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WHO declares global health emergency over coronavirus: 4 questions answered | Editor’ s note: The World Health Organization reversed course on Jan. 30 and declared the coronavirus a “ Public Health Emergency of International Concern. ” The first human-to-human transmission in the U.S. was announced. India has reported its first case. Russia has closed part of its border with China, and more than 7,700 cases have been reported, with 170 deaths.
A Public Health Emergency of International Concern is a formal declaration from WHO that an ongoing outbreak or epidemic is a serious risk to multiple countries and needs concerted international effort in order to control the disease. PHEICs ( pronounced “ fakes ”) have been called multiple times before and are used to help control outbreaks of disease.
The first PHEIC was called for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Since then, four PHEICs have been called, including one for polio in 2014 and one for Ebola in 2014; one for Zika in 2016; and one in 2019 for an Ebola outbreak that is still ongoing. There are also several times that the WHO has decided not to call a PHEIC. This includes in 2018 and 2019 for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that is ongoing and is now a PHEIC, and the 2013 MERS epidemic. Most recently, the WHO declined on Jan. 23 to declare a PHEIC for the novel coronavirus. At that time, the risk to other nations was deemed low.
Multiple instances of human-to-human transmission have occurred outside of China since last week. The fact that transmission has occurred in multiple countries, the severity of illness and concerns around how easily this virus may be transmitted led to the WHO calling a PHEIC.
The PHEIC really serves as a call to action for the global community. It indicates that this is an extremely serious health threat. The PHEIC would give the WHO the ability to help increase efforts to control the outbreak. These include things like coordinating efforts between and across countries, making travel advisories, and reviewing control measures, such as the use of quarantines or active case finding, in countries to help ensure that the best public health practices are being used.
However, it is important to note that it does not change anything legally, meaning that each country still ultimately decides how it will handle an emergency. A PHEIC also indicates to people in affected countries that the situation is very serious and may help to persuade people to follow public health recommendations.
At the time of declaring a PHEIC, the WHO also issues advice specifically to the country or countries affected as well as the rest of the world. For instance, some of the WHO recommendations to China include: implementing a comprehensive risk communication strategy to inform citizens of China about the outbreak; implementing exit screening for all individuals leaving the country; and sharing full data on all human cases. It also urged China to identify the zoonotic source of the outbreak.
The WHO also advised that restrictions on the movement of people and goods during outbreaks are often not helpful and may cause unintended negative effects. It also advised the global community to “ provide support to low- and middle-income countries to enable their response. ”
[ Like what you’ ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’ s daily newsletter. ] | business |
Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Climb to 9826 Globally – 213 Deaths in China | Coronavirus Map: Distribution of 2019-nCoV case as of January 31, 2020. Credit: WHO
Note: There is now a newer Novel Coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV) Situation Report 12.
[ Note: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also lists United Kingdom, Russia, and Sweden as locations with confirmed 2019-nCoV cases as of today, January 31, 2020. Additionally, they list Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan separately, where the World Health Organization combines those into the China numbers. ]
During previous outbreaks due to other coronaviruses ( Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome ( MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ( SARS), human-to-human transmission occurred through droplets, contact, and fomites, suggesting that the transmission mode of the 2019-nCoV can be similar. The basic principles to reduce the general risk of transmission of acute respiratory infections include the following:
WHO does not recommend any specific health measures for travelers. In case of symptoms suggestive of respiratory illness either during or after travel, travelers are encouraged to seek medical attention and share their travel history with their healthcare provider. | tech |
Seth Meyers: 'Today’ s Republican party is an authoritarian movement ' | On Late Night, Seth Meyers discussed the waning days of the Senate impeachment trial and Donald Trump’ s steadfast belief in executive power. Trump has frequently cited article two of the constitution as justification to do, well, anything, though “ I doubt Trump has ever read even one full sentence of the constitution ”, said Meyers. “ He probably got three words in and quit – ‘ We the people? I think that M is upside down.’ ”
“ Trump’ s claim that he can do whatever he wants is very much at the core of Trumpism and the modern Republican party, and that ethos is very much on display in this impeachment trial, ” said Meyers. “ Republicans have spent a decade pretending to be a principled party based on limited government and respect for the constitution, when in reality, they never cared about any of that stuff. Today’ s Republican party is an authoritarian movement led by people who believe they should have the power to impose their will on everyone else. ”
Trump “ perfectly embodies that authoritarian mindset ”, said Meyers, as displayed in shocking form on Wednesday when his lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued to senators that a quid pro quo arrangement to influence the 2020 election would not be illegal because Trump was trying to get himself re-elected, which is in the national interest.
Meyers called that logic an “ absolutely insane argument that is antithetical to literally everything the founders believed when they wrote the constitution ”. In practice, Meyers continued, Dershowitz argued that “ if you believe you being president is what’ s best for the country, then you’ re allowed to do whatever you want in order to remain president. That’ s insane. ”
“ By that logic, Trump could shut down airports under the pretense of high winds any time one of his Democratic challengers had a flight, ” he said, “ which would affect everyone but Bernie, who likely has a backup mule. ”
“ The Senate impeachment trial is racing democracy to see which one can end faster, ” said Stephen Colbert on perhaps the last Late Show episode before the trial ends, pending a vote on whether to admit new evidence or witnesses.
In closing arguments on Thursday, the California congressman Adam Schiff argued for the prosecution that senators acknowledge the absurdity of not allowing witnesses, while Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow made an eerie plea to the American people to “ join us, join us, one nation, one people ”.
“ There’ s nothing unsettling about that, ” Colbert deadpanned. “ Join us, join us. Resistance is futile. Kneel before Trump and be absorbed by his Maga for there is joy and peace nestled within his sweaty folds. Join us – join the hive mind. ”
Colbert also returned to Dershowitz’ s argument from Wednesday that Trump could do no wrong if he acted to ensure his re-election, which was in the national interest. “ Now, if this rationale alarms you, then you’ re in good company, ” said Colbert, as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, compared the logic to the absolute monarchism of Louis XIV. “ When you think about it – and I recommend you don’ t – Trump has a lot in common with Louis XIV: same decorating style, same lax attitude toward extramarital affairs, they both poop in a drawer, ” Colbert said. “ Plus, Louis was the sun king and Trump is the stare-directly-at-the-sun king. The only difference is Trump’ s motto: let ME eat cake. ”
If Senate Republicans have their way, the impeachment trial will be over by the end of this week, said Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday night. “ Captain Cover-up Mitch McConnell is hoping to have it all wrapped up by tomorrow. ”
Kimmel, too, remained baffled by the argument put forth by Dershowitz that “ Trump could just do whatever he wants by just saying that his re-election is in our best interest. By that logic, he could start eating bald eagles for breakfast and he’ d say: ‘ I have to, I need my strength for the campaign trail,’ ” said Kimmel.
McConnell has argued that if the Senate opens the trial up to witnesses, as House Democrats have urged, it could go on for months and prevent the Senate from getting business done, “ as if they’ ve done any business ”, Kimmel said. “ Blockbuster video has done more business than the Senate in the last three years. ”
On the Daily Show, Trevor Noah recapped some of the world’ s non-impeachment news, such as Mike Pence’ s visit with Pope Francis. “ Yes, that’ s right, the most religious man in the world met the pope, ” Noah said. “ I bet after meeting Mike Pence, the pope walked away being like: ‘ That guy’ s a Jesus freak.’ ”
Noah had one burning question: “ Do you think the pope took Pence’ s confession? Because if he did, that would have to be the most boring confession the pope has ever heard. The pope would probably be like: ‘ You walked in on your wife taking off her shoes? I don’ t care. No, eating salty food is not a sin.’ ”
Meanwhile, the deadly coronavirus continues to spread in China, and the government has responded with a plan to build a thousand-bed hospital in 10 days. “ There is no other country that can do anything that fast, ” Noah said. “ Like in America, it takes longer than that to get cable installed. I’ ve learned when you order cable in this country, you aren’ t ordering it for you – you’ re ordering it for your grandkids. ” | general |
Travel’ s Worst Nightmare Returns to Haunt Asia | Get exclusive stories and unlimited access to Skift.com news
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Raini Hamdi, Skift
January 31st, 2020 at 12:30 AM EST
Once again a deadly health scare proves to be the only thing that can stop travel. The older Asian tourism members understand this from the SARS crisis, and now the millennials are witnessing it too.
Raini Hamdi
It has often been said that nothing, be it a recession or a natural disaster, will stop people from traveling. The only thing that can, and will, is a health scare.
Asia learned that only too well from the severe acute respiratory syndrome ( SARS) crisis in 2002 and has dreaded anything like it since.
This is why the new novel coronavirus is Asia’ s most important challenge in nearly two decades, especially with the World Health Organization retracting its initial assessment that the global risk of the Wuhan virus was “ moderate. ” It now places the risk as “ very high in China, high at the regional level, and high at the global level. ”
The fact that China took such a drastic action as banning all domestic and international trips by citizens effective Monday should also send signals of how dire the situation is.
Travel businesses have already suffered, as our article below shows, with Asian destinations being the most impacted as they are highly dependent on the China market. This, despite their knowledge it’ s never good to put all your eggs in one basket.
Just how much more the industry will be impacted depends on whether the coronavirus can be contained. In this, everyone is trying to do his or her bit, because there’ s so much at stake. Most important of all, people’ s lives.
— Raini Hamdi, Skift Asia Editor, rh @ skift.com, @ RainiHamdi
Asian Destinations Reel From China’ s Outbound Travel Ban: For a string of Asian destinations, China is by far the number one market, so the outbound travel ban by the country effective Monday has shaken tourism businesses even though they know it is for the good.
