DeepMind, Google’s London-based AI research unit, has published predictions of the structure of proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2, in the hope that they help scientists understand how the new coronavirus functions, and allow for more precise investigation into potential treatments.
The company used its AlphaFold system, which applies machine learning techniques to estimate the physical structure of proteins, to generate the predictions, which it has published without the normal, time consuming, review or verification process for such work.
“Knowing a protein’s structure provides an important resource for understanding how it functions, but experiments to determine the structure can take months or longer, and some prove to be intractable,” the researchers wrote in a post accompanying the publication.
“For this reason, researchers have been developing computational methods to predict protein structure from the amino acid sequence.”
A “long-term commercial niche” for vaccines to counter the new coronavirus will be opened up, according to the head of a global NGO which acts as an umbrella for drugs researchers.
“It’s no longer plausible that containment will be a success and the new coronavirus disease knocked out,” says Richard Hatchett, chief executive of CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), in a Financial Times piece on the race to find a vaccine.
It adds though that, for now, any commercial gain from involvement in creating a successful vaccine is a secondary concern to the drive to find a treatment.
Full Fact, the UK fact-checking charity, has released some pieces of work countering misleading claims about the outbreak.
They include:
Claim: Scientists believe that coronavirus may have come from bats in a Chinese research facility.
Full Fact conclusion: Two Chinese scientists have published an article suggesting that the 2019 coronavirus outbreak could have originated from bats in a laboratory in Wuhan. However, apart from maps showing the proximity of laboratories, they offer no evidence to prove this.
Claim: Scientists knew about the new coronavirus long ago and called it “Disease X”.
Full Fact conclusion: They didn’t. This is a misunderstanding about the phrase “Disease X”, which the World Health Organization used to denote an unknown serious new disease that might cause a pandemic.
Updated
The German government’s main body for safeguarding public health has announced this morning that 349 people are officially infected with the coronavirus in Germany, a rise of 109 cases within 24 hours. On Monday the figure from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was just 38.
The real figure will be still higher “because of the fluidity of the situation”, a spokesman said, with the RKI never able to be fully on top of the new numbers as health authorities continue to report new incidents through the day.
Meanwhile the government has given pharmacies permission to mix their
own disinfectant solutions with industrial alcohol, in an attempt to
keep up with the unprecedented demand.
Updated
All mosques and churches closed in area of Bethlehem near hotel
Following a suspected case of coronavirus at a hotel in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has closed all mosques and churches in the area.
According to Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news service, a medical state of emergency had been declared in the holy city, home to the Church of Nativity, a popular pilgrimage site revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
While no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Palestinian territories, authorities also cancelled all sports events in the city and shut schools. It had also asked tourists to cancel hotel reservations, the Wafa report said.
Updated
Iran reports 3,515 coronavirus cases and 107 deaths
Some 3,513 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Iran, according to the country’s health ministry.
There have been 107 deaths, said officials.
Multiple sporting events have been postponed, moved or cancelled, with others now cast into doubt.
Euro 2020
The Europe-wide, travel-heavy Uefa showpiece is due to take place at 12 venues, starting in Rome on 12 June. The semi-finals and final will be at Wembley. Uefa say the situation is “under constant scrutiny … we are monitoring it country by country, and football will follow orders of the individual countries”. England’s warm-up against Italy is scheduled for Wembley on 27 March. The FA is following developments.
Premier League and domestic football
Widespread disruption already, with multiple Serie A games called off and concerns over completing the Italian domestic season. The Swiss league, Japan’s J-League, South Korea’s K-League and China’s Super League are all on hold, with pre-season International Champions Cup fixtures set for Asia also called off.
Olympics and Paralympics
Tokyo 2020 officials are sounding defiant but options are being discussed. The events start on 24 July and 25 August respectively; IOC member Dick Pound says a final decision could be made as late as the end of May, with cancellation, rather than postponement or relocation, the most likely outcome. The athletics world indoor championships, scheduled to take place in China next month, are already off.
Iran checkpoints to limit travel between major cities
Iranian authorities are to begin manning checkpoints to limit travel between major cities due to the coronavirus in a country which is now one of the centres of the outbreak.
The country has also moved to close schools and universities until the end of the Iranian calendar year on 20 March because of coronavirus.
Health minister Saeed Namaki made the announcement Thursday at a televised news conference.
Updated
Starbucks to serve drinks only in disposable cups in North America
Starbucks has said it will only use disposable cups at its North American outlets.
The company also said in a statement that it was “pausing the use of personal cups and ‘for here’ ware” in its stores. Translation: there won’t be any more drinks in washable mugs or customer-owned cups.
Other measures include its move as a corporate body to restrict all business-related air travel.
“Although the situation remains fluid, our US and international markets have gleaned learnings from our leadership team and partners in China who were first faced with this epidemic,” the company said.
Updated
Dubai has asked sports events organisers to postpone all sports related activities until the end of the month, according to a government circular seen by Reuters.
The circular, issued by Dubai Sports Council, said the request was a precautionary measure to ensure public health.
Updated
German man was first European to contract and transmit virus - doctors
A 33-year-old German man may be the first European to have contracted Covid-19 and to have transmitted it, Italian daily newspaper il Corriere della Sera has reported, citing a letter of German experts published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
According to the German doctors, “a 33-year-old otherwise healthy German businessman (Patient 1) became ill with a sore throat, chills, and myalgias on 24 January 2020. The following day, a fever of 39.1°C (102.4°F) developed, along with a productive cough. By the evening of the next day, he started feeling better and went back to work on 27 January.”
On 20 and 21 January, before the onset of symptoms, the man had attended a series of meetings with a Chinese business partner at his company near Munich. The business partner, a Shanghai resident, had visited Germany between 19 and 22 January.
“During her stay, she had been well with no signs or symptoms of infection but had become ill on her flight back to China, where she tested positive for 2019-nCoV on 26 January,” write the doctors.
The woman had immediately informed the company about her illness. Contact tracing was started and the 33-year-old German man was sent to the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine in Munich for further assessment.
On 28 January, three additional employees at the company tested positive for 2019-nCoV and so far, none of the four confirmed patients show signs of severe clinical illness.
“This case of 2019-nCoV infection was diagnosed in Germany and transmitted outside Asia,” write the experts.
“However, it is notable that the infection appears to have been transmitted during the incubation period of the index patient, in whom the illness was brief and nonspecific.”
Updated
UK elderly may be advised to stay away from crowds
People who are elderly or have pre-existing conditions could be advised to stay away from crowds as the outbreak progresses, the chief medical officer Chris Whitty has told MPs.
He added that parliament was no more risky than any other environment, following reports the Palace of Westminster could be closed down as a result of the outbreak.
