MOSCOW - Russia on Thursday reported another record increase in coronavirus infections with more than 11,000 new cases as Moscow imposes new virus restrictions and ramps up testing.
A daily government tally of virus cases in the country saw 11,231 new infections in 24 hours, bringing Russia's total to 177,160.
Russia now ranks fourth in the overall number of reported virus cases in Europe and fifth in the world, according to an AFP tally.
The number of infections in Russia has been rising by more than 10,000 a day since Sunday, in contrast to countries in western Europe that are taking steps to ease lockdown measures.
Officials attribute the increase to mass testing and detecting asymptomatic cases not always counted in other countries.
Health officials said Thursday they had carried out more than 4.8 million tests.
Russia's mortality rate is low compared to European countries hit badly by the pandemic, with health officials registering 88 new deaths for a total of 1,625.
Moscow cites a series of measures taken early in the pandemic for its low mortality rate, including closing its borders and ordering the elderly and those at risk to self-isolate. But some say the discrepancy is due to how the death count is calculated.
According to official figures on Wednesday, Russia's death rate was just 0.9 percent, compared with Germany, which is lauded for its virus response, with a fatality rate of 4.2 percent.
Coronavirus cases have been registered in all of Russia's 85 regions with Moscow the epicentre of the pandemic where officials have registered 92,676 infections.
The capital's mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday that Muscovites will be required to wear masks and gloves on public transport as restrictions ease and some sectors return to work.
"We understand that the number of people moving on transport will increase, one way or another, the number of people communicating with each other will increase," he said on the Rossiya-24 television channel.
A non-working quarantine period is in place in Russia until May 11, but Sobyanin has said that stay-at-home restrictions would remain in place beyond this deadline.
Moscow residents are allowed out only for brief trips to a shop, to walk dogs or to travel to essential jobs with a permit.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered regional governors to develop plans to gradually lift anti-virus lockdowns regimes which vary from region to region.
He urged caution, however, warning: "The price of even the smallest mistake is the safety, lives and health of our people."
Since the start of the crisis, Putin's approval rating has dropped to a historic low, according to independent pollster Levada, which said this week it fell to 59 percent in April from 63 percent in March.
Agence France-Presse
TOKYO - A taxi driver in Tokyo has tested positive for the coronavirus, NHK public TV reported, marking a further spread of the disease in Japan even as authorities said some passengers aboard a ship quarantined off its coast would finally be allowed to disembark.
The broadcaster, quoting sources, said the health ministry was trying to trace the route of the contagion, adding that the driver said he had carried passengers who appeared to be Chinese.
No further details were immediately available, including word on the condition of the man, who NHK said was in his 70s. The case is likely to raise further concerns about the spread of the flu-like virus given how many people a city taxi driver has likely been in contact with.
The news came after Japan said it would allow some elderly passengers on the quarantined cruise liner who test negative for the new coronavirus to disembark ahead of schedule and another 44 new cases were confirmed aboard the Diamond Princess.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said elderly passengers who have preexisting conditions or are in windowless rooms would be allowed to leave starting from Friday, rather than the originally targeted date of Feb. 19, and complete their quarantine ashore.
With the number of those infected on the cruise ship now up to 218 plus 1 quarantine officer, concerns have been raised about conditions on the ship, where about 3,500 people remain on board.
The liner was quarantined on arrival in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Feb. 3 after a man who disembarked from the liner in Hong Kong before it traveled to Japan was diagnosed with the virus that has now killed more than 1,350 in mainland China.
About 80 percent of the ship passengers were aged 60 or over, with 215 in their 80s and 11 in their 90s, according to Japanese media. The ship typically has a crew of 1,100 and a passenger capacity of 2,670.
Separately, NHK also reported on Thursday what a doctor in central Japan had tested positive for the virus. It was not immediately clear whether he had any connection to China.
Hundreds of infections have been reported in more than 2 dozen countries and territories besides China, but only 2 people have died from the virus outside mainland China - 1 in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines.
