You can read the latests developments on our new liveblog here.
We are closing the liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us and for all your questions and comments. I’m sorry I couldn’t get to all of them.
Here’s the latest full report:
China virus death toll rises to 258
The number of confirmed deaths from China’s coronavirus outbreak has risen to 258, as authorities in hardest-hit Hubei province reported 45 new fatalities, AFP reports.
In its daily update, the provincial health commission also said newly confirmed cases of infection in Hubei continued to grow at a steady pace, to 1,347.
That puts the national total over 11,000, based on numbers previously issued by the central government.
Updated
The seventh case of coronavirus has been confirmed in California, CNBC reports.
The Santa Clara Public Health Department said an adult man tested positive for the new coronavirus, marking at least the seventh case in the US as the outbreak spreads across the globe.
The patient contracted the virus in Wuhan and has been isolated at home since, county officials said at a press conference Friday.
Spain confirms first case of coronavirus
Spain’s National Centre for Microbiology has confirmed the country’s first case of coronavirus after a man was diagnosed with the virus on the remote island of La Gomera in the Canaries, the Health Ministry said late on Friday.
The patient is part of a group of five people taken into observation on the island and isolated after it was found they had come into contact with a German man diagnosed with the virus.
Total coronavirus deaths in Hubei reaches 249
The death toll from coronavirus has jumped to 249 in China’s Hubei, Reuters is reporting.
The last figure we had was 213. More than 9,709 cases have been confirmed in mainland China so far.
Evening summary
Here’s a summary to get you up to speed:
- Two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus. They are being treated in Newcastle.
- The Foreign Office said it was ‘aware of frustrations’ of Brits who had wanted to leave Wuhan but proved unable to board the evacuation plane.
- Michael Gove told Sky News the government would send another plane to Wuhan to evacuate British nationals if needed.
- Russia has reported its first two cases of coronavirus. Russia’s deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova told reporters the infected people were Chinese citizens who had been isolated.
- The plane carrying 83 Britons to the UK from Wuhan in China landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and the evacuees were driven to a facility on the Wirral where they will stay in quarantine for the next 14 days.
- Thailand has recorded its first human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus after a taxi driver was apparently infected by a traveller.
- The Trump administration has declared a public health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak. It has also announced it will temporarily bar entry to the US for people traveling from China.
- A plan to evacuate Australians stranded in China is likely to go ahead over the weekend, the AAP news agency is reporting.
Here is an explainer about what coronavirus is:
Updated
Thailand has recorded its first human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus after a taxi driver was apparently infected by a traveller, heightening concern over the virus’s potential to spread across the globe.
The taxi driver was among five new patients confirmed on Friday in the worst-hit country outside China, bringing the total number of cases in Thailand to 19.
Read more on that here:
Here’s an interesting article about Wuhan, which gives an idea about how the city and its inhabitants have handled the crisis.
The US has declared a public health emergency
The Trump administration has declared a public health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak.
It has also announced it will temporarily bar entry to the US for people traveling from China unless they are Americans or immediately related to US citizens. The restrictions on travel begin on Sunday afternoon.
Robert R Redfield, director of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention said:
“This is a serious health situation in China, but I want to emphasise the risk to the American public currently is low. It is our goal to keep it that way.”
Read more here:
There is a press briefing going on at White House with members of the US taskforce. You can watch it here:
Six buses were led by a police escort to the rear of the hospital and on to a side road leading to the accommodation block, PA media reports.
A medic wearing a white specialist suit was sat next to the coach driver of each vehicle.
The convoy, which also included a number of ambulances, then travelled out of sight.
Patients disembarked from behind barriers covering the accommodation entrance but some could be seen inside wearing masks as they walked upstairs to their rooms for the next fortnight.
Here are a few pictures of the evacuees arriving at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral.
Updated
Buses carrying 83 Britons arrive at quarantine facility
Buses carrying 83 Britons who returned to the UK from Wuhan on Friday morning have arrived at a facility on the Wirral.
The convoy travelled from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to Arrowe Park Hospital, where the Britons will be quarantined for 14 days in NHS staff accommodation.
Updated
Here’s a bit more detail about the two people diagnosed with coronavirus following some reader questions via email.
They were taken ill at the StayCity apartment hotel in York on Wednesday and were later confirmed to be the first UK cases of the coronavirus.
It is understood the two guests travelled to the UK from China recently. They are two members of the same family.
They are undergoing treatment in Newcastle because it is a specialist Airborne High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) centre.
Public Health England (PHE), which is urgently trying to trace those who came into contact with the two people, said steps will be taken to reduce the risk to the public and it is “identifying the areas where there is deemed to be a risk”.
A PHE spokeswoman said:
“Our public health experts are well trained at assessing risk, and are adopting approaches that they have used in a number of emerging infections to reduce the risk to the public.”
At the StayCity hotel on Friday, business carried on as usual, with guests continuing to check in for weekend breaks in York despite the firm confirming that two people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK had been staying there.
Outside the hotel, two guests told the Guardian that as recently as Friday morning they had been told by reception staff the reports that two tourists had been taken ill from their apartment on Wednesday were “lies”.
“This morning they said it was a lie and not to listen to it,” said Andy Neale, 21, who is staying at StayCity for the night with his girlfriend. “It’s not ideal. They should’ve taken some precaution.”
He added that the incident had marred the couple’s getaway, saying: “My girlfriend is stressing out, she’s using hand wipes on everything.”
A family who were staying in the hotel on a visit from Asia to see their daughter, who is a student in York, said they had been told the cases were “false information” when they asked staff if reports were true.
Helen Papakosta, 15, from Greece, showed reporters a video she had taken on her phone of people in hazmat suits arriving at the hotel on Thursday morning – presumably to deep clean the suite where the affected guests had been staying.
Although her mother, Chrisa Papakosta, 48, whom she had been staying at the hotel with, was unfazed by the event she was “concerned” by it.
A statement from StayCity, the chain that owns the hotel, read:
“We have now received confirmation that two guests staying in one of our apartments in York have been tested positive for the coronavirus.
“We have been advised by Public Health England that there is minimal ongoing risk of infection to either guests or staff, and as such our York property remains open for business.
In due course the apartment concerned will undergo a thorough environmental clean and disinfection by a specialist contractor. We would like to reassure all our guests that we are following official advice on this matter and that the health and safety of everyone working and staying in our properties remains of paramount importance to us.”
Updated
Following on from the earlier post about health officials urgently trying to trace anyone who came into contact with two people diagnosed with coronavirus, Public Health England have clarified the definition of close contact.
A new statement defines close contact as coming within two metres of the infected person for 15 minutes.
Earlier we reported that Sharon Peacock, the director of the National Infection Service at PHE, said:
“Public Health England is contacting people who had close contact with the confirmed cases. The two cases were staying in York when they became unwell.
“Close contacts will be given health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the 14 days after contact with the confirmed cases.
“This tried-and-tested method will ensure we are able to minimise any risk to them and the wider public.”
Updated
Up to 35,000 passengers could be affected by the cancellation of flights to mainland China by UK airlines, PA Media reports:
British Airways announced on Wednesday it had grounded its daily flights connecting Heathrow with Beijing and Shanghai, after a change in government travel advice relating to the outbreak. It has cleared its schedules until at least the end of February.
Virgin Atlantic initially continued its flights between Heathrow and Shanghai, but on Thursday night it announced it will suspend the route for 14 days. Several Chinese carriers are running their usual schedule to UK airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.
Global travel and data analytics firm Cirium calculated that the decision of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to suspend flights has affected the travel plans of as many as 35,000 passengers.
Peter Morris, chief economist at Ascend by Cirium, said:
“Cirium data clearly shows the dramatic impact that coronavirus is having, with nearly 10,000 scheduled flights to, from and within China being suspended between January 23 and 28.
“While the industry is playing its part to help prevent the spread of the virus, the outbreak will inevitably cause significant disruption of schedules and travel patterns in the short and medium term.”
Updated
If you are feeling concerned about how coronavirus is spread, here’s a good explainer by my colleagues Hannah Devlin and Ellen Wishart.
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is a new illness and scientists are still assessing how it spreads from person to person, but similar viruses tend to spread via cough and sneeze droplets.