Updated
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is encouraging countries who want to know how much of their population is sick with the virus to start testing people with symptoms.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme technical lead, made the comments in a briefing earlier.
We are eight weeks into this #COVID19 outbreak: yet we have identified the virus, we have the genetic sequence, PCR & serological assay in use. This wealth of knowledge is unprecedented for a new disease.#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/dNAlepnEek
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 5, 2020
Updated
The Federation of German industries, the BDI, has warned this morning that the effects of the coronavirus on businesses is likely to send Europe’s biggest economy into recession.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute said that by Wednesday afternoon there were 262 confirmed cases in Germany, with all but one of the country’s 16 states affected.
The BDI said economic growth was likely to “fall prey” to the coronavirus. “Economic growth threatens to come to a halt,” the federation said in its first quarter report for 2020.
It added that if the coronavirus was not brought under control in countries affected by it, by the second economic quarter it expected a much bigger impact. Germany’s economic growth had already been slower than expected before the virus hit, due largely to the slowdown in China.
Updated
While we reported earlier that North Korea’s leader has sent a letter to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, offering his condolences for South Korean victims of the coronavirus, observers have expressed fears that the north could be suppressing information about infections.
Given that countries with advanced health services are struggling to contain the outbreak, a significant number of infections in North Korea would place intolerable strain on its weak medical infrastructure.
“Unfortunately, the international community has no idea if the coronavirus is spreading inside North Korea,” said a recent report by Jessica Lee, an East Asia expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a thinktank in Washington.
“The fact that we know nothing about the level of infection or deaths within North Korea is extremely problematic and, left unchanged, could have serious public health implications.”
While continuing to declare itself virus-free, North Korea has banned foreign tourists, placed people who have traveled abroad in quarantine and closed its 900-mile border with China - a move that overseas monitors with contacts inside the country say has caused shortages of food, cooking oil and gasoline.
As the number of cases south of the border dividing the Korean peninsula continues to grow, pressure is mounting on the North to allow international experts to assess the situation there.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, has urged North Korea to “allow full and unimpeded access to medical experts and humanitarian actors, and relax restrictions on access to information. Further isolation of the country is not the answer”.
In addition, the US state department has said it would “support and encourage” international efforts to help North Korea fight the disease, despite stringent sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear weapons programme.
First coronavirus death in Switzerland
A 74-year-old woman in western Switzerland has died after contracting the coronavirus, the country’s first death from the rapidly spreading disease, Reuters reports.
The woman had been hospitalised at Lausanne’s University hospital in the canton of Vaud since Tuesday, police said. She was a high-risk patient suffering from chronic disease, authorities added.
Updated
Six Nations England v Italy game in Rome postponed
England’s Six Nations game against Italy on 14 March in Rome has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Press Associatino news agency has reported.
Tournament organisers faced the option of playing the game behind closed doors at the Stadio Olimpico or delaying it until later in the year and have chosen the latter option.
Official confirmation of the decision is expected from Six Nations later today.
Updated
UK response moving to second “delay” phase
The UK response to coronavirus was already moving into its second “delay” phase, rather than seeking to simply “contain” the disease, Prof Whitty told British MPs.
“We have moved from a situation where we are mainly in contain, with some delay built in, to we are now mainly delay,” said Britain’s chief medical officer, although elements of the contain process would remain in place.
Updated
UK government to provide updates after 24 hours delay
British health authorities “may have had a communications fumble” when they announced on Wednesday that they would not be providing daily updates on new coronavirus cases, the UK government’s chief medical officer has told MPs.
They are intending in the medium term to provide more detailed updates with what Chris Whitty described as “a proper dashboard” but they would be having a delay of 24 hours to make sure details were correct.
Updated
Cases in Scotland increase from three to six
Three more cases of Covid-19 have been detected in Scotland among people who have had contact with the previous patients, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to six.
Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s chief medical officer, said the new cases were found in the Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Grampian NHS areas, and were all linked to the three previous cases.
“With all these cases, our thoughts are with those diagnosed and their families. Scotland is well equipped to deal with this kind of infection and we are doing everything we can to contain the virus at this stage and minimise the risk to the public,” she said.
“Clinicians are now conducting contact tracing, the process of gathering details of the places those who have tested positive visited and the people they have been in contact with.”
Calderwood has echoed warnings from elsewhere in the UK that there is likely to be a significant surge in coronavirus cases, peaking in two to three months time. Following Scotland’s first case at the weekend, two further cases were announced yesterday, after more than 850 negative tests for the virus.
She said earlier this week that in a worst-case scenario between 50% and 80% of the population could be infected during the course of the epidemic, with 4% of those needing hospitalisation.
Updated
'Highly likely' community transmission ongoing in UK
There are now several cases in the UK where healthcare officials cannot see where coronavirus infection has come from clearly, whether it is from having been abroad or having been in contact with someone who has, Whitty adds.
“That makes it highly likely that there is some level of community transmission in the UK,” he says.
“I think we should work on the assumption that it is here at very low levels and we should work on that assumption going forward.”
Updated
Although the total number of coronavirus cases in the world are still dominated by China, its numbers are coming down quickly, British MPs have been told by Professor Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical adviser.
He adds, however, that it won’t be known if there will be a rebound until restrictions are lifted.
Whitty is appearing along with Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, in front of parliament’s health committee.
Chances of containing the outbreak globally are “slim to zero”, he said.
Updated
British hospitals may currently not have enough respiratory resources to deal with absolutely everyone who would need to be treated in hospital, according to a senior executive.
The health service was coping well at the moment, said Neil Dixon, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, whose members provide services to the National Health Service.
“Of course there may come a point where the level of infection becomes so great that the NHS and doctors and so on will have to make quite difficult choices about who to treat and when to treat them.
“If you take something like intensive care, people make those choices at the moment. The answer is that there will be more of those kinds of choices going forward. Things like intensive care, we have got 4,000 beds, but we will be able to flex that, there will be more, and it’s mostly about giving respiratory support to people.
“We can put in many more beds like that, which are sort of intensive care beds, to treat larger and larger numbers of people, but there may come a point where you say: ‘well I am not going to move somebody because, a, the movement itself might be more difficult, we may not have enough respiratory stuff to deal with absolutely everybody, but none of us know.”
It was, Dixon added, about getting a balance right in terms of reassuring people, and Britain “probably” had one of the best health systems in the world.
Updated
The British government has hinted it may reverse a controversial decision to withhold information about the geographical spread of the coronavirus.
Heath minister Edward Argar acknowledged public concerns about the news that the government would not be releasing information about the location of new cases until a weekly round-up each Friday.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast he admitted the government was “learning every day” and was looking at a “tech solution” to allow it to keep the public informed about the spread of disease.
On Wednesday, Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer said the government would stop providing daily updates on the location of patients who had tested positive “due to the number cases”.
