China wages 'people's war' on coronavirus as cruises, companies hit

[webfact]

China wages 'people's war' on coronavirus as cruises, companies hit

By David Stanway and Roxanne Liu

 

A medical worker holds a thermometer to check a passenger's temperature at a checkpoint as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Susong County, Anhui province, China, February 6, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

 

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a "people's war" on Thursday against the fast-spreading coronavirus whose impact has been felt around the world from slowing factory floors to quarantined cruise liners.

 

The death toll in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563, with more than 28,000 infections also confirmed inside the world's second largest economy. Such was the anxiety that some Chinese were asking HIV patients for medicines.

 

But Xi, again seeking to prevent global panic, said China's strong mobilisation capacity and rich experience in public health would enable it to beat the coronavirus.

 

"The whole country has responded with all its strength to respond with the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures, starting a people's war for epidemic prevention and control," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying in a telephone call with Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

 

In a striking image of the epidemic's reach, about 3,700 people moored off Japan on the Diamond Princess faced testing and quarantine for at least two weeks on the ship, which has 20 cases.

 

Gay Courter, a 75-year-old American novelist on board, appealed for the U.S. government to take Americans off.

 

The coronavirus death toll in mainland China hit 563 on Thursday, as 10 more people on a quarantined cruise liner in Japan have tested positive. Michelle Hennessy reports.

 

"It's better for us to travel while healthy and also, if we get sick, to be treated in American hospitals," he told Reuters.

 

In Hong Kong, another cruise ship with 3,600 passengers and crew was quarantined for a second day pending testing after three cases on board. Taiwan, which has 13 cases, banned international cruise ships from docking.

 

In China, sometimes dubbed the world's workshop, cities have been shut off, flights cancelled and factories closed, shutting supply lines crucial to international businesses.

 

CORPORATE FALLOUT

Companies including Hyundai Motor <005380.KS>, Tesla <TSLA.O>, Ford <F.N>, PSA Peugeot Citroen <PEUP.PA>, Nissan <7201.T>, Airbus <AIR.PA>, Adidas <ADSGn.DE> and Foxconn <2317.TW> are taking hits.

 

Financial analysts have cut China's growth outlook, with ratings agency Moody's flagging risks for auto sales and output.

 

Nintendo Co Ltd <7974.T> warned of delays to production and shipping of its Switch console and other goods to the Japan market. Honda Motor Co <7267.T> was considering keeping operations suspended for longer than planned at its three plants in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported.

 

Indonesia said it stands to lose $4 billion in tourism if travel from China is disrupted for the whole year.

 

More than two dozen large trade fairs and industry conferences in Asia, where billions of dollars worth of deals are usually done, have been postponed.

 

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, hit by months of anti-China unrest, said the coronavirus was hurting its economy and urged banks to adopt a "sympathetic stance" with borrowers.

 

But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he still expected China to maintain its commitment to boost purchases of American goods and services by at least $200 billion over the next two years, as part of a Phase 1 trade deal.

 

And stock markets across the world rose, buoyed by record highs on Wall Street and a move by China to halve tariffs on some U.S. goods that emboldened bets the global economy would avoid long-term damage from the virus.

 

China, which has bristled at being ostracised, was considering delaying an annual meeting of its highest legislative body, the National People's Congress, from March 5, sources said.

 

RUSH FOR HIV DRUG

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was too early to say the outbreak was peaking, but noted the country had recorded its first day of a drop in the number of new infections.

 

"We are still in the middle of an intense outbreak," said WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan, calling it "a great worry."

 

WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove, said the virus causes a full spectrum of disease, from what looks like the common colds to pneumonia including multiple organ failure and death.

 

One Chinese official said the crisis could be nearing its peak, with just over 1,300 patients discharged from hospital, although the number of new patients diagnosed with coronavirus was still rising.

 

"The darkest time is before the dawn," the official said. "I have full confidence that we’re going to get ahead of it."

 

"The biggest challenge is still to control the spread of the disease, and let all the suspected patients be cured in the hospital."

 

Health officials in the United States and China want to get a vaccine to initial human testing within months, but drugmakers have cautioned they have a long way to go.

 

"There are no known effective therapeutics," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said, when asked about reports of "breakthroughs" that boosted markets on Wednesday.

 

China's National Health Commision said the HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir could be used for coronavirus patients, without specifying how.

 

That triggered a rush, specifically for Kaletra, also known as Aluvia, which is drugmaker AbbVie's <ABBV.N> off-patent version of lopinavir/ritonavir and the only version approved for sale in China.

 

Devy, a 38-year-old from Shandong province, said he was among hundreds who had asked people with HIV for medicine.

 

"When you are left alone, seeing the blur shadow of death far away, I think no one can feel calm," Devy told Reuters.

 

People were also desperate for face masks. The city of Dali, in southwestern Yunnan province, with only eight confirmed cases of the virus, was accused of intercepting a shipment of masks bound for a municipality with 400 cases.

 

In the overwhelmed province of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, authorities said they needed another 2,250 medical staff at least. And around a nation unaccustomed to widespread working from home, the epidemic has forced millions of white-collar workers to get used to just that.

 

The epidemic brushed up against geopolitics when the United States and China clashed over the issue of self-ruled Taiwan's exclusion from WHO meetings, where it is represented by China.

 

Beijing complained of political "hype-up".

