Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS: Pakistan is set to close its border with Afghanistan for seven days amid growing fears of the coronavirus spreading after two new cases were reported in the country. (AP/File)
Coronavirus outbreak HIGHLIGHTS: The Indian embassy is in touch with the Iranian authorities to receive reports of the Indians stuck in Iran due to coronavirus outbreak, the Minister of State for External affairs said on Sunday. The Indian embassy in Tehran issued an advisory for Indians stranded in the Islamic Republic. There are roughly 250 Indian students across Iran, including in Tehran, Shiraz and Kish Island.A number of politicians including senior Congress leader Saif-ud-din-Soz, former finance minister Syed Bukhari and the National Conference MP Masoodi have requested the center for safe return of stranded J&k students stuck in Iran.
Kerala CM in a letter addressed to the External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar urged the government and the Indian embassy in Iran to take necessary measures to arrange the safe return of hundreds of fishermen out of which 60 are from Kerala who are stuck in Iran amid coronavirus outbreak.
Meanwhile, China reported 573 new confirmed coronavirus cases on February 29, up from 427 the previous day and the highest daily increase in a week, the country’s health authority said on Sunday. The number of deaths stood at 35, down from 47 on the previous day, bringing the total death toll in mainland China to 2,870, the National Health Commission said. South Korea reported at least 210 new COVID-19 cases raising the total infected persons in the country to 3736 and Iran’s death toll rose to 54 on Sunday and the number of cases in Pakistan reach four.
People wearing masks to prevent contracting the coronavirus wait in line to buy masks at a department store in Seoul, South Korea (Reuters)
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday urged the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to arrange the safe return of hundreds of Indian fishermen stranded in Iran due to coronavirus outbreak. In a letter addressed to Jaishankar the CM highlighted that the state government has received information of more than hundreds of trapped fishermen out which 60 were from Kerala. "I request you to direct the Embassy officials to take necessary steps and arrange for the safe return of these persons," he further wrote.Most of the kerala fishermen hail from Thiruvananthapuram. Earlier the Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma said that the government will take the required steps to bring back the stranded fishermen adding that providing them with food and medicines was a top priority.(PTI)
A number of politicians have made appeals to the centre for the safe return of people of Jammu and Kashmir stuck in Iran following the rapid outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Saif-ud-din Soz as well as former finance minister Syed Bukhari asked the central government to evacuate the J&K students and businessmen stranded in Iran. Bukhair in a statement said that he is in touch with the MEA and has submitted details of over 240 J&K students stuck in Tehran and other Iranian cities, PTI reported. The National Conference MP from Anantnag said he spoke to Minister of external Affairs S Jaishankar about the safe return of kashmiri students from Iran.There are roughly 250 Indian students across Iran, including in Tehran, Shiraz and Kish Island. Iran has the highest number of coronavirus caused deaths in the world outside China.
The Indian embassy is in touch with the Iranian authorities to receive reports of the Indians stuck in Iran due to coronavirus outbreak, the Minister of State for External affairs said on Sunday.Talking to twitter Muraleedharan said "In view of COVID19, working to facilitate the return of those Indians wishing to go back home. Discussions underway with concerned authorities to work out arrangements. Will keep you updated”. Gaddam Dharmendra, the Indian envoy to Iran on Saturday said that the authorities are working to bring back several Indians stuck in Iran. The Indian embassy in the Iranian capital said that they were closely monitoring the situation and issued an advisory for Indians stuck in Iran. Meanwhile, the Indian government issued a statement to avoid non-essential travel to Iran on 26 February. The government advisory further added that any person coming to India from Iran or had visited Iran since 10 February may be quarantined for 14 days.
The Saudi Arabian government has prepared 25 hospitals for any upcoming coronavirus cases in the country, a health ministry official said on Sunday. Till now the kingdom has not reported any confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, Reuters reported. Coronavirus cases in the Middle East have risen to 1100 a majority of them being in Iran.