Japanese nationals who have been staying in hotels or other facilities since returning on 4 charter flights from China's Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, have begun going home.
All 197 people from a Jan. 29 flight who tested negative were either home or en route and another 200 or so from a second flight could head home later on Thursday, NHK said.
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MANILA - The number of Filipinos confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) while on board a quarantined cruise ship moored off Japan has climbed to 11, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.
All of the Filipinos who got the virus are crew members of Diamond Princess, Foreign Affairs Secretary Eduardo Meñez said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.
"All of them are now confined in various hospitals in and around the Tokyo area," the agency said in a statement, adding they are responding well to treatment.
The Philippine Embassy in Tokyo has sent supplies to the patients and also those still quarantined inside the ship.
"An embassy team also visited the hospitals this afternoon to speak with the doctors and social workers assigned to the Filipino patients in order to ensure their well-being," the agency added.
The ship has been kept in quarantine since Feb. 3 after a passenger, who disembarked in Hong Kong, was found to be infected with the virus.
Passengers are expected to stay until Feb. 19, 14 days after the isolation period began.
A Filipino crew member of the ship was among 10 people who earlier tested positive of the new coronavirus. The sailor was the first known case of a Filipino infected with COVID-19.
Also on Thursday, Japanese authorities confirmed that another 44 people inside the ship tested positive of the virus.
They raise the number of infections detected on the ship to 218, in addition to a quarantine officer who also tested positive for the virus.
Of the newly diagnosed cases, 43 are passengers, and one a member of the crew.
So far, 713 people have been tested, with officials saying they are currently limited by capacity. The ship carries an estimated 3,600 passengers.
The DFA also clarified that "no Filipinos [were] included in a new group of 44 persons who tested positive for the virus." - with a report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News
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MANADO, Indonesia - Bat meat is still popular in some parts of Indonesia, despite research suggesting the coronavirus spreading from China might have originated in bats before being passed on to humans.
Bats are traditionally eaten by the Minahasan people from North Sulawesi in the form of a curry-like dish called Paniki. Whole bats are used in Paniki, including the head and wings.
"It (the coronavirus) has not affected sales," said bat seller Stenly Timbuleng at his stall in Tomohon, a city in North Sulawesi, south of the provincial capital of Manado.
"In fact... sales continue. It is always sold out."
On an average day, Timbuleng sells 50 to 60 bats and during festive periods, he can sell up to 600.
"Bats are the favorite indigenous protein, particularly in North Sulawesi," Indonesian culinary expert and author of half a dozen of cookbooks, William W. Wongso, told Reuters.
"My favorite part is the wings," Wongso added.
Glands from the armpits and the neck of the bat are first removed to get rid of the bad smell.
It is then grilled or torched to get rid of the bat's hairs before being chopped and cooked in a stew of herbs, spices and coconut milk.
The coronavirus is believed to have originated in a food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. Health experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species.
In China, the virus has killed more than 1,000 and infected more than 42,700.
There are 319 coronavirus cases in 24 countries and territories outside of China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese health officials.
None has been reported in Indonesia, but the outbreak has prompted many Manadonese restaurants in the capital, Jakarta, to take bats off the menu.
For Manadonese Jufry Mantak, the links between the coronavirus and his favorite dish have not put him off.
"We have not found any (coronavirus) cases in Manado. Up till now, there are still many people eating these bats. Because bats are good, especially when cooked with coconut milk."
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MANILA – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said canceling events such as international conferences are not always necessary amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Certainly it is always a concern if people come together…We have to have risk management procedures associated with that,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing posted online.
“You cannot shut down the world either. Normal activity must go on,” he added in response to questions about “super-spreaders” or individuals who are able to transmit disease at a much higher rate than the world average.
The issue of superspreading came up as more than 40,000 people have been infected with more than 1,000 dead. While 99 percent of the cases are in China, the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) has also reached other countries.
