China's new coronavirus cases drop, world still scared

[webfact]

China's new coronavirus cases drop, world still scared

By Ryan Woo and John Geddie

 

FILE PHOTO: Workers operate a vehicle to carry out disinfection in Jianghan district, following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 10, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS

 

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China reported on Wednesday its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in two weeks, bolstering a forecast by Beijing's senior medical adviser for the outbreak there to end by April, but U.N. health authorities warned it could still "go in any direction".

 

The 2,015 new confirmed cases took China's total to 44,653. That was the lowest daily rise since Jan. 30 and came a day after epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said the epidemic should peak in China this month before subsiding.

 

His comments helped soothe public fears and markets, where global stocks surged to record highs on hopes of an end to disruption in the world's second largest economy. [MKTS/GLOB]

 

But the World Health Organization has likened the epidemic's threat to terrorism and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the apparent slowdown in the spread of the epidemic should be viewed with "extreme caution".

 

"This outbreak could still go in any direction," he told a briefing in Geneva.

 

Another expert said that while the coronavirus may be peaking in China, this was not the case beyond.

 

"It has spread to other places where it's the beginning of the outbreak," Dale Fisher, head of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network coordinated by the WHO, said in an interview in Singapore. "In Singapore, we are at the beginning."

 

Singapore has 50 cases, including one found at its biggest bank, DBS <DBSM.SI>, on Wednesday that caused an evacuation at head office.

 

Hundreds of infections have been reported in dozens of other countries and territories, but only two people have died outside mainland China: one in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines.

 

China's latest figures also showed the number of deaths on the mainland rose by 97 to 1,113 by the end of Tuesday, though doubts have been aired on social media about how reliable the data is.

 

After a two-day WHO meeting in Geneva on research and innovation into measures to tackle the new viral outbreak, Tedros welcomed the energy and enthusiasm of participating scientists.

 

He said a WHO-led advance team that travelled to China this week had made good progress on the composition and scope of its work.

 

The head of the WHO's emergency programme, Dr Mike Ryan, said it was too early "to predict the beginning, the middle or end of the epidemic".

 

QUARANTINED CRUISES

The biggest cluster outside China is on a cruise ship quarantined off the Japanese port of Yokohama, with about 3,700 people on board, of whom 175 have tested positive.

 

The ship's operator is among foreign companies taking a hit from the outbreak, with many flights suspended and businesses disrupted.

 

Planemaker Boeing <BA.N> said airlines were facing a fall in profits as the crisis reduces passenger demand and prolongs weakness in economically sensitive air freight.

 

Global ship deliveries have also been dented as yards in China, one of the biggest shipbuilders, struggle to get fully back to work.

 

There was a happy ending in sight for another cruise ship, the MS Westerdam, which Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Guam and the Philippines had refused to let dock over fears one of its 1,455 passengers and 802 crew might have the virus.

 

Cambodia agreed to let it land, the Holland America Line said.

 

China's state news agency Xinhua called the epidemic a "battle that has no gunpowder smoke" and chided some officials for "dropping the ball" in some places.

 

The outbreak has been named COVID-19 - CO for corona, VI for virus, D for disease and 19 for the year that it emerged. It is suspected to have originated in a market illegally trading wildlife in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan in December.

 

The city of 11 million people remains under virtual lockdown.

 

'RACIST REPORTING'?

Moves by Washington and others to curb visitors from China have offended Beijing, which says they are an over-reaction.

 

Anti-Chinese sentiment has also reared on social media.

 

A Xinhua commentary chided some Western media for "racist reporting" on the coronavirus and ignoring "the unswerving efforts and huge sacrifice China and its people have made".

 

"Just as the H1N1 influenza outbreak in the United States in 2009 should not be called an 'American virus', the NCP (novel coronavirus pneumonia) is neither a 'China virus' nor 'Wuhan virus'," it said, in a reference to the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

 

With companies laying off workers and supply chains from the car industry to smartphones disrupted, China's economy is taking a big hit. ANZ Bank said first quarter growth may slow to between 3.2-4.0%, down from a projection of 5.0%.

 

The latest big event to be cancelled was Formula One's Chinese Grand Prix, originally set for Shanghai on April 19.

 

The 2020 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has also been cancelled over coronavirus fears, after several European companies pulled out of the telecoms conference.

