Category Archives: China

Coronavirus: WHO scrambling to get details of new cases – live news

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Latest figures from China show big jump amid a change in how cases are counted

As our story makes clear, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the huge jump in cases in Hubei – bringing the total to more than 60,000 worldwide – was caused by a change in the way Chinese authorities were counting them.

The WHO is now working hard to get further details on when the extra cases of “Covid-19” occurred to paint a true picture of the development of the epidemic in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei.

Reuters reports that Donald Trump has praised China over its handling of the outbreak, adding that the United States was working closely with Beijing.

“I think they’ve handled it professionally, and I think they’re extremely capable,” Trump, who has previously been at loggerheads with the Chinese authorities over trade issues, said in a podcast broadcast on iHeart Radio on Thursday.

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Coronavirus outbreak ‘could still go in any direction’, says WHO director – video

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The World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a briefing on Wednesday that although the number of newly confirmed cases of coronavirus reported from China had stabilised over the past week, the outbreak 'could still go in any direction'. He also confirmed that Cambodia has agreed to accept the Westerdam cruise ship, which has been stranded at sea for several days over virus fears

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What China’s empty new coronavirus hospitals say about its secretive system

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Even after declaring a crisis, government seemed focused on managing its image as well as the outbreak

China’s two new hospitals built in as many weeks were the official face of its fight against the coronavirus in Wuhan. As the city was locked down, authorities promised that thousands of doctors would be on hand to treat 2,600 patients on the facilities’ wards.

Timelapse videos tracked the almost incomprehensibly fast construction of the hospitals, and state media celebrated their opening in early February. The only thing missing a week later? Patients.

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Coronavirus: Cruise ship turned away from five countries allowed to dock in Cambodia – latest news

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MS Westerdam, which has 1,455 passengers and 802 crew, will dock on Thursday as WHO chief warns coronavirus threat is greater than terrorism

A paper in the Lancet medical journal, published online, should dispel some of the worries around reported deaths of some babies born to women who have fallen ill with what is now being called COVID-19 infection.

The authors say preliminary evidence suggests the new coronavirus cannot be passed to the baby in the womb.

Hi, Amy Walker here taking over the blog from my colleague Simon Murphy.

Patients who were treated by the two Brighton GPs who have been diagnosed with coronavirus are being traced by health officials, the BBC has reported.

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Coronavirus a test of global solidarity, says WHO director – video

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Tedros Adhanom, head of the World Health Organization, calls the coronavirus outbreak a 'test of political solidarity' against a 'common enemy that does not respect borders or ideologies', as well as a test of financial and scientific solidarity. The epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people and infected more 40,000. 

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Coronavirus live updates: Thailand bars cruise ship as deaths in China pass 1,000 – latest news

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Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam tells people to stay at home as nervous global investors turn to safe havens like gold. Follow updates live

Chinese state media is reporting that party secretary of Health Commission of Hubei Province, Zhang Jin, and the director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, Liu Yingzi, have been fired.

Party Secretary of Health Commission of Hubei Province Zhang Jin and director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission Liu Yingzi were removed from their posts. The two posts will be taken over by Wang Hesheng, a Standing Committee member of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee. pic.twitter.com/AnGOVOvDOw

The BBC’s correspondent in China, Stephen McDonell, has tweeted about the China’s national health commission changing the way it counts confirmed cases of the virus.

I have seen a lot of this on social media today.

There does however seem to be a suggestion that a change in definition from #China’s National Health Commission re “confirmed case” could’ve soaked up some of the reduction. Patients with no #coronavirus symptoms not counted as “confirmed” any more even if they test positive.

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Xi Jinping appears in public as China returns to work after holiday

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President greets workers in Beijing as WHO chief warns cases could be ‘tip of iceberg’

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has made his first public appearance in weeks, as some people began to return to work following the lunar new year holiday, which was extended as authorities grappled with the coronavirus outbreak.

Xi, who has been absent from public view as the crisis worsened, visited a neighbourhood in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. The president had his temperature taken and greeted residents and workers, according to a brief video posted by the state broadcaster CCTV.

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Coronavirus live updates: China goes back to work as cases exceed 40,000 – latest news

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Death toll inside China rises to 908 as the WHO dispatches a team of experts to Beijing

A memorial for whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang has been held in New York. Li’s death sparked an outpouring of anger inside China. Li was silenced by the government for trying to warn people over the threat of the new virus, and later died after contracting it.

The memorial for Doctor #LiWenliang at Central Park, NYC. The crowd repeated his famous line three times: “一个健康的社会不应该只有一种声音 There should be more than one voice in a healthy society,” followed by a long whistle. pic.twitter.com/fIERhUowH0

Some welcome news for the 3,700 people onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is quarantined in Yokohama harbour after several cases of coronavirus among passengers.

