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Tag: China

  • Coronavirus: Wuhan in first virus cluster since end of lockdown

    New coronavirus clusters have been reported in Wuhan city – where the virus first emerged – and the north-eastern province of Jilin in China.

    Wuhan reported five new cases on Monday, after confirming its first case since 3 April on Sunday.

    Authorities said the small cluster of cases were all from the same residential compound.

    China has been easing restrictions in recent weeks and cases had been declining.

    Health authorities and experts have warned that as countries emerge from strict lockdowns and people move around more freely, a rise in infections is likely.

    The small Wuhan cluster is the first to emerge since the end of the strict lockdown on 8 April. One of the five cases reported on Monday was the wife of an 89-year-old man who became the first confirmed case in the city in well over a month on Sunday.

    All of the latest cases were previously classified as asymptomatic – meaning they tested positive for the virus but were not exhibiting clinical signs such as a cough or fever.

    Such people can spread the virus despite not being sick, but China does not count asymptomatic cases in its official tally of confirmed infections until they show symptoms.

    Hundreds of asymptomatic cases are being monitored by Wuhan health authorities.

    Meanwhile over the weekend, Shulan city in Jilin province, near the borders with Russia and North Korea, reported 11 new cases.

    Source: bbc.com

  • China’s Wuhan reports first virus infection in over a month

    China on Sunday reported the first case of coronavirus in over a month in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak first started in December last year.

    China’s National Health Commission also reported the first double-digit increase in countrywide cases in nearly 10 days, saying 14 new infections had been confirmed.

    Two of the cases were imported into the country from overseas, the commission said.

    The virus first emerged in Wuhan, a major industrial and transport city in central China, in December.

    It has since infected nearly four million people worldwide, claiming more than 270,000 lives, and crippled the global economy.

    The total number infected in China is 82,901, with an official death toll of 4,633.

    No new deaths have been reported for nearly a month.

    China’s ruling Communist Party imposed a quarantine lockdown on tens of millions of people – first in Wuhan and then the rest of Hubei province, beginning January 23, making Wuhan the first place in the world subjected to draconian restrictions.

    Authorities started lifting restrictions in late March.

    China has faced criticism both at home and abroad for downplaying the virus and concealing information about the outbreak when it first emerged in Wuhan.

    Beijing has insisted it has always shared information with the World Health Organization and other countries in a timely manner.

    A top health official said Saturday, however, that the outbreak exposed “shortcomings” in China’s public healthcare system.

    Source: france24.com

  • Coronavirus: China smog returns after pandemic cleared the air

    The coronavirus pandemic had cleared smog from China’s skies for months, but air pollution has returned with a vengeance as factories rush to ramp up output after going idle during the outbreak.

    Levels of toxic pollutants including nitrogen dioxide and tiny particles known as PM2.5 were all higher in April compared with the same period last year, data released by Greenpeace China on Friday showed.

    “What is interesting is how rapidly the emissions have rebounded after the sharp fall seen in the first three months of the year,” Li Shuo, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace China, told AFP.

    “This may be an early sign that the positive trends seen during the epidemic period might be quickly reversed.”

    Levels of PM2.5 across China fell by more than 18 percent between January 20 and April 4 amid city-wide lockdowns and strict travel restrictions, according to the environment ministry.

    Satellite images released earlier by NASA and the European Space Agency showed that nitrogen dioxide emissions in major Chinese cities in central and eastern China – where most chemical, steel and cement plants are located – were down by 30 percent in the first two months of the year.

    But the level of PM2.5 particles in a cubic metre of air in April was 33.93, a slight increase from 33.2 in the same period last year.

    The level of nitrogen dioxide in a cubic metre of air in April was 25.4 compared with 24.6 in the same month last year.

    Both pollutants are toxic by-products of burning coal, oil and gas and can cause asthma, heart diseases and can even weaken the immune system, making people more susceptible to contracting other illnesses.

    Exposure to chronic air pollution has shortened China’s average life expectancy by more than four years, according to the World Health Organization.

    An uptick in industrial production and adverse weather patterns have worsened air pollution in April, Li said.

    Electricity production was up 1.2 percent in April. China relies on coal for most of its energy, he said.

    Illegal emissions

    Local governments were also turning a blind eye towards factories flouting emissions standards as they rushed to increase production.

    The environment ministry said Friday that local officials in the coastal province of Fujian a textile and electronics equipment manufacturing hub have failed to take “strict and correct” measures to curb illegal emissions and even accepted bribes from companies.

    Some heavy polluters have also been faking emissions data submitted to the government’s online monitoring system over the last two months, the ministry said in a separate statement Friday.

    In March, a packaging materials company in Shandong province was fined one million yuan ($141,000) for emitting 12 times more sulphur dioxide than what was earlier reported.

    A company in the eastern city of Wenzhou that was helping the local government collect online emissions data had “tampered with the figures more than 100 times between March 24 and April 9”, the ministry said.

    Polluting stimulus

    Environmentalists are worried that a stimulus to kick-start the ailing economy, which shrank 6.8 percent in the first quarter, would worsen air pollution woes.

    After the 2008 financial crisis, Beijing launched a four trillion yuan ($567.6 billion) stimulus package that included massive infrastructure investment.

    In the years that followed, air pollution rose to record highs and sparked a public backlash.

    China has refrained from an all-out stimulus this time around, and has pushed for investments in high-tech sectors such as 5G telecom networks, smart manufacturing, data centres and electric vehicles.

    But in early March, Chinese regulators approved 7.9 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants – more than the approved projects in the entire year of 2019, Li said.

    “Depending on how the economic situation unfolds, the government may still retrieve its old playbook and invest in traditional infrastructure projects that took a toll on the environment,” Li said.

    Source: france24.com

  • China’s new spacecraft returns to Earth

    China’s new prototype spacecraft “successfully landed” on Friday, marking an important step in its ambitions to run a permanent space station and send astronauts to the moon.

    The spacecraft which was launched Tuesday — arrived safely at a predetermined site, the China Manned Space Agency said, after a hitch in an earlier part of the key test.

    It said the cabin structure of the spacecraft had been confirmed on site as being intact.

    The test vessel was launched with a cargo capsule aboard a new type of carrier rocket from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan.

    The space agency said the vessel was in orbit for two days and 19 hours and had completed a number of experiments.

    Its return has also verified the spacecraft’s capabilities such as its heat resistance.

    It is hoped the spaceship will one day transport astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022 — and eventually to the Moon.

    Friday’s safe landing follows a snag in an earlier part of the test when an unspecified “anomaly” occurred during the return of the cargo capsule.

    Source: france24.com

  • 79-year-old paralyzed mother pulled from grave alive, after her son buried her alive

    A 79-year-old disabled woman who was allegedly buried alive by her son has miraculously survived after being trapped in the pit for nearly three days, authorities have said.

    Police in north-western China’s Shaanxi province rescued the paralyzed mother, known as Wang Mou, on Tuesday, May 5, after the woman’s daughter-in-law reported her missing.

    The 58-year-old son, known as Ma Mou, has been detained and faces an attempted murder charge, according to the police. An investigation on the incident is underway.

    Police in Jingbian County revealed that at 9am on Tuesday morning, the suspect’s partner Zhang Mou went to the Xinzhuang Police Station to report her husband had taken her mother-in-law out on a trolley around 8pm on May 2, but she had not returned.

    She said he had told the family he had sent the pensioner, who cannot walk by herself, to visit relatives; but his wife became suspicious.

    After bringing Ma in for questioning, investigators said he admitted dumping the elderly woman at an abandoned tomb in a forest south of Jingbian County.

    After confirming the location, police immediately excavated the gravesite, and halfway through they heard a faint cry for help. They surprisingly found the paralyzed mother still alive after nearly three days without food or water.

    Her son now faces charges of intentional homicide.

    Source: dailymail.co.uk

  • Chinese researcher who almost found cure for covid-19 shot dead

    Reports have it that, a 37year old researcher and professor at the biology Department of the school of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh has been shot dead at his residence.

    Bing Liu, the Chinese researcher who was studying the biological make-up of coronavirus has suffered gunshots in his torso, head and neck.

    According to his Department, “Bing was on the verge of making very significant findings towards understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie SARS-CovV-2 infection and the cellular basis of the following complications”

    The department however added that, they will do everything possible to continue and complete what he has started in an effort to pay homage to his scientific excellence.

    Investigation is underway to help establish the actual motive of the shooting.

     

  • China warns Hong Kong protesters against ‘stirring up trouble’

    China warned Hong Kong protesters Wednesday it would not tolerate them “stirring up trouble again” in the semi-autonomous territory that was rocked by months of pro-democracy demonstrations last year.

    Mass arrests of protesters and a ban on large gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak in the financial hub have stifled the protest movement, but small demonstrations have been held in recent weeks as contagion fears ease.

    Hong Kong police used pepper spray to disperse protesters last Friday after a largely peaceful public holiday.

    “We noticed that the black violent forces slowed down a little when faced with the Hong Kong epidemic, but now they are stirring up trouble again,” China’s top body overseeing Hong Kong said in a statement, referring to the black clothing worn by many of the protesters.

    “The central government will not sit idly by and watch these insane and wantonly destructive forces,” said the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, adding that protesters wanted to “drag Hong Kong off a cliff”.

    The statement came after Hong Kong’s economy posted its worst-ever quarterly decline of 8.9 percent, pushing the territory deeper into recession.

    Mass anti-government demonstrations began in June last year, triggered by opposition to a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China where courts are controlled by the Communist Party.

    But they have since grown to include demands for democracy and full accountability for police brutality.

    Police have so far arrested 8,000 people and charged 1,365 over the protests, the latest official figures show.

    Anger towards Beijing has been inflamed by the recent arrest of prominent activists on charges related to the demonstrations and senior Chinese officials announcing a greater say in how Hong Kong is run.

    Source: france24.com

  • Coronavirus: Trump says China wants him to lose re-election

    US President Donald Trump has said China “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid, stepping up his criticism of Beijing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    In a White House interview with Reuters news agency, he said Beijing faced a “lot” of possible consequence from the US for the outbreak.

    He said China should have let the world know about the contagion much sooner.

    Mr Trump himself is often accused of not doing enough to tackle the crisis.

    The coronavirus has ravaged a formerly humming US economy that had been the president’s main selling point for his re-election campaign in November.

    Mr Trump, who has waged a trade war with China, offered no specifics about how he might act against Beijing.

    He told Reuters: “There are many things I can do. We’re looking for what happened.”

    Mr Trump added: “China will do anything they can to have me lose this race.”

    The Republican president said he believes Beijing wants his likely Democratic challenger Joe Biden to win in November’s election.

    Mr Trump also said he is sceptical of data indicating Mr Biden would win.

    “I don’t believe the polls,” the president said. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.”

    US media reported earlier in the day that Mr Trump had erupted at political advisers last Friday evening about internal polling that showed him losing in critical states.

    His aides have doubts about whether Mr Trump will win crucial battlegrounds such as Florida, Wisconsin and Arizona, while some of his re-election team have all but given up hope of success in Michigan, according to the Associated Press news agency.

    “I’m not losing to Joe Biden,” Mr Trump reportedly said, inserting an expletive, during a conference call with campaign officials.

    The US president also reportedly snapped at his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who had called in from Florida.

