Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Wuhan authorities warn of lack of ‘equipment and materials’ and consider converting hotels and schools into treatment centres. Follow live news and updates
Here’s a summary of what we know so far today about the spread of the coronavirus.
Here’s the latest tracker image from Johns Hopkins University on the spread of the coronavirus. If you want to check in on the tracker, you can find it here.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China has reached 563, as health experts prepared to meet in Geneva next week in an attempt to develop a vaccine and Japan reported 10 more infections among passengers aboard a luxury cruise liner quarantined outside Yokohama.
Chinese authorities said on Thursday the death toll had risen by 73 in the previous 24 hours – the third record daily rise in a row – with 70 of the deaths recorded in Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak.
Hong Kong’s economy risks being plunged deeper into recession as the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc in the crisis-hit territory, with consumers panic buying staple goods and airlines stopping flights.
Hours after the city’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific placed 27,000 staff on three weeks unpaid leave, Virgin Australia said on Thursday that it would no longer fly to Hong Kong because it was not “commercially viable”.
Impact of Chinese outbreak has already rippled out well beyond world’s No 2 economy
The impact of coronavirus on the global economy is growing and spreading daily. What started as a medical emergency in the Chinese city of Wuhan has led to planes being grounded, cruise ships being quarantined, theme parks being shut and car plants being mothballed.
TV footage of deserted streets and empty shops tell their own story: China’s economy, which was already slowing, is going to suffer a major hit as the authorities seek to stop the virus from spreading.
A hotel worker in the northern Italian city of Verona has tested negative for coronavirus.
The woman, who was isolated after coming down with a fever, is a member of staff at the same hotel where a Chinese couple being treated for the virus in Rome stayed for one night.
Here’s a report from Josh Taylor, a Guardian reporter based in Melbourne, that the Australian government is considering sending its citizens evacuated from Wuhan to isolated mining camps if Christmas Island reaches capacity for people being quarantined.
The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, admitted there is the possibility that Christmas Island could reach capacity if the outbreak continues to spread. He said one option would be for people to share rooms, or potentially even open up other locations away from the rest of the Australian population.
Thousands of passengers and crew on two cruise ships in Asian waters have been placed in quarantine after cases of coronavirus were confirmed onboard. About 3,700 people are facing at least two weeks locked away on the Diamond Princess cruise liner anchored off Japan, while 1,800 passengers and crew are being kept onboard the World Dream, docked in Hong Kong
Australian Daniel Ou Yang, 21, was on the Air New Zealand flight out of virus-struck Wuhan to Auckland. Here he writes about the stress of his evacuation
At 2.52pm, we arrived at Wuhan Tianjin airport.
The drive here was smooth, all the big wide roads with no cars on them. We made it through the checkpoints and arrived within an hour.
South Island’s southernmost region cut off amid fears paper mill could release toxic ammonia if chemicals mix with floodwaters
Part of New Zealand’s South Island has become cut off after days of torrential rains washed away roads, forced the evacuation of 2,000 people and saw the country’s MetService issue its first ever red weather warning.
The flooding across the flat agricultural plains of Southland, in the island’s southernmost end, came a day after hikers and tourists were evacuated from another part of the region, Fiordland, where more than a metre of rain had fallen in less than three days.
From trendy bars in New York, to anti-anxiety pills sold in Australia and New Zealand, the powdered root is taking off
On a Friday night in Suva, the capital of Fiji, the Kava Bure is filling up. Groups of people have started arriving to meet friends for a post-work basin or three of kava, a drink made from the root of the piper methysticum tree.
The bar, which is out in the open air with wooden tables surrounded by bamboo fencing, sells $5 or $10 bags of powdered kava. These are mixed in a plastic basin by an elderly Fijian man, who asks patrons if they would like the mix “sosoko” – strong – or “just right”, before giving them the basin and coconut shell bowls for drinking.
All 30,000 British nationals in China have been urged to leave the country “if they can” because of the coronavirus outbreak, in a surprise move that prompted criticism that the UK government has left its citizens to fend for themselves.
In a further sign of mounting international concern about the spread of the coronavirus, the Foreign Office also recommended a ban on Britons travelling to China.
The signing of the treaty marks the point at which Māori women began to be written out of history
This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.