When an infected person coughs or sneezes, they release droplets of saliva or mucus. These droplets can fall on people in the vicinity and can be either directly inhaled or picked up on the hands then transferred when someone touches their face, causing infection.
For flu, some hospital guidelines define exposure as being within six feet of an infected person who sneezes or coughs for 10 minutes or longer.
Read more here:
Updated
This is Nicola Slawson taking over the live blog in London.
If you have any coronavirus-related information, tips, questions or stories that you think we should be covering, please do get in touch.
You can reach me via email at nicola.slawson@theguardian.com or via my Twitter profile, @Nicola_Slawson.
Updated
Lunar new year celebrations across the UK have been cancelled because of the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Events due to take place this weekend have been called off in Oxford, Cambridge, Colchester, Exeter, Manchester, Wigan and Bristol.
Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, said the decision to cancel the celebrations at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery had been made after discussions with the city’s Chinese community and in solidarity with those affected.
“Our deepest sympathies are with Chinese friends both at home and abroad who have been affected by coronavirus, and I want to extend my condolences to those who have lost loved ones,” he said.
Updated
The United States drew China’s wrath with a travel warning on Friday.
Russia, Britain, Sweden and Italy all reported their first cases, with Rome declaring its own national emergency as it sought to reconstruct the itinerary of two infected Chinese tourists.
“Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan,” the US state department said, raising the warning for China to the same level as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Beijing, which has only just started to mend tattered trade ties with the US, called that move “truly mean” given the World Health Organization had commended its containment efforts and not recommended travel or trade curbs.
“The World Health Organization urged countries to avoid travel restrictions, but very soon after that, the United States did the opposite,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement. “It’s truly mean.”
Japan also advised citizens to put off non-urgent travel to China, while Bahrain recommended no travel to any country hit by the virus, and Iran and Mongolia urged a ban on all travellers from China.
Singapore, a major travel hub in Asia, stopped entry of passengers with a recent history of travel to China and also suspended visas for Chinese passport holders. The ban extends to those just transiting Singapore.
Updated
Just a quick update on numbers:
Just under 10,000 cases (9,692) have been confirmed by the Chinese authorities, with 213 people having died, all in China.
And cases have spread to more than 20 countries outside China, including England.
Modelling research published in the Lancet estimates that up to 75,800 individuals in Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, may have been infected with the new coronavirus by 25 January.
Updated
The coach company that collected British passengers after they landed in the UK on a flight from Wuhan has said its vehicles will be “deep cleaned”.
At least seven coaches from Horseman Coaches Ltd were seen arriving at the Brize Norton RAF base in Oxfordshire at around 10am.
The drivers had agreed to take the job, a company spokesman said, and will be given paid leave to “remain at home for the next 10 days”.
The vehicles will also be removed from service for a minimum of 10 days after they are cleaned, the company said.
After several delays, the evacuation flight left Wuhan at 9.45am local time on Friday, carrying 83 Britons and 27 non-UK nationals, mostly from EU countries.
The Horseman Coaches spokesman told the PA news agency: “The Department for Health have procedures in place for the vehicles to be deep cleaned.
“That is part of the process of this undertaking, which will happen as soon as the vehicles are clear.”
He added: “I can give everybody assurance that everything will be cleansed sufficiently.”
On arrival in the UK the British passengers on the evacuation flight boarded the coaches and faced the more than three-hour drive to Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral for a quarantine period of 14 days, where they will be housed in an NHS staff accommodation block with access to the internet.
The Horseman Coaches spokesman declined to comment on whether or not the drivers would also have to be put in isolation, but this was later clarified.
A statement on the company’s Facebook page said it had been contacted by the British government on Thursday afternoon, adding: “As an extra precaution Horseman Coaches have decided to take, the drivers involved will take paid leave and remain at home for the next 10 days, and likewise after the cleansing of the vehicles, the vehicles will be removed from service for a minimum of 10 days.”
Updated
Health officials are urgently trying to trace those who came into contact with two people diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK.
Public Health England (PHE) confirmed that the two people taken ill had been staying in York when they became unwell.
The pair are being treated by Newcastle upon Tyne hospitals NHS foundation trust in its specialist Airborne High Consequences Infectious Disease Centre (HCID). It is understood that they travelled to the UK from China recently.
Prof Sharon Peacock, director of the National Infection Service at PHE, said: “Public Health England is contacting people who had close contact with the confirmed cases. The two cases were staying in York when they became unwell.
“Close contacts will be given health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the 14 days after contact with the confirmed cases.
“This tried-and-tested method will ensure we are able to minimise any risk to them and the wider public.”
Earlier, Peacock said that while staff were working to trace people who had been in contact with the pair, they did not currently have “any idea” of how high that number might be.
On Wednesday night, the StayCity apartment-hotel in York was put on lockdown when some family members, believed to be Chinese nationals, were taken to hospital after falling ill.
Updated
The Guardian reporter Josh Halliday has been speaking with families living near the Merseyside hospital being used to quarantine potential coronavirus cases.
They have said they are concerned and confused as dozens of evacuated Britons were due to arrive at the NHS facility.
Some residents expressed concern about the proximity of the quarantine site to their homes and questioned whether the busy hospital would be able to cope with the additional pressure.
Del Willden, 53, said he had nothing but praise for hospital staff and was pleased the evacuees had returned safely from China. But he added: “My concern is for the hospital. This is my local hospital and I know and have experienced the struggles they suffer on a daily basis.”
Updated
Singapore has announced that it is closing its borders with China. The island nation banned Chinese visitors and other foreigners who had been to China in the past 14 days.
The visa suspension will come into effect immediately so travellers can be informed in advance, while the travel restriction will start at 11.59pm on Saturday. The government did not say when these restrictions would be lifted.
Singapore, which currently has 13 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, has China as one of its biggest trading partners and is a popular destination for Chinese tourists.
Previously, the government of Mongolia said on Friday that it would close its border with China until 2 March in an effort to prevent the virus from being imported.
Updated
The first case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in Sweden, according to a report in the digital news publisher The Local.
A patient at the Ryhov county hospital in Jönköping, central-southern Sweden, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten) confirmed to the website.
The patient is a woman who landed in Sweden on 24 January after visiting the Wuhan area in China. At that point she had no symptoms, said the agency.
But she later developed a cough and contacted the health services in Jönköping.
She is being kept in isolation at the clinic for infectious diseases and is not seriously ill.
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“It is important to remember that individual cases is not the same thing as the infection spreading in Sweden. We currently consider this risk to be very low based on experiences from other countries,” said Karin Tegmark Wisell, head of the Public Health Agency’s department for microbiology.
Updated
Nearly 10,000 Chinese flights have now been suspended since the coronavirus outbreak, according to global travel and data analytics expert Cirium.
The thousands of cancellations in the last week, come as authorities in China, and around the world, grapple with the spread of the virus.
Cirium statistics show that 9,807 scheduled flights within, to and from mainland China did not fly from 23 January. The data spans the period from the day before the first reported flight cancellation to 28 January – the latest day for which figures are available.
A growing number of international carriers are suspending scheduled flights to mainland China, including UK airlines. British Airways has cancelled all of its 129 flights that were scheduled to fly to Beijing and Shanghai from London Heathrow, from 29 January until 29 February, affecting up to 24,000 passengers.
Similarly, Virgin Atlantic has today announced it will be suspending its flights to and from China, as of 2 February, until further notice. According to Cirium data, the decision could affect 56 of the British carrier’s scheduled flights and as many as 11,500 passengers to the end of February.
This is despite the World Health Organization specifically asking countries not to impose travel and trade restrictions with China. The health organisation said it would question border closures, quarantining of aeroplane passengers who aren’t ill, and similar steps.
Updated
The hospital in Newcastle which is treating Britain’s first confirmed cases of coronavirus has urged other patients to attend their appointments as normal.
Two Chinese nationals were taken to the hospital from a hotel in York after displaying symptoms of the virus.
In a statement this afternoon, Newcastle upon Tyne hospitals NHS foundation trust said there was “no risk” to other patients and visitors while the pair were undergoing treatment.
It said: “Our hospital is one of five highly specialised infectious diseases units capable of dealing with this illness.
“You should not be concerned – there is no risk to other patients and visitors.
“All of our services are operating as usual. If you have a hospital appointment, please attend this as planned.”
