng district said it would seal off residential compounds for almost half a million residents in one of strictest control policies to reach the Chinese capital.

● Hong Kong reported its second death from the outbreak. The victim was a 70-year old man who died Wednesday, hospital officials said.

● Tempers and reports of police brutality are flaring across China as authorities rough up residents who refuse to wear masks or abide by mobility controls. China’s minister of public security warned local officials on Tuesday about excessive use of force.

● In Japan, an infectious disease specialist slammed conditions on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, saying officials had endangered lives by failing to observe proper quarantine practices.

2:15 AM: Beijing district changes tack on epidemic control

BEIJING — Xicheng district, one of Beijing’s most central locales and the site of the Chinese government’s central headquarters, is tightening restrictions and increasing tests for more more than 489,000 households in one of the most significant changes in epidemic control policies in the capital.

Tingshu Wang

Reuters

A police officer wearing a face mask stands guard under a giant portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on Wednesday.

Sun Shuo, deputy secretary of the district’s Communist Party committee, said Tuesday that all residential compounds that have conditions for closed-off management will be locked down, and the government has formulated specific measures for bungalows and compounds without property companies to ensure that “no blind spots are left.”

News had been circulating online that a government employee in Xicheng was diagnosed with the coronavirus, leading to the shutdown of government work in the district. Sun confirmed that the unnamed government employee was infected while carrying out epidemic control work in central China and then drove back to Beijing.

Sixty-nine close contacts and people with high risks have been placed under centralized medical observation, but Sun said government agencies in the district are operating normally.

A total of 393 confirmed cases have been reported in 15 districts in Beijing so far, with 52 from Xicheng.

By: Liu Yang

2:10 AM: Chinese police in hot water as videos surface of officers beating people for not wearing masks

BEIJING — Chinese Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi on Tuesday warned police officials and local administrators against excessive and “crude” use of force after a spate of videos surfaced showing officers tackling and roughing up citizens who refuse to wear masks.

Chinese citizens are generally not known to hold urban beat cops, known as chengguan, or an array of semi-formal security enforcers in particularly high esteem. Now, one month into the full-blown epidemic, tempers are running particularly hot as countless Chinese cities and villages live under severe restrictions on movement.

The Chinese Internet has been suffused with online videos showing residents facing off with police. Women have been pinned on the ground for refusing to wear masks. One officer fired his gun after he was swarmed by locals angry about quarantine policies. Local inspectors slapped three people playing mah-jongg, leading to furious confrontation with pajama-clad players. Brawls sometimes break out.

The latest video to cause a sensation showed a man in Henan province being bound by rope against a pillar outside a building while a man in haz-mat suit berated him for not wearing a mask or registering his movement.

After the video surfaced, local Henan officials this week sent a terse reminder to villages that epidemic prevention and control work must be done “in accordance with laws and regulations,” according to the Southern Metropolis newspaper.

By: Gerry Shih

1:53 AM: Japan whistleblower slams chaotic, scary conditions on Diamond Princess

TOKYO — A Japanese infectious disease specialist has condemned the “chaotic” and “scary” conditions on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner, saying a lack of infection control risked the lives not only of the passengers and crew but also of the officials and medical staff working on the ship.

Kentaro Iwata of Kobe University said he had gained access to the ship Tuesday and was appalled by a “completely inadequate system of infection control on board.”

After several hours trying offer constructive advice on how to improve procedure, he was thrown off the ship, but was so worried he recorded YouTube videos in Japanese and English exposing his findings. The Japanese version has already been viewed more than 710,000 times.

Iwata said he had worked in Africa during the Ebola outbreak, in China during the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, as well as during cholera outbreaks.

“I never had fear of getting infection myself, for Ebola, SARS, cholera, because I know how to protect myself, how to protect others and how infection control should be,” he said. “But inside the Diamond Princess, I was so scared.”

Already 542 people on the cruise ship have been found to have the virus, out of 2,404 people tested, with results still awaited on the final 1,300 tests.

Four people working on or around the ship during the quarantine period have also contracted the virus, including a quarantine officer, a health ministry official, an ambulance driver and a medical staffer.

Normal infection control involves establishing a red zone, where the virus is present and protective gear must be worn, and a green zone, which is safe, Iwata said. There was no such demarcation on board the ship, with people wearing protective suits mingling with and eating alongside unprotected people, and people even eating food and handling smartphones without removing gloves and clothing that could carry the virus.

“It was completely chaotic,” he said. “I was so scared of getting covid-19 because there was no way to tell where the virus is, no green zone, no red zone — everywhere could have the virus.”

Iwata said “bureaucrats were in charge of everything” without a single professional infection control specialist on board. When a crew member went to a nurse with a fever, the nurse didn’t even bother protecting herself, because she had concluded she must have already caught the virus, he said.

He has since returned to his home in Kobe, but has isolated himself in a room for fear of infecting his family, and will not return to work for around two weeks for fear of infecting colleagues and patients. But he said he feared doctors and nurses working on board will return to medical centers around the country with the virus, and could infect patients.

Responding to Iwata’s complaints, Japan’s chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the government had been “implementing measures to prevent the spread of the infection thoroughly.”