Fighting the virus. The Associated Press.
China Cancels Group Trips as Coronavirus Control Measures Expand: It’ s going to be a long, cold winter for China’ s travel industry and for businesses that rely on outbound Chinese tourists, as the novel coronavirus epidemic expands, and people stay put during China’ s biggest travel season.
What the Coronavirus Means So Far for the Travel Industry: The travel industry is starting to feel the impact from this latest global health crisis. How it responds to help contain the spread of the virus will set a new precedent while weathering an extensive disruption to its business.
Travel Megatrends 2020: Travel Payments Find Path to Painless: Global payments technology and rules are changing swiftly, led by seamless innovations in Asia that are making life easier for consumers. Travel companies of all sizes are finally taking action in order to stay competitive.
Tripadvisor to Lay Off 200 Workers With Experiences Business in Line of Fire: Along with its dining reservations business, Tripadvisor’ s tours and activities unit had been a bright spot. But well-funded competitors such as GetYourGuide and Klook have tightened the race, and Tripadvisor is feeling it.
Google Flights Ends Booking Charges for Airlines That Paid: With potential pressure from U.S. regulatory authorities and perhaps displeasure from airlines, Google is making the biggest change to the way it monetizes flight search since it launched Google Flights in 2011. Perhaps free search engine optimization for flights isn’ t dead after all.
Opening Closed Doors: Can Hotels Do More to Fight Human Trafficking? Human trafficking touches every corner of the travel industry — especially hotels. And while the accommodations sector didn’ t create the problem, it does have an elevated responsibility to put an end to it. The question is: How effective have the industry’ s efforts been so far?
Asia Editor Raini Hamdi [ rh @ skift.com ] curates the Skift Asia Weekly newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Wednesday.
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Raini Hamdi, Skift | general |
Wuhan coronavirus: crisis management is a test to Xi Jinping's powers | The emerging coronavirus epidemic has placed Wuhan at the epicentre of the crisis. The city, along with an area containing 50 million people, is currently under an anti-epidemic lock-down, a hybrid measure between quarantine and sanitary cordon.
Unlike the recent cases of avian influenza in Hong Kong in 2011 and Shanghai in 2013, controlled by massive poultry killing, this crisis is not happening on the borders of the Chinese territory, but in its very centre. In the context of the neo-Confucianist ideology which places China at the centre of the world or tianxia – “ everything under heaven ” – strong crisis management in Wuhan will test the capacity of the Chinese government to prepare adequately for pandemic.
The position of Wuhan in the recent history of China needs to be analysed in order to understand the mobilisation of Chinese and international authorities in the early response to the new coronavirus, as the rest of the world watches.
Since Wuhan was the starting point of the 1911 Chinese “ revolution ” – which is called in Chinese geming a term which means both “ revolution ” and “ change of heavenly mandate ” – the Xi Jinping government is attentive to the signs that this epidemic raises for the good government of China.
Wuhan is an 11 million people metropolis and the capital of Hubei Province. It was created in 1927 when the cities of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang merged into one. These three important trading posts were based on the confluence of the Yangzi and Han Rivers. They developed during the 19th century when western investors settled in the area under the conditions of the “ unequal treaties ” signed in the 1860s by Prince Gong and Emperor Xianfeng.
The Chinese Revolution, which brought down the Qing Empire, started in 1911 when soldiers in Wuchang protested against the transfer of the funding of railway construction to foreign banks, leading to the declaration of the Chinese Republic by Sun-Yat Sen in Nanjing, which then replaced Beijing as the capital city of the country.
Wuhan has been an epicentre of various crises for decades. In 1931, a disastrous flood killed more than 2 million people. It was an event that the historian Chris Courtney qualified as “ perhaps the most lethal flood in history ” which, he writes, “ exacerbated social divisions and became a health and humanitarian crisis ”.
Only few years later, in 1937-1945, Wuhan served along with Chongqing, as the capital city of the Guomingdang government during the Sino-Japanese War, and as such was heavily bombed.
After 1949, Mao Zedong made Wuhan one of the industrial centres of the People’ s Republic, particularly for steel, electricity and chemicals. Under his government, over ten universities for scientific research were built. Several important meetings of the Communist Party were held on the shores of Wuhan’ s lake, underlining the political importance of the city.
Under the “ four modernisations ” period launched by Deng Xiaoping after Mao’ s death in 1976, Wuhan became a centre for high technologies such as fibre optics and the car industry.
Over the past ten years, Wuhan has been increasingly connected to the rest of China and the world through the construction of infrastructures for high-speed trains and international flights.
Wuhan is also the city where the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the help of French experts – particularly the Pasteur Institute – opened the only P4 lab in Asia in January 2018. AP4 lab is a laboratory where the level of biosecurity measures ( number 4) allows biologists to manipulate highly dangerous viruses such as Ebola, SARS or H5N1.
This has led to conspiracy theories circulating on the web, speculating that the new coronavirus was released from this lab or was even created by the lab to obtain more funding.
In reality, Wuhan has been massively equipped by the Chinese government to anticipate new viruses emerging from animals in big cities since 2003, when the SRAS pandemic broke out. France developed a similar P4 lab in Lyon in the same period.
Xi Jinping is well aware that the way his government manages the coronavirus in Wuhan, cradle of the Chinese Revolution in 1911, may heavily affect his authority.
His politics in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, where student demonstrations and Uighur minorities were crushed down, have been globally criticised. The context of African Swine Fever, which killed half of the pig population and doubled the price of pork, along with financial tensions over the convertibility of the yuan to the dollar, have destabilised the Chinese economy more than the commercial war with Donald Trump’ s administration.
Similarly, in 2003, the SARS crisis emerged amid a sensitive political climate in the period of transition between Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The epidemic contributed to the fragility of the Chinese state, as it was criticised by the World Health Organisation for not reporting cases.
In 2020, this new coronavirus will now test the capacity of Xi, who in 2018 obtained the right to extend his mandate indefinitely, to remain in power.
The centrality of Wuhan on the geopolitics of China thus leads Chinese and international experts to focus on the metropolis as a point of emergence and outbreak, both in reporting about the virus and in locking down the population.
So far, it seems, the population has accepted the lock-down measures, but before they were implemented, 5 million people had already left the city to join their families for the Chinese New Year. This has raised major concerns in the social media and in public health authorities.
While most cases have been concentrated in Wuhan and its area, the virus has spread to major cities connected to Wuhan and to foreign countries such as France, where three French-Chinese nationals returning from Wuhan presented with coronavirus symptoms.
What happens in Wuhan has become an indicator of what will happen in the rest of the world if the virus spreads for what is already a new pandemic – the new coronavirus being so far more contagious but less lethal than SARS.
This crisis will test the capacity of Wuhan as scientific hub as well as a political asset.
Will Wuhan become a sentinel post for pandemic preparedness? Will it follow the path of Hong Kong, which since the 1970s has been a leading actor in public health and sanitation crises, and proved its efficiency during the avian influenza outbreaks? Hong Kong’ s city experts have developed models to project how the epidemic can progress. On the other hand, in Wuhan, local authorities are under tight scrutiny. Xi himself has criticised their slowness in reporting the first cases of infection.
Rather than a new crisis between China and the rest of the world, as it was the case with SARS in 2003, the new coronavirus may highlight the heavy social and political tensions lying low between Chinese cities.
We may observe now a fierce competition between different cities such as Wuhan, Hong Kong and Shanghai under the surveillance of Beijing. As they raise the alarm about the environmental crises affecting China – triggered by the massive development of the Chinese economy over the last 50 years – these cities may enter a political crisis, illustrating the paradox of the neo-liberal authoritarian government of Xi on “ everything under heaven ”. | business |
‘ Outlier’ victim profiles raise questions over the impact of coronavirus | Most people who died from the new coronavirus appear to have been old, and many had pre-existing health problems, but Chinese government records list at least five victims under 60, with no prior medical issues detailed.
These potential “ outliers ” – aged 36, 50, 53, 55 and 58 – are a reminder that scientists are still racing to understand the nature and impact of the new disease as it spreads in China and around the world.
The virus is far less deadly than severe acute respiratory syndrome ( Sars), another coronavirus-caused respiratory disease, which emerged in China in 2002. Nearly one in 10 people infected with Sars died, while the epidemic in Wuhan has so far killed about 2% of those who contracted it.
That rate could potentially come down even further, as authorities get better at detecting and testing for less seriously affected patients, said Antonia Ho, consultant in infectious diseases at Glasgow University’ s Centre for Virus Research.
“ At the start of an outbreak detection will always be skewed towards severe cases because those are the ones that are going to be picked up by doctors and hospitals, because they need treatment. But as surveillance improves you will pick up less severe cases, and they are more likely to survive.
“ We won’ t know the accurate fatality rate until we can do large population studies, when you can find out the number of people who were infected but either had no symptoms or very mild ones. ”
Cases recorded so far suggest most infections are not serious. “ It appears that the majority of infected persons have mild symptoms, though a small proportion do develop breathing difficulties, including pneumonia, ” said Ho, a specialist in respiratory epidemics. The question for experts is who might be susceptible to getting more seriously sick – and with many cases only recently recorded, how long it takes to identify cases that need more medical help.
A recent paper suggests that it takes an average of eight days from symptoms first appearing to the onset of breathing difficulties, according to Ho. “ It can seem OK at first, then get much more serious, though only in a small proportion of people. ”
I don’ t think we know enough at the moment to say how it’ s going to pan out
So far, although infections have been identified in children as young as two, the vast majority of victims have been older, and most have had underlying health conditions.