    He cursed at Mr Parscale and at one point mentioned suing him, according to CNN and the Washington Post, though it is unclear how serious was his threat of legal action.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Trump angers China by warning US may seek damages over virus

    US President Donald Trump suggested he may seek damages from China over the coronavirus pandemic which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and spread around the world, prompting a furious response from Beijing on Tuesday.

    Beijing and Washington have clashed repeatedly over the outbreak as tensions have soared between the world’s two biggest economic powers.

    “We are not happy with China,” Trump said at a White House briefing Monday. “We are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source.

    “It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world,” he said, saying there were many options to “hold them accountable”.

    Trump was asked about a recent German newspaper editorial which called on China to pay Germany $165 billion in reparations because of economic damage due to the virus.

    Asked if the US would consider doing the same, Trump said “we can do something much easier than that.”

    “Germany is looking at things, we are looking at things,” he said. “We haven’t determined the final amount yet,” Trump said.

    In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman on Tuesday accused US politicians of “telling barefaced lies”, without naming Trump specifically, and of ignoring their “own serious problems”.

    “American politicians have repeatedly ignored the truth and have been telling barefaced lies,” Geng Shuang told reporters at a regular press briefing.

    “They have only one objective: shirk their responsibility for their own poor epidemic prevention and control measures, and divert public attention.”

    Geng said US politicians should “reflect on their own problems and find ways to contain the outbreak as quickly as possible.”

    Tensions and doubt

    There have been nearly a million infections with more than 56,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States and the pandemic has shut down huge swathes of the economy.

    In China, the outbreak seems to be under control with no new deaths reported for 13 straight days and the toll standing at 4,633, although several countries have cast doubt over whether the numbers are accurate.

    Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo angered Beijing last month by repeatedly referring to “the Chinese virus” when discussing the COVID-19 outbreak, although they later appeared to drop the term.

    But a foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing later suggested that it was the US military which brought the virus to Wuhan, prompting angry claims from Trump that China was spreading misinformation.

    Since then the US president has repeatedly attacked China’s lack of transparency and the slowness of its initial response to the outbreak.

    Claims from the US that the virus actually originated in a virology institute in Wuhan with a high-security bio-safety laboratory have also been angrily refuted in China.

    Source: france24.com

  • Coronavirus: Schools start reopening in China’s biggest cities

    Older students in China’s biggest cities are starting to return to school following the coronavirus outbreak.

    Shanghai welcomed back pupils in their final years of middle and high school, while Beijing allowed students preparing for China’s university entrance exam in July to return.

    Schools in other parts of China re-opened several weeks ago.

    Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began late last year, is set to reopen high schools on 6 May.

    The country says it has largely curbed the spread of the disease. China has reported an increase of just 26 confirmed cases since Friday, bringing the total number to 82,830. All coronavirus patients in Wuhan have now been discharged, Beijing says.

    However, there are still fears of a possible second wave of infection, and social distancing measures are being strictly enforced, with students wearing masks and sitting at a distance from each other.

    In Beijing on Monday, some students were met by people wearing full hazmat suits. The Ministry of Education said the capital’s returning pupils would have their temperatures taken on arrival at school gates and must show that they have a “green” code on an app which calculates their risk before being allowed back to class.

    Beijing has still got some of the country’s strictest restrictions in place, including making new arrivals to the city spend two weeks in quarantine.

    In Hangzhou, one headmaster was taking no risks with his young charges. Pictures emerged of the pupils at Yangzheng Primary School wearing specially adapted hats to make sure they didn’t forget to keep their distance:

    Source: bbc.com

  • Coronavirus: Africans face arbitrary detention in Guangzhou, rights groups say

    International human rights groups have told the BBC that reports of “forced quarantine” of African nationals in the Chinese city of Guangzhou amounts to “arbitrary detention”.

    For weeks, Africans in the southern Chinese city say they have faced discrimination over fears that coronavirus is spreading among African communities.

    The BBC has been told that Africans nationals have faced extended quarantine in hotels, hospitals wards and university campuses, despite testing negative for the virus on multiple occasions.

    “Singling out Africans and forcibly quarantining them in hotels despite having been tested negative for coronavirus, not having travelled outside of China recently or not having been in contact with people who are known to be infected, amounts to arbitrary detention,” said Yaqiu Wang from Human Rights Watch.

    The Chinese government has denied allegations of discrimination. But it says health authorities have tested every African in the city.

    “In this instance, if people are being put into quarantine with no reference to specific and relevant medical indications, but rather simply because of the colour of their skin or their country of origin, we would consider that to be a form of arbitrary detention and a violation of international law,” says Joshua Rosenzweig from Amnesty international.

    Community leaders say that hundreds of Africans were evicted from their hotels and apartments and “forced” into quarantine.

    Weeks on, many say they are still being turned away from hotels and being stopped from returning to their apartments.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Adidas misses forecasts with 93% profit plunge, warns on sales

    Adidas (ADSGn.DE) reported a 93% plunge in first-quarter profit and sales off 19%, missing forecasts, and warned of a deeper hit to second-quarter revenue as lockdowns forced the German sportswear maker and other retailers to close stores.

    First-quarter operating profit fell to 65 million euros, well short of the 263 million expected by analysts.

    Adidas said it had taken a hit of around 250 million euros on unsold stock in greater China, purchase order cancellations and higher bad debt provisions.

    Sales fell 19% to 4.75 billion euros versus 4.85 billion forecast by analysts, Refinitiv Eikon data showed, and the company warned of a possible 40% fall in the second quarter.

    Adidas shares were down 1.2% in early trade and have fallen more than a third since the coronavirus pandemic started.

    It said it could not provide an outlook for the year given the uncertainty over when closed stores might reopen.

    Adidas said more than 70% of its stores were currently closed worldwide, with a 35% rise in e-commerce in the first quarter only partially offsetting that.

    In the first three weeks of April, it said sales in China had continued to recover as stores reopened there.

    Rival Nike Inc (NKE.N) last month beat estimates for its third quarter ended Feb. 29, with revenue up 5.1% as strong online demand offset lower sales in China.

    Adidas said it had a cash position of 1.975 billion euros at March 31. It received approval for a 2.4 billion euro government-backed loan on April 14 to help it through the crisis and is reportedly planning a bond to replace it.

    Source: reuters.com

  • Bangladesh to turn back new Rohingya refugee boats – Minister

    Bangladesh will not accept two boats carrying hundreds of reportedly starving Rohingya refugees, the country’s foreign minister said Thursday as calls grew to rescue the Muslim outcasts.

    The new controversy over stranded Rohingya blew up just a week after dozens starved to death on a boat that was left at sea for two months before it could land.

    Activists are fearful that large numbers of Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, may be trapped on boats and unable to reach other countries.

    The two latest boats are in international waters after human traffickers had tried to reach Malaysia, according to aid groups and a Rohingya community leader.

    Bangladesh has ordered increased patrols in the Bay of Bengal to stop the boats entering, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said.

    “Two boats carrying Rohingya are trying to get into our waters,” he said, adding that the vessels could have come from Myanmar’s Rakhine state following fighting between the military and rebel groups, or “somewhere else”.

    “Our navy and coastguard are on alert and they have been instructed not to let these boats enter Bangladesh,” Momen said.

    “No more Rohingya will be allowed in,” he added.

    About one million Rohingya are in camps on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border having fled decades of persecution in their home region in Rakhine. Many want to leave the camps for other more affluent Asian nations.

    Thousands of refugees died in the Andaman Sea in 2015 on rickety fishing vessels that tried to reach Malaysia and Thailand.

    The boat that came ashore last week with some 390 Rohingya was forced back by the Malaysian navy. The surviving Rohingya have been put into coronavirus pandemic quarantine, organised by the UN refugee agency.

    ‘Hunger problem’

    Rights group Amnesty International has said two fishing trawlers carrying some 500 Rohingya women, men and children are in the Bay of Bengal after being pushed away by Malaysia.

    Bangladesh should rescue the stranded Rohingya, Amnesty said in a statement, and other governments in the region should “fulfil their shared responsibility to carry out search and rescue efforts”.

    “We hope that Bangladesh will continue to welcome Rohingya refugees in these difficult times,” said Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty’s South Asia director.

    A Rohingya leader at one of the huge refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district said there were about 280 people in total on the two boats.

    “The Malaysian navy has turned them back. But the traffickers want to make another attempt to reach Malaysia,” said the leader, who had raised the alert about last week’s tragedy and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    “I heard there is a hunger problem in the boats. But the traffickers don’t want to bring them back to Bangladesh.” The community leader said the traffickers would only be paid if the refugees reach Malaysia.

    A week ago, Malaysia denied entry to a boat carrying around 200 Rohingya due to coronavirus fears, the air force said.

    Source: France24

  • China to give WHO $30 million more after US freezes funds

    China announced Thursday it will give another $30 million to the World Health Organization to help in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, days after Washington said it would freeze funding.

    The US, which is the WHO’s biggest contributor, accused the organisation last week of “mismanaging” the COVID-19 crisis, drawing ire from Beijing as both countries spar over the deadly virus.

    Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the new donation would be in addition to a previous $20 million committed, and would help “strengthen developing countries’ health systems”.

    He added that China’s contribution to the UN agency “reflects the support and trust of the Chinese government and people for the WHO”.

    In announcing the funding freeze last week, US President Donald Trump accused the WHO of covering up the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak in China before it spread.

    He has also charged the WHO with being “very China-centric” despite Washington’s heavy funding.

    According to Trump, US taxpayers provided between $400 million and $500 million per year to the WHO, while “in contrast, China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less”.

    Trump also claimed the outbreak could have been contained with “very little death” had the WHO assessed the situation in China accurately.

    The deadly virus, which has claimed more than 181,000 lives worldwide, first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, which was locked down in late January to curb the spread.

    It continued its global march, however, with cases reported in 193 countries and territories to date, ravaging economies around the globe.

    Beijing has urged the US to support WHO-led international action against the pandemic after it halted funding, while observers warned that the US freeze would have consequences for the WHO’s other disease control programmes around the world.

    China defends WHO

    China has denied Western suggestions that it covered up the extent of the virus outbreak, rejecting claims it has an overly cosy relationship with the WHO as well.

    But local authorities did silence doctors who tried to raise the alarm about the virus in Wuhan in December.

    An investigation determined that police “inappropriately” punished one of the whistleblowers, Li Wenliang, an eye doctor who later died of the COVID-19 disease.

    The WHO, under the leadership of Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been accused by Washington of uncritically accepting China’s early assertions that the virus was not spread between humans, and of wrongly praising Beijing’s “transparency” over the magnitude of the crisis.

    The pandemic, combined with the threat of a halt in US funding, marks the biggest challenge to date in Tedros’ near three-year tenure.

    “Supporting the WHO at this critical time in the global fight against the epidemic is defending the ideals and principles of multilateralism and upholding the status and authority of the United Nations,” Geng said.

    The US is the country worst-hit by the coronavirus, with a death toll of around 46,000.

    Numbers in China have dwindled as it begins to cautiously lift virus control mea

    sures, although fears remain over a potential resurgence and imported infections from abroad.

    Source: France24

  • We’ll probe attacks on Africans Chinese Ambassador

    The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, has promised that the Chinese government will investigate the brutal assault of Africans at Guangzhou Province in China in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and bring to book the perpetrators.

    Chaotic scenes broke out in the Guangzhou Province of China where some Africans were brutally evicted from their residences a few days ago.

    This forced Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana for questioning over the matter.

