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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States feels let down by a lack of transparency from China over the new-coronavirus crisis, a senior White House official said Thursday, contradicting President Donald Trump’s confidence in Beijing. “We are a little disappointed that we haven’t been invited in and we’re a little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese,” Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, told reporters. Trump on Thursday […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Thursday said a sharp rise in reported COVID-19 cases in China, due to a change in counting methods, did not represent a big shift in the epidemic. China’s official death toll from the new coronavirus and the number of cases reported soared dramatically on Thursday after authorities altered the way they tally infections. “This does not represent a significant change in the trajectory of the outbreak,” […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A woman in her 80s has become the first person with the new coronavirus to die in Japan, the country’s health minister said Thursday, cautioning it was not clear if the virus caused her death. “The relationship between the new coronavirus and the death of the person is still unclear,” Katsunobu Kato said at a late-night briefing. “This is the first death of a person who tested positive.” The minister […]
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AFP) — A US cruise ship blocked from several Asian ports over concerns that a passenger could have been infected with the new coronavirus arrived off Cambodia Thursday, as frustrated holidaymakers expressed hope that their ordeal may soon be over. The Westerdam was supposed to be taking its 1,455 passengers on a dream 14-day cruise around East Asia, beginning in Hong Kong on February 1 and disembarking on Saturday in Yokohama, Japan. But […]
by Beiyi SEOW BEIJING, China (AFP) — A diaper manufacturer in eastern China was closed for the Lunar New Year holiday when it heard from officials — China needed vast amounts of masks to fight a deadly virus epidemic and factories needed to chip in. In just over two days, New Yifa Group converted a manufacturing line in Fujian province to make face masks, tapping some of its materials that would have gone into hygiene […]
VINH PHUC, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam announced Thursday that a commune of 10,000 people will be placed under quarantine due to fears over the spread of the new coronavirus. “As of February 13, 2020, we will urgently implement the task of isolation and quarantine of the epidemic area in Son Loi commune,” said a health ministry statement. “The timeline… is for 20 days”. There are 15 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in Vietnam, five […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has sacked the top political leader of virus-stricken Hubei province, the epicenter of an epidemic that has killed 1,355, state media reported Thursday. Jiang Chaoliang, Hubei’s party secretary, will be replaced by Shanghai mayor Ying Yong, according to the official Xinhua news agency, which gave no additional details. Jiang’s removal comes after Hubei’s two most senior health officials were sacked Monday amid growing criticism of how local officials have handled […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Another 44 people onboard a cruise ship moored off Japan’s coast have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the country’s health minister said Thursday. Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the 44 new cases were from another 221 new tests. They raise the number of infections detected on the Diamond Princess to 218, in addition to a quarantine officer who also tested positive for the virus. Kato said authorities now want to […]
by Helen Roxburgh and Laurent Thomet BEIJING, China (AFP) –The number of deaths and new cases from China’s coronavirus outbreak spiked dramatically on Thursday after authorities changed the way they count infections in a move that will likely fuel speculation that the severity of the outbreak has been under-reported. The hard-hit central province of Hubei reported 242 deaths in just one day and 14,840 new patients — by far its biggest one-day tally since the […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UN health agency on Wednesday cautioned it was “way too early” to say whether COVID-19 might have peaked or when it might end, following a drop in new cases. “I think it’s way too early to try to predict the beginning, the middle or the end of this epidemic right now,” Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergency program, said at the agency’s daily news conference. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has criticized a US study questioning why the world’s fourth most populous nation had not yet recorded a case of coronavirus, calling the findings an insult and insisting it was on high alert. The virus has killed more than 1,100 people in China and spread to dozens of countries around the world — but the Southeast Asian nation of more than 260 million has not reported a confirmed case […]
by Eva Xiao and Ludovic Ehret BEIJING, China (AFP) — Doctors on the frontline of China’s new coronavirus epidemic are facing a daunting task: treat an ever-growing number of infected patients and risk getting infected themselves due to a drastic shortage of masks and other protective equipment. Tired and understaffed, medical workers have had to deal with thousands of new cases per week in Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the outbreak that first […]
