7:26 pm EST. I just published tonight a short read: The Secondary Attack Rate of Covid-19
The Covid-19 epidemic has continued to spread. The death rate is now at 3.4% worldwide. However, with the continued spread by asymptomatic patients, we can be sure that cases will continue to increase.
Covid-19 headlines show the new virus is similar to a machine that is focused on multiplying, causing disease, and spreading. It reminds me of the Terminator.
On the other hand, attempts to contain it by us humans and governments show the weaknesses, slowness, and red tape that the virus can easily pass-thru like they don’t exist.
The key to control the spread is the development of a rapid on the spot test that is accurate. That way, the infected can be isolated from the rest. Even if someone has a low risk of dying when they have the disease, they can further spread it to someone more vulnerable who can get sick and die.
Updated today Treatment and Vaccine Developments for COVID-19 or SARS-Cov-2
Covid-19 Headlines
First of all, very few tests have actually been performed in the United States. As of Feb. 26, 2020, the CDC reported that only 466 tests had been performed in the US and the criteria for being tested is so narrow as to render the statistics useless.
If the obfuscation above isn’t bad enough, now all statements from health officials must be cleared by Vice President Mike Pence, the unofficial Covid19 Czar, before they can be made public.
I think it’s very wise to get prepared for a possible quarantine. You should make a financial plan for a possible interruption of income and you should learn all you can about the Covid19 virus and quarantine protocols. Don’t be surprised if it seems like things are under control and then suddenly, it all goes to hell in a single day. Because it won’t have been just that single day. It will have been going on all along behind the scenes.
US urges citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Italy over COVID-19 – CNA
WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday (Feb 28) warned against non-essential travel to Italy, a top destination for US tourists, over the growing coronavirus epidemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “recommends that travellers avoid all non-essential travel to Italy. There is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas“, it said in a statement.
Outbreak starts to look more like worldwide economic crisis – AP
NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus outbreak began to look more like a worldwide economic crisis Friday as anxiety about the infection emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, cut trade and travel and dragged already slumping financial markets even lower.
“This is a case where in economic terms the cure is almost worse than the disease,″ said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “When you quarantine cities … you lose economic activity that you’re not going to get back.′
6 pm EST 2/28/2020 update An increase of 8 since 3 pm. Serious cases 9.6%. Deaths 3.4%
Focus on Iran
The following headlines pay attention to the Covid-10 situation in Iran. There are only a few credible source of Iran. Most of the news in the following is from Iran Wire.
Iran is significant for the current epidemic because of its porous borders and millions of Shiite Muslims from surroundings countries in the Middle East make a pilgrimage to Qom, Iran.
As Wuhan is the center of the epidemic in China, so is Qom for Iran.
Qom’s representative to parliament has announced that 50 people have died from coronavirus in the province in the last week.
“Qom is not doing well in terms of the spread of coronavirus and I think the government’s performance in controlling the virus has failed,” Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani said.
News has emerged that several inmates in Karaj Prison, Evin Prison and Tehran’s Greater Prison, also known as Fashafuyeh, have contracted the coronavirus [COVID-19].
Iranian social media has been dominated by dozens of images of a young smiling woman who died of lung obstruction after contracting the coronavirus because of her work as a nurse.
Photographs of 25-year-old Narges Khanalizadeh from Kalachai, Gilan province, show her wearing her nurse’s uniform and working for the emergency department of Milad Lahijan Hospital. The young nurse had completed her nursing placement scheme at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran.
Khanalizadeh’s colleagues have said that they have no doubt that she died from coronavirus. Journalist and activist Pouyan Khoshhal said her colleagues had told him that she had been experiencing problems including fever and shortness of breath, and other breathing problems since February 23, and fainted once while at work. She had been working in the emergency department of Milad Lahijan Hospital, where she may have been infected by the virus.
“Not only in Rasht but everywhere in the province the situation is a disaster,” the nurse says. “There are no masks and there is a shortage of detergent, not just for the people but even in the hospitals. Whenever we request special clothing, they tell us that we do not need them except for ‘special occasions’! A few days before the official announcement of coronavirus outbreak, 10 patients who were suspected of having flu or coronavirus have died.”
