Senin, 03 Februari 2020

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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2020-02-03 10:22:00Z
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Turkish soldiers killed in Syrian army shelling in Idlib - BBC News

Four Turkish soldiers have been killed and nine wounded in shelling by Syrian government forces in Syria's north-western Idlib province, Turkey said.

It said up to 35 Syrian troops had been killed in retaliatory fire. Syria's media said there were no casualties.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled an offensive by Syrian troops and their Russian backers against the last opposition stronghold in Idlib.

Many have moved towards the border with Turkey, which supports the opposition.

Turkey and Russia - a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - signed a de-escalation deal for Idlib in 2017, but it has been frequently violated.

What did Turkey say?

Speaking to reporters on Monday morning, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 46 Syrian "regime targets" had been hit by the Turkish military.

He said that "30-35 Syrians on the other side have been neutralised [killed].

"Those who question our determination will soon understand they made a mistake," Mr Erdogan said.

He warned Russia not to get involved in Ankara's dealing with Damascus over the shelling, telling Moscow "not to stand in our way".

Turkey has previously said its troops were in Idlib to prevent clashes there, and that their positions were being co-ordinated beforehand.

Mr Erdogan warned last week that Turkey would respond militarily if its soldiers in the region were threatened in any way.

How has Syria reacted?

Syria's Sana state news agency said that "no injuries or damage were reported" in the Turkish strikes.

It said Syrian government troops were continuing their offensive in Idlib, liberating several villages in the province.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that six Syrian soldiers were killed in the Turkish strikes.

What's the background to this?

In 2017, Turkey and Russia signed a "de-escalation" deal on Idlib, which came into force a year later.

The two sides agreed to jointly patrol the area to prevent clashes between the opposition and Syrian government troops.

Turkey, which has 12 military observation posts in the region, has accused Russia of violating the agreement, a claim Moscow denies.

There are 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and the president has said it would not be able to handle a fresh influx of displaced people.

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2020-02-03 07:55:24Z
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Minggu, 02 Februari 2020

Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say - The New York Times

The Wuhan coronavirus spreading from China is now likely to become a pandemic that circles the globe, according to many of the world’s leading infectious disease experts.

The prospect is daunting. A pandemic — an ongoing epidemic on two or more continents — may well have global consequences, despite the extraordinary travel restrictions and quarantines now imposed by China and other countries, including the United States.

Scientists do not yet know how lethal the new coronavirus is, however, so there is uncertainty about how much damage a pandemic might cause. But there is growing consensus that the pathogen is readily transmitted between humans.

The Wuhan coronavirus is spreading more like influenza, which is highly transmissible, than like its slow-moving viral cousins, SARS and MERS, scientists have found.

“It’s very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a pandemic,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

“But will it be catastrophic? I don’t know.”

In the last three weeks, the number of lab-confirmed cases has soared from about 50 in China to 14,000 in 23 countries; there have been over 300 deaths, all but one in China.

But various epidemiological models estimate that the real number of cases is 100,000 or even more. While that expansion is not as rapid as that of flu or measles, it is an enormous leap beyond what virologists saw when SARS and MERS emerged.

When SARS was vanquished in July 2003 after spreading for nine months, only 8,098 cases had been confirmed. MERS has been circulating since 2012, but there have been only about 2,500 known cases.

The biggest uncertainty now, experts said, is how many people around the world will die. SARS killed about 10 percent of those who got it, and MERS now kills about one of three.

The 1918 “Spanish flu” killed only about 2.5 percent of its victims — but because it infected so many people and medical care was much cruder then, 20 to 50 million died.

By contrast, the highly transmissible H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009 killed about 285,000, fewer than seasonal flu normally does, and had a relatively low fatality rate, estimated at .02 percent.

The mortality rate for known cases of the Wuhan coronavirus has been running about 2 percent, although that is likely to drop as more tests are done and more mild cases are found.

It is “increasingly unlikely that the virus can be contained,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who now runs Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit devoted to fighting epidemics.

“It is therefore likely that it will spread, as flu and other organisms do, but we still don’t know how far, wide or deadly it will be.”

In the early days of the 2009 flu pandemic, “they were talking about Armageddon in Mexico,” Dr. Fauci said. (That virus first emerged in pig-farming areas in Mexico’s Veracruz State.) “But it turned out to not be that severe.”

An accurate estimate of the virus’s lethality will not be possible until certain kinds of studies can be done: blood tests to see how many people have antibodies, household studies to learn how often it infects family members, and genetic sequencing to determine whether some strains are more dangerous than others.

Closing borders to highly infectious pathogens never succeeds completely, experts said, because all frontiers are somewhat porous. Nonetheless, closings and rigorous screening may slow the spread, which will buy time for the development of drug treatments and vaccines.

Other important unknowns include who is most at risk, whether coughing or contaminated surfaces are more likely to transmit the virus, how fast the virus can mutate and whether it will fade out when the weather warms.

