A medical official takes the body temperature of a child at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China. (REUTERS)
Coronavirus outbreak: In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China, IndiGo airline stated Wednesday that it has decided to suspend its flights on the Bengaluru-Hong Kong route from February 1 onward and on the Delhi-Chengdu route from February 1 to February 20. The airline added that it will continue to operate the Kolkata-Guangzhou flight which it is ‘monitoring on a daily basis’.
While India is yet to report a case of the deadly virus, there have been a number of suspected cases across the country. The Ministry of External Affairs Tuesday said the Centre has started preparations to evacuate Indians stranded in China’s Wuhan and other parts of China’s Hubei province. Official sources told The Indian Express that an Air India jumbo jet has been placed on standby in Mumbai as they await the green signal from China for the flight, which will return from Wuhan to Delhi.
The latest cases in India include a Serbian national who returned from China and reached Goa via New Delhi and a medicine student, who was pursuing studies in Wuhan, and his mother who are now quarantined in an isolated ward of a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain.
Medical workers in protective gear talk with a woman suspected of being ill with a coronavirus at a community health station in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (Chinatopix via AP)
German auto parts maker Webasto said Wednesday it has temporarily shut its headquarters near Munich after four members of its staff were confirmed to have been infected with a new virus earlier this week. The infections are believed to have occurred following contact with a Chinese employee from Wuhan who had traveled to Germany to lead a training session.
The company said most of the 1,000 staff at the site in Stockdorf are working from home for the time being. Webasto has an annual turnover of about 3.4 billion euros from the sale of panoramic car roofs and other auto parts, about half of which goes to China. (AP)
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted Wednesday that the Chinese government has been requested to permit two flights to bring back Indian nationals from Hubei province. 'Chinese Government requested for permission to operate two flights to bring back our nationals from Hubei Province of China. @EOIBeijing in touch with Chinese authorities on the ground to work out necessary logistics. We will share regular updates,' Kumar tweeted.
On Wednesday (January 29), the Ministry of AYUSH issued an “Advisory for Corona virus”, “based on the Indian traditional medicine practices Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani”. The advisory listed several “Preventive Management Steps” as per ayurvedic practices, and several “Unani Medicines useful in symptomatic management of Corona Virus infection”. READ MORE
The Telangana government has urged the Centre to provide requisite medical kits for conducting tests for coronavirus in Hyderabad itself in case its severity increases and there is a possibility of it spreading to the state also. The samples are presently being sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune.
The state government is taking all precautionary measures, state Health Minister E Rajender said on Wednesday. "We urge the Centre, in case the severity (of the virus) increases and if there is a possibility of it spreading in our region also, that we can conduct the tests (for determination of virus) here itself..instead of sending it to Pune if you can provide the concerned kits to us," he told reporters here. (PTI)
Passengers on some flights to China will have to make do without hot meals, blankets, and newspapers, as airlines step up measures to protect crew and travellers from a new virus that has killed more than 130 in the country. Seeking to contain the spread of the coronavirus by reducing personal contact, Taiwan's China Airlines said it was encouraging passengers to bring their own drinks bottles and would limit re-usable items by replacing them with disposables. (Reuters)
Indonesian airline Lion Air Group said it will suspend all flights to China from February due to concern over the outbreak of coronavirus in China, the company said on Wednesday. The airline has suspended six flight routes from several Indonesian cities to China so far and will suspend the rest next month, it said in a statement.
The coronavirus has killed over 130 people in China and nearly 1,500 new cases were reported on Tuesday. (REUTERS)
Air India has advised its cockpit and cabin crew staff flying to South East Asian cities to wear N95 masks as a precautionary measure.
IndiGo airlines said on Wednesday that due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, it has decided to suspend its flights on the Bengaluru-Hong Kong route from February 1 onward and on the Delhi-Chengdu route from February 1 to February 20. The low-cost carrier said that for now, it will continue to operate the Kolkata-Guangzhou flight which it is "monitoring on a daily basis".
"Due to China travel restrictions, we have seen a high number of cancellations from China on our Delhi-Chengdu route and vice versa. Therefore, we are suspending our flights between Delhi and Chengdu from February 01, 2020 until February 20, 2020. We are also suspending our Bengaluru- Hong Kong flight effective February 01, 2020," the airline said in a statement.
Several deadly new viruses in recent years have emerged in China — Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bird flu, and now the novel coronavirus (nCOV). The reason could lie in the busy food markets dotting cities across the country — where fruits, vegetables, hairy crabs and butchered meat are often sold next to bamboo rats, snakes, turtles, and palm civets. Closely packed stalls in busy marketplaces, the Chinese taste for exotic meats, and the high population density of cities create the conditions for the spread of zoonotic infections, experts say. READ MORE
Four people in Bavaria who contracted coronavirus after a colleague from China visited their workplace were showing "very mild" symptoms, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Tuesday.
In one of the first known cases of person-to-person transmission outside China, a 33-year-old man apparently contracted the virus on Jan. 21 during a training session with a Chinese colleague, Bavarian officials said. The three other patients were being monitored in isolation at a clinic in Munich.
