TOKYO — Japanese leaders are grappling with how to contain flareups in coronavirus cases while trying to avoid shutdowns that might push the economy deeper into recession.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said the confirmed number of new cases hit a daily record of 463 on Friday, up nearly 100 from Thursday’s 367. Nationwide, cases have recently topped 1,000 a day, and some areas that had avoided any cases at all, such as Iwate prefecture in the northeast and Sado island off the Japan Sea coast, have confirmed cases.
Koike says, “You might have plans or events for summer, but unfortunately this summer will be different from last summer. We cannot loosen our grips on (anti-infection) measures and I want to share this mindset with you all.”
Earlier this week, Koike asked bars and restaurants to close by 10 p.m. Legal limits on what the government can demand of the private sector and individuals mean authorities largely must rely on social pressure and persuasion to compel people to comply with anti-disease precautions.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Asia-Pacific tourism makes patchy restart, and some missteps
— Final days of hajj and Eid festival impacted by coronavirus
— Virus testing turnaround times reveal wide disparity
— Dr. Anthony Fauci returns to Capitol Hill on Friday to testify before a special House panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic. His testimony comes at a time when early progress on combating the virus seems to have been lost and uncertainty clouds the nation’s path forward.
— Scientists at Imperial College London say they are immunizing hundreds of people with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an early trial after seeing no worrying safety problems in a small number vaccinated so far.
— Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, the lockdown put the cork on weddings, dining out, parties and international travel — all key sales components for the French luxury wine marketed for decades as a sparkling must at any celebration.
The Associated Press
BANGKOK - Some 3,000 students gathered on Friday in Thailand's Ayutthaya province to send Valentine's Day well-wishes to China, which is facing an ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
"China keep fighting," students and teachers of Jirasat Wittaya School chanted, as they stood with a pair of elephants in a heart formation in a courtyard.
"Now in China the people are feeling anxious and worried, so people from other countries should give them confidence so they can press on," said Liang Jie, a Chinese language teacher at the school from the city of Xiamen, on China's east coast.
"So if the Thais can give us their confidence and support, we will surely be thankful to them."
Thailand has recorded a total of 33 coronavirus cases, but no fatalities so far.
In its latest update, China's National Health Commission said it had recorded 121 new deaths and 5,090 new coronavirus cases on the mainland on Thursday, raising the total of infected to 63,851 people.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TOKYO, Japan – "Cupid's avocado" for dinner, heart-shaped messages for the crew, but also painful separation: for those trapped on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruiseship, Friday is no ordinary Valentine's Day.
Wearing a red dress and a red hair tie, the ship's entertainment manager Natalie posted a Valentine's Day video on Twitter to try to keep spirits up.
"I just wanted to check in with everybody and say that we are all hanging in there, doing fine and keeping together as a big family," she said, admitting with a smile: "This hasn't been my regular attire for the last week or so."
Passenger Matt Smith, 57, was marking Valentine's Day on board with his wife of 21 years, Katherine Codekas, also 57 -- and admitted this was not their first-choice location for the special day.
"After 21 years of marriage, we don't make a big deal of it, but I usually get Katherine a card at least," he told AFP from the ship.
"I think she was a little disappointed with our setting," he added. "Facebook reminded me this morning that three years ago we were in Las Vegas. Way to rub it in!"
Passengers on board were being offered a "Valentine's Day" breakfast, Smith said.
"We were reminded what day it was by the delivery of what the crew member said was a 'special' breakfast," he said.
"Not sure why hard-boiled eggs, sausage, and sautéed mushrooms are special."
The dinner menu, on the other hand, promises several special treats in honor of the day.
"Cupid's Avocado and Shrimp salad" to start, followed by "Shrimp Valentine Japanese style with rice and vegetables."
The main course is the French classic Coq au Vin with mashed potato and vegetables, and a "Valentine's Day surprise dessert of the day" is promised.
