Russian border becomes China's frontline in fight against second virus wave - Reuters

SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) - China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks - with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.

A resident wearing a face mask walks past a shopping street which used to be packed with people in Suifenhe, a city of Heilongjiang province on the border with Russia, as the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the country, China April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Huizhong Wu

Having largely stamped out domestic transmission of the disease, China has been slowly easing curbs on movement as it tries to get its economy back on track, but there are fears that a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of COVID-19.

A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier, marking the highest daily tally since March 5.

Imported cases accounted for a record 98. Half involved Chinese nationals returning from Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, home to the city of Vladivostok, who re-entered China through border crossings in Heilongjiang province.

“Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place,” said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.

“Some Chinese citizens - they want to come back, but it’s not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?”

The border is closed, except to Chinese nationals, and the land route through the city had become one of few options available for people trying to return home after Russia stopped flights to China except for those evacuating people.

Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions on movement and gatherings announced last week, when authorities took preventative measures similar to those imposed in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the pandemic ripping round the world first emerged late last year.

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 82,160 as of Sunday. At the peak of the first wave of the epidemic on Feb 12 there were over 15,000 new cases, though that was a one-off spike following the deployment of new testing methods.

Though the number of daily infections across China has dropped sharply from that peak, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.

Chinese cities near the Russian frontier are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response.

Suifenhe and Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, are now mandating 28 days of quarantine as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests for all arrivals from abroad.

In Shanghai, authorities found that 60 people who arrived on Aeroflot flight SU208 from Moscow on April 10 have the coronavirus, Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a press conference on Monday.

China has cut the number of people crossing its borders by 90% and has tried to stop all non-essential journeys, said Liu Haitao, an immigration official, at a separate briefing.

People wearing face masks walk past closed shops in the city centre of Suifenhe, a city of Heilongjiang province on the border with Russia, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the country, China April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Huizhong Wu

“Our border is long, and apart from the border crossings and passages, there are a large number of mountain passes, paths, ferry crossings and small roads, and the situation is very complicated,” he said.

Residents in Suifenhe said a lot of people had left the city fearing contagion, but others put their trust in authorities’ containment measures.

“I don’t need to worry,” Zhao Wei, another Suifenhe resident, told Reuters. “If there’s a local transmission, I would, but there’s not a single one. They’re all from the border, but they’ve all been sent to quarantine.”

Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Huizhong Wu in Suifenhe, Se Young Lee, Yang Yingzhi and Lusha Zhang in Beijing, David Stanway in Shanghai; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Kirsten Donovan

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-13 09:21:53Z
CAIiEEIoJ-2WvX3dHv86r6A2TnQqFggEKg0IACoGCAowt6AMMLAmMLT5lwM

Russian border becomes China's frontline in fight against second virus wave - Reuters

SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) - China’s northeast Heilongjiang province which borders Russia has become the new battleground against the coronavirus as authorities reported the highest number of new daily cases in nearly six weeks, driven by infected travellers from overseas.

A resident wearing a face mask walks past a shopping street which used to be packed with people in Suifenhe, a city of Heilongjiang province on the border with Russia, as the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the country, China April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Huizhong Wu

China fears a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of COVID-19 and push the country back into a state of near paralysis.

A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier and marking the highest number of cases since 143 infections were reported on March 5.

The National Health Commission said 98 of the new cases were imported, a new record. A total of 49 Chinese nationals who entered Heilongjiang province from Russia tested positive.

“Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place,” said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.

“Some Chinese citizens they want to come back, but it’s not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?”

Though the number of daily infections across China have dropped sharply from the height of the epidemic in February, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.

Chinese cities near the border with Russia are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response to influx of infected patients from the country.

Suifenhe last week announced restrictions on movements and gatherings similar to those imposed in Wuhan city, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged late last year, and extended the closure of its border with Russia.

The land route through the city had become one of few options available for Chinese nationals trying to get into China after Russia stopped all flights to the country.

Suifenhe and Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, are now mandating 28 days of quarantine for all arrivals from abroad as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests.

Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions of movement. Residents said a lot of people had left the city as the number of infected people crossing the border from Russia rose.

“I don’t need to worry,” Zhao Wei, another Suifenhe resident, told Reuters. “If there’s a local transmission, I would, but there’s not a single one. They’re all from the border, but they’ve all been sent to quarantine.”

Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Huizhong Wu in Suifenhe, Se Young Lee and Lusha Zhang in Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Michael Perry

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-13 08:55:30Z
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Beijing faces a diplomatic crisis after reports of mistreatment of Africans in China causes outrage - CNN

African students and expatriates in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were last week subject to forced coronavirus testing and arbitrary 14-day self-quarantine, regardless of recent travel history, amid heightened fears of imported infections.

Large numbers of African nationals were also left homeless, after being evicted by landlords and rejected by hotels in the city.

