General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCOVID-19 news update for 2/25/2020
Israel:
Korean flight attendant who was in Israel, LA tests positive for coronavirus
Diagnosis adds weight to possibility that group of South Korean tourists may already have been infected when they were in Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/korean-flight-attendant-who-was-in-israel-la-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2020-02-25&utm_medium=email
Netanyahu refrains from shaking supporters hands due to coronavirus fears
A video circulating on social media shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refusing to shake hands with worshipers and supporters during a visit yesterday to the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The premiers wife, Sara Netanyahu, is heard in the video saying it is by orders of the government, to avoid the chance of the prime minister catching coronavirus.
Namaste, Netanyahu is heard telling people, after someone shouts no hand-shaking.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-refrains-from-shaking-supporters-hands-due-to-coronavirus-fears/
Israeli woman who caught coronavirus on Japan cruise recovers, leaves hospital
Rachel Biton will fly back to Israel from Japan tomorrow and will be tested again before she is released, reports say
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-who-caught-coronavirus-on-japan-cruise-leaves-hospital-will-fly-home/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2020-02-25&utm_medium=email
Al Jazeera:
Parliamentarian from Tehran, in addition to the minister, also confirms he has tested positive.
Iran's deputy health minister has tested positive for the new coronavirus amid a major outbreak in the country which has seen 15 people die as a result.
Iraj Harirchi coughed occasionally and appeared to be sweating during a news conference in Tehran on Monday with government spokesman Ali Rabiei.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/iran-deputy-health-minister-tests-positive-coronavirus-200225131520852.html
Coronavirus in Middle East: What you need to know
Coronavirus spreads to nine countries in Middle East, sending governments scrambling to contain outbreak.
The new coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the Middle East, with cases recorded in at least nine countries in the region - six of them reported their first infections in the past week.
Officially known as COVID-19, the disease has spread to 34 countries and killed more than 2,600 people globally, the vast majority in China where the virus first emerged in late December.
Outside China, Iran has the largest number of deaths, with at least 15 dying from the virus within a week - a development the World Health Organization (WHO) has called "deeply concerning".
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/coronavirus-middle-east-200225124248535.html
Kuwait:
KUWAIT: Kuwaits Ministry of Health announced four more cases tested positive for the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Kuwait to nine. The four cases were among citizens who were in quarantine after returning from Iran. The Health Ministry announced infected cases for three Kuwaiti men in the early morning hours, before announcing the fourth case a Kuwaiti woman at around 9:00 pm. The condition of all patients is stable and they are currently recovering at a Ministry of Health hospital that was prepared to handle cases infected with COVID-19, the ministry said in a statement.
https://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/kuwait-confirms-4-coronavirus-cases-total-number-jumps-to-9/
Italy:
The number of coronavirus patients to have died in Italy reached 10 on Tuesday after regional authorities in Lombardy confirmed three more fatalities.
On Tuesday evening local officials and media sites in Italy reported three more deaths from coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy.
It brought the death toll from the recent outbreak of the virus to 10. All 10 deaths have occurred since Friday when the number of infections began to surge.
Angelo Borelli, the chief of the regional Civil Protection agency has said that the three people who died on Tuesday were all elderly.
Their ages have been given as 83, 84 and 91 years old.
https://www.thelocal.it/20200225/latest-deaths-coronavirus-italy (Has a paywall after limited free articles; I'm trying to find free news sites)
Italy's Far-Right Seeks to Gain from Coronavirus Outbreak
...Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster RAI that the surge in cases had surprised him. The far-right League party, which until August was in a coalition government with Contes populist Five Star movement, seized on the prime ministers comment, calling on him to resign.
League leader Matteo Salvini, who served as deputy leader in the coalition government last year, sought to link COVID-19s spread to Italys acceptance of migrants and refugees the issue that has fuelled his political rise.