"The course of illness experienced by the four patients in Bavaria is very, very mild currently," Spahn told German broadcaster ZDF.
Russia and China are working to develop a coronavirus vaccine and Beijing has handed over the genome of the virus to Moscow, a Russian diplomatic mission in China said on Wednesday. The death toll in China from coronavirus rose to 132 on Wednesday with the number of confirmed cases now at nearly 6,000.
'Russian and Chinese experts have begun developing a vaccine,' the Russian consulate in Guangzhou province said in a statement.
Pakistan announced on Wednesday that four of its students have been infected with the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza said at a press conference that over 500 Pakistan students were in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. "Four Pakistani students are confirmed to have the coronavirus," he said. (PTI)
Two people in Haryana and another in Punjab with travel history to China have been kept under observation after they showed novel coronavirus-like symptoms, officials said. Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said that no case of coronavirus has been reported so far in the state. “Of five passengers with travel history to China (in January), two have shown symptoms of the coronavirus infection and they have been kept in isolation wards,” said Vij, adding that their families Vij said advisories have been issued to all district hospitals. The Haryana government is in contact with international airport in Chandigarh and Delhi so that every person coming from China can be properly examined, he said. Read more here
An airplane that a federal official said was evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak departed Wednesday has landed in the US, news agency AP reported. The US government-chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the US Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other US citizens. The plane is making a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Southern California, the US Embassy in China has said.
Indonesia's Lion Air has suspended all China flights over coronavirus, AFP reported.
A 49-year-old man from Mumbai became the ninth person in Maharashtra to be kept under observation for possible exposure to novel Coronavirus, a health official said on Wednesday. Maharashtra State Disease Surveillance officer Dr. Pradeep Awte said that six of the nine patients are currently under observation in the state. (PTI)
At the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, the Embassy of India (EOI) in Beijing Wednesday has asked Indians intending to avail the option for evacuation from Hubei province of China to confirm their willingness in writing by 4pm local time (1.30pm IST). In a message sent this morning, EOI officials have said that the Embassy is “working on finalising the date and logistics of the evacuation of Indian nationals” from Hubei province. Roughly 500 Indians are currently in Wuhan and Hubei province amidst an effective lockdown owing to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. Read more here
A day after a man showing suspected symptoms of exposure to the coronavirus on returning from China was admitted to the PGIMER, the Mohali district health department was put on high alert Tuesday. Teams of the health department led by civil surgeon Dr. Manjeet Singh inspected 189 passengers who landed at the international airport here from Sharjah on Tuesday. Read more here
A man who was found with symptoms of coronavirus here has been tested negative for the virus infection on Wednesday. “The test report of the patient, who is admitted at SMS hospital in Jaipur, is negative,” a spokesperson of the health department said. The patient is under observation and will be discharged later, he added. The report of the patient's blood samples sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune for testing was received on Wednesday. (PTI)
According to Reuters, British Airways has suspended bookings on its website for direct flights from London to Beijing and Shanghai until March, after warnings over travel to China due to the coronavirus outbreak.
For all those who have joined us now, the death toll in China due to coronavirus rose by 26 on Tuesday to 132, almost all in the province of Hubei which is under virtual lockdown, while the number of confirmed cases rose by 1,459 to stand at 5,974. Earlier it was reported by Reuters, that the number of confirmed cases has crossed 9,000.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin ordered Russia's consumer safety watchdog to draw up and present a national plan to the government on Wednesday on ways to prevent the spread of coronavirus, reported Reuters. Russia has not had any confirmed cases of the new virus, but has direct daily flights to several Chinese cities and officials said last year they expected more than 2 million Chinese tourists to visit in 2019.
The first chartered flight carrying 206 Japanese nationals evacuated from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday - four of them showing symptoms of fever or coughing. Japan has confirmed seven patients, including a Japanese tour bus driver who had been infected after coming into contact with Chinese visitors - the first reported case of a possible transmission inside Japan, according to the health ministry. (Reuters)
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday Kuala Lumpur was in talks with China to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak of the new coronavirus. A total of 78 Malaysians are currently in Wuhan, he said. (Reuters)
A new coronavirus case has been diagnosed in members of a family from China's central city of Wuhan, state news agency WAM on Wednesday quoted the health ministry of the United Arab Emirates as saying. It was not immediately clear how many people were infected with the virus that has killed 130. (Reuters)
A 'Novel Coronavirus Helpdesk' has been set up at the Bengaluru International Airport. Passengers arriving at the airport have been asked to report to Immigration or Airport Health Unit in case they have visited China particularly Wuhan province during the past 14 days and have symptoms like acute fever, cough and shortness of breath.
