Los Angeles County declared a local health emergency as officials confirmed six new cases of coronavirus there, and nine new cases were confirmed in New York. American workers face increasing disruptions to their routines as companies, schools and local governments implement precautions to curb the outbreak, with many firms restricting travel or weighing work-from-home arrangements.
In China, the outbreak appeared to be easing. Far more new cases were reported outside the country than within, suggesting that Chinese authorities’ draconian efforts to curb transmission may be paying off at home, even as the casualty count mounts elsewhere. The World Health Organization said Tuesday that covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 3.4 percent of those diagnosed with the illness — a higher rate than experts previously estimated.
Governments are struggling to contain anxiety among households, businesses and investors about a prolonged economic impact. South Korea proposed a $10 billion stimulus package Wednesday as its coronavirus infection total soared past 5,200, the highest national count outside China. Elsewhere, authorities are warning against the hoarding of emergency supplies and price gouging, and some large-scale events, including the London Book Fair, have been canceled.
Here are the latest developments:
- New cases of the virus continued to emerge Wednesday in the United States, with Texas and New Jersey the latest states to identify individuals testing positive for the new coronavirus. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in California, where the number of coronavirus cases exceeded 50. In Washington, AIPAC warned that some attendees at a recent event may have been in contact with someone who had the virus.
- Italy said it will close schools and universities throughout the country in an attempt to control the spread of the coronavirus as it battles the most serious outbreak in Europe. Senegal, the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have confirmed a case of the respiratory illness besides Nigeria, reported two new cases, doubling its total.
- Early on Thursday, China announced 139 new cases, along with 31 new deaths, marking a slight uptick in the spread of the illness following what many experts had interpreted as a promising decline.
- The Trump administration vowed that any American can be tested for the virus if a doctor deems it necessary. On Wednesday, Vice President Pence said that the risk of contracting the virus “remains low” but that all passengers flying directly from Italy and South Korea will be screened multiple times.
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'No Time to Die’ release postponed over coronavirus disruptions
It’s not quite the time for “No Time To Die,” the latest James Bond Film.
A global release set for April was postponed Wednesday over worldwide disruptions to the movie industry caused by the coronavirus outbreak.“
MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced Wednesday that “after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace, the release of ‘No Time to Die’ will be postponed until November 2020,” the films backers said in a statement, according the Hollywood Reporter.
The film had been scheduled for international release on April 2 and U.S. release April 10. It cost more than $200 million to produce and faces pressure to perform in international markets given the high price tag, Variety reported.
Recent theater closures and other restrictions on movement and public gatherings in countries including Italy, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, however, could have seriously dampened the film’s earning potential if it were it released on time, Variety reported.
China reports slight uptick in coronavirus cases
China on Thursday announced 139 new coronavirus cases, along with 31 new deaths.
The figures, which cover the past 24 hours, mark a slight uptick in the spread of the illness following what many experts had interpreted as a promising decline.
China’s National Health Commission said in a statement that all of the deaths took place in the country’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the global epidemic. Chinese officials said its strict efforts to contain the outbreak in Hubei have led to the decline.
Also Thursday, the health commission said 2,189 people were discharged from hospitals and 464 severe cases were downgraded.
Facebook employee in Seattle diagnosed with coronavirus
A Facebook employee in Seattle has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company told Bloomberg News on Wednesday, marking the first infection for the tech company as the virus continues to spread across Washington state.
According to the news agency, the employee is a contractor who was last in Facebook’s Stadium East office in Seattle on Feb. 21.
Facebook alerted its employees about the situation on Wednesday night, according to Bloomberg, and said the Seattle office will be closed until Monday, though it is encouraging all employees to work from home until the end of the month.
AIPAC warns that some attendees at D.C. event may have been in contact with a coronavirus patient
Officials from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Wednesday said a group of people who attended the massive policy conference in Washington earlier this week may have previously been in contact with a coronavirus patient.
In a statement, AIPAC President Betsy Korn and Chairman Mort Fridman said they were coordinating with the D.C. Health Department about possible exposure after learning that a group of attendees from New York had potentially been exposed to someone with coronavirus.
The annual conference, which draws tens of thousands of attendees, ran from March 1-3 this year. It was not immediately clear whether the individual in question was one of the 11 confirmed cases in New York.
Korn and Fridman said they were told by the D.C. Health Department “there is no reason to ‘sound the alarm,'” and that the potential exposure was “low-risk.”
“To our knowledge, no one who attended the conference has tested positive for coronavirus at this time,” they wrote.
LaToya Foster, director of communications for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), said late Wednesday that the city’s health department would continue to remain in contact with the event organizer.
“We appreciate the event organizers practicing an abundance of caution as we all work to be as communicative as possible,” Foster said in a statement. “While DC Health considers this a low-risk exposure, we urge everyone to follow the well established hygiene tips.”
AIPAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump disputes coronavirus mortality rate based on his ‘hunch’
Trump believes the stated mortality rate of the coronavirus is inflated, a conclusion he has come to based on his own assessment.
“I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. This is really my hunch,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “Personally, I would say the number is way under 1 percent,” the president added.
The 3.4 percent rate comes from the World Health Organization, which said it is much higher than the mortality rate of seasonal flu. Trump insisted it was an inflated number because, he reasoned, some people who have the virus never get tested because the symptoms are so mild.
Microsoft recommends employees who can work from home do so through March 25
Microsoft updated its work-from-home policy late Wednesday amid the coronavirus outbreak, recommending that all employees who are in jobs that can be done from home to do so through March 25.
The software giant’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters neighbors Kirkland, where residents in a nursing facility have been particularly hard hit by the virus. The new policy comes after health officials in King County earlier Wednesday urged employees throughout the region to telecommute for the next three weeks, if possible. The new Microsoft rules are in response to those recommendations, Microsoft executive vice president Kurt DelBene wrote in an email to employees.
“Taking these measures will ensure your safety and also make the workplace safer for those that need to be onsite,” DelBene wrote.
Employees who work in Microsoft’s data centers, its retail stores or other jobs in the region that require them to be on-site should continue to go to work, DelBene wrote. The company is advising all workers who are over 60, who have underlying health conditions such as heart disease, whose immune systems are compromised, and those who are pregnant to avoid interaction in large groups or public settings, as the county recommended.
DelBene also advised employees to postpone travel to its Seattle-area offices, as well as its Bay Area campuses, “unless essential for the continuity of Microsoft.”
JetBlue announces flight, spending cuts
JetBlue said Wednesday that the airline would cut capacity by “approximately 5% in the near term” in response to the effect of the coronavirus on travel demand. In a statement, the company said it would monitor booking trends to see whether additional reductions would be required.
The company also said it was taking other steps to preserve cash, including “reducing hiring for both frontline and support center positions, considering voluntary time off programs as appropriate, and limiting non-essential spending,” according to the statement.
How coronavirus spread in New York
What began as one family’s crisis spiraled into a medical crisis for many Jewish families and institutions across New York City on Wednesday as about 1,000 people have self-quarantined in Westchester County, according to officials. A 50-year-old attorney who lives in New Rochelle just north of Manhattan remained at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on Wednesday, as he, his wife and two children tested positive for the coronavirus.
Close-knit Orthodox families were under quarantine in New Rochelle, where many Jews visit the same kosher restaurants and grocery stories and attend the same schools and events. The lawyer’s son attends Yeshiva University, which closed its Washington Heights campus on Wednesday. And a Jewish day school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx closed as a precautionary measure.
As the number of coronavirus victims reached 11 in the state on Wednesday, officials sought to reassure New Yorkers that it was safe to continue to use public transportation. The governor, urging caution, described the coronavirus as the “flu on steroids.”
Read more here.
Newsom declares state of emergency, says Grand Princess cruise ship will be held off coast
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in California, where the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow.
Newsom (D) said there were 53 confirmed cases in the state, included 24 cases in which people had been repatriated to the state from elsewhere. He also discussed the death of a 71-year-old man from Placer County, who died after a voyage on the Grand Princess cruise ship, which traveled between San Francisco and Mexico between Feb. 11 and Feb. 21.
Princess Cruises earlier Wednesday said it was investigating a “small cluster” of people in California currently aboard the Grand Princess, which on Feb. 21 left on a separate voyage to Hawaii. Late Wednesday, Newsom said more than half the passengers on the current cruise — at least 2,500 people — were Californians.
That Hawaii voyage was scheduled to return Wednesday to San Francisco, but Newsom said he requested the ship be held off the coast after confirming that a number of passengers and crew members aboard had developed coronavirus symptoms.
Newsom said officials planned to test those on board for coronavirus in addition to those from the previous voyage.
Washington state tells voters not to lick their ballot envelopes
In Washington state, election officials are advising residents to take an extra precaution when voting this year: Don’t lick your primary ballot envelope.
“Whether healthy or sick, please don’t lick!” reads a tweet sent Tuesday from Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman’s office, which recommended that voters “use alternative methods to seal your ballot return envelopes, such as a wet sponge or cloth.”
In an interview Wednesday, Wyman said that she and members of her office met with federal and state officials over the weekend to discuss the state’s coronavirus response. During the briefing, she said, officials noted that the coronavirus could live in the saliva on envelopes and recommended that voters take the step of not licking their envelopes.
“We’re just trying to have a calm approach to it and remind people that there are ways that you can reduce your risk,” Wyman said. She added that election workers are also being advised to wear gloves when opening envelopes.
News of the state’s advice to voters was first reported by Seattle-based TV station Q13 Fox.
Washington’s primary is March 10, and the state’s election is conducted entirely by mail, meaning that county officials will be handling millions of envelopes.
New Jersey announces first coronavirus case
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday announced the first presumptive case of the coronavirus in the state — a man in his 30s — and urged his state’s residents to “remain calm.”
It wasn’t clear how the man contracted the virus, though officials said he was hospitalized Tuesday in Bergen County. The presumptive positive result came from a sample tested by the state and will be submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation, officials said.
“Any case of novel coronavirus in our state is concerning; however, most New Jersey residents are at very low risk of contracting covid-19,” the disease caused by the virus, Judith Persichilli, the state’s Department of Health commissioner, said in a statement.
