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BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s President Xi Jinping called Wednesday for greater protection of medical staff fighting the new coronavirus after the deaths of prominent doctors sparked national anger at the government’s handling of the outbreak. At least seven medical workers have died from the virus, while 1,716 have been confirmed as infected, most at the epicenter of the epidemic in central Hubei province where hospitals have dealt with a huge influx of patients. The […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Two Australians evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for coronavirus on their return home, despite being cleared in Japan, authorities said Friday. “We have two people who are positive for the COVID-19 virus. Those two people have mild illness,” said Dianne Stephens, acting chief health officer for the Northern Territories. Health officials in Canberra told AFP all 164 Australians who returned home earlier this week “were tested […]
by Sunghee Hwang SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea’s self-imposed isolation in the face of the coronavirus epidemic raging in neighboring China is its only method of protection from an outbreak that would wreak havoc given its crumbling health system, analysts say. The country was among the first to seal its border with China — its main provider of trade and aid — and has since suspended flights and train services, banned tourists, and […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea confirmed 52 more cases of novel coronavirus on Friday, taking its overall figure to 156 and making it the worst-infected country outside China. Altogether 39 of the new cases were linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southern city of Daegu, the Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. More than 80 members of Shincheonji have now been infected, starting with a 61-year-old woman who […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Two Australians evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for coronavirus, authorities said Friday, raising questions about Japan’s policy of allowing evacuees to return home after testing negative. “We have two people who are positive for the COVID-19 virus. Those two people have a mild illness,” said Dianne Stephens, acting chief health officer for the Northern Territories. Hundreds of people have been allowed to leave the ship after […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The death toll in China from the coronavirus epidemic rose to 2,233 on Friday after 115 more people died in Hubei province, the hard-hit epicenter of the outbreak. The vast majority of the deaths were in the provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, according to a daily update from the Hubei health commission. Around 75,000 people have been infected by the new coronavirus in China, and […]
by Laurent Thomet, with Miwa Suzuki in Tokyo BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Thursday touted a big drop in new virus infections as proof it’s epidemic control efforts are working, but the toll grew abroad with deaths in Japan and South Korea. Fatalities in China hit 2,118 as 114 more people died, but health officials reported the lowest number of new cases in nearly a month, including in hardest-hit Hubei province. More than 74,000 […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran has confirmed three new coronavirus cases following the deaths of two elderly men, the health ministry told AFP on Thursday, as Iraq banned travel to and from its neighbor. The pair who died were elderly Iranian citizens and residents of the city of Qom. They were the first confirmed deaths from the COVID-19 virus in the Middle East. Health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpour said two of the new cases were […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea reported its first death Thursday from coronavirus as the number of infections nearly doubled to over 100 — almost half of them from a cluster centred on a religious sect. The sharp rise came as the mayor of Daegu — South Korea’s fourth biggest city, with a population of over 2.5 million — advised residents to stay indoors, and commanders at a major US base in the […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Two people have died in Iran after testing positive on Wednesday for the new coronavirus, the health ministry said, in the Islamic republic’s first cases of the disease. According to YJC news agency, a branch of state television, the pair who died were Iranian citizens and residents of the holy city of Qom. They are also the first deaths from the COVID-19 virus in the Middle East and only the […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian markets rebounded Wednesday as hopes the deadly new coronavirus will have only a short-term impact on corporate earnings and economic growth prevailed. Falls on US and European markets — after Apple’s warning that it would miss its quarterly revenue forecast due to the epidemic — did not carry over to Asia. The illness, which has killed more than 2,000 people and infected over 74,000, has disputed supply chains and […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — China have been forced to pull out of next month’s Davis Cup play-off with Romania due to the ongoing deadly coronavirus outbreak, the International Tennis Federation announced (ITF) on Tuesday. They were due to travel to the Romanian city of Piatra Nemat for qualifying matches in the second-tier competition in March. “The Davis Cup Committee has accepted the withdrawal of China, P.R. from their Davis Cup World Group I Play-off against […]