Having reportedly contained the virus within China, concerns have grown in recent weeks over a so-called second wave, brought into the country by overseas travelers.

In Africa, however, governments, media outlets and citizens reacted angrily to the apparent rise in anti-foreigner sentiment, as videos of Africans being harassed by police, sleeping on the streets or being locked into their homes under quarantine circulated online.

On Saturday, the front page of Kenya's biggest newspaper lead with the headline, "Kenyans in China: Rescue us from hell," as a member of the country's parliament called for Chinese nationals to leave Kenya immediately. TV stations in Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria also ran stories on the alleged mistreatment.

The fallout threatens to undermine China's diplomatic efforts in Africa. In recent years, African nations have become key diplomatic and trade partners to Beijing, with China's trade with Africa worth $208 billion in 2019, according to official figures from China's General Administration of Customs.

In a statement released Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied China had been singling out foreigners.

"We are still facing great risks of imported cases and domestic resurgence. Particularly, as the pandemic spreads all over the world, imported cases are causing mounting pressure," said Zhao.

"All foreigners are treated equally. We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination," he added.

A breakdown in relations

African countries are often characterized as being the weaker partner in bilateral relations with Beijing, with US officials repeatedly warning nations to be wary of so-called Chinese debt trap diplomacy, in which countries are forced to hand over key assets to service loans they can't make repayments on impairing their sovereignty.

But in recent days, African governments have been quick to demand answers from Beijing on the treatment of their citizens.

On Saturday, Nigerian lawmaker Oloye Akin Alabi posted a video on Twitter of the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, being grilled by a Nigerian politician over the mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou.

During the exchange, Zhou is made to watch videos of Africans allegedly being mistreated in China. Oloye accompanied the video with the message that his government would "not tolerate maltreatment of Nigerians in China."

The governments of Uganda and Ghana also reportedly summoned their respective Chinese ambassadors over what the Ghanaians called "the inhumane treatment being meted out."

On Saturday, in perhaps the most serious sign of continent-wide discontent, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, tweeted that he had invited the Chinese ambassador to the AU to personally discuss the allegations of mistreatment.

The Chinese reaction

On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded to the crisis, promising that provincial authorities would attach "great importance" to the concerns of some African countries and work to improve quarantine measures, including providing special accommodation for foreigners required to undergo medical observation.

However, echoing city officials in Guangzhou, Zhao did not address specific accusations that authorities had enforced a policy of mandatory testing and a 14-day quarantine on all Africans, even when they had not left China in recent months; had not been in contact with a known Covid-19 patient; had just completed a 14-day isolation; or had certificates to show they were virus-free.

Chinese state media had previously reported that five Nigerians tested had positive for the virus in Guangzhou.

Local police said on Sunday that all foreigners must strictly abide by Chinese laws and those who refuse to show identification when requested by police would face punishment. Suspicions abound that many Africans are overstaying their visas in Guangzhou, where officials said they counted 4,553 Africans legally living in the city as of last week.

On Sunday, the state-owned Global Times broke its silence on the continued diplomatic fallout, writing that "viral reports in Western media alleging Africans are being discriminated against and badly treated in the city" were "used by some Western media to provoke the problems between China and African countries."

In recent years, legions of Chinese diplomats have joined Twitter, a social media platform that is banned in China.

In Africa, CNN counted at least 25 accounts belonging to Chinese diplomats or consulates. But those Twitter accounts, which have repeatedly championed China's aid efforts in Africa in recent weeks, had been notably quiet on the issue of the African diaspora in Guangzhou.

After Zhao's statement on Sunday many began to tweet his comments.

Lina Benabdallah, assistant professor in politics at Wake Forest University, specializing in China-Africa relations, said that the "delicate" nature of the issue a "coordinated response," as Chinese diplomats would need to prevent a backlash against the more than 1 million Chinese currently living in Africa.

"De-escalation in that sense is probably a priority," she said. "It's a sensitive thing."

People to people relations

By the end of the weekend, most of the displaced Africans in Guangzhou, mainly traders and students who make up China's largest African population, had found shelter, according to people CNN spoke to in the city.

Armies of volunteers who had assembled on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, had rallied to connect Africans with landlords and hotels who would still accept foreigners. Others had been rounded up by local authorities and taken into quarantine at government-assigned hotels, according to Africans and volunteers who spoke to CNN.

"They (the authorities) just don't want them on the street," said one volunteer, who asked not to be named for fear of government reprisals.

Shen Shiwei, a non-resident fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, said people-to-people relations were a linchpin of China's relationship with Africa, and needed to be protected.

Shen called on Chinese officials to improve communication with the African diaspora in Guangzhou, suggesting signs in English and local languages to help explain decisions in policing. "I think there are two sides to every story," he said.