The Observer has compiled a list of 47 coronavirus victims, whose cases were reported in detail by Chinese authorities up to 29 January. Most were provided by the government of Hubei, the province at the centre of the crisis, which gave the last case details on 25 January, with others from Sichuan and Henan provinces, and city authorities in Beijing and Shanghai.
They show many victims already suffered from illnesses including diabetes, heart problems, chronic bronchitis and other conditions. However there’ s no explanation for the apparent “ outlier ” cases of relatively young victims, and no details as to why these cases have been made public.
But they do raise questions about whether some healthy people in middle age could be vulnerable to the disease. The youngest victim, aged 36, was of particular concern, experts said, because it was unclear what made him susceptible, and if it was something that could affect others.
“ This 36-year-old is an enigma, ” David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Time magazine. “ We know that the majority of people who have died to date have co-morbidity and are elderly. ”
Adding to the concerns is data showing that the disease spreads more easily than Sars, with some of those infected able to pass it on before they show symptoms.
A cluster of four cases in Germany appears to have originated with a single traveller who didn’ t show any signs of illness until after she had left the country, a group of scientists warned in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine this week.
That may make it much harder to control the spread. Sars patients could largely be isolated as soon as they became infectious – when symptoms began to show – making it easier to trace and monitor contacts who could be at risk.
Modelling research published in the Lancet estimates that up to 75,800 people in Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, may have been infected with the new coronavirus by 25 January. If the fatality rate stayed the same, at about 2%, that could mean more than 1,500 deaths. Far fewer than flu causes each year, but still more than the Sars outbreak.
And scientists have warned that even if the outbreak is brought under control, the number of new infections may keep rising for weeks or longer.
“ I don’ t think we know enough at the moment to say how it’ s going to pan out, ” said Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia.
“ It’ s still plausible that this will be restricted to China and a few other countries and will ultimately peter out and disappear by the end of the summer. But it’ s also plausible that it will spread very widely, ” he said.
“ I’ m not convinced that we have enough data yet for the models to be sufficiently convincing about where between those two extremes it will eventually fit. ”
Additional reporting by Jonathan Zhong | general |
Oil Bankruptcies Are Reaching Worrying Levels | Law firm Haynes and Boone & nbsp; recently released its updated & nbsp; Energy Bankruptcy Reports. These reports cover North American oil and gas producers, oilfield services and midstream bankruptcies from the beginning of 2015 through 2019. Over the entire five-year period, 208 oil and gas producers have filed for bankruptcy since Haynes and Boone & rsquo; s Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor began tabulating E & amp; P filings, involving approximately $ 121.7 billion in aggregate debt. There was an initial wave of more than 100 bankruptcy filings in 2015 and 2016 as the oil price crash pushed some companies to the breaking point. As oil prices recovered somewhat after 2016, the number of filings declined to 24 in 2017 and 28 in 2018. But the fourth quarter of 2018 saw a steep drop in oil prices, and that decline lingered into 2019. This resulted in a jump in the number of filings in 2019 back up to 42. Of the 208 bankruptcy filings, Texas led the list with 94. Colorado and Louisiana were far behind Texas with 11 filings each, while New York was in fourth place with 10. Canada overall had 18 oil and gas producer bankruptcy filings. Haynes and Boone also reported that the oilfield services sector was hit hard, with 196 bankruptcies over the five-year period. The total amount of aggregate debt administered in oilfield services bankruptcies during this period was approximately $ 66 billion. Texas again led the way with 102 bankruptcies. Related U.S. Rig Count Drops As Oil Price Slide Accelerates Midstream wasn & rsquo; t entirely spared, but the firm reports that there were only 28 midstream companies that have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States since 2015, involving approximately $ 21.6 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt including debt of related affiliates. The firm writes that commodity prices will likely remain challenging for producers, noting that & ldquo; the oil market appears to be resistant to sustained increases in spite of two major geopolitical events in the Middle East & ndash; the September 2019 attack on Saudi Aramco & rsquo; s oil facilities and the heightened tensions following the January 7 drone attack on Iranian Major General Soleimani. & rdquo; We can now add the growing coronavirus outbreak as a challenge for oil producers, as that has helped drive down oil prices by 10 percent in the past week. Should that trend continue & mdash; and given that natural gas prices are also trading at extremely low values & mdash; 2020 will likely be another year of bankruptcies for financially strapped oil and gas producers. By Robert Rapier | business |
Dow Jones Industrial Average Drops 733 Points on Week as Coronavirus Takes Toll | Like a houseguest who has overstayed his welcome, the coronavirus has been in the headlines long enough that the market couldn’ t ignore it any longer—and it won’ t be as easy to evict.
After a 1.6% drop on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average looked ready to move on to more important things, like corporate earnings. But no. Friday came, and the market sold off with a vengeance. All told, the Dow dropped 733.70 points, or 2.53%, to 28,256.03 this past week, while the S & P 500 fell 2.1%, to 3225.52, their largest one-week declines since Aug. 2.
What’ s surprising is how quickly everything changed. Until Friday, most of the market damage had been contained to regions closest to the outbreak’ s epicenter or to industries directly exposed to it. China’ s stock market has been closed for the Lunar New Year, but exchange-traded funds in the U.S. were open, and they certainly haven’ t performed well.
The iShares China Large-Cap ETF ( ticker: FXI), for instance, dropped 8.9% in January. United Airlines Holdings ( UAL), cruise-line Carnival ( CCL), and Macau casino operator Wynn Resorts ( WYNN) also got hit.
By week’ s end, though, it was clear that the virus had the potential to be a much bigger problem, as sectors that had held up were finally hit. Tech fell 2.7% on Friday—it had been up at Thursday’ s close. Only utilities, up 0.8%, and consumer discretionary, up 0.1%, finished the week higher.
Maybe it was new cases showing up in India and elsewhere that shook the market. Maybe it was the knowledge that the longer the virus remained unchecked, the greater the chance that it would have a meaningful impact on global supply chains. Or maybe it was the realization that it has at least postponed a rebound in global economic growth, if not canceled it altogether.
Every weekday evening we highlight the consequential market news of the day and explain what's likely to matter tomorrow.
“ If output buckles just intra-quarter, the market impact could be less persistent and more localized as investors focus on a Q2 to Q4 return to reflation, ” writes J.P. Morgan strategist John Normand. “ If factories don’ t reopen after Feb 9th, a major but regional and brief demand shock could become a more damaging global supply shock. ”
But there are some good things to come out of the chaos. For one, the stock market is no longer overbought. More than 80% of S & P 500 companies closed above their 50-day moving averages on Jan. 17, a level last reached in mid-2019. On Friday, that number dropped to 45%. At the same time, volatility, which had been hibernating, suddenly revived. The Cboe S & P 100 Volatility Index, or VXO ( which has a longer history than the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX), traded as high as 21.60 on Friday after 76 days below that level.
The good news is that the stock market has risen in the months after such spikes in volatility following long periods of calm, according to Sundial Capital Research. For instance, the S & P 500 had a median gain of 8.5% six months later and was positive 90% of the time.
That doesn’ t mean the pain is over—the S & P 500 is down just 3.1% from its all-time high hit on Jan. 17, after all—but it does mean that investors should look for a buying opportunity once fear of the coronavirus starts to fade, says Jeff Saut, chief investment strategist at Capital Wealth Planning. “ If you go back and look at all these things, they hit the nadir and the stock market rips, ” he explains. “ How low it goes is unknowable, but it’ s a buy. ” | business |
How Universities Flunked the S & P 500 Exam | University endowments, like many money managers, have a hard time beating the market. New figures show that these big investors missed the decadelong rally in U.S. stocks by a long shot.
U.S. college endowments gained an annual 8.4% on average in the 10 years through June 30, according to a study published on Thursday by the New York–based money manager TIAA and the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The S & P 500 index returned 14.7% annually in the period, and the Vanguard Balanced Index fund, a blend of stocks and bonds, gained 10.3% annually.
Why did these big investors lag behind so badly? Many tended to disdain U.S. stocks and bonds in favor of alternative assets like venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds. In the 12 months through June 30, endowments on average had only 14.1% of their portfolios in U.S. stocks.
School endowments don’ t necessarily try to beat the market. They are more apt to preserve endowments in perpetuity. “ If we had a portfolio allocated just in the S & P 500, we would have looked smart, but the risk would have been massive, and hindsight is always 20-20,’’ said Kevin O’ Leary, TIAA’ s chief executive officer of endowment and philanthropic services.
Endowments performed well by one measure. The 8.4% gain for the 10 years surpassed many of the funds’ goal of long-term average returns of 7%. One reason: the average 18.7% loss in fiscal 2009 during the global financial crisis isn’ t factored in.
Stocks fell on coronavirus fears, then clawed back on stellar earnings from Apple, Tesla, and Amazon.com. The yield curve toyed with inversion, the Federal Reserve held rates steady, and gross domestic product was unchanged at 2.1%. Then, on Friday, stocks cratered—led by Apple. On the week, the Dow Industrial Average shed 2.5%, to 28,256.03; the S & P 500 fell 2.1%, to 3225.52; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.8%, to 9150.94.
Six coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S., out of nearly 10,000 in all, over 200 of which have resulted in fatalities. In China and Hong Kong the effect has been huge, with much of the spending over the Lunar New Year curtailed. Hong Kong, already stunned by months of protests, banned visitors from Wuhan, suspended high-speed rail to China, and reduced flights. In China, Shanghai Disneyland closed, Starbucks temporarily shuttered half of its cafes, and airlines canceled flights to China.