Salvini shared a video across his social media accounts of a migrant rescue ship arriving in Pozzallo, on the Italian island of Sicily on Sunday, with the comment: It is simply insane that the landings continue as if nothing had happened, this government is every day more reckless and deplorable. And Conte has the courage to go and say on TV: Im surprised. He added that Italy ought to make our borders armor-plated in response to the coronavirus.
https://time.com/5789666/italy-coronavirus-far-right-salvini/
DW:
The coronavirus outbreak in China has come down hard on the country's poor who cannot afford to be quarantined, have less access to supplies, and do not have the money or the connections to leave the country.
As China's coronavirus outbreak continues, unprecedented quarantine measures have been imposed affecting some 58 million people. To date, there are nearly 80,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and more than 77,000 of them are in China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has described the coronavirus outbreak as the "largest public health emergency" since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Despite Beijing's promises of stamping out social and economic disparities, inequality remains a major problem in China. The coronavirus crisis has come to clearly demonstrate the impact of these inequalities on public health and access to services. Experts warn low- and middle-income Chinese will suffer the most as the epidemic continues.
"Income disparity certainly makes a lot of difference in crisis-stricken China, and Hubei in particular," Kent Deng, a professor of economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, told DW.
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-exposes-the-divide-between-chinas-rich-and-poor/a-52526369
Coronavirus: Life around Italy's quarantined 'red zone'
Italian authorities have placed some 50,000 people in the country's north under de facto quarantine due to a rise in coronavirus infections. Villagers are adjusting to this new reality, Bernd Riegert reports from Italy.
"We've stopped shaking hands and kissing each other on the cheek," says Marco. This is rather rude by Italian standards, the young man adds semi-jokingly. Marco, who lives in Vittadone, a small village in the country's northern Lombardy region, has been wearing a face mask since Sunday. He complains that the pharmacy charged him ten euros for it "an outrage," he says.
But face masks and hand disinfectant are hard to come by in the region these days, which drives up prices. Marco is one of the few villagers to wear a face mask; most others say they find it an unnecessary safety precaution even though their village neighbors Italy's "red zone" a cluster of ten communities placed under de facto quarantine because of confirmed coronavirus infections.
Quarantine not strictly enforced
Authorities have decreed that nobody may enter or leave the "red zone." To enforce the quarantine, two uniformed Carabinieri Italy's national police have taken up position on the village road. But despite the blockade, they are letting farmers on tractors, cyclists and locals bound for the supermarket or pharmacy in the adjacent "red zone" pass and return. Enzo, another Vittadone local, says the officers will let anyone pass who can provide a good reason. He's been in the "red zone" to do his shopping before, and thinks it's not right to keep locals on lockdown like this. In his opinion, measures taken by local authorities and Italy's national government are too drastic. He does not understand why authorities want to block border crossings to France and Austria when the "coronavirus is already here."
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-life-around-italys-quarantined-red-zone/a-52513830
BBC:
Italy has confirmed more than 320 cases in recent days, making it the worst-affected part of Europe.
In a bid to control the outbreak, several small towns in Lombardy and Veneto have been put under strict quarantine - see the map below.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-51628990
Analysis: How close are we to a pandemic?
..."I think many people would consider the current situation a pandemic, we have ongoing transmission in multiple regions of the world," Prof Jimmy Whitworth, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.
Some scientists were even arguing two weeks ago that we had already entered the earliest stages of a pandemic.
The developments in South Korea, Italy and Iran are the reason why people are drifting closer to calling the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
South Korea is piling on hundreds of new cases, showing how contagious the virus is.
Italy and Iran now have substantial outbreaks. There are almost certainly far more cases in these countries than have been reported - and the connection with China has not yet been established.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51628753
CBC:
Shares in U.S. drug company Moderna Inc. surged by more than 16 per cent on Tuesday after the company announced it has shipped its first batch of a possible coronavirus vaccine for humans to the government department in charge of testing its safety and effectiveness.
The drug, officially known as mRNA-1273, has been sent to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for use in a Phase 1 human clinical trial.
Chinese researchers shared the gene sequence of the virus with researchers around the world earlier this year, which has allowed numerous companies to research possible cures for the disease.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/moderna-coronavirus-vaccine-1.5475234
Why the coronavirus outbreak isn't considered a pandemic just yet
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread outside of China with hundreds of confirmed cases on a daily basis, experts say the situation is rapidly moving toward what's known as a pandemic.
