NEW DELHI (Reuters) - At least 32 people have been killed in the deadliest violence to engulf India’s capital New Delhi for decades as a heavy deployment of security forces brought an uneasy calm on Thursday, a police official said.
The violence began over a disputed new citizenship law on Monday but led to clashes between Muslims and Hindus in which hundreds were injured. Many suffered gunshot wounds, while arson, looting and stone-throwing has also taken place.
“The death count is now at 32,” Delhi police spokesman Anil Mittal said, adding the “entire area is peaceful now.”
At the heart of the unrest is a citizenship law which makes it easier for non-Muslims from some neighboring Muslim-dominated countries to gain Indian citizenship.
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the new law adopted last December is of “great concern” and she was worried by reports of police inaction in the face of assaults against Muslims by other groups.
“I appeal to all political leaders to prevent violence,” Bachelet said in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Critics say the law is biased against Muslims and undermines India’s secular constitution.
A man carrying a child walks past security forces in a riot affected area following clashes between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has denied having any prejudice against India’s 180 million Muslims, saying that law is required to help persecuted minorities.
New Delhi has been the epicenter for protests against the new law, with students and large sections of the Muslim community leading the protests.
As the wounded were brought to hospitals on Thursday, the focus shifted on the overnight transfer of Justice S. Muralidhar, a Delhi High Court judge who was hearing a petition into the riots and had criticized government and police inaction on Wednesday.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the transfer was routine and had been recommended by the Supreme Court collegium earlier this month.
Opposition Congress party leader Manish Tiwari said every lawyer and judge in India should strongly protest what he called a crude attempt to intimidate the judiciary.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said inflammatory speeches at the protests over the new citizenship law in the last few months and the tacit support of some opposition leaders was behind the violence.
“The investigation is on,” he said.
Slideshow (17 Images)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who romped to re-election last May, also withdrew Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy in August with the objective of tightening New Delhi’s grip on the restive region, which is also claimed by full by Pakistan.
For months the government imposed severe restrictions in Kashmir including cutting telephone and internet lines, while keeping hundreds of people, including mainstream political leaders, in custody for fear that they could whip up mass protests. Some restrictions have since been eased.
Bachelet said the Indian government continued to impose excessive restrictions on the use of social media in the region, even though some political leaders have been released, and ordinary life may be returning to normal in some respects.
Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Mark Heinrich
In this photo illustration, a woman sprays disinfectant onto her hands in Berlin, Germany, on February 26. As the novel coronavirus spreads across Asia, people have rushed to stock up on sanitation and cleaning products. In major cities like Hong Kong, stores sold out of hand sanitizer, toilet rolls, face masks, disinfecting wipes, and more.
In this photo illustration, a woman sprays disinfectant onto her hands in Berlin, Germany, on February 26. As the novel coronavirus spreads across Asia, people have rushed to stock up on sanitation and cleaning products. In major cities like Hong Kong, stores sold out of hand sanitizer, toilet rolls, face masks, disinfecting wipes, and more.
Florian Gaertner/Getty Images
The novel coronavirus has gone global. What had began as an outbreak in China is now threatening to become a worldwide pandemic, having reached every continent except Antarctica.
Since it was first identified in mid-December, the virus has killed more than 2,800 worldwide. Though the vast majority of those deaths have occurred in Hubei, the province at the center of the initial outbreak, new clusters are fast expanding outside of China, in countries as diverse as Iran, Italy and South Korea.
In the past week alone, 20 countries confirmed their first cases of the coronavirus, mostly in Europe and the Middle East.
On Wednesday, for the first time, there were more cases reported outside China that inside, according to data from the World Health Organization.
Globally, more than 3,200 cases have now been confirmed outside of China, bringing the total number to more than 82,000.
As anxiety and fear spreads around the world, international authorities are scrambling to contain the virus. Numerous countries are closing borders, placing cities on lockdown, and implementing stringent quarantine measures; Italy has effectively quarantined 100,000 people.
This rise in public fear has seen shops in Italy and other hard-hit regions sell out of medical supplies like face masks -- an echo of the same panic buying that had gripped Asia just earlier this month.
And though the WHO has yet to call the outbreak a pandemic, international experts are warning that people should get ready for such an escalation.
"Ultimately we expect we will see community spread in this country," said Nancy Messonnier, a director at the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention. "It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness."