Just as President Trump’ s legal team began his impeachment-trial defense, excerpts from former National Security Adviser John Bolton’ s book leaked. Bolton reportedly wrote that Trump had told him he held up aid to Ukraine to force an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. In a tweet, Trump denied the charge, and the White House said the book contained classified material. On Friday, after days of questions, the Senate voted on a mostly party line not to call witnesses.
In the midst of the trial, Trump announced his long-delayed Middle East peace plan, which he called “ the deal of the century. ” Trump rolled out a proposal at the White House with Israel’ s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that included a Palestinian state but featured large concessions to Israel on the West Bank. No Palestinian representatives attended, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the plan as “ a conspiracy deal. ” Netanyahu said he would quickly move to claim sovereignty over a third of the West Bank.
The United Kingdom left the European Union at midnight on Friday, kicking off talks with the EU and the U.S. on trade. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin said he hoped a new trade pact could be signed by year end. Separately, the U.K. allowed China’ s Huawei limited access to its 5G network, against U.S. policy.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, 62, resigned after 40 years at the computer company. She’ ll be replaced by Arvind Krishna, senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software. IBM recently reported its first revenue growth in six quarters, helped by the $ 34 billion purchase of Red Hat last year. | business |
Coronavirus fears fuel racism and hostility, say British-Chinese | Dr Zhou * had just arrived at Gatwick airport last week when a British couple physically recoiled as she entered a lift. “ The woman looked at me, quickly turned to her husband and told him ‘ they should wear their masks’, ” she said. “ They assumed I didn’ t understand English, that I was ‘ fresh off the boat’ and that I probably had coronavirus. ” Humiliated, Zhou – a scientist who was travelling from London to Slovenia – stood in uncomfortable silence.
“ I give people the benefit of doubt because they’ re scared, but why can’ t they give me the benefit of doubt? Fear is no reason to be racist. Statistically, as a British citizen who hasn’ t been to China in two years, I have the same risk level as a white person. ”
Coronavirus has spread to at least 16 countries including Japan, Thailand, Australia, France, the US and the UK. Hostility and racism directed by some people towards east Asians seems to be spreading faster still.
Jess Kerntiff, who works in PR, said she was stunned when a friend sent her a viral Instagram post of “ bat soup ” falsely purporting to be a Chinese dish while making bogus claims that Chinese culture is to blame for coronavirus. “ She kept asking me if I’ d eaten it, what was the weirdest thing I’ d eaten and so on. When I said, ‘ I don’ t know, crab or something’, she kept asking me what weird things people eat in Malaysia, which is where my family are from. ”
Kerntiff said she couldn’ t quite articulate at the time why it was upsetting. “ It bothered me though, she’ s a really good friend and I explained to her after a couple of days and then she got it, but posts like that deliberately dehumanise Chinese people. I don’ t know if I’ m being paranoid but there doesn’ t seem to be much sympathy for people who have lost their lives and are going through this trauma, the narrative is as if it’ s deserved. There is no compassion. ”
The French media have already called it yellow peril – as if there isn’ t a bigger threat from parents who won’ t vaccinate their kids
London’ s Chinatown was uncharacteristically quiet last week, with businesses reporting a slump in trade. “ The restaurants are less busy than normal, ” confirmed one manager. “ You think, maybe it is the weather and people think it’ s too cold and rainy to come out. But maybe it’ s because people believe fake news and are scared [ of ] eating Asian food. ”
One British-Chinese woman, who didn’ t want to give her name, said she felt anxious travelling on public transport. “ People have openly moved away from me on the train. Fear for me is having half my family in quarantine in Wuhan – the hysterical fear that many in western countries have is quite insulting to me. ”
She was in daily contact with relatives in the Hubei province, who reported feeling well. “ My parents here are not as panicked as some of the people I’ ve encountered on Twitter and in real life, ” she said. “ The virus is being weaponised as a way to be openly racist – the French media have already called it “ yellow peril ” – as if there isn’ t a bigger health threat from parents who won’ t vaccinate their kids. ”
The number of Chinese students at UK universities dwarfs those from other countries; in the 2016-17 academic year, there were 95,090 Chinese undergraduates and postgraduates in Britain. By comparison, the second-biggest international cohort is made up of 17,580 students from the US.
At the Central Saint Martins campus, part of the University of the Arts London ( UAL), the mood was muted. “ Our focus is to keep calm and carry on and avidly watch official guidance, ” said Julie Dark, associate director of communications. “ Panic is high but the risk is low, and we’ re supporting students who are worried. ”
The standup comedian Ken Cheng, who encounters racial abuse frequently online, said he was not surprised at how the virus was exposing deeper prejudices. “ There’ s been a bit of tension ” travelling on public transport, he said, but he was more concerned by how normalised anti-Chinese sentiment is. “ Around Chinese people, there has always been a thing where people think they can say whatever they want in a way they don’ t about other races, so you see all this stuff at the moment about all Chinese culture and people being dirty and barbaric, as if that’ s fair game. ”
Cheng was circumspect about why this might be but wanted to point out that he was as anxious about the virus as the next person. “ Maybe it’ s because we have a more submissive culture, we’ re not very aggressive and don’ t get into fights. Maybe we’ re just stoic. At the moment, the risk [ of catching the virus ] seems very low. For a major outbreak, it doesn’ t seem too bad. It’ s not a disaster movie. ”
* Some names have been changed | general |
As the coronavirus spreads, misinformation is spreading even faster | It’ s no coincidence that internet phenomena share a vocabulary with certain diseases. As fast as a viral pathogen can spread in a world connected by air travel, bad information can move even faster. Very few people outside of China have been infected with the new coronavirus that was first detected late last year and was declared a global health emergency this week. But millions have already been exposed to false information about the virus.
And while we may not be able to measure the damage that misinformation poses to society in the same way that we can take a patient’ s temperature, it’ s undeniable that the damage is real.
Recent outbreaks of measles in countries that had previously eradicated the disease, but then become centers of anti-vaxx conspiracy mongering, are one concrete example of how disinformation can lead to concrete harm.
Already, east Asians in Europe and the Americas are reporting incidents of racist hostility and exclusion. Such experiences will not be counted among the casualties of the disease, but will nevertheless leave a mark on their lives.
Disinformation experts and fact-checkers are now working overtime to attempt to clean up the mess of honest misunderstandings, hoaxes and malicious lies that have spread across the internet. Naturally, attention has again turned to social media users and the social media companies whose platforms have played an important role in accelerating the frictionless spread of falsehood.
It’ s certainly fair to expect Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, among others, to do everything they can to mitigate misinformation amid a global health emergency. Facebook and YouTube were incredibly negligent even as they grew into dominant providers of news and information, only agreeing to take proactive steps to address conspiracy theories about breaking news and health disinformation after facing considerable pressure from the press and politicians.
But it’ s also important for the professional news media to acknowledge – and work to correct – its own role in disseminating disinformation. Half of the top 10 most shared English-language links about coronavirus on Facebook from the month of January were hyperbolic, fear-mongering and at times blatantly misleading articles from actual news outlets, according to a review of data from CrowdTangle. Among the blatantly misleading is an article by the Daily Mail suggesting that the coronavirus outbreak was caused by Chinese people eating “ bat soup ” that was shared more than 96,000 times on Facebook.
The “ bat soup ” canard is a classic example of disinformation – and a potent one. Like much of the most persuasive disinformation, the story involves elements of truth taken out of context and repackaged in a way that seems true because it affirms a particular worldview. In this case, actual footage of a Chinese woman eating a bat in soup was ripped out of its actual context ( a travel blogger’ s video from a restaurant in Palau filmed in 2016) and spuriously linked to the fact that some coronaviruses originate from bats, in order to create a narrative that appealed to a western audience’ s racist fascination with Chinese appetites.
“ Revolting footage shows Chinese woman eating a whole bat at a fancy restaurant as scientists link the deadly coronavirus to the flying mammals ” reads the Daily Mail’ s headline. It’ s not exactly false. But it’ s certainly not true. If I were to go to YouTube right now, I could pull up some truly revolting footage of British men eating black pudding and watch it just as the UK was officially leaving the EU. But that would not make a headline reading “ Disgusting footage shows Englishmen guzzling pigs blood as Europeans depart country in disgust ” accurate or responsible.
The Daily Mail was not the originator of the “ bat soup ” disinformation, though its version of the story traveled the furthest on Facebook. It appears that another British tabloid, the Daily Star, was the first to link the years-old video to the coronavirus, with an article on 22 January that treated base speculation as revelation. The Daily Star eventually published a correction on its article, but not before the story was picked up and repeated by the Mirror, the Sun, the Evening Standard, and the Mail Online. News outlets in the US, including the Providence Journal and a number of US radio stations owned by iHeartMedia, also repeated the story, as well as conservative US media influencers.
Unsurprisingly, articles debunking the story have not traveled nearly as far on social media as the original versions did, according to CrowdTangle data. And while the damage that this story did will likely never be measured, it will undoubtedly be felt by people of Asian descent around the world, whether they are kids being picked on at lunchtime or adults treated with disrespect while doing their jobs. The viral infection won’ t kill us, but it will weaken us.
Which makes it all the more disheartening that the agents of disinformation in this case were not Russian bots or QAnon trolls. They were journalists.
Health-Records Company Pushed Opioids to Doctors in Secret Deal With Drugmaker, by Bloomberg’ s Emma Court.
Mark Zuckerberg should not be in control of Facebook, by George Soros for the New York Times.
Elon Musk can’ t lose, by BuzzFeed News’ Ryan Mac. | general |
Researchers make strides in race to create coronavirus vaccine | Researchers racing to produce a vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus believe they may have taken significant steps towards finding an effective method of immunisation.