One report said a British businessman may have unintentionally spread the virus in at least three European countries, linking him to 11 other patients, according to The Guardian. The report said he likely contracted the virus in Singapore where he attended a sales conference. Of the 109 attendees, 94 traveled from abroad, including one from Wuhan, China.
After the sales conference in Singapore, the British man then went to a French ski resort with his family. It was later reported that five other British citizens who stayed in the same chalet tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. Other confirmed cases were later reported.
However, Ghebreyesus said the numbers are still in single digits.
“What we need to see is reasonable, well-managed meetings and gatherings in which the risk is managed appropriately,” he said, explaining that events cannot be canceled at the slightest possibility of an infection.
“Where is the limit to this?” he said. “We need to remain calm. We need to be measured.”
“There is no zero risk in life,” he pointed out, saying that any event can lead to illness or accidents.
He said people should instead take a “risk management approach” by identifying risks and managing it.
WHO Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness Director Dr. Sylvie Briand also said that people should “look at superspreading events, not people” to avoid “stigmatization” or discriminating against individuals.
In the Philippines, the Department of Health has recommended the cancellation of concerts after it confirmed three positive cases of novel coronavirus.
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PARIS, France - A British man managed to pass on the coronavirus to at least 11 other people without ever setting foot in the epicenter of the outbreak in China, in an infectious journey that shows how the deadly virus can spread rapidly around a globalized world.
The adult British citizen, who has not been named publicly, caught the virus while attending a conference in Singapore and then passed it on to several compatriots while on holiday in the French Alps, before finally being diagnosed back in the UK.
Of those infected by the man, five have been hospitalized in France, five in Britain and one other man on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
How did he pass on the new coronavirus so rapidly in so many different places?
SINGAPORE
The man attended a business conference in Singapore from 20-22 January. More than 100 people took part in the conference, including at least one Chinese national from Hubei province, the epicentre of the epidemic that has now left more than 900 dead.
HAUTE-SAVOIE, FRENCH ALPS
He then traveled on to France to spend some days from January 24-28 at the ski resort of Contamines-Montjoie in the Alps with a group of other British citizens staying in two apartments in the same chalet.
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND
Stricken with fever after his return to the south of England, the man then went to a medical center in the southeastern town of Brighton where he was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
On February 6 he was transferred to the infectious diseases unit at the hospital of St Thomas in London.
Five other people who had contact with him at the French ski chalet were then confirmed by the British health authorities to be infected.
Some of the staff from The Grenadier pub, which the man went to just before he was hospitalized, have also been placed in isolation. But the pub has stayed open.
A medical center in Brighton said Monday it had temporarily closed for "an urgent operational health and safety reason".
The BBC and Sky News said one of the centre's staff members had tested positive for the virus, although this was not officially confirmed.
PARIS
Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said on February 8 that five British nationals, including a child, who stayed at the chalet with the man had tested positive.
Six other Britons staying in the same chalet were also hospitalized for observation.
"They show no serious signs" of those infected having any threat to their lives, added Buzyn.
Business owners in the Contamines-Montjoie resort have been keen to avoid any exaggerations of the threat as French families prepared to descend on the area for the half-term ski holidays.
Three schools attended by one of the British infected -- the child aged nine -- are closed and 100 have been people tested. All the results have been negative so far.
Similar efforts have been made to track down passengers who took a flight from Geneva -- the closest large airport to Contamines-Montjoie -- with the man when he went back to Britain on January 28.
MALLORCA, SPAIN
One member of the group he stayed with in France then sought medical help after returning to his home in Mallorca. The contamination took place between January 25 and January 29, according to the Spanish authorities.
The man in Mallorca is "currently in good health. He shows practically no symptom," said Fernando Simon, an official from Spain's health ministry.
The Mallorca man's wife and two daughters aged 10 and 7, who were also hospitalized for tests, have shown no sign of infection.
SPEED OF SPREAD SPURS FEARS
Experts said that the speed of the transmission showed the potential for the novel coronavirus to become a global pandemic.
"The recent report of transmission to British nationals in France are a worrying but perhaps not unexpected development," said Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine, University of East Anglia.