“When they admit a patient suspected of coronavirus, they don’t provide us with basic sanitary necessities such as special coveralls or masks, even if the patient displays the early symptoms of infection,” a nurse in Lahijan who asked to remain anonymous says, adding that when they asked for answers they were admonished for wanting “special accessories.” She says that hospitals in Gilan do not have test kits for coronavirus. “It takes at least 48 hours for the test results to come back from Tehran.”
At least two officials have said that the number of coronavirus cases in Iran is much higher than the Iranian government has reported.
Nahidid Khodakarami, the head of Tehran City Council Health Committee, said: ”In the most pessimistic case, the number of people with coronavirus disease [COVID-19] in Iran may be as high as 10,000 or 15,000 cases” and added: “Some people may be infected with the coronavirus without being aware of it.”
Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imenabadi, a member of parliament for Rasht, also said that the death toll from coronavirus in Iran “is very high” and described it as “scary.”
As one of these doctors – whose name is withheld because of the threats from the Revolutionary Guards – told IranWire: “The statistics published by the government have nothing to do with the reality of the situation and the number of infections is much higher than what the media reports. If things go on like this and if the Islamic Republic does not cooperate with the World Health Organization, we must expect a great disaster in the coming months and, in Tehran alone, tens of thousands will be infected by coronavirus.
According to this doctor, after the meeting with the health minister was over, the Revolutionary Guards contacted each doctor who had been at the meeting. “They told us that we will be held responsible for even the smallest leak. But I could not keep silent anymore,” he said.
More details at the link.
According to the latest reports from the Iranian health ministry, the country has seen 15 confirmed deaths from Covid-19 and 95 confirmed cases. That death rate – of around 16 per cent – is “really quite high based on the China experience, and for early in the course of the epidemic is substantially high,” says Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia. So what’s going on?
Ashleigh Tuite re-ran the model she and colleagues developed for their paper again on the evening of February 25. It included the new cases that had been reported in Oman and other Middle Eastern countries. The number of cases she believes Iran has had increased to 23,000 – though the confidence intervals are wide. “We’re talking in that ballpark,” she says. One thing is for sure: “It’s definitely thousands of cases, not dozens.”
Vermont preparing for possible virus cases – AP
WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) — State public health and emergency management officials are planning for the possible cases of COVID-19 in Vermont, though there are none so far, officials said Friday.
Currently, 27 people in Vermont who could have been exposed to the virus are being monitored and an additional 15 people have completed monitoring and were found to be free of the virus, Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said at a briefing.
Death toll in Italy rises to 21 – The Guardian
Italy’s coronavirus death toll has reached 21 and some 820 people have been infected, the civil protection chief has said, while number of those who have recovered from the virus is increasing.
Authorities say all the victims were elderly people who had also been suffering from other health issues.
Hyundai Motor Company halted operations at its Ulsan, South Korea, manufacturing complex’s second factory on Friday after a worker tested positive for Covid-19, disrupting production lines of its sport utility vehicles, reported Reuters.
According to the automaker, “colleagues who came in close contact with the infected employee” have been placed in “self-quarantine” and are being “tested for possible infection.”
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon ramped up efforts Friday to combat a possible outbreak of coronavirus and state health officials said potential challenges include closing schools, businesses and events, and sustained shortages of medical supplies.
Boris Johnson has said that taking measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus is his government’s top priority and that the public is right to be concerned, in his first television appearance to talk about the issue.
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday that he’s set up a task force to assess the state’s preparations for addressing any potential coronavirus cases.
The 18-member task force will work on preventative measures, resource deployment and collaboration with other government agencies, the Republican governor said in a statement. It includes Colleen Kraft, director of the Clinical Virology Research Laboratory at Emory University, and state epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek.
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) – The coronavirus spread further on Friday, with cases reported for the first time in at least six countries across four continents, battering markets and leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its impact risk alert to “very high.”
World shares were on course for their largest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis, bringing the global wipeout to $5 trillion as supply chains were disrupted, travel plans postponed and major events canceled. [MKTS/GLOB]
As countries across the globe respond to the outbreak of the coronavirus, attention is shifting to the African continent where Nigeria this week reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the region.
