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Coronavirus latest updates: global infections climb towards 100,000 Coronavirus latest updates: global infections climb towards 100,000
(32 minutes later)
WHO warns of sustained community transmission; first death in UK; test kits delivered to San Francisco cruise ship. Follow live news:WHO warns of sustained community transmission; first death in UK; test kits delivered to San Francisco cruise ship. Follow live news:
Latest figures from China
Mainland China had 143 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Thursday, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday, up from 139 cases a day earlier. That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 80,552.
The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China was 3,042 as of the end of Thursday, up by 30 from the previous day. The central province of Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 29 new deaths. In the provincial capital of Wuhan, 23 people died.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang was visiting residential compound in Wuhan to inspect the work of community officials, who are supposed to be helping residents quarantined at home get food and needed supplies. Residents yelled out of their windows, “Fake, Fake”, apparently referring to the claims of the community workers.
A Chinese researcher has told the People’s Daily that Wuhan will see no new cases by the end of this month. He also said that the rest of China, except Hubei, can begin ‘taking off their masks’ by the end of this month and return to normalcy.China on Friday reported 143 new cases of the virus, up from 139, bringing the total number of cases in mainland China to 80,552. The death toll rose by 30 and stands at 3,042 as of the end of Thursday.
Gansu province reported 11 new cases, all passengers from Iran. All 311 passengers on the flight from Iran have been now been quarantined in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, according to CCTV.
A man in New Zealand confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus was revealed on Friday to have attended a rock concert packed with thousands of other people, Reuters reports.
Health authorities said the man in his 30s, who is the partner of a woman who was confirmed to have Covid-19 this week, attended the Tool concert at Spark Arena in Auckland on 28 February.
The band played two concerts to capacity crowds in New Zealand’s largest city last week.
Many Australians are discovering that their travel insurance does not cover the outbreak of coronavirus, the ABC reports. Many are cancelling their travel plans entirely as a result.
The Insurance Council of Australia is providing information for people, as is consumer advocacy group Choice.
“There is no need for anyone to stockpile drugs,” says Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young. “There is no drug that is known to be of benefit for this novel coronavirus.”
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says, “We have procedures in place just as we would have with bushfires.”
“This is a public health issue, but it also has a huge economic impact as well.”
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young says, “Today in Queensland we have 13 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.Every single one of those cases, we know how they contracted it. So it is really important that anyone who comes into Queensland who has travelled within the last 14 days overseas and develops any symptoms immediately seeks medical advice”.
Australia’s Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she is “concerned there has been no dedicated national meeting where we can discuss [the response to coronavirus] in depth. I have been asking for this since January.”
Australia’s federal government has set up a national Indigenous advisory group to fast-track an emergency response plan for Aboriginal communities that are among the most vulnerable to any potential spread of Covid-19.Australia’s federal government has set up a national Indigenous advisory group to fast-track an emergency response plan for Aboriginal communities that are among the most vulnerable to any potential spread of Covid-19.
The taskforce met on Thursday as remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia began to strictly limit visitors for the next three months, worried that if Covid-19 arrives it will be “devastating” for their elders and people with existing health problems.The taskforce met on Thursday as remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia began to strictly limit visitors for the next three months, worried that if Covid-19 arrives it will be “devastating” for their elders and people with existing health problems.
The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) have introduced strict rules for entry to their lands, which they can to do under the APY Land Rights Act.The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) have introduced strict rules for entry to their lands, which they can to do under the APY Land Rights Act.
“We are protecting our people, especially those who hold our ancient cultural knowledge, and we know they are already vulnerable as they are quite old,” APY general manager Richard King said.“We are protecting our people, especially those who hold our ancient cultural knowledge, and we know they are already vulnerable as they are quite old,” APY general manager Richard King said.
“A lot of our people present with comorbidities like diabetes and renal failure. We have high smoking rates, overcrowding in housing, overall poor hygiene.“A lot of our people present with comorbidities like diabetes and renal failure. We have high smoking rates, overcrowding in housing, overall poor hygiene.