"This reinforces the fact that transmission is no longer restricted to China. It is still too early to know when and if the epidemic will become pandemic and whether we will see start to see sustained person to person transmission in Europe."
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Agence France-Presse
HANOI - Vietnam confirmed another case of the new coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing its total to 15, the health ministry said.
The latest case is a 3-month-old baby, infected by her grandmother, who tested positive for the virus on Feb. 9, the ministry said in a statement.
It said 10 out of 15 confirmed case are from the northern province of Vinh Phuc.
Vietnam has made plans to quarantine hundreds of its citizens returning from China, including 950 at military camps outside Hanoi, and another 900 at temporary facilities on the Vietnam-China border.
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BANGKOK - Thailand has barred passengers from Holland America's cruise ship MS Westerdam from disembarking, its health minister said Tuesday, the latest country to turn it away amid fears of the coronavirus despite no confirmed infections aboard.
The company, owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp, had said on Monday that passengers would disembark in Bangkok on Feb. 13 and that there was no reason to believe anybody aboard had the virus.
"I have issued orders. Permission to dock refused," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a Facebook post.
The Westerdam has already been turned away from several countries, including Japan, the Philippines and Thailand, amid fears of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,000 people and infected more than 40,000 since it was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan less than 2 months ago
Holland America says no one on board has the virus. Media reports say it carries 1,455 passengers and 802 crew; its original destination was Yokohama, Japan, which refused it permission to dock.
"The ship is not in quarantine and we have no reason to believe there are any cases of coronavirus on board despite media reports," the company said.
It had earlier said the Westerdam was sailing toward Bangkok, and it is not immediately clear whether the ship would change course.
Another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, with 3,700 passengers and crew on board, is quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama, with 135 cases of coronavirus detected on the Carnival Corp-owned vessel.
Most of the coronavirus cases have been inside China, but there have been 319 cases in 24 other countries, including 1 death, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
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MADRID - Major tech companies are skipping the Mobile World Congress this year because of fears over the coronavirus, though Chinese groups and other big names still plan to attend the top industry event.
Amazon and Sony said Monday they would stay away from the world's biggest mobile tech fair in Barcelona, joining Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and South Korean giant LG.
NTT DoCoMo, the biggest Japanese telecommunications operator and one of the biggest in Asia, said it too would be absent for reasons of "security" stemming from the virus.
The annual gathering is scheduled for Feb. 24 to 27 this year.
"Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about novel coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020," a Spanish-language statement said.
A Sony statement said: "As we place the utmost importance on the safety and well-being of our customers, partners, media and employees, we have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from exhibiting and participating at MWC 2020 in Barcelona."
LG, which normally has one of the biggest stands, said last week that its decision "removes the risk of exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel which has already become more restrictive as the virus continues to spread across borders."
Like Sony, LG plans separate events to unveil its new mobile products.
Other trade shows have also been hit by the virus, with the biennial Singapore Airshow reporting the loss of more than 70 participants, including US group Lockheed Martin and Bombardier of Canada.
The MWC is a major date on tech company calendars and normally draws more than 100,000 people from all over the world to see the latest innovations and gadgets.
The mobile trade association GSMA that organizes the congress said Sunday it was taking drastic precautions this year to ease fears that it could become a hub for the virus to spread.
To date, more than 40,000 people have been infected and more than 900 have died in the outbreak that began in China's Wuhan city. Most deaths have been in China.
The Barcelona congress will be off limits to anyone from the Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus first broke out, and visitors from other parts of China will have to show they have been outside the country for two weeks before arriving in Spain.
Shenzhen-based ZTE, which makes smartphones and wireless networking equipment, and Huawei have said they still plan to attend, along with compatriots Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi.
Finnish phone maker Nokia and the South Korean giant Samsung are also still expected.
"We remain more than 2,800 exhibitors strong," a GSMA statement said.
Daily disinfection
ZTE's exhibition stand and equipment will be disinfected daily and its booth exhibition staff will come from countries outside China, mainly from Europe, it said.