The effects of a pandemic would probably be harsher in some countries than in others. While the United States and other wealthy countries may be able to detect and quarantine the first carriers, countries with fragile health care systems will not. The virus has already reached Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines and rural Russia.

“This looks far more like H1N1’s spread than SARS, and I am increasingly alarmed,” said Dr. Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Even 1 percent mortality would mean 10,000 deaths in each million people.”

Other experts were more cautious.

Dr. Michael Ryan, head of emergency responses for the World Health Organization, said in an interview with STAT News on Saturday that there was “evidence to suggest this virus can still be contained” and that the world needed to “keep trying.”

Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a virus-hunter at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health who is in China advising its Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that although the virus is clearly being transmitted through casual contact, labs are still behind in processing samples.

But life in China has radically changed in the last two weeks. Streets are deserted, public events are canceled, and citizens are wearing masks and washing their hands, Dr. Lipkin said. All of that may have slowed down what lab testing indicated was exponential growth in the infection.

It’s unclear exactly how accurate tests done in overwhelmed Chinese laboratories are. On the one hand, Chinese state media have reported test kit shortages and processing bottlenecks, which could produce an undercount.

But Dr. Lipkin said he knew of one lab running 5,000 samples a day, which might produce some false-positive results, inflating the count. “You can’t possibly do quality control at that rate,” he said.

Anecdotal reports from China, and one published study from Germany, indicate that some people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus can pass it on before they show symptoms. That may make border-screening much harder, scientists said.

Epidemiological modeling released Friday by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control estimated that 75 percent of infected people reaching Europe from China would still be in the incubation periods upon arrival, and therefore not detected by airport screening, which looks for fevers, coughs and breathing difficulties.

But if thermal cameras miss victims who are beyond incubation and actively infecting others, the real number of missed carriers may be higher than 75 percent.

Still, asymptomatic carriers “are not normally major drivers of epidemics,” Dr. Fauci said. Most people get ill from someone they know to be sick — a family member, a co-worker or a patient, for example.

The virus’s most vulnerable target is Africa, many experts said. More than 1 million expatriate Chinese work there, mostly on mining, drilling or engineering projects. Also, many Africans work and study in China and other countries where the virus has been found.

If anyone on the continent has the virus now, “I’m not sure the diagnostic systems are in place to detect it,” said Dr. Daniel Bausch, head of scientific programs for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, who is consulting with the W.H.O. on the outbreak.

South Africa and Senegal could probably diagnose it, he said. Nigeria and some other countries have asked the W.H.O. for the genetic materials and training they need to perform diagnostic tests, but that will take time.

At least four African countries have suspect cases quarantined, according to an article published Friday in The South China Morning Post. They have sent samples to France, Germany, India and South Africa for testing.

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At the moment, it seems unlikely that the virus will spread widely in countries with vigorous, alert public health systems, said Dr. William Schaffner, a preventive medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“Every doctor in the U.S. has this top of mind,” he said. “Any patient with fever or respiratory problems will get two questions. ‘Have you been to China? Have you had contact with anyone who has?’ If the answer is yes, they’ll be put in isolation right away.”

Assuming the virus spreads globally, tourism to and trade with countries besides China may be affected — and the urgency to find ways to halt the virus and prevent deaths will grow.

It is possible that the Wuhan coronavirus will fade out as weather warms. Many viruses, like flu, measles and norovirus, thrive in cold, dry air. The SARS outbreak began in winter, and MERS transmission also peaks then, though that may be related to transmission in newborn camels.

Four mild coronaviruses cause about a quarter of the nation’s common colds, which also peak in winter.

But even if an outbreak fades in June, there could be a second wave in the fall, as has occurred in every major flu pandemic, including those that began in 1918 and 2009.

By that time, some remedies might be on hand, although they will need rigorous testing and perhaps political pressure to make them available and affordable.

In China, several antiviral drugs are being prescribed. A common combination is pills containing lopinavir and ritonavir with infusions of interferon, a signaling protein that wakes up the immune system.

In the United States, the combination is sold as Kaletra by AbbVie for H.I.V. therapy, and it is relatively expensive. In India, a dozen generic makers produce the drugs at rock-bottom prices for use against H.I.V. in Africa, and their products are W.H.O.-approved.

Another option may be an experimental drug, remdesivir, on which the patent is held by Gilead. The drug has not yet been approved for use against any disease. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that it works against coronaviruses, and Gilead has donated doses to China.

Several American companies are working on a vaccine, using various combinations of their own funds, taxpayer money and foundation grants.

Although modern gene-chemistry techniques have made it possible to build vaccine candidates within just days, medical ethics require that they then be carefully tested on animals and small numbers of healthy humans for safety and effectiveness.

That aspect of the process cannot be sped up, because dangerous side effects may take time to appear and because human immune systems need time to produce the antibodies that show whether a vaccine is working.

Whether or not what is being tried in China will be acceptable elsewhere will depend on how rigorously Chinese doctors run their clinical trials.