The two patients taken unwell are being treated in the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) unit, which has specialist areas where patients can be isolated to ensure infectious diseases are not spread further.
There are specific areas where staff can change in and out of protective clothing and equipment, while patient isolation rooms have tightly controlled air flow and filtering.
In severe cases of infection for patients, treatment can include life support such as the use of a ventilator, dialysis to support the kidneys and artificial hydration or nutrition.
Updated
Eagle eyed readers are questioning why the driver of the coach, which is transferring passengers on the evacuation flight from Wuhan to the UK to Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral, is not wearing any protective clothing.
The driver, in a high-vis jacket, is next to a medic who is wearing a full Hazmat suit including a helmet with a visor.
Updated
Passengers on the evacuation flight from Wuhan to the UK have been speaking to the media.
The 83 British passengers who landed at at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire earlier today are now being transferred by coach to an accommodation block at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral, where they will be quarantined for 14 days, monitored and treated if any symptoms develop.
The remaining 27 passengers, all non-UK nationals, will then be flown on to Spain.
James Convey told Sky News from the plane: “It was quite a positive atmosphere to be honest. Everyone was relieved to get out of China.
“There were a lot of obstacles for a lot of people to get on that plane and a lot of us overcame those obstacles with the help of the British and Chinese authorities.
“We’re all very relieved to be back in the UK.
“It was a very tight turnaround. We had about 1.5 hours’ notice to get to Wuhan airport. All the transport was locked down. The roads were closed.
“But my mother-in-law managed to call in a few favours … amazingly we did get there on time.
“I think there’s probably a lot of people who didn’t … but also there were lots of people on the flight.”
Updated
A plan to evacuate Australians stranded in China is likely to go ahead over the weekend, the AAP news agency is reporting.
Evacuees will be flown out of China on a Qantas passenger plane and could leave Wuhan in the early hours of Monday morning.
A scheduled Qantas plane leaving Sydney for Hong Kong on Friday night will stay there waiting for the green light from Chinese officials to enter Wuhan.
Evacuees will be flown back to Darwin first before being transported on to Christmas Island in smaller aircraft where they will be met by medical specialists who have spent the weekend preparing a quarantine facility.
The nation’s top health bureaucrats have not yet recommended suspending all flights from China but the Transport Workers Union is calling on the government to do so.
Updated
This is Nazia Parveen taking over the live blog from Manchester now. As usual, please send me any coronavirus-related information, tips, questions or stories that you think we should be covering and I’ll do my best to get them in. You can reach me via email at nazia.parveen@theguardian.com or via my Twitter profile, @NParveenG
Updated
Patrick Graham, one of the British citizens evacuated from Wuhan, shared footage of the plane touching down at RAF Brize Norton.
He joked with his social media followers: “The infected are coming,” before adding: “Thank you staff wamosair for getting us home – they also have to go into a period of quarantine for bringing us home.”
He shared a screenshot of the news the UK has confirmed two cases of the deadly virus and wrote: “Please don’t blame us … we have only just landed.”
Updated
The Unite union has released a statement saying the welfare of staff at Arrowe Park hospital, where those travelling from China are being quarantined, needs to be a top priority.
Unite has more than 1,000 members at the Wirral University teaching hospital NHS foundation trust, which includes the hospital. Its regional officer Derek Jones said:
The unions were briefed on the situation by the NHS management today as the welfare of our members working at the hospital is a prime concern.
It should be remembered that those who are being quarantined are British nationals who left Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak in China, and are entitled to the excellent care that the health service can provide.
Staff at the hospital will not be asked to treat those being quarantined as this is being dealt with centrally by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Should any of those at Arrowe Park develop symptoms associated with the virus they will be transferred to the world-renowned Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine which is highly specialised to care for such cases.
The staff, who were asked to leave the residential blocks at short notice to accommodate those flying in from China, are being put up in hotels and apartments at NHS England’s expense.
Unite is satisfied that this emergency is being dealt with in a professional manner, but we will be monitoring how the situation develops in the coming days as the welfare of NHS staff remains a key concern.
Updated
These are the first pictures of the chartered passenger jet carrying 83 British nationals repatriated from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, as it lands at RAF Brize Norton in Charterton, west of London, this afternoon.
British nationals who have returned to the UK are to be transported to Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral where accommodation has been arranged to keep them in quarantine for two weeks - the expected incubation period of any potential infection.
The military medical personnel who have been aboard the flight for the evacuation will also be placed in quarantine, but at a separate military facility, Sky News reports.
After Britons have disembarked, the jet is due to continue on to Spain, where the home countries of European Union citizens will take responsibility for the remaining 27 passengers.
Updated
Two people in Siberia have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the first confirmed cases of the disease in Russia since the outbreak began in neighbouring China last month, Andrew Roth, the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent reports.
Two Chinese citizens who had fallen ill in Russia tested positive for the disease, the deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova said on Friday. The cases were discovered in opposite ends of Siberia, in the Transbaikal and Tyumen regions. Officials said the two people had been isolated and there was “no chance” of the disease spreading in Russia.
Russia announced it would take measures to evacuate its citizens from the Wuhan area of China and also limit flights to the country. Russia on Thursday closed 16 of its land border crossings with China, while allowing the continued transit of freight and mail.
On Friday, Russia said that it would begin evacuating 300 of its citizens from Wuhan and 341 from the province of Hubei, the area hardest hit by the outbreak.
Russia simultaneously announced the cancellation of most regional flights to and from China, while maintaining several routes operated by Aeroflot and Chinese flights arriving into Moscow.
Golikova also said the Russian government would wait until Monday to make a final decision on whether to hold or cancel the Sochi Investment Forum, a business junket usually attended by Vladimir Putin.
Updated
Evacuation flight from Wuhan touches down in UK
The plane carrying Britons to the UK from Wuhan in China has landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
Eighty-three British passengers on the delayed Wamos Air Boeing 747 will be taken by coach to an accommodation block at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral, where they will be quarantined for 14 days, monitored and treated if any symptoms develop. The remaining 27 passengers, all non-UK nationals, will then be flown on to Spain.
Updated
The new coronavirus has been confirmed in a child in Germany, the southern state of Bavaria said on Friday, bringing the total number of known cases in Germany to six.
The new case is a child of an employee at the same firm where four more individuals in the Munich area were infected, the state health ministry said in a statement. All affected people are in stable condition, the ministry said.
Updated
The Global Times, the English-language mouthpiece of China’s Communist party, has published a propaganda video depicting drones equipped with speakers urging people to wear masks and stay inside.
Walking around without a protective face mask? Well, you can't avoid these sharp-tongued drones! Many village and cities in China are using drones equipped with speakers to patrol during the #coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/ILbLmlkL9R
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 31, 2020
It is not clear the extent to which these drones have actually been rolled out across the country.
Updated
China has won international plaudits for a huge mobilisation against the virus, writes Emma Graham-Harrison, including the near-impossible feat of building two new hospitals in as many weeks. But …
As information about the early days of the outbreak has slowly filtered out of China, it has become increasingly clear that the same political system that allowed Beijing to order such a dramatic response also initially allowed the virus to fester.
Updated
Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has resisted pressure to completely shut down the border with mainland China, saying it was not the answer to stem the spread of a virus, AP reports:
Medical workers have threatened to strike if the government refuses to do so, and some restaurant owners have also echoed calls to bar all mainland visitors.
Lam said the number of mainland arrivals has shrunk since Hong Kong this week suspended ferry and high-speed trains to the mainland, as well as shut six smaller border checkpoints.
She urged healthcare workers to reconsider their planned strike, saying the government will provide all necessary resources and give them first priority to the city’s limited supply of protective equipment and masks.
Lam said countries shouldn’t adopt a discriminatory approach in handling the new illnesses.
Lam said schools would be closed now until 2 March, and civil servants can also choose to work from home for another week.
Updated
Russia reports first cases
Russia has reported its first two cases of coronavirus. Russia’s deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova told reporters the infected people were Chinese citizens who had been isolated.
Golikova also said all direct flights to China from Russia would be halted from 9pm GMT on Friday, with the exception of national airline Aeroflot.
Updated
More than 9,800 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed as of Friday evening in Beijing, according to a report by the Associated Press.