 

For a graphic on Online package of China virus news:

https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH/0100B59Y39P/index.html 

 

For a graphic on Comparing new coronavirus to SARS and MERS:

https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS-COMPARISON/0100B5BY3CY/index.html 

 

For a graphic on Tracking the novel coronavirus:

https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html 

 

(Reporting by Lusha Zhang, Ryan Woo, Roxanne Liu, Liangping Gao, Sophie Yu and Se Young Lee in Beijing; David Stanway, Yilei Sun and Winni Zhou in Shanghai; Alun John and Noah Sin in Hong Kong; Ju-min Park in Tokyo; Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Kate Kelland in London; Writing by Nick Macfie, William Maclean, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alexandra Hudson)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-07

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[ExpatOilWorker]

 

 

[englishoak]

China is LYING about how bad it is,ive been following the prediction rate of fatalities on a model and the last 4 days have been accurate to within 1% in advance. That should not be possible if the reports are organic and true.  imo the numbers are a computer model and China  just releases the numbers. 

 

Todays numbers are in... predicted fatality number today was 633.... the official count is 635 ...  i dont have a crystal ball just following a model which means the numbers arnt real but contrived. Tomorrows prediction is 700 btw. 

[robertson468]

So, there are two Cruise Ships that have been put in isolation due to an outbreak on board of the Virus.  Koh Samui in Thailand is about to "welcome" SIX Cruise Ships in the comming weeks.  I hope to God that all the passengers are screened as there is a potential for a major disaster on the Island.  The local Government needs to think, what is more important, money or the health of the population.  If anyone on the Island falls sick with the virus and dies, I would expect the Family to sue to local politicians who have made this rediculous decision.

[Pedrogaz]

3 hours ago, englishoak said:

China is LYING about how bad it is,ive been following the prediction rate of fatalities on a model and the last 4 days have been accurate to within 1% in advance. That should not be possible if the reports are organic and true.  imo the numbers are a computer model and China  just releases the numbers. 

 

Todays numbers are in... predicted fatality number today was 633.... the official count is 635 ...  i dont have a crystal ball just following a model which means the numbers arnt real but contrived. Tomorrows prediction is 700 btw. 

How do you know they are lying? What arrant nonsense. Your model?

We need some common sense here. In gross terms, to determine the fatality rate you need outcomes data from people who died and from those who had the disease and have been cured. You then add the two together and use that as the denominator to find the survival or fatality rate. You can then analyze the impact on survival by undertaking various interventions or by the status of the patient, ie underlying illnesses, age, immune status etc.

[Pedrogaz]

9 minutes ago, robertson468 said:

So, there are two Cruise Ships that have been put in isolation due to an outbreak on board of the Virus.  Koh Samui in Thailand is about to "welcome" SIX Cruise Ships in the comming weeks.  I hope to God that all the passengers are screened as there is a potential for a major disaster on the Island.  The local Government needs to think, what is more important, money or the health of the population.  If anyone on the Island falls sick with the virus and dies, I would expect the Family to sue to local politicians who have made this rediculous decision.

I'm not sure I would put 'welcome' and '6 cruise ships' in the same sentence. They are not unwelcome to all but hotel owners I would think.

But have you any idea how long it takes to screen 6 cruises. The ship off Yokohama has almost 4000 passengers and crew. I don't think they have screened all of the people on the ship yet. Obviously there is a triage, where symptomatic patients get screened first, then close contacts, then genpop

[englishoak]

13 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

How do you know they are lying? What arrant nonsense. Your model?

We need some common sense here. In gross terms, to determine the fatality rate you need outcomes data from people who died and from those who had the disease and have been cured. You then add the two together and use that as the denominator to find the survival or fatality rate. You can then analyze the impact on survival by undertaking various interventions or by the status of the patient, ie underlying illnesses, age, immune status etc.

 

The common sense is there should be no way a computer prediction model should be able to track a natural outbreak as closely certainly not one this viral... I dont care if you dismiss it, the prediction model vs the "official" stands. My point is most think tanks agree China is Lying about the numbers, I concur. 

[jany123]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he still expected China to maintain its commitment to boost purchases of American goods and services by at least $200 billion over the next two years, as part of a Phase 1 trade deal.

Lmao.... don’t let em off the hook just because of a global pandemic health scare... work those chicoms to death... MAGA!

[RocketDog]

3 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Depend How do you know they are lying? What arrant nonsense. Your model?

We need some common sense here. In gross terms, to determine the fatality rate you need outcomes data from people who died and from those who had the disease and have been cured. You then add the two together and use that as the denominator to find the survival or fatality rate. You can then analyze the impact on survival by undertaking various interventions or by the status of the patient, ie underlying illnesses, age, immune status etc.

Fatality rate is largely independent of survival rate and is a simple number. Survival rate is a ratio, as you say. You are misunderstanding his statements. 

 

Fatalities depend on the rate of infection, number of vectors, and the lethality of the virus. 

 

Survival rate depends on the rate of recovery from infections, currently largely dependent more on immune system robustness rather than drug treatments. 

[thaibook]

11 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

How do you know they are lying? What arrant nonsense. Your model?

We need some common sense here. In gross terms, to determine the fatality rate you need outcomes data from people who died and from those who had the disease and have been cured. You then add the two together and use that as the denominator to find the survival or fatality rate. You can then analyze the impact on survival by undertaking various interventions or by the status of the patient, ie underlying illnesses, age, immune status etc.

A doctor who first alerted the authorities about the virus was accused by the totalitarian Communist arty of China of anti-social behaviour and was forced under interrogation to "agee" not to discuss anything to do with the virus and epidemic.  He has since died of the virus - was the infection natural or a punishment?  Naturally the CPC propaganda organ - the People's Daily - and the censors are making sure that critical comments are intercepted or deleted.  Under such circumstances there is every reason to think the Communist Party is lying.  It is  doing so about the infection rate in Taiwan which is something that can be checked so why believe it is not doing so elsewhere?