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Coronavirus: Iran to limit travel between major cities - latest updates Coronavirus: Iran to limit travel between major cities amid more than 3,500 cases - latest updates
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California declares state of emergency; Italian doctors say German man may have been first European with virus and Scotland registers three more casesCalifornia declares state of emergency; Italian doctors say German man may have been first European with virus and Scotland registers three more cases
The German government’s main body for safeguarding public health, has announced this morning that 349 people are officially infected with Corona in Germany, a rise of 109 cases within 24 hours. On Monday the figure from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was just 38. DeepMind, Google’s London-based AI research unit, has published predictions of the structure of proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2, in the hope that they help scientists understand how the new coronavirus functions, and allow for more precise investigation into potential treatments.
The company used its AlphaFold system, which applies machine learning techniques to estimate the physical structure of proteins, to generate the predictions, which it has published without the normal, time consuming, review or verification process for such work.
“Knowing a protein’s structure provides an important resource for understanding how it functions, but experiments to determine the structure can take months or longer, and some prove to be intractable,” the researchers wrote in a post accompanying the publication.
“For this reason, researchers have been developing computational methods to predict protein structure from the amino acid sequence.”
A “long-term commercial niche” for vaccines to counter the new coronavirus will be opened up, according to the head of a global NGO which acts as an umbrella for drugs researchers.
“It’s no longer plausible that containment will be a success and the new coronavirus disease knocked out,” says Richard Hatchett, chief executive of CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), in a Financial Times piece on the race to find a vaccine.
It adds though that, for now, any commercial gain from involvement in creating a successful vaccine is a secondary concern to the drive to find a treatment.
Full Fact, the UK fact-checking charity, has released some pieces of work countering misleading claims about the outbreak.
They include:
Claim: Scientists believe that coronavirus may have come from bats in a Chinese research facility.
Full Fact conclusion: Two Chinese scientists have published an article suggesting that the 2019 coronavirus outbreak could have originated from bats in a laboratory in Wuhan. However, apart from maps showing the proximity of laboratories, they offer no evidence to prove this.
Claim: Scientists knew about the new coronavirus long ago and called it “Disease X”.
Full Fact conclusion: They didn’t. This is a misunderstanding about the phrase “Disease X”, which the World Health Organization used to denote an unknown serious new disease that might cause a pandemic.
The German government’s main body for safeguarding public health has announced this morning that 349 people are officially infected with the coronavirus in Germany, a rise of 109 cases within 24 hours. On Monday the figure from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was just 38.
The real figure will be still higher “because of the fluidity of the situation”, a spokesman said, with the RKI never able to be fully on top of the new numbers as health authorities continue to report new incidents through the day.The real figure will be still higher “because of the fluidity of the situation”, a spokesman said, with the RKI never able to be fully on top of the new numbers as health authorities continue to report new incidents through the day.
Meanwhile the government has given pharmacies permission to mix theirown disinfectant solutions with industrial alcohol, in an attempt tokeep up with the unprecedented demand.Meanwhile the government has given pharmacies permission to mix theirown disinfectant solutions with industrial alcohol, in an attempt tokeep up with the unprecedented demand.
Following a suspected case of coronavirus at a hotel in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has closed all mosques and churches in the area.Following a suspected case of coronavirus at a hotel in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has closed all mosques and churches in the area.
According to Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news service, a medical state of emergency had been declared in the holy city, home to the Church of Nativity, a popular pilgrimage site revered as the birthplace of Jesus.According to Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news service, a medical state of emergency had been declared in the holy city, home to the Church of Nativity, a popular pilgrimage site revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
While no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Palestinian territories, authorities also cancelled all sports events in the city and shut schools. It had also asked tourists to cancel hotel reservations, the Wafa report said.While no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Palestinian territories, authorities also cancelled all sports events in the city and shut schools. It had also asked tourists to cancel hotel reservations, the Wafa report said.
Some 3,513 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Iran, according to the country’s health ministry.Some 3,513 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Iran, according to the country’s health ministry.
There have been 107 deaths, said officials.There have been 107 deaths, said officials.
Multiple sporting events have been postponed, moved or cancelled, with others now cast into doubt.Multiple sporting events have been postponed, moved or cancelled, with others now cast into doubt.