Nigeria’s health minister, Osagie Ehanire, was quick to point out that the government had been anticipating this scenario.
It isn’t the only country to do so. Faced with two undeniable realities — frequent air traffic between Africa and China, and a weak health care infrastructure — health officials have been implementing precautionary measures across several countries for at least a month. More at the link
3 pm 2/28/2020 update. An increase of 262 cases and 4 deaths. Serious cases 9.6%, Death rate still at 3.4% worldwide
The Gazette spoke with Marc Lipsitch an epidemiologist and head of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics
GAZETTE: You’ve been quoted you as saying you expect between 40 percent and 70 percent of humanity to be infected with this virus within a year. Is that still the case?
LIPSITCH: It is, but an important qualifier is that I expect 40 to 70 percent of adults to be infected. We just don’t understand whether children are getting infected at low rates or just not showing very strong symptoms. So I don’t want to make assumptions about children until we know more.
I referred to Marc Lipsitch in my article, Not enough U.S. hospital beds once Covid-19 epidemic is full-blown.
I also wrote about the outcomes of Covid-19 in children in Lessons Learned from 72,314 COVID-19 Patients: A China CDC Study
A British man who was on board a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo has died, Japan’s health ministry said Friday.
The unidentified man’s death is the latest linked to infections on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where more than 700 other people tested positive for the illness.
A Google employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and the company is further restricting its employee travel as concerns around the outbreak grow.
On Friday, the California-based search giant emailed its employees to inform them that an employee who had been in the Zurich office has tested positive for the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider. That employee was not symptomatic while in the office.
The Shanghai laboratory where researchers published the world’s first genome sequence of the deadly coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has been shut down.
The laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre was ordered to close for “rectification” on January 12, a day after Professor Zhang Yongzhen’s team published the genome sequence on open platforms. It closed temporarily the following day.
The release of the data helped researchers develop test kits for the virus.
“The centre was not given any specific reasons why the laboratory was closed for rectification.
- CDC officials Wednesday confirmed another two cases of coronavirus in the US
- Both patients are evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship
- A total of 59 Americans now have coronavirus, of which 45 are evacuees from either Wuhan, China, or the cruise ship that was quarantined in Japan
- Only 14 cases have been confirmed in non-evacuees, but the CDC warned Tuesday that Americans should expect the virus to spread in the US
Virus outbreak in Iran sickens hundreds, including leaders – AP
The outbreak of the new virus in Iran has been dramatic — the head of Iran’s task force to stop the illness, known as COVID-19, was seen coughing, sweating and wheezing across televised interviews before acknowledging he was infected. Then, days later, a visibly pale official sat only meters (feet) away from President Hassan Rouhani and other top leaders before she too reportedly came down with the virus.
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) – The coronavirus spread further on Friday, with cases reported for the first time in six countries across three continents, battering markets and leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its impact risk alert to “very high.”
World shares were on course for their largest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis, bringing the global wipeout to $6 trillion as supply chains were disrupted, travel plans postponed and major events canceled. [MKTS/GLOB
£206bn wiped off FTSE 100 this week – The Guardian
Newsflash: More than £200bn has been wiped off Britain’s leading shares this week, as the Covid-19 crisis triggered the worst sell-off in over a decade.
- The FDA has been alerted to the first manufacturing shortage of a drug due to the COVID-19 outbreak that has spread to 44 countries in a matter of weeks.
- The FDA declined to identify the drug but said the shortage is related to a site impacted by the coronavirus.
Read what I why this will happen in Covid-19 Can Cause Drugs and Medical Supply Shortages Worldwide
12 noon EST update 2/28/2020 An increase of 22 cases and 4 deaths.
- The two most common types of face masks on the market are standard surgical face masks and N95 respirators
- Surgical face masks will not protect against small virus particles and N95 respirators are not recommended to wear long term
- Pharmacies across the country are running low and several celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson have been pictured wearing masks on planes
- The US government currently has a stockpile of 30 million N95 surgical masks and estimates 300 million are needed, said HHS Secretary Alex Azar
- But an expert says that most masks will not prevent people from becoming sick
Experts say there are several ways discharged patients could fall ill with the virus again. Convalescing patients might not build up enough antibodies to develop immunity to Sars-CoV-2, and are being infected again. The virus also could be “biphasic”, meaning it lies dormant before creating new symptoms.