 

For more coronavirus news, click here. https://www.reuters.com/live-events/coronavirus-6-id2921484

 

(Graphic: Comparing new coronavirus to SARS and MERS - https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS-COMPARISON/0100B5BY3CY/index.html)

 

(Graphic: Reuters Graphics tracks and explains the deadly virus spreading around the world - https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-GRAPHICS/0100B5CD3DP/index.html)

 

(Reporting by Ryan Woo, Huizhong Wu, Stella Qiu, Judy Hua, Kevin Yao, Zhang Min, Dominique Patton, Se Young Lee, Gabriel Crossley, Colin Qian, Roxanne Liu in Beijing; Brenda Goh, Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Keith Zhai and John Geddie in Singapore; Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge in Geneva; Kate Kelland in London; Kay Johnson in Baghdad; Abhishek Takle in Baku; Isla Binnie in Madrid; Writing by Robert Birsel, Andrew Cawthorne and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Alex Richardson and Mark; Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-13

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[Lovethailandelite]

They may want to have a rethink.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-than-14-800-new-cases-reported-yesterday-11932787

Edited February 13, 2020 by Lovethailandelite

[Thunder26]

It's old news.

 

[DrTuner]

So China ran out of diagnostics tools, which is why it flattened for a while, and switched to reporting symptom based confirmations. Went to 60k instantly.

 

It's a surprising act of honesty from China. Would be interesting to hear about the first findings of the WHO group there.

 

Now, how about that Thai diagnostic backlog? 33 confirmations for days, even the thickest can smell the rot.

Edited February 13, 2020 by DrTuner

[JHolmesJr]

Is this headline a joke?

It seems China has changed the criteria for reporting cases and there is a spike

of over 14,840 cases just today.

[yellowboat]

I wouldn't uncork the champagne just yet.  Many in China are still hugely skeptical, even if this isn't propaganda.  The Chinese government is probably desperate for some good news.

[Jimbo2014]

37 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

I wouldn't uncork the champagne just yet.  Many in China are still hugely skeptical, even if this isn't propaganda.  The Chinese government is probably desperate for some good news.

And Thailand is desperate too - makes for overly enthusiastic reporting ????

[phantomfiddler]

Apparently the virus can be killed by alcohol, so head down to your local and get as much in your bloodstream as possible !

Maybe the Pattaya police will forgive being over the limit during the outbreak ????

[Ireland32]

I wouldn’t Believe One Word , outta their Mouths , Biolab Warfare Incident 

[DrTuner]

31 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Apparently the virus can be killed by alcohol, so head down to your local and get as much in your bloodstream as possible !

Will be a tad hard to get it to 70% by volume that's required for good effect, but one can try.

[Ireland32]

4 hours ago, DrTuner said:

So China ran out of diagnostics tools, which is why it flattened for a while, and switched to reporting symptom based confirmations. Went to 60k instantly.

 

It's a surprising act of honesty from China. Would be interesting to hear about the first findings of the WHO group there.

 

Now, how about that Thai diagnostic backlog? 33 confirmations for days, even the thickest can smell the rot.

WHO is Xi’s Boy, Xi owns WHO

[ourmanflint]

It's all BS! New figures today

 

[englishoak]

Wont say i told you China was lying but........ i told you... and its STILL lying, these figures are the tip of the iceberg.. try 50k dead already with 1.5m infected more like.

[placnx]

1 hour ago, Ireland32 said:

I wouldn’t Believe One Word , outta their Mouths , Biolab Warfare Incident 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_Weapons_Convention

Interestingly, Taiwan ratified this treaty when it was still "China" on the UN Security Council. Unfortunately, verification does not seem possible. It could possibly dispel suspicions if a truly transparent international inspection of the Wuhan lab could happen before there was time to clean it up. 

[Cake Monster]

5 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

Is this headline a joke?

It seems China has changed the criteria for reporting cases and there is a spike

of over 14,840 cases just today.

And a new daily record of 250 poor souls died yesterday

[JHolmesJr]

13 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

And a new daily record of 250 poor souls died yesterday

 

with so many deaths, Im wondering if they are actually treating patients in their hospitals or

just housing them to keep them away from gen pop.

[DrTuner]

Ok so found confirmation, from Xinhua of all places, about the previous linear increase in cases being because of limited diagnosis capabilities: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/07/c_138761746.htm

 

The ones being tested came out positive more often than not, given they were increasing 2-4k per day with testing capability at 4k per day.

 

Now we should see an exponential rise in cases, although I doubt it. When confirming by symptoms it's very easy to fudge the numbers.

 

In other words, the data is corrupt.

[Iron Tongue]

8 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

 

with so many deaths, Im wondering if they are actually treating patients in their hospitals or

just housing them to keep them away from gen pop.

Neither.  They're entombing new cases & suspected cases inside their own homes.  You can search and easily find vids of Chinese officials sealing entire families inside their apts. by blocking the doors with beams & even welding them shut.

 

No clue how they're supplied, let alone given medical care.