Texas confirms state’s first presumptive coronavirus case
The first presumptive case of the coronavirus in Texas is a man in his 70s who had recently traveled abroad, state and local health officials said Wednesday.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the man, who is currently hospitalized in stable condition, had traveled to a country with known coronavirus cases. In a statement, officials said Fort Bend County Health and Human Services were attempting to identify the man’s close contacts, including family members, co-workers and emergency responders. Fort Bend County is in suburban Houston.
Health officials, who did not say where the man had traveled, said the immediate risk to Texas residents is low.
“This travel-related case reinforces the fact that we should all be taking basic hygiene steps that are extremely effective in limiting the spread of COVID-19 and all respiratory illnesses,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Gaps remain in aviation response to outbreaks, officials tell Senate panel hearing on coronavirus
The Trump administration has improved its ability to respond to outbreaks that affect the flying public, but information gaps can hamper efforts to communicate with the public and to quickly reach those who may be at risk of exposure, officials told a Senate panel Wednesday.
Even as some lawmakers praised the decision to restrict air traffic from China and bar non-U. S. citizens from affected regions from entering the country, they acknowledged that more work is needed.
“I want to credit the staff at the state and local level for all the work they’ve done, but I have to share my frustration here because I can’t believe that we’re having some of the conversations we’re having now,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said.
“After having faced other global outbreaks such as H1N1 and SARS, did we not learn anything about processes and procedures from those previous diseases? You know, Americans have been flying commercially for more than a century, yet today, on the cusp of a global pandemic, the inability of the federal government to collect and share critical data effectively with U.S. airlines and local partners is really hindering our ability to stop the spread and fight this disease,” she said.
Duckworth’s comments, at a hearing of the Senate subcommittee on aviation and space, came as California announced its first coronavirus-linked death, bringing the death toll in the United States to 11, and as the House passed an $8.3 billion emergency spending package to respond to the outbreak.
Witnesses at the hearing, which focused on the role of global aviation in containing the spread of infectious diseases, included representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, all of which have a role.
“I think we have improved since really — my own history is, begins with the mid-2000s,” said Stephen Redd, director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness Response at the CDC. “I think we’re far ahead of where we were at that point in time. I think you are pointing out some things that need to change and I think that there will be ... in the very near term, work to make sure that we are operating as effectively as we can now.”
IMF warns of ‘dire scenarios’ for world economy
The International Monetary Fund said the potential outlook for the world economy has grown dimmer, and the fund is now considering “more dire scenarios” as the coronavirus continues to spread.
"In terms of our projections, we unfortunately over the last week have seen a shift to a more adverse scenario for the global economy,” Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, told reporters at a briefing in Washington on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
“It is, unfortunately, spreading undetected more than initially was thought,” Georgieva said. “The moment it became clear it is no more just about China and maybe a small number of countries in Asia surrounding China, then the outlook on what the impact could be changed.”
Central banks and governments have been struggling to respond to economic slowdowns caused by drops in travel, production and consumption as communities react to the outbreak.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve issued an emergency rate cut, but it failed to kickstart global markets as intended. That same day World Bank President David Malpass announced “a $12 billion immediate support package” to assist poorer countries in combating any coronavirus-related health and economic impacts, Bloomberg reported.
CDC investigating coronavirus cases from another Princess Cruises ship
Princess Cruises said Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a “small cluster” of cases of the novel coronavirus among people in Northern California who took a cruise on the Grand Princess from San Francisco to Mexico between Feb. 11 and 21.
Health departments in Placer and Sonoma counties each announced one case of the virus in recent days among people who were on the voyage. One of those people has since died, Placer County Public Health said Wednesday. The cruise line confirmed that the person who died was a 71-year-old man. The San Francisco Department of Public Health said in a statement that three people who were on the sailing are presumed positive for the virus.
The department also said that some people “with influenza-like symptoms” are on the current cruise, which left Feb. 21 for a Hawaiian voyage.
Princess Cruises said Wednesday it was canceling a Thursday stop in Ensenada, Mexico, and returning to San Francisco early, “though the day and time have not yet been determined.”
“The CDC is continuing to actively collect information and is collaborating with us to determine what, if any, actions need to be taken during the current Hawaii cruise and upon the ship’s return to San Francisco,” the operator said in a statement. “We have shared essential travel and health data with the CDC to facilitate their standard notification to the state and county health authorities in order to follow up with individuals who may have been exposed to the people who became ill.”
Sixty-two people on the Hawaii cruise also sailed to Mexico with the passengers who later tested positive. Earlier Wednesday, the cruise line told those passengers and some crew members to stay in their rooms until they were screened by the medical staff on the ship.
The health department said the U.S. Coast Guard and CDC are working with the cruise line and passengers but said local authorities were also making “all the necessary arrangements to receive the Grand Princess.”
Princess Cruises also owns the Diamond Princess, which spent much of February quarantined in Japan. Ultimately, more than 700 people who were on that ship were infected, and seven have died.
King County, an epicenter of U.S. coronavirus outbreak, to buy Econo Lodge motel for people with virus
King County is in the process of purchasing an 85-bed Econo Lodge motel in Kent, Wash., just south of Seattle, for $4 million to provide emergency housing for people with covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The two-story motel, just off Highway 167, met specific criteria the county public health agency sought — separate heating and air conditioning in each unit and doors that open to the outside rather than a hallway.
The county has not determined who will stay in the motel. The rooms are not specifically earmarked for residents of an assisted-living facility in a nearby Kirkland where the virus spread rapidly.
In fact, the county is not ready to say who exactly will stay at the motel, though county spokesman Chase Gallagher said patients who are homeless, among others, could wind up at the facility.
“We don’t want to expose more people,” Gallagher said. The county also wants to make sure that as patients begin to recover, they can move out of hospital beds so that they are available for other sick residents. “It’s a rapidly moving emergency situation,” Gallagher said.
King County, which includes Seattle, has emerged as an epicenter for the virus outbreak in the United States, with 27 confirmed cases, including nine deaths.
Parent of students at closed New York schools urges ‘facts, not fears’
Marc Kramer spent Wednesday at home with his three children in Riverdale, N.Y., after their schools, SAR Academy and SAR High School, closed because of a coronavirus case in the community.
As of Wednesday afternoon, New York had confirmed 11 coronavirus cases, including a 50-year-old man, his wife, their two children and a neighbor who are part of Kramer’s extended Jewish community in Westchester County, just north of New York City. An acquaintance of the 50-year-old also tested positive, as did a few of that person’s family members.
At least one of the children with the virus attends Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, which has closed indefinitely in keeping with directives from New York public health authorities.
Kramer said he is trying to keep a sense of proportion about the outbreak.
“We have tried our best to convey that we think that they are experiencing an extra dose of precaution in not being at school right now,” Kramer said. “It’s facts, not fears.” Kramer said his family hasn’t bought masks, because “they don’t work” in preventing the virus infection. (The WHO recommends masks for those who are sick or caring for the sick.) Instead, he said, he wants his children to focus on what they can do for others, so they have donated to food banks and shelters.
“Our plan is to be in synagogue [this weekend] as we usually are,” he said, “and to be part of the community in all of the ways that we would normally be, being mindful to put a little extra space between people and extra care to washing your hands.”
Rachel Dayan, who has two children at SAR High School, spent the day home with them Wednesday. They spent some of the time videoconferencing for classes held online.
“Technology is great,” she said. “They are in school even though they aren’t at school.”
She praised the schools for being transparent and “keeping parents in the loop and keeping parents calm.”
Palo Alto patient is first confirmed case for VA health system
The Department of Veterans Affairs is treating a veteran who has tested positive for coronavirus at its hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., making it the first confirmed case to be treated in the veterans’ health system, agency spokeswoman Christina Mandreucci said.
The veteran, whose sex, age and the circumstances of how they contracted the virus Mandreucci declined to provide “for privacy reasons,” has been in treatment since Monday.
“The risk of transmission to other patients and staff remains low, as the Veteran is being cared for in isolation by staff who are specially trained on the latest Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] treatment guidelines and utilizing personal protective equipment and infection control techniques,” she wrote in an email.
She said the health-care system is screening any veteran who has symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath who meets the CDC criteria for evaluation of covid-19 infection.
California has more than 30 confirmed coronavirus cases and one death.
SEC grants regulatory relief to companies affected by coronavirus
Companies affected by the spread of the novel coronavirus won a regulatory reprieve from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
The SEC said it temporarily will lift some requirements that publicly traded companies periodically alert shareholders to their financial health and quickly disclose significant corporate changes that could affect the stock price.
Companies that can show they need extra time will be granted a reprieve for documents that should have been filed from March 1 to April 30, the SEC said.
“The health and safety of all participants in our markets is of paramount importance,” SEC Chair Jay Clayton said in a statement.
Pence says risk to Americans ‘remains low’
Vice President Pence sought to reassure the American people as anxiety around the spread of coronavirus in the United States continues to rise. He said at a news briefing Wednesday that there had been just over 100 confirmed cases in the United States, including domestic cases and among Americans repatriated from China and the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
“If you are a healthy American, the risk of contracting the coronavirus remains low,” Pence said. “But it is still a good idea to engage in common-sense practices always recommended this time of year.”
Those practices, he said, include staying home when you’re sick, avoiding touching your eyes and mouth, and disinfecting surfaces frequently. He also urged Americans not to buy masks and cited research from other countries that suggests that people with preexisting conditions, as well as the elderly, are most susceptible to complications. This has prompted new guidelines for hospitals and nursing homes, which at times include limiting visitors.
Ambassador Deborah Birx, a physician and global AIDS expert who is now part of the administration’s coronavirus response, said that in South Korea, no one under 30 has died from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. In Italy, the median age of those who have succumbed is 81, she added.
“This has caused us to focus our attention and capacity to ensure those with preexisting conditions and the elderly have the best access to treatment and prevention options,” Birx said.
Pelosi, other top congressional leaders meet on coronavirus response in Capitol
The top four congressional leaders were briefed Wednesday on coronavirus preparedness in the Capitol by the House sergeant at arms, the architect of the Capitol, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and others. The briefing, assembled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), also included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). A readout from Pelosi’s office said that “there have been no discussions of shutting down public galleries or limiting tours. The briefing focused on efforts to ensure the safety and security of the millions of visitors, staff, support personnel and members. The Congress remains open for the people’s business.”