But some of the first cases of “re-infection” in China have been attributed to testing discrepancies.
Panic-buying of ‘made in China’ tissues and toilet paper erupts in some Japanese cities – Japan Times
OSAKA – Fears that COVID-19 could lead to shortages of daily items sparked incidents of stockpiling from Thursday night through Friday, causing drugstores and supermarkets in several cities to run short of toilet paper and other items.
Two weeks ago, I was in the Philippines stores ran out of alcohol and masks.
- CDC officials Wednesday confirmed another two cases of coronavirus in the US
- Both patients are evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship
- A total of 59 Americans now have coronavirus, of which 45 are evacuees from either Wuhan, China, or the cruise ship that was quarantined in Japan
- Only 14 cases have been confirmed in non-evacuees, but the CDC warned Tuesday that Americans should expect the virus to spread in the US
- More than 82,00 people are infected worldwide and more than 2,800 have died
Italian, Japanese nationals test positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia, 25 in total – Shine
Malaysian authorities on Friday confirmed two more cases of COVID-19 in the country, both involving foreign nationals.
A 54-year-old male Italian national, who is married to a local, had recently travelled to Italy and returned to Malaysia on Feb. 21 and started showing symptoms the next day.
The other case involved a 41-year-old female Japanese national who has travelled to Japan in January and Indonesia in early February. She was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on Feb. 27.
A Briton suspected of having coronavirus after returning from Italy claims he was left coughing in a packed NHS hospital waiting room without a mask – sparking fears the UK is not prepared for an outbreak.
Paul Godfrey, from Walsall, West Midlands, sat in the foyer ‘for 10 minutes’ among sick, old and frail members of the public before panicked medics in hazmat suits whisked him into a cubicle and tested him for the killer virus.
He was wrongly told to go to hospital by NHS 111 operators after returning from Milan on Friday and developing flu-like symptoms the following day.
WHO: risk of global spread ‘very high’ – The Guardian
The WHO has said that the assessment of the risk of spread and risk of impact of Covid-19 is now “very high at global level”.
The director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters in Geneva that the continued increase in the number of coronavirus cases and in the number of affected countries over the last days was “clearly of concern” but there was still a chance it could be contained.
SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) – A growing number of discharged coronavirus patients in China and elsewhere are testing positive after recovering, sometimes weeks after being allowed to leave the hospital, which could make the epidemic harder to eradicate.
On Wednesday, the Osaka prefectural government in Japan said a woman working as a tour-bus guide had tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time. This followed reports in China that discharged patients throughout the country were testing positive after their release from the hospital.
The Covid-10 is still present in a patient after the sickness
S. Korea’s only ‘drive-thru’ virus testing to be more available – YNA
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s answer to quick and safe testing of the new coronavirus may be a drive-thru clinic and the country’s health authorities said Friday it plans to deploy more such facilities and spots across the country.
A driver does not have to get out of a car and only needs to open a window to be checked for fever or have samples taken by medical staff in protective suits.
Health authorities said the entire process will take only 10 minutes.
S. Korea’s virus cases approach 2,400, people urged to avoid mass gatherings – YNA
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s confirmed cases of the new coronavirus approached 2,400, with an additional three deaths being reported, on Friday as the nation worked to aggressively counter the fast-spreading virus with extensive testing.
Vice President Mike Pence announced on Thursday that a global health official and leading expert in HIV/AIDs, Deborah Birx, has been appointed to serve as the White House’s coordinator to combat the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
MINSK: Belarus and Azerbaijan reported Friday (Feb 28) their first cases of the novel coronavirus, while Georgia announced its second case, saying several more people in quarantine may test positive.