    But Mr Wang says the Chinese government has a duty to ensure fair treatment of Africans, including Ghanaians in China to deepen the long-standing diplomatic relations.

    He revealed that the Chinese Parliament is committed to probing the incidence with all the seriousness it deserves to unravel the real architects behind the confrontation.

    Speaking to Class News’ Jerry Akornor after presenting some relief items to the National Chief Imam in Accra, on Friday, 17 April 2020, Mr Wang promised that China will assist the government of Ghana to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

    The items donated include 2,000 bags of rice, cooking oil and 6,000 disposable medical face masks worth GHS110,000.

    The donation, according to Mr Wang, is in line with the embassy’s agenda to cater for the vulnerable and ease the pressure on them in this lockdown period.

    For his part, the National Chief Imam, in a speech read on his behalf by his spokesperson Sheikh Arimeyaw, said the gesture will facilitate his humanitarian agenda and promised that his office is determined to deepen diplomatic ties with China.

  • China’s virus-hit economy shrinks for first time in decades

    China’s economy shrank for the first time in decades in the first quarter of the year, as the virus forced factories and businesses to close.

    The world’s second biggest economy contracted 6.8% according to official data released on Friday.

    The financial toll the coronavirus is having on the Chinese economy will be a huge concern to other countries.

    China is an economic powerhouse as a major consumer and producer of goods and services.

    This is the first time China has seen its economy shrink in the first three months of the year since it started recording quarterly figures in 1992.

    “The GDP contraction in January-March will translate into permanent income losses, reflected in bankruptcies across small companies and job losses,” said Yue Su at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

    Last year, China saw healthy economic growth of 6.4% in the first quarter, a period when it was locked in a trade war with the US.

    In the last two decades, China has seen average economic growth of around 9% a year, although experts have regularly questioned the accuracy of its economic data.

    Its economy had ground to a halt during the first three months of the year as it introduced large-scale shutdowns and quarantines to prevent the virus spread in late January.

    As a result, economists had expected bleak figures, but the official data comes in slightly worse than expected.

    China GDP

    Among other key figures released in Friday’s report:

    • Factory output was down 1.1% for March as China slowly starts manufacturing again.
    • Retail sales plummeted 15.8% last month as many of shoppers stayed at home.
    • Unemployment hit 5.9% in March, slightly better than February’s all-time high of 6.2%.
    Presentational grey line

    Analysis: A 6% expansion wiped out

    Robin Brant, BBC News, Shanghai

    The huge decline shows the profound impact that the virus outbreak, and the government’s draconian reaction to it, had on the world’s second largest economy. It wipes out the 6% expansion in China’s economy recorded in the last set of figures at the end of last year.

    Beijing has signalled a significant economic stimulus is on the way as it tries to stabilise its economy and recover. Earlier this week the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, the People’s Daily, reported it would “expand domestic demand”.

    But the slowdown in the rest of the global economy presents a significant problem as exports still play a major role in China’s economy. If it comes this will not be a quick recovery.

    On Thursday the International Monetary Fund forecast China’s economy would avoid a recession but grow by just 1.2% this year. Job figures released recently showed the official government unemployment figure had risen sharply, with the number working in companies linked to export trade falling the most.

    China has unveiled a range of financial support measures to cushion the impact of the slowdown, but not on the same scale as other major economies.

    “We don’t expect large stimulus, given that that remains unpopular in Beijing. Instead, we think policymakers will accept low growth this year, given the prospects for a better 2021,” said Louis Kuijs, an analyst with Oxford Economics.

    Since March, China has slowly started letting factories resume production and letting businesses reopen, but this is a gradual process to return to pre-lockdown levels.

    China relies heavily on its factories and manufacturing plants for economic growth, and has been dubbed “the world’s factory”.

    Stock markets in the region showed mixed reaction to the Chinese economic data, with China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite index up 0.9%.

    Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.5% on Friday, although this was largely due to gains on Wall Street after US President Donald Trump unveiled plans to ease lockdowns.

    Source: Joe Tidy| bbc.com

  • Coronavirus: China’s economy shrank last quarter for the first time in decades

    China’s economy has just experienced its worst three-month period in decades as the coronavirus pandemic forced much of the country to shut down for weeks on end.

    The world’s second largest economy contracted 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to a year earlier, according to government statistics released Friday. That’s even worse than the 6.5% decline that analysts polled by Reuters predicted.

    The plunge is the worst for a single quarter that China has recorded since it started publishing such figures in 1992. It’s also the first time China’s economy has shrunk since 1976, when Communist Party leader Mao Zedong’s death ended a decade-long social and economic tumult in China.

    The country where the coronavirus outbreak started was almost completely shut down in late January as the government sought to stem the spread of the virus.

    Beijing’s dramatic measures appear to have brought the virus under control, though. The number of locally transmitted infections that the country has reported have plummeted, and a lockdown on Wuhan — ground zero of the pandemic — was lifted earlier this month.

    Source: edition.cnn.com

  • China’s virus-hit economy shrinks for first time in decades

    China’s economy shrank for the first time in decades in the first quarter of the year, as the virus forced factories and businesses to close.

    The world’s second biggest economy contracted 6.8% according to official data released on Friday.

    The financial toll the coronavirus is having on the Chinese economy will be a huge concern to other countries.

    China is an economic powerhouse as a major consumer and producer of goods and services.

    This is the first time China has seen its economy shrink in the first three months of the year since it started recording quarterly figures in 1992.

    “The GDP contraction in January-March will translate into permanent income losses, reflected in bankruptcies across small companies and job losses,” said Yue Su at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

    Last year, China saw healthy economic growth of 6.4% in the first quarter, a period when it was locked in a trade war with the US.

    In the last two decades, China has seen average economic growth of around 9% a year, although experts have regularly questioned the accuracy of its economic data.

    Its economy had ground to a halt during the first three months of the year as it introduced large-scale shutdowns and quarantines to prevent the virus spread in late January.

    As a result, economists had expected bleak figures, but the official data comes in slightly worse than expected.

    Source: bbc.com

  • McDonald’s apologises after China store bans black people

    US chain McDonald’s has apologised after a sign telling black people they were banned from entering a branch in southern China prompted outrage online, following reports of discriminatory treatment towards Africans in the city.

    Tensions have flared between police and Africans in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou after local officials announced a cluster of COVID-19 cases in a neighbourhood with a large migrant population.

    As the row escalated, posts widely shared online showed a sign at fast food chain McDonald’s saying black people were not allowed to enter the restaurant.

    The chain apologised and a spokesman for McDonald’s told AFP that the notice was “not representative of our inclusive values”.

    In an emailed statement, Mcdonald’s said it removed the sign and temporarily closed the Guangzhou restaurant “immediately upon learning of an unauthorized communication to our guests.”

    Several Africans have told AFP they had been forcibly evicted by police from their accommodation, refused service at shops and restaurants, and were subject to mass testing and arbitrary quarantines.

    The row has also prompted a diplomatic flurry, with ambassadors and envoys from more than 20 African countries meeting assistant foreign minister Chen Xiaodong on Monday.

    Chen promised at the meeting to “lift the health management (measures) on African people, except the confirmed patients”, according to a foreign ministry statement.

    He said the Guangdong government is “constantly taking measures to improve” and act “according to the principle of non-discrimination”.

    The statement said Chen asked the envoys to “look at the big picture of China-Africa friendship.”

    Diplomatic sources told AFP a number of African countries had written a joint letter to the foreign ministry, which condemned the “discrimination and stigmatisation of Africans” in China, but had not yet sent it.

    Guangzhou’s US consulate issued an alert on Saturday advising African-Americans to avoid travel to the city due to the targeted crackdown, and the US accused Chinese authorities of “xenophobia” toward Africans.

    Beijing has also accused the US of using the row for political purposes to “drive a wedge” between China and Africa.

    A total of 111 African nationals in Guangzhou have tested positive for COVID-19, including 19 imported cases, said the city’s executive vice mayor on Monday, according to Xinhua.

    He said that 4,553 Africans had undergone nucleic acid testing in Guangzhou since April 4.

    But city officials said on Sunday that 4,553 African nationals are currently living in Guangzhou — suggesting every African registered in the city has been tested.

    Source: France24

  • MPs summon China-owned firm execs over security concerns

    A leading UK-based firm will be summoned on Tuesday by MPs to answer questions over security concerns.

    There are concerns that the Chinese owner of Imagination Technologies has renewed efforts to transfer ownership of sensitive security software to companies controlled by China.

    Lawmakers worry the coronavirus crisis is diverting attention from controversial technology transfers.

    The fear is that networks in the UK, Europe and the US could be compromised.

    Speaking to the BBC, Tom Tugendhat, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said he was concerned that technology developed by Imagination Technologies, based in Hertfordshire, could be used to fine tune the design of so-called “backdoors” into strategically important digital infrastructure.

    “The world has changed and companies – particularly tech companies – are on the frontline,” said Mr Tugendhat.

    “Whoever writes the code, writes the rules for the world, more than any regulation passed by bureaucrats. There’s no point in taking back control from Brussels, only to hand it over to Beijing.”

    Imagination Technologies was acquired by a US-based but Chinese state-owned investment firm called Canyon Bridge in September 2017, which is in turn owned by a Chinese state-owned investment fund called China Reform.

    Mr Tugendhat said Theresa May’s government approved the acquisition on the basis that Canyon Bridge was licensed and regulated by US law.

    Since then it has moved its headquarters to the Cayman Islands and as such is no longer a US-controlled entity.

    Several senior executives, including chief executive Ron Black, have stepped down recently citing concerns about the future direction and ownership of the company.

    Chief product officer Steve Evans and chief technical officer John Rayfield also resigned recently.

    Mr Evans is understood to have said in his resignation letter: “I will not be part of a company that is effectively controlled by the Chinese government.”

    An attempt by China Reform to stage a boardroom coup ten days ago by appointing four of its own directors were aborted, but the call for evidence comes amid renewed concerns that the Chinese owners of Imagination are preparing a fresh attempt to transfer sensitive technology patents to mainland China.

    As well as designing graphics and virtual reality software for computer chips, industry experts say that Imagination also produces software which can detect whether any weaknesses in sensitive digital networks – so-called “backdoors” are the result of error or intention.

    The UK has already approved the limited use of Chinese-owned Huawei equipment in the construction of new superfast 5G networks that promise to deliver better connectivity for use in autonomous cars, utilities, power stations, the national health service and many others.

    There is no suggestion that Huawei is directly connected to Imagination, or its ultimate owners – the state-owned China Reform investment fund.

    The call for evidence comes a day after EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager warned that companies across the EU – many of which have been or are being pushed the brink of bankruptcy by the economic effects of Coronavirus – are vulnerable to takeover from Chinese companies.

    In the UK, the Treasury is considering plans for the state to take ownership stakes in thousands of businesses, to prevent mass bankruptcies of businesses unable or unwilling to take on extra debt.

    The situation is delicate as many EU countries are gratefully accepting donations of virus-fighting equipment from China. The country, which appears to be “first in – first out”, is now emerging from a crisis from which it bore the initial brunt.

    Neither Imagination Technologies, nor its owner China Reform returned the BBC’s request for comment.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Prince David Osei makes passionate appeal to President Akufo-Addo over Chinas donation of PPEs

    Ghana and other African countries recently took stock of some items from China by kind courtesy of billionaire Jack Ma and his Foundation.

    The items which included 38,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical materials landed at the Kotoka international airport on board a chartered Chinese aircraft and was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey and Minister of Health Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu.