- China: 9,692 cases on the mainland. In addition, Hong Kong has 12 cases and Macau has five. Most of the 213 deaths have been in central Hubei province, where illnesses from the new type of coronavirus were first detected in December.
- Thailand: 19
- Japan: 14
- Singapore: 13
- Taiwan: 9
- Malaysia: 8
- Australia: 7
- South Korea: 11
- France: 6
- Vietnam: 5
- United States: 6
- Germany: 5
- Canada: 3
- United Arab Emirates: 4
- Italy: 2
- United Kingdom: 2
- India: 1
- Philippines: 1
- Finland: 1
- Nepal: 1
- Cambodia: 1
- Sri Lanka: 1
Updated
India’s first coronavirus patient has been moved to hospital, where her condition is said to be improving, according to a report on the Indian news site NDTV.
More than 1,000 people in various parts of Kerala, on the south-west tip of India, are under observation for suspected cases of coronavirus, with 15 in isolation wards in various hospitals, according to the broadcaster.
Authorities were attempting to contact all the passengers who travelled on a flight from Kolkata to Cochin on 23 January the infected patient had been on, a day after she travelled from Beijing.
Updated
Foreign Office ‘aware of frustrations’ of Brits stuck in Wuhan
Foreign Office sources said they were aware of the frustrations of some Britons in Wuhan, particularly those who had wanted to but proved unable to board a plane, Dan Sabbagh reports.
They said the complicated situation on the ground and sometimes difficult working relationship with the Chinese authorities made it hard to communicate effectively with those who were hoping to be evacuated.
The number of Britons stranded in the Wuhan region is estimated at about 40. Only 83 of the anticipated 120 were able to board the emergency flight; the rest will be able to fly home on a subsequent plane, although it is not clear when that will leave.
Officials said consular staff made considerable efforts to get people on the flight. The chartered plane was delayed on the tarmac for a further three hours to try to get people onboard, but British officials said it had to leave within the overall time slot provided by China.
Confusion about whether the Chinese would let families of mixed British and Chinese nationality also complicated the picture, with the UK saying it was only at the last minute that Beijing relented and said Chinese passport holders could fly to the UK with their British family members.
Updated
Rebecca Ratcliffe, of the Guardian’s global development desk, has written a more in-depth explanation of why the first human transmission of coronavirus in Thailand could be a significant moment in the development of the outbreak.
Thailand has recorded its first case of human to human transmission of coronavirus, after a taxi driver was infected by a passenger, heightening concern over the virus’s potential to spread in what is the worst-hit country outside China, she reports.
The taxi driver is among five new patients confirmed on Friday, bringing to 19 the total number of cases in Thailand.
Thailand is among the most popular holiday destinations for Chinese people celebrating lunar new year, and officials have warned an outbreak in the country’s tourism hotspots is possible.
More than 25,000 people arrived in the country from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, and other affected Chinese cities, between 3-27 January, according to Reuters.
Most of the Chinese visitors are believed to have returned home, though on Friday afternoon China’s foreign ministry said it would send charter flights to Thailand and Malaysia to bring home residents of virus-affected regions who may have been left stranded after the sweeping travel restrictions were introduced across China last week.
Thai officials have recently stepped up measures at airports and other tourist areas, following criticism that the government had failed to act quickly to stop the virus, and that tourism profits were being prioritised over public health.
Screening for people working in the tourism industry, as well as all passengers travelling from China, has been introduced. In Bangkok’s public transport system, and some of its big shopping malls, hand sanitiser is being handed out for free.
On Tuesday, the Thai public health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, told Sky News he expects the number of infections to rise, warning: “We are not able to stop the spread.”
Updated
Sarah Boseley, the Guardian’s health editor, has written a full report on the two confirmed coronavirus cases detected overnight here in the UK.
Updated
As airlines begin suspending their flights in and out of China as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, foreign nationals in the country are becoming increasingly anxious about whether they will be able to leave if they decide they want to.
Reuters has compiled a list of airlines’ responses to the crisis, which readers planning to travel to or from China might find useful.
- AIR CANADA: Air Canada said on 28 January it was cancelling select flights to China.
- AIR FRANCE: Air France said on 30 January it had suspended all scheduled flights to and from mainland China until 9 February.
- AIR INDIA: Air India said it was cancelling its Mumbai-Delhi-Shanghai flight from 31 January to 14 February.
- AIR NEW ZEALAND: Air New Zealand said on 31 January it was temporarily reducing flights between Auckland and Shanghai to four return services a week from 18 February to 31 March rather than the usual daily flights.
- AIR SEOUL: South Korean budget carrier Air Seoul said on 28 January it had suspended all flights to China.
- AIR TANZANIA: Tanzania’s state-owned carrier said it would postpone its maiden flights to China. It had planned to begin charter flights to China in February.
- AMERICAN AIRLINES: The largest US carrier said it would suspend flights from Los Angeles to Beijing and Shanghai from 9 February to 27 March.
- BRITISH AIRWAYS: BA said on 30 January it had cancelled all flights to mainland China for a month.
- CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS: Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said it would progressively reduce capacity to and from mainland China by 50% or more from 30 January to the end of March.
- DELTA AIR LINES: The US airline said on 29 January it was reducing flights to China to 21 per week from 42, starting 6 February through 30 April.
- EGYPTAIR: Egypt’s flag carrier said on 30 January it would suspend all flights to and from China starting 1 February.
- EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES: El Al Israel Airlines said on 30 January it was suspending flights to Beijing until 25 March. Israel’s health ministry said it would not allow flights from China to land at its airports.
- ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES: The African carrier on 30 January denied reports it had suspended all flights to China. The airline’s statement contradicted its passenger call centre, which told Reuters earlier in the day that flights to China had been suspended.
- FINNAIR: Finland’s Finnair said on 28 January it would suspend its flights to Nanjing and Beijing until the end of March after China suspended international group travel from the country. Finnair will suspend its three weekly flights between Helsinki and Beijing Daxing between 5 February and 29 March and its two weekly flights between Helsinki and Nanjing between 8 February and 29 March.
- KENYA AIRWAYS: Kenya Airways said on 31 January it has suspended all flights to China until further notice.
- LION AIR: Indonesia’s Lion Air Group said on 29 January it would suspend all flights to China from February. The airline has suspended six flights from several Indonesian cities to China so far and will suspend the rest next month.
- LUFTHANSA: Germany’s Lufthansa said on 29 January it was suspending Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines flights to and from China until 9 February. The airline continues to fly to Hong Kong, but it will stop taking bookings for flights to mainland China until the end of February.
- ROYAL AIR MAROC: Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has temporarily suspended its direct flights to China, the company said on 30 January. RAM had on 16 January launched a direct air route with three flights weekly between its Casablanca hub and Beijing.
- RWANDAIR: Rwanda carrier RwandAir has halted flights to and from China until further notice, the airline said in a statement on Friday. The decision will be reviewed later in February, it said.
- SAS: Nordic airline SAS said on 30 January it has decided to suspend all flights to and from Shanghai and Beijing from 31 January until 9 February. SAS offers 12 regular weekly connections from and to Shanghai and Beijing.
- SINGAPORE AIRLINES: Singapore Airlines said on 31 January it would reduce capacity on some of its routes to mainland China in February. The cuts include flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xiamen and Chongqing, some of which are flown by regional arm SilkAir. Its budget carrier Scoot is also cutting back on flights to China.
- TURKISH AIRLINES: Turkey’s flag carrier said on 30 January it would decrease frequency on scheduled flights to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Xian between 5 February and 29 February.
- UNITED AIRLINES: Chicago-based United said it would implement a second phase of flight cancellations between its hub cities in the US and Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, resulting in 332 additional round trips being called off through 28 March. The cancellations will reduce the carrier’s daily departures for mainland China and Hong Kong to four daily from 12. United had previously suspended 24 US flights to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai between 1 February and 8 February because of a significant drop in demand.
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE: UPS has cancelled 22 China flights, as a result of the Wuhan quarantines and normal manufacturing closures due to the lunar new year holiday, the UPS chief executive, David Abney, said on 30 January. He did not specify how many flight cancellations were due to the virus.
- VIRGIN ATLANTIC: Virgin Atlantic said on 30 January it would suspend its daily operations to Shanghai for two weeks from 2 February. It cited declining demand for flights and the safety of its customers and staff.