Indian automobile manufacturers Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Tata Motors on Sunday highlighted how their supply chains have suffered since supply parts coming from China have been hit as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. In a press release chief of sales and marketing at M& M (Ltd) expressed concerns over the continuation of the supply problem for next few weeks. Similarly, Tata Motors said that the coronavirus had hit their supply chains and that they were working to ease the situation, Reuters reported. Along with the aforementioned companies, India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported a sales decline of 1.6 percent in February from a year ago. M&M and Tata Motors said their domestic sales had fallen by 42 percent and 34 percent respectively. (Reuters)
In Iran the death toll of people infected by the novel coronavirus has risen to 54 as the number of infected cases jumped to 978 people in a night, Iran's health ministry said on Sunday.
The recent figures show eleven more deaths than Saturday along with 385 new cases of infections in just one day. At least 7 government officials including Iran's senior health minister have been infected by the virus. Iran has the world's highest death toll outside China. According to the government the country is preparing for the possible testing of tens of thousands of people for the coronavirus. Although the new data released brings down the percentage of deaths to infections from around 20 percent to 5.5 percent it is still higher than other countries. Iran houses the majority of the 1100 cases that emerged in the Middle East.
Amid growing fears of the coronavirus outbreak, Pakistan from 2 March will close its border with Afghanistan for 7 days ,the Interior Ministry said. 'In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus on both sides of the border is in the best interest of the people of the brotherly countries' the ministry said in a statement issued on Sunday. 'During the period, necessary measures will be taken to safeguard the health of people of both countries' it added. The total number of coronavirus infections in the country have reached 4 after 2 new cases surfaced on Saturday.The first case was reported from Karachi where a young man who had returned from Iran was tested positive. To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus schools have been shut in Karachi, southern parts of the Sindh province and southwestern parts of Balochistan. Authorities have begun to trace approximately 8000 pilgrims who have returned from Iran. More than 200 pilgrims have till now been quarantined at the Taftan border in Balochistan.
United Kingdom health Minister Hancock on Sunday said "Coronavirus is a very, very significant challenge" and that the UK is planning in case things get worse reported Reuters. He also added that the UK is in containment stage of the virus. The number of COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom have risen to 23 on Saturday as 3 more patients tested positive, Britain's health ministry reported. The ministry in a statement further said that out of 10,483 people that have been tested in the UK, 10,460 were confirmed negative and 23 were tested positive. British PM Bortis Johnson said on Friday said that treating coronavirus has become his government's top priority.
Coronavirus that has been declared as a global health emergency by the WHO has adversely impacted a number of sports events around the world. A number of Olympic qualifiers have been postponed or relocated for taking precautionary measures from the virus outbreak. Iran has suspended all sports events from 24 February for at least 10 days with the exception of Indoor Pro League soccer matches, AP reported. Coronavirus outbreak has resulted in disrupting the daily lives of thousands infected and has had negative repercussions on the global trade.
South Korea has reported at least 210 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday raising the total infected persons in the country to 3736, Reuters reported. The Korean Centre for Disease Control and Prevention(KDCP) reported 18th death due to coronavirus in the East Asian country.
Amid fears about where the next outbreak of a fast-spreading new virus would appear, infections and deaths continued to rise across the globe Sunday, emptying streets of tourists and workers, shaking economies and rewriting the realities of daily life, AP reported. Panic-buying of daily necessities emerged in Japan, tourist sites across Asia, Europe and the Mideast were deserted, and governments closed schools and banned big gatherings. Amusement parks have been shuttered and concerts cancelled. In Paris, priests stopped placing sacramental bread in worshippers' mouths. While the new coronavirus has extended its reach across the world, definite geographic clusters of infections were emerging, with Iran, Italy and South Korea seeing rising cases. The United States, meanwhile, recorded its first death, a man in his 50s in Washington state who had underlying health conditions but who hadn't traveled to any affected areas. ``Additional cases in the United States are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover,'' President Donald Trump said at a Saturday briefing, where officials announced heightened warnings about travel to certain regions of Italy and South Korea as well as a ban on travel to Iran.
Australia and the United States have announced their first coronavirus deaths and the global death toll is approaching 3,000. The virus is now in 59 countries on all continents except Antarctica, with nearly 87,000 cases recorded officially. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised its assessment of the spread and risk of impact of COVID-19 to “very high at global level”. As the concern spreads, however, several voices are asking whether coronavirus is really as serious a threat as it sounds, and whether the common flu actually does not kill more people. Read more here
With China reeling under the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), satellite images released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) revealed that airborne nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels have significantly decreased over the country, reflecting the slowdown in economic activity and curbs on movement. On Saturday, NASA released the images and said that there is evidence that the change is “at least partly related to the economic slowdown following the outbreak of coronavirus”. The data was collected by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on ESA’s Sentinel-5 satellite. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite has also been making similar measurements.