They include:They include:
Euro 2020Euro 2020
The Europe-wide, travel-heavy Uefa showpiece is due to take place at 12 venues, starting in Rome on 12 June. The semi-finals and final will be at Wembley. Uefa say the situation is “under constant scrutiny … we are monitoring it country by country, and football will follow orders of the individual countries”. England’s warm-up against Italy is scheduled for Wembley on 27 March. The FA is following developments.The Europe-wide, travel-heavy Uefa showpiece is due to take place at 12 venues, starting in Rome on 12 June. The semi-finals and final will be at Wembley. Uefa say the situation is “under constant scrutiny … we are monitoring it country by country, and football will follow orders of the individual countries”. England’s warm-up against Italy is scheduled for Wembley on 27 March. The FA is following developments.
Premier League and domestic footballPremier League and domestic football
Widespread disruption already, with multiple Serie A games called off and concerns over completing the Italian domestic season. The Swiss league, Japan’s J-League, South Korea’s K-League and China’s Super League are all on hold, with pre-season International Champions Cup fixtures set for Asia also called off.Widespread disruption already, with multiple Serie A games called off and concerns over completing the Italian domestic season. The Swiss league, Japan’s J-League, South Korea’s K-League and China’s Super League are all on hold, with pre-season International Champions Cup fixtures set for Asia also called off.
Olympics and ParalympicsOlympics and Paralympics
Tokyo 2020 officials are sounding defiant but options are being discussed. The events start on 24 July and 25 August respectively; IOC member Dick Pound says a final decision could be made as late as the end of May, with cancellation, rather than postponement or relocation, the most likely outcome. The athletics world indoor championships, scheduled to take place in China next month, are already off.Tokyo 2020 officials are sounding defiant but options are being discussed. The events start on 24 July and 25 August respectively; IOC member Dick Pound says a final decision could be made as late as the end of May, with cancellation, rather than postponement or relocation, the most likely outcome. The athletics world indoor championships, scheduled to take place in China next month, are already off.
Iranian authorities are to begin manning checkpoints to limit travel between major cities due to the coronavirus in a country which is now one of the centres of the outbreak.Iranian authorities are to begin manning checkpoints to limit travel between major cities due to the coronavirus in a country which is now one of the centres of the outbreak.
The country has also moved to close schools and universities until the end of the Iranian calendar year on 20 March because of coronavirus.The country has also moved to close schools and universities until the end of the Iranian calendar year on 20 March because of coronavirus.
Health minister Saeed Namaki made the announcement Thursday at a televised news conference.Health minister Saeed Namaki made the announcement Thursday at a televised news conference.
Starbucks has said it will only use disposable cups at its North American outlets.Starbucks has said it will only use disposable cups at its North American outlets.
The company also said in a statement that it was “pausing the use of personal cups and ‘for here’ ware” in its stores. Translation: there won’t be any more drinks in washable mugs or customer-owned cups.The company also said in a statement that it was “pausing the use of personal cups and ‘for here’ ware” in its stores. Translation: there won’t be any more drinks in washable mugs or customer-owned cups.
Other measures include its move as a corporate body to restrict all business-related air travel.Other measures include its move as a corporate body to restrict all business-related air travel.
“Although the situation remains fluid, our US and international markets have gleaned learnings from our leadership team and partners in China who were first faced with this epidemic,” the company said.“Although the situation remains fluid, our US and international markets have gleaned learnings from our leadership team and partners in China who were first faced with this epidemic,” the company said.
Dubai has asked sports events organisers to postpone all sports related activities until the end of the month, according to a government circular seen by Reuters.Dubai has asked sports events organisers to postpone all sports related activities until the end of the month, according to a government circular seen by Reuters.
The circular, issued by Dubai Sports Council, said the request was a precautionary measure to ensure public health.The circular, issued by Dubai Sports Council, said the request was a precautionary measure to ensure public health.
A 33-year-old German man may be the first European to have contracted Covid-19 and to have transmitted it, Italian daily newspaper il Corriere della Sera has reported, citing a letter of German experts published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
According to the German doctors, “a 33-year-old otherwise healthy German businessman (Patient 1) became ill with a sore throat, chills, and myalgias on 24 January 2020. The following day, a fever of 39.1°C (102.4°F) developed, along with a productive cough. By the evening of the next day, he started feeling better and went back to work on 27 January.”
On 20 and 21 January, before the onset of symptoms, the man had attended a series of meetings with a Chinese business partner at his company near Munich. The business partner, a Shanghai resident, had visited Germany between 19 and 22 January.
“During her stay, she had been well with no signs or symptoms of infection but had become ill on her flight back to China, where she tested positive for 2019-nCoV on 26 January,” write the doctors.
The woman had immediately informed the company about her illness. Contact tracing was started and the 33-year-old German man was sent to the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine in Munich for further assessment.
On 28 January, three additional employees at the company tested positive for 2019-nCoV and so far, none of the four confirmed patients show signs of severe clinical illness.