Updated
A jump in infections in two Chinese cities flanking Wuhan, the centre of a rapidly spreading virus epidemic, is fuelling fears that new hot spots are emerging in a province where strict transport curbs have already brought most activity to a halt, Reuters reports.
China’s central province of Hubei has been the site of almost 60% of infections, as well as more than 95% of deaths. But the province’s two cities of Huanggang and Xiaogan, with combined populations of more than 12 million, have racked up more than 11% of global infections and deaths.
“Medical supplies are in very short supply,” the provincial governor, Wang Xiaodong, said. “Not only are there shortages in Wuhan and surrounding cities, but they are generally severely deficient in other parts of the province.”
Conditions in Huanggang, which had reported 573 infections and 12 deaths, are particularly severe, he warned in remarks on Wednesday, urging every effort to keep the city from becoming a second Wuhan.
Huanggang had insufficient screening procedures for suspected cases, slow testing processes and lack of testing personnel, inspectors from China’s central government has found.
By Wednesday, its tally of suspected cases exceeded 1,000.
Updated
The Guardian’s political correspondent Kate Proctor is tweeting more information about the two UK coronavirus patients announced this morning, gleaned from a Department for Health and Social Care briefing.
BREAKING: two cases of coronavirus being treated at Newcastle's infectious disease unit.
— Kate Proctor (@Kate_M_Proctor) January 31, 2020
New Gov advice: anyone coming back from China with respiratory symptoms should self isolate for 14 days.
Anyone coming back from Wuhan, with symptoms or not, should self isolate for 14 days.
Chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said he will not release names, gender, ages, whether they have been in China.
— Kate Proctor (@Kate_M_Proctor) January 31, 2020
They are members of the same family.
Diagnosis came through overnight.
Tracing of who they have had contact with underway.
Professor Chris Whitty said the risk level of coronavirus raised to moderate because of global situation, not cases in Newcastle.
— Kate Proctor (@Kate_M_Proctor) January 31, 2020
"It's a moderately transmittable virus. This is not at the top end of the range of transmittable respiratory virus'.
"Mortality looks at 2 percent."
Prof Chris Whitty, CMO: "We are very confident that beyond 14 days there is no infectiousness.
— Kate Proctor (@Kate_M_Proctor) January 31, 2020
"This is a virus where 98% of people survive."
Would not confirm if they had been to Wuhan or China.
However he adds: "It's no surprise that this [virus] didn't autogenerate in the UK"
Updated
PA Media has more details on the two UK’s first two coronavirus patients.
Two members of the same family have tested positive for coronavirus in England, the agency reports, adding that sources said they were being treated at a hospital in Newcastle.
On Wednesday night, an apartment-hotel in Yorkshire was put on lockdown when a man, understood to be a Chinese national, was taken to hospital after falling ill. The man, who was a guest at the Staycity Hotel in the centre of York, was taken by medics to hospital, together with family members.
Updated
UK coronavirus patients being treated in Newcastle
BREAKING: two cases of coronavirus being treated at Newcastle's infectious disease unit.
— Kate Proctor (@Kate_M_Proctor) January 31, 2020
New Gov advice: anyone coming back from China with respiratory symptoms should self isolate for 14 days.
Anyone coming back from Wuhan, with symptoms or not, should self isolate for 14 days.
Here are some more photos that have been passed to Michael Standaert, who is reporting from China on the coronavirus outbreak for the Guardian, showing nurses having to make their own surgical masks from spare cloth because of a lack of supplies.
Those who have been following the story will know that only masks above a certain grade – the so-called N95 masks – are able to filter the particles that can lead to infection with coronavirus.
Updated
Thailand has had its first case of human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus inside the country, Reuters reports.
The first patient to contract the virus inside Thailand is a Thai taxi driver, said Tanarak Pipat, the deputy director general of the department of disease Control. “(He) … does not have the record of traveling to China, and it is likely that he was infected (by) a sick traveller from China,” Tanarak said.
Authorities have conducted virus scans on 13 people, including three family members, with whom the taxi driver came into contact. They said initially none of them had tested positive.
“The overall risk of infection in Thailand is still low, but people should take precautions to protect themselves,” Tanarak said.
The taxi driver is one of five new coronavirus cases confirmed in Thailand on Friday. Seven of the 19 cases have recovered and gone home while 12 are still being treated at hospitals. All but two of the cases are Chinese tourists visiting the country, the health authority said.
Updated
Scientists have been giving their reactions to the first diagnoses of coronavirus in the UK. The general consensus appears to be that it is not a surprise and was only a matter of time until we saw the first cases appear on our shores.
Prof Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine, University of East Anglia, said:
The report of the first two cases diagnosed positive for 2019-nCoV in the UK is not surprising and was almost inevitable. The chief medical officer’s statement gives no information on where these two members of the same family acquired their infection. The two cases are members of the same family but no information has been released about whether both cases will have been infected simultaneously or whether one would have passed the infection to the other.
The NHS is well able to nurse people with this novel coronavirus as it has successfully and safely managed a number of cases of both Sars and Mers in the past. With the information available it is not possible to judge what risk if any there may be of spread within the community.
Prof John Edmunds, from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:
This event, whilst unwelcome, is not surprising. However, the UK authorities have been preparing for this for some time, and it seems as if appropriate measures are being taken to limit onward spread.
Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health, University of Southampton, said:
The UK cases are unsurprising to see. Given the spread to other European and North American countries, it was really only a matter of time until the UK ended up with confirmed cases.
Hopefully, as seen elsewhere, the case numbers will be very limited. The key concern will be if there is significant human to human transmission.
Updated
A German military aircraft will shortly be departing for Wuhan to repatriate more than 100 German nationals.
Announcing the plan on Friday, the foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said that none of the German evacuees are infected with the coronavirus or suspected of having contracted it.
Maas said the plane would arrive in Germany on Saturday and the evacuees would be kept in quarantine for two weeks.
Updated
This is where approximately 300 Indian students arriving back in their home country from Wuhan will be kept for the next couple of weeks.
Indian Army has created a facility near Manesar, Haryana for quarantine of approximately 300 Indian students who will be arriving from Wuhan, China. At the facility, students can be monitored for a duration of weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/lPib3CNG2E
— ANI (@ANI) January 31, 2020
Sam Jones, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, has some details on the international passengers on the British repatriation flight that took off from China this morning.
The Spanish government said a flight carrying 19 Spanish citizens had left China in the early hours of Friday morning and was due to land outside London at 1.30pm local time.
Spanish citizens will then be flown to Torrejón military airport near Madrid.
The plane is carrying 120 passengers, of whom 19 are Spanish, one is a Polish citizen resident in Spain, and one is a Chinese citizen married to a Spaniard. Two Danish couples and a Norwegian citizen will also be on the plane from the UK to Madrid. Also onboard are 83 British citizens.
Updated
The Department of Health has declined to say where in England the patients were from but it is understood they are not in the Wirral area, where a special facility has been set up to quarantine Britons evacuated from Wuhan, in China.
Here’s more from Chris Whitty, emphasising that the NHS is well-prepared for a positive test:
We can confirm that two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus. The patients are receiving specialist NHS care, and we are using tried and tested infection control procedures to prevent further spread of the virus.
The NHS is extremely well-prepared and used to managing infections and we are already working rapidly to identify any contacts the patients had, to prevent further spread.
We have been preparing for UK cases of novel coronavirus and we have robust infection control measures in place to respond immediately. We are continuing to work closely with the World Health Organization and the international community as the outbreak in China develops to ensure we are ready for all eventualities.
Updated
First coronavirus cases confirmed in UK
Two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus, the chief medical officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty, said.
Updated
Bangladesh is preparing a flight to repatriate more than 340 Bangladeshi citizens in Wuhan, the New Age reports.
According to the paper, a wide-body aircraft is to leave Dhaka for Wuhan on Friday evening, after Chinese authorities allotted it a slot to operate a special flight for Bangladeshis stuck in the locked-down city.
Zahid Maleque, the health minister, said on Thursday Bangladesh was “fully prepared” to tackle coronavirus, that all passengers arriving in the country from China were being screened, and that so far none had been detected with coronavirus.
An isolation unit has been prepared at Kurmitola General hospital, Maleque said.