The decision prompted accusations of secrecy and concerns that it would led to the spread of fake news.
Argar said: “It’s absolutely right, that we give out as much information as we can.”
He added: “What we’re looking at is whether we can find a tech solution that will enable us to do that to keep people informed [which] is hugely important. But to do it in an efficient way that it’s easy to administer and easy to get the information out.”
His remarks suggest the government is considering the example of South Korea where phone alerts are available to signify when users come within 100 metres of a confirmed case, based on government data.
Argar said: “My boss, the health secretary, is clear that we will report on geographical spread and geographical locations, but there’s a little bit of a lag time because of that big increase.”
He added: “We’re going to continue with that geographical information because I think in anything of this sort, and it’s a new disease, we’re learning every day, how it works. Understandably, people will have concerns and questions. It’s important that we share as much information as we can with the public to reassure and to keep people informed. So I think there is a positive from this in terms of public engagement.”
Updated
Fresh figures are expected in an hour on the state of the virus in Iran, which has reported 92 deaths among its more than 2,900 cases.
In the meantime, the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour tweets this graphic of how the Iranian ministry of health think the virus has spread across the country:
Not a motorway network, but how Coronavirus has spread across Iran from Qom, according to Ministry of Health. The city has not been closed off, and ministry officials have complained too many Iranians still taking to the roads. https://t.co/pd3gUkhtv6
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) March 5, 2020
Updated
Some 322 new coronavirus cases have been reported in South Korea, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), an official body.
South Korea has been carrying out a mass testing initiative of tens of thousands of people since the end of January.
Earlier, the total number of cases stood at 5,766, with 35 deaths.
Updated
The US death toll from coronavirus has climbed to 11 as California reported its first fatality and declared a state of emergency over the virus.
The death in California was of an elderly man with underlying health issues, who tested positive for the virus on Tuesday and was probably exposed while traveling on a Princess cruise ship that departed from San Francisco to Mexico in February, public health officials said.
It was the first death from the outbreak in the US outside of Washington state.
The man lived in Placer county, an area north-east of Sacramento, near Tahoe national forest, and was kept in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville. It was the second confirmed case of coronavirus in the county.
California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over the virus on Wednesday. In a statement, Newsom said he extended “deepest condolences” to those affected by the death in Placer county and that “California is working around the clock to keep our communities safe, healthy and informed”.
Updated
As concern about coronavirus leads to Australian shoppers emptying shelves of toilet paper, one newspaper has decided to....er... do its bit to help alleviate shortages
YES, WE ACTUALLY DID PRINT IT #toiletpapercrisis pic.twitter.com/jusP50ojYu
— The NT News (@TheNTNews) March 4, 2020
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he hopes that neighbouring South Korea will overcome a coronavirus outbreak, President Moon Jae-in’s office said on Thursday.
In a letter to Moon delivered on Wednesday, Kim also voiced concern over Moon’s health, and discussed his view of the situation on the Korean peninsula, Yoon Do-han, Moon’s senior press secretary, told a briefing.
South Korea is battling the biggest epidemic outside China and reported 438 new infections on Thursday for a total of 5,766.
North Korea has meanwhile quarantined hundreds of foreigners in an attempt to stop the virus from breaking out, although other states have expressed concerns about that secrecy and the authoritarian nature of the country mean that it’s unclear how the situation is developing there.
Greece has reported its 10th case of coronavirus, a person related to an individual who recently travelled to Israel and Egypt, health authorities have said.
On Wednesday the government ordered the closure of schools and banned public gatherings in three districts in the west of the country as a precaution after a person from the region tested positive for coronavirus, authorities said.
That person had recently returned from a religious pilgrimage to Israel and Egypt. The ban was in effect for 48 hours and subject to review, authorities said.
The cases come as Greek authorities react to a developing crisis as thousands of people arrive at the country’s border with Turkey.
About 12,500 people are estimated to be waiting on the Turkish side of the Greek border after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday he would open his country’s borders for refugees fleeing the nine-year war in Syria to cross into Europe.
Updated
In India, where citizens have been advised not to travel to any country that is affected by the virus, the health ministry has issued a statement recording that there were 29 positive cases in the country by 4 March.
It makes a range of other points including flagging up concerns around Indian pilgrims and students stranded in Tehran and Quam, Iran, which it describes as “epicentres of the Iran Covid-19 outbreak”.
#CoronaVirusUpdate:
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) March 5, 2020
Text of statement made by Union Health Minister @drharshvardhan is here:https://t.co/RUnMQ50IpL https://t.co/cOtw7dqQ20
Updated
Funerals of coronavirus victims in Britain could be transmitted to mourners over the internet to prevent the spread of the disease if it becomes a pandemic, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The paper says bereaved relatives who have come into close contact with victims would be at greater risk of contracting the illness themselves, resulting in the government seeking to discourage them from holding large funerals.
It also cites official government pandemic planning documents which raise the prospect of crematoria being open 24 hours a day, and all week, to cope with up to 50,000 extra deaths per week in the worst case scenario.
Updated
Chinese President Xi postpones Japan trip
Chinese President Xi Jinping has postponed his state visit to Japan in April due to the coronavirus outbreak, Japan’s government said Thursday.
Xi was to have been the first Chinese president to visit Japan since Hu Jintao in May 2008.
Xi was scheduled to meet Japan’s emperor, Naruhito, attend a banquet at the imperial palace and hold talks with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
The leaders had hoped the visit would underline recent improvements in bilateral ties after years of tension over rival territorial claims to the Senkakus, a group of islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said the two countries had agreed that their immediate focus should be on containing the coronavirus outbreak.
Coronavirus continues to dominate the morning newspapers across Europe, including in the UK, where news of the collapse of Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline made it into later editions.
The Guardian leads with our story on the UK government being accused of withholding information about the spread of coronavirus after a 70% increase in confirmed cases prompted health officials to stop providing daily updates on the location of new infections.
GUARDIAN: Government accused of secrecy over virus spread #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ImhM3bueWJ
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) March 4, 2020
In other titles, the Times leads with concerns that Britain’s parliament could be suspended for months to prevents MPs spreading the virus.
TIMES: Parliament could be shut for months to tackle virus #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/8DyFQmGDhf
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) March 4, 2020
Others, including the Telegraph, and the Daily Mail lead on yesterday’s news about the trebling of new cases of coronavirus, while the announcement that the new James Bond will will be postponed makes the front page of others such as the Mirror.
Tomorrow's front page: Bond falls victim to virus #tomorrowspaperstoday https://t.co/YBMFl6cqa7 pic.twitter.com/xAb09j2cOo
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) March 4, 2020
Facebook has confirmed that a contractor at a Seattle office has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and the social media giant said it would close that location until March 9.