Washington state suggests groups avoid mass gatherings as virus spreads
Washington state and King County health officials on Wednesday offered a glimpse into how local leaders plan to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus as they try to quell concerns amid rising infection and death totals.
The county, which is an epicenter of the outbreak, has reported 10 new cases and one death related to covid-19 in the past day. All but one of the new cases are associated with the Life Care Center assisted-living facility in Kirkland, a Seattle suburb.
“This is a shifting landscape, and is shifting by the hour,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said during a Wednesday news conference.
He discussed the county’s strategy to slow the spread of the virus and protect those most vulnerable to it while imposing minimal disruptions on the economy and everyday life. County officials recommended that people who are pregnant or older than 60 avoid large gatherings; that employers maximize telecommuting options when possible; that community groups refrain from “large gatherings” of more than 10 people; and that people who are sick stay home and call their doctor to keep others from exposure to the virus.
Schools will remain open for now. Officials said children are not at a high risk of becoming seriously ill and will gather in other places only if schools are shuttered.
Constantine announced the county would soon open two modular facilities and has purchased an 85-bed motel to serve as quarantine housing for those recovering from the virus.
“These are stressful times. This virus will test our resiliency and our compassion and our ability to look out for one another,” he said.
GOP Rep. Gaetz wears gas mask to House vote on coronavirus spending bill
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) wore a gas mask on the floor of the House while voting in favor of an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Gaetz also tweeted a photo of himself wearing the mask while reviewing the text of the legislation ahead of the vote. The congressman’s reason for wearing the gas mask was unclear. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote. pic.twitter.com/wjJ4YY4VZz
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 4, 2020
Employee at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative exposed to Coronavirus
SAN FRANCISCO — An employee at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a company founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, was exposed to coronavirus, a company spokeswoman said in a written statement. The company’s offices in Redwood City are being deep-cleaned and employees are working from home, according to the statement.
The company was set up by Chan and Zuckerberg with the aim of eradicating disease, improving education and reforming the criminal justice system.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Zuckerberg said the company, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, helped researchers in Cambodia sequence the full coronavirus genome in days, “making it much easier and faster for them to identify if people had the virus,” he said.
In an emailed statement, the company said it took the protective measures “out of an abundance of caution following an employee’s exposure to a relative recently diagnosed with COVID-19.” After the diagnosis, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative instituted mandatory work from home for all employees through the end of the week.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to take all necessary steps in line with public health protocols to ensure the health of our employees and the broader community,” it said.
Coronavirus pummels Iran leadership as data shows spread is far worse than reported
ISTANBUL — The coronavirus outbreak sweeping through Iran has delivered a jarring blow to the senior ranks of its government, infecting about two dozen members of parliament and at least 15 other current or former top figures, according to official reports.
Among those sickened have been a vice president, a deputy health minister and an adviser to the head of the judiciary. The virus has also struck at the pinnacle of power, killing an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesman for the health ministry, said Wednesday that the virus has killed 92 people in Iran, with nearly 3,000 people known to have been infected.
But data obtained from a group of hospitals in Tehran strongly suggests that the epidemic has spread even more than the government has acknowledged.
About a dozen hospitals in the Iranian capital have reported 80 deaths from the coronavirus in the six days ending Wednesday, according to records from the medical centers. And these hospitals represent only a fraction of the total in Tehran.
The data set — including demographic details and status of the cases — shows a 17 percent surge in deaths between Tuesday and Wednesday.
The hospital information was collected and provided to The Washington Post by Britain-based Iranian activist Nariman Gharib, who has been critical of the government’s response to the epidemic and fears authorities might be keeping details from the public.
Based on the Tehran figures, Ashleigh Tuite, an infectious-disease epidemiologist, estimated that the outbreak in Iran has reached up to 28,000 cases. “I expect these numbers to keep going up,” Tuite, who is based at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said after reviewing the data for The Post.
Read more here.
First case of coronavirus confirmed in Slovenia
Slovenia on Wednesday confirmed its first case of coronavirus, Reuters reported, citing the country’s Health Ministry.
The patient reportedly traveled to Slovenia from Morocco by way of Italy, where thousands of people have tested positive for the virus, according to Reuters.
Tajikistan bans public gatherings
Tajikistan on Wednesday announced a temporary suspension of public gatherings, including Friday prayers, as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, Reuters reported.
The majority-Muslim country of 9 million has not yet confirmed any cases, according to Reuters, and the government has banned travelers from neighboring China and Afghanistan, as well as virus-hit South Korea, Iran and Italy.
The country will not hold public celebrations for Persian New Year, or Nowruz, which runs from March 21 to 25, the news agency said.
Tajikistan is the poorest of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Its government severely restricts political and religious freedoms. In 2015, President Emomali Rahmon, who is closely aligned with Moscow, banned the country’s last remaining Islamist party.
Senegal reports two new cases as doctors warn that risk of spread is ‘very, very high’
DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal reported two new cases of coronavirus Wednesday, doubling its total.
The coastal nation of 16.5 million is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have confirmed a case of the respiratory illness besides Nigeria, where an Italian man was found to have the virus last month in the commercial capital, Lagos.
One of the new patients is the 68-year-old wife of an 80-year-old French man who tested positive for the contagion this week, the health ministry said. (The couple came from a Paris suburb Feb. 29.)
The other is a 33-year-old British woman from London who has been in the country since Feb. 24. All of the patients are in stable condition.
The government has urged calm as it weighs canceling public meetings. Among those are religious festivals that are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of worshipers across the country.
The risk of coronavirus spreading in Senegal and the broader region is “very, very high,” said Ousmane Faye, head virologist at Dakar’s Pasteur Institute, “because of all the traffic we have from Europe, from China, from all over.”
In Senegal’s seaside capital, pharmacies are running out of hand sanitizer, and anxiety blends with humor on social media.
Senegalese singers wearing face masks in one viral video moan, “I’m not going out.” Another meme jokes, “You may now wink at the bride.”
United Airlines to cut domestic flights by 10 percent
United Airlines will cut domestic flights by 10 percent and international flights by 20 percent next month, and executives are planning “similar reductions” in May, the airline said Wednesday. The announcement underscores the drop-off in demand for air travel given the worldwide spread of coronavirus.
“We sincerely hope that these latest measures are enough, but the dynamic nature of this outbreak requires us to be nimble and flexible moving forward in how we respond,” United chief executive Oscar Munoz and president J. Scott Kirby said in a statement.
The airline is seeking volunteers at the company to take unpaid leaves of absence and is instituting a hiring freeze “except for roles that are critical to our operation,” the executives said.
United said that “given the high level of uncertainly regarding travel,” no change fees will be charged for any domestic or international tickets purchased between March 3 and March 31.
Five additional coronavirus cases in New York
NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) announced five more coronavirus cases on Wednesday afternoon at a news conference, bringing the state’s total to 11.
A 45-year-old man who lives in New Rochelle, a friend of a 50-year-old man already reported to have the disease, tested positive for the coronavirus. That person’s 46-year-old wife, two sons and a daughter also tested positive. The family’s other daughter tested negative for the disease. The children attend Westchester Torah Academy, which will be closed until Friday.
UPDATE: We have learned of 5 new confirmed cases of #COVID19, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 11.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 4, 2020
The cases are all in a single family from New Rochelle: A 46yo woman, her 45yo husband, and 3 of their children (two boys and a girl).
As NCAA develops coronavirus plan, two schools cancel road games
With its highest-profile basketball tournaments starting in less than two weeks, the NCAA is establishing contingency plans in case those tournaments are affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, at least two Division I schools have canceled road games because of the outbreak.
“The NCAA is committed to conducting its championships and events in a safe and responsible manner,” Donald Remy, the NCAA’s chief operating officer, said in a Tuesday statement. “Today we are planning to conduct our championships as planned, however, we are evaluating the COVID-19 situation daily and will make decisions accordingly.”
Ten people in Washington state have died of the coronavirus, all of them in the general vicinity of Seattle. Spokane, nearly 300 miles to the east, is scheduled to host first- and second-round games in the men’s NCAA tournament March 19 and 21. Neither that city nor its surrounding area have had any confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the Spokesman-Review.
On Wednesday, the University of Missouri at Kansas City announced its men’s basketball team would not play its road game this week at Seattle University, citing coronavirus concerns.
“Based on the current developments involving the coronavirus in Seattle, it is imperative for us to be proactive in regards to the safety of our student-athletes and men’s basketball program,” Athletic Director Brandon Martin said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Chicago State announced that its men’s basketball team would not travel for regularly scheduled games at Seattle University and Utah Valley University, citing the “health and well-being of the campus community.” The school’s women’s team will not host its games against Seattle and Utah Valley. The games were believed to be the first major U.S. sporting events canceled because of the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press.
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California reports first U.S. coronavirus death outside Washington state
The U.S. death toll from coronavirus rose to 11 on Wednesday after health officials in central California confirmed the state’s first death caused by covid-19.
The fatality is the first in the United States to occur outside Washington state, where the 10th coronavirus-related death was also announced Wednesday, according to The Seattle Times.
Placer County, Calif., public health officials described the deceased California patient as an “elderly adult with underlying health conditions.” The patient was the second confirmed case of covid-19 in the county, roughly 60 miles northeast of Sacramento. The patient was probably exposed to the virus during a mid-February trip on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico, officials said.
The patient had been in isolation after testing presumptively positive for the virus on Tuesday.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient,” Placer County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said in a statement. “While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see.”
Pence to travel to Washington, a state with more than two-dozen coronavirus cases
Vice President Pence announced Wednesday he plans to travel to Washington state, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus, on Thursday to meet with its governor, Jay Inslee (D).
In a tweet, Pence said, “We are here for every American and will continue to work with state and local leaders as we protect their health and well-being.”
Inslee, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has pushed back against testing restrictions and other aspects of the administration’s coronavirus response. Washington state has recorded 28 cases. Pence is leading the White House’s efforts on covid-19.