Updated
Doctors in Wuhan forced to improvise protective gear
These pictures from one of the hospitals in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, show medical workers resorting to wearing the plastic covers originally used to pack medical supplies because of a shortage of protective gear.
They have been provided to the Guardian by a doctor working at Wuhan union hospital.
The publication of the images come amid a row over emergency medical supplies not getting to the correct places.
Michael Standaert, who is reporting for the Guardian from China, earlier reported how the Red Cross Society of Hubei has come under fire from Chinese netizens who say the charity is sending high-quality medical grade N95 filtration masks to hospitals that are not at the centre of the outbreak nor fever clinics in the greatest need of masks.
The Red Cross subsequently released a statement saying their announcement was mislabelled and it should have said they were KN95 masks, not N95 masks, which is why those other hospitals got them and not the frontline treatment hospitals.
But a chief executive of a company that makes high-quality face masks in China cast doubt on the claim. “To me that sounds like quite the excuse,” he said.
“N95 and KN95 uses exactly the same standards. N95 is the CDC NIOSH standard, that’s the US standard. The Chinese standard – the guobiao standard – is called the KN95. In Europe, it is FFP2, it is 94% [filtration] but it is the same standard. All of those standards require the masks to be able to filter out a rate of 95% of particles at peak breath rate.”
Updated
Students at Melbourne’s Monash university have been told to stay away from campus until mid-March, in an effort by its administrators avoid the spread of coronavirus among its student community.
The 83,000 students who study across Monash’s six campuses had been expecting to return from their summer holidays on 2 March, but the beginning of term has been pushed back to 9 March, with the first week taught online via livestreamed lectures. Campus will not be opened for lectures and seminars until 16 March.
We've had to make some difficult decisions for the safety and wellbeing of our staff, students and the wider community due to the novel coronavirus, which has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
— Monash University (@MonashUni) January 31, 2020
We’re continuing to monitor the rapidly evolving novel coronavirus situation and acting accordingly with the advice from the Department of Human Services.
— Monash University (@MonashUni) January 31, 2020
For more information, see our fact sheethttps://t.co/yiApHTZdl8
In an email sent to students, seen by Australian newspaper The Age, the deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Susan Elliott, said:
The novel coronavirus has created an unprecedented situation where some of our community of students and staff will not make it back in time from affected areas or isolation in time for the commencement of semester one, 2020. We have made these decisions to ensure the entire Monash student and staff body is able to begin the semester together with the highest regard for community wellbeing.
Updated
France confirms sixth case and first human to human transmission
A doctor has become the sixth patient diagnosed with coronavirus in France, the country’s health chief Jérôme Salomon announced on Thursday night.
The patient confined himself after first developing symptoms, and is currently in hospital in Paris, where is condition is said to be not a cause for concern, Le Parisien reports.
The French health directorate says it is the first reported case of contamination on French soil.
This is Damien Gayle taking over the live blog from London now, where it is morning. As usual, please send me any coronavirus-related information, tips, questions or stories that you think we should be covering and I’ll do my best to get them in. You can reach me via email at damien.gayle@theguardian.com or via my Twitter profile, @damiengayle.
What we know so far today
- The death toll stands at 213 inside China and confirmed infections are at nearly 9,100.
- Global infections are up to 130.
- The US has upgraded its travel advice to “do not travel” to China.
- A flight carrying 83 Britons and 27 foreign nationals is on its way home from Wuhan, due to arrive in the UK at around 1pm local time.
- The World Health Organization has declared the virus outbreak a global emergency.
- South Korea evacuated more than 350 of its citizens from Wuhan on an plane and may schedule up to three more flights. It confirmed its seventh case of coronavirus on Friday.
- Italy confirms its first two cases of the virus.
- Japan has changed it’s travel advice to China, urging citizens to avoid non-urgent trips.
- More international airlines have curtailed flights to China, including Virgin Atlantic and Kenya Airways.
Updated
No departure date for evacuation of NZ citizens from Wuhan
Here’s more information on New Zealand’s planned evacuation of its citizens from Wuhan.
The NZ foreign affairs ministry says “it may not be possible for New Zealand permanent residents, who are Chinese citizens, to be on the flight. It should be noted that some permanent residents from other countries on other assisted departure flights have been unable to board.”
There is no departure date set for the flight. New Zealand has offered to take Australians and Pacific Islands citizens on the flight, along with New Zealand citizens.
“Australians aboard the plane would be picked up by their own government at the point of arrival in New Zealand,” the ministry says. “Any other nationalities aboard the plane would be placed in isolation in New Zealand before travel arrangements to return to their home country are made.”
New Zealand is yet to announce where the passengers will be held in isolation.
Updated
A suspected case of coronavirus has been detected in New Zealand, the ministry of health said.
A test had been ordered but the results would not be available until Saturday local time, said Dr Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s most senior medical officer.
The patient is being held at Auckland hospital. So far no confirmed cases of the virus have been discovered in New Zealand, though authorities have repeatedly said it is only a matter of time.
“The normal management of someone who is a suspected case of an infectious disease like this is that they have a special isolation room in the hospital” Dr Bloomfield said.
Planning is under way to get about 150 New Zealanders out of Wuhan, with the flight likely to happen over the weekend local time. They will be charged $500 for a seat on the flight. It was not yet known where the arrivals from Wuhan would be held, though it was likely somewhere in Auckland.
“What we’re really interested in doing is identifying any suspected cases, confirming whether or not they are cases and then stopping any other transmission” Bloomfield said.
Updated
Two cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Italy. The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said late on Thursday that two Chinese tourists were being treated at Rome’s Lazzari Spallanzani national institute for infectious diseases.
“The Spallanzani is the bible in this sector, there is no reason for panic or alarm,” Conte said. He added that close checks were being carried out to trace the tourists’ movements in Italy in order “to absolutely avoid any additional risk”.
Flights between China and Italy have been stopped, Conte said. The couple are reported to be from Wuhan and arrived in Milan on 23 January. Meanwhile, tests carried out on two Chinese tourists onboard a cruise ship in the port city of Civitavecchia were negative, the cruise company, Costa Crociere, said in a statement on Thursday night.
China’s banks have put into place some emergency measures learned from the 2003 Sars outbreak ahead of when they reopen for business after the extended new year and virus-induced break on Monday, Reuters are reporting.
While many workers are being told to stay at home and businesses are remaning closed for another week to contain the contagion, banks are deemed too important to remain closed so will trade again on Monday in the financial hub of Shanghai. Some staff will be allowed to work from home to minimise contact, Reuters says, but traders will have to go into their offices. A system of shifts deployed during the Sars epidemic will be used to provide enough cover.
China Construction Bank (CCB), the country’s second largest lender, and Hang Seng Bank are among those planning to split their trading teams and alternate their working days, according to three sources. HSBC is also considering a shift system for trading teams that have to be in the office, according to one source. CCB and HSBC did not respond to requests for comment specifically on their trading plans. Hang Seng bank confirmed it would arrange trading shifts and would tell other staff where possible to work from home.
South Korea’s health ministry said on Friday that the Korean staple dish of kimchi, made from fermented cabbage, chilli peppers and garlic, would provide no protection against the new type of coronavirus originating from China.
The Associated Press reports that ministry’s statement sought to correct misunderstandings about the illness and calm public fears. The ministry also said eating kimchi imported from China wouldn’t necessarily put a person at greater risk of infection.
The ministry says the best protection against the virus, which is spread through close personal contact and droplet infection, is to wash hands frequently.
During the SARS epidemic of 2003, some South Korean researchers claimed that kimchi possibly explained the country’s relatively low number of cases, saying that a type of bacteria created during the fermentation process would have been helpful in fighting off infections.
While such claims reportedly led to a boost in kimchi sales across Asia, most experts saw the argument as dubious.
Kenya Airways has suspended all flights to and from China until further notice.
“We have temporarily suspended all flights to and from Guangzhou starting Friday until further notice,” the airline said in a statement on its Twitter account.
— Kenya Airways (@KenyaAirways) January 31, 2020
We’ve reported over the past few days about the effort to build two brand new hospitals in Wuhan to accomodate coronavirus patients. The time-lapse footage below shows the monumental scale of the build.
The Red Cross Society of Hubei has come under fire from Chinese netizens who say the charity is sending high quality medical grade N95 filtration masks to hospitals that are not at the epicentre of the outbreak nor fever clinics in the greatest need of masks, writes Michael Standaert.