"Coq au Vin, yes please," tweeted Yardley Wong, who has been posting her efforts to keep her young son entertained on the quarantined vessel.
"A special meal for Valentine's Day, a reserved bottle of red," she added, with her usual hashtag #hanginthereDiamondPrincess and a picture of a bottle of wine.
She also posted a drawing by her six-year-old son for Valentine's Day, with the caption "Stay strong, we are with you Diamond Princess."
'THEN SHE WAS GONE'
American passenger Jackie joked that she had big plans for Valentine's Day on the cruise, which has proved far from the gala holiday everyone planned.
"We're going to have a formal night on Valentine's Day in our cabin. Take some pics, have some laughs," she tweeted.
Another passenger cut out paper hearts and left them on her door for the crew to read, with messages including: "Thank you for all your hard work" and "Thank you for taking care of us."
More than 200 people on board the ship have been diagnosed with the newly named COVID-19 and taken to local hospitals. Those remaining on board will be in quarantine until at least February 19.
While passengers are battling isolation, fear and boredom, some members of the crew have voiced concerns about their conditions, including eating together and sleeping two to a cabin.
But the coronavirus has also ripped some couples apart for Valentine's Day, including at least one on their honeymoon.
Kent Frasure was forced to say goodbye to his partner Rebecca, who has contracted the virus and is now in isolation in hospital.
"We said 'goodbye, see each other later' and gave each other a hug. We didn't have a goodbye kiss because we didn't really know what was going on," Kent told CNBC.
"Then I watched her walk down the hallway, turn the corner and then she was gone."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Personnel wearing protective suits wait near an entrance at the Cheung Hong Estate, a public housing estate, during evacuation of residents in Hong Kong, Tuesday. The Centre for Health Protection of the city's Department of Health evacuated some residents from the public housing estate after two cases of the novel coronavirus infection to prevent further spread of the virus.
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TOKYO - Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies will focus on the impact of the spread of a new coronavirus on the world economy when they meet later this month in Saudi Arabia, G-20 sources said Tuesday.
In a meeting slated for Feb. 22-23 in Riyadh, the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors are expected to discuss measures to mitigate risks from the deadly pneumonia-causing virus -- which originated in the central China city of Wuhan -- to the global economy and financial system, the sources said.
It will be the first G-20 gathering since the outbreak of the virus, which has killed more than 1,000 people and infected some 42,000 others in China, more than in the 2002-2003 SARS coronavirus pandemic.
The virus has spread to other parts of the world such as Japan, the United States and Europe, prompting falls in some stock and oil prices and sparking concerns about consumer sentiment and disruptions to supply chains.
The Federal Reserve said in a report released Friday that "possible spillovers" from the virus have posed "a new risk" to the US economic outlook.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
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.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BEIJING - Millions of people in China were returning to work Monday after an extended holiday designed to slow the spread of a virus that has already killed more than 900 people.
At least 40,000 others have been infected by 2019-nCoV, which is believed to have emerged late last year in a market in Wuhan.
And although the World Health Organization (WHO) has said there are tentative signs the epidemic is stabilizing, the agency's chief warned there may more infections abroad in people who have never traveled to China.
The comments from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came as a team of WHO experts departed for China, led by Bruce Aylward, a veteran of previous health emergencies.
In an attempt to contain the virus, cities in Hubei have been locked down and transport links countrywide were cut to stop the movement of hundreds of millions of people who usually visit family during the annual Lunar New Year holiday.
Officially the Lunar New Year holiday was extended by only 3 days, but many cities and provinces pushed the deadline until February 10.
The unprecedented measures have turned cities into ghost towns, with people staying inside.
But there were some signs Monday of the country beginning to make a return to normality.
Roads in Beijing and Shanghai had significantly more traffic than in recent days and the southern city of Guangzhou said it would start to resume normal public transport from Monday.
But for those at work, it was not an easy balance to strike.
"Of course we're worried," said a 25-year-old man surnamed Li in a beauty salon in Beijing, which reopened Monday.