“A contractor based in our Stadium East office has been diagnosed with the COVID-19,” a spokeswoman said.
Facebook said it has notified employees, adding that workers in all Seattle locations were being encouraged to work from home until the end of the month.
Seattle in Washington state has the largest concentration of coronavirus cases confirmed to date in the United States.
This is Ben Quinn picking up the liveblog now from London, from where we will be covering all of the latest developments in the UK and around the world.
You can flag up news tips by emailing me at ben.quinn@theguardian.com or tweet me at @BenQuinn75
The Vietnamese government has released an educational coronavirus pop song – and it’s a hit.
In Australia, the ABC’s Angelique Lu tweeted that the song had gone “minor viral”in several countries.
The Vietnamese Government has released this pop song about hand washing to combat the coronavirus, and ... it's not terrible. It's become a minor viral hit in other countries (no pun intended).
— Angelique Lu (@Angelique_Lu) March 4, 2020
Would not be out of place in a club. https://t.co/Ih2DOzX0D0
Summary
New infections, panic buying and schools closing continued worldwide, but Japan says the Olympics will go ahead in July.
-
The death toll in mainland China passed 3,000, with a further 31 deaths on Wednesday taking the total toll to 3,012. All of the deaths were in Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak. Confirmed cases in China rose by 139 to reach 80,409, and reversing two days of decreasing counts.
- South Korea’s number of confirmed cases neared 6,000 on Thursday. So far 36 countries and regions have imposed a blanket entry ban on people who have recently been in the country’s South, according to the foreign ministry in Seoul.
- California’s governor has declared a state of emergency after the announcement of the first virus-related death there. The state now has 53 confirmed cases.
- Italy closed all schools and universities until 15 March and ordered that all major sporting events be played behind closed doors. The virus has killed 107 people there, and spread to all but one of Italy’s 20 regions.
- Japan’s Olympics minister said the Games would go ahead in July as planned, saying that cancelling “would be unacceptable for the athletes”. The country has 1,036 cases and 12 people have died, its health ministry has said.
- Australia introduced a travel ban for South Korea and brought in enhanced screening for those arriving from Italy. Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has said the government is “looking at scenarios from the most benign through to some millions of people being infected over a period of several weeks”.
- Germany’s health minister has labelled the outbreak a pandemic, something the World Health Organization has so far stopped short of declaring. “What’s clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak,” Spahn told German politicians.
- Panic buying continued around the world. Masks and toilet paper, in particular, remain in demand.
And here’s today’s Coronavirus Latest – At a Glance, by Graham Russell:
Italy’s government is likely to increase the value of measures to help the economy withstand the coronavirus outbreak to to 5 billion euros (US$5.57 billion). Deputy Economy Minister Laura Castelli said on Thursday.
“It is likely that the government will reach (5 billion euros)“ Castelli said in an interview with daily Il Messaggero, adding that she thought it was “necessary to raise the bar as much as possible”.
Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri has promised tax breaks and other measures for the affected sectors worth 3.6 billion euros. A government source told Reuters on Wednesday this may be raised to 4.5 billion, or 0.25% of GDP.
Apple Inc and Netflix Inc say they are pulling out of the South by Southwest music and tech festival to be held later this month, amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The U.S. death toll from coronavirus infections rose to 11 on Wednesday and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency amid the nation’s largest outbreak.
Facebook Inc had said earlier this week it would not participate in the festival.
Organisers of the South by Southwest music and tech festival, set to be held in Austin, Texas, had said last month the event would proceed as planned despite “a handful” of cancellations related to the virus.
Panic buying continues across the globe
Shelves are being stripped bare of toilet rolls, hand sanitiser and surgical masks everywhere from Japan to France to the United States as panic buying criss-crosses the globe with the coronavirus, defying repeated calls for calm and disrupting supply chains, the AFP reports.
Australia’s biggest supermarket this week began rationing sales of toilet paper after police had to be called to a shop in Sydney when a knife was drawn in a scuffle over the scarce commodity.
On Saturday Japan’s prime minister took to Twitter to calm fears of a national shortage, while social media photos from the US show toilet paper shelves lying bare.
Last month ten thousand people queued outside a Hong Kong shop that had secured a shipment of single-use surgical masks, and days later masks were voted the most desireable gifts to receive for Valentine’s Day.
In London, masks are now going for more than 100 times their normal retail price, while French authorities said they will requisition all face mask stocks and production.
This is despite the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying it did not “recommend the use of facemasks” to help combat the outbreak.
Thailand has reported four new coronavirus cases.
The latest cases bring the total to 47 since January, Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoen, director-general of the Department of Disease Control said in a news conference on Thursday.
Correction: We reported earlier that the new Thai coronavirus cases involved people who had travelled from Iran, Italy and China. This was an error – they had travelled from Iran and Italy, with one case being a Chinese student who tested positive after being screened at Bangkok airport on his way from Iran to China, Reuters reports.
Updated
A Turkish Airlines aircraft was flown back to Istanbul without any passengers on Thursday on orders from authorities in Singapore after a passenger who had arrived on the same plane on Tuesday tested positive for coronavirus.
Singapore’s aviation regulator said that the three pilots and 11 other crew of flight TK54 that had arrived on Tuesday were on the return flight to Istanbul, where they would be placed in quarantine.
“The crew had come into close contact with a passenger on flight TK54 who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said in a statement on Thursday.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in contact with the Turkish Embassy, which has confirmed that the crew will be quarantined upon arrival at Istanbul,” CAAS said.
Singapore’s transport ministry said in a statement on its website that authorities had begun tracing passengers on flight TK54 that may have had contact with the infected person.
Here’s a wrap on the latest coronavirus news from Helen Davidson and Justin McCurry.
China’s death toll passed 3,000, as Germany’s health minister labelled the outbreak a pandemic and modelling in Australia predicted a worst-case scenario where millions could be infected with Covid-19.
The developments came as the coronavirus continues to spread around the world. South Korea’s number of confirmed cases neared 6,000 on Thursday and Italy ordered the closure of all schools after the virus spread to all but one of its 20 regions, killing 107 people. The UK has been warned an epidemic is likely.
A further 31 virus deaths in China took the number of fatalities beyond 3,000 on Wednesday. All of the deaths were in Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak, and authorities confirmed 139 new cases – a rise on the previous day’s total.
In the US, California declared a state of emergency over its 53 confirmed cases, and a cruise ship linked to the state’s first virus death was being held off the coast of San Francisco.
The Australian state of Western Australia has recorded its third case of coronavirus. The woman in her 30s returned to the state this week after travelling to Iceland and London and flying home via Dubai.
State health minister Roger Cook, said the state had not yet recorded any cases of apparent on-soil transmission.