Belarus’s health ministry said that an infected Iranian student who arrived in the country from Azerbaijan last week was in a “satisfactory” condition.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s assistant health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
“The postmortem,[showed] the pulmonary fibrosis [a lung disease] and consolidation was less severe than Sars, while exudative reaction [a fluid that filters into lesions] was more obvious than Sars”, the report said.
A separate study by a team by Hu Bo, a neurologist from Xiehe Hospital in Wuhan, said the virus may cause damage to the neurological system.
The findings published on Teusday on MedRxiv, a preprint server for health sciences, said the virus may lead to acute cerebral vascular diseases and consciousness disorder, and severely ill patients are most vulnerable to neurological injuries.
A British man who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died after being infected with coronavirus, Japanese authorities said today, making him the first Briton to die in the outbreak.
The man was among 78 Britons quarantined on the cruise liner which became one of the world’s largest clusters of virus cases.
The Japanese Ministry of Health said the man was the sixth person to have died after travelling on the Diamond Princess, which was held in a two-week lockdown off the coast of Yokohama.
Prof Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, has responded to media reports of a dog in Hong Kong being tested “weak positive” for coronavirus.
“There is no evidence that the human novel coronavirus can infect dogs and it would be incredible for a virus to make so many species jumps in such a short space of time,” he said.
Related: Covid-19 and Pets
Five more countries have reported their first case of COVID-19, all with travel history connected to Italy. They were Nigeria, Estonia, Denmark, Netherlands and Lithuania, Lindmeier said.
Mexican authorities have confirmed the country’s first case of coronavirus, the second case in Latin America, says Reuters.
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) – The rapid spread of coronavirus raised fears of a pandemic on Friday, with countries on three continents reporting their first cases and Swiss authorities cancelling the giant Geneva car show.
World share markets crashed again, compounding their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis and bringing the global wipeout to $5 trillion.
To put $5 trillion into context, that is the equivalent of 178,571 Lamborghini Aventadors valued at 2.8 million each.
Update 7:50 am Focus on the Philippines
Overworked healthcare staff fear exposure to virus as government faces criticism over $197m cuts in budget for health.
According to estimates the doctor-to-patient ratio in the Philippines is one doctor per 33,000 patients, and one hospital bed is available to every 1,121 Filipino patients.
At another public hospital in Manila, two nurses in the general admission ward are assigned to take care of about 100 patients during their shift. The hospital is also preparing one of its wards to be a quarantine area.
Their supervisor showed to Al Jazeera a mask that they use as protective gear from the virus.
“It’s as thin as tissue paper. It can probably only mask bad breath,” she scoffed. “But we don’t have a choice, this is all we have. We wear two masks at a time.”
My note: The full personal protective equipment gear, including the overalls, masks, gloves, tape, and eye protection are expensive.
If health care workers don’t wear them, they can get sick and die. Just like in China. Critically ill patients will need mechanical ventilators, dialysis, and other expensive gadgets like ECMO. Only a small amount of hospitals in the Philippines have that.
If Covid-19 becomes a full-blown epidemic in the Philippines, 40% of 109 million (43.6 million) can get infected, among which 10% will be severe cases. That will be 4.36 million critically sick Filipino patients who may need mechanical ventilators, dialysis, and ECMO.
Add to that problem the hospital bed shortages, understaffing that will get worse as doctors and nurses get sick and lack of equipment. Thinking about the number of potentially dead patients can keep you up all night.
I published a related article yesterday, Not enough U.S. hospital beds once Covid-19 epidemic is full-blown. The assumptions for my note about the Philippines are written there, including the interviews with epidemic experts who project 40 – 80% of the world population will be infected by Covid-19. The percentage of severe cases are calculated daily based on the table that is in this article.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)— The Philippine government is studying the possibility of imposing travel bans to three more countries affected by the coronavirus outbreak, according to an official.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the country’s Task Force is constantly assessing the situations in Japan, Italy, and Iran— amid the rapid spike in coronavirus cases there.
Filipino crew leave Diamond Princess; others remain on board – Al Jazeera
All Filipino crew not infected by the virus arrive home but hundreds of workers from other countries remain on ship.