At least three pharmaceutical companies, as well as teams of researchers around the world, have been working on different approaches to producing an effective vaccine. These efforts accelerated after Chinese academics publicly posted the genetic sequence for the virus.
A research team at the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) in Maryland said they had prepared a modified version of a key section of the virus to encourage the body to produce antibodies against the disease.
As well as the NIH, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations ( Cepi) has announced it would commit $ 11m ( £8.4m) to three programmes led by the companies Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Moderna, and the University of Queensland, with the hope of having a viable vaccine in production within 16 weeks, although testing for safety and efficacy will take much longer.
With different teams competing to produce a trial vaccine, it remains unclear who is leading the race.
Kizzmekia Corbett, lead researcher on the NIH coronavirus vaccine team, said her group had been concentrating on the spike proteins – the spear point of the virus. This built on work done during the severe acute respiratory syndrome ( Sars) outbreak that first emerged in China in 2001, another coronavirus thought to be similar to the Wuhan virus.
The virus looks like a knobbly ball covered in protrusions that widen at the tip. These are spike proteins, which are able to dock to a receptor found in the lung membrane known as ACE-2, which allows the virus to enter the body.
Corbett said that since the release of the Chinese sequence on 10 January, her team had been working around the clock to produce a stable version of the key protein that would prompt a strong antibody defence to prevent the virus entering the body.
She said: “ Coronaviruses are generally just a large family of pathogens of which six – well, now seven – are infectious to humans.
“ Sars and the Wuhan coronavirus are similar across 82% of the entire genome. But from a vaccine point of view we were interested only in the spike, which is 70% identical.
“ We had already published research on Sars and Mers ( Middle East respiratory syndrome) and shown we could drop some stabilising mutations into the backbone of the spike after a colleague did this with the S protein of the respiratory syncytial virus, ” she added.
“ Since 2017 we have been looking at how you give the body the right kind of messenger RNA that will attract the right type of cells to produce the right type of antibodies to produce a potent vaccine. We’ ve been doing these sequences for the last three years now so we can basically plug and play, and are now able to look at any coronavirus spike sequence. ”
One of the problems, said Corbett, is that the corona spike protein is the largest of its kind to infect humans. “ One of the reasons it’ s so hard to look at is because is is so big and floppy, ” she said.
Corbett believed the previous work done at her institute and others may have reduced the timeframe for producing an effective vaccine. “ We don’ t want to ignite public hope but the goal is do it as fast as we can and we are working day and night. I lost 7lb in recent weeks! ”
The NIH team is among several that have been working on solutions to the wider problem of coronaviruses since the first emergence of Sars. Many of the teams noted that vaccine work would be further advanced if not for the loss of interest in research after the Sars outbreak was brought under control.
The World Health Organization is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the coronavirus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine.
The UN agency advises people to:
Many countries are now enforcing or recommending curfews or lockdowns. Check with your local authorities for up-to-date information about the situation in your area.
In the UK, NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days.
If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.
Peter Hotez, a professor at Baylor University in Texas who was involved in the search for a Sars vaccine, said the problem was not making a vaccine but safety-testing and licensing the product.
He said: “ It should not be that difficult to make a vaccine against coronavirus. We know a lot about the pathogenesis [ the biological mechanism ] and the receptors that are the path for the virus.
“ The receptor for the virus is in the cells of the lungs and allows the virus to get deep into lung tissue. People who are sick get severe viral pneumonia and for reasons we don’ t entirely understand, those who are more vulnerable are older individuals including those with diabetes and hypertension.
“ Right now, you can look at four to five different techniques being examined by researchers to produce a vaccine. The problem is that is even after manufacturing a vaccine, you still have to go through the safety testing on humans – clinical trials as well as formal toxicology testing in animals. It’ s hard to rush and that’ s where you tend to get a bottleneck.
“ The big issue is encouraging an immune response that stops the virus binding to the host receptor.
There’ s no magic bullet, however, he warned. “ Each of the different approaches has an advantage and disadvantage. Sars was a wake-up call nearly 20 years ago. We’ ve got better at implementing global health regulations and detection monitoring, no question. But even then it’ s hard to anticipate a new pathogen. ”
“ But the one thing the world missed was that we should have been more aware of the risks of coronaviruses. This is the third outbreak to emerge in the 21st century.
“ There’ s a message here. We need to pay the same attention to coronaviruses as we do to flu. What’ s so tragic is that once Sars was gone, the investor enthusiasm for a Sars vaccine was zero. If the global health community had followed through and produced and stockpiled a vaccine, something might have been ready to go now. ” | general |
A traditional Chinese remedy said to help fight Wuhan coronavirus sparks skepticism -- and panic buying |
Could a
traditional Chinese medicine
help fight the
Wuhan coronavirus
, or is one of the country's most influential state media outlets promoting
pseudoscience and false hope
?
Those were the questions dominating Chinese social media after the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Friday that the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and the Wuhan Institute of Virology had discovered that the Shuanghuanglian oral liquid -- a popular combined herbal remedy commonly used to relieve some symptoms such as fever, cough and sore throat -- could be used to `` inhibit '' the
deadly virus
.
The news, however, was greeted with skepticism online in China, with many -- including numerous medical experts -- questioning whether the findings were supported by clinical evidence from treating coronavirus patients
.
Others wondered if this was a concerted effort to promote certain herbal products to boost their makers ' share prices ahead of the Chinese stock market's re-opening Monday.
According to the World Health Organization ( WHO), there is no specific medicine recommended to prevent or treat the novel coronavirus to date.
But many others apparently didn't need confirmation. Posts on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, purportedly showed people lining up at night outside pharmacies across China to buy Shuanghuanglian, ironically going against the authorities ' advice to avoid congregating in public.
Such was the apparent demand
sparked by the notice that the compound formula sold out on some stores on China's e-commerce platform Taobao.
Read More
As of Friday, the virus had
claimed the lives
of more than 250 people in mainland China.
In recent years, the Chinese government has heavily promoted traditional Chinese medicine.
Government support
The two institutes that discovered Shuanghuanglian's alleged ability to `` inhibit '' the coronavirus are both state-run bodies. The Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica is under the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( CAS), a top government think tank. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is also
administered by the CAS
and is among the country's most advanced virus research laboratories.
The news comes after China's National Health Commission issued a notice on the treatment of the coronavirus on Monday, asking medical institutions to `` actively promote the role of traditional Chinese medicine ( TCM) during treatment. ''
That notice came two days after Chinese President Xi Jinping -- a well known TCM advocate -- called for the `` combination of Chinese and Western medicine '' in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease
at a meeting
of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the country's supreme ruling body.
In recent years, the government has heavily promoted TCM, as part of efforts by Xi to bolster the country's health sector and fill the gaps in national insurance schemes.
It has also sought to win acceptance for TCM overseas, establishing 30 overseas TCM centers in countries along the `` Belt and Road Initiative, '' Xi's global infrastructure and investment program.
Chinese patent drug containing herbal medicines Shuanghuanglian oral liquid could help contain
# novelcoronavirus
, according to a joint research between Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and
# Wuhan
Institute of Virology.
pic.twitter.com/lx4Iixk2tw
— Global Times ( @ globaltimesnews)
January 31, 2020
The safety and effectiveness of
TCM is still debated in China
, where it has both adherents and skeptics. Though many of the remedies have been in use for hundreds of years, critics argue that there is no verifiable scientific evidence to support their supposed benefits.
However, in 2018, the WHO gave its
long-awaited nod
to include TCM in its influential book classifying thousands of diseases -- its first-ever official endorsement of the ancient practice.
The recent promotion of TCM in China is also in line with Xi's push to
revive traditional Chinese culture
, breaking away from the ruling Communist Party's earlier path under late Chairman Mao Zedong, during which time elements of traditional culture were often attacked, especially during the Cultural Revolution.
At a national conference on TCM last October, Xi urged experts and officials to carry on and innovate the fine elements in TCM and underlined efforts to promote it internationally, Xinhua
reported
at the time.
`` Traditional medicine is a treasure of Chinese civilization embodying the wisdom of the nation and its people, '' Xi said at the meeting in Beijing.
People queue for free face masks outside a cosmetics shop at Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong.
State media climb down
Amid mounting
public skepticism
over the effectiveness of Shuanghuanglian, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, the
People's Daily
, warned Saturday morning that `` inhibiting does not equal preventing and treating, '' reminding the public not to rush to purchase the herbal remedy, or take it without medical supervision.
`` So far, the finding is still under preliminary study, and a large number of experiments is needed to test if it is effective on patients, '' it said, citing the WHO in saying that no proven effective drugs to prevent or
treat the Wuhan coronavirus
are
currently available
.
The US National Institutes of Health is working on a preventative vaccine, but it will likely take a few months until the first phase of clinical trials get underway, and more than a year until a vaccine might be available, according to experts.
During the deadly SARS pandemic of the early 2000s, another traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Banlangen, made from the root of a flowering woad plant and used to treat the common cold, was sold out in many pharmacies due to a popular but clinically unproven belief that it could help prevent SARS, which is closely related to the Wuhan coronavirus.
Additional reporting by CNN's Steven Jiang in Beijing | general |
DBS: Coronavirus leads DBS Bank to adjust forecast for Taiwan's 2020 GDP | Analysts at DBS Bank ( Taiwan) Ltd. had been expected to raise their prediction for Taiwan's economic growth in 2020 to at least 2.5 percent Friday ( Jan. 31), but due to the coronavirus outbreak, the latest figure was adjusted to 2.3 percent.
The new forecast was still higher than the 2 percent originally presented by the Singaporean bank, CNA reported.