Churches were closed in South Korea on Sunday with many holding online services instead, as authorities fought to rein in public gatherings, with 376 new coronavirus infections taking the tally to 3,526 cases. That came a day after the biggest daily jump of 813 cases in South Korea's battle with the largest virus outbreak outside China, said the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), which will update numbers later in the day. The death toll of 17 was unchanged from Saturday, it added. In Seoul, the capital, about a dozen worshippers were turned away from the Yoido Full Gospel Church, which put a sermon for its 560,000 followers on YouTube, filmed with a small choir instead of all 200 members and 60-strong orchestra.
Seeking to reassure the American public, President Donald Trump said there was ``no reason to panic`` as the new coronavirus claimed its first victim inside the US, AP reported. The White House also announced new restrictions on international travel to prevent its spread. Trump, speaking Saturday only moments after the death in Washington state was announced, took a more measured approach a day after he complained that the virus threat was being overblown and that his political enemies were perpetuating a ``hoax.''
``This is very serious stuff,'' he said, but still insisted the criticism of his administration's handling of the virus outbreak was a hoax. Trump appeared at a hastily called news conference in the White House briefing room with Vice President Mike Pence and top public health officials to announce that the U.S. was banning travel to Iran and urging Americans not to travel to regions of Italy and South Korea where the virus has been prevalent.
A former passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Japan for coronavirus died in a hospital in Perth early on Sunday, a health official said, becoming Australia's first death from the virus, Reuters reported. The 78-year-old man had been in quarantine since being evacuated from the cruise ship off Yokohama, one of more than 150 Australians taken off the vessel.
'Our condolences are with his family and unfortunately he's the first death we've had from coronavirus in Australia,' Andrew Robertson, the chief health officer of Western Australia state, told journalists. The man's widow also caught the virus, but is in stable condition, the health official said. Australia's tally of virus infections rose by one to 26 on Sunday, the latest government figures showed.
Armenia reported its first coronavirus infection on Sunday, in a citizen returning from neighbouring Iran, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a post on Facebook. The 29-year-old, who arrived in the former Soviet nation on Friday, went to a doctor because he was not feeling well, the prime minister added. "He is now in good condition," Pashinyan said, adding that authorities planned to isolate those had been in contact with him.
The United States is considering shutting the country’s southern border with Mexico to control the spread of the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump said on Saturday, as his administration announced new limits on travelers who have visited Iran and recommended against travel to hard-hit areas of Italy and South Korea. Read more here
Leaders in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas rolled out bans on big gatherings, and stricter travel restrictions as cases of the new coronavirus spread around the world. The United States on Saturday reported its first death from the disease, a Washington state man in his 50s. Two of the state's three cases have links to a nursing home, state officials said, where dozens of residents have symptoms of the disease. U.S. President Donald Trump and top officials said in a White House press briefing that travelers from South Korea and Italy would be subject to additional screening, and warned Americans against traveling to coronavirus-affected regions in both countries. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said a ban on travelers from Iran entering the country would be expanded to include any foreign nationals who have visited Iran in the last 14 days. The United States may also restrict travel on its southern border with Mexico, officials said.
Amid lingering threat of the novel coronavirus, a 26-year-old man who reached Kochi from Malaysia died on Saturday. While the initial lab test was negative for coronavirus, the Health Department is awaiting the final report to ascertain the cause of death. The man had arrived in Kochi on February 27 with fever and pneumonia and was immediately shifted to the isolation ward at the medical college. Read more here
Australian health officials reported the first patient death from coronavirus in the country on Sunday. The 78-year-old died in a hospital in the city of Perth early on Sunday morning, Western Australia's Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson told Reuters.
Mainland China reported 573 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Feb. 29, up from 427 the previous day and the highest daily increase in a week, the country's health authority said on Sunday. The number of deaths stood at 35, down from 47 on the previous day, bringing the total death toll in mainland China to 2,870, the National Health Commission said. Of the deaths, 34 were in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, and the others were in neighbouring Henan. Hubei accounted for 570 of the new cases, of which 565 were in the provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated. The three new cases outside Hubei is the lowest since the National Health Commission began compiling daily numbers on Jan. 20.