“In God we trust,” Dr. Schaffner said. “All others must provide data.”

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2020-02-02 19:35:00Z
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Streatham: Man shot dead by police after stabbings in London - BBC News

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A man has been shot dead by officers in a "terrorist-related" incident in south London, the Met Police have said.

It is believed two people have been injured in stabbings on Streatham High Road.

Gun shots were heard just after 14:00 GMT on Sunday. Police later said the scene had been "fully contained".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that his thoughts were with the injured and others affected. He thanked emergency services for their response.

London Ambulance Service said it was treating a number of people at the scene.

The Metropolitan Police said it was awaiting updates on the condition of those injured.

Gulled Bulhan, a 19-year-old student from Streatham, saw the shooting take place in front of a Boots pharmacy.

"I was crossing the road when I saw a man with a machete and silver canisters on his chest being chased by what I assume was an undercover police officer," he told the PA news agency.

"The man was then shot. I think I heard three gun shots."

Mr Bulhan said he then ran into the library and saw ambulances and armed officers arrive.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan thanked emergency services for their "swift and courageous response", saying: "They truly are the best of us."

"Terrorists seek to divide us and to destroy our way of life - here in London we will never let them succeed."

Streatham's Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said her thoughts were with those injured, their families and those who witnessed the attack.

BBC journalist Steffan Powell, in Streatham, said the incident happened at the bottom of his road.

"There were armed police everywhere, they have been telling residents to stay inside," he told BBC News.

He said a helicopter was up and police officers were patrolling the streets.

He said pedestrians still on the street were being allowed to head away from the scene.

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2020-02-02 16:02:46Z
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Confirmed case of coronavirus in Boston, possible case in New York - ABC News

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2020-02-02 15:11:45Z
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Streatham: Man shot dead by police after stabbings in London - BBC News

A man has been shot dead by officers in a "terrorist-related" incident in south London, the Met Police have said.

It is believed a number of people have been stabbed in the incident at Streatham High Road, police said.

Witnesses on social media have said they heard three gun shots fired just after 14:00 GMT on Sunday and people were being treated by doctors.

London Ambulance Service said it had a number of resources attending the incident.

One person tweeted: "Something major happening in Streatham High Road. Armed police and roads closed off".

BBC journalist Steffan Powell, in Streatham, said the incident happened at the bottom of his road.

"There were armed police everywhere, they have been telling residents to stay inside," he told BBC News.

He saw a helicopter and police officers patrolling the streets.

He said pedestrians still on the street were being allowed to head away from the scene.

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2020-02-02 15:24:26Z
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First person outside of mainland China dies of Wuhan coronavirus - CNN

Philippines health officials announced Sunday that a 44-year-old Chinese man had died the day before from coronavirus after flying into the country from Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million at the center of the outbreak.
There are more than 14,300 confirmed cases around the world, and 305 people have died. All but one of the deaths have been in mainland China.
Within China, almost 60 million people remain on effective lockdown as the country battles to contain the virus amid reports its health system is on its knees, running out of beds and supplies.

International response

There are now more than 160 confirmed cases in 26 countries or territories outside of mainland China. And as the virus continues to spread around the world, governments are stepping up their responses.
The United States, Australia and New Zealand have all announced that they will not allow foreign nationals who have traveled from or transited through China to enter. All three countries will continue to allow citizens who have visited China to enter, although they will need to be quarantined.
Some governments have also raised their travel advisory warnings. The US, for instance, has labeled China a "do not travel" destination -- the highest possible warning.
A number of countries have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan. The US evacuated 195 Americans, who are under a 14-day quarantine on an air force base in California.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has also approved a request to provide military housing for up to 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined after arriving in the US from overseas travel, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Fears over the pandemic have rattled global stock markets and forced both US and global carriers to amend flight schedules as demand for China travel declines.
Major airlines -- including British Airways and Australia's Qantas -- have announced they will no longer fly to mainland China. Delta said it will suspend flights between the US and China starting on Sunday until at least April 30, according to a press release.

Chinese response

In mainland China, tens of millions of people remain under effective quarantine after the government imposed travel restrictions on a number of cities in Hubei province. Wuhan -- where the outbreak was first reported -- is the capital of Hubei province.
Although the outbreak has spread to every province and region of China, the outbreak remains worst in Hubei, where more than 7,100 have been diagnosed with coronavirus and 249 people have died.
A total of 57 million people across 15 cities in Hubei are on some form of lockdown. Huanggang -- a city of 7.5 million in Hubei province -- is only allowing one representative from each household to leave their home every other day to go out for grocery shopping in order to minimize the flow of people in the city.
The unprecedented decision to shut down entire cities comes as the country faces a shortage of medical supplies. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has even asked the European Union to help China procure medical supplies, according to a Chinese government statement.
Patients and medical staff have also told CNN of delays in testing for the virus, raising concerns that the outbreak in China may be worse than is reported.

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2020-02-02 13:20:00Z
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