If it hadn't been for the risk posed by the virus from China, Taiwan's Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) would have expanded by between 2.5 percent and 3 percent during the new year, according to DBS.
The first economic factors to suffer from the novel coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV) would be consumer spending and travel, as the public would prefer to stay at home rather than visit crowded spaces or take flights overseas, CNA quoted the DBS analysts as saying.
As China had banned individual Chinese from visiting Taiwan beginning last August, the proportion of Chinese tourists had dropped from 30 percent to 10 percent of the total, and that might be the reason why Taiwan only confirmed nine cases of the coronavirus so far, fewer than Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong, DBS said.
However, a potential indirect consequence of the outbreak might be a weakening Chinese economy affecting Taiwan, which still saw 40 percent of its exports heading across the Taiwan Strait.
Nevertheless, the island's economy still stood on a positive trajectory, according to the DBS report, with 2.7 percent GDP growth likely to be the figure for 2019, and basic factors still looking positive for 2020.
© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan | business |
Vietnam bans all flights to and from China over coronavirus | The government said it would also stop issuing visas for foreign visitors who had been in China in the past two weeks.
All permits granted for flights between Vietnam and China, including Hong Kong and Macau as well as self-ruled Taiwan which China claims as its territory, have been revoked until further notice, the government said in a statement.
But Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said in a later statement that it had spoken to the Vietnamese government and had the ban on flights to the island lifted.
Taiwan's largest carrier, China Airlines, also said flights had returned to normal after it was forced to cancel a service to Hanoi on Saturday.
Vietnam's civil aviation authority confirmed that carriers could still operate flights to Taiwan, but flights to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau were still suspended.
Taiwan is a major investor in Vietnam, investing some $ 32 billion in the past three decades.
Taiwan is also upset that Italy has cancelled flights by China Airlines between Taipei and Rome as part of Italy's ban on flights from China, though China Airlines will be allowed to carry back stranded passengers on Monday.
Johnson Chiang, head of the Taiwan Foreign Ministry's Europe department, told reporters in Taipei that was because the World Health Organization, which follows Beijing's guidance and considers Taiwan part of China, had included the island in its warnings about the extent of the virus in China.
Taiwan has only reported 10 cases of the virus, compared to almost 12,000 in China, including 259 deaths.
Budget carrier Vietjet Air and the national firm, Vietnam Airlines, earlier said they would suspend all flights to and from China from Feb. 1.
( This story corrects first name of the head of the Taiwan Foreign Ministry's Europe department in paragraph 9)
( Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Additional reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard in Taiwan; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Nick Macfie) | business |
Coronavirus: Officials Eye First Suspected Case in New York City | New York City health officials announced on Saturday that a patient at Bellevue Hospital Center might have the new coronavirus and that samples were being sent to the federal authorities for laboratory testing. If confirmed, it would be the first known instance of the virus in New York City.
Based on the patient’ s symptoms and travel history from China, city officials were taking the potential case seriously. This was the first time city officials had sent a sample to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing.
Another reason the health authorities suspect it might be the new coronavirus: They had tested the patient for influenza and other common illnesses, and those tests came back negative, health officials said.
They said they did not expect to receive results from the C.D.C. for 36 to 48 hours, or possibly longer.
“ An individual with a travel history to China felt unwell and sought help from a medical provider who promptly contacted the Health Department, ” the health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, said in a statement.
At a news conference on Saturday night at the hospital, she said officials were confirming “ our first individual who has been designated as a patient under investigation. ”
City officials offered scant details about the patient. The person is under 40 years old, does not have family in New York City and was in stable condition. Dr. Barbot said the patient’ s symptoms included “ a fever, cough, and a runny nose. ”
Freddi Goldstein, press secretary for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said the patient was vacationing in New York and was staying alone in a hotel. The patient was taken by ambulance to Bellevue from the hotel after calling 911.
The virus is believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has been confirmed in nearly 20 other countries. There are now eight confirmed cases in the United States and over 12,000 worldwide. More than 250 people have died.
Chinese authorities have tried to lock down Wuhan as well as a number of surrounding cities. But millions of people had already left Wuhan between the time the virus began appearing late last year and the imposition of a travel ban.
City officials would not say whether the patient had been in Wuhan or the surrounding area. Dr. Barbot said only that the person had traveled “ from mainland China. ”
Dr. Barbot last week said it was “ inevitable ” that the virus would make its way here. In recent days she has urged calm, telling New Yorkers to go about their lives.
Even those who had recently traveled from Wuhan and felt fine and symptom-free should continue with their regular routine, she said. Plenty of people have heeded her advice but anxiety was clearly rising among others.
In recent days, the sight of people wearing surgical masks as they rode the subway or walked on the streets has grown more common.
While many celebrations of the Lunar New Year, a major Asian holiday, went on as planned across the city’ s Chinatowns, some appeared to have been more sparsely attended than in past years.
At least one large event in Flushing, Queens — the Lunar New Year Chinese Temple Bazaar — was canceled, with organizers acknowledging the “ concerns that many people in the community have about large gatherings at this time, especially because the full risks of the virus are not yet known. ”
In the past week, health officials across New York State have sent samples — taken by means of an oral swab, a nasal swab and by asking a patient to spit — from at least 10 people to the C.D.C. in Atlanta to be tested for the coronavirus. None so far have come back positive for the new coronavirus. Local laboratories do not have that testing capability for now.
Updated June 12, 2020
Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’ s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.
So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “ very rare, ” but she later walked back that statement.
A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.
The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’ s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.
Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.
Exercise researchers and physicians have some blunt advice for those of us aiming to return to regular exercise now: Start slowly and then rev up your workouts, also slowly. American adults tended to be about 12 percent less active after the stay-at-home mandates began in March than they were in January. But there are steps you can take to ease your way back into regular exercise safely. First, “ start at no more than 50 percent of the exercise you were doing before Covid, ” says Dr. Monica Rho, the chief of musculoskeletal medicine at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Thread in some preparatory squats, too, she advises. “ When you haven’ t been exercising, you lose muscle mass. ” Expect some muscle twinges after these preliminary, post-lockdown sessions, especially a day or two later. But sudden or increasing pain during exercise is a clarion call to stop and return home.
States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’ t being told to stay at home, it’ s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.
Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.
If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. ( Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)
Taking one’ s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “ normal ” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’ t have a thermometer ( they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications.
The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’ t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’ t replace hand washing and social distancing.
If you’ ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.
If you’ re sick and you think you’ ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’ s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’ re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’ t be able to get tested.
City health officials say they are ready for this moment, given their history of dealing with unfamiliar or highly contagious viruses.
In 2018 and 2019, the city contended with an outbreak of measles — one of the most contagious diseases — in Brooklyn. And in 2014, Bellevue, the city’ s flagship public hospital, treated an Ebola patient.
“ The current risk is low, and the level of preparedness is high, ” Dr. Barbot said on Tuesday at a news conference in Manhattan’ s Chinatown.
Public health officials have been urging anyone with flulike or respiratory symptoms who has traveled to Wuhan recently — or been in contact with someone who has — to seek medical care immediately.
The officials have also said that patients found to have the new coronavirus may be sent home to ride out the illness if the symptoms seem relatively mild. Patients more severely affected would be hospitalized.
Complicating matters, public health officials said, is that New York is in the midst of a relatively bad flu season.
Alex Traub contributed reporting. | business |
Japan seeks to contain economic impact of virus, new measures come into effect | Japan had 17 confirmed cases as of Friday, including some without symptoms. One of the most recent was a bus guide who worked on a bus tour for tourists from China - the same tour as a bus driver who also came down with the virus.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a Saturday meeting of a government task force coordinating Japan's response to the virus to come up with steps aimed at easing the impact of the outbreak on Japan's economy.
Abe has made tourism a key part of his economic policy, with a large proportion of foreign visitors from China, and major Japanese companies have a number of factories in China.
`` I ask ministers to compile measures to use reserves ( in the state budget) and implement them as soon as possible, '' Abe was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying.
`` The new coronavirus is having a major impact on tourism, the economy and our society as a whole. The government will do its utmost to address the impact. ''
No further details were given, though Abe stressed ensuring that Japanese residents have access to medical checkups and masks, which have been selling out around the nation.
New measures to fight the disease took effect on Saturday, including banning the entry of Chinese holding passports issued by Hubei, where the disease is thought to have originated, as well as all foreigners who had visited the province within two weeks, whether they show symptoms or not.
The government also brought forward implementing measures including compulsory hospitalisation and the use of public funds for treatment by six days to Saturday.
Of the 2.6 million tourists who came to Japan in December 2019, nearly 600,000 were Chinese, outnumbered only by South Koreans, government data shows. Japan aims to have 40 million tourists visit the country in 2020, up from 31.8 million in 2019.
On Friday, the president of Japanese airline ANA Holdings said it was considering suspending flights to China after February reservations plunged, Jiji news agency reported.
JTB Corporation, Japan's largest travel agency, said it was suspending tours to China throughout February, Kyodo news agency reported.
( Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) | business |
India's govt to spend $ 40 billion on farm sector to lift wobbly economy; fiscal deficit slips | Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the 2020/21 budget for the financial year beginning April 1 to parliament, said the fiscal deficit for the current year would widen to 3.8% of gross domestic product, up from 3.3% targeted for the current year.
For fiscal 2020/21 Sitharaman set the fiscal deficit at 3.5 percent as it boosts state funding to shore up a sagging economy that has put pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is already facing a public backlash over a new citizenship law seen as socially divisive. `
To help generate revenue, she also announced the government will reduce stakes in the country's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation as part of its divestment programme.