"When customers come in, we first take their temperature, then use disinfectant and ask them to wash their hands."
WORK, INTERRUPTED
However, tens of millions of people in Hubei province were not returning to work, as the province -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- remained under lockdown.
Even outside the quarantined province, many companies were limiting staff.
The Shanghai government suggested reducing large gatherings of people through staggered work schedules, suspending central air systems, avoiding group meals and keeping at least one meter away from work colleagues.
Online office communication tool DingTalk said in a Weibo post last week that nearly 200 million people were using the platform to work from home.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said 60 percent of its member companies were planning mandatory work-from-home policies.
State media reported that passenger numbers on the Beijing subway was down by about 50 percent Monday compared to a normal work day.
Large shopping malls in the capital were deserted.
A bank employee in Shanghai told AFP he was heading to work for a half-day, with other employees taking over in the afternoon.
The rest of the day, staff are instructed to work from home.
"It makes our work more difficult because we need to access the systems in our office," he said.
Other employers, including auto manufacturer Toyota, simply delayed work for another week.
Schools and universities across the country remained shut.
DIFFICULT JOURNEYS
Those returning to work faced fresh travel difficulties.
The eastern city of Wuxi said anyone trying to enter the city from provinces with high numbers of cases would be "persuaded to go back" while Suzhou city, near the financial hub of Shanghai, suspended all passenger transport to the surrounding counties.
"I just checked and it would takes 18 hours for me to go to work by bicycle," wrote one frustrated commuter on Weibo.
"It's time to work now. Should I walk???" wrote another.
On Saturday, travel authorities said there were 11 million journeys by train, road or plane -- 84 percent down on the same day last year.
The tourism industry remains in the doldrums, with several countries banning arrivals from China, major airlines suspending flights and international and domestic tour groups being halted.
'TIP OF THE ICEBERG'
The death toll from the novel coronavirus has overtaken global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, when China drew international condemnation for covering up cases.
The WHO has praised the measures Beijing has taken this time, while warning figures could still "shoot up".
WHO chief Tedros said there had been some "concerning instances" of cases overseas in people with no travel history to China.
"We may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg" of these cases, he tweeted.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, thousands of people stranded aboard the World Dream cruise ship for five days were allowed to disembark Sunday after its 1,800 crew tested negative for the new coronavirus.
The ship carried three Chinese passengers to Vietnam between January 19 and 24 who were later found to be infected with the SARS-like coronavirus.
Agence France-Presse
BERLIN/MADRID - Amazon.com Inc has pulled out of this month's Mobile World Congress because of the coronavirus outbreak, in another blow to one of the telecom industry's biggest gatherings which attracts over 100,000 visitors to Barcelona.
"Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about the new coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020," the company said in a statement on Sunday.
Amazon had planned a significant presence through its cloud computing arm AWS, which was due to host a full-day conference track on the first day of the event.
The online retailer is the fourth company to pull out of the annual gathering this week, following South Korea's LG Electronics, Swedish equipment maker Ericsson and US chipmaker Nvidia.
The Feb. 24-27 event will go ahead as planned, the GSMA telecoms industry association, which runs the Congress, confirmed in a statement on Sunday before Amazon said it was pulling out, adding that they would tighten health precautions to guard against the coronavirus outbreak.
No visitors will be allowed to attend from China's Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak started, while visitors from China must prove they have been outside the country for two weeks prior to the event, GSMA said.
Some 5,000-6,000 visitors typically come from China to the world's premier telecoms industry gathering, where companies spend millions on stands and hospitality to fill their order books for the year ahead.
Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE have said they will attend, ordering China-based staff to self-isolate ahead of the event to ensure they are free of the illness, and drafting in European staff to cover for those stranded.
China raised the death toll from the outbreak to 811 on Sunday, passing the number killed globally by the SARS epidemic, while total confirmed cases of the illness reached 37,198.
The virus has spread to at least 27 countries and territories, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people outside China. Two deaths have been reported outside mainland China - both of Chinese nationals.