    After the items arrived, there has been a lot of chatter on social media about how China could have infected all these items with the deadly virus just to get more Africans infected.

    Actor/model Prince David Osei has also added his voice to this conspiracy theory with a very passionate appeal to the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

    In an Instagram post zionfelix.net has chanced on, Prince David Osei begged the president to instruct the bodies in charge of these items received from China to do a thorough check before they allow Ghanaians to use them.

    He also pointed out that this check has become necessary now because of how the Chinese are maltreating Ghanaians and other Africans in their country now.

    See his post below

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    💬

    A post shared by H.E PRINCE DAVID OSEI (@princedavidosei) on

    Source: zionfelix.net

  • Coronavirus: We can instigate violence too – NPP Japan branch to China

    The members of the NPP branch in Japan have expressed utmost displeasure at the horrible treatment meted out to African nationals in China in the wake of the deadly coronavirus.

    According to reports, African nationals were evicted from their apartments and hotels to live in the streets even though they have no history of travelling outside the country or being in contact with any infected persons.

    In a press statement issued by Kwaku Adu, the Acting Communications Director of the NPP Japan branch, they urged the Chinese community to refrain from their actions to avoid any counter actions from their camp.

    Read the full statement below:

    Widespread accounts shared by most Africans on social media in the wake of the anti-African sentiments in Guangzhou province of China has raised concerns both in the print and electronic media.

    Africans have been evicted from their homes by landlords and turned away from hotels, despite many claiming to have no recent travel history or known to have contact with COVID-19 patients.

    There are other reported incidences where Africans sleep on the streets of Guangzhou beside their luggages.

    Aggravating the situation is a clear violation of human rights by the state police in videos circulating as police continues to harass Africans on the streets and forced them to test for COVID-19 even if they do not have any travel history.

    Through this medium we are registering our displeasure as Ghanaians and other African nationals have become targets of suspicion and subjected to forced evictions, arbitrary quarantines and mass coronavirus testing as China steps up its fight against imported infections.

    Following the series of attacks and inhumane treatment on Africans, most of them have turned to begging and sleeping in streets and under bridges.

    We cannot sit aloof whiles the dignity of our fellow brethren are not respected and have been thrown into the dustbins.

    Prior to these happenings, many Africans in China have long complained of targeted racism, in the form of Chinese holding their noses as they walk past them, racially offensive adverts on their national television and other social media platforms and Chinese actors performing blackface in a nationwide gala.

    As Africans, we are more than the word “brave” and can instigate violence in equal measure the actions and deeds of Chinese to Africans in the Guangzhou province if these inhumane and demeaning behaviour does not stop immediately.

    We fully back the summoning of the Chinese Ambassadors by the Ghanaian foreign minister and urge other African countries to do same.

    In the wake this, we call on the African Union, African embassies in China and other countries, the United Union as well as international organizations to condemn these acts of injustices and call the Chinese authorities to order.

    Issued by:
    Kwaku Adu
    (Acting Communications Director, NPP Japan branch)

     

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • Ghanaians, other African nationals living in China give chilling account of alleged xenophobic attacks

    Africans in China are reportedly being avoided in the major cities of the country amid fears they may be spreading the COVID-19 infection.

    Three Ghanaian students, living in Beijing and Chengdu, have given troubling accounts of how foreigners, especially Blacks are now at the receiving end of xenophobic attacks in the Asian city, especially in the cities of Guangzhou and Beijing.

    While some are allegedly being evicted from their places of residence, others are being shunned and avoided by the Chinese community and others being forced to take COVID-19 tests, though they have no travel history for the past three months or come into contact with a COVID-19 patient.

    Joel Asante Baafi, a married man with a daughter, living in the heart of Beijing city, told ABC News in an exclusive interview on Friday, April 10, 2020, that he was evicted from his residence at around 6 am on Thursday by ten (10) Chinese policemen whose only explanation to them [Joel and his family] was that they want to protect Beijing from getting the COVID-19 through the foreigners living there.

    According to him, no test was conducted. Whether on him, his wife or his 4-year-old daughter to indeed prove that he had the virus before the said action was taken against them at the crack of dawn.

    Source: abcnewsgh.com

  • UN Security Council to meet on coronavirus pandemic

    After weeks of disagreement especially between the United States and China — the UN Security Council will meet Thursday to discuss the Coronavirus pandemic for the first time.

    Led by Germany, nine of the council’s 10 non-permanent members requested the closed-door meeting — a video conference to maintain social distancing — last week, fed up with the body’s inaction over the unprecedented global crisis.

    Talks are moving in the right direction, diplomats said, and Washington is no longer insisting UN language refer to the virus as coming from China, which had infuriated Beijing.

    Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to focus on efforts to fight the pandemic, peacekeeping missions and fostering unity between the non-permanent members and the five permanent ones.

    There are two competing texts up for debate.

    One, spearheaded by Tunisia on behalf of the 10 non-permanent members and obtained by AFP, calls for “an urgent, coordinated and united international action to curb the impact of COVID-19” and urges an immediate global ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

    That draft resolution has been in development since March 30, though a vote on it is not yet scheduled.

    The second text, proposed by France, focuses on Guterres’s call last month to cease all hostilities around the world as part of a “humanitarian pause” to fight the pandemic.

    That one has so far only had input from the permanent members, which diplomats from non-permanent countries told AFP has been “very frustrating.”

    Efforts to convene a meeting have been stymied by the hospitalization of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chinese reticence to participate without first setting a clear agenda.

    Richard Gowen, a specialist at the International Crisis Group, told AFP: “It is important to recognize that the main driving force behind the cooperation of the 10 non-permanent members is the bad behavior of the five permanent members.”

    Several of these non-permanent workers “waged a fierce campaign to win their seat” on the Council and “are dumbfounded by the bickering between China and the United States” that prevent the body from “agreeing on the great crisis of our time.”

    A Western ambassador, speaking anonymously, said the two blocs needed each other.

    “The permanent cannot pass a text without the voices of the non-permanent, the non-permanent cannot impose a text on the permanent because they have a veto. We must necessarily agree and we will try to ‘hear’,” they said.

    In the Security Council, at least nine votes out of 15 are necessary to adopt a resolution, without a veto of one of the five permanent members.

    Source: AFP

  • NBA legend Michael Jordan wins long-running China trademark dispute

    China’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of basketball legend Michael Jordan in a long-running trademark dispute, ending an eight-year legal battle with a Chinese sportswear firm that illegally used his name.

    Upholding intellectual property rights is one of the core disputes of the US-China trade war, and a phase one deal signed in January saw Beijing pledge to improve protections of intellectual property.

    The landmark ruling, made late last month, prohibits the Fujian-based Qiaodan Sports from using the Chinese translation of Jordan’s name, Qiao Dan.

    The retired Chicago Bulls player and six-time NBA championship winner has a huge following in China, a country that has legions of avid basketball fans.

    The Supreme Court decision overturns two previous verdicts in favour of the Chinese firm.

    However, it still allows the firm to continue using its logo of a silhouetted basketball player — which has similarities with the “Jumpman” logo used by Nike to promote its “Air Jordan” line of sports shoes.

    However the Supreme Court referred the case over the use of the logo for retrial by the State Intellectual Property Office.

    In 2016, Jordan won the right to his name in Chinese characters, but the Supreme Court upheld the firm’s right to use its trademark “Qiaodan” in Romanised English.

    Qiaodan Sports said in a Weibo statement Tuesday that the ruling “would not impact the normal use of [its] existing trademarks, nor would it affect normal business operations.”

    Founded in 2000, the sportswear franchise operates more than 5,700 stores nationwide.

    It has also applied for nearly 200 similarly named trademarks including different Chinese spellings of “Qiaodan”, “Flying Power” and “Qiaodan King”, according to the verdict.

    In 2017, the sportswear brand New Balance was awarded $1.5 million in copyright damages by a Chinese court over its famous “N” logo, which was illegally copied by a local sports shoe firm.

    The verdict — a rare victory for a Western brand in a Chinese intellectual property infringement case — was announced shortly after US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping investigation into China’s record on intellectual property.

    The UN said this week that China became the world leader in international patent filings last year, unseating the United States which had held the top spot for more than four decades.

    Source: France24

  • 25 tons of smuggled chicken meat from China tested positive for ASF

    Manila Veterinary Inspection Board seized 25 tons of smuggled chicken meat, which tested positive for African Swine Fever or ASF after it inspected containers from China.

    The ASF infected products include 988 boxes of chicken pot wrapped, 499 boxes of chicken with black pepper, and 199 boxes of popcorn chicken, all from China.

    Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said the discovery of the cargo also led to finding the violations of Ecosafe Agro Products Manufacturing Fernando Cortez company located at Firstlink Container Yard, Harbour Center, Rd.10 Vitas, Tondo.

    It also appears that the company has no permit for meat importation and cold storage.

    The company will face charges related to its violations.

    Source: pilippineslifestyle.com

     

  • Coronavirus: China reports no Coronavirus deaths for first time

    China reported no coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, the first time since it started publishing daily figures in January.

    The National Health Commission said it had 32 confirmed cases, down from 39 on Monday.

    It comes as the government is under scrutiny as to whether it is underreporting its figures.

    The government says more than 3,331 people have died and 81,740 have been confirmed as infected.

    All of the confirmed cases on Tuesday had arrived from overseas.

    China is concerned a second wave of infections could be brought in by foreign arrivals.

    It has already shut its border to foreigners including those with visas or residence permits.

    International flights have been reduced with both Chinese and foreign airlines only allowed to operate one international flight a week. Flights must not be more than 75% full.

    On Wednesday, Wuhan is set to allow people to leave the city for the first time since the lockdown began in January.

    Officials say anyone who has a “green” code on a widely used smartphone health app will be allowed to leave the city.

    Some people in “epidemic-free” residential compounds have already been allowed to leave their homes for two hours.

    Source: bbc.com

  • China kick-starts development of 6G technology less than a week after rolling out its superfast 5G network

    China has officially begun the research and development of 6G technology.

    The news came less than a week after the country rolled out its superfast 5G network.

    The country’s Technology Bureau has formally set up a team of experts to work on the next-generation mobile internet connection, state media said today.

    A total of 37 telecommunication specialists drawn from universities, institutions and corporations are on the panel, which is tasked with laying out the development of 6G and proving the scientific feasibility of it

    The news was announced during a 6G launch ceremony in Beijing on Sunday, according to a report by Chinanews.com.

    Wang Xi, deputy minister of the Technology Bureau, said at the conference that the bureau was set to work with the experts to design a specific research plan for 6G and carry out preliminary research.

    China’s three state-owned telecommunication carriers – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – launched their 5G data plans just last Thursday.

    The country is due to activate more than 130,000 5G base stations by the end of this year to support the network, which is one of the world’s largest 5G deployments.

    Chinese engineers have already built a ‘5G smart town’ near Shanghai, where residents will be able to download TV series, movies or games at an impressive speed of 1.7GB per second.

    China has named Wuzhen the country's first '5G town' which has which boasts super-fast internet connection in every corner of the place. Wuzhen (pictured) is an ancient water town

    China has named Wuzhen the country’s first ‘5G town’ which has which boasts super-fast internet connection in every corner of the place. Wuzhen (pictured) is an ancient water town

    5G signal is sent out to the nooks and crannies of the 27-square-mile town of Wuzhen by more than 140 transmitters, which went into service recently.