N.Y. recalls study-abroad students; 1,000 New Yorkers in self-quarantine
The State University of New York and the City University of New York suspended study-abroad programs in China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday as fears mounted over the spread of coronavirus. Approximately 300 students, as well as staff, have been asked to return from those countries to be quarantined in New York in “dorm-like facilities on SUNY campuses,” New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
“The students will come back on a chartered plane which will land at Stewart Airport,” Cuomo said, and “they will then be quarantined for 14 days.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we urge our students to accept this invitation to return now, to avoid later complications,” City University of New York Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said in a statement.
In Westchester County, about 1,000 people have self-quarantined, Cuomo said, after a 50-year-old Westchester man tested positive for the virus Tuesday. The man, an attorney who has an underlying respiratory illness, was hospitalized. He is the only one of New York’s six known cases to be hospitalized. His wife and two children — all of whom tested positive for the virus — are quarantined at home.
Yeshiva University, where the attorney’s 20-year-old son lived on campus, will be closed through Friday. The attorney’s co-workers at his midtown Manhattan law firm, which Mayor Bill de Blasio identified as Lewis and Garbuz, are being tested. “We’re testing a number of people in that law firm, some of the tests are pending but nobody has come back positive yet,” Cuomo said.
The synagogue the family attends will be closed until March 8. The daughter’s high school will be closed until after the Jewish holiday, Purim, on March 10. Its related elementary and middle school will be closed through Friday.
The governor, who described the coronavirus as the “flu on steroids,” urged caution.
“We have an epidemic caused by coronavirus but we have a pandemic that is caused by fear,” Cuomo said. “The more you test, the more positive cases you will find,” he added.
New York has the ability to test about 100 cases a day. The state’s first coronavirus patient, a 39-year-old health-care worker who tested positive for the virus after returning from Iran, is at home with “mild symptoms,” Cuomo said. Her husband did not test positive for the virus.
Iraq announces first coronavirus death
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s health ministry announced the country’s first official death from coronavirus on Wednesday, marking the region’s first fatal case outside of Iran.
The patient was identified as a woman being treated in Baghdad, the capital, but no name was released. Earlier in the day, Iraqi authorities had publicly disagreed over the cause of another fatality, with officials in the Kurdish region saying that an elderly cleric had died from coronavirus while the Baghdad government insisted that his test results had not been finalized.
With its buckling health system and struggles to appoint a new prime minister, Iraq would be ill-equipped to deal with any significant outbreak. Iran, next door, is among the worst hit countries in the world, and all 36 known cases in Iraq are in individuals believed to have recently visited Iran.
The United States announced Wednesday that Iraq would be among 26 countries to receive $36 million in aid to support efforts to contain coronavirus.
“Because an infectious-disease threat anywhere can be a threat everywhere, we call on other donors to contribute to the effort to combat COVID-19 as well,” USAID’s Office of Press Relations said in a statement.
Gates Foundation sends thousands of molecules used in antiviral drugs to Belgium for testing
Bill and Melinda Gates, whose foundation is contributing $100 million to coronavirus research, have paid for 15,000 active ingredients in existing or proposed antiviral treatments to be sent to a laboratory in Belgium for testing.
The goal is to try to speed up the discovery of a treatment or cure for covid-19. The samples, many of which are used in other antiviral treatments, will go through testing to see whether they have any effectiveness against the novel coronavirus. The samples will come from the Scripps Research Institute in California, and be tested at the Rega Institute for Medical Research near Brussels.
Coronavirus impacts ripple across airline sector, cutting travel demand
The Finnish national airline Finnair announced Wednesday that it is planning to furlough staff due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Other airlines, including Emirates, have also announced moves to adjust to a drop in passenger demand and the temporary cessation of certain routes in Asia.
According to a company statement, Finnair is taking the step of beginning negotiations to furlough all its employees based in Finland on a staggered schedule for a 14-to-30-day period. The company is also looking into cost-cutting measures outside of Finland, including in its sales and marketing divisions. The company announced Wednesday it will extend flight cancellations to mainland China through April 30, reduce its flight operations to Hong Kong and cut some service to South Korea and Italy.
Lufthansa said it is temporarily grounding 150 airplanes out of its fleet of about 770, including planes used for both long- and short-haul flights. The move is an effort to cut costs in response to the drop in passenger demand. Both leisure and business travel are being impacted, as companies restrict employees’ travel for nonessential purposes. According to the International Air Transport Association, air travel demand will fall this year for the first time in more than a decade.
Italy says it will shut schools and universities as death toll passes 100
MILAN — Italy on Wednesday said that it will close schools and universities throughout the country in an attempt to control the spread of the coronavirus, as it battles the most serious outbreak in Europe.
Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said that the directive would remain in place until mid-March but that the government remained committed to ensuring that education was still provided “from a distance.”
“For the government, it was not a simple decision,” she said.
Since detecting its first case two weeks ago, Italy has seen the number of infections and deaths mushroom. Health officials said Wednesday that 28 more people had died of covid-19, taking the total death toll in the country to 107.
A total of 2,706 people have tested positive for the virus in Italy. The virus has hit the aging population of northern Italy particularly acutely. More than 10 percent of those who have tested positive are in intensive care, straining Italy’s health-care system, which is scrambling to add extra beds.
Italian news agency Ansa reported that the government is also expected to announce another wide-ranging advisory that will ask Italians to change their lifestyle for the next 30 days. It will stipulate that people should avoid hugging, shaking hands and planning mass gatherings.
Health officials say they are also considering extending a two-week lockdown in its cordoned-off quarantine zone, which covers the worst-affected places, or expanding the area.
Congressional negotiators reach deal on roughly $8 billion in emergency coronavirus funds
Bipartisan congressional negotiators reached agreement Wednesday on a roughly $8 billion emergency spending bill to combat the coronavirus, racing to send it to President Trump’s desk by the end of the week.
The deal must still be voted on by the House and Senate, but bipartisan support is expected. The package would include more than $3 billion for the research and development of things such as vaccines, according to a House Democratic aide.
Other parts of the deal include $2.2 billion in new public health funding, and close to $1 billion for medical supplies, health-care preparedness and community health centers, among others. It would also appropriate $1.25 billion to address coronavirus risks in other countries, and allow $7 billion in low-interest Small Business Administration loans for companies impacted by the outbreak.
House leaders were aiming for a vote later Wednesday as urgency mounted to address the crisis with growing numbers of cases reported from coast to coast.
Los Angeles County declares health emergency as six new coronavirus cases are confirmed
Officials in Los Angeles County, Calif., declared a local health emergency Wednesday after the county’s public health department confirmed six new cases of the coronavirus, raising the countywide total of cases to seven.
“We’ve confirmed these cases as of last night with positive lab results,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The new cases were the result of close contact and did not amount to wide community spread, officials said. Three of the patients in the newly confirmed cases had recently traveled to northern Italy, one of the places hardest hit by the outbreak. The remaining three new cases were either family members of the travelers or worked in close contact with them.
“This is not a response rooted in panic,” Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said in a news conference Wednesday. “We’ve been preparing with our local, state and federal partners for the likelihood of this scenario.”
Man who passed through Amsterdam airport is quarantined at fire station
A man who passed through Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is in quarantine in temporary housing at a fire station after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Dutch officials have set up temporary rooms in the fire department’s parking lot to isolate people who may have been exposed to the virus. It was not immediately clear where the man was traveling from or headed when he was diagnosed with the illness.
But Petra Faber, a spokeswoman for Haarlemmermeer, the municipality where the airport and the fire department are located, said the man “cannot continue traveling and cannot go to a hotel, so had to be sheltered elsewhere,” Reuters reported.
“This really is intended to bridge the period until another location can be found,” she said.
Faber described the temporary housing unit as a “portable container-like room with a door, window toilet and shower.”
At briefing with airline CEOs, Pence says threat of contracting coronavirus ‘remains low’
Trump made a surprise appearance Wednesday morning at a briefing by Vice President Pence with airline and diagnostic lab chief executives on the coronavirus.
Pence opened the meeting by praising Trump’s handling of the crisis, describing the administration’s efforts as not just a whole-of-government approach but “really a whole-of-America approach.”
“The threat of contracting coronavirus remains low, according to all of our experts. … We’re going to continue to lean into this effort, and we will continue to do so until we find our way through the impacts of the coronavirus,” Pence said.
He said that at Trump’s direction, as of Tuesday morning, all passengers flying to the United States directly from Italy and South Korea are being screened multiple times. Trump argued that the Obama administration had “made a decision on testing that turned out to be detrimental,” although he did not go into detail. “It was a decision we disagreed with, but we have undone that decision,” Trump said.
Asked for his message to Americans about whether they should be afraid to travel, Trump gestured to the airline chief executives gathered around the table.
“I think where these people are flying, it’s safe to fly,” he said, adding that if certain areas begin to be more of a problem, “we may close them up.”
Australia’s top doctor says stockpiling toilet paper not ‘proportionate or sensible’ as shelves lie empty
Australia’s top physician has warned against stockpiling toilet paper, after stores across the country ran out as shoppers bought supplies amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn’t a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time,” Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told a Senate hearing Wednesday, according to local reports.
The remarks came after photographs shared on social media showed empty shelves in Australian shops and supermarkets warned they would have to restrict purchases to preserve supplies. Similar scenes have played out in stores from Hong Kong to Japan and the United States in recent weeks.
"Customer limit of 4 toilet paper packs per transaction" - bit late when there's no toilet paper at all! @woolworths @abcnews pic.twitter.com/HT63DBPZXH
— Andrea Nierhoff (@Andrea_Nierhoff) March 3, 2020
The hashtags #ToiletPaperEmergency and #ToiletPaperApocalypse began to trend on social media — to widespread amusement.
Kleenex took to Facebook to reassure worried shoppers that there was plenty of stock to go round, posting an update Wednesday: “We won’t be running out any time soon, don’t panic!” The company shared a photo of toilet paper piled high in one of its warehouses, adding: “We are working around the clock at our mill in South Australia to keep the supermarket shelves stocked with Kleenex Complete Clean toilet paper.”
Woolworths, a major Australian grocery chain, moved to limit the amount of toilet paper customers could buy at any one time.