More then two dozen large trade fairs and industry conferences in China and overseas have been postponed or hit by travel curbs and concerns about the spread of the virus, potentially disrupting billions of dollars worth of deals.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SINGAPORE - Scientists from the United States to Australia are using new technology in an ambitious, multi-million-dollar drive to develop a vaccine in record time to tackle China's coronavirus outbreak.
The new virus has spread rapidly since emerging late last year in China, killing more than 800 people in the mainland and infecting over 37,000. Cases have been reported in two dozen other countries.
Coming up with any vaccine typically takes years, and involves a lengthy process of testing on animals, clinical trials on humans and regulatory approvals.
But several teams of experts are racing to develop one quicker, backed by an international coalition that aims to combat emerging diseases, and Australian scientists hope theirs could be ready in six months.
"It is a high-pressure situation and there is a lot of weight on us," said senior researcher Keith Chappell, part of the group from Australia's University of Queensland.
But the scientist added he took "some solace" knowing several teams around the world were engaged in the same mission.
"The hope is that one of these will be successful and can contain this outbreak," he said.
But even a timeframe of six months looks agonizingly slow with the virus, believed to have emerged from a market selling wild animals, killing close to 100 people every day in mainland China.
Efforts are being led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a body established in 2017 to finance costly biotechnology research in the wake of an Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people.
With a mission to speed up the development of vaccines, CEPI is pouring millions of dollars into four projects around the world and has put out a call for more proposals.
ATTACK THE VIRUS
The projects hope to use new technology to develop vaccines that can be tested in the near future.
The body's CEO, Richard Hatchett, said the aim was to start clinical testing in just 16 weeks.
German biopharmaceutical company CureVac and US-based Moderna Therapeutics are developing vaccines based on "messenger RNA" -- instructions that tell the body to produce proteins -- while Inovio, another American firm, is using DNA-based technology.
DNA- and RNA-based vaccines use the genetic coding of the virus to trick the body's cells into producing proteins identical to those on the surface of the pathogen, explained Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the emerging infectious diseases program at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
The immune system learns to recognize the proteins so that it is ready to find and attack the virus when it enters the body.
The Australian researchers are using "molecular clamp" technology invented by the university's scientists that allows them to rapidly develop new vaccines based solely on a virus DNA sequence.
French scientists at the Pasteur Institute are modifying the measles vaccine to work against the coronavirus, but do not expect it to be ready for about 20 months.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has also started developing vaccines, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
RISKS VERSUS BENEFITS
Health authorities weigh the risks and benefits in vaccine approvals and if there is a public health emergency, the process could be shortened, said Ooi of the Duke-NUS Medical School.
But he added that "paradoxically, if the situation improves, then actually the pathway for vaccines would be longer".
"If there's a lot of these new coronavirus cases around, then you accept some risk, because of the tremendous amount of benefit you can derive, whereas if there are not many cases, the tolerance for risk would be very low."
While there is no vaccine for the coronavirus, some doctors are trying out a potent brew of anti-retroviral and flu drugs to treat those infected, but the science is inconclusive as to whether they are effective.
Ultimately, scientists may end up in the same situation they were during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) -- it died out before a vaccine could be fully developed.
A close cousin of the new coronavirus, SARS spread around the world and killed nearly 800.
But Ong Siew Hwa, the director of Acumen Research Laboratories, a biotech company in Singapore, said efforts to develop a vaccine for the new virus should continue even if the outbreak ends.
"I think a vaccine will definitely be important," she said. "If it's not in time for this round, it is important for the next time."
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.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A tourist tries on a carnival mask in Venice Thursday. According to the Venice Hoteliers Association, floods in November and fears of the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus have led to a 10 percent decline in hotel bookings ahead of the Venice Carnival, which begins Saturday.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
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.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
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."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Yum China Holdings Inc said on Wednesday its 2020 sales and profit would take a hit, as the coronavirus outbreak has forced the fast food restaurant operator to temporarily shut more than 30 percent of its stores.