    The country is also on its way to completing a 5G-equipped high-speed train station, in collaboration with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

    The ‘super-fast’ 5G network will be fitted to the existing Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, which is one of Asia’s busiest traffic hubs and handles some 60 million passengers a year .

    Visitors to the station will be able to download a 2GB high-definition film in less than 20 seconds, according to Huawei.

    In comparison, it would take three minutes and 20 seconds to download the same film on a standard 4G network.

    The evolution of the G system started in 1980 with the invention of the mobile phone which allowed for analogue data to be transmitted via phone calls.

    Digital came into play in 1991 with 2G and SMS and MMS capabilities were launched.

    Since then, the capabilities and carrying capacity for the mobile network has increased massively.

    More data can be transferred from one point to another via the mobile network quicker than ever.

    5G is expected to be 100 times faster than the currently used 4G.

    Whilst the jump from 3G to 4G was most beneficial for mobile browsing and working, the step to 5G will be so fast they become almost real-time.

    That means mobile operations will be just as fast as office-based internet connections.

    Potential uses for 5g include:

    • Simultaneous translation of several languages in a party conference call
    • Self-driving cars can stream movies, music and navigation information from the cloud
    • A full length 8GB film can be downloaded in six seconds.

    5G is expected to be so quick and efficient it is possible it could start the end of wired connections.

    By the end of 2020, industry estimates claim 50 billion devices will be connected to 5G.

    The evolution of from 1G to 5G. The predicted speed of 5G is more than 1Gbps – 1,000 times greater than the existing speed of 4G and could be implemented in laptops of the future

    Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

  • China reports no new coronavirus deaths for first time since January

    China on Tuesday reported no new coronavirus deaths for the first time since it started publishing figures in January, the National Health Commission said.

    Cases in mainland China have been dwindling since March, but the country faces a second wave of infections brought in from overseas, with health officials reporting nearly 1,000 imported cases in total.

    Mainland China had 32 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Monday, down from 39 cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.

    All of the 32 confirmed cases involved travellers arriving from overseas, compared with 38 imported cases a day earlier. The overall number of imported infections so far stands at 983, the health authority said.

    Imported cases and asymptomatic patients have become China’s chief concern after draconian containment measures succeeded in slashing the overall infection rate.

    China has shut its borders to foreigners as the virus spread globally, though most imported cases have involved Chinese nationals returning from overseas. International flights have been slashed to around 3,000 a day in April from the tens of thousands previously.

    It has also started testing all international arrivals for the virus this month.

    The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 81,740 as of Monday, according to the authority.

    China reported 30 new asymptomatic cases on Monday, nine of which involved incoming travellers. Of the new asymptomatic cases, 18 were in central Hubei province.

    As of Monday, 1,033 asymptomatic patients were under medical observation.

    The National Health Commission reported no new deaths in Wuhan, capital of Hubei and epicentre of the outbreak in China, for the first time since the outbreak started.

    Wuhan is due to allow people to leave the city on Wednesday for the first time since it was locked down on Jan. 23 to curb the spread of the epidemic.

    To date, 81,740 people have been infected and 3,331 have been killed by the deadly virus in China, with the vast majority in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

    Meanwhile, the global death toll from the pandemic has surpassed 70,000 as the virus ravages numerous countries in Europe and the US.

    Source: France24

  • Coronavirus: China reports 30 new cases, 3 deaths

    China on Sunday claimed 25 of the 30 news coronavirus cases it confirmed were imported.

    China’s National Health Commission said the five locally transmitted cases were reported from the southeastern province of Guangdong.

    In a statement, the commission said three deaths were reported on Saturday from Hubei province, the capital of which is Wuhan, initially at the center of the global coronavirus outbreak.

    “Hubei reported no new cases of confirmed infections, no new cases of suspected infections, and 3 deaths.”

    China’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at 81,669, with the death toll at 3,329.

    Some 76,964 people have recovered, while 295 are in critical condition.

    Hong Kong has reported 862 cases and four deaths so far, Taiwan has 355 cases, and Macau has 44 cases, according to the commission.

    As of Saturday, a total of 186 COVID-19 patients had recovered in Hong Kong, 50 in Taiwan, and 10 in Macau, it added.

    Since appearing in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 181 countries and regions.

    Data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University shows worldwide infections surpassing 1.2 million with over 64,700 deaths. An excess of 247,000 people have recovered.

    Source: aa.com.tr

  • China reports increase in new coronavirus cases, asymptomatic patients

    Mainland China reported 39 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday, up from 30 a day earlier, and the number of asymptomatic cases also surged, as Beijing continued to struggle to extinguish the outbreak despite drastic containment efforts.

    The National Health Commission said in a statement on Monday that 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified at of the end of the day on Sunday, compared with 47 the day before.

    Imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who have the virus and can give it to others but show no symptoms, have become China’s chief concern in recent weeks after draconian containment measures succeeded in slashing the infection rate.

    Of the new cases showing symptoms, 38 were people who had entered China from abroad, compared with 25 a day earlier. One new locally transmitted infection was reported, in the southern province of Guangdong, down from five a day earlier in the same province.

    The new locally transmitted case, in the city of Shenzhen, was a person who had travelled from Hubei province, the original epicentre of the outbreak, Guangdong provincial authorities said.

    The Guangdong health commission raised the risk level for a total of four districts in the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Jieyang from low to medium late on Sunday.

    Mainland China has now reported a total of 81,708 cases, with 3,331 deaths.

    Daily infections have fallen dramatically from the peak of the epidemic in February, when hundreds were reported daily, but new infections continue to appear daily.

    The country has closed off its borders to foreigners as the virus spreads globally, though most imported cases involve Chinese nationals returning from overseas.

    The central government also has pushed local authorities to identify and isolate the asymptomatic patients.

    Source: France24

  • US records 1,169 new coronavirus deaths

    The United States recorded 1,169 Coronavirus fatalities in a single day, the Johns Hopkins University tracker showed Thursday, the highest one-day death toll recorded in any country since the global pandemic began.

    The toll reflected figures reported by the university between 8:30pm Wednesday (0030 GMT) and the same time Thursday.

    The grim record was previously held by Italy, where 969 people died on March 27.

    The US has now recorded around 6000 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.

    Trump changes his position on masks

    US President Donald Trump’s administration appeared to join local officials on Thursday in advising Americans to wear masks when venturing out during the still-exploding coronavirus pandemic.

    Speaking at a White House briefing, Deborah Birx, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would issue guidelines in the coming days on the use of face coverings.

    Birx however cautioned that Americans, who have been admonished to stay at home except for essential outings, should not develop a “false sense of security” that they are fully protected from the respiratory illness by wearing a mask.

    Trump, answering questions from reporters at the same briefing, said only that “if people want to wear them, they can.”

    Global cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 52,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally based on country by country data.

    White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 people could be killed even if Americans follow the sweeping lock-down orders.

    The Trump administration, CDC and public health officials have all wavered on the issue of face masks since the pandemic broke out, initially telling healthy people such measures were unnecessary or even counter-productive.

    Lack of resources

    In New York City, the center of the US outbreak, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to wear face coverings, citing studies showing that the virus can be transmitted by infected people who are showing no symptoms.

    “What that means is when you put on that face covering you’re protecting everyone else,” de Blasio said. The Democratic mayor suggested New Yorkers use scarves or other home-made masks because medical-grade protective gear was in short supply.

    An emergency stockpile of medical equipment maintained by the US government has nearly run out of protective garb for doctors and nurses.

    In New York City, where at least 1,400 people have been killed by the virus, hospitals and morgues struggled to treat the desperately ill and bury the dead.

    New York City funeral homes and cemetery directors described a surge in demand not seen in decades as cases surpassed 50,000 in the city.

    Crematories extended their hours and burned bodies into the night, with corpses piling up so quickly that city officials were looking elsewhere in the state for temporary interment sites.

    “We’ve been preparing for a worst-case scenario, which is in a lot of ways starting to materialise,” said Mike Lanotte, director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association.

    Source: France24

  • Wuhan doctor among first to alert medics of coronavirus spread ‘goes missing’, fears she has been detained

    A Wuhan doctor who was among the first to alert other medics to the spread of coronavirus has disappeared sparking concerns that she has been detained, reports suggest.

    Dr Ai Fen said she faced ‘unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded’ by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital after she shared a picture of a patient report labelled ‘SARS coronavirus’.

    The image was widely circulated and made its way to whistle-blower Li Wenliang who raised the alarm about the bug, which has killed more than 41,000 people worldwide.

    Dr Li was reprimanded by authorities for ‘illegally spreading untruthful information online’.

    Dr Ai Fen - who went public over the spread coronavirus in Wuhan - has disappeared sparking concerns that she has been detained, reports suggest
    Dr Ai said she faced 'unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded' by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital

    Dr Ai Fen – who went public over the spread coronavirus in Wuhan – has disappeared sparking concerns that she has been detained, reports suggest

    A woman wears a face mask while riding a scooter along the street in Wuhan after the government relaxed lockdown rules

    A woman wears a face mask while riding a scooter along the street in Wuhan after the government relaxed lockdown rules

    Officials wearing hazmat suits control an entrance to Biandanshan Cemetery in Wuhan

    Officials wearing hazmat suits control an entrance to Biandanshan Cemetery in Wuhan

    After the show’s investigation aired, a post on the doctor’s Weibo account – a social media platform similar to Twitter – shared a picture with the caption: ‘A river. A bridge. A road. A clock chime,’ RFA reports.

    Her rumoured disappearance comes after criticism was levvied at the Chinese government for lying and covering up key information during virtually every stage of its coronavirus response.

    Beijing initially tried to cover up the outbreak by punishing medics who discovered it, denying it could spread person-to-person and delaying a lockdown of affected regions – meaning early opportunities to control the spread were lost.

    Then, once the virus began spreading, the Communist Party began censoring public information about it and spread disinformation overseas – including suggesting that US troops could have been the initial carriers.

    A man is seen in a protective mask overlooking the Yangtze River in Wuhan after the city was partially reopened

    A man is seen in a protective mask overlooking the Yangtze River in Wuhan after the city was partially reopenedDr Ai Fen said she faced 'unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded' by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital after she shared a picture of a patient report labelled 'SARS coronavirus'

    Dr Ai Fen said she faced ‘unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded’ by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital after she shared a picture of a patient report labelled ‘SARS coronavirus”

    Even now, prominent politicians have warned that infection and death totals being reported by the regime are likely to be wrong – with locals in the epicenter of Wuhan suggesting the true tolls could be ten times higher.

    In the interview prior to her alleged dissapearance, Dr Ai admitted ‘feeling regretful about not speaking out more’ after four of her colleagues, including Dr Li, had contracted the virus and died while fighting the outbreak.

    ‘If I had known what would have happened today, I wouldn’t have cared about the reprimand. I would have told whoever and wherever I want,’ said Dr Ai.

    Dr Fen criticised the hospital bosses for dismissing the early warnings of the coronavirus in a feature article published online yesterday by Chinese magazine People

    Dr Fen criticised the hospital bosses for dismissing the early warnings of the coronavirus in a feature article published online yesterday by Chinese magazine People

    The interview was posted on Tuesday but quickly retracted from social media by its publisher People (Renwu) Magazine.

    On 30 December, Dr Ai received a patient’s report labelled ‘SARS coronavirus’.

    She said she broke out into a cold sweat after reading the lab results several times.