“Four packs per customer transaction applies in-store and online,” the retailer said in a statement, adding that the measure would “help shore up stock levels as suppliers ramp up local production and deliveries in response to higher than usual demand.”
Australia has confirmed more than 40 cases of the coronavirus and at least three cases of community transmission. Murphy and other government officials have warned that it will likely face more.
Israel announces new coronavirus cases and additional restrictions
Israel reported three more coronavirus patients on Wednesday, bringing the number of infected to 15 and significantly expanding the number of people required to self-quarantine.
One of the new patients was a teenager, and the Health Ministry ordered about 1,400 students in his high school into quarantine. It was also reported that he attended a soccer match in Tel Aviv and that all those sitting in bleachers nearby were told to self-isolate for 14 days. Another of the new patients was reportedly an elementary school teacher who visited a toy store where the owner was identified as being infected.
At a news conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was in a fairly good position to contain the novel coronavirus compared with other countries because of measures that it took over the past few weeks, including isolating those exposed and testing people in time. He urged Israelis not to shake hands.
Earlier Wednesday, Israel’s chief rabbi instructed people not to kiss mezuzas, the small prayer container that Jews affix to doorjambs and are meant to kiss, or touch as a blessing, before entering a room.
Israel has already canceled flights to and from Italy and many Asian countries. It has prevented entry to foreign nationals arriving from those places and ordered Israeli travelers to immediately quarantine themselves for 14 days. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry expanded the restrictions, saying it would also prevent entry for foreign nationals arriving from other European countries — Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria. All Israelis returning from those countries would be sent to home quarantine for 14 days.
According to the new guidelines, foreigners from the designated countries will “not be able to enter Israel, unless they can prove they can be in home isolation. The implementation of this will take effect in the coming days.”
Israel additionally is requiring residents returning from international gatherings — regardless of the country — to self-isolate for 14 days and prohibiting health-care workers from traveling abroad. Gatherings of more than 5,000 people, including the March 20 Jerusalem Marathon, also are banned.
Additionally, Israel’s national carrier, El Al, said it was letting go of 1,000 staff members, and executives were to take a 20 percent pay cut because of the widening crisis.
Louvre museum reopens despite rising number of coronavirus cases in France
One of the world’s most-visited museums, the Louvre in Paris, reopened Wednesday after a temporary closure amid coronavirus concerns.
Staffers voted over the weekend to close the museum to visitors after the French government banned indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people.
“The Louvre is a confined space which welcomes more than 5,000 people a day,” a union representative told Agence France-Presse after the vote. “There is real concern on the part of staff.”
In an emailed statement Wednesday, a top Louvre official, Maxence Langlois-Berthelot, acknowledged an “exceptional situation” and “legitimate concerns,” but added: “At present, the relevant authorities recommend the opening of museums and I am delighted that we can achieve this. Everyone is showing responsibility.”
The museum’s management said it has stepped up efforts to minimize the risk of infection for staffers.
New York announces four new cases
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced four new coronavirus cases in New York at a news conference Wednesday, raising the state’s total number of cases to six. The wife and two children of a 50-year-old Westchester County man diagnosed with the virus Tuesday have since tested positive. A neighbor who drove the man to the hospital also tested positive, Cuomo (D) said.
UPDATE: There are four additional confirmed cases of #COVID19 in NYS, bringing the total to six.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 4, 2020
The new #coronavirus cases are tied to the 50-year-old patient from New Rochelle announced yesterday: his wife, two of his children, and his neighbor who drove him to the hospital.
He said the man’s 20-year-old son attends Yeshiva University in New York City and his 14-year-old daughter attends a Jewish day school in the Bronx. The SAR Academy and High School closed Tuesday as a precautionary measure after the girl’s father tested positive.
Yeshiva University on Wednesday canceled all classes at its Wilf Campus in Washington Heights, it said in a statement.
“The neighbor is not just a neighbor but actually drove the attorney to the hospital and therefore was in a car with the attorney in that closed environment,” Cuomo said.
Another Yeshiva student who studies at the university’s Cardozo School of Law is in self-quarantine. He works for the Westchester County man, who is a lawyer.
The man’s family attends Young Israel of New Rochelle. Health officials ordered the synagogue to suspend activities and for anyone who attended the funeral at the synagogue on Feb. 22 or the bat mitzvah on Feb. 23 to quarantine for at least two weeks. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported about 600 people in self-quarantine as a result.
Two other schools in the New York City suburbs, the Westchester Day School and the Westchester Torah Academy, also temporarily shut down as a precaution and not because of a New York State Department of Health directive, JTA reported.
“Yeshiva University is working closely with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to take every necessary precaution to ensure the safety of students and the community,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement Wednesday. “City disease detectives are on campus to identify close contacts of the student and connect those individuals to testing immediately.”
The mayor said two contacts have been transferred to Bellevue Hospital.
Some British workers to receive sick pay to help contain virus
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday that the British government will introduce emergency coronavirus legislation that will allow sick pay for individuals who self-isolate from the first day of their illness.
Under the current rules, employers only have to give sick pay from the fourth day of sickness.
Like governments around the world, the Johnson administration has come under pressure in the wake of the outbreak to do more regarding workers’ pay if they become ill.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson said that those who self-isolate are “helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus.” He added that “nobody should be penalized for doing the right thing.”
Opposition lawmakers and trade unions welcomed Johnson’s announcement but said that it did not go far enough. They said millions of Britons don’t qualify for statutory sick leave because they are self-employed — many working in Britain’s thriving “gig economy” — or they earn less than the 118 pounds ($149) a week they need to qualify.
Health experts are worried that some workers, particularly those who are low paid, may attempt to mask any illnesses and continue to work because they cannot afford a prolonged break from work. Trade unions say there are nearly 2 million people who earn less than $149 per week. Nearly 5 million people are self-employed and do not qualify for statutory sick leave.
Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the lack of provisions for all workers could result in people ignoring advice and not self-isolating.
“No one should face an impossible choice when given official health advice,” she said.
Officials said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom jumped from 51 to 85, the largest single-day spike to date.
Russian top officials condemn foreign ‘fake news,’ deny that there are more coronavirus cases than revealed
MOSCOW — Russian officials Wednesday denied that there are more coronavirus cases in the country than they have revealed and condemned “fake news” from abroad.
“Unfortunately, it always accompanies us,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with government officials. “The purpose of such fakes is clear: to cause panic among people. That can be countered by only one thing — timely, comprehensive and accurate information for the country’s citizens.”
“Thank God, we don’t have anything critical happening yet,” Putin said.
Russia has had six confirmed cases — three of them on the Diamond Princess cruise ship — and Moscow diagnosed its first case Monday, a 29-year-old man who recently returned from Italy and is under quarantine. Russia’s preventive measures have included a temporary travel ban on nearly all Chinese citizens, closing the entire 2,600-mile border with China and random temperature checks at Moscow metro station entrances and local schools.
“I have to say that social media has been posting fake news lately about a fairly high number of sick people in Russia and alleging that the authorities are concealing this information,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Wednesday. “Let me tell you again that this is not true.”
Asked about the coronavirus outbreak Wednesday, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “everything that needs to be done in order the keep coronavirus away from [Putin’s] inner circle is already being done,” adding that they are just “ordinary hygienic preventive measures.”
Saudi Arabia suspends pilgrimage trips to holy cities of Mecca and Medina for all citizens and residents
DUBAI — Saudi Arabia has suspended offseason pilgrimage trips to its holy cities of Mecca and Medina for all citizens and residents as part of an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus, the state news agency reported.
Quoting the Ministry of Interior, the Saudi Press Agency said that participation in the offseason umrah pilgrimage has been suspended for local people. Saudi Arabia had already closed it off to foreigners last week.
Making the hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca is incumbent on every Muslim, and this year the visiting time begins in late July. Typically, around 2 million Muslims participate in the hajj ceremonies each year.
Off season visits, however, are also quite common and less expensive. They bring hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to the cities’ holy sites.
Saudi authorities said the decision would be reviewed continuously based on the situation of the coronavirus outbreak. There are more than 3,000 cases in the Middle East, mostly in Iran.
Saudi Arabia has only reported one case of the virus so far.
U.S. Strategic National Stockpile set to purchase up to 500 million respirators and face masks
Amid concerns that the coronavirus epidemic could lead to a shortage of respirators and face masks in the United States, the government has pledged to buy up extra stock in a bid to keep manufacturers from holding back production over fear of building up excess supplies.
The spike in demand has maxed out the capacity of some manufacturers, The Washington Post reported, as the need for masks continues to skyrocket in East Asia and around the world.
“The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) last week published a pre-solicitation notice announcing its intent to purchase up to 500 million N95 respirators and face masks over the next 18 months,” Stephanie Bialek, the stockpile communications services section chief at the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email.
The point is to increase production of protective equipment, she said. The government would use the masks and respirators to protect health-care workers, Quartz reported Monday.
“In an emergency, the SNS can send these products to areas in need as requested by state health officials,” Bialek said.
The Strategic National Stockpile is the government’s cache of emergency supplies. The World Health Organization recommends washing your hands and keeping them away from your face to avoid catching the novel coronavirus. Only those who are ill or caring for the ill need to wear masks, according to the WHO.
‘I don’t want your coronavirus in my country’: Singapore student attacked in London
LONDON — A student from Singapore studying in Britain was subjected to what British police are calling a “racially aggravated” attack on Feb. 24, with a group physically and verbally assaulting him on London’s Oxford Street while stating: “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country.”
On Wednesday, British police released images of four men they said they wanted to interview in connection with the attack. No arrests have yet been made.
Taking to Facebook on Monday, Jonathan Mok documented his ordeal in detail and shared photos of his facial fractures, swelling and a black eye — injuries that doctors said may require reconstructive surgery to repair.
“We fail to see the social effects that has surfaced from the spread of this virus — where racism has found yet another excuse to rear its ugly head,” Mok began before recalling the incident, which he said was unprovoked.
“Within 3 seconds, he was in my face, together with 3/4 other young men, and a young lady (all of whom seemed no older than 20 years old, but were all more than a head taller than me),” he wrote.
Mok described how he was punched twice and his face “exploded with blood” during the attack, which took place around 9 p.m. local time. He said other members of the public stepped in to try to help him.