India is grappling with its worst economic slowdown in a decade. The government estimates economic growth this year, which ends on March 31, will slip to 5%, the weakest pace since the global financial crisis of 2008-09.
Sitharaman said 2.83 trillion Indian rupees ( $ 39.82 billion) will be allocated for agriculture and allied activities including helping farmers set up solar power generation units as well as establish a national cold storage to transport perishables.
`` Farm markets need to be liberalized, farming need to be made more competitive '' she said.
She also said the government will spend $ 50.65 billion on a federal water scheme to address the challenges facing one of the world's most water stressed nations.
Agriculture accounts for 15% of India's gross domestic and a source of livelihood for more than half of the country’ s 1.3 billion population.
Sitharaman said `` water stress related issues are now a serious concern across the country, '' and that the government is proposing comprehensive measures for 100 such water stressed districts.
In its annual economic report, released on Friday, the government predicted that growth would rebound to 6.0% to 6.5% in the fiscal year beginning April 1, but warned that it may have to exceed its deficit target to revive growth.
`` People have reposed faith in our economic policy, '' said Sitharaman to the thumping of desks in parliament. `` This is a budget to boost their income and enhance their purchasing power. ''
Sitharaman also set aside 690 billion rupees for the health sector, up marginally from last year's allocation as the government seeks to implement an ambitious scheme to provide health insurance for millions of people.
Some economists said global trade tensions and the outbreak of coronavirus in China, which has killed more than 250 people so far, pose a new risk to economic recovery by hitting cross-border commerce and supply chains.
`` The economic recovery is likely to be slow and shallow despite the recent measures to boost investments, '' said Anagha Deodhar, an economist at ICICI Securities.
Indian shares got off to a choppy start in a special trading session on Saturday ahead of the budget.
In early trade shares slipped in reaction to an overnight shakeout in global markets on growing concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
By Manoj Kumar, Aftab Ahmed and Mayank Bhardwaj | business |
Caterpillar Lowers 2020 Expectations -- WSJ | By Austen Hufford
Caterpillar Inc. said it expects demand for its machinery to fall this year, widening a performance gap between some manufacturers and an otherwise robust U.S. economy.
The maker of equipment for mining companies and builders around the world said Friday that global economic uncertainty crimped sales in the latest quarter as companies held off on big purchases. Revenue in 2019 was 1.7% lower than a year earlier, and Caterpillar said it expected another decline in 2020.
`` A lot of people have been deferring making capital decisions, '' Andrew Bonfield, Caterpillar's financial chief, said in an interview.
The company's shares closed Friday nearly 3% lower at $ 131.35.
Cost reductions helped offset lower demand in Caterpillar's latest quarter. Adjusted profit per share rose 3.1% as the company reduced production and hired fewer temporary workers.
Caterpillar joined a chorus of manufacturers saying they expect sluggish conditions to carry into 2020. Lingering trade tensions, Boeing Co.'s idled 737 MAX production lines and the coronavirus outbreak in China all threaten to extend a rough patch for U.S. factories.
`` The industrial economy in the United States is very weak, '' Stanley Black & Decker Inc. Chief Executive James Loree said in an interview last week. He said suppliers and producers were experiencing an inventory mismatch that he expects to dissipate in time. The company has said it expects slowdowns in automobile production and domestic oil-and-gas drilling to continue in the first half of this year.
3M Co. Chief Executive Mike Roman said this week that he expects the conglomerate's sales to other manufacturers to lag sales to consumers this year. The maker of an array of products from electrical tape to molar crowns is planning a second round of layoffs in less than a year as part of a global restructuring.
`` The industrial-production-related businesses are a little lower growth, `` Mr. Roman said in an interview.
DuPont de Nemours Inc., which makes nylon and other materials, and paint company PPG Industries Inc. both said lower industrial demand would weigh on business this year as well. Conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. on Friday reported lower-than-expected sales for the fourth quarter.
The U.S. manufacturing sector contracted for five straight months through December, according to the Institute for Supply Management. New orders for so-called core capital goods, which excludes aircraft and defense orders, were largely flat in 2019, according to the Commerce Department.
`` Customers are being cautious due to global economic conditions, '' Caterpillar Chief Executive Jim Umpleby said on a call with analysts.
Still, manufacturing drives just about a tenth of the economy, and other sectors are performing better. Consumer confidence is strong, unemployment is at the lowest level in half a century and incomes are rising. Gross domestic product grew 2.3% last year, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Caterpillar, which sells its construction and mining machines to customers in 193 countries, is widely viewed as a barometer for global industrial vigor. The company, which makes its sales through a network of independent dealers, said it expects revenue to decline this year as demand from companies that buy its machines falls by between 4% and 9%. In North America, Caterpillar said it expects construction activity to decline and demand from oil-and-gas customers to remain weak.
The Deerfield, Ill.-based company said machinery sales fell 14% in North America, 16% in Latin America and 6% in its Europe, Africa and Middle East region for the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Sales in Asia were flat for the quarter.
The coronavirus outbreak in China poses a new threat to businesses operating in the country. Many factories have extended closures planned over the Lunar New Year holiday as people avoid travel.
Caterpillar said it is delaying opening some facilities in China by up to a week, and that its factories in China aren't in parts of the country most affected by the outbreak.
Caterpillar said total revenue, which includes financial services, declined 8.4% for the quarter to $ 13.14 billion as net income rose 4.8% to $ 1.1 billion. Adjusted profit per share rose 3.1% to $ 2.63 in the fourth quarter.
Amber Burton
contributed to this article.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford @ wsj.com
| business |
S.Africa's rand tumbles to 11-week low as coronavirus, power cuts weigh | State firm Eskom, a major threat to growth and government's balance sheet as it struggles to service its 450 billion rand debt, said on Friday nationwide blackouts would continue as it carried out long-delayed maintenance on its creaking fleet coal plants.
At 1500 GMT the rand was 1.31% weaker at 14.9580 per dollar, its worst level since Nov. 11, bringing losses for the week to nearly 4% - the worst amongst emerging market peers, which also suffered as investors dumped risk assets for safer bets.
BNP Paribas economist Jeffrey Schultz said that although concern about the coronavirus outbreak was the major factor driving the market, news that power cuts were continuing added further pressure.
`` This has made markets quite nervous considering the already-weak growth outlook going into the February budget, '' said Schultz.
Eskom resumed power cuts on Thursday evening and said on Friday it would keep throttling supply to the grid through the weekend, as it struggled to replace the emergency capacity it used this week.
Bonds bucked the trend, with yields falling on the benchmark bonds. The yield on the 2030 fell 2.5 basis points to 8.98%.
Analysts said the country's shorter-dated debt remained under pressure and demand for longer-dated issue was also coming under pressure, reflecting the high real return, around 5%, but growing investor concerns about the economy.
`` The curve is pretty steep right now. Government rolling over debt to the belly of the curve. But demand at the vanilla auction on Tuesday was really weak. That reflects how cautious or apprehensive investors are to take on our debt despite the attractive yields, '' said Kieran Siney of ETM Analytics.
`` The demand won't last forever. If the finance minister doesn't implement the necessary reforms out fiscal degradation is just going to accelerate. ''
Stocks closed lower, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Top-40 index falling 0.95% to 50,072 points, and the broader all-share index dropping 0.9% to 56,079 points.
Gold companies made up the majority of the blue-chip stocks that gained on Friday, with Goldfields, Sibanye-Stillwater and AngloGold Ashanti rising 2.63%, 2.46% and 2.1%, respectively.
The biggest loser of the top-40 index was petrochemicals group Sasol, which fell 6.8% after it warned its first-half profits would be lower and cut its earnings outlook from its troubled chemicals project in the United States.
( Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana and Emma Rumney, editing by Louise Heavens) | business |
Earnings volatility set to kick in as coronavirus worries mount | Earnings-related stock moves have been smaller this season in comparison with the average over the past 12 quarters, according to data from options research company ORATS.
The muted moves reflect a broader trend of subdued volatility that had limited price fluctuations in a range of assets over the last several months. Some of that calm was disrupted this week, as mounting concerns over the spread of the coronavirus on Friday dealt the benchmark S & P 500 stock index its biggest daily percentage loss since October.
The dampened earnings-related moves have benefited options sellers, who profit when the change in share price is smaller than expected.
Yet betting that earnings-related moves will remain subdued could soon become more costly.
Options traders have priced in more volatility for broader exchange-traded funds. Implied volatility on the SPDR S & P 500 ETF Trust, which shows expectations for future stock swings, has climbed since mid-January, according to data from Trade Alert. That rise coincides with mounting concerns over the potential economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
`` The options market is reflecting this new risk, this coronavirus risk, '' said Ophir Gottlieb, chief executive of Capital Market Laboratories in Los Angeles.
Moreover, risks from the virus outbreak are beginning to spill over into earnings commentary. Companies such as Starbucks Corp, Levi Strauss & Co and Oreos maker Mondelez International Inc have warned of a financial hit from the outbreak. As such remarks pile up, they could also bump up volatility among shares of certain companies, Gottlieb said.
`` Some CEOs are openly saying, 'Hey, things are going to be a little harder, ' '' Gottlieb said.
At the same time, the fourth and fifth weeks of the six-week earnings season have usually reaped the greatest rewards for traders buying options in anticipation of outsized stock moves, according to ORATS data.
Earnings-related moves tend to be greater in those weeks in part because smaller companies, whose stocks are often more volatile, tend to report later in the season, said Matt Amberson, founder of ORATS, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Options for several S & P 500 companies reporting next week - including Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, Twitter Inc and Coty Inc - show a gap of several percentage points between investors ' expectations for share moves and past share performance after quarterly reports.