“Western Australia remains coronavirus free in terms of internally contracted or transmitted cases,” Cook told reporters in Perth on Thursday. “All the cases which have occurred in Western Australia have been those that have contracted the disease outside the state, so our ongoing campaign to constrain and isolate in relation to the coronavirus epidemic is still being highly successful.”
Dr Andy Robertson, Western Australia deputy chief health officer, said authorities were tracing the woman’s movements. Robertson said she was not symptomatic on the plane and self-isolated when she became sick. The woman remains in home isolation.
The other two cases in the state were a couple in their 70s who contracted the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and were transferred to Western Australia, where the 78-year-old man died. Cook said coronavirus clinics would be operational in the state from Tuesday and the state had spent $2.3m to purchase 50 new ventilators for hospitals.
Just an update on what Australia’s new travel restrictions involves.
- The government on Thursday banned the arrival of foreigners from South Korea
- It extended existing bans on foreigners arriving from mainland China and Iran and said there would be tougher screening processes for people arriving from Italy.
- New travel restrictions mean that any foreign traveller who has been in China, Iran and South Korea within two weeks of arriving in Australia will be turned away.
- The bans, which include anyone who has transited through those countries, will be reviewed on a weekly basis.
- Australian nationals and residents are exempt from the bans, but are required to self-isolate for two weeks on their return to Australia.
- Travellers from Italy will be given temperature checks and required to completed a detailed health questionnaire before they are cleared for entry.
Most of the staff at a Sydney aged care home at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak did not turn up to work on Wednesday night because they were concerned about endangering their own family members, the union representing aged care workers has said.
BaptistCare, which runs the Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park, refused to comment when asked if a number of staff had failed to turn up to their shift after news broke of a Covid-19 outbreak at the facility.
But the Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes said the union had been told by staff at the facility that “most” of the workers rostered to work on Wednesday night had called in sick and the shift was covered by a work hire agency.
Residents at the aged care centre have been confined to their rooms and employees have been told to stay home and self-isolate if they show any symptoms, as health authorities struggle to contain the virus.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt has told the ABC that a “remote Indigenous community in the [Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara ] has chosen to self-quarantine to prevent anyone coming in with coronavirus,” ABC journalist Anna Henderson has said on Twitter.
BREAKING: A remote Indigenous community in the APY lands has chosen to self-quarantine to prevent anyone coming in with coronavirus, according to Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt on @abcnews ping @PatsKarvelas He did not say which one.
— Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) March 5, 2020
Australian officials have not been able to visit a citizen locked up in China because of coronavirus, and there are concerns for another person jailed in Iran, AAP reports.
The global outbreak of coronavirus has prevented Australian consular officials from visiting a citizen locked up in a Chinese prison. There are also concerns for another Australian detained in Iran, where the virus has spread among prisoners.
Australian writer and pro-democracy advocate Yang Hengjun has been detained in China since January last year. Dr Yang is granted one half-hour consular visit each month.
However, Foreign Affairs official Andrew Todd said his February visit was cancelled by Chinese authorities due to COVID-19 control measures in place.
“These same measures apply across all prisons in China,” he told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday.
“We are seeking through our embassy in Beijing with Chinese authorities alternative ways of making contact with Dr Yang, either through a telephone call or through written correspondence.”
South Australian senator Rex Patrick asked whether the coronavirus posed any risk to Dr Yang.
“Not that we’re aware of at this stage,” Mr Todd said.
“It’s an issue that we’re monitoring very closely with all Australian citizens detained across the world, but particularly in countries where there are current outbreaks of COVID-19.”
The Guardian’s extra edition of the Science Weekly podcast looks at where exactly in the body Covid-19 infects us.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing extra episodes of the podcast exploring some of those questions with experts on the frontline. In today’s episode, Ian Sample investigates where the virus infects us when it enters our bodies, and what difference this makes to disease severity and transmissibility.
Summary
- The death toll in mainland China has passed 3,000, with a further 31 deaths on Wednesday taking the total toll to 3,012. Confirmed cases there rose by 139 to reach 80,409.
- California’s governor has declared a state of emergency after the announcement of the first virus-related death there. The state now has 53 confirmed cases. The victim, a 71-year-old man, travelled on the Grand Princess cruise ship last month, and the vessel is now being held off the coast of San Francisco while tests are conducted. Twenty one people on board have reported flu-like symptoms.
- Italy has closed all schools and universities until 15 March and ordered that all major sporting events, including Serie A football, would be played behind closed doors. The virus has killed 107 people there, and spread to all but one of Italy’s 20 regions
- Japan’s Olympics minister has said cancelling or delaying the Games in July “would be unacceptable for the athletes”. The country has 1,036 cases and 12 people have died, it’s health ministry has said.
- Australia introduced a travel ban for South Korea and brought in enhanced screening for those arriving from Italy. Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has said the government is “looking at scenarios from the most benign through to some millions of people being infected over a period of several weeks”. The health minister for New South Wales has said containment of the virus is now “unlikely”.
- Germany’s health minister has labelled the outbreak a pandemic, something the World Health Organization has so far stopped short of declaring. “What’s clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak,” Spahn told German politicians.
- The UK has seen the biggest daily increase to date, with cases jumping by more than 60% to 87 cases.
- India is restricting the export of several drugs, including paracetamol and antibiotics, leading to fears of a global shortage of essential medicines.
- The IMF has torn up its growth forecasts. The fund has warned this year’s growth will be lower than last year’s.
- Concerts, conferences and sporting events are being cancelled in countries around the world. MGM Universal has also announced the postponement of the release of the new James Bond film, No Time to Die.
Updated
The Australian government has published guidelines for Australians who need to self-isolate either because they have been diagnosed with the virus, or because they’ve been deemed at risk of acquiring it.
As well as advising people to stay at home or in their hotel, including not going to public places, in particular work, school, childcare or university, the government has also issued advice on how to alleviate boredom while in isolation – including doing craft.
“Keep in touch with family members and friends via telephone, email or social media,” the advice says.
“Exercise regularly. Options could include exercise DVDs, dancing, floor exercises, yoga, walking around the backyard or using home exercise equipment, such as a stationary bicycle, if you have it. Exercise is a proven treatment for stress and depression.
“Don’t rely too heavily on the television and technology. Treat quarantine as an opportunity to do some of those things you never usually have time for, such as board games, craft, drawing and reading.”
The selloff on world stock markets has been stemmed for now with decent gains across Asia Pacific on Thursday, but the issue of the virus is still front and centre in the minds of investors.
Damien Klassen at Nucleus Wealth in Melbourne has been tracking the data and has posted some charts and thoughts on the firm’s website.
We've launched a major update to our #Coronavirus statistics landing page!