The company's shares were down 3 percent after the bell.
Yum China also warned it could close additional stores, reduce operating hours, or take other steps, depending on the situation in China.
Same-store sales at restaurants that remain open have fallen 40 percent to 50 percent since the Chinese New Year holiday period, relative to comparable Chinese New Year holiday period in 2019, the company said.
However, Yum China on Wednesday beat quarterly same-store sales estimates, as it benefited from strong demand at its KFC restaurants.
Same-store sales for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 grew 2 percent, managing to beat anlaysts' average estimate of 1.9 percent, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Yum China was spun off from Yum Brands Inc in 2016 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It is the exclusive licensee of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands in China with over 8,900 restaurants in more than 1,300 cities.
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
TOKYO -- Asian stocks steadied on Wednesday on hopes of additional Chinese stimulus to lessen the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak, but risks remain as the illness continues to spread and the death toll neared 500.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3 percent. Australian shares were up 0.58 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index rose 1.19 percent.
The safe-haven yen and Swiss franc nursed losses versus the dollar while the yuan held on to gains in offshore trade in a tentative sign of improvement in risk appetite as investors monitor the impact of the virus.
Oil prices, however, remained weak on worries about a long-term dent in demand for energy and other commodities despite hopes for more output cuts from OPEC and its allies.
China and other countries have imposed travel restrictions to try to contain a new virus that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, slamming the breaks on manufacturing and tourism in the world's second-largest economy.
Many investors argue that any slowdown will be temporary and that Chinese policy steps are reason to remain optimistic about the growth outlook, but so far public health officials have not found a way to stop the spread of the virus both inside and outside of China.
"We're going to have a strong day in Asia, but whether this is the reversal of a downtrend remains to be seen," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.
"Oil investors remain pessimistic about demand disruptions, but equity investors, especially overseas, are discounting the impact of the virus."
US stock futures fell 0.18 percent in Asia on Wednesday. The S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent on Tuesday and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose to a record high.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is likely to lower its key lending rate - the loan prime rate - on Feb. 20, and cut banks' reserve requirement ratios in the coming weeks, policy sources told Reuters.
The PBOC has already pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the financial system this week. This helped Chinese stocks stabilize on Tuesday following a rout that wiped out around $700 billion in market capitalization on Monday when Chinese markets opened after an extended holiday.
The virus has already claimed nearly 500 lives. Japan's health minister said on Wednesday 10 people on a cruise ship at the port of Yokohama have tested positive for the new virus.
In the currency market, the yen traded at 109.46 per dollar, close to the lowest in almost a week. The Swiss franc held steady at 0.9635 versus the dollar following a 0.3 percent decline on Tuesday.
In the offshore market, the yuan traded at 6.9898 per dollar after rising on Tuesday for the first time in five trading sessions.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields extended gains in Asia, rising to 1.6043 percent in another sign of receding concern about the coronavirus.
US crude ticked up 0.12 percent to $49.67 a barrel in Asia but remained below the psychologically important $50 a barrel mark.
US oil futures have lost 14.8 percent since China confirmed on Jan. 21 that human-to-human infection of the previously unknown virus is possible, which kicked of a rout in global markets as the number of cases and the death toll rose.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
GENEVA, Switzerland - The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that the outbreak of the deadly novel coronavirus, which has spread from China to two dozen countries, does not yet constitute a "pandemic".
"Currently we are not in a pandemic," Sylvie Briand, head of WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, told reporters in Geneva.
Instead, she said, "we are at the phase where it is an epidemic with multiple foci."
The disease has killed more than 425 people and infected a further 20,000 in China, nearly all of them in central Hubei province -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- and spread to two-dozen countries since it emerged in December.
Briand said that while there is rapid spread of transmission in Hubei, the cases outside the province are mainly "spillover cases" with sporadic clusters of transmission.
