The Global Times, a Chinese government media outlet, urged the Communist Party on Tuesday to “take countermeasures if necessary” against governments that have imposed travel bans on China to prevent the outbreak of a new form of coronavirus originating there from spreading further.
Russia announced on Tuesday that it will establish a quarantine zone in Siberia for planeloads of Russian nationals evacuated from China’s Hubei province, epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
Governments across Asia are increasing censorship efforts and media controls to suppress “fake news” about the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic, a problem the World Health Organization (WHO) also expressed concerns about on Tuesday. Free speech advocates are worried about rising censorship levels in a region that already had serious problems with authoritarianism.
Doctors in Wuhan, China, identified the youngest known carrier of coronavirus on Wednesday: a 30-day-old infant whose mother tested positive for the virus while pregnant.
Taiwan’s health minister dismissed as “fake news” on Tuesday a coronavirus status report from the World Health Organization (WHO) that exaggerated the number of coronavirus cases in the country and mislabeled it as “Taiwan, China.”
A Chinese official in the troubled Xinjiang province, where China has been herding millions of Uyghur Muslims into concentration camps, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) this week that information about the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus is a “state secret” that cannot be discussed with the public.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that numerous popular business applications crashed in China on Monday due to the enormous surge in demand from employees who decided to work from home after the Lunar New Year holiday ended, rather than return to their offices and risk infection by the Wuhan coronavirus.
Chinese officials announced the total number of people infected by the Wuhan coronavirus now exceeds 20,000, with 427 fatalities reported worldwide. Officials reported 64 new deaths in China on Tuesday, making it the deadliest day of the epidemic so far.
China’s Global Times government newspaper published a column Monday celebrating the virtues of the Communist Party, applauding the “Party system” for Beijing’s response to the growing coronavirus outbreak within its borders.
Drug and diagnosis companies are working on ways to prevent and treat coronavirus, but the process will take months, according to a report.
North Korea on Friday temporarily suspended “all air and train routes” to China due to the coronavirus outbreak, in addition to closing off its land border.
Health authorities in Hong Kong announced Monday that they have procured 500 electric trackers to place on individuals suspected of being infected with the new form of coronavirus originating in China last month.
Hong Kong healthcare workers launched a five-day strike as threatened on Monday to protest their government’s refusal to completely seal the border with China until the coronavirus epidemic is under control. Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam responded by announcing more travel restrictions, closing down all land crossings except the bridges to Shenzhen and Zhuhai.
A 55-year-old Chinese man living near Beijing was diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus on Thursday, almost two weeks after he was hospitalized with a fever. Three previous tests had indicated he did not carry the Wuhan virus, but the fourth test confirmed he did.
A Chinese man died in the Philippines Sunday after likely contracting the new coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, exacerbating outrage at President Rodrigo Duterte for being slow to limit travel from affected areas into the country.
The United Kingdom is currently trying to track down 438 people who traveled to the UK from Wuhan before the city was quarantined.
The Italian Council of Ministers has declared a state of emergency due to the risk to public health posed by the spread of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China.
(AFP) — The Australian government on Saturday said it would bar non-citizens arriving from mainland China from entering the country under new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.
Perhaps the least surprising news of 2020, social media stars are leveraging China’s coronavirus for relevancy.
A man suffering from fever in Hubei, the Chinese province where the current coronavirus outbreak began, was filmed coughing at medical workers after he failed to receive the medicine he was prescribed.
Angry Filipinos criticized the government of President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday for refusing to ban travel to and from China after the first confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus was reported in the Philippines.
Dr. Steven Hatfill said the U.S. is vulnerable to potential pandemics due to overseas vaccine production and a limited Pandemic Plan.
Chinese state media on Friday denounced the U.S. State Department for advising against travel to China, calling it an “overreaction which would greatly hurt global tourism and hinder people-to-people exchanges.”
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo of Japan condemned the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday for excluding the nation of Taiwan from the response to China’s new coronavirus outbreak “for political reasons,” suggesting it makes the world less safe.
Dr. Nicole Saphier says the “right thing” for the United States to do amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak is to shut down all travel to and from China.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Friday criticized the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homeopathy (AYUSH) for recommending homeopathic treatments to combat the Wuhan coronavirus. The IMA said it was “immature, premature, and irresponsible” to promote untested homeopathic remedies against the rapidly spreading epidemic, which reached India this week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese government statistics revealed on Friday 9,818 cases of individuals confirmed to be carrying the newly identified coronavirus and 213 deaths as a result of viral pneumonia.
A Hong Kong-based news outlet called Initium Media alleged on Wednesday that the Chinese Communist government is secretly cremating victims of the Wuhan coronavirus to keep the death toll down.
China’s Global Times government newspaper disparaged “our local and national negligence” in a column Thursday regarding the secrecy applied to key facts about the growing coronavirus epidemic in the country, but focused all its ire on officials in Wuhan, the city at the center of the viral outbreak.
England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, has confirmed that the Wuhan coronavirus has spread to Britain, with two people from the same family infected.
Huanggang, a city near Wuhan that implemented one of the first lockdowns against the new strain of coronavirus identified in China this month, reportedly fired the head of its health commission on Thursday, the first local official stripped of his title.
Communist China’s relentless effort to diplomatically isolate Taiwan is bearing particularly bitter fruit this week as Taiwan prepares to battle China’s rapidly spreading coronavirus epidemic with limited assistance from the international community, since China has resolutely blocked Taiwanese membership in bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO).
Chinese doctor Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), praised eight Wuhan residents for giving an early warning about the dangers of the coronavirus outbreak in their city, even though they were arrested in early January for “spreading rumors” about the disease.
The Allied Pilots Association cited “serious, and in many ways still unknown, health threats posed by the coronavirus.”
Zhang Wenhong, the leader of Shanghai’s effort to battle the Wuhan coronavirus, made some waves on Wednesday by suggesting Chinese Communist Party officials should be working on the frontlines against the disease, in keeping with their “oath to put the public welfare first.” On Thursday the state-run Global Times reported Zhang has indeed “replaced all frontline doctors with Party members and the decision is non-negotiable.”
Swing district Republican challengers to Democrat incumbents in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire are asking President Trump’s administration to implement a travel ban from China to protect Americans from the deadly coronavirus spreading across the globe.
Researchers in Hong Kong say they have developed a vaccine for the coronavirus epidemic spreading from Wuhan, China, but they need several months to conduct testing on animals and at least a year to complete clinical trials on humans.
An editorial by China’s state-run Xinhua news service on Wednesday strove to portray the Chinese Communist Party as a noble victim of unfair criticism, striving to control the Wuhan virus epidemic with measures so draconian they have been unreasonably denounced as human rights violations.
Millions of Chinese people tuned in on Tuesday to a live stream of workers constructing two new hospitals built specifically to combat the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan.
Powell added that the Fed is “very carefully monitoring the situation.”