This year I’m not interested in the symbolism of what Jacinda Ardern does or doesn’t do or say at Waitangi. I’m looking to the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa inquiry. Nearly 30 years since it was instigated, the inquiry investigates the role of the Crown in contributing to the disadvantage that has inequitably burdened wāhine Māori since the Treaty was signed. At the end of this month a judicial conference will be held to consider the claims.
From gassy passengers to viral anthems: how Beijing is seeking to lighten the mood amid the coronavirus crisis. This includes state media striking an upbeat or humorous tone, in line with President Xi Jinping’s call for “public opinion guidance”. Read the full story below:
Reports that a South Korean person has tested positive for coronavirus following a visit to Thailand are likely to cause great concern to Thai officials. The outbreak has already dealt a massive blow to Thailand’s tourism industry, which relies upon Chinese visitors.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand said it expects 2 million fewer Chinese tourists this year than last year, when 11 million visited.
Two hikers injured by landslide as helicopters ferry those stranded to nearby town in South Island
About 100 hikers are being rescued by helicopter after becoming stranded overnight on popular bush tracks in New Zealand’s South Island when a month’s rainfall in a single day washed out roads and bridges and caused flooding and landslides.
Eight helicopters and waiting buses ferried the hikers stuck in shelters in Fiordland – and about 70 drivers trapped on the Milford Road – to safety in the town of Te Anau. Two of the hikers were injured when the hut they were sheltering in was hit by a landslide.
The Chinese city of 11 million resembles a ghost town, with empty streets and biosecurity checkpoints – though a new hospital was built in days. The number of people who have died from the Wuhan coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, in China has climbed to 425, while more than 20,000 people there have been infected. Cases have been reported in other countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, the UK, Germany and France
Land loss is at the heart of every Indigenous struggle and our national day is a reminder that Māori are still fighting for self-governance
This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.
One reason progressives love committing to anti-racism rather than, say, decolonisation is the former requires nothing more than a state of mind. “I’m not racist” – drop the spoken or unspoken “but” – and congratulations, you can wash away the guilt.
Sixty Italians evacuated from Wuhan arrived at a military base near Rome on Monday.
A passenger who was expected to be on board the flight remained in Wuhan after coming down with a fever, Italian media reported. The group will be quarantined for up to two weeks.
As researchers are racing to develop a vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus, the British drugmaker GSK has teamed up with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to aid efforts to produce a vaccine.
GSK, one of the world’s biggest vaccine makers, says it will make its “adjuvant platform technology” available. An adjuvant is added to some vaccines to improve the immune response and means the amount of antigen required per dose can be reduced – allowing more vaccine doses to be produced and made available to more people, which is crucial in a pandemic.
Gaining access to GSK’s world-leading adjuvant technology is a huge step forward in developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. Coupling GSK’s adjuvant systems with the pioneering platform technology we are funding has the potential to make more vaccine available more rapidly – by decreasing the dose of vaccine antigen required to protect each individual.”
Parts of Papua New Guinea continue to grapple with violence related to sanguma, black magic or sorcery. Deaths in villages are often blamed on people accused of sorcery, who are tortured or murdered. Now an Oxfam-backed organisation is tackling the problem by providing support to survivors of violence and to the local police to prevent incidents
Citizens post video appealing for evacuation from city at centre of coronavirus outbreak
Brazilian citizens trapped in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, have issued an urgent plea to their president, Jair Bolsonaro, for them to be evacuated.
In a six-minute YouTube video the Brazilians noted how other countries – including the US, the UK, France, Japan and Italy – had already taken steps to rescue their citizens from the city.
Man from Wuhan has died in a Philippines hospital, says WHO, as Xi Jinping orders 1,400 more medical workers into Wuhan
The Philippines has reported the first death from the coronavirus outside China, adding to fears about the spread of the virus as more countries imposed travel restrictions.
The outbreak of the respiratory illness has killed 304 people in China since it was first detected in the central city of Wuhan late last year. Across China, there were 2,590 new confirmed infections on Saturday, bringing the total to 14,380, China’s National Health Commission said on Sunday. A study published on Saturday by scientists from the University of Hong Kong found that the virus may have infected as many as 75,815 people in Wuhan.