HONG KONG — As a dangerous new coronavirus has ravaged China and spread throughout the rest of the world, the outbreak’s toll has sown fear and anxiety. Nearly 3,000 deaths. More than 81,000 cases. Six continents infected.
But government officials and medical experts, in their warnings about the epidemic, have also sounded a note of reassurance: Though the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries.
It is an important factor to understand, medical experts said, both to avoid an unnecessary global panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission.
“Many people are now panicking, and some actually are exaggerating the risks,” said Dr. Jin Dongyan, a virology expert at the University of Hong Kong. “For governments, for public health professionals — they also have to deal with these, because these will also be harmful.”
Much about the virus remains unknown, and the danger could intensify as it travels through the rest of the world. But based on existing information, here’s what experts say about the severity of the virus.
More than 80 percent of cases are mild, one large study in China found.
Of the 44,672 coronavirus cases that were confirmed in China by Feb. 11, more than 36,000 — or 81 percent — were mild, according to a study published recently by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cases were considered mild if they did not involve pneumonia, defined as infection of the lungs, or involved only mild pneumonia, the authors wrote in the study, which is among the largest to date of the new coronavirus.
There were two other categories of cases, severe and critical. Severe cases featured shortness of breath, low blood oxygen saturation or other lung problems. Critical cases featured respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ dysfunction.
Just under 14 percent of patients were severe, and just under 5 percent critical.
The overall fatality rate in China was 2.3 percent. But that number was inflated by the much higher fatality rate in Hubei Province, of 2.9 percent, compared with a rate of just 0.4 percent in the rest of the country. The seasonal flu, by comparison, has a mortality rate of about 0.1 percent.
The Coronavirus Outbreak
Answers to your most common questions:
Updated Feb. 26, 2020
What is a coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crownlike 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 worried should I be? New outbreaks in Asia, Europe and the Middle East are renewing fears of a global pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned this week that Americans should brace for the likelihood that the virus will spread to the United States.
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.
What if I’m traveling? The C.D.C. haswarned older and at-risk travelers to avoid Japan, Italy and Iran. The agency also has advised against all nonessential travel to South Korea and China.
How can I prepare for a possible outbreak? Keep a 30-day supply of essential medicines. Get a flu shot. Have essential household items on hand. Have a support system in place for eldery family members.
Where has the virus spread? The virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has sickened more than 80,000 people in at least 33 countries, including Italy, Iran and South Korea.
How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is probably transmitted through sneezes, coughs and contaminated surfaces. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.
Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have been working with officials in China, where growth has slowed. But this week, as confirmed cases spiked on two continents, experts warned that the world was not ready for a major outbreak.
The true fatality rate could be even lower, given that many mild or asymptomatic cases may not have been reported to the authorities.
A mild case may look like the common cold.
Mild cases are inherently difficult for scientists to describe, because those with limited symptoms may not seek medical care. Scientists have also said that people can be infected but not show any symptoms at all.
For many with mild infections, the coronavirus could be virtually indistinguishable from the common cold or seasonal flu, said Dr. Jin of the University of Hong Kong.
“Some of these patients, they just go unrecognized,” he said. “It could be just as small as a sore throat. Then one day, two days, it’s gone.”
Even among patients who do go see a doctor, “it could still be very mild, just like a flu,” he added.
As the Chinese Center for Disease Control’s study showed, some mild cases may involve pneumonia. They may also include mild fatigue and low fever, according to a treatment plan released by the central Chinese government.
A small study of 99 confirmed coronavirus patients in Wuhan, published in the medical journal, The Lancet, found that most of the patients had fever or cough when they were admitted to the hospital, and some had shortness of breath or muscle ache. The study did not distinguish between mild, severe and critical cases.
Most people with mild infections recover.
There is no doubt that the virus can be dangerous, especially for critical cases. Of those patients, 49 percent died, according the study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control.
But critical cases made up just a tiny fraction of the total caseload in the study.
By Thursday, of the 78,487 confirmed cases in China, 32,495, or 41 percent, had been discharged from the hospital, according to China’s National Health Commission. About 8,300 of the remaining patients were in serious condition. More than 2,700 people have died in China.