    The SARS epidemic 17 years ago infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed over 800, according to the World Health Organisation.

    The medic circled the word ‘SARS’ and sent a picture of the report to one of her former classmates and a group chat within her department.

    Dr Ai said she alerted hospital authorities about the case.

    ‘Later that evening, the stuff was shared all over the place with screenshots of the report bearing my red circle,’ she said.

    She added: ‘[These platforms] included the chatting group, which Li Wenliang shared the information with. I thought something bad is going to happen.’

    Two days later, the Wuhan medic was summoned by the head of the hospital’s disciplinary inspection committee.

    Dr Ai said she faced ‘unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded’ and was accused of ‘spreading rumours as a professional’ by the hospital’s officials.

    Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

  • Coronavirus cradle Wuhan partly reopens after lockdown

    The city in China where the coronavirus pandemic began, Wuhan, has partially re-opened after more than two months of isolation.

    Crowds of passengers were pictured arriving at Wuhan train station on Saturday.

    People are being allowed to enter but not leave, according to reports.

    Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, saw more than 50,000 coronavirus cases. At least 3,000 people in Hubei died from the disease.

    But numbers have fallen dramatically, according to China’s figures. On Saturday the province reported 54 new cases emerging the previous day – which it said were all imported.

    As it battles to control cases coming from abroad, China has announced a temporary ban on all foreign visitors, even if they have visas or residence permits. It is also limiting Chinese and foreign airlines to one flight per week, and flights must not be more than 75% full.

    In other global developments: Meanwhile, the virus continues to spread rapidly in other countries around the world.

    · More than 600,000 infections have been confirmed globally and almost 29,000 deaths, according to figures collated by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 136,000 patients have recovered

    · The death toll in Spain has exceeded 5,000, after it reported 832 more fatalities in the past 24 hours. Spain is the world’s worst hit country after Italy

    · The US now has the highest number of confirmed infections at 104,000

    · South Korea says that for the first time it now has more people who have recovered from the virus than are still infected. It reported 146 new cases on Saturday, taking the total to 9,478 – of whom 4,811 have been released from hospital

    · Russia and Ireland are among the latest countries to bring in new restrictions to try to slow the spread of the virus. In Russia, shopping centres, restaurants and cafes have been ordered to close. In Ireland, people will have to stay at home with limited exceptions for the next two weeks

    · In the UK, frontline National Health Service staff in England will begin being tested this weekend to see if they have coronavirus

    What signs are there of Wuhan reopening? The virus is thought to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals”.

    The city’s 11 million residents have been shut off from the rest of the world since the middle of January, with roadblocks around the outskirts and drastic restrictions on daily life.

    But roads reopened to incoming traffic late on Friday, according to Reuters news agency.

    And state media said the subway was open from Saturday and trains would be able to arrive at the city’s 17 railway stations.

    Nineteen-year-old student Guo Liangkai, who arrived back in the city after three months, told Reuters: “First of all, it makes me very happy to see my family.

    “We wanted to hug but now is a special period so we can’t hug or make any actions like these.”

    All arrivals in Wuhan have to show a green code on a mobile app to prove that they are healthy.

    Officials say restrictions on people leaving the city will be lifted on 8 April, when domestic flights are also expected to restart.

    The virus emerged in China in December and more than 3,300 people there have died from the infection – but both Italy and Spain now have higher death tolls.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Coronavirus cradle Wuhan partly reopens after lockdown

    The city in China where the coronavirus pandemic began, Wuhan, has partially re-opened after more than two months of isolation.

    Crowds of passengers were pictured arriving at Wuhan train station on Saturday.

    People are being allowed to enter but not leave, according to reports.

    Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, saw more than 50,000 coronavirus cases. At least 3,000 people in Hubei died from the disease.

    But numbers have fallen dramatically, according to China’s figures. The state on Saturday reported 54 new cases emerging the previous day – which it said were all imported.

    As it battles to control cases coming from abroad, China has announced a temporary ban on all foreign visitors, even if they have visas or residence permits. It is also limiting Chinese and foreign airlines to one flight per week, and flights must not be more than 75% full.

    In other global developments:

    Meanwhile, the virus continues to spread rapidly in other countries around the world.

    • Nearly 600,000 infections have been confirmed globally and almost 28,000 deaths, according to figures collated by Johns Hopkins University
    • The death toll in Spain has exceeded 5,000, after it reported 832 more fatalities in the past 24 hours. Spain is the world’s worst hit country after Italy
    • The US now has the highest number of confirmed infections at 104,000
    • South Korea says that for the first time it now has more people who have recovered from the virus than are still infected. It reported 146 new cases on Saturday, taking the total to 9,478 – of whom 4,811 have been released from hospital
    • Russia and Ireland are among the latest countries to bring in new restrictions to try to slow the spread of the virus. In Russia, shopping centres, restaurants and cafes have been ordered to close. In Ireland, people will have to stay at home with limited exceptions for the next two weeks
    • In the UK, frontline National Health Service staff in England will begin being tested this weekend to see if they have coronavirus

    What signs are there of Wuhan reopening?

    The virus is thought to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals”.

    The city’s 11 million residents have been shut off from the rest of the world since the middle of January, with roadblocks around the outskirts and drastic restrictions on daily life.

    Media captionCoronavirus: Life inside China’s lockdown

    But roads reopened to incoming traffic late on Friday, according to Reuters news agency.

    And state media said the subway was open from Saturday and trains would be able to arrive at the city’s 17 railway stations.

    Nineteen-year-old student Guo Liangkai, who arrived back in the city after three months, told Reuters: “First of all, it makes me very happy to see my family.

    “We wanted to hug but now is a special period so we can’t hug or make any actions like these.”

    Mask-clad passengers wait in a line after arriving at the railway station in Wuhan, China's central Hubei province on 28 March 2020Image copyrightAFP
    Image captionMask-clad passengers waited in a line after arriving at the railway station in Wuhan on Saturday

    All arrivals in Wuhan have to show a green code on a mobile app to prove that they are healthy.

    Officials say restrictions on people leaving the city will be lifted on 8 April, when domestic flights are also expected to restart.

    The virus emerged in China in December and more than 3,300 people there have died from the infection – but both Italy and Spain now have higher death tolls.

    Coronavirus global cases, 28 March 2020

    This information is regularly updated but may not reflect the latest totals for each country.

    Cases Deaths
    USA 104,688 1,707
    Italy 86,498 9,134
    China 81,996 3,299
    Spain 72,248 5,690
    Germany 53,340 399
    Iran 35,408 2,517
    France 32,964 1,995
    UK 14,549 759
    Switzerland 13,259 241
    South Korea 9,478 144
    Belgium 9,134 353
    Netherlands 8,603 546
    Austria 7,712 68
    Turkey 5,698 92
    Canada 4,760 56
    Portugal 4,268 76
    Norway 3,807 20
    Australia 3,640 460
    Brazil 3,477 93
    Israel 3,460 12
    Sweden 3,069 105
    Czech Republic 2,422 9
    Malaysia 2,320 27
    Ireland 2,121 22
    Denmark 2,046 52
    Ecuador 1,627 41
    Chile 1,610 5
    Luxembourg 1,605 15
    Japan 1,525 52
    Romania 1,452 29
    Poland 1,436 16
    Pakistan 1,408 11
    Russia 1,264 4
    Thailand 1,245 6
    South Africa 1,170 1
    Finland 1,165 7
    Indonesia 1,155 102
    Saudi Arabia 1,104 3
    Philippines 1,075 68
    Greece 966 28
    India 933 20
    Iceland 890 2
    Panama 786 14
    Singapore 732 2
    Mexico 717 12
    Diamond Princess cruise ship 712 10
    Argentina 690 17
    Slovenia 684 9
    Estonia 645 1
    Croatia 635 4
    Peru 635 11
    Dominican Republic 581 20
    Qatar 562
    Colombia 539 6
    Egypt 536 30
    Serbia 528 1
    Iraq 506 42
    Bahrain 473 4
    New Zealand 451
    Lebanon 412 8
    Algeria 409 26
    United Arab Emirates 405 2
    Lithuania 382 5
    Armenia 372 1
    Morocco 358 23
    Hungary 343 11
    Bulgaria 313 5
    Ukraine 311 8
    Latvia 305
    Taiwan 283 2
    Uruguay 274
    Slovakia 269
    Andorra 267 3
    Costa Rica 263 2
    Bosnia and Herzegovina 257 4
    Kuwait 235
    Jordan 235 1
    Tunisia 227 7
    San Marino 223 21
    North Macedonia 219 3
    Kazakhstan 204 1
    Moldova 199 2
    Albania 186 8
    Burkina Faso 180 9
    Vietnam 169
    Azerbaijan 165 3
    Cyprus 162 5
    Oman 152
    Malta 149
    Réunion 145
    Faroe Islands 144
    Ghana 137 4
    Senegal 130
    Brunei 120 1
    Venezuela 113 2
    Sri Lanka 110
    Afghanistan 110 4
    Uzbekistan 104 2
    Ivory Coast 101
    Cambodia 99
    Palestinian Territories 97 1
    Honduras 95 1
    Mauritius 94 2
    Belarus 94
    Martinique 93 1
    Cameroon 91 2
    Kosovo 88 1
    Georgia 85
    Montenegro 82 1
    Nigeria 81 1
    Cuba 80 2
    Puerto Rico 79 3
    Bolivia 74
    Guadeloupe 73 1
    Trinidad and Tobago 66 2
    Kyrgyzstan 58
    DR Congo 58 6
    Liechtenstein 56
    Paraguay 56 3
    Gibraltar 55
    Rwanda 54
    Jersey 52 1
    Guam 51 1
    Mayotte 50
    Bangladesh 48 5
    Monaco 42
    Guernsey 36
    Aruba 33
    Isle of Man 32
    Guatemala 32 1
    Kenya 31 1
    French Polynesia 30
    Jamaica 30 1
    French Guiana 28
    Barbados 26
    Madagascar 26
    Togo 25 1
    Uganda 23
    Zambia 22
    United States Virgin Islands 19
    El Salvador 19
    Bermuda 17
    Ethiopia 16
    Maldives 16
    New Caledonia 15
    Tanzania 13
    Mongolia 12
    Djibouti 12
    Equatorial Guinea 12
    Saint Martin 11
    Mali 11
    Dominica 11
    Niger 10 1
    Greenland 10
    Bahamas 10
    Eswatini 9
    Curaçao 8 1
    Cayman Islands 8 1
    Haiti 8
    Suriname 8
    Myanmar 8
    Namibia 8
    Guinea 8
    Gabon 7 1
    Zimbabwe 7 1
    Mozambique 7
    Antigua and Barbuda 7
    Seychelles 7
    Grenada 7
    Eritrea 6
    Laos 6
    Benin 6
    Nepal 5
    Fiji 5
    Saint Barthelemy 5
    Syria 5
    Mauritania 5
    Guyana 5 1
    Montserrat 5
    Sudan 5 1
    Cape Verde 5 1
    Congo 4
    Angola 4
    Vatican 4
    Nicaragua 4 1
    Central African Republic 3
    Somalia 3
    Bhutan 3
    Liberia 3
    Sint Maarten 3
    Chad 3
    Saint Lucia 3
    Gambia 3 1
    Turks and Caicos Islands 2
    Belize 2
    Anguilla 2
    MS Zaandam cruise ship 2
    British Virgin Islands 2
    Saint Kitts and Nevis 2
    Guinea-Bissau 2
    Libya 1
    St Vincent and the Grenadines 1
    Papua New Guinea 1
    Timor-Leste 1

    Source: Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies

    Last updated on 28 March 2020, 12:00 GMT.