Hannah Ryder, a British-Kenyan who used to work for the United Nations in China and is now CEO of a Kenyan owned company in Beijing said these types of incidents can have a massive impact on how people in Africa view China. "If they are not handled properly they can result in far larger consequences than people sleeping on the street. They can have repercussions on international relations, trade and even diplomacy," said Ryder.

"As China has been the first to deal with and recover from Covid-19 the world can learn a lot from China's experience," she said.

"I hope that when it comes to virus-related xenophobia, China can show leadership on the best way to tackle it and be an example the world can follow."

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2020-04-13 07:42:52Z
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Russian border becomes China's frontline in fight against second virus wave - Reuters

SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) - China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks - with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.

A resident wearing a face mask walks past a shopping street which used to be packed with people in Suifenhe, a city of Heilongjiang province on the border with Russia, as the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the country, China April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Huizhong Wu

Having largely stamped out domestic transmission of the disease, China has been slowly easing curbs on movement as it tries to get its economy back on track, but there are fears that a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of COVID-19.

A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier, marking the highest daily tally since March 5.

Imported cases accounted for a record 98. Half involved Chinese nationals returning from Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, home to the city of Vladivostok, who re-entered China through border crossings in Heilongjiang province.

“Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place,” said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.

“Some Chinese citizens - they want to come back, but it’s not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?”

The border is closed, except to Chinese nationals, and the land route through the city had become one of few options available for people trying to return home after Russia stopped flights to China except for those evacuating people.

Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions of movement and gatherings announced last week, when authorities took preventative measures similar to those imposed in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the pandemic ripping round the world first emerged late last year.

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 82,160 as of Sunday, and at the peak of the first wave of the epidemic on Feb 12 there were over 15,000 new cases.

Though the number of daily infections across China has dropped sharply from that peak, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.

Chinese cities near the Russian frontier are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response.

Suifenhe and Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, are now mandating 28 days of quarantine as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests for all arrivals from abroad.

In Shanghai, authorities found that 60 people who arrived on Aeroflot flight SU208 from Moscow on April 10 have the coronavirus, Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a press conference on Monday.

Residents in Suifenhe said a lot of people had left the city fearing contagion, but others put their trust in authorities’ containment measures.

“I don’t need to worry,” Zhao Wei, another Suifenhe resident, told Reuters. “If there’s a local transmission, I would, but there’s not a single one. They’re all from the border, but they’ve all been sent to quarantine.”

Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Huizhong Wu in Suifenhe, Se Young Lee and Lusha Zhang in Beijing; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-13 07:12:33Z
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Live updates: China reports highest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks; U.S. weighs risks of May 1 restart - The Washington Post

Alabama cannot ban abortions as part of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge ruled Sunday, marking a temporary victory for abortion advocates.

Across the country, the pandemic has created a legal tug-of-war over abortion access. A growing number of states, including Ohio and Texas, have sought to ban the practice by classifying it as an unnecessary medical procedure.

Alabama issued such a directive in late March, postponing all elective medical procedures, except in emergencies, to avoid serious harm from underlying conditions, or as “necessary” parts of ongoing treatment.

The state’s top health officer, Scott Harris, previously said that the order was only intended to slow the spread of the virus, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. But after Alabama refused to clarify that abortion clinics could continue to operate, some civil liberties groups successfully filed for a preliminary injunction.

“For some group of women, a mandatory postponement will make a lawful abortion literally impossible,” wrote U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, who had previously blocked the state’s near-total abortion ban.

He said that providers should be able to decide whether a procedure can be postponed. The state’s medical restrictions, he wrote, are likely unconstitutional “when interpreted to allow only those abortions necessary to protect the life and health of the mother.”

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2020-04-13 06:46:33Z
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Live updates: China reports highest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks; U.S. weighs risks of May 1 restart - The Washington Post

Public health experts on Sunday debated the question of when to reopen portions of the U.S. economy, shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic, with several Trump administration officials cautioning that a target date of May 1 — floated by President Trump, among others — may not be realistic.

“It is a target, and, obviously, we’re hopeful about that target, but I think it’s just too early to be able to tell that we see light at the end of the tunnel,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said on ABC News’s “This Week.” “I think it’s just too early for us to say whether May 1 is that date.”

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2020-04-13 05:03:03Z
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Life after quarantine in Wuhan - ABC News

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

1. Life after quarantine in Wuhan  ABC News
2. China's new coronavirus cases rise to near six-week high  New York Post
3. China is on a knife edge between recovery and another wave of coronavirus cases  CNN
4. China's Wuhan to keep testing residents as coronavirus lockdown eases  Reuters
5. China to keep testing Wuhan residents for coronavirus as lockdown relaxes | TheHill  The Hill
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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2020-04-13 02:02:51Z
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