— Nucleus Wealth (@NucleusWealth) March 4, 2020
All the old charts are still featured. however we've added an array of new ones focussing on how #COVID19 is spreading, and countries experiencing new outbreaks
Updated charts: https://t.co/YA0WxtD7Gf pic.twitter.com/mlRp15ufxZ
It’s well worth a look, especially in light of what Australia’s chief medical officer was saying earlier about the modelling scenarios about how it could infect millions in the worst case.
Klassen makes the point that we should use data from South Korea, Singapore and the Diamond Princess to extrapolate how it might spread because figures from countries such as China , Italy and Iran come with question marks. For example, he questions how reliable Chinese data can be when South Korea now has more recorded cases than any Chinese province except Hubei.
One more reason to distrust Chinese data: there are now 3x more cases per person in South Korea than any China province outside of Hubei.https://t.co/Mty4xTMOgz pic.twitter.com/WRYBHq41cT
— Damien Klassen (@DamienKlassen) March 1, 2020
Also he looks at whether climate is a factor since there has been no significant outbreak so far in a tropical country.
Updated
Japan is committed to a July start for the Olympics, officials say
Japan’s Olympics minister said the country is committed to hosting the summer games as planned from July even as the coronavirus outbreak spread to new parts of the country.
“Cancellation or delay of the Games would be unacceptable for the athletes,” Seiko Hashimoto said in parliament on Thursday.
The minister had caused controversy earlier this week by saying the contract for the games “could be interpreted as allowing a postponement” within calendar 2020.
Confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 1,036 nationwide as of Thursday morning, 36 more than the previous day, according to national broadcaster NHK. It was the biggest one-day increase to date, with new cases in locations ranging from Kumamoto prefecture in the southwest to Hokkaido in the north.
The Australian toilet paper-buying urge is strong even for two Australian behavioural scientists
Liam Smith and Celine Klemm write, “Humans are finely attuned to monitoring what everybody else is doing (even subconsciously). Most of us use ‘what other people do’ as a mental shortcut to decide on what the appropriate behaviour would be if we are unsure. It’s a simple decision mechanism called ‘social proof heuristic’, a concept popularised by psychologist Robert Cialdini. For instance, we litter more when the surrounding environment is littered, because it signals to us that littering is the norm. Hotel guests are also more likely to reuse their towels if told that ‘the majority of guests reuse their towels’. So, when we see people stockpiling toilet paper, the natural reaction is to do the same. Social proof can help decide how to act, or reassure us that we are taking the right action.”
Updated
An Australian newspaper has printed extra pages for people to use as toilet paper.
Coronavirus-fulled panic buying has led to shortages of loo roll across the country in recent days.
It’s the panic that keeps on giving.
#ToiletPaperEmergency or the great #ToiletPaperApocalypse, as it has been dubbed on Twitter, has already rolled out hundreds of memes, witty asides as well as documented the madness of people stockpiling the toilet essential.
In the real world it has led to Australian toilet paper manufacturers ramping up production to keep up with demand from people fearful of coronavirus.
One newspaper has gone one step further by printing extra pages in its editions to help out those who have been … caught short.
On Thursday the NT News, the Darwin-based newspaper with a national reputation for its headlines and antics, printed a special eight-page insert that can be cut into toilet paper.
We have a bit more information about the latest cases from South Australia, from a press conference given at the Royal Adelaide hospital a short time ago.
Two people, a baby and a 58-year-old man, tested positive to Covid-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases in South Australia to seven.
The public health physician, Dr Nicola Spurrier, said the baby girl was the daughter of a 40-year-old woman who was hospitalised in Adelaide’s Flinders Medical Center on Wednesday after testing positive for the virus. The woman arrived in Adelaide from Iran via Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
“The little bub, the child of the mother that is currently in Flinders Medical Centre has tested positive but I am very pleased to report that the child is well and both mother and baby are doing well in that facility,” Spurrier said.
The 58-year-old man, from Taiwan, arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday and was taken to the Royal Adelaide hospital to be isolated on Thursday.
Spurrier said authorities were also tracing any possible contacts that a 24-year-old South Australian woman, who returned from Europe on Sunday and had travelled through Italy, may have made since returning to Adelaide. That woman tested positive on Wednesday.
“There are a number of places that that young woman visited before she had the test results and we are all following through on those potential places,” Spurrier said.
Italian tourists have been caught trying to evade virus containment in Mauritania
A group of Italian tourists tried to escape coronavirus confinement in Mauritania but were caught and sent back to their home country, the West African country said Wednesday.
The 15 tourists arrived in the capital Nouakchott on Saturday planning to travel to the northern tourist hub of Atar, health ministry spokesman Abdelkader Ould Ahmed told AFP.
But Mauritania has imposed a confinement period on travellers from countries considered to be a high coronavirus risk – including Italy, which has Europe’s most cases with more than 3,000 as well as 107 deaths.
Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed that the tourists had since all returned home, “assisted by our diplomatic network”.
The Mauritanian spokesman said the confinement rules applied to “all travellers from risk areas, without distinction”.
He added that this “rigour has paid off” as the country has yet to register a case of coronavirus.
Hong Kong has warned residents not to kiss pets after a dog contracted coronavirus
Hong Kong authorities have warned people to avoid kissing their pets, but also to not panic and abandon them after a dog repeatedly tested “weak positive” for coronavirus.
The Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said experts unanimously agreed the results suggested the dog had “a low-level of infection and it is likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission”.
The Pomeranian’s owner was infected with Covid-19 but the dog itself was not showing symptoms, authorities said.
Coronavirus has spread to almost all of Iran’s provinces
President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that while the virus has spread to almost all of Iran’s 31 provinces, the country will get through the outbreak with a “minimum” number of deaths, Reuters reports.
“This disease is a widespread disease,” he said during a Cabinet meeting, according to the official presidency website.
The health ministry said on Tuesday that 92 people had died so far from coronavirus, one of the highest death tolls outside China where the epidemic originated late last year. It said 2,922 people had been infected with the disease.
Among those infected is first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, the IranWire news site reported, citing an “informed source”. There was no immediate confirmation from officials.
Several Iranian officials have come down with coronavirus and one senior official died from an infection on Monday.
The Islamic Republic has cancelled Friday prayers in all provincial capitals this week because of the coronavirus outbreak, state television reported on Wednesday.
In the US, all NASA employees will be working from home on Friday, POLITICO reports. The measure is partly in order to “stress test” their remote work technologies in case an extended period of remote work.
A cruise ship linked to the first death from coronavirus in California is being held off the coast of San Francisco, with 21 people on board reporting possible symptoms.
Seven in 10 people worldwide would support sealing off entire cities or towns affected by coronavirus to slow the spread of infection, according to a poll of citizens in 10 countries, Reuters reports.