    It is now battling to control a wave of imported cases as infections soar abroad.

    This so-called “second wave” of imported infections is also affecting countries like South Korea and Singapore, which had been successful in stopping the spread of disease in recent weeks.

    A general shot shot shows buildings in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on 28 March 2020.Image copyrightAFP
    Image captionWuhan has been under lockdown since the middle of January

    Source: BBC 

  • Feature: Mubarak Wakaso’s incredible journey from Alaves to China

    Mubarak Wakaso was one of the best players of Deportivo Alaves in the first half of La Liga, missing only two games and was a key player for new manager Asier Garitano. The Ghana international formed a solid defensive partnership with Tomas Pina and Manu Garcia or Pere Pons.

    His swashbuckling midfield display and a knack for getting in the books of referees was distinctive. He was the most carded player in the first round of the Spanish league and in the two games, he missed Alaves struggled.

    Despite his incredible numbers at Deportivo Alaves, the player refused a contracted extension and a chance to continue his career in Spain after opting to move to China to join Super League side Jiansu Suning. Clubs like Getafe and Villarreal were interested in the versatile player.

    However, a mouthwatering deal from China could not be ignored by the Ghanaian. A deal that fetched some good money for La Glorisso. Wakaso could have left on a free at the end of the campaign but a deal to Asia was also good for Alaves.

    The initial thought of Wakaso moving to China felt wrong for a lot but Jorge Franco- a friend of the player and a member of staff at Alaves- it was a win-win situation for the player and the club. Deportivo Alaves made three million Euros from the move.

    “You have to understand him because he has signed the contract of his life and his family is delighted with the idea,” Jorge Franco, “Burgui” would say a few days later.

    With the Coronavirus spreading like fire in China when Wakaso was making the move, it didn’t really look good health-wise for Ghana. However, the irony was that Deportivo Alaves become the most affected club with the virus in Spain. Fifteen cases recorded at the club, three of who are players in the squad.

    Wakaso is currently in Ghana, where it feels safer to avoid the virus at the moment. What an incredible journey for the Ghanaian?

    Source: GHANAsoccernet.com

  • Coronavirus: China to restrict air travel after reporting 54 new imported cases

    Mainland China reported its first locally transmitted coronavirus case in three days and 54 new imported cases, as Beijing ordered airlines to sharply cut international flights fearing travellers could reignite the coronavirus outbreak.

    The 55 new cases reported on Thursday was down from 67 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said in a statement on Friday. There are now 81,340 confirmed cases in mainland China.

    The death toll stands at 3,292 with five new deaths.

    Imported coronavirus cases, mostly Chinese nationals returning home, now pose the biggest concern for authorities.

    Shanghai reported the most new imported cases with 17, followed by 12 in Guangdong and four each in capital Beijing and nearby Tianjin.

    Hubei province, a region of some 60 million people where the virus first appeared late last year, reported zero new cases on Thursday – a day after lifting a lockdown and reopening its borders as the epidemic there eased.

    China on Thursday ordered local airlines to maintain only one route to any country and limit flights per such routes to one per week, effective March 29. Foreign airlines have also been ordered to cut routes to China to one and limit flights to one per week, although many had already stopped flying to China.

    China will temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners with valid Chinese visas and residence permits starting on March 28, as an interim measure, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

    Source: France24

  • Coronavirus: US lawyer sues China for $20 trillion, says virus was cooked as a biological weapon

    A conservative lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against China for the coronavirus pandemic, pushing an unsubstantiated claim that the Chinese government developed the virus as an illegal biological weapon to unleash on the world.

    Mr Larry Klayman and his group Freedom Watch filed the complaint in federal court in Texas seeking at least $20 trillion from the Chinese government because of its “callous and reckless indifference and malicious acts.”

    Researchers and public health experts have repeatedly shot down the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was man-made, with studies showing it originated as an animal virus that eventually jumped to humans. Nonetheless, the claim has gained traction on the right, with conservative media figures seizing upon it to advocate for a more aggressive U.S. posture toward China.

    The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Klayman, Freedom Watch and Buzz Photos, a Texas company that specializes in high school sports photography. Klayman said the school closures and sports cancellations have led Buzz Photos to close and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. According to the lawsuit, the company lost roughly $50,000 last weekend alone and has been forced to lay off workers.

    “There is no reason why the American taxpayer should, contrary to the establishment in Washington, D.C., have to pay for the tremendous harm caused by the Chinese government,” Klayman said in a statement. “The Chinese people are a good people, but their government is not and it must be made to pay dearly.”

    The lawsuit claims that this variation of the coronavirus was created by the Chinese government as a biological weapon and released by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated.

    “Although it appears that the COVID-19 virus was released at an unplanned, unexpected time, it was prepared and stockpiled as a biological weapon to be used against China’s perceived enemies, including but not limited to the people of the United States,” the complaint states.

    A former federal prosecutor, Klayman founded conservative legal group Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch. He is representing George Zimmerman in a $100 million lawsuit against Trayvon Martin’s family, prosecutors and others, and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi in a suit against longtime Trump ally Roger Stone.

    While the coronavirus outbreak originated in China, it has since spread to more than 150 countries. In the U.S., the number of reported cases has topped 9,400 and the death toll is 152.

    States and the federal government have taken steps designed to limit the number of new cases, including by closing schools, cancelling large gatherings and ordering restaurants, bars and theatres to shutter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also recommended gatherings be restricted to no more than 10 people.

    To combat the economic effects of the coronavirus, President Trump signed into law earlier this month an $8.3 billion package to assist with the government’s response. On Wednesday, he signed a coronavirus relief measure that provides free testing and paid leave for certain workers.

    Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are now working on a third package that could provide cash payments to Americans, small business loans and assistance to the airlines and other affected industries.

    The Trump administration has sought to link the coronavirus to China, arguing the Chinese government covered up the outbreak and silenced doctors who tried to sound the alarm. Mr. Trump has called it the “Chinese virus” and Republican lawmakers have referred to it as the “Wuhan virus.”

    “China tried to say at one point — maybe they stopped now — that it was caused by American soldiers,” Mr. Trump told reporters yesterday when asked why he calls the coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” “That can’t happen. It’s not going to happen, not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.”

  • Wuhan rescue plane flies from South Africa

    A plane has left South Africa headed to China’s coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan to repatriate more than 120 citizens stranded there since the outbreak began in January.

    “Go with speed, with God and bring our children back home,” President Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly told the dozens of military staff and health officials boarding the flight at Johannesburg’s main airport on Tuesday night.

    The plane is due to stop over in the Philippines first to refuel, before heading to China.

    It is scheduled to leave China on Friday and land in South Africa later that day.

    The mission will cost almost $1.6m (£1.2m), according to a letter President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote to parliament.

    A total of 122 South Africans are to be repatriated, authorities say. That’s fewer than the 180 people who originally said they wanted to be brought back.

    Those who dropped out decided to “stay on at their respective commitments”, according to a government statement.

    None of the people being repatriated have showed any signs of coronavirus infection, South African authorities said in a statement, but they will all be subject to a 21-day quarantine period.

    South Africa currently has seven confirmed cases of the virus.

    News24 tweeted this footage of soldiers boarding the flight

    Source: bbc.com

     

  • China to ease travel curbs within locked-down province

    Hard-hit Hubei, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in China, will relax travel restrictions to allow healthy people to move within the province, officials said Tuesday.

    Hubei has been under lockdown since January with some 56 million people under quarantine, but the number of cases has declined in recent weeks.

    According to the provincial government, a mobile app will be used to give residents a coloured health code, and people labelled “green” in medium and low-risk areas will be allowed to travel within the province.

    There is no indication that people can leave the province, and the measures also did not appear to loosen restrictions in Hubei’s capital, Wuhan.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday made his first visit to the city since it emerged as the epicentre of the coronavirus crisis in January.

    Only green code holders — meaning no contact with any cases — will be allowed to travel, and only if they are from low or medium risk areas, officials said.

    Confirmed or suspected cases will get a red code, while a yellow code indicates close contact with a confirmed case.

    Anyone given a red code must be quarantined.

    Cities, counties and districts with no newly confirmed cases in the last two weeks are classified as low-risk regions.

    On Tuesday there were only 17 new cases reported in Hubei province, all in Wuhan.

    Most of China’s 3,136 coronavirus deaths and 80,754 cases came from Hubei, with the majority in Wuhan.

    Source: France24

  • Coronavirus: Italy death toll soars amid travel ban

    The number of people to have died from the coronavirus in Italy has shot up by 133 in a day to 366, officials say.

    The total number of infections leapt 25% to 7,375 from 5,883, according to the Civil Protection agency.

    The jump in figures comes as millions adapt to radical measures introduced on Sunday in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

    Up to 16 million people in Lombardy and 14 provinces need special permission to travel under new quarantine rules.

    Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also announced the closure of schools, gyms, museums, nightclubs and other venues across the whole country.

    The restrictions will last until 3 April.

    The latest figures mean Italy now has the highest number of confirmed infections outside China, where the outbreak originated in December. It has overtaken South Korea, where the total number of cases is 7,313.

    Italy has one of the world’s oldest populations. The virus is particularly dangerous for the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

    Among the latest people to test positive in Italy is the army’s chief of staff. Salvatore Farina said he felt well and was self-isolating.

    The strict new quarantine measures affect a quarter of the Italian population and centre on the rich northern part of the country that powers its economy.

    The health system is under immense strain in Lombardy, a northern region of 10 million people, where people are being treated in hospital corridors.

    “We want to guarantee the health of our citizens. We understand that these measures will impose sacrifices, sometimes small and sometimes very big,” Prime Minister Conte said as he announced the measures in the middle of Saturday night.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Wuhan starts to shut down makeshift hospitals

    At least 11 of the 16 makeshift hospitals in the Chinese virus epicentre of Wuhan have been able to close, reported state media outlet Xinhua.

    The makeshift hospitals – in stadiums, schools, and elsewhere – treated patients who suffered from mild symptoms.

    It comes as the number of new coronavirus cases in China has steadily decreased – China reported its lowest number of cases so far on Monday.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Dozens trapped as China quarantine hotel collapses

    About 70 people were trapped after a hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in the Chinese city of Quanzhou collapsed.

    About 47 of the 70 had been pulled from the rubble of the five-storey Xinjia Hotel by Sunday, state media says.

    Videos posted online show emergency workers combing through the building’s wreckage in the southern province of Fujian.

    It is not clear what caused the collapse or if anyone has died.

    It happened at about 19:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

    Chinese state media says the hotel was being used as a quarantine facility monitoring people who had had close contact with coronavirus patients.

    The hotel reportedly opened in 2018 and had 80 guest rooms.

    One woman told the Beijing News website that relatives including her sister had been under quarantine there.

    “I’m under quarantine too [at another hotel] and I’m very worried, I don’t know what to do. They were healthy, they took their temperatures every day, and the tests showed that everything was normal.”

    As of Friday, Fujian province had 296 cases of coronavirus. Meanwhile 10,819 people have been placed under observation because they have been in close contact with someone infected.

    The World Health Organization says more than 101,000 people worldwide have now contracted the virus.

