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Showing posts with the label #Wuhan

Don’t buy China’s story: The coronavirus may have leaked from a lab

#China  #Coronavirus #Outbreak #Quarantine #Pandemic #Wuhan At an emergency meeting in Beijing held last Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke about the need to contain the coronavirus and set up a system to prevent similar epidemics in the future. A national system to control biosecurity risks must be put in place “to protect the people’s health,” Xi said, because lab safety is a “national security” issue. Xi didn’t actually admit that the coronavirus now devastating large swaths of China had escaped from one of the country’s bioresearch labs. But the very next day, evidence emerged suggesting that this is exactly what happened, as the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology released a new directive titled: “Instructions on strengthening biosecurity management in microbiology labs that handle advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus.” Read that again. It sure sounds like China has a problem keeping dangerous pathogens in test tubes where they belong, doesn’t

The Wuhan coronavirus death toll in mainland China has overtaken SARS

#China  #Coronavirus #Outbreak #Quarantine #Wuhan  #SARS #Epidemic  By James Griffiths, CNN The number of Wuhan coronavirus deaths in mainland China has overtaken the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in the country, as  Beijing injected billions of dollars  into an economy hit by weeks of effective shutdowns to major cities. More than  360 people have died  of the disease in China, the country's health authorities said Monday. The total number of cases in mainland China stood at 17,205 as of Sunday evening, an increase of over 2,800 on the previous day, or almost 20%. The 2003 outbreak of SARS -- another coronavirus strand -- infected 5,327 people in mainland China, with 349 deaths. The first death from the virus outside China  was confirmed over the weekend . Philippine health officials said that a 44-year-old Chinese man died Saturday after flying into the country from Wuhan. So far, more than 175 cases have been reported outside

Coronavirus live updates: Coronavirus outbreak tops 6,000 cases in China, exceeding SARS epidemic

Commuters wearing protective masks walk through Hong Kong Station, operated by MTR Corp., in Hong Kong, China, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020.Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images                        #Coronavirus #Outbreak #China #Wuhan #SARS This is a live blog. Please check back for updates.  All times below are in Eastern time. by Berkeley Lovelace Jr.    @BERKELEYJR 9:00 am: GM extends manufacturing shutdown in China through Feb. 9 General Motors , the largest U.S. automaker in China, told employees there that it will keep its Chinese factories shut down through Feb. 9, a company spokesman said in an email to CNBC. China’s factories have been closed as part of a nationwide manufacturing break to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but were originally due to reopen this week. Chinese officials have extended the plant shutdown to Feb. 9 as the nation tries to contain the coronavirus outbreak. GM’s decision follows on Honda’s announcement late Tuesday t

A Divided Hong Kong Confronts the Arrival of the Coronavirus

#Coronavirus #HongKong #Outbreak #Wuhan #Quarantine Hong Kong announced the shutdown of major rail passenger links and limits on flights coming from the mainland. China will stop issuing visas for individual travelers to the territory. The two Hong Kong protesters were dressed head to toe in black, their faces covered in masks. They smashed their Molotov cocktails into the lobby of a public housing estate, and flames and smoke began spewing out. This was no scene from the protest violence last year over Beijing’s dominance of Hong Kong’s affairs. This was on Sunday, and the firebombing was incited by anger over the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China — and plans by the Hong Kong government to use the unoccupied housing block as a quarantine area. Angst and anger fueled by the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 100 people on the mainland and has eight confirmed cases in Hong Kong, is compounding the bitterness from months of protests against Chief Ex

As Coronavirus Fears Intensify, Effectiveness of Quarantines Is Questioned

#Coronavirus #China #Wuhan #Outbreak #Quarantine WUHAN, China — A top Chinese health official warned on Sunday that the spread of the dangerous new coronavirus, already extraordinarily rapid, is accelerating further, deepening global fears about an illness that has sickened more than 2,700 people worldwide and killed at least 80 people in China. The grim diagnosis came amid concerns that China’s efforts to contain the spread of the disease, despite a lockdown of unprecedented scope affecting 56 million people, may not only have come too late but could even make the situation worse, including by exacerbating shortages of medical supplies. Adding to the growing global alarm, people who are carrying the virus but not showing symptoms may still be able to infect others, according to the Chinese official, Ma Xiaowei, the director of China’s National Health Commission. Such asymptomatic transmissions would make the disease much more difficult to control, as seemingly healthy peo