Many of the deaths have occurred in Hubei Province, where the outbreak began, and where the demand for care has overwhelmed medical staff. The high mortality rate there could have dangerous implications for developing countries. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, has warned repeatedly of the toll the virus could exact in places with weak health systems.
But for mild cases, the virus is likely “self-limiting,” Dr. Jin said, meaning that symptoms will go away on their own, as with the flu and common cold.
But the plethora of mild cases can make containment more difficult.
The number of mild cases, though, creates its own complications for curbing the virus’s spread.
Those with mild or no symptoms may not know they have contracted the virus, or may pass it off as a seasonal cold. They may then continue in their daily lives — traveling, kissing, coming into close contact with others — and spread the virus without anyone knowing.
“In this manner, a virus that poses a low health threat on the individual level can pose a high risk on the population level, with the potential to cause disruptions of global public health systems and economic losses,” a group of five scientists wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine last week.
There are, broadly speaking, two possible outcomes of the current outbreak, Dr. Jin said. The new virus could, like SARS, another well-known coronavirus, become less and less transmissible as it spreads around the world, eventually dying out.
Alternatively, the new coronavirus could become well established in humans, becoming a kind of recurring, seasonal nuisance, like the flu, Dr. Jin said. In that situation, people would learn to live with it, and sometimes would contract illnesses from it; but the virus would most likely also lose some of its dangerousness as time went on. Experts could also develop a vaccine, Dr. Jin added.
Even mild cases could provide immunity from future infection.
Several medical experts have said that those who have been infected with the coronavirus will not become infected again, as their bodies will produce antibodies that provide immunity.
“As long as the virus doesn’t evolve, there is no chance of being infected again,” Dr. Lu Hongzhou, a public health professor in Shanghai, said on Tuesday in an interview with Beijing News.
And that immunity should extend even to those who had mild or even asymptomatic infections. “Anyone recovered from the infection should have useful antibodies,” Dr. Jin said.
The body’s natural immune response is the reason the Chinese authorities have asked recovered patients to donate blood plasma, in the hopes that their antibodies could be used to treat sick patients. The government has also prescribed antiviral drugs and traditional Chinese medicine as treatment methods.
The coronavirus epidemic that started in China late last year continues to spread around the world, with hundreds more cases confirmed in South Korea on Wednesday and Italy and Iran racing to try and control smaller, but equally worrying outbreaks.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans Tuesday to be prepared for the COVID-19 illness to start spreading within the U.S. populace, saying it's a question of when, not if.
Among the almost 1,300 cases in South Korea — the largest outbreak outside China — was a 23-year-old U.S. service member who has been ordered to self-quarantine in their home off-base. Before he was isolated, however, he recently visited two U.S. military facilities in the region where South Korea's outbreak is focused. The U.S. has thousands of troops based around the city of Daegu, where the outbreak has been linked to a large church congregation.
With the global death toll from the flu-like virus now over 2,700 and South Korea, Italy and Iran reporting significant daily jumps in cases, mounting fear that the disease could gain a foothold in other countries has sent stock prices plunging. The CDC's warning on Tuesday shaved about 3% off stock prices on all the major U.S. exchanges, and Asian and European markets were down again Wednesday.
U.S. economy takes hit in wake of coronavirus spread
The coronavirus epidemic that started in China late last year continues to spread around the world, with hundreds more cases confirmed in South Korea on Wednesday and Italy and Iran racing to try and control smaller, but equally worrying outbreaks.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans Tuesday to be prepared for the COVID-19 illness to start spreading within the U.S. populace, saying it's a question of when, not if.
Among the almost 1,300 cases in South Korea — the largest outbreak outside China — was a 23-year-old U.S. service member who has been ordered to self-quarantine in their home off-base. Before he was isolated, however, he recently visited two U.S. military facilities in the region where South Korea's outbreak is focused. The U.S. has thousands of troops based around the city of Daegu, where the outbreak has been linked to a large church congregation.
With the global death toll from the flu-like virus now over 2,700 and South Korea, Italy and Iran reporting significant daily jumps in cases, mounting fear that the disease could gain a foothold in other countries has sent stock prices plunging. The CDC's warning on Tuesday shaved about 3% off stock prices on all the major U.S. exchanges, and Asian and European markets were down again Wednesday.
U.S. economy takes hit in wake of coronavirus spread