South Korea reported 376 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising the country's total number of infections to 3,526, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
All the 112 people, housed at an ITBP quarantine facility after being evacuated from Wuhan in China, have tested negative for coronavirus after their first samples were taken, an official said on Saturday. "The samples of all the 112 people were sent to the AIIMS and the reports are negative. The quarantine period will continue for about a fortnight," a spokesperson for the border guarding force said.
Seventy-six Indians and 36 foreigners were taken to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force quarantine centre in the Chhawla area of the national capital on February 27 after they were flown in from Wuhan city on an IAF transport plane. The group of foreign nationals comprise 23 from Bangladesh, six from China, two each from Myanmar and Maldives, and one each from Madagascar, South Africa and the USA.
"The second samples of the inmates will be taken on the fourteenth day of the quarantine period and all those whose results are negative will be released from the ITBP centre," the spokesperson added. (PTI)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday called on the public to cooperate in a "tough battle" to contain the coronavirus outbreak in coming weeks as the country prepares to hold the Olympic Games in Tokyo as planned.
"To be frank, we cannot win this battle through the efforts of the government alone," Abe told a news conference two days after calling for all schools nationwide to be closed for more than a month. The abrupt decision caught teachers, parents and their employers off guard, sparking a wave of criticism. "I have decided we must make all efforts in the next one or two weeks to prevent the spread" of the virus, he said, while expressing confidence this was possible.
Abe said that Japan would go ahead with both the Summer Olympics and a spring visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, but added he would not hesitate to expand immigration curbs if needed.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is preparing steps to cushion the blow of nationwide school closures as infections of the coronavirus spread wider across the Asian country. His abrupt calls on Thursday for schools to shut down prompted Japanese parents, along with teachers and businesses, to scramble to find new ways to live and work.
Japan's government plans to create a fund to help companies pay subsidies to workers who need to take days off to look after their children while schools are closed, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday, without citing sources. Abe is expected to explain how the government will cope with impact of the closure of schools at a media briefing scheduled for Saturday, the report said. Abe's call for local authorities to shut schools from Monday means students will be out at least until the new academic year starts in early April.
Infections from the virus in Japan have topped 200, with five deaths - including one on Friday of a man in his seventies. That excludes more than 700 cases and six more deaths from the quarantined cruise liner Diamond Princess, docked in Yokohama.
An Iranian Health Ministry spokesman says the Islamic Republic is preparing for the possibility of “tens of thousands” coming to test for the new coronavirus, underscoring the concern over the outbreak there.
Kianoush Jahanpour made the comment Saturday at a news conference where he said the illness the virus causes has killed 43 people amid 593 confirmed cases in the Islamic Republic. Jahanpour denied reports by the BBC's Farsi service putting the death toll over four times as high, saying foreign media outlets had “political” biases and no access to Iran's laboratories.
However, his acknowledgment of the number of people potentially wanting testing shows how concerned Iran is over the virus, especially after days of officials downplaying it. Iran has the highest death toll in the world outside of China, the epicenter of the virus.
(Photo: Reuters)
The central bank of the United Arab Emirates advised banks to reschedule loans and reduce fees and commissions on Saturday as part of measures to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak. The country is a regional business hub and major transit point for passengers travelling to China and other destinations in Asia.
"Financial institutions are expected to implement measures such as re-scheduling of loans contracts, granting temporary deferrals on monthly loan payments, and reducing fees and commissions for affected customers," it said in a statement. (Reuters)
An American man, who was quarantined after contracting the coronavirus from China’s Wuhan, has raised eyebrows after he started coughing uncontrollably during a television interview. Flanked by his three-year-old daughter Annabelle, the Pennsylvania man appeared on Fox News to share their experience of being put in an isolation centre in San Diego.
Frank Wucinski began to cough enough to need water during the interview, although he said: “Physically we’re great”. The video clip has gone viral online.