According to the first statistics released by the Hubei Red Cross on Thursday, the group released only 3,000 of the N95 masks to Wuhan Union Hospital, one of the hospitals most impacted by the outbreak and surge of patients.
Those stats showed out of 36,000 of the medical-grade masks, 16,000 went to Wuhan Ren’ai Hospital and 16,000 to Wuhan Tianyou Hospital, both private hospitals, with the rest to the other that people are saying is in the most need.
Cover News has now reported that the Hubei Red Cross is investigating why the masks were distributed to those two hospitals.
“Thats very funny because [everyone in Wuhan] knows it and they need to look into it?” Jing Xian [nickname], a man from Wuhan currently stuck in the city during the lockdown, but who normally resides in Shenzhen. “I’m angry, it’s ridiculous.”
“When I was a kid, we all know Ren’ai is a hospital for women and it is a private hospital with a bad reputation,” he said. “So many people are so helpless and hopeless.”
Posts from people expressing anger about the distribution of the masks to the two hospitals that appeared in the morning are now being censored with a message saying: The content is suspected of violating relevant rules
Updated
State TV in China reported yesterday that the country’s aviation authority had approved chartered flights to bring Wuhan residents home. Today the foreign ministry confirmed that saying, charter planes would be sent to bring citizens from virus-hit Hubei province who are overseas back “as soon as possible”.
This is in view of “practical difficulties that Hubei citizens, especially those from Wuhan, have faced overseas”, said ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
The ministry’s comments come as a number of airlines announced they were halting or reducing flights to China as the country struggles to contain the spread of a deadly new virus.
China has advised its citizens to postpone trips abroad and cancelled overseas group tours, while several countries including Germany, Britain and Canada have urged their citizens to avoid travel to China. The US upgraded its travel warning today to say “do not travel” to China.
Earlier I reported on a picture published of a man lying dead in the street in Wuhan. You can read our full story on the link below.
Updated
South Korea plans up to four evacuation flights from Wuhan
On South Korea’s evacuation of its citizens, 368 people were on the plane that arrived back at Gimpo airport near Seoul on Friday morning. It is planning up to three more flights.
Reuters reports that the government says none of the evacuees had any symptoms before departure, but one person could not board the plane due to fever after a final check at Wuhan airport, while 18 were sent to hospitals immediately upon arrival.
“There were different screening standards between China and us, and we conducted another check aboard the plane and put those who were showing symptoms in separate space on the second floor of the plane,” vice health minister Kim Gang-lip said.
Japan changes China travel advice
The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, told parliament on Friday the government has decided to raise its infectious disease advisory level for China, excluding Hubei province, to 2, urging citizens to avoid non-urgent trips to the country.
The government is already telling its citizens not to take any trips to China’s central province of Hubei. Wuhan, the epicentre of the newly-identified coronavirus outbreak, is located in Hubei.
Fake news and conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronavirus have swiftly followed the outbreak around the world. From fake alerts over no-go suburbs to pro-Trump conspiracy theories, crackpot stories and dangerous advice have gone viral, reports the Guardian’s Josh Taylor.
Flight Radar shows the flight carrying the British evacuees from Wuhan are currently just over Ulaanbatar, the capital of Mongolia. Still a long way to go - about 8 hours until touchdown in Brize Norton, north-west of London.
Flight Radar shows the flight carrying the British evacuees from Wuhan are currently just over the capital of Mongolia. pic.twitter.com/eiqXqzpO1D
— Alison Rourke (@AlisonRourke) January 31, 2020
Trinidad has imposed a 14-day restrictions on travellers from China because of the coronavirus, according to the country’s health minister.
Tonga asks Australia and New Zealand to quarantine evacuated Tongan citizens
Tonga’s prime minister has asked for assistance from Australia and New Zealand in evacuating and quarantining Tongan citizens from China.
More than 50 Tongans, many of whom are teenagers, became trapped in China while travelling to the country as part of a China Aid sports program, reported Matangi Tonga.
The members and officials of four Tongan sports teams – swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and boxing – were due to return to Tonga this week or next, but had flights cancelled.
There are also Tongan students studying at universities in Wuhan.
Matangi Tonga reports that Prime Minister Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa asked that the citizens be temporarily quarantined in Australia or New Zealand and that if they are found to have the virus, kept in Australia or New Zealand until they are well.
New Zealand has said it will launch an independent rescue mission to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, chartering an Air New Zealand plane.
The foreign minister, Winston Peters, said the plane would carry 300 people to New Zealand and that any additional seats on the Air New Zealand flight would be allocated to Pacific Islanders and Australians “as a matter of priority”.
There are currently 82 New Zealanders registered on Safetravel as being in Wuhan, and 57 of those have sought consular assistance.
“The Government of Tonga are making all efforts to protect Tonga and its people from the virus, which has not been confirmed in Tonga.”
Here’s some more on those Pakistani students stranded in Hubei from the Guardian’s Ben Doherty.
Pakistani students from Hubei Polytechnic University in Huangshi, In Hubei province, have pleaded with the Pakistan government to evacuate them. They say other international students, from India, Indonesia, and Tajikistan, are set to leave in coming days. pic.twitter.com/Gfs5Gaim1t
— Ben Doherty (@BenDohertyCorro) January 31, 2020
The BBC’s China correspondent, Stephen McDonell has a good point re the figures being quoted for people who have recovered from the virus. At the moment the figure is 171, from more than 9,700 confirmed infections. He suggests maybe Chinese authorities are keeping people in hospital for longer or they are not monitoring recoveries very closely.
The number of those who’ve recovered and released does seem small. It can only mean that either they’re keeping people in hospital longer to make sure they’re OK and won’t pass the #coronavirus on or not monitoring that statistic very closely. #China
— Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) January 31, 2020
There’s certainly some anger on Twitter about Qantas continuing to fly to and from China. What’s interesting is the degree to which countries’ advice is varying on this coronavirus epidemic.
In the past few hours, the US upgraded its travel advice to its highest level, Level 4 ... which says “do not travel” to China.
Earlier today Virgin Atlantic suspended its flights between Britain and China and Air Canada has suspended flights to China until 29 February. But Qantas will continue to fly to and from Australia, as will China Eastern, China Southern and Air China.
In Australia this morning there was quite an animated press conference by the premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, who demanded more national co-ordination of the crisis: “We would have had a number of planes that have come in from mainland China over the last 10 days. Where are all those people?,” she asked.
You can read the full story here.
Qantas will not stop direct flights from Australia to China
Qantas has confirmed it will not be stopping direct flights between China and Australia. The Australian carrier, along with China Eastern, China Southern and Air China are still operating direct flights from a range of Chinese cities.
On Friday, Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said it was not a recommendation to stop direct flights – as most passengers can still enter Australia via other airports.
Qantas is also still standing by to provide the evacuation flight for Australians stranded in Wuhan and Hubei province – but it can’t take passengers direct to Christmas Island.
A spokesman told Guardian Australia the prospective plane – a Boeing 747 – can’t land on the Christmas Island runway.
This means Qantas will bring people to the Australian mainland first, and then the government will bear the responsibility of shuttling them to quarantine on Christmas Island.
The federal government announced the move on Wednesday, but is still waiting for permission to conduct the airlift, and the logistics have not been sorted.
The capacity of the evacuation plane is 371. On Wednesday, foreign minister, Marise Payne said there were an estimated 600 Australians in Wuhan and Hubei who want assistance, and priority would be given to the young, elderly and most vulnerable.
Updated
Just while I’m checking in on the Global Times, it is also reporting that the number of travellers returning to Beijing increased at Beijing West Railway Station, from about 100,000 on Wednesday January 29 to 119,000 on Thursday.
According to the China State Railway, the country’s rail sector will strengthen prevention and control measures to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, it says.
#Beijing arrivals increase amid #NovelCoronavirus epidemic (Photos: Li Hao/GT) https://t.co/HSthKRAem7 pic.twitter.com/ox73sDOffP
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 31, 2020
Interesting charts from the state-run tabloid the Global Times on the increase in coronavirus cases.