“It’s almost a perfect storm to support the transmission of these types of diseases.”“It’s almost a perfect storm to support the transmission of these types of diseases.”
Four Australians are on the Grand Princess cruise ship currently being held off California’s coast over coronavirus fears, the ABC reports, with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade saying it is ready to assist them.
In Australia, at about the same time as the prime minister was holding a press conference, the New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian held one too, saying cases in that state had now reached 26 after a second health worker at the BaptistCare Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility was diagnosed with the virus. There had been an escalation of the virus in NSW, Berejiklian said.A 50-year-old woman working at the facility was diagnosed with the virus on Wednesday. Overnight, a second worker at the facility had also tested positive. A 95 year-old resident of the home who died on Tuesday later tested positive for the virus.Meanwhile a 16 year-old high school student had tested positive overnight, prompting the closure of Epping boys high school. A doctor at Ryde hospital was confirmed as another case earlier in the week.Berejiklian said closing the school was a “very precautionary approach” so that contacts of the boy could be identified.NSW chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant said a returned traveller from Iran who tested positive with coronavirus on Thursday had been confirmed as a nurse at Canterbury Hospital.Meanwhile in Victoria, Shepparton’s Goulburn Valley Grammar School has asked some students to isolate at home A Victorian high school has asked a group of students and their families to self-isolate at home after two indonesian exchange students at the school became unwell and await tests for the virus.
In Madrid, Spain, The EY Accounting Group has sent home around 1,500 workers from its office, following the confirmation of a case of coronavirus.
US Vice President Mike Pence says Trump with sign the country’s coronavirus bill into law on Friday.
The WHO says coronavirus epidemic can be contained with concerted global response
The epidemic of COVID-19 coronavirus infection spreading around the world from China can be contained and controlled, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, but only with a concerted response by all the world’s governments. “We are calling on every country to act with speed, scale and clear-minded determination,” the WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a briefing at the U.N. health agency’s Geneva headquarters. Tedros voiced concern that “some countries have either not taken this seriously enough, or have decided there is nothing they can do”. He added: “This is not the time to give up. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops.”
South Korea has reported 196 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total there to 6,284, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Asian stocks are being sold off again in Friday’s trading session after a brief respite on Thursday.The Nikkei in Tokyo is down 2.4% and the Kospi index is off 1.7% in Seoul as investors follow the lead of Wall Street, where the Dow Jones finished the day down by 3.6%. Shares in Sydney are down 1.6%. US treasury bond yields dropped to new record lows as money piled into perceived safe havens. The price of oil edged up after Opec signalled that it wanted a bigger than expected cut in production.
Dominic Rushe in New York has the full story on another turbulent day on Wall Street:
Beijing reported four new cases of coronavirus on March 5, all imported from Italy, the city’s municipal health commission said in a statement on Friday. The city now has a total of 422 cases. Coronavirus cases are now rising across the globe at a more rapid rate than inside China.
Australian retail trade figures just out show a 0.3% drop for January, in seasonally adjusted terms.This followed a plunge in the same terms of 0.7% in December, traditionally the strongest month of the year due to Christmas shopping sprees.The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the result was affected by the country’s devastating bushfires but not the coronavirus outbreak, even though “some individual retail businesses reported reduced customer numbers attributed to COVID-19”.It expects February’s numbers to be hit by the outbreak, adding to pressure on the government to deliver a meaningful boost to the economy in a stimulus package set to be unveiled within the week.
South Korea is protesting Japan’s decision to impose a two-week quarantine for visitors from the republic.
South Korea strongly protested on Friday Japan’s decision to impose a two-week quarantine for visitors from South Korea, calling it “unreasonable, excessive and extremely regrettable”. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday ordered a two-week quarantine for people arriving from South Korea while barring arrivals from highly affected areas starting on Saturday. Seoul’s foreign ministry will summon the Japanese ambassador on Friday to lodge a complaint, after calling in a senior diplomat late on Thursday to request explanations, it said in a statement.