By: Simon Denyer

1:03 AM: South Korea reports sharp rise in cases, mostly linked to a church

SEOUL — South Korea confirmed 15 new cases of the new coronavirus infection on Wednesday, raising the national tally to 46.

Of the new cases, 13 were in Daegu city and the surrounding southwestern province of North Gyeongsang Province, with 11 of them linked to a previously confirmed patient, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The 61-year-old woman is believed to have infected 10 people who attended the same church, and one person who came in contact at her hospital.

She started displaying symptoms of fever around Feb. 10 and tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, according to the KCDC.

The agency has identified 166 people who came in contact with the woman, who are now in quarantine at home or in hospitals. It said it would conduct a close inspection of the church and test more churchgoers for the virus.

By: Min Joo Kim

12:25 AM: Six more Filipino crew members on Diamond Princess test positive for coronavirus

MANILA — There are now 41 Filipino crew members on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship who are infected with the novel coronavirus, health officials said Wednesday, an increase of six from a day earlier.

The patients have been brought to hospitals in Japan, where the ship is moored, and will be unable to return to the Philippines even as the government aims to repatriate other Filipinos this week.

Charly Triballeau

Afp Via Getty Images

A man in protective gear speaks on the phone near the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined at Yokohama, Japan, on Wednesday.

Only those who are asymptomatic and who tested negative for the virus will be allowed to board a flight. They will also be subject to a 14-day quarantine.

The repatriation team will also be kept in isolation for the same period. Officials said the quarantine facility and other details are still being finalized.

There are a total of 538 Filipino crew members on the cruise liner.

The global outbreak has affected the Philippines’ two million-strong overseas workforce, resulting in panic and job uncertainty. At least two Filipinos in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates have tested positive for the virus.

By: Regine Cabato

12:01 AM: Hong Kong reports second death from virus outbreak

HONG KONG — A 70-year-old man has died after testing positive for coronavirus, according to a hospital spokeswoman, bringing Hong Kong’s death toll from the outbreak to two.

A spokesperson for Princess Margaret Hospital said the patient died on Wednesday morning after his condition deteriorated, without providing more details. When health officials initially provided details on his case on Friday, they said he had underlying illnesses. He was sent to the hospital on Feb. 12 after developing malaise, shortness of breath and cough, the Center for Health Protection said, where he was in critical condition at the time. The man, who lives alone, had visited mainland China for a day trip on Jan. 22.

As of Wednesday morning, Hong Kong reported 62 cases of coronavirus infection, including the two deaths. The first death, a 39-year-old man who contracted the virus outside of the city, also had underlying medical issues, health officials said.

By: Shibani Mahtani

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2020-02-19 07:15:00Z
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Selasa, 18 Februari 2020

Afghanistan's presidential election: Ashraf Ghani declared winner - Al Jazeera English

Incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has been declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election, almost five months after the voting took place.

The Independent Election Commission announced on Tuesday that Ghani garnered 50.64 percent of the vote in September last year, beating Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who secured 39.52 percent votes.

The results were delayed after the allegation of vote-rigging by Abdullah forced a recount.

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Thousands of Abdullah's supporters had rallied in November against what they said were fake ballots. The controversial recount had seemed set to favour Ghani.

The two men have shared power over the past five years in a so-called unity government formed by the United States in the wake of allegations of widespread fraud and corruption in the 2014 polls.

The announcement of the election results came as the US and the Taliban, which has been fighting the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan since it was toppled from power in 2001, appear to be close to embarking on a seven-day "reduction in violence" as a prelude to a peace deal to end Washington's longest war.

The two sides have been wrangling over the US's demand for a ceasefire before the signing of a final peace agreement, which is expected to outline the withdrawal of US troops and a guarantee Afghanistan will not be used as a launchpad to conduct attacks abroad.

The deal also proposes talks between the government in Kabul and the Taliban. The armed group has so far refused to speak to the Western-backed Afghan government, calling it a "puppet regime".

Whether the results will be accepted remains to be seen. Earlier this week, Abdullah's team said it would not accept fraudulent results.

Nearly one million of the initial 2.7 million votes were purged owing to irregularities, meaning the election saw by far the lowest turnout of any Afghan polls.

Ultimately, only 1.8 million votes were counted - a tiny number given Afghanistan's estimated population of 35 million and a total of 9.6 million registered voters.

Ghani first ran for president in 2009, capturing barely a quarter of the votes. He ran again in 2014 in what was considered a deeply flawed and corrupt exercise.

Ghani, from central Logar province, was born on May 19, 1949. He holds a doctorate in anthropology from the Columbia University and first went to the US as a high school exchange student.

Except for a brief teaching stint at the Kabul University in the early 1970s, Ghani lived in the US, where he was an academic until joining the World Bank as a senior adviser in 1991.

He returned to Afghanistan after 24 years when the Taliban was removed by a US-led coalition in 2001.

Ghani was the head of the Kabul University until he joined President Hamid Karzai's government as finance minister. In 2010, he led the lengthy process to transfer security of the country from the US-led coalition forces to the Afghanistan National Security Forces, which took effect in 2014.

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2020-02-18 14:42:00Z
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