“To those people who told me that London isn’t racist, think again,” wrote Mok, who has been studying in London for the past two years. “Racists constantly find excuses to expound their hatred — and in this current backdrop of the coronavirus, they’ve found yet another excuse.”
As the disease continues to spread globally, many Asian Americans report being subjected to “dirty looks, deserted restaurants and bullied children” since the outbreak.
As of Wednesday, Mok’s post had drawn more than 10,000 comments and 30,000 shares. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Tuesday that he was “sickened” to hear of the incident and referred to it as a “senseless attack.”
“Racism will not be tolerated in this city and @MetPoliceUK have my full support in their search for these criminals. Diversity makes London stronger, and everyone — no matter where they’re from — is welcome here,” he tweeted.
U.S. markets poised for big gains as Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday surge offers coronavirus respite
U.S. markets surged Wednesday after a stunning Super Tuesday run that set up Joe Biden for a showdown with Bernie Sanders and transformed the Democratic presidential race. The Dow Jones industrial average was poised to jump nearly 700 points at the open.
The rebound comes amid one of the most volatile windows of trading in recent memory, with coronavirus panic spawning a brutal sell-off that has erased trillions of dollars from global markets.
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve delivered its first emergency rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis and brought the benchmark down 50 basis points, but the central bank’s move seemed to reinforce panic rather easing it, with all major U.S. indexes declining nearly 3 percent and landing back in correction territory.
The former vice president captured nine states, including Texas, a showing that propelled him to the front of the race. Sanders may yet score the night’s biggest prize, California, where he is leading.
First coronavirus case at E.U. headquarters in Brussels
BRUSSELS — A European diplomat working for the European Defense Agency (EDA) was infected with the coronavirus after a recent trip to Italy, a spokeswoman for the agency confirmed to The Washington Post on Wednesday.
The case was first reported by the Brussels-based news website Euractiv on Wednesday morning. It is the first case within the European Union institutions, which employ about 40,000 staffers from all the countries of the bloc — including the EDA’s roughly 140 employees.
The main E.U. institutions are based in Brussels, including the E.U’s executive arm, the European Commission, which employs more than 32,000 people alone. Brussels also has more than 7,000 international diplomats living in the city, and NATO headquarters is also based in the Belgian capital.
A spokeswoman for the EDA, which coordinates the 27 E.U. countries on security and defense policy, added that the infected diplomat “is at home and is completely fine."
All meetings in the buildings of the agency were canceled until March 13.
On Monday evening, the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, said all meetings and most parliamentary events were postponed or canceled for the next three weeks. Lobbyists and non-E.U. officials were banned from entering the premises.
The only exemption from this ban was a parliamentary hearing with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, which was set to take place Wednesday, as the E.U. is unveiling new climate change legislation.
On Wednesday morning, the Belgian Health Ministry announced that 25 people were infected in the country. The Belgian daily Le Soir reported that only one laboratory was fully equipped to run medical tests in the country of 11 million.
As coronavirus goes global, China faces challenge of imported infections
BEIJING — Health authorities in the prosperous province of Zhejiang had finally lowered the alert level from one to two after six weeks, satisfied their draconian measures to contain the novel coronavirus had worked.
Once the hardest-hit Chinese province beyond Hubei, coastal Zhejiang had placed 30 million people under lockdown, , but there were no new cases reported in nine days in the key export and manufacturing base.
Then Wang, a 31-year-old waitress who had been working in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, came home to Qingtian county, west of the city of Wenzhou. On Sunday, she tested positive for the coronavirus. Seven others who worked in the same Bergamo restaurant and flew back home were diagnosed this week, the Qingtian government said on its WeChat social media account.
This is China’s new coronavirus challenge.
Having largely contained the virus at home, China now faces the prospect of imported infections as the outbreak rages far beyond its borders.
Read more about China’s evolving conundrum: Coronavirus spread from China. Now, China doesn’t want the world spreading it back.
London Book Fair canceled due to coronavirus
LONDON — The London Book Fair, the second-largest book fair in the world, has been canceled due to mounting concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.
The organizers, Reed Exhibitions, said in a statement Wednesday that the fair would not be going ahead “following the escalation of COVID-19 Coronavirus in Europe.”
The annual three-day event is an important one on the publishing industry’s calendar, drawing about 25,000 people — authors, agents, editors and publishers — who descend on a cavernous exhibition center in west London to meet, mingle and negotiate lucrative book deals. According to the fair’s website, the event’s “international reach is breathtaking” with visitors hailing from more than 135 countries.
In their statement, the organizers said that “the effects, actual and projected, of Coronavirus are becoming evident across all aspects of our lives here in the [United Kingdom] and across the world, with many of our participants facing travel restrictions.”
“We have been following UK government guidelines and working with the rolling advice from the public health authorities and other organisations, and so it is with reluctance that we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this year’s event,” the statement said.
The announcement came after a number of publishers said they would not be attending. On Tuesday, Penguin Random House said it had made the “difficult decision” to withdraw from the fair “in the interest of the health and well-being of our employees, authors, and partners.”
Organizers said that the fair, which would have celebrated its 49th anniversary this year, will return “better than ever, in 2021.”
Coronavirus found in ‘almost all’ Iranian provinces, Rouhani says, as 2,922 cases confirmed
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his cabinet Wednesday that the virus had spread across most of Iran.
“This disease is a widespread one. It encompasses almost all of our provinces,” he said.
Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesman for Iran’s Health Ministry, said Wednesday that the virus has killed 92 people and that 586 new cases have been detected, bringing the total in the country to 2,922 people known to have been infected. Among them are nearly three dozen Iranian government officials and members of parliament.
The number of new cases reported Wednesday is substantially less than the more than 800 registered the day before, but Jahanpour cautioned that it “does not mean that the number of people who have contracted the disease on a daily basis has decreased.”
A politician was criticized for her ‘disgusting’ tweet about coronavirus. She’s not alone.
With cases of the novel coronavirus reported in more than a dozen states, public officials nationwide are turning to social media to reiterate basic common-sense advice: Wash your hands. See a doctor if you think you have symptoms. Don’t panic.
Others are sending a different kind of message — and inciting controversy.
On Friday, Candi CdeBaca, a city council member in Denver, shared a since-deleted tweet from a woman who joked about spreading coronavirus to supporters of President Trump.
“For the record, if I do get the coronavirus I’m attending every MAGA rally I can,” said the original tweet, posted from a now-locked Twitter account.
CdeBaca, who holds a nonpartisan office but describes herself as a democratic socialist, quoted the tweet and added, “#solidarity Yaaaas!!” followed by three crying-laughing emoji, a fist and the okay gesture.
Democrat Denver Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca says that she stands in "solidarity" with someone who says that they if they get the coronavirus that they will attend as many Trump rallies as possible
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 3, 2020
She appears to have made the statement on her government Twitter account https://t.co/YySSLhcNBZ pic.twitter.com/fJV0nJycHR
She’s not the only one to get in trouble. On Monday, the New York Daily News reported that New York State Assembly staffer Marilyn Franks had shared a chain Facebook message that encouraged people to avoid Asian-owned businesses, which are already seeing their sales slump because of unfounded xenophobic rumors.
And the problem is hardly unique to the United States. Last week, Luca Zaia, the regional governor of Veneto, Italy, claimed that Chinese people were to blame for the outbreak because they “eat live mice.” He has since apologized, according to Reuters.
Iraq records possible coronavirus death, first in Middle East outside Iran
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Health Ministry says that an elderly cleric who died Wednesday in the country’s Kurdish region had not completed tests to confirm he had coronavirus.
“He died while they were taking the samples for testing,” said Saif al-Badr, Iraq’s health minister, appearing to walk back earlier claims from the country’s Kurdish regional government that the elderly patient was the first person outside Iran to die of covid-19 in the Middle East.
Local officials identified the victim as Mullah Rashid Abdulrahman, a preacher at a mosque in the city of Sulaymaniyah.
Unlike the country’s other 31 other coronavirus patients, Abdulrahman was not believed to have traveled to Iran, Iraq’s eastern neighbor and now a site of one of the world’s worst outbreaks.
The patient had been quarantined in the Kurdish region of Sulaymaniyah, the area’s health directorate said.
Iraq’s health system was once among the best in the region, but years of mismanagement, neglect and underfunding have left it buckling. Doctors say the country is struggling to implement adequate quarantine procedures and in some places, the government has repurposed hotels as isolation facilities. It has also announced the 10-day closure of schools, universities, cafes and other public spaces.
But while the streets of Baghdad were quiet Wednesday, the decree has by no means halted Iraqis from gathering to catch up in cafes or restaurants.
“It’s going to get worse here,” said a doctor in one Baghdad hospital, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to government sensitivity over criticism. “People don’t understand how serious this is.”
Hungary closes borders to asylum seekers to ‘protect’ itself from coronavirus
Although Hungary has yet to report any cases of the spreading coronavirus, the Central European country says it must keep out those it claims are most likely to bring the epidemic inside its borders: Iranian asylum seekers.
György Bakondi, Hungary’s chief security adviser, said this weekend that the country would be indefinitely barring unauthorized migrants from entering its so-called “transit zones”: detention centers where migrants are held after crossing the border.
Because the majority of asylum seekers in Hungary are from Iran, which has emerged as a focal point of the epidemic, the move was “in the interest of protecting” the population at large as well as hundreds already detained in the transit zones, Bakondi said.
As of Sunday, officials said 125 people had been tested for coronavirus in Hungary, although no actual cases had been found.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has made restrictions on immigration a signature campaign issue, according to Public Radio International’s “The World” program. He has spoken publicly of “Muslim invaders,” rejected the European Union’s 2015 refugee resettlement program and sought to criminalize providing aid to asylum seekers.
Some Hungarian human rights groups alleged that the government’s move effectively ends asylum rights, pointing out that people without valid visas can file applications for asylum only in the transit zones.
HU government announced that no asylum-seekers will be admitted for an undefined time to the 2 border transit zones due to potential risks of COVID-19. As ppl w/out valid visa can only file apps in transit zones since 3/28/2017, this effectively shuts down access to asylum.