    More than 3,000 people have died – the majority in the Chinese province of Hubei where the outbreak originated.

    Source: bbc.com

  • China’s coronavirus death toll surpasses 3000

    China on Thursday reported 31 more deaths from the new coronavirus epidemic, taking the country’s overall toll past 3,000, with the number of new infections slightly increasing.

    At least 3,012 people have now died nationwide in the outbreak that first emerged in the central city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, in December.

    Most of the deaths — 2,305 — and cases have been recorded in Wuhan, which has been under an unprecedented lockdown along with the rest of Hubei since late January.

    But the quarantine and other travel restrictions across the country appear to be paying off, with official figures showing a generally steady drop in new cases in recent weeks.

    The National Health Commission also reported 139 new cases on Thursday, slightly up from 119 the previous day, raising the overall number of confirmed infections to 80,409.

    Only five of the new cases were outside Hubei.

    But China is now worried about importing cases from abroad as the virus has since spread to some 80 countries and territories, infecting more than 10,000 and killing more than 200 abroad.

    Source: AFP

  • Minister orders arrest of Chinese for operating quarry without permit

    The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh has ordered the arrest of three Chinese nationals operating a quarry company without a permit at the Afienya-Dawhenya Industrial and Urban Renewal Enclave in the Greater Accra Region.

    The three, who are yet to be identified, established Skyline Quarry Company and employed 30 Ghanaian workers.

    They dug large trenches and used dangerous explosives like dynamite to blast rocks underground.

    There were excavators busily working at the quarry site, with trucks loaded with chippings leaving the site.

    The Minister also ordered two other Ghanaians, building structures without a permit to stop work with immediate effect.

    He issued a warning to all individuals and groups putting up the residential property on state lands in Shai Hills, Afienya and Dawhenya to stop work in their own interest since no compensation would be paid by the government upon demolition.

    This came to light when Mr Asomah-Cheremeh led a team from the Lands Commission including; Mr Suleimana Dawuda Mahama, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, some police personnel, the media and technocrats of the Lands Ministry, to inspect on-going encroachment on the 13,200 acres of land acquired by the government in 2016 for an industrial enclave.

    The Minister said the industrial enclave was acquired for the purposes of establishing factories as individual investors could apply to the Lands Commission to properly acquire plots of lands for setting up factories.

    At Afienya, the team witnessed on-going construction of a private residential facility belonging to one John Quayson.

    According to Mr Quayson, he bought the land from Mckeon Estate. There was another Baba Seidu, who was not present at the time of our visit, but met the mason he had contracted to construct structures intended be used as real estate working on the site acquired by the government for an industrial hub.

    The Lands Minister said the government had issued an Executive Instrument and gazzetted the Land documents at the time of acquisition and would therefore not tolerate such impunity any longer.

    Source: GNA

  • Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since January, 1

    China’s most popular messaging app has been censoring key words about the coronavirus outbreak from as early as 1 January, a report has found.

    Toronto-based research group Citizen Lab found that WeChat blocked combinations of keywords and criticism of President Xi Jinping.

    The report also found that WeChat, owned by Chinese firm Tencent, blocked more words as the outbreak grew.

    China has for years censored what its people read and say online.

    But this report suggests China began censoring discussions weeks before officials began acknowledging the severity of the outbreak.

    It was on 31 December that China first alerted the World Health Organization to an outbreak of a new coronavirus in the city of Wuhan.

    But authorities initially withheld information from the public – under-reporting the number of people infected, downplaying the risks, and failing to provide timely information that could have saved lives.

    It was only on 20 January that Chinese president Xi Jinping publicly addressed the issue of the virus, saying it had to be “resolutely contained”.

    It’s not clear if the social media platforms blocked these keyword combinations based on government directives – or if it was done of its own accord.

    However, the report suggests that it could be the result of companies “over-censoring in order to avoid official reprimands”.

    Authorities have confirmed more than 92,000 cases of the virus worldwide – of which more than 80,000 are in China.

    The keywords censored

    A report released by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab on Tuesday looked into two Chinese social media platforms – WeChat and live-streaming site YY.

    YY was found to have added 45 keywords to its blacklist on 31 December – which made references to the virus that was then unidentified.

    These key words included the terms “Unknown Wuhan pneumonia” and “SARS outbreak in Wuhan”.

    WeChat was found to have censored 132 keyword combinations between 1 – 31 January. As the outbreak continued, WeChat censored 384 new keywords between 1 – 15 February.

    These include keywords that referenced Chinese leaders – including President Xi – as well as neutral references to government policies on handling the epidemic, and responses to the outbreak in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

    Some examples of censored combinations are “Local authorities + Epidemic + Central (government) + Cover up” and “Wuhan + Obviously + Virus + Human-to-human transmission”.

    References to Dr. Li Wenliang also accounted for 19 censored keyword combinations.

    Dr. Li Wenliang was among a group of doctors in Wuhan who issued the first warnings about the virus in late December.

    He was later told by police to stop making “false comments”. Dr. Li later contracted the virus himself and died of the disease aged 33.

    The report adds that it is possible that WeChat has unblocked keywords as the outbreak continues to develop. YY is known to have unblocked certain keywords.

    It is not clear what keywords, if any, continue to be censored on these platforms.

    The report adds that censorship in China works through a system of “self-discipline” where companies are held liable for content on their platforms.

    The censorship is particularly damaging because WeChat is such a central part of many people’s lives in China – it is, in effect, WhatsApp, Facebook, Apple Pay and more, rolled into one.

    App users are able to book flights, hail taxis and even transfer money – all on WeChat alone. And it’s not used by individuals alone – government authorities often also release official statements on the app.

    “It’s appalling to see the wide range of terms, even including some non-sensitive terms, [being] censored,” Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International told the BBC.

    “It shows how obsessed and concerned the Chinese government is [in] trying to curb any discussion… that falls outside the official narrative.

    “It’s totally about social control and deprives citizens of their rights to freedom of information and expression.”

    Censorship is pervasive in China. Sites such as Google and Wikipedia are banned – and it’s not uncommon for social media companies in China to remove content that is perceived to be threatening to social stability or the ruling Communist Party.

    Source: bbc.com

  • China reports rise in imported virus cases

    China reported on Tuesday an increase in cases of the new coronavirus coming from abroad, as the country where the disease first emerged now worries about importing infections.

    In total there have been 13 confirmed cases of the virus being imported into the mainland — all Chinese nationals returning from overseas.

    More than 3,100 people have died and over 90,000 have been infected worldwide.

    The vast majority of cases are in China but South Korea, Italy and Iran have emerged as the countries with the most cases outside the epicentre.

    Eight Chinese nationals who worked in the same restaurant in Italy’s northern Lombardy region have tested positive for the virus in eastern Zhejiang province, according to the local government.

    They flew back into China from Italy last week.

    There have also been four confirmed cases travelling back from Iran — two in Beijing and two in the northern Ningxia region — plus one case in the southern city of Shenzhen who had travelled from the UK via Hong Kong.

    Beijing has been implementing a series of measures to try and prevent its containment efforts being undone by imported cases carried into the country.

    Hundreds of passengers from South Korea arriving in eastern China were placed in isolation after people on two flights were discovered to have fevers last week.

    No infections have been confirmed so far.

    Those arriving in the capital city from virus-hit areas are being made to self-quarantine for 14 days.

    On Tuesday officials in the city of Dandong, which borders North Korea, announced that everyone coming into the city from overseas will have to be tested for the coronavirus.

    Source: AFP

  • Current rains in China will wipe out coronavirus — T.B Joshua reveals

    There could be a possible hope for the eradication of the deadly coronavirus as Nigerian popular televangelist, Temitope Balogun Joshua, commonly referred to as T. B. Joshua, has revealed that, the current rainfall in China will end the widespread occurrences of the infectious disease.

    According to the founder and leader of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), God spoke to him through a revelation about the coronavirus and said He will wide it away with rain.

    The man of God, who spoke on his Facebook page, TB Joshua Ministries, said he then asked God to cause the rain to fall in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

    “Since yesterday, when the Lord brought the revelation about the rain and that this rain will wipe away the epidemic coronavirus, I asked the Lord to make this happen in the place where the coronavirus started which is Wuhan, China. Right now, it is raining in Wuhan, China”, portions of the post read.

    The cleric added: “The purpose of this rain is to wipe out this epidemic called coronavirus and it will continue till the end of this week. Whether you come in contact with the rain or not, it does not matter. The Lord said to me that it will rain and it is raining. Glory be to God!”.

    Coronavirus or Convid-19 as named by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has hit 70 countries.

    The deadly disease broke out in Wuhan, China mid-December and has caused anxiety across the globe.

    The first case in Sub-Saharan Africa was recorded in Lagos, Nigeria on Thursday, February 27, 2020.

    Source: ghanaguardian.com

  • Twitter staff told to work from home over coronavirus fears

    Twitter staff across the world were asked to work from home starting Monday in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus epidemic.

    The outbreak has spread across the world since emerging in central China late last year, killing more than 3,100 people, infecting over 90,000, and prompting a wave of travel restrictions.

    The social media platform’s decision to ask its staff to avoid the office follows similar requests by governments in virus hotspots.

    “We are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they’re able,” Twitter human resources chief Jennifer Christie said in a Monday blog post.

    “Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us — and the world around us.”

    Working from home will be mandatory for employees at the company’s South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan offices, Christie said.

    South Korea has recorded nearly 5,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections — the largest number outside mainland China — along with 28 deaths. More than half of the cases have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious group often described as a cult.

    Japan’s government has urged the closure of schools nationwide and employers to give their staff permission to work remotely.

    Most civil servants in Hong Kong returned to work on Monday after they were asked to work from home for a month. The financial hub has recorded 100 cases of the infection.

    Twitter had already announced the suspension of “non-critical” business travel and events last week

    Source: bbc.com

  • NASA images show fall in China pollution over virus shutdown

    NASA satellite images show a dramatic fall in pollution over China that is “partly related” to the economic slowdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the space agency said.

    The reduction in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution was first noticed near Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, but eventually spread across China, according to NASA scientists who examined data collected by their and European Space Agency satellites.

    Maps comparing NO2 concentrations showed a marked decline between January 1-20, before a sweeping quarantine was imposed on Wuhan and other cities, and February 10-25.

    “There is evidence that the change is at least partly related to the economic slowdown following the outbreak of coronavirus,” NASA’s Earth Observatory said in a statement.

    Chinese authorities have taken drastic steps to contain the virus, curbing the movement of people, temporarily closing factories across the country and quarantining central Hubei province, a key industrial region where the epidemic first appeared.

    NO2 is a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants and can cause respiratory problems, such as asthma.

    “This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said.

    The 2008 global financial crisis saw a decrease in NO2 over several countries but it was a gradual fall, she said.

    This year’s fall came during the Lunar New Year, when factories and businesses close, but researchers believe the decline is far greater than could be attributed to the holiday period.

    NO2 concentrations over eastern and central China were 10-30 percent lower than what is normally observed over the time period.

    And there has not been a rebound in levels after the holiday.

    “This year, the reduction rate is more significant than in past years and it has lasted longer,” Liu said.

    “I am not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimize spread of the virus.”

    A separate study in February found China’s carbon emissions had dropped by least 100 million metric tonnes in the previous fortnight — nearly six percent of global emissions during the same period last year.

    According to a study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland, the rapid spread of the coronavirus led to a drop in demand for coal and oil, resulting in the emissions slump.

    Source: France24