The quarantine period of the #DiamondPrincess will come to an end on 19 February.
The period will be extended beyond the 19 Feb as appropriate only for close contacts of newly confirmed cases. They need to remain in quarantine for 14 days from last contact with a confirmed case pic.twitter.com/SlaPaKFfwE

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‘Contact is limited’: inside the world’s coronavirus quarantines – video

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People who are being held in facilities in dozens of countries explain what daily life is like and their hopes for returning home soon. China's Hubei province, where the coronavirus originated from, is under lockdown to limit contagion. The death toll has risen to 724, with 86 more people dying in mainland China, according to officials. This is the highest one-day jump so far

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If China valued free speech, there would be no coronavirus crisis

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Country could have contained spread of disease if only it had learned lessons from Sars outbreak

The death of the whistleblower Chinese doctor Li Wenliang has aroused strong emotions across China. Social media is awash with posts mourning the death of a martyr who tried to raise alarm over the coronavirus but was taken into a police station instead for “spreading false rumours” and “disrupting social order”.

Grief quickly turned into angry demands for free speech. The trending topic “we want freedom of speech”, which attracted millions of views, and links to Do You Hear the People Sing, a song popularised in recent Hong Kong protests, were quickly censored by police.

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Coronavirus economic impact: Australia could be among world’s hardest hit nations

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Australia’s economy is unusually dependent on China, and a coronavirus-driven slowdown could mean billions in lost revenue

Australia could be one of the countries worst affected by the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak as factories in China remain shuttered and millions of people are confined to their homes and banned from travelling.

The Reserve Bank of Australia on Friday stuck to its forecast of strong growth this year thanks to a rising housing market, and the stock market – along with others around the world – has largely shrugged off concerns about the global impact of the virus to remain close to all-time highs.

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China trials anti-HIV drug on coronavirus patients

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News of Kaletra being tested as a possible treatment for the disease sparks panic buying

Coronavirus – latest news

A drug used to treat people with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, is being trialled in patients in China as a possible therapy against the coronavirus.

News that HIV drugs are being deployed in hospitals, however, has led to panic buying on the black market by people who fear they are ill or are going to get sick. They have been obtaining the drug, Kaletra, from generics companies in India and even from people with HIV in China willing to sell or donate their own stocks.

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Coronavirus live updates: cruise ship cases rise to 61 as China mourns whistleblower doctor – latest news

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Li Wenliang’s death in Wuhan comes as Hong Kong prepares to impose quarantine on mainland travellers. Follow live updates

Toyota has extended the closure of its 12 factories in China by a week.

Officials at the Beijing press conference said they had confidence in the economic system and that the impact on the economy from the outbreak would be “temporary. It will be limited and will not affect the fundamentals, and the economy is sound and stable”.

They added:

The outbreak has taken place during the spring festival and the impact on services is notable. The holiday has been extended and the construction sector and other sectors will be affected. There will be an impact on economic performance in Q1 but the economy will return to productivity when the epidemic is over. Look at 2003 Sars outbreak. There was disrupted growth in Q2 but in Q3 it rebounded. When the epidemic is controlled, the economy will rebound and pent-up investment and consumption released. The Chinese econony will have a quick recovery. it is promising and resilient. The funadmentals will not change. There is ample room for macro regulation – China is one of the few major economies that have normal monetary policy so we have sufficient tools to repsond.

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‘Hidden’ coronavirus cases could thwart containment efforts, experts warn

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Failure to report mild symptoms combined with highly contagious nature of disease raises fears existing figures are ‘tip of the iceberg’

Global health experts have warned that “hidden” infections make containment of the coronavirus unlikely and raised fears that the rapidly rising caseload of 25,000 people could be the “tip of the iceberg”.

“Hidden” cases – where people with mild symptoms do not seek medical help and so remain untested and unrecorded – combined with the highly contagious nature of the disease mean there could be “vastly more cases” than previously thought, according to Tom Frieden, a former director at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Coronavirus live updates: China deaths pass 560 as 10 more cruise passengers test positive – latest news

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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.

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Coronavirus deaths reach 563, with fresh cases on stricken cruise ship off Japan

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WHO experts prepare to meet in Geneva amid further significant rises in confirmed cases in China

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.

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More Australian coronavirus evacuees arrive on Christmas Island to be quarantined – video

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Thirty-five Australian citizens and permanent residents, including 13 children and infants, have arrived on Christmas Island from Wuhan for a 14-day quarantine. They join 241 other Australians evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak

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Will coronavirus make markets take a ‘black swan’ dive?

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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.

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Coronavirus live updates: all arrivals to Hong Kong from mainland China face ‘compulsory quarantine’ – latest news

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Thousands on board Diamond Princess cruise ship in offshore quarantine in Japan after 10 people test positive, as China death toll passes 490

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.

Related: Coronavirus: 14th Australian case confirmed as Dutton says people could be sent to mining camps

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Diary of a coronavirus evacuee: ‘Everyone’s trying to avoid contact with each other’ | Daniel Ou Yang

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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.

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