Tag: Virus

Virus-hit province rewards doctors’ children with extra exam points

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 […]

Coronavirus cases top 500 on cruise ship off Japan

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 […]

Most coronavirus infections are mild, says Chinese study

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — Most people infected by the new coronavirus in China have mild symptoms, with older patients and those with underlying conditions most at risk from the disease, according to a study by Chinese researchers. The disease has now killed nearly 1,900 people and infected more than 72,000 in China since it first emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year. A paper published in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology […]

Southeast Asia facing billions of dollars in losses from collapse in Chinese tourism due to virus fears

https://youtu.be/o15Ei–Kblk by Aidan Jones, with Dene-Hern Chen in Pattaya, Thailand Agence France Presse Elephant parks unvisited, curios at markets unsold as tuk-tuks sit idle: Southeast Asia is facing billions of dollars in losses from a collapse in Chinese tourism since the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus. From Luang Prabang in northern Laos to Pattaya in Thailand, Hoi An in Vietnam and the Cambodian casino town of Sihanoukville, takings have plummeted as Chinese travellers find […]

Japan completes virus testing for quarantined ship

  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 […]

Bare-faced robbery: thieves steal 6,000 hygiene masks in Japan

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 — […]

Coronavirus cases top 500 on cruise ship off Japan

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 […]

Cambodia PM defends ship docking despite virus diagnosis

  SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodia’s strongman premier defended on Tuesday his decision to allow a US cruise ship to dock despite at least one passenger later being diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus, while authorities scrambled to track down hundreds that came in contact with her. The Westerdam was turned away by several Asian ports before Cambodia agreed last week to allow its more than 2,000 passengers and crew to disembark. But jubilation dimmed over […]

Asian markets fall as virus hits earnings, growth

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian markets tumbled Tuesday after Apple warned the new coronavirus had hit output and demand in China, fuelling fears over the wider impact of the epidemic on corporate earnings and economic growth. Investors looked past a positive lead from European bourses to focus on the spiraling fallout from the virus that has so far killed more than 1,800 people and infected nearly 72,500, mostly in mainland China. As well as […]

UK to repatriate citizens from ship quarantined off Japan

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 […]

Apple to miss revenue forecast as iPhone supply hit by coronavirus

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Apple announced Monday it would miss its March quarter revenue forecast and global iPhone supplies would fall because of the deadly coronavirus epidemic, triggering a fall in Asian stock markets. The COVID-19 death toll now exceeds 1,800 in China, where it has infected more than 72,000 after emerging in the central province of Hubei in December. The virus has sparked global economic jitters, with travel bans and mass quarantines […]

Shanghai virus hospital tries array of treatments in ‘big test’

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 […]