The governor of Veneto, one of the regions worst hit by an outbreak in Italy of coronavirus, apologised on Saturday for criticising China over the contagion and saying Chinese people "eat live mice". Luca Zaia has pinned the blame on China for the flare-up in Italy, which has led to at least 21 deaths, saying that unlike Italians, the Chinese did not have good standards of hygiene.
"The hygiene that our people, the Venetians and the Italian citizens have, the cultural training we have, is that of taking a shower, of washing, of washing one's hands often," Zaia said in a Antenna 3-Nord Est TV television interview on Friday. "It is a cultural fact that China has paid a big price for this epidemic because we have seen them all eat mice live or things like that."
His words stung the Chinese embassy in Rome. "At a crucial time like this, when China and Italy stand side-by-side to deal with the epidemic, an Italian politician has spared no slander about the Chinese people. This is a gratuitous attack that leaves us stunned," it wrote on Facebook. (Reuters)
deleting_message
The coronavirus-hit China, which is grappling to contain the outbreak amidst rising death toll and number of infected cases, has sent a group of experts to Iran to help combat the spread of the disease in the country that has witnessed 34 deaths due to COVID-19, the Chinese foreign ministry said. The Iran health ministry on Friday confirmed 34 deaths due to the deadly disease and 388 confirmed cases of the virus in the country.
According to media reports, the country has the highest number of death toll outside China, the epicentre of the virus. The Chinese experts are on their way to Iran, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday. The coronavirus disease is enemy of all. "We must fight together," Hua was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.
During his telephonic conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will continue to provide assistance within its capabilities to Iran in curbing the epidemic and treating the sick, the report said. (PTI)
An Iran Health Ministry spokesman says the new coronavirus has killed 43 people amid 593 confirmed cases in the Islamic Republic. Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour gave the new figure Saturday. Jahanpour urged people to stay away from mass gatherings and limit their travel. Iran has the world's highest death toll outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Gujarat state minister of forest and tribal development Ramanlal Patkar Friday said that following requests from the state government, the Ministry of External Affairs has assured him that steps are being taken to bring back over 200 fishermen, mostly from the state, who are stuck in Iran after the authorities there shut the nearby airports and barred people’s movement due to the coronavirus scare.
“While most of these men are from Gujarat, some of them are from other states, like Tamil Nadu. After the families of the fishermen approached me, I wrote a letter to S Jaishankar requesting him to make necessary arrangements to bring the men back, as these fishermen are not allowed to go out of the country and airports are also sealed off,” Patkar, who represents Umargam seat of Valsad district, said. READ MORE
Saudi Arabia called on its citizens and residents to postpone travel to Lebanon over concerns of the spread of coronavirus, the Saudi embassy in Lebanon said on Twitter on Saturday. Lebanon confirmed its fourth case of the virus on Friday and announced that it was closing all schools until March 8.
According to the World Health Organization’s latest situation report, five new member states have reported cases of COVID-2019. These are Belarus, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria. Further, WHO has increased the assessment of the risk of spread and risk of the impact of the coronavirus from “high” to “very high” at the global level. As of Friday, China reported over 78,000 cases with roughly 2,800 deaths. At 329 new cases, China recorded its lowest cases in a month, a development that is welcomed by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Read more here
A growing number of discharged coronavirus patients in China and elsewhere are testing positive after recovering, sometimes weeks after being allowed to leave the hospital, which could make the epidemic harder to eradicate, reported Reuters. On Wednesday, the Osaka prefectural government in Japan said a woman working as a tour-bus guide had tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time. This followed reports in China that discharged patients throughout the country were testing positive after their release from the hospital. An official at China's National Health Commission said on Friday that such patients have not been found to be infectious.
Kuwait called on its citizens to avoid traveling over concerns of coronavirus contamination, a health ministry official said at a media conference on Saturday. The Gulf state has not registered any new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, she said. The total number of people infected with the disease in Kuwait is 45, the health ministry said on Friday, which has reported no deaths.
Philanthropist Bill Gates on Friday urged wealthy nations to help low and middle-income countries strengthen their health systems in hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus, which Gates said has started to behave like a "once-in-a-century" pathogen. "By helping countries in Africa and South Asia get ready now," we can save lives and also slow the global circulation of this virus," Gates, the former chairman and chief executive of Microsoft Corp, wrote in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. The novel coronavirus that first emerged in China and has now spread to 46 countries is much harder to stop than similar viruses that caused the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Gates wrote. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already pledged $100 million to fight the outbreak.