Senior executives taking part in "high-level meetings" at the gathering "will self-isolate themselves in Europe for at least two weeks prior to the MWC," a ZTE statement said.
The company plans to showcase new 5G devices this year.
Huawei staff, including executives, have also arrived two weeks early and shut themselves up in their hotels, a company spokesman told AFP.
GSMA said: "We are grateful for the preventative measures our Chinese exhibitors have put in place, notably ZTE and Huawei."
Meanwhile, personnel will be on hand to take visitors' temperatures and exhibitors will be advised on how best to disinfect their stands.
Spain has not declared a health emergency and only two cases of coronavirus have been detected in the country so far, one in the Canary Islands and another on the Mediterranean island of Majorca.
"Everything will be done to ensure the participant's peace of mind," Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni told Antena 3 television.
But an association of Barcelona hotel operators acknowledged they had recorded cancellations for the period, which represents one of the Catalan city's most important events.
Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE - Anxious Singapore shoppers formed long lines at grocery stores Saturday and cleared the shelves of essential items, after the city-state raised its alert level over China's coronavirus outbreak.
Since emerging late last year, the virus has killed over 700 people and infected more than 34,000 in China, and spread to many other countries.
Singapore, which has reported 33 cases, raised its alert level Friday to "orange" -- the same as during the deadly 2003 SARS outbreak, indicating the virus is severe and passes easily between people.
The announcement triggered panic in the city-state of 5.7 million starting late Friday, with shoppers -- many wearing masks -- rushing to stock up on items including rice, noodles and toilet paper.
Pictures circulating on social media showed empty shelves in some stores, carts filled with goods and long lines at counters, which continued into Saturday.
"I'm afraid that if they further raise the alert level, we will not be able to go out," a 50-year-old housewife, who did not want to be named, told AFP after leaving a grocery store.
The highest level on Singapore's 4-point scale for dealing with disease outbreaks is "red," one above "orange."
There were, however, ample stocks of other items such as fruit, meat, fish and alcohol.
The government urged calm, with Trade Minister Chan Chun Sing saying there was no need to rush out to buy crucial supplies.
"There is no risk of us running a shortage of essential food or household items," he wrote on Facebook.
Singapore raised its alert level amid a growing number of virus cases in citizens with no recent travel history to mainland China and no known links to previous infections.
Hong Kong has also been hit by a wave of panic-buying in recent days as it seeks to battle the virus, with supermarket shelves frequently emptied of crucial goods.
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WASHINGTON, United States - Diarrhea may be a secondary path of transmission for the novel coronavirus, scientists said Friday following the publication of the latest study reporting patients with abdominal symptoms and loose stool.
The primary path is believed to be virus-laden droplets from an infected person's cough, though researchers in early cases have said they focused heavily on patients with respiratory symptoms and may have overlooked those linked to the digestive tract.
A total of 14 out of 138 patients (10 percent) in a Wuhan hospital who were studied in the new paper by Chinese authors in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) initially presented with diarrhea and nausea one or two days prior to development of fever and labored breathing.
The first US patient diagnosed with 2019-nCoV also experienced loose bowel movements for two days and the virus was subsequently detected in his stool. There have been other such cases in China documented in the Lancet, albeit infrequently.
"Importantly, 2019-nCoV has been reported elsewhere in the feces of patients with atypical abdominal symptoms, similar to SARS which was also shed in urine, suggesting a fecal transmission route which is highly transmissible," William Keevil, a professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton said in a comment to the UK's Science Media Centre.
The possibility is not totally surprising to scientists, given that the new virus belongs to the same family as SARS.
Fecal transmission of SARS was implicated in sickening hundreds in Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens housing estate in 2003. A rising plume of warm air originating in bathrooms contaminated several apartments and was transported by wind to adjacent buildings in the complex.
Based on the literature, "the 2019-nCoV virus found in stool may be transmitted through fecal spread," added Jiayu Liao, a bioengineer at the University of California, Riverside.