As health authorities battle to stop a worldwide pandemic, a clear majority backed lockdowns to prevent anyone entering or leaving urban areas that have seen large numbers of coronavirus cases, found the survey by polling firm Ipsos.
“Even in Italy, where this is already happening, 60% support the total quarantine of affected towns and cities,” Darrell Bricker, head of Ipsos Public Affairs said.
Europe’s largest regional airline collapses, Coronavirus last straw
Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, has collapsed into administration less than two months after the government announced a rescue deal.
The impact of the coronavirus on flight bookings proved the last straw for the Exeter-based airline, which operates almost 40% of UK domestic flights, as the government stalled on a controversial £100m loan.
In Australia, the Guardian has confirmed that a baby has been diagnosed with Covid-19 in South Australia. The baby’s mother was diagnosed yesterday, after returning to the country from Iran on Sunday. Both the mother and child diagnosed with Covid-19 in South Australia are at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide.
Updated
Trump has attempted to blame Obama for coronavirus test kit shortage
Donald Trump sought to shift blame on to the Obama administration for a nationwide coronavirus test kit shortage.
The president on Wednesday blamed a federal agency decision during Barack Obama’s presidency, which Trump said made it harder to quickly roll out testing for the virus.
“The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing, and we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion,” he told reporters during a White House meeting with airline executives, whom he had called to discuss the economic effects of the outbreak.
“That was a decision we disagreed with,” he said. “I don’t think we would have made it, but for some reason, it was made.”
Virus is ‘once in 100 years catastrophe’ – hedge fund boss
Ray Dalio, one of Wall Street’s highest profile hedge fund bosses, has described the coronavirus as “one of those once in 100 years catastrophic events” that will hit companies with large debt levels the hardest and potentially lead to a significant economic downturn.
The founder of Bridgewater Associates, a fund with $160bn in assets, said the crisis could be broken into three parts: 1) the virus, 2) the economic impact of reactions to the virus, and 3) the market action.
The market website Livewire has posted excerpts from his comments on Linkedin.
Dalio says that the US Fed’s rate cuts – and similar actions by other central banks from Australia to Canada – won’t do much to boost demand, although they might “goose risky asset prices a bit”.
“That’s true in the US. In Europe and Japan, monetary policy is virtually out of gas so it’s difficult to imagine how pure monetary policy will work. In Europe, it will be interesting to see if fiscal policy stimulations can pick up in this political environment.”
Chinese social media censors blocked neutral information about the coronavirus outbreak when they targeted references to the outbreak on WeChat and other platforms, a report has found.
Hundreds of keywords and keyword combinations, including “Wuhan seafood market” and “Sars variation” were censored in late December, as doctors sought to warn about the new virus.
Here is the full story on that press conference with Australia’s New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard regarding the on-soil spread of coronavirus in the state.
In China, a 36-year-old man who had been confirmed to have the virus and was discharged from a hospital in Wuhan on 26 February has died, according to the Chinese publication the Paper, who cited his wife. The man suddenly became ill on 2 March and died after going to the hospital. The cause of death was respiratory failure caused by Covid-19.
China has been noting daily increases in the number of people “cured” or discharged from hospitals after being confirmed to have the virus. But, after several cases of released patients testing positive again, authorities in Hubei ordered that released patients be quarantined for another 14 days.
Beijing Ditan Hospital in Beijing has meanwhile found that a patient who tested positive for Covid-19 has suffered viral encephalitis caused by the virus, adding to evidence the infections can cause damage to patients’ nervous systems.
Hong Kong residents who had been stuck in Hubei province, the source of the outbreak, have returned on flights chartered by the Hong Kong government. There were 244 passengers. Another 200 are expected to be brought back today. Anyone showing symptoms or a high temperature has not been allowed to board, and all will undergo quarantine for two weeks, the Hong Kong government said.
Among the group are 14 pregnant women and 22 people in need of medical care, including cancer patients.
South Korea virus total nears 6,000
South Korea’s total number of novel coronavirus cases – the largest outside China – approached 6,000 on Thursday as authorities reported 145 new infections.
The total stood at 5,766, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, with 35 deaths.
So far 36 countries and regions have imposed a blanket entry ban on people who have recently been in the South, according to the foreign ministry in Seoul.
Nearly 90 percent of the national total occurred in the southern city of Daegu and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province.
Australia’s Scott Morrison says there is “no suggestions that there should be no mass gatherings” in the country, as he said the outbreak in Australia was significantly less challenging than those in other countries – in response to what the significance might be for Australia’s economy.
He urged any Australians experiencing symptoms to “do the right thing by their fellow Australians” and “prevent the spread of the virus”.
Still in Australia for now, the Guardian’s Katharine Murphy has asked Scott Morrison to elaborate on the travel travel ban regarding South Korea.
Part of the reason, Morrison responded, was the number of travellers arriving in Australia from South Korea. “The volume of travellers coming out of the Republic of Korea was more than five times what it is out of Italy,” he said.
It “may well be possible within a matter of days or weeks to be able to ensure that we can deal with that,” he said, but for now the travel ban was “the way to go”.
Updated
Australia's chief medical officer warns worst case scenario for Australia is 'millions of people being infected over a period of several weeks'
The Guardian’s Sarah Martin has asked Morrison and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy about what they know about the likely spread of transmission in Australia.
Murphy said the government is “looking at scenarios from the most benign through to some millions of people being infected over a period of several weeks.”
Scott Morrison then jumped in to say the government had “been careful not to be speculative about this in the public domain. What we have done all the way through this global health crisis, I think, is to be very candid and up front and we will continue to do that but what we won’t do is be speculative, because we’re not in the position of creating unnecessary anxiety.”
Updated
Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy has addressed Australia’s toilet paper hoarding behaviour as he urged the public to behave as they usually would.
“At the moment, there is no reason to put a mask on when you are walking around the shops, there is no reason to stop going to football matches or community activities, there is no reason to dilute the shelves of lavatory paper in the supermarkets. We should continue a normal activity, we should watch the development of this and, we will focus on any outbreaks and control.”
Updated
Australia’s federal chief medical officer Brendan Murphy has said the government is “very worried about Iran.”
Australia’s National Security Committee is reviewing the progress of its preparations for a potential pandemic, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said.
“That has gone from everything from availability of surgical masks and in particular, to working with the health sector,” he said.
He added that work was ongoing in particular with regard to Indigenous communities and aged care.
“We have always gone about business with common sense and that is what we are known for so let’s do that,” he added.
More on Australia’s travel measures regarding South Korea from Prime Minister Scott Morrison:
“In relation to the Republic of Korea, we will also be upgrading the travel advice to level three, which is to reconsider the need to travel to the Republic of Korea, and it will be at level four which is do not travel to the province of Daegu.”