— HunHelsinkiCommittee (@hhc_helsinki) March 1, 2020
The measures also unfairly targeted those who had left Iran months or years before the coronavirus killed more than 90 Iranians and infected thousands more, they said.
Many Iranians who recently arrived in Hungary, which is estimated to let in only two asylum seekers a day, have been living for years in closed camps in Turkey. The Turkish government said last month it would not prevent asylum seekers from reaching Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Adalbert Jahnz, a spokesman for the European Commission, reportedly said his agency — the executive branch of the E.U. — would be examining Hungary’s block on the transit zones.
In an interview with the liberal Hungarian newspaper Népszava, Jahnz said that risk assessments and scientific advice should precede any measures taken to fight the spread of the coronavirus, in coordination with other E.U. member states.
Chinese researchers suggest there may be two strains of novel coronavirus
HONG KONG — In a new study, Chinese researchers suggest that there may be two strains of the novel coronavirus causing infections, one more virulent than the other.
The research, published Tuesday by scientists from Peking University’s School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cautioned that its findings were preliminary and that more research is needed.
But the news drew widespread attention in China, where it became the second-highest trending topic on social media site Weibo on Wednesday and was shared by Chinese state media.
The study, published in the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Science Review, said it had identified two different strains of the novel coronavirus, with a more aggressive strain accounting for 70 percent of those they analyzed, while a less aggressive strain accounted for 30 percent.
The less aggressive strain appeared to be the ancestor of the more aggressive one, the researchers noted. While the more aggressive strain appeared to be more prevalent at the start of the outbreak in Wuhan, it subsequently was found less frequently.
“Human intervention may have placed more severe selective pressure” on the aggressive strain, the researchers wrote, while the less aggressive strain “might have increased in relative frequency due to relatively weaker selective pressure.”
The researchers admitted that they could not be confident about their results, given the small sample size, but they suggested that the idea should be investigated further. as it may shed light on the impact that the Chinese government’s intervention had on the virus itself.
“These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019,” the authors wrote.
China imposed dramatic travel restrictions on Wuhan and other parts of China in late January, placing tens of millions of citizens under strict controls in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus that causes the disease named covid-19.
Although China remained the home of the vast number of novel coronavirus cases, with more than 80,000 in the country so far, it has reported declining numbers of new cases in the country, with most reported in Hubei, the province of which Wuhan is the capital.
France to regulate the price of hand sanitizer
The French government said Wednesday it would take steps to regulate the price of sanitizing hand gels after prices reportedly rocketed in response to a surge in demand.
Sales of hand gels have soared in France and elsewhere in recent weeks as people fearful of catching the virus seek to protect themselves. In France, which has confirmed over 200 cases of the novel coronavirus, there were reports of retailers tripling prices on products since the outbreak began. Some customers have been met with empty shelves as stores struggle to obtain new stock quickly enough.
France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who tweeted the announcement on Wednesday, had previously warned the government would take such steps if an independent watchdog were to confirm the numerous reports of inflated prices of antibacterial gels.
In addition to hand sanitizers, there has also been a run on protective face masks in France. On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron said that the government will requisition all stock and production of face masks, setting them aside for those who are infected by the novel coronavirus or who work in the healthcare industry.
China’s Foreign Ministry says media should stop calling coronavirus the ‘Chinese virus’
HONG KONG — China’s Foreign Ministry says media outlets should stop calling the novel coronavirus outbreak the “Chinese virus," dubbing it an “extremely irresponsible" thing to do.
“We firmly oppose it,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Wednesday. Zhao did not immediately respond to a request to name the media outlets that referred to the coronavirus outbreak as the “Chinese virus.”
At Wednesday’s briefing, Zhao said that work was still underway to trace the virus and suggested that the World Health Organization had said that the outbreak was “a global occurrence and the source is uncertain,” pointing to remarks made by Chinese health officials that suggested the outbreak could have originated outside China.
“WHO named it covid-19 to avoid connecting the virus with any countries or regions,” Zhao said, adding that it was inappropriate to make China “the scapegoat" for the crisis.
The novel coronavirus outbreak was first observed in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. The vast majority of all confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus remain in China, where there have been over 80,000 cases. Roughly 95 percent of all deaths from the outbreak have been in China.
The virus at the heart of the current outbreak is technically called SARS-CoV-2, but is commonly referred as the novel coronavirus. The disease it causes is called covid-19.
Last month, China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters in retaliation for a headline on a column that the ministry deemed racist, prompting the State Department to introduce new rules that will force 60 Chinese journalists to leave the United States this month.
After outrage from Italian officials, French TV channel apologizes over ‘corona pizza’ satirical ad
The pizzamaker keeps coughing as he pulls a fresh pie out of the wood-fired oven, oozing with tomato sauce, peppers and mushrooms.
But as the man keeps hacking away, a bright-green glob of phlegm falls from his mouth — and lands right on top of the cheese below him.
“This program is brought to you by the corona pizza,” the voice-over says, introducing a commercial on the French TV channel Canal+. “The new Italian pizza that will spread around the world."
polemiche per questo video di Canal + pizza corona 😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/HlYx4Rzd1z
— Giuseppe (@Giusepp94144040) March 3, 2020
It’s safe to say the commercial did not have to travel far to cause a stir.
Amid a deadly outbreak that has claimed the lives of at least 79 Italians and sickened thousands of others, outraged Italian government officials were quick to demand an apology from the French TV channel.
“Making fun of the Italians like that, with the coronavirus emergency we are facing, is profoundly disrespectful,” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
Di Maio added that the media was “morally obliged” not to spread disinformation about the virus.
Although health officials have repeatedly emphasized that the coronavirus cannot be spread through food, the minister added that some unspecified countries have demanded a “virus-free” label to put on Italian products.
Questa è l’anteprima di un video diffuso da una tv francese che considero di dubbio gusto e inaccettabile. Comprendo la...
Posted by Luigi Di Maio on Tuesday, March 3, 2020
He was joined in outrage by other Italian officials. Teresa Bellanova, the country’s agriculture minister, slammed the video as “an insult to an entire nation.” Coldiretti, a national agricultural association, called it a “petty and instrumental attack” by the French on their longtime culinary rival.
Canal+ issued an apology later in the day, according to Agence France-Presse, admitting that the joke used for its humorous “Groland” program “was in very bad taste” and would be removed from the air.
Yet Di Maio appeared to have the last laugh.
On Tuesday, the minister invited the makers of the video “to come and eat pizza in Italy,” he wrote, “a pizza like they’ve never had in their lives.”
India announces sharp rise in cases to 28 after Italian tour group tests positive
India announced a sharp rise in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, with the total number now up to 28.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told reporters that 16 of those confirmed with the virus were Italian tourists, while a bus driver who had been taking them on a tour also tested positive. Several other members of the party were found to not have the virus.
The Indian government announced new measures to try to stop the virus at its borders, including universal screening at airports for travelers arriving on international flights.
Vardhan said the Italian tour group arrived in the country on Feb. 21, before screening was put in place for visitors from Italy.
Separately on Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would not be attending any events for the Hindu celebration of Holi, one of the largest celebrations in the country, due to public health experts’ advice.
Tania Dutta in New Delhi contributed to this report.
UAE announces month-long school closures as new cases discovered
DUBAI — All public and private schools in the United Arab Emirates will be closed for a month starting Sunday to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Education said.
The move is the latest in a string of containment measures in the UAE, an international travel hub, home to two major airlines and the first place in the Middle East to announce a case of the coronavirus.
Late on Tuesday, the government also announced the discovery of six more cases of the virus, raising the national total to 27. The new cases included two Russians, two Italians, a German and a Colombian connected to Abu Dhabi’s UAE Tour cycling event, which was canceled after two Italian participants tested positive.
The school closure was presented as an extension as well as a moving up of spring break, which had been scheduled for just two weeks in late March and early April. The Ministry of Education added that some form of distance learning would be implemented during the final two weeks of the extended break. Similar measures have been enacted elsewhere, including in Hong Kong and Japan.
The ministry added that the break would also be used to carry out an extensive program of cleaning and sterilization of all scholastic facilities. Mosques and religious centers will also be cleaned during this period, and religious authorities said those feeling unwell should not attend mosque prayers, while anyone particularly at risk of the virus, the elderly or people with weakened immune systems, should also stay home.
Despite only a handful of cases, the coronavirus outbreak has shaken up the wealthy Persian Gulf state, which is just across the water from Iran, a major source of the virus with more than 2,000 cases.
The busy social calendar in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi emirates has been devastated by virus fears, with a string of events canceled or postponed, including art fairs, the Taste of Dubai food festival, the Dubai International Boat Show, a yoga festival, the celebration of the Indian Holi festival and a string of concerts, including one for K-pop bands.
Dubai’s most highly anticipated event is the Dubai World Expo 2020, set for October, which the city is counting on to boost the economy. Organizers have said they are closely watching the coronavirus situation.
India’s Modi says he will not participate in Holi celebrations due to coronavirus concerns
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Wednesday on Twitter that he would not attend any Holi events due to concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020
Holi, an ancient Hindu festival celebrating the arrival of spring that is sometimes referred to as the “festival of colors,” is due to start Monday. Although primarily celebrated in India and Nepal, it has become well known throughout the world for its colorful use of dry paint and playful atmosphere.
Modi’s announcement came as experts worried about the possible spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the gargantuan country, home to more than 1.3 billion people. India’s official total is at least five cases, but there are worries it could be higher.
During Holi, large crowds gather, and participants are encouraged to physically play and hurl colored powder and water at one another — activities that could pose risks for spreading a highly contagious virus. The novel coronavirus causes the disease named covid-19.
Modi said Tuesday that he has conducted an extensive review of the country’s preparedness and that there was “no need to panic.” He urged Indians to work together “to take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection.”
U.S. says it will drop limits on coronavirus testing as death toll reaches 9
The Trump administration said Tuesday that any American can be tested for the spreading coronavirus if a doctor deems it necessary, as the U.S. death toll rises and workers prepare for growing disruptions to their routines.
“When I talked to some state officials, there was a sense that the tests would not be administered to people that were mildly symptomatic,” Vice President Pence said in an off-camera briefing. “We’re issuing clear guidance that subject to doctors’ orders, any American can be tested.”