But, he added: "We still do not know how long this virus can survive outside the body -- HIV can only survive roughly 30 minutes outside the body -- and what temperature range the 2019-nCoV is sensitive to."
Fecal spread could present new challenges to the virus's containment, but is more likely to be a problem inside hospitals, which can become "amplifiers" of epidemics, said David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.
Benjamin Neuman, a virology expert at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, cautioned that while fecal transmission was "certainly worth considering," "droplets and touching contaminated surfaces then rubbing eyes, nose or mouth" were likely the main way the virus was transmitted based on current data.
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MANILA - The Philippine tourism industry has lost at least P10 billion pesos as government continues to impose a travel ban to and from China, the country's second largest tourism market and epicenter of the deadly 2019 novel coronavirus, an official from a tour operators' group said Friday.
About 50 percent of reservations in Boracay, Bohol, Cebu, and Palawan have been canceled, Philippine Tour Operators Association President Cesar Cruz told reporters.
"Both for inbound and outbound [travel], it would really have a very big effect," he said.
"It hit us during the peakest of the peak, which is the Chinese New Year," he said.
The tourism industry may continue to feel the effects of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Acute Respiratory Disease (2019-nCoV ARD) until August, he said.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) is eyeing to boost promotions in South Korea and the United States, the Philippines' top and 3rd largest tourist markets, respectively, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.
The DOT is also coordinating with hotels and airline companies to give discounts to attract more visitors, she said.
Stopping the spread of the virus is the government's primary concern, she said.
The 2019-nCoV has killed at least 600 people and infected 30,000 others, mostly in China since the origin of the pathogen was traced to the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019.
The Philippines has recorded 3 cases, all Chinese travelers from Wuhan, among whom 1 has died.
- report from Michael Delizo, ABS-CBN News
BEIJING- China's anti-graft watchdog announced Friday an investigation after the death of a whistleblowing doctor sparked anger over the government's handling of the coronavirus emergency.
The discipline inspection commission said a team would go to Wuhan, the virus-hit city where doctor Li Wenliang died, to "conduct a comprehensive investigation into issues involving Dr. Li Wenliang reported by the masses."
Li, 34, died early Friday, Wuhan Central Hospital said in a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The death of the ophthalmologist sparked an outpouring of grief and anger over a worsening crisis that has now killed more than 630 people.
At least 31,000 people have now been infected by a virus in China and cases have been found in over two dozen countries, triggering an international health crisis.
Li was among eight physicians punished by Wuhan police for discussing the emergence of a SARS-like virus on social media in December.
China's supreme court in January criticized Wuhan police for punishing early "rumor-mongers," saying the outbreak may not have become so serious "if the public had believed these 'rumors' at the time."
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TOKYO—Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizers said Thursday the Games would "go ahead as planned," slamming misinformation over the new coronavirus for triggering panic.
Chief executive officer Toshiro Muto revealed that organizers had set up a task force to combat the fast-spreading disease that has killed over 560 people and infected at least 28,000 -- the vast majority in mainland China -- but promised that the Games would be not derailed.
"The Olympics will go ahead as planned," he told reporters after a Paralympic project review.
"It is important to remain objective and cool-headed. We don't want to alarm the public. The infection is still limited and there is no problem staging the Olympics based on the current situation."
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spokesman Craig Spence complained that scaremongering had created an "info-demic" that could skew public perception in the run-up to the Olympics and Paralympics.
"Fear is spreading quicker than the virus," he said. "It's important we quell that fear. Only 191 of the total cases are outside mainland China, so let's put things into perspective.
"If you compare those rates with the common flu, they are still relatively small numbers," added Spence.
"The World Health Organization (WHO) has not declared this a pandemic. We dealt with the Zika virus in Rio and in these matters we need to rely on the experts.
"We will follow the advice of the World Health Organization. Every organizing committee looks into countermeasures, and we have measures in place from previous Olympics and Paralympics here in Tokyo. It is standard practice, it's business as usual."
More than 20 countries have confirmed cases of the flu-like coronavirus.