7:10 am EST 2/28/2020 update. An increase of 159 cases and 11 deaths from 5 am EST today. Serious cases 9.6%, the death rate 3.4%
Virus detected in sub-Saharan Africa as markets plunge -AFP
Nigeria reported the first new coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa on Friday and a major global auto show was cancelled in a bid to stop contagion, as the deadly epidemic sent global stock markets and oil prices plunging.
The WHO has voiced particular concern about Africa’s preparedness, warning that the continent’s health care systems were ill-equipped to respond to a COVID-19 epidemic.
Cases had previously been reported in Egypt and Algeria, but not in the sub-Saharan region until Friday when Nigeria reported its first case: an Italian man who returned to densely populated Lagos this week.
Nigeria’s first confirmed coronovirus case entered the country on a Turkish Airlines flight that travelled via Istanbul, the Lagos state commissioner for health has told a news conference.
THREE more coronavirus patients have tested positive for the killer bug in Britain today – bringing the total number infected to 19.
In just 24 hours six new cases have been confirmed, heightening fears the country could soon be gripped by a spiralling epidemic.
The British Army is reportedly on standby to step in as the epidemic looms – with barracks bookmarked as potential quarantine zones.
- Sources warn India’s available countermeasures are serious cause for concern
- The country’s population density increases the potential for the virus to spread
- U.S. officials are also worried Iran has covered up the scale of the problem
Herald Sun describes the symptoms and how to protect yourself and your whole family.
Many myths busted like
Claim: ‘It is no more dangerous than winter flu’
Claim: ‘It only kills the elderly, so younger people can relax’
Claim: ‘Face masks don’t work’
Claim: ‘You need to be with an infected person for 10 minutes’
Claim: ‘A vaccine could be ready within a few months’
Claim: ‘If a pandemic is declared, there is nothing more we can do to stop the spread’
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s health ministry on Friday confirmed its second case of coronavirus, a person it said had been in close contact with a man who tested positive after visiting Italy.
New virus has infected 83,000 globally, caused 2,800 deaths – AP
A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 83,000 people globally. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it.
The latest figures reported by each government’s health authority as of Friday in Beijing:
— Mainland China: 2,788 deaths among 78,824 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei
— Hong Kong: 92 cases, 2 deaths
— Macao: 10 cases
— South Korea: 2,337 cases, 13 deaths
— Japan: 927 cases, including 705 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 9 deaths
— Italy: 650 cases, 15 deaths
— Iran: 388 cases, 34 deaths
— Singapore: 96
— United States: 60
— Germany: 53
— Kuwait: 45
— Thailand: 41
— France: 38 cases, 2 deaths
— Bahrain: 36
— Taiwan: 34 cases, 1 death
— Spain: 27
— Malaysia: 25
— Australia: 23
Note: Click on the headline link for the complete list
GENEVA/DUBAI (Reuters) – All countries need to prepare to combat the coronavirus, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, as authorities raced to contain the epidemic’s rapid global spread and Wall Street looked set for its biggest weekly fall since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
The northern Japanese island of Hokkaido has declared state of emergency over the rate of coronavirus transmission and has urged residents to stay home.
“Hokkaido has been doing everything it can to contain the virus, but the crisis is deepening,” governor Naomichi Suzuki said on Friday evening.
Nikkei average plunges 805 points to close at 21,142 after Dow logs biggest single-day drop in its history – Japan Times
After coronavirus fears drove the steepest single-day point drop in Dow Jones Industrial Average history overnight Thursday, Tokyo stocks tumbled Friday in a continued global rout, with panic selling briefly pushing the Nikkei index down more than 1,000 points.
China, Japan, South Korea supply chains under threat from ‘second wave’ of disruptions – SCMP
- The three Asian countries contribute around 24 per cent of the entire world economy, but have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak
- China was attempting to boost trade and investment with Japan and South Korea to offset risks of decoupling from the United States
A product like a cellphone has thousands of parts made by different factories from all over. Some of these factories are the only ones who make those parts. One missing part is enough to stop the production. That is what is worrying the markets. No production means no sales.
SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) – A growing number of discharged coronavirus patients in China and elsewhere are testing positive after recovering, sometimes weeks after being allowed to leave the hospital, which could make the epidemic harder to eradicate.