Updated
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is speaking now, and has announced that the current travel bans regarding mainland China and Iran will continue. A new travel ban has been put in place for the Republic of Korea, and enhanced screening measures are being introduced at airports for travellers arriving from Italy.
Updated
Hong Kong authorities have confirmed the 105th case of Covid-19, in a 69-year-old Happy Valley woman who recently returned from India.
The woman had an underlying illness, and fell sick in India on 23 February, the day before she returned home to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific flight CX694 from New Delhi.
Four days later she developed a fever and consulted a Chinese medical practitioner twice, before visiting an out-patient clinic on 3 March. After testing positive for Covid-19 the woman was admitted to Ruttonjee hospital on Wednesday, and is in a stable condition.
The woman’s husband and the domestic helper who lives with them are asymptomatic and will be quarantined, the government said. Passengers onboard the 24 February flight are urged to contact 2125 1122 if they are concerned.
Authorities in New South Wales, Australia are assessing a group of children from a childcare centre who visited a Sydney aged care home last month, before four people at the centre were diagnosed with Covid-19.
Four people at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care home in Macquarie Park, including a 95-year-old woman who has since died and an aged care worker, have been diagnosed with the virus. The centre has been placed into isolation.
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said young children were “often super spreaders” of respiratory illnesses and that he was recommending visits by childcare centres to aged care homes be discontinued.
Meanwhile, authorities are also trying to contact 77 doctors and primary care officials who were at a radiology conference on 18 February that the 53-year-old doctor from Ryde Hospital, who tested positive to the virus, and another registrar from Liverpool hospital, who also has the virus, both attended.
In New Zealand, the third person infected with coronavirus is a man 40s lives in Auckland. Close family members of his have recently returned from Iran.
“This third case of COVID-19 is classified as what we suspect is a case of family transmission. There is what appears to be a clear link with travel to Iran by a close family member,” the Ministry of Health said.
The man is now at home in self-isolation as he doesn’t require hospital care, nor does anyone else in the family home, who are self-isolating with him.
A medical centre where the man sought advice has been notified, and two schools where the man’s family members attended have sent children home for self-isolation. No other children are showing symptoms at this stage.
In Australia, New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard has said there is an “evolution” happening in the spread of coronavirus around the world.
While there had been “no substantial change” overnight in New South Wales, seven of the state’s infections appeared to have been “on-soil,” he said. There are currently 22 infections in the state.
“New South Wales health is doing everything they can to try to still contain it, but we do know that containment is likely to be an unlikely outcome,” he said.
Updated
Japan’s infections pass 1,000
Japan’s confirmed coronavirus infections rose above 1,000 on Wednesday, most of them from a quarantined cruise liner, as Olympics organisers dismissed speculation that the Tokyo Summer Games could be cancelled.
Twelve people have died in Japan, six from the cruise chip, the health ministry said.
The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics said the option of cancelling the Games was not on the table, responding to deepening speculation of a delay or cancellation.
“I am totally not considering this,” Yoshiro Mori told reporters at a briefing when asked about a possible cancellation.
Asked when the organisers could decide on changes to the Olympics, Mori, a former prime minister, said: “I’m not God, so I don’t know.”
Updated
New infections in China at 139, higher than last two days
Mainland China had 139 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the country’s National Health Commission said on Thursday, up from 119 cases a day earlier, and 125 cases on March 2.
That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China to 80,409.
The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China had reached 3,012 as of the end of Wednesday, up by 31 from the previous day.
The central province of Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, accounted for all of the new deaths. In the provincial capital of Wuhan, 23 people died.
Updated
California declares state of emergency
California governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus in the state, which now has has 53 confirmed cases.
Earlier on Wednesday, health officials announced the first California death from the virus, an elderly person with underlying health conditions. It was the first coronavirus fatality in the United States outside of Washington state, where 10 have died.
A Māori tribe in New Zealand’s capital city has banned the traditional hongi at gatherings this week as more cases of coronavirus emerge.
A hongi is a traditional form of greeting in which two people press their noses to each other and inhale one another’s breath. In Wellington, local iwi (tribe) said a temporary ban would be placed on hongi between members at gatherings this week.
On Wednesday night a third case was confirmed and the ministry of health asked for calm after sufferers and their families were criticised on social media.
In Australia, health officials in the Northern Territory are yet to determine if any residents of small and remote Indigenous communities have been exposed to Covid-19 after the first diagnosis.
A 52-year-old tourist tested positive to the disease and is now in isolation at Royal Darwin Hospital. The man flew to Darwin from Sydney on flight QF840 on Tuesday.
NT Chief medical officer Dianne Stephens said it is unclear if any remote community-based Aboriginal people were on the plane, and it is impossible to determine how many people may have come into contact with the man.
Stephens also said it was unclear how long it would take for a test undertaken in a remote community to reach the state’s only available Covid-19 testing laboratory in Darwin, meaning diagnosis could be delayed if a case were to occur in remote NT.
She said a Remote Health Pandemic Plan will be released by Monday.
The government’s current advice says that anyone who may have come into contact with the virus should seek accommodation within three hours of major municipalities in the state, and not visit or return to a remote community, even if they live there.
Updated
Germany calls coronavirus a pandemic
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said Wednesday the coronavirus outbreak has become a pandemic – defined as an epidemic that spreads throughout the world through local transmission, AFP reports.
“The coronavirus outbreak in China has become a global pandemic,” Jens Spahn told German lawmakers.
The World Health Organization has so far stopped short of declaring a pandemic, though has said the world must prepare for the possibility.
“What’s clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak,” Jens Spahn told German lawmakers.
The virus has reached 81 countries and territories around the world, with South Korea, Iran and Italy emerging as hotspots outside China.
Updated
Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus. More than 100 people have now died in Italy. As the virus spreads further across Europe, schools and universities are closing, large events are being cancelled, and the economic outlook continues to be grim.
- The Italian government has ordered the closure of all schools and universities until 15 March, as 28 more people die in 24 hours.
- The UK has seen the biggest daily increase recorded to date, with the number of coronavirus cases jumping by more than 60% to 87 case.
- India is restricting the export of several drugs, including paracetamol and antibiotics, leading to fears of a global shortage of essential medicines.
- The IMF has torn up its growth forecasts. The fund has warned this year’s growth will be lower than last year’s.
- Concerts, conferences and sporting events are being cancelled in countries around the world. MGM Universal has also announced the postponement of the release of the new James Bond film, No Time to Die.
Here are the latest stories:
- Full story: Italy orders closure of all schools and universities
- Coronavirus epidemic in UK is likely, says chief medical officer
- White House’s ‘muzzled’ messaging is dangerous, experts say
- Move to weekly UK coronavirus updates criticised by experts
- Emergency coronavirus talks held on possibility of parliament closing