Charts show daily figures of confirmed cases of novel #coronavirus in Hubei Province and all of China. Hubei reported 1220 new cases and 42 deaths on Thursday compared with 1982 new cases and 43 deaths nationwide. pic.twitter.com/Ch6vemRzsR
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 31, 2020
This post doesn’t need much explanation.
A coronavirus conundrum. This Starbucks in Shanghai requires you to wear masks before entering. But what do you do after you get your coffee? pic.twitter.com/SmDXCmBeqX
— Simon Rabinovitch (@S_Rabinovitch) January 31, 2020
In the US, the director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, is questioning if Americans are safe from coronavirus, given the cuts to various government agencies by the Trump administration.
Are Americans safe from the coronavirus? In only 3 years, Trump has eliminated the office of pandemic response, drastically scaled back the CDC’s overseas outbreak prevention efforts & discontinued a surveillance program meant to detect new viral threats. https://t.co/ZEuqQYxdhH pic.twitter.com/w3BmfS1HK7
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) January 31, 2020
International students trapped in Hubei province – from countries not evacuating their citizens – say they feel abandoned at the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak.
As the US, Japan, South Korea and UK have flown citizens out of Hubei, followed by commitments from Australia, NZ, France, Indonesia, India and Afghanistan to also repatriate their citizens, students from countries such as Pakistan – which is not repatriating its citizens – have begged for government intervention.
Husnain Chisti, a Pakistani student at the Hubei University of Science and Technology, said the university gates were locked and students were stranded on campus.
“The coronavirus is spreading rapidly… our city is totally locked down, all public transport, markets, the railway stations, in fact our university gates are locked. We can’t go outside.”
In a plea posted online, he said there were about 40 Pakistani students at his university, who were essentially confined to their rooms.
“Our classmates from Indonesia and India are getting evacuated from this city. The US and Japan have already evacuated their citizens, so I appeal to Pakistan government to please take… action and evacuate us from here by any means, because this virus is deadly and it is spreading day by day even [in a] city that is under lockdown.
“It is my humble request to Pakistan government to evacuate us by any means, thank you.”
Another Pakistani national, who did not give her name, is a third year medical student at Hubei Polytechnic University near Wuhan in Hubei.
She said students at the university were on lockdown and confined to the campus. They were sharing food and unsure for how long they would be locked down.
“We are suffering … we depend on each other for meals … when we need food, we ask our friends or colleagues who have enough to share with us.”
129 infections outside China
Global infections of the coronavirus now stand at 129, across 22 countries, Reuters news agency is reporting. This is obviously a fairly difficult figure to keep track of as the numbers are constantly moving.
There have been no deaths outside of China.
Updated
South Korea confirms seventh case of coronavirus
South Korea has reported reported its seventh confirmed case of coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. On Friday a Korean Air flight carrying more than 350 Koreans arrived from Wuhan.
Updated
With the multiple reports of evacuations and infections of the coronavirus, it’s worth remembering the very human cost of this outbreak. This picture below is from Wuhan on Thursday. It shows shows officials in protective suits checking on an elderly man wearing a face mask who collapsed and died on a street near a hospital in Wuhan. Journalists from Agence France-Presse saw the body on 30 January, not long before an emergency vehicle arrived carrying police and medical staff in full-body protective suits.
We reported earlier that China’s Shandong province has asked companies not to resume working before 10 February to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Guangdong province has also done this, saying that most businesses should plan on starting up after 9 February.
It is not clear how many British citizens remain in Wuhan after the departure of the evacuation flight. Just hours before the plane departed, there was a lack of clarity over who would be allowed to board, and how people would reach the airport given the ban on public transport and most private cars.
Nick, who has dual British and US citizenship, and who has a wife and two children in Wuhan, is among those who did not board the plane. He was initially told there was no guarantee that his wife, who is Indonesian, would be able to fly.
“We thought long and hard and decided to give up our seats and ensure that the plane left full,” he said, adding that he believed it was safer to stay at home than to travel to the airport late at night, with no guarantee they would be able to board, when the city is under lockdown.
Later, the family was called and told that the Chinese government had given verbal assurances that his wife would be able to leave. But by that point, the flight was just hours away and he had already given up his seat.
“A couple hours later they called again and asked if we were still planning on trying to get to the plane and offered help with transportation. When I told him how far we were from the airport [the man] said there was no chance of getting there in time. I again told him we had given up our seats to ensure the plane left full.”
Stock markets edge upwards
The topsy-turvy reaction of the markets continues today with indices going up across Asia Pacific after a late rally on Wall Street on Thursday night.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan has edged up 0.4%, but was still down 3.8% on the week so far. Its 2.3% dive on Thursday had been the sharpest one-day loss in six months.
Japan’s Nikkei bounced 1.8%, recouping half of its weekly loss. In Sydney the ASX200 was up 0.3%.
Things were also calmer in Taiwan, where the finance ministry had been mulling a market intervention from the national stabilisation fund after a 6% plunge in the TWSE index on Thursday. Finance minister Su Jain-rong said now is “not the time” for government action but added: “If there are large outflow from foreign investors which cause disorder in the financial markets then the national stabilisation fund will hold an ad hoc meeting. It’s on stand-by for any time.”
Taiwan’s stock market just had one of the worst days in the last twenty years. pic.twitter.com/b0k3mb6bPY
— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) January 30, 2020
Updated
We are getting some more information on the Uk evacuations of its citizens from Wuhan. The Foreign Office (FCO) says the flight took off at 09.45 local time with 83 British and 27 foreign nationals. The charter flight is estimated to land at RAF Brize Norton at 13.00 (UK time). The airport is around 115km (70miles) north west of London.
The FCO says a small number of medics were on the aircraft to provide support to passengers. The flight will continue on to Spain following the stopover in the UK, at which point EU nationals’ home countries will take responsibility for them.
The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said: “We know how distressing the situation has been for those waiting to leave. We have been working round the clock to clear the way for a safe departure. The welfare of those trapped and public safety have been our overriding priorities.”
The US advice takes their travel warning to Level 4, its highest level.
Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. On January 30, the World Health Organization has determined the rapidly spreading outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. Commercial carriers have reduced or suspended routes to and from China.
The advice also says those currently in China should consider departing using commercial means.
The Department of State has also requested that all non-essential US government personnel defer travel to China in light of the novel coronavirus.
Updated
US warns its citizens not to travel to China
The US State Department has increased its travel advisory for China. In a notice posted on its website, the State Department said: “Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China.”
We understand the British citizens being evacuated are on a Wamos Air 747 aircraft. According to Flightradar24, a Wamos Air 747 flew from Hanoi to Wuhan on 31 January, landing in Wuhan at 04.45 local time. We assume it’s the same plane that are taking the British nationals out. I’ll bring you more on that shortly.
British citizens evacuated from Wuhan
We have been closely following the departure of British citizens being evacuated from Wuhan. We are hearing from the Foreign Office in London that the flight carrying 110 passengers, including 83 Britons, has left Wuhan for the UK.
For those of you joining the coronavirus blog for the first time, let’s start by looking a look at the latest figures for deaths and infections.
Each morning in China the National Health Commission provides updates.
The total death toll in China now stands at 213. That’s up from 170 announced at this time yesterday. That’s an increase of 25%, which is slightly down on yesterday’s increase (29%).
Confirmed cases inside China are 9,096. That’s up from the figure quoted at around this time yesterday of 7,711. It makes it an 18% rise in confirmed infections over the 24-hour period.
Between Wednesday and Thursday the rise in confirmed cases was 29% by my calculations.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus outbreak, with me, Alison Rourke.
Here’s a short summary of what we know so far:
- The death toll stands at 213 inside China and confirmed infections are 9,096
- Possible infections are at 12,167 inside China with recoveries listed as 163
- The World Health organisation has declared a global public health emergency because of the spread of the virus outside China, describing it as an “unprecedented outbreak”.
- Cases outside China of the virus are increasing and is estimated to be over 100.
- Recent global updates include Italy (2), France (6), Germany (5), Australia (9). I will bring you a full country-by-country list shortly
- The US has confirmed its first person-to-person transmission
- Evacuations of foreign nationals are continuing, with 150 Britons expected to be flown out of Wuhan on Friday local time.
You can read our guide to how you can help protect yourself and stop the spread of the virus here.
As always, you can reach me at alison.rourke@theguardian.com or on Twitter at @alisonrourke
Updated