Thailand recorded a new coronavirus infection, taking its tally to 42 cases since January, a health official told Reuters on Saturday. The victim is a 21-year-old Thai salesman whose job brought him exposure to foreign tourists, the permanent secretary of the health ministry, Sukhum Kanchanaphimai, told a news conference. Thailand has not yet had a death from the virus, although 28 patients have recovered and 14 are being treated in hospital.
The coronavirus outbreak began to look more like a worldwide economic crisis Friday as anxiety about the infection emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, cut trade and travel and dragged already slumping financial markets even lower. More employers told their workers to stay home, and officials locked down neighborhoods and closed schools. The wide-ranging efforts to halt the spread of the illness threatened jobs, paychecks and profits. “This is a case where in economic terms the cure is almost worse than the disease,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “When you quarantine cities … you lose economic activity that you’re not going to get back.”
The annual Game Developers Conference was postponed by organizers until summer after many of the biggest companies in the video-game industry canceled plans to attend, citing concerns about the spread of coronavirus. “After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference,” organizers wrote in a post on the event’s website late Friday. “We fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer.” The conference, which had been scheduled for March 16 to March 20 in San Francisco, is a key annual event for engineers and artists who build video games. Facebook Inc, Microsoft Corp, Electronic Arts Inc and Sony Corp’s PlayStation have all announced that they would skip the event. Read more here
South Korea urged citizens on Saturday to stay indoors as it warned of a "critical moment" in its battle on the coronavirus after recording the biggest daily jump in infections, with 594 new cases taking the tally to 2,931. South Korea is grappling with the largest outbreak of the virus outside China, as a new death took the toll to 17, amid a record daily increase in infections since the country confirmed its first patient on Jan. 20. "We have asked you to refrain from taking part in public events, including a religious gathering or protest, this weekend," Vice health minister Kim Kang-lip told a briefing.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recommended that ministers and diplomats skip travelling to a meeting in New York of the Commission on the Status of Women due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Friday. More than 7,000 people usually attend the annual meeting, officials said, which is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. It is due to be held from March 9 to 20. However, in a letter to U.N. member states from the chair of the commission, Armenia’s U.N. Ambassador Mher Margaryan said Guterres had recommended that member states "shorten and scale down the session" and cancel dozens of side events.
The United States has postponed a meeting of leaders of southeast Asian nations that was set for Las Vegas in mid-March due to the spread of the coronavirus, a senior Trump administration official said Friday. President Donald Trump had invited the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to meet in the U.S. this year after he skipped their annual meeting last year, which was held in Thailand. Trump sent national security adviser Robert O'Brien to the meeting in his place.
South Korea reported 594 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, it's biggest daily increase since the first infection was confirmed on Jan. 20, taking its tally to 2,931 cases. Of the new cases, 476 were from the southeastern city of Daegu, where a church at the centre of the outbreak is located, and 60 from the nearby province of North Gyeongsang, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The tally of deaths was 16, unchanged from a day earlier.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday the United States has offered to help with the coronavirus response in Iran, where the outbreak has killed 34 people and raised doubts about Tehran's willingness to share information. 'We have made offers to the Islamic Republic of Iran to help,' Pompeo said in a hearing at House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'Their healthcare infrastructure is not robust and to date, their willingness to share information about what's really going on inside...Iran has not been robust and I am very concerned that....it is Iran that is not sharing information.' (Reuters)
In the following AP Photo, a worker wearing protective gears sprays disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea.
Residents of a Northern California community are at the epicenter of what officials are calling a turning point in the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus in the US Investigators are rushing to retrace the steps of a patient they believe to be the first known person in the U.S. to be infected without traveling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it. (AP)
Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja said, "We succeeded in the first part, that of containing coronavirus. Three students who were found to be corona-positive were isolated, now they are stable. They were cured.'" She, however, claimed that another person, who has landed in Ernakulum airport from Malayasia, has shown symptoms like sore throat, fever. "We can't say that it is coronavirus but we've kept the person in the isolation ward. Samples were sent to Virology Institute. I think his result will come tomorrow," she added.