As some lawmakers question whether the government has done enough to contain the virus, Pence’s comments raised additional doubts about how the government might accelerate the production of testing kits to begin with — and how much patients would have to pay for the tests.
The prospect of expanded testing may also considerably expand the total number of record cases, some experts have suggested. Across the country, health officials had reported at least 124 cases of the virus as of Tuesday evening, including 45 people who had been on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. North Carolina also reported its first patient, bringing the number of states with separate cases up to 14.
In Washington state, health officials confirmed three additional deaths, adding to the six deaths that had previously been reported there.
Most deaths so far have been linked to a nursing home near Seattle, and the same was true of the three new fatalities reported on Tuesday: an 80-year-old woman who died at home; a woman in her 70s who died at a Kirkland hospital; and a 54-year-old man who died at a Seattle hospital, two days after he was admitted directly from the nursing home, the Life Care Center of Kirkland.
Two of those three deaths occurred on Feb. 26 and another on Monday.
In the White House, President Trump has closely monitored news coverage on the coronavirus, The Post reported, as he privately gripes about what he calls hysteria from both the media and his own public health officials.
Within his administration, officials are trying to calm a nervous public with disciplined messaging from both scientists and political aides, they say.
With coronavirus, North Korea’s isolation is a possible buffer — but also a worry
With coronavirus, it may pay to be an isolated, paranoid loner.
As the epidemic grips China to the north and spreads quickly in South Korea on the other side of the demilitarized zone, North Korea’s separation from the global economy presents a rare advantage.
But Kim Jong Un’s insular world also could face a major crisis if the virus that causes covid-19 finds its way in. An outbreak could overwhelm the feeble health system — ranked 193 out of 195 on the Global Health Security Index — in a country already stalked by malnutrition and diseases such as tuberculosis.
“It is easy to see how an outbreak of covid-19 could easily overrun the limited capacity to treat those patients,” said Kee Park, a scholar at Harvard Medical School who has studied North Korea.
Pyongyang has insisted it has no cases of coronavirus, and the World Health Organization said it has seen no indications to contradict that.
But three news outlets with extensive contacts inside the country, NK News, Daily NK and AsiaPress, have reported cases in the border cities of Sinuiju or Rason, and that some people may already have died. The reports could not be independently verified.
North Korea has moved swiftly to close its limited contacts outside its borders. But the world’s focus on coronavirus could buy Kim time to focus on developing his nuclear arsenal, said Jean Lee at the Wilson Center.
Read The Post’s full report about the risks to North Korea, as well as the possible strategic advantages the outbreak presents for Kim.
Coronavirus allows China’s leader to expand surveillance of everyday life
BEIJING — Ancient Chinese doctrine has it that when heaven is unhappy with the emperor, it signals its displeasure by raining down disasters such as floods, plagues, and swarms of locusts. The philosopher Mencius said a ruler could lose his “mandate of heaven” if he neglected his responsibility to care for the ordinary people.
These beliefs, still widespread, should concern China’s modern-day emperor, Xi Jinping, as the country battles a coronavirus epidemic and braces for an invasion of locusts.
“He’s got an enemy that, for the first time, is absolutely uncontrollable, in a state that has always ruled by control,” said the Asia Society’s Orville Schell. “You can’t imprison a coronavirus or get it to undergo ‘thought reform.’ ”
Yet the recent introduction of coronavirus-related surveillance measures, many of them unlikely to disappear when the epidemic is over, has given Xi an opening to assert even tighter control over society.
In addition to effectively putting tens of millions of people under house arrest to contain the outbreak, China’s authorities have harnessed the tools of their techno-authoritarian surveillance state in the name of stopping the epidemic. Some officials and experts are talking of keeping these new systems in place.
Read more in this report on how the epidemic is giving Xi a window to expand his already Orwellian level of control over everyday life in China.
South Korean cases rise to 5,328 as country announces $10 billion stimulus package
SEOUL — South Korea announced nearly $10 billion in emergency funding Wednesday to offset the economic hit of the coronavirus, as health officials said the country’s national tally of cases had risen by 516 to a total of 5,328, the highest outside China.
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the stimulus package aimed to “help repair virus damages and revive the economic momentum.” The worst of the outbreak in South Korea has been centered on the southeastern city of Daegu.
The stimulus measures, which are subject to parliamentary approval, will include money for medical institutions, funding for small-to-medium sized businesses and childcare support.
South Korea will issue treasury bonds to fund the proposed budget. Hong called the bond issuance “inevitable” in order to support the damaged economy despite concerns about financial stability.
In recent days some countries have placed travel restrictions on visitors arriving from South Korea. The country has reported at least 32 deaths, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As number of cases in China continue to decline, concerns grow about coronavirus imported from Iran, Italy
HONG KONG — As the number of new novel coronavirus cases declines in China, concerns in the country are growing about new cases being imported from other destinations, especially by those who have traveled to hot spots such as Iran and Italy.
China on Wednesday reported 119 new coronavirus cases and 38 new deaths in the past 24 hours. It marks the lowest number of new cases announced by China’s National Health Commission since Jan. 20. All but one of the deaths occurred in Hubei province, the epicenter of the global epidemic, while 115 of the new cases were from Hubei.
Chinese officials have cited the country’s efforts to contain the outbreak in Hubei as a primary reason for the declining trend. The health commission said 2,652 people were discharged from hospitals and 390 severe cases were downgraded.
But there is evidence that China is also at risk of coronavirus from travelers. On Wednesday, Beijing city government announced that of three new cases in the capital identified the day before, two involved travelers: one who had been to Iran and one who had been to Italy.
Separately, on Monday local media in Zhejiang province reported that they had found eight cases that were imported from Italy. The new cases involved Chinese nationals who worked in a restaurant in Bergamo, in Lombardy.
The threat posed by new cases has led some municipalities to announce two-week self quarantine requirements for arrivals. Beijing had announced 14-day quarantines for travelers in mid-February, and this week Shanghai and the province of Guangdong put forward similar measures, according to Reuters.
International travel to U.S. expected to drop
A major travel industry advocacy group in the United States is predicting a plunge in the number of visitors from around the world over the next few months as the country imposes restrictions on travelers amid coronavirus fears.
In its latest projection, the U.S. Travel Association said Tuesday that it anticipates international inbound travel to the country will drop 6 percent between now and May, which it says would be the largest dip in global visitation since the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008. The forecast takes into account factors including hotel bookings, airline data and consumer sentiment data. About 79.3 million international visitors came to the country last year.
“It is important to note that conditions are changing daily and the prospect for an even larger impact on travel should not be discounted,” David Huether, the group’s senior vice president for research, wrote in a report.
Since the beginning of February, the U.S. government has not allowed foreign nationals who have visited China in the past 14 days to enter the country. U.S. airlines suspended all service to China as demand plummeted. Roger Dow, president and chief executive of the travel association, says the lack of tourists from China is a big factor in the projected decline.
“If you take China alone, it has 3 million visitors to the United States annually,” he says. “When that 3 million for a certain period goes to zero, it has a pretty big impact.”
Read more here.
Coronavirus in Italy fills hospital beds, turns doctors into patients
LODI, Italy — One infectious-disease doctor said coronavirus had hit “like a tsunami” at his hospital, where more than 100 out of 120 people admitted with the virus have also developed pneumonia.
Another hospital nearby is facing staff shortages as doctors have become patients.
Doctors, virologists and health-care officials on the front line of Italy’s battle against coronavirus, in more than a dozen interviews, described a health-care system stretched to its limits — a situation other countries may face as the virus spreads.
In an effort to cope, Italy is graduating nurses early and calling medical workers out of retirement. Hospitals in the hardest-hit regions are delaying nonessential surgeries and scrambling to add 50 percent more intensive-care beds.
“This is the worst scenario I’ve seen,” said Angelo Pan, the head of the infectious-disease unit at the hospital in Cremona, noting the prevalence of pneumonia complications. He said 35 patients in his hospital required intubation or mechanical ventilation to breathe.
Italy has been conducting extensive testing for coronavirus, including testing people who do not exhibit any symptoms of covid-19, the disease it causes. As of Tuesday evening, 2,263 people had tested positive. Of those, 1,263 were hospitalized, including 229 cases in intensive care. Seventy-nine people had died.
Experts say that although most covid-19 cases tend to be mild, the clusters in northern Italy are resulting in more severe cases because they are hitting an aging population with a high incidence of cancer and other underlying health issues — the demographic most vulnerable to the disease.
“The situation is quite bad in the epicenter of the outbreak,” said Giovanni Rezza, director of the infectious-disease department at the Italian National Institute of Health. “We have a very old population, they need hospital support and assistance, and it’s a very high burden for the hospitals in that area.”
Read more here.
Big banks want regulation eased because of coronavirus. Experts call it opportunistic.
The country’s biggest banks are asking federal officials for long-sought regulatory relief as part of the government’s efforts to contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus, requests that experts lambasted as opportunistic and unnecessary.
The Bank Policy Institute — a lobbying group for big banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup — is recommending, among other things, that the Federal Reserve lower capital requirements and ease the periodic “stress tests” banks take to prove they can survive another economic crisis.
The Federal Reserve could “make changes to its bank regulations or enact promptly already planned regulatory changes that would not reduce safety, soundness or financial stability,” the group said in a note titled “Actions the Fed Could Take in Response to COVID-19” signed by Greg Baer, its chief executive; Francisco Covas, head of research; and Bill Nelson, the chief economist.
Read more here.
Coronavirus is shutting down movies, tours and festivals. Here’s where things stand.
As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, the entertainment industry has heeded health notices and travel restrictions by canceling events and postponing productions planned for the near future.
The Chinese film business suffered a swift blow when nearly all the country’s cinemas shut down after the covid-19 strain began spreading in Wuhan, the capital of the country’s Hubei province. That impact has since been felt all over the world, by Italian productions and American festivals alike.
The decision to not cancel events has also caused rifts in some cases, such as the Association of Writers and Publishers Conference director resigning over its continuance. Countless jobs will be affected by the virus, and financial reverberations for individuals, companies and economies will last months, at the very least.
Here is a timeline of how the coronavirus outbreak has affected the industry.