At the same time, authorities in China have taken dramatic measures to halt transmission, while other affected countries have also taken steps to avoid the spread of the virus.
"We hope that based on those measures in Hubei but also in other places where we have had spill-over, we can stop transmission and get rid of this virus," she said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BAGHDAD - OPEC members and their ally Russia are discussing a further cut to crude oil output at a meeting in Vienna because of China's coronavirus epidemic, Iraq's oil ministry said Tuesday.
Crude prices have tumbled since the deadly outbreak in the world's second-biggest economy, which is a huge consumer of crude.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is holding a meeting of a "joint technical committee" in Vienna on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the virus's impact and whether an output reduction is needed.
"Depending on the needs of the market and how it's been affected by the coronavirus, will a cut be necessary? This is being discussed as the technical reports are presented," said Iraq's oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad.
"The technical committees are discussing the recommendations, which they will elevate to their ministers. Any further cut to outputs would only be announced in a ministerial meeting," Jihad told AFP.
He said those gathered would also consider bringing forward a March ministerial meeting to February "depending on the market's needs and what happens with the virus."
Iraq is OPEC's second-biggest oil producer.
The new coronavirus has killed more than 400 people and infected a further 20,000 in China since emerging in December, and has also spread to more than 20 other countries.
The US benchmark oil contract, WTI, has fallen by around 18 percent over the past month.
"For now, the market seems content that China will contain and manage the virus situation, and that the worst will soon be over with no accelerated spreading outside of China, and that OPEC+ will step in with cuts and prevent a surplus and a stock building," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at Nordic bank SEB.
Top oil exporter and OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said this week that the impact of the virus on oil demand was "extremely limited" and "driven by psychological factors".
But if the virus continues to spread, there could be a more severe hit to the market, said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com in London.
"This kind of oil demand shock has not been seen for over a decade. The longer the lockdown in China and travel restrictions globally, the greater the impact," he said.
Russian energy minister Alexander Novak, said Friday the crisis could lead to lower demand for hydrocarbon fuels.
The OPEC cartel regularly convenes with non-members led by Russia over how to influence oil prices.
OPEC and its allies in December extended an existing agreement to curb crude oil production to prop up
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BEIJING, China - A disabled boy has died after being left to fend for himself when his father was quarantined over the deadly new coronavirus in China's Hubei province.
Yan Cheng, who was confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, was abandoned at home when his father was isolated because of a fever.
The 17-year-old, who could not speak, walk or eat by himself, and whose mother died several years earlier, had no one to feed him or help him with daily life.
His father, Yan Xiaowen, was taken into quarantine on January 22, and diagnosed with the potentially deadly virus five days later.
He posted a desperate plea for help on social media, calling for someone to go and look after his son.
But the post, entitled "An appeal for help from a father diagnosed with novel coronavirus," came too late.
The teenager died on January 29, according to a statement by the Hongan county government.
"Yan Xiaowen was unable to take care of Yan Cheng's daily life (because of being in isolation)... so he entrusted his relatives, village cadres and village doctors to take care of Yan Cheng," the county government said.
The boy's death has cost senior local figures their jobs.
The local Communist Party secretary and mayor were fired because they had "failed to fulfill their responsibilities,” officials said.
The son's cause of death had yet to be confirmed, they said.
News of the tragedy sparked an outpouring of rage and grief on social media, where authorities in Hubei have already been criticized for withholding information about the infection.
On Weibo, the hashtag "The father of Hubei's cerebral palsy victim speaks out" had been read 270 million times by Tuesday morning.
A hashtag about the mayor being fired had been viewed 66 million times.
"I'm so angry and sad," wrote one user. "It's too disgusting."
More than 20,000 people in China have been infected by the coronavirus, with the death toll reaching 425.
The vast majority of infections and deaths have occurred in Hubei, where the virus is thought to have emerged late last year from a market selling wild animals and their meat.
More than two dozen countries have also reported infections, mostly people who had recently travelled to Hubei.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