Testing of patients who get better after having the symptoms of Covid-19 are still positive for the virus when tested. Read about it here: The 2019-nCoV Can Still Spread from a Patient After the Sickness
States ramp up virus preparations, try to reassure public – AP
As worries about the new coronavirus grow in the U.S., state officials are ramping up efforts to prepare for a possible outbreak while simultaneously trying to assure the public that they are well-positioned to handle it.
Governors and legislators in several states have proposed pumping millions of dollars into programs to combat the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness. State health officials are checking on stockpiles of supplies such as face masks and respirators and arranging potential isolation sites for sick patients.
Italian-linked cases have also been reported in Israel, Denmark, Romania, Britain, Spain, Germany, Finland, Brazil, Algeria, France, Greece, Switzerland, Croatia and Austria.
“It is clear that the reason for the spread of more cases in Italy is due to the higher number of checks and tests on patients compared to other countries,” says Cascio. “In Germany, for example, a strange flu peak is occurring these days.”
“There is certainly much more attention from our country than in other countries, such as Germany, where, despite strong clinical suspicion, they are not carrying out many tests,” said Tullio Prestileo, a doctor in infectious diseases at Palermo’s Benfratteli hospital.
No testing means no detection of cases and no isolation. This guarantees future spread.
- Woman from Solona county tests positive for Covid-19 despite having no history of travel to China or contact with known carriers
- State governor Gavin Newsom warns that it only has 200 testing kits but that number would be ‘exponentially expanded’
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s culture minister urged local religious groups on Friday to halt regular services and gatherings as the country is struggling to contain mass outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.
“This weekend and next weekend are expected to be critical points in (containing) the spread of COVID-19 and (preventing) the situation’s prolongation,” Culture Minister Park Yang-woo said in his emergency appeal to religious groups.
“I earnestly ask (such groups) to refrain from any religious services and gatherings for a while in order to prevent further coronavirus infections and the extension of the situation,” Park said.
Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite medical experts’ advice that most people who aren’t sick don’t need to wear them.
Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers don’t gouge panicked buyers.
In South Korea, hundreds lined up to buy masks from a discount store. Rumors that toilet paper and napkins could be used as masks have emptied store shelves in Asia of paper goods over the past few weeks.
Wellington: New Zealand has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus in someone who returned from Iran, but said the chances of a community outbreak remains low.
The patient – in their 60s – tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.
The British Government now needs to go onto a ‘war footing’ with the coronavirus: daily NHS press briefings, regular COBRA meetings chaired by the PM, Ministers on all major media shows. The public is fearful, wants information and needs to know their leaders have got a grip.
The first batch of headlines for today.
Compared to yesterday, an increase of 945 cases and 46 deaths, Serious cases 9.6%m death rate 3.4%
BEIJING (REUTERS) – Mainland China had 327 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Thursday (Feb 27), the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday, down from 433 cases a day earlier.
Italian is first case of Covid-19 in Africa – The Guardian
So coronavirus has finally arrived in sub-saharan Africa, with an Italian man who arrived in Nigeria three days ago becoming the country’s first case of the disease.
The case is in Lagos, a massive overcrowded city, which will raise fears that the virus might already have spread in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, and possibly further afield.
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) – Countries on three continents reported their first cases of the coronavirus on Friday as the world prepared for a pandemic and investors dumped equities in expectation of a global recession.
S. Korea struggles to secure more hospital beds, medical staff amid spiking virus cases – YNA
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s health authorities said Friday that they are making utmost efforts to secure more health care workers and hospital beds in the southeastern city of Daegu, the local epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak, where more than 1,300 virus patients have been reported.
Related article: Not enough U.S. hospital beds once Covid-19 epidemic is full-blown
Adrienne Rashford, who leads the World Health Organization/Europe Preparedness, Readiness and Capacity Building team, says that good planning is key, rather than a country’s economic strength alone. “For countries, being prepared and coping with a disease outbreak is not just a question of income, it’s about coordination and good communication with the community,” she told DW via email.