The death toll from a new coronavirus in China rose sharply to 132 on Wednesday with nearly 1,500 new cases, as Japan said it flew citizens out of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus. Several countries are trying to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan. A U.S. charter plane departed Wuhan on Wednesday, said a U.S. official, but it was unclear who was on board. US officials said the White House was weighing whether to suspend flights to the country in a drastic measure to control the spread of the disease. (Reuters)
Starbucks Corp on Tuesday became the first major US company to signal a hit from the new coronavirus outbreak in China, as it closed more than half of its stores in China and adjusted its operating hours. The world’s largest coffee chain said it would update its 2020 forecast when it is able to reasonably estimate the impact of the outbreak, which has caused over 100 deaths in China. Starbucks operated 4,292 stores in China at the end of last year. Sales at restaurants open for at least 13 months rose 5% in the first quarter ended Dec. 29. Analysts had forecast same-store sales growth of 4.4%, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The outbreak has evoked memories of the SARS epidemic of 2002-2003, which killed nearly 800 and affected more than 8,000 people worldwide. It was also ascribed to a coronavirus and manifested similar symptoms — fever, cough and shortness of breath. Antibiotics do not work against such viral pneumonia and there are no vaccines against them. However, there are reassuring differences between the situation in 2002-3 and the one today. For one, China’s response to the current outbreak is markedly different from the way it dealt with SARS. In contrast to its secretive ways 17 years ago, Beijing informed the WHO, shared the virus’s gene sequence with the world, imposed travel restrictions and quarantined 50 million people. Moreover, experts suggest that the current coronavirus outbreak is not as virulent as the one in 2002-3 — it has a mortality rate of less than 3 per cent as compared to SARS’s death rate of nearly 10 per cent. But we are still looking at preliminary data, and scientists are likely to know the exact magnitude of the problem in the coming weeks. Read more here
Japanese officials say four evacuees on a flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan have a cough and fever. Tokyo Metropolitan Government confirmed their condition after the flight of 206 evacuees arrived Wednesday morning to a Tokyo airport. Passengers on the flight were wearing masks and underwent temperature checks before boarding and on the plane. Plans were made for all ofthe evacuees to be treated and quarantined depending on their test results. The four are a woman in her 50s and three men whose ages are from their 30s to 50s. They were taken to a Tokyo hospital on separate ambulances for treatment and further medical checks.
Another significant development is that Apple recorded growth in China after a long time. Cook said the iPhone had “double-digit growth in Mainland China”. He also said the company was prepared for any impact from Coronavirus on its supply chain. “We do have some suppliers in the Wuhan area. For all of the suppliers, there are alternate sources and we’re obviously working on mitigation plans to make up any expected production loss.” Reopening of factories after Chinese New Year has been moved from the end of this month to February 10 in some of the impact areas. Read more here
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 132 Wednesday as the number of confirmed cases doubled to 9,239 from 4,515 a day before. The newly identified coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has created alarm because it is spreading quickly to other countries and much about it is still unknown.
The spread of coronavirus in China has an unlikely affect in India’s commodity markets, with the prices of both soyabean and cotton correcting sharply in the last few days. As import prospects of China dim due to the spread of the virus, market analysts feel this will have affect the markets. The spread of coronavirus in China has an unlikely affect in India’s commodity markets, with the prices of both soyabean and cotton correcting sharply in the last few days. As import prospects of China dim due to the spread of the virus, market analysts feel this will have affect the markets.
An Air India jumbo jet has been placed on standby in Mumbai, as the government firmed up arrangements Tuesday to evacuate Indian nationals from Wuhan and other parts of China’s Hubei province where a coronavirus outbreak has led to over 4,500 confirmed cases and 106 deaths. Official sources told The Indian Express that the national carrier has received the go-ahead from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and kept a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, with 423 seats, ready for the evacuation. Officials are awaiting the green signal from China for the flight, which will return from Wuhan to Delhi.
Not ruling out suspected cases in the state, the Gujarat health department has identified 10 travellers, including students and businessmen, who recently landed from China, and is tracking them amid the scare of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV). “After preliminary examinations, there is nothing to worry. None of these 10 travellers have any symptoms of being infected by the virus. District officials have been alerted about their arrival and advisories are being followed by the health department in tracking them,” Dr Prakash Vaghela, additional director of public health, Gujarat health department, told The Indian Express. Read more here
The National Institute of Virology (NIV) has ruled out the presence of novel coronavirus in all 22 samples that have been sent to the apex Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) institute. According to highly-placed sources at ICMR, all 22 samples have tested negative. Results will be declared accordingly by state health authorities, sources said. While India is yet to report a case of the deadly virus, state health authorities said till January 27, a total of 3,997 passengers have been screened at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai. Of these, 18 are from Maharashtra. Five people who had returned from China and had mild cough with fever, were quarantined at Kasturba hospital.
A Serbian national who returned from China, and reached Goa via New Delhi, is the first “suspect case” of coronavirus in the state and is now in the special corona isolation ward at Goa Medical College, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Tuesday. In Madhya Pradesh, a medicine student pursuing studies in Wuhan, China, and his mother have been quarantined in an isolated ward of a government hospital in Ujjain for suspected coronavirus since Monday. Read here more
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