GLOBAL PANIC
Japan has had no reported deaths so far, but 45 cases have been detected, including at least 20 people on a cruise ship carrying more than 3,700 passengers and crew quarantined off Yokohama.
The WHO has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.
Japan has warned citizens against non-essential travel to China and fast-tracked new rules including limits on entering the country as it tries to contain the spread of the virus.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday pledged that preparations for the Olympics would proceed as normal.
"The coronavirus is beginning to have an impact on tourism," he said. "But the government will continue to steadily prepare for the Games in close cooperation with the IOC (International Olympic Committee), the local organizing committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government."
The Japanese government has chartered 3 flights to repatriate 565 Japanese nationals from Wuhan, the central Chinese city hardest hit by the virus.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike promised at the weekend to implement "thorough measures" to protect people from the virus.
The health scare has led to the cancellation of Olympic qualifying events in China such as boxing and badminton.
The Tokyo Olympics begin on July 24 with the Paralympics starting on Aug. 25.
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TAIPEI - Workers making iPhones at tech giant Foxconn's plant in central China will be quarantined for up to 2 weeks, the company said Thursday, as cities on the mainland tighten their defenses against the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn is the world's biggest contract electronics maker and assembles Apple's iPhones, as well as gadgets for other international brands.
Foxconn's vast network of factories in China, including one of its largest in Zhengzhou in central Henan province, are set to resume operations on Feb. 10 after an extended Lunar New Year holiday caused by the outbreak.
But the company said it has advised instate and out-of-state employees at the Zhengzhou plant to be quarantined for 7 and 14 days, respectively, in accordance with local government policies.
China's industrial base has been buffeted by the outbreak of the virus, which began in the manufacturing hub of Wuhan in central China but has since spread to more than 20 countries.
The number of confirmed infections has hit more than 28,000 in China while death toll passed 560 in an outbreak that has spiraled into a global health emergency.
The virus is also set to have an impact on international supply chains and manufacturing given China's lynchpin role in the global economy.
Foxconn now projects a sales increase of 1 to 3 percent this year, down from a January forecast of 3 to 5 percent, chairman Young Liu told Bloomberg News.
Foxconn has tried to allay fears of production shortfalls, saying it had previous experience of viral outbreaks following the SARS epidemic in 2003.
It is China's biggest private-sector employer with more than 30 factories and research facilities -- including 1 in Wuhan.
Taiwan has reported 11 confirmed cases so far, mostly people returning from Wuhan.
The government announced Thursday that all foreigners who resided or visited China, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days will be temporarily barred from entering the island.
Foreigners with residency permits in Taiwan returning from these areas must undergo a 14-day stay-home quarantine.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SYDNEY - The coronavirus outbreak could deliver a painful multi-billion-dollar hit to Australian universities, as high-paying Chinese students are forced to defer their studies, economists warned Thursday.
Top universities stand to lose around US$2 billion (Aus$3 billion) in fees alone, according to preliminary estimates from analysts at Standard & Poor's.
Under open-ended travel restrictions imposed by the government in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, non-Australian citizens or permanent residents who have been in China since Feb. 1 are not allowed into Australia.
The virus's outbreak came in between Australia's academic years -- which begin in February -- and as many of the country's roughly 165,000 Chinese university students had returned home for the Lunar New Year.
"Our calculation is one of higher-education fee revenues only, and excludes the broader economic contribution from students to accommodation, tourism, and domestic consumption of goods and services," S&P said in a report.
Foreign students are a vital income stream for Australian universities and one that has grown exponentially in recent years.
Australia is now 1 of the top 3 destinations for foreign students worldwide.
Student representatives told AFP that many of those students have not been able to return in time to start this semester and fear missing the whole year because of the way courses are constructed.
Universities have offered to defer placements and reimburse tuition fees, but many are also trying to buy time.
The University of Sydney has extended the last date students have to be on campus to March 30 -- more than a month after classes were due to begin -- and is trying to arrange for remote teaching.