Indeed, de Jong says that Romania is less of a concern to him “than almost the entire continent of Africa,” despite projects such as PREPARE (Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-) emerging Epidemics), which de Jong is involved in, that have been set up to be able to act swiftly in the event of an epidemic, such as Ebola.
Not everybody is equal when it comes to the transmission of infectious diseases. In fact, it has been established for at least two decades that there is something called the 20/80 rule – that a small core group of about one in five people transmit infections to far more people than the majority do.
How does a person become a super-spreader?
There are a number of theories, but no definite answer. Some speculate that it is to do with the immune system of the super-spreader, which may not be good at suppressing the virus or alternatively may be so good that they do not feel symptoms themselves so carry on transmitting it to others.
Virus epidemic growing by day hits schools, concerts, parks – AP
Japan’s schools prepared to close for almost a month and entertainers, topped by K-pop superstars BTS, canceled events as a virus epidemic extended its spread through Asia into Europe and on Friday, into sub-Saharan Africa.
The expectation that Japan would close all its elementary, secondary and high schools will send nearly 13 million children home and leave few people untouched by the virus in the world’s third-biggest economy. Sporting events and concerts in Japan have already been canceled, and Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea said, too, they would close until mid-March.
Beginning Friday (Feb. 28), travelers arriving from Italy will have to observe 14 days of quarantine due to the rapid spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in the European country.
Italy has locked down several cities, mostly in the north of the country, but despite those measures, the number of confirmed cases has surged past 400, including 12 deaths. Meanwhile, some tourists returning home from a holiday in Italy to countries like Brazil, Norway, and Croatia are thought to have been infected with the virus.
Asian markets bomb as virus fears fuel global turmoil – AFP
Asian and European equities spiralled downwards Friday, extending a collapse in world markets that has wiped trillions of dollars off valuations as the coronavirus spread rapidly around the world with the WHO warning the deadly epidemic was now at a “decisive point”.
Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore and Seoul were among the bourses that fell more than three percent while Jakarta was hammered more than four percent.
The casualties have put equities around the world on course to record their worst week since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago as investors run to the hills on fears the virus will smash the global economy.
In scramble to stop virus, testing raises tough questions – AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials confronted tough questions and doubts Thursday about testing to intercept the fast-spreading virus, with scrutiny focused on a four-day delay in screening an infected California woman despite her doctors’ early calls to do so.
The questions are global: not just who, when and how to test for the illness, but how to make sure that working test kits get out to the labs that need them.
“This was a clear gap in our preparedness, and the virus went right through the gap,” said Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska College of Public Health.
In the wake of the latest California case, U.S. health officials on Thursday expanded their criteria for who should get tested, and took steps to increase testing.
Why were the Australians ahead of the world? For a very simple reason. They don’t trust the WHO. The information from multiple international sources is that the WHO is under intense pressure from the Chinese government, and succumbing to it.
The Australian Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, told the NSC that it was medically inexplicable that the WHO hadn’t already declared a global pandemic. It’s politics, in other words.
That’s why Australia had earlier forged ahead of the WHO in declaring the China travel ban, on February 1. It was, again, on the unanimous advice of the AHPPC.
BTS cancel concerts as S. Korea virus cases rise faster than China – AFP
K-pop megastars BTS cancelled Friday four Seoul concerts due in April as South Korea’s novel coronavirus cases jumped by nearly 600 — a larger rise than the daily increase reported in China, where the disease first emerged.
The seven-piece boyband — currently one of the biggest acts in the world — had scheduled four gigs at the capital’s Olympic Stadium to promote their new album “Map of the Soul: 7”.
The German government has announced that it is creating a new crisis team in order to vigorously combat the spread of COVID-19. The president of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s infectious disease prevention organization, said Thursday that he believes the new coronavirus could prove more deadly to Germans than the flu.
European stock markets tumble at start of trading – The Guardian
European stock markets have, as we feared, tumbled at the start of trading. The FTSE 100 index of the biggest UK-listed companies has hit its lowest level since December 2008.
It’s down a further 2.8%, or 188 points, at 6607. That means it’s lost about 10% of its value this week. We’ve not seen such a slump since since the eurozone crisis of 2011, and the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
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