“This case of 2019-nCoV infection was diagnosed in Germany and transmitted outside Asia,” write the experts.
“However, it is notable that the infection appears to have been transmitted during the incubation period of the index patient, in whom the illness was brief and nonspecific.”
People who are elderly or have pre-existing conditions could be advised to stay away from crowds as the outbreak progresses, the chief medical officer Chris Whitty has told MPs.
He added that parliament was no more risky than any other environment, following reports the Palace of Westminster could be closed down as a result of the outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is encouraging countries who want to know how much of their population is sick with the virus to start testing people with symptoms.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme technical lead, made the comments in a briefing earlier.
The Federation of German industries, the BDI, has warned this morning that the effects of the coronavirus on businesses is likely to send Europe’s biggest economy into recession.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute said that by Wednesday afternoon there were 262 confirmed cases in Germany, with all but one of the country’s 16 states affected.
The BDI said economic growth was likely to “fall prey” to the coronavirus. “Economic growth threatens to come to a halt,” the federation said in its first quarter report for 2020.
It added that if the coronavirus was not brought under control in countries affected by it, by the second economic quarter it expected a much bigger impact. Germany’s economic growth had already been slower than expected before the virus hit, due largely to the slowdown in China.
While we reported earlier that North Korea’s leader has sent a letter to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, offering his condolences for South Korean victims of the coronavirus, observers have expressed fears that the north could be suppressing information about infections.
Given that countries with advanced health services are struggling to contain the outbreak, a significant number of infections in North Korea would place intolerable strain on its weak medical infrastructure.
“Unfortunately, the international community has no idea if the coronavirus is spreading inside North Korea,” said a recent report by Jessica Lee, an East Asia expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a thinktank in Washington.
“The fact that we know nothing about the level of infection or deaths within North Korea is extremely problematic and, left unchanged, could have serious public health implications.”While continuing to declare itself virus-free, North Korea has banned foreign tourists, placed people who have traveled abroad in quarantine and closed its 900-mile border with China - a move that overseas monitors with contacts inside the country say has caused shortages of food, cooking oil and gasoline.
As the number of cases south of the border dividing the Korean peninsula continues to grow, pressure is mounting on the North to allow international experts to assess the situation there.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, has urged North Korea to “allow full and unimpeded access to medical experts and humanitarian actors, and relax restrictions on access to information. Further isolation of the country is not the answer”.In addition, the US state department has said it would “support and encourage” international efforts to help North Korea fight the disease, despite stringent sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear weapons programme.
A 74-year-old woman in western Switzerland has died after contracting the coronavirus, the country’s first death from the rapidly spreading disease, Reuters reports.
The woman had been hospitalised at Lausanne’s University hospital in the canton of Vaud since Tuesday, police said. She was a high-risk patient suffering from chronic disease, authorities added.
England’s Six Nations game against Italy on 14 March in Rome has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Press Associatino news agency has reported.
Tournament organisers faced the option of playing the game behind closed doors at the Stadio Olimpico or delaying it until later in the year and have chosen the latter option.Official confirmation of the decision is expected from Six Nations later today.
The UK response to coronavirus was already moving into its second “delay” phase, rather than seeking to simply “contain” the disease, Prof Whitty told British MPs.
“We have moved from a situation where we are mainly in contain, with some delay built in, to we are now mainly delay,” said Britain’s chief medical officer, although elements of the contain process would remain in place.
British health authorities “may have had a communications fumble” when they announced on Wednesday that they would not be providing daily updates on new coronavirus cases, the UK government’s chief medical officer has told MPs.
They are intending in the medium term to provide more detailed updates with what Chris Whitty described as “a proper dashboard” but they would be having a delay of 24 hours to make sure details were correct.
Three more cases of Covid-19 have been detected in Scotland among people who have had contact with the previous patients, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to six.
Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s chief medical officer, said the new cases were found in the Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Grampian NHS areas, and were all linked to the three previous cases.
“With all these cases, our thoughts are with those diagnosed and their families. Scotland is well equipped to deal with this kind of infection and we are doing everything we can to contain the virus at this stage and minimise the risk to the public,” she said.
“Clinicians are now conducting contact tracing, the process of gathering details of the places those who have tested positive visited and the people they have been in contact with.”
Calderwood has echoed warnings from elsewhere in the UK that there is likely to be a significant surge in coronavirus cases, peaking in two to three months time. Following Scotland’s first case at the weekend, two further cases were announced yesterday, after more than 850 negative tests for the virus.
She said earlier this week that in a worst-case scenario between 50% and 80% of the population could be infected during the course of the epidemic, with 4% of those needing hospitalisation.