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BEIJING, China (AFP) — Children of China’s frontline medical workers battling the deadly coronavirus will be awarded extra exam points when applying for schools and higher education, local officials said Tuesday. Doctors and nurses in Hubei province — where the outbreak originated and which has reported the majority of deaths — have been lionized online and by state media. China’s schooling system places a major emphasis on exams, and even younger children face extreme competition […]
KARACHI, Pakistan (AFP) — An apparent gas leak killed at least 14 people near the Pakistani port city of Karachi, officials said Tuesday, as investigators worked to determine the source of the deadly emission. Residents of Keamari, a commercial and residential area, began falling sick Sunday, officials said. A doctor at one hospital, who asked not to be named, said 250 people had been admitted for treatment, after complaining of breathing difficulties and burning eyes. […]
by Harumi OZAWA TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Another 88 people from a cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday, as those free of the disease hoped they were spending their last night on board before disembarking. The new cases take the total from the Diamond Princess to 542 — easily the biggest cluster outside the epicenter in China — as the cruise ship has proved an especially virulent breeding […]
by Harumi OZAWA Agence France Presse YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) — Japan said on Tuesday it had completed tests on a coronavirus-riddled cruise ship docked near Tokyo, as those free of the disease hoped to spend their last night aboard before disembarking. The Diamond Princess has become a particularly virulent breeding ground for the new coronavirus, with at least 454 infections among the 3,700 passengers and crew — easily the second-biggest global cluster outside the […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Thieves in Japan have made off with some 6,000 surgical masks from a hospital, with the country facing a mass shortage and a huge price hike online due to the coronavirus. Four boxes containing the face masks disappeared from a locked storage facility at the Japanese Red Cross hospital in the western port city of Kobe, a hospital official said on Tuesday. “We still have a large number of masks — […]
by Harumi OZAWA TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Another 88 people aboard a cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday, as those free of the disease hoped they were spending their last night on board before disembarking. The new cases take the total from the Diamond Princess to 542 — easily the biggest cluster outside the epicenter in China — as the cruise ship has proved an especially virulent breeding […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British government on Tuesday became the latest country to announce it will evacuate its citizens stranded onboard a cruise ship quarantined off Japan because of the new coronavirus. Britain said it would organize a flight to repatriate its nationals from the Diamond Princess vessel, where more than 450 people have tested positive for COVID-19. That follows the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and South Korea all saying they […]
by Noel CELIS SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — In a sprawling medical compound an hour’s drive from downtown Shanghai, doctors are employing a patchwork of coronavirus treatments in a race to save victims of an epidemic for which there is still no established cure. The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center is the designated facility for coronavirus cases in China’s biggest city, which was previously used to treat victims of the 2002-03 SARS epidemic (Severe Acute Respiratory […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China will waive trade-war tariffs on imports of selected US medical equipment from March 2, the government said Tuesday, as the country battles to contain the new coronavirus epidemic. More than 72,000 people have been infected by the outbreak of the new COVID-19 strain in China, which has claimed the lives of over 1,800 people. Products that will qualify for the exemptions include patient monitors, blood transfusion equipment and instruments to […]
by Laurent THOMET BEIJING, China (AFP) — The World Health Organization has warned against a global over-reaction to the new coronavirus epidemic following panic-buying, event cancellations and concerns about cruise ship travel, as China’s official death toll neared 1,900 on Tuesday. More than 72,000 people have now been infected in China and hundreds more abroad, although the WHO stressed the disease has infected a “tiny” proportion of people outside its epicenter and the mortality rate […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The death toll from China’s new coronavirus epidemic jumped past 1,800 on Tuesday after 93 more people died in Hubei province, the hard-hit epicenter of the outbreak. In its daily update, the province’s health commission also reported 1,807 new cases, a smaller number of infections compared to those declared on Monday. The new cases mean more than 72,300 people have now been affected across the country. Most of the cases are […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese health officials Monday urged patients who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate blood so that plasma can be extracted to treat others who are critically ill. Drugmakers are racing to develop a vaccine and treatment for the epidemic, which has killed 1,770 people and infected over 70,500 people across China. Plasma from patients who have recovered from a spell of pneumonia triggered by COVID-19 contains antibodies that can help […]