Coronavirus outbreak will be a challenge if issues do not get resolved in three weeks, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday.
India on Friday pulled out of next month's shooting World Cup in Cyprus, citing the novel coronavirus threat there as the epidemic continued to wreak havoc on sporting calendars across the world. The shotgun world cup, recognised by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), is scheduled to be held in Nicosia from March 4 to 13. The Indian team withdrew from the tournament on the advice of the government, a National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) source told PTI. "The coronavirus threat is the only reason we are pulling out and it has been done on the advice of central agencies," he said.
Two South Koreans workers working in the construction work of Obra-C power project here, have been asked to work from home following coronavirus scare. HR Manager Lal Babu Jha of South Korea Doosan company told PTI, "Two workers, who came back from South Korea respectively on February 25 and 26, have been told to work from home and not move out of their houses." "South Koreans workers Don Kim and Denam Kim reached Obra after spending their holidays in South Korea. Both were screened at the New Delhi airport and at Varanasi airport. They were not found infected by coronavirus," he said. "However, as a precaution, both workers have been asked to stay in their houses for 15 days," Jha added.
After facing sanctions and the risk of war amid tensions with the United States, Iran's Shiite theocracy now has an enemy in the new coronavirus that infiltrated its leadership in plain view of state-controlled media and despite repeated denials of any looming threat. The outbreak of the new virus in Iran has been dramatic _ the head of Iran's task force to stop the illness, known as COVID-19, was seen coughing, sweating and wheezing across televised interviews before acknowledging he was infected. (Reuters)
Nigeria's first confirmed coronovirus case entered the country on a Turkish Airlines flight that travelled via Istanbul, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health told a news conference on Friday.
The man, who travelled from Milan, Italy, and landed on the evening of Feb. 24, spent the night in a hotel near the airport, and continued to his place of work in neighbouring Ogun state, Commissioner Akin Abayomi said. He was treated on the evening of Feb. 26 at his company's medical facility before health practitioners there called government biosecurity officers, who transferred him on Feb. 27 to a containment facility in Yaba, Lagos.
The man is the first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa. (Reuters)
Thirty-four people have died so far in Iran because of coronavirus infections, a health ministry spokesman said on Friday. The total number of people diagnosed with the disease is 388, he said in an announcement on state TV. (Reuters)
The Swiss government announced an immediate ban Friday on all ``public and private`` events in the country involving more than 1,000 people as a measure to halt the spread of COVID-19.
The measure will last until at least March 15, officials said. Among the events that will be affected are the annual Geneva International Motor Show, which was due to take place from March 5-15 and draws tens of thousands of visitors every year. Organizers of the auto show did not provide immediate comment on the Swiss government announcement.
``We aware that this measure will have a significant impact on public life,'' said Switzerland's interior minister, Alain Berset. (AP)
The United Kingdom now has 19 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus after Wales identified its first case and two new cases were found in England, health authorities said on Friday. "The total number of UK cases is 19," news agency Reuters quoted health ministry as saying.
Mongolia's President Battulga Khaltmaa and other government officials have submitted to a 14-day quarantine after returning home from their visit to China, the state news agency Montsame reported on Friday. Battulga is the first head of state to visit China since the country began implementing special measure to curb the coronavirus outbreak in January. He arrived in Beijing with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar Damdin and other senior government officials on Thursday, and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. They were taken into quarantine as soon as they arrived in Mongolia as a precautionary measure, Montsame said. (Reuters)
Forty four more people have died of the novel coronavirus in China, taking the death toll in the outbreak to 2,788, Chinese health officials said on Friday, amid growing criticism from experts and the public that the epidemic would have been less severe if the authorities acted when the first confirmed case was reported in December. Among the deaths reported on Thursday, 41 were from the epicentre Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, two in Beijing and one in Xinjiang, the National Health Commission said in its daily report. A total of 44 new deaths and 327 confirmed cases were reported on Thursday from all over China, far lower than the earlier days, it said. The overall confirmed cases in the mainland have reached 78,824 by the end of Thursday. In all, 2,788 people have died of the disease so far, it said. As virulence of the disease slowed, criticism of Chinese officials' attempts to hide the outbreak in its early stage was highlighted by the official media on Thursday in a rare public criticism of the system of secrecy in governance. (PTI)