Australia's top universities are expected to be disproportionately hit, but they should be able to absorb the blow, at least temporarily.
"We believe they have some buffer in free cash, leverage, and operating margin ratios to absorb a temporary shock to revenues," S&P said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG - Hong Kong was testing over 1,800 passengers and crew on a cruise ship for a coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, after some crew members reported having fever and other symptoms.
Authorities were not letting anyone leave the ship without permission.
The Chinese-ruled city's health department said Wednesday 90 percent of the passengers were Hong Kongers and no mainland Chinese were on board.
Previously, 3 mainland Chinese that had been on the ship between Jan. 19 and 24 were found to have contracted the virus.
The World Dream ship, operated by Dream Cruises, was denied entry in the southern Taiwan port of Kaohsiung on Tuesday. On Monday, the ship visited Taiwan's northern Keelung port.
It was not clear how long passengers and crew would be kept on the ship.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SEOUL - A South Korean woman has tested positive for coronavirus after visiting Thailand, South Korean officials said Tuesday, the first foreign tourist reported to have been infected after a visit to the southeast Asian nation.
The 42-year-old, identified only as Patient 16, flew back to South Korea on Jan. 19 after traveling in Thailand, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.
Treated since developing chills and other symptoms from Jan. 25, she did not improve until Sunday, the KCDC added, and was confirmed positive on Tuesday, following checks at Chonnam National University Hospital.
The statement did not explicitly rule out a visit to China, however.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Thousands of Hong Kong medical workers voted Saturday to strike as they urge the government to close its border with the mainland to contain the coronavirus epidemic that has killed 259 people.
The financial hub has 13 confirmed cases of the disease as of Saturday, with 112 patients isolated.
More than three thousand public hospital staff including doctors and nurses voted to strike if the government fails to meet their demands
"If we do not curb the source (of the virus), the resources of epidemic prevention and manpower will never be enough," said Winnie Yu, chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA).
"We don't want to go on strike, but the government has been ignoring the demands of the frontline medical workers. We have no choice," Yu added.
The HAEA will meet with representatives from their employer -- the city's hospital authority -- on Sunday to negotiate.
The newly formed alliance said 9,000 of its members back the strike, making up 10 percent of the workforce of the city's workforce.
If no deal is reached, around 30 percent of the 9,000 -- those who work in non-essential positions -- would first go on strike next Monday. The rest, who provide emergency services, would afterwards join a four-day strike.
Hong Kong's hospital authority on Saturday said it would come up with a contingency plan.
The city's pro-Beijing administration has resisted public pressure to completely close its border although it has slashed several lesser-used crossings, with the city's chief executive saying on Friday a full closure is not feasible.
The United States has temporarily barred entry to foreigners who had been in China within the past two weeks and Australia said it was barring entry to non-citizens arriving from China.
Italy, Singapore and Mongolia have also taken similar sweeping precautions.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SHANGHAI - Apple Inc on Saturday said it would shut all of its official stores and corporate offices in mainland China until Feb 9. as fears over the coronavirus outbreak mounted and the death toll more than doubled to over 250 from a week ago.
"Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9," Apple said in a statement.
The company said it looked forward to re-opening stores "as soon as possible."
Earlier this week, Apple closed 3 stores in China due to concerns about the spread of the virus.
It is joining a handful of overseas retailers, including Starbucks Corp and McDonald's Corp, in temporarily shutting storefronts as a precautionary measure.
Many other companies, meanwhile, have called for employees in China to work from home and cease non-essential business travel in the first week of February.
Normally, businesses in China would be preparing to return to normal operations following the end of the week-long Lunar New Year Holiday.
Apple remains heavily reliant on China both for smartphone sales as well as for its supply chain and manufacturing. Many factories in Hubei province, including plants run by AB InBev and General Motors Co, have temporarily suspended production due to the virus.
In a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was working out mitigation plans to deal with possible production loss from its suppliers in Wuhan. The city where the virus outbreak originated is home to several Apple suppliers.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