But World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday he is not yet ready to categorize the increased number of COVID-19 cases as a pandemic.
"For the moment, we're not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus and we are not witnessing large-scale severe diseases or deaths," he said during a media briefing.
"Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-pandemic-canada-world-1.5474387
Reuters:
HONG KONG (Reuters) - To escape the confines of his Hong Kong coffin home, or two square meters (21.5 square feet) of living space, Simon Wong usually spends his days in the park playing mahjong with friends, only returning at night to sleep.
But since the Chinese-ruled city reported its first patient with coronavirus last month, Wong has been stuck indoors in the home he has to climb a ladder to get into and which is just large enough to hold a single mattress.
I dont go out anymore, there are no more gatherings, said the unemployed 64-year-old.
As soon as I finish my tea and grocery shopping, I come home and become a recluse and just watch TV. I cant do anything.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-hongkong-coffinhomes/fearing-coronavirus-hong-kongs-coffin-home-dwellers-stay-indoors-idUSKBN20J2EZ
Kuwait suspends all flights with Singapore, Japan over Coronavirus fears: KUNA
CAIRO (Reuters) - Kuwaits civil aviation authority announced on Tuesday it had suspended all flights with Singapore and Japan over coronavirus fears, state news agency KUNA reported.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kuwait-health-coronavirus/kuwait-suspends-all-flights-with-singapore-japan-over-coronavirus-fears-kuna-idUSKBN20J2FJ
U.S. begins first coronavirus clinical trial testing Gilead's experimental drug
(Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Tuesday the first clinical trial testing Gilead Sciences Incs experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, in hospitalized patients with the coronavirus has started.
The first trial participant is an American who was repatriated after being quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and the study is being conducted at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, according to the National Institutes of Health.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-usa-nih/u-s-begins-first-coronavirus-clinical-trial-testing-gileads-experimental-drug-idUSKBN20J264
AP:
BEIJING (AP) Factories that make the worlds smartphones, toys and other goods are struggling to reopen after a virus outbreak idled Chinas economy. But even with the ruling Communist Party promising help, companies and economists say it may be months before production is back to normal.
The problem is supply chains the thousands of companies that provide components, from auto parts to zippers to microchips. Chinas are famously nimble and resourceful, but they lack raw materials and workers after the most intensive anti-disease measures ever imposed closed factories, cut off most access to cities with more than 60 million people and imposed travel curbs.
https://apnews.com/11d2888249475767f0abeea33fe1878b
GOP and Dem senators voice concerns about US virus readiness
WASHINGTON (AP) Senators of both political parties questioned Tuesday whether the White Houses request for $2.5 billion is enough to prepare the nation for a possible coronavirus outbreak, even as President Donald Trump said the virus is very well under control here.
If you low ball something like this, youll pay for it later, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told Trumps top health official, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The two faced each other at a budget hearing that turned into a forum for assessing U.S. readiness in the face of a rapidly evolving international health threat.
Shelby said if the virus keeps spreading, it could be an existential threat to a lot of people in this country. He chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, which sets spending levels for federal agencies.
https://apnews.com/0463fb7ca88b47860819fe56495b2ebc
Qutzupalotl
(14,335 posts)(Thats the one Ken Cuccinelli was having problems with.)
80,000 total reported cases worldwide (including recoveries and deaths), most in China.
icymist
(15,888 posts)This includes cases that were resolved. To get an actual active cases number click on 'Existing Cases' just under the map. The number of existing cases can be found by subtracting the 'recovered' and 'deaths' figures: 49,821 as of this writing.
Qutzupalotl
(14,335 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Spring break means lots of people will travel with kids. Kids are sponges for infections and they can catch really serious illnesses and not look very sick. Plus, since people have paid in advance for their spring break trips they will go whether they are sick or not---meaning that once they pass on their illness, other tourists will take it back home.
My crystal ball says that by the last week in March, COVID-19 will be widespread in this country, because Spring Break is 3/9 to 3/14. Happy Easter!