It appears that the cost of buying options on individual stocks ahead of a company's earnings report is `` getting cheaper when it should be getting more expensive, '' Amberson said.
By April Joyner | business |
The Wuhan virus has highlighted the dangers of China's censorship system | James Griffiths is a Senior Producer for CNN International and author of ``
The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet
. ''
Hong Kong ( CNN)
The Great Firewall of China has always been annoying, but it's not usually this deadly.
As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread around China and the world, many are questioning how much the country's colossal censorship apparatus played a role in withholding vital information about the epidemic until it was too late.
In the weeks after the virus was first detected in Wuhan, local and national authorities followed the usual playbook for any potential controversy:
knee-jerk censorship and tight control
of the narrative. Politicians downplayed the severity of the virus, while police went after `` rumormongers '' and censors deleted any commentary that questioned the official line.
As the crisis has worsened, however -- with thousands of confirmed cases and hundreds of deaths nationwide -- it has become clear that the failure to take quick action likely undermined any chance of containing the virus.
Heads will likely roll in Wuhan, where the city's mayor Zhou Xianwang has already
publicly offered to resign
, admitting that his administration's warnings were `` not sufficient. ''
Read More
But even as censorship has lessened somewhat in the face of intense public anger and scrutiny, allowing Chinese media to swarm Wuhan and blow holes in parts of the official line, the government continues to shape and control the story in China, and there are signs that any tolerance for dissent may already be slipping away.
The costs of control
Speaking to state broadcaster CCTV this week, Zhou said that Wuhan officials `` understand that the public is unsatisfied with our information disclosure. ''
But even as he was very publicly being set up as the fall guy, Zhou hinted that there was plenty of blame to go around. `` I hope the public can understand that it's an infectious disease, and relevant information should be released according to the law, '' he said. `` As a local government, we can only disclose information after being authorized. ''
Indeed, for all their personal failings, officials in Wuhan operate in a national system which encourages exactly the type of approach they took.
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, control over the media and internet has increased and tolerance for dissent and counter narratives has practically disappeared. Government critics and `` rumormongers '' have been arrested and imprisoned, and Chinese media's already tight leash has been shortened further since he came to power.
This has allowed Xi to secure control of the Communist Party and the country, making him the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, but it has also severely undermined the important watchdog role that the media and internet play on the government in freer societies. In most cases, this additional control is to the Party's benefit, but the Wuhan crisis shows the dark side of only having the official narrative.
Even some Party officials seem to realize this. In a
commentary
published by the country's Supreme Court this week, a senior judge condemned police in Wuhan for arresting `` rumormongers '' who, it has since emerged, were merely medical workers trying to warn people of the potential dangers of the new virus.
According to state media, those arrested included a doctor who told a private group chat that a new, SARS-like virus ( severe acute respiratory syndrome) was spreading in Wuhan -- something that was completely true.
Speaking to the Global Times
, one top health official praised them as `` whistleblowers. ''
`` If the public listened to this 'rumor ' at the time, and adopted measures such as wearing masks, strict disinfection and avoiding going to the wildlife market ( at the center of the outbreak), this might have helped prevent and control the virus ' spread today, '' the Supreme Court commentary said.
It added that `` after this battle, we must learn profound lessons from it, '' though it emphasized this does not mean abandoning the Party's direction of `` authoritative informational channels '' or allowing widespread criticism.
Charlie Smith, founder of GreatFire.org, a censorship monitor, told CNN that `` it's a tough situation for the censors. Can you actually imagine being a censor at this moment and wondering if these rumors might actually be true? ''
Smith has long predicted a breaking point for censorship in China, due in part to how it affects handling of crises like Wuhan. `` This is one of those moments where it really could end, if the authorities decided it was more important to stop the virus from spreading than to protect the Party. ''
World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on January 28, 2020.
Tolerance of dissent
China may have the most sophisticated censorship apparatus in the world, but a system of restriction that does not bend risks breaking entirely. Far from banning all dissent and discussion, it is instead allowed in a sudden burst, like a pressure valve releasing, and then quickly tightened up again.
This was the case after SARS in 2003, when the cover-up was far wider reaching and the blame spread across the entire government, leading to a rare public apology.
It was also the case in 2011
, when a high-speed rail crash saw a sudden flowering of citizen reporting and overoptimistic predictions that the Great Firewall was unable to control the new world of social media.
After both of those incidents, the Party maintained control and was able to rein in both an emboldened press and whatever new challenge would supposedly prove too much for the Firewall, be it blogs, social media, or encrypted messaging apps.
The head of the World Health Organization ( WHO) has
praised China
for being `` completely committed to transparency, both internally and externally, '' and undoubtedly, the government has been far more open than it was in 2003, when it covered up details about SARS even from the WHO.
But as the ( limited) public discussion of the Wuhan virus and response to it continues online for now, we are already seeing signs that greater control is on the horizon -- especially as Xi assumes personal direction of the response, as any criticism of it risks undermining his authority.
Speaking at a meeting of a top level committee looking into the virus, Xi
twice emphasized
the importance of `` strengthening the guidance of public opinion '' -- Party speak for censorship. He has also
appointed
Wang Huning,
China's top propagandist
, to the second most senior place on the committee, behind only Premier Li Keqiang.
And for all the Supreme Court's talk of tolerating rumors, China's top social platforms know which way the wind is blowing. In a statement
published by state media
, the country's biggest messaging app WeChat promised to `` resolutely and continuously crack down on rumor-like information. '' | general |
Trip com: What US Influenza Data Tells Us About the 2019 Novel Coronavirus - a Brief Version of James Liang and Huang Wenzheng's Op-Ed |
In response to the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV), James Liang and Huang Wenzheng released a research paper comparing the data presented in the current novel coronavirus with the influenza in the United States over the past nine years. Author: James Liang, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board Trip.com Group Ltd. ( Nasdaq: TCOM), and Huang Wenzheng, Researcher of CCG ( Center for China and Globalization) * The opinions expressed here are entirely their own. The Trip.com Group Ltd. was not involved in its creation.
The preliminary data suggested that the novel coronavirus is more contagious but less fatal than SARS, an epidemic that broke out in China in 2003. Some infected individuals show no or mild symptoms in the initial stage, and the most severe or fatal cases were those of elderly people with pre-existing conditions. These clinical features are similar to those of influenza. Novel coronavirus and influenza are both respiratory diseases caused by viral infection, though showing somewhat different symptoms.
The research analyses that the mortality rate of the novel coronavirus outside of Hubei, the originating place, is 0.1% lower than the figure of influenza in the US with 0.13%. It also says among the three communicable disease of novel coronavirus, SARS and influenza, the mortality rate of the novel coronavirus is closer to influenza and much lower than SARS.
At present, hospitals in Hubei and Wuhan do not have the capacity to treat such a massive number of suspected patients, leading to concern that not all infections are accounted for, and the rate of infection for influenza in the US seems to support this theory.
In sum, as long as the fatality rate does not increase significantly, even if many more cases would be diagnosed, we need not be overly pessimistic. It is certainly unwise to relax the disease control measures currently in place, but we hope our analysis can add to a better understanding of the epidemic, and help to dampen the panic around China and the world.
The observation from the analysis is also consistent with the Chinese government’ s recommendation for those with no or mild symptoms to remain at home under quarantine. No city can afford to treat all patients with mild discomforts, and excessive hospitalization as a result of panic could even increase the risk of infection.
The relatively low number of deaths outside Wuhan observed so far could be a sign that this disease might not be as fatal as it initially appeared. It is also noted that the World Health Organization did not recommend limiting trade and movement, and while it is unclear how much this decision had to do with the relatively low fatality rate outside Hubei and the zero fatalities outside China, governments and companies worldwide are hoped to take those important observations into account in their response to the outbreak of this epidemic.
View source version on businesswire.com: https: //www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200201005009/en/ | business |
Hyatt, Shangri-La extend cancellation policy for Chinese travellers | The extension will apply to guests from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan looking to stay at any Hyatt hotel globally, the hotel group said on its official WeChat account on Saturday.
The policy allows guests who had booked stays through Hyatt's official channels and are cancelling due to coronavirus or Chinese guests outbound to its Asia Pacific hotels, to cancel or change dates free of charge. The cancellation policy was initially offered for bookings made up to Feb. 10.
Customers that had booked to stay at Hyatt hotels in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan can also cancel or change their reservations free of charge, it said.
Shangri-la Hotels also said on Saturday it would allow travellers from China to cancel hotel bookings through Feb. 29. Customers booked into its Chinese hotels can also cancel free of charge, it said in a statement posted on WeChat.
And China’ s Meituan Dianping said it would extend a free refunds policy for hotel reservations on its travel booking platform, also until the end of February.
( Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Clelia Oziel) | business |
As New Coronavirus Spread, China’ s Old Habits Delayed Fight | WUHAN, China — A mysterious illness had stricken seven patients at a hospital, and a doctor tried to warn his medical school classmates. “ Quarantined in the emergency department, ” the doctor, Li Wenliang, wrote in an online chat group on Dec. 30, referring to patients.
“ So frightening, ” one recipient replied, before asking about the epidemic that began in China in 2002 and ultimately killed nearly 800 people. “ Is SARS coming again? ”
In the middle of the night, officials from the health authority in the central city of Wuhan summoned Dr. Li, demanding to know why he had shared the information. Three days later, the police compelled him to sign a statement that his warning constituted “ illegal behavior. ”
The illness was not SARS, but something similar: a coronavirus that is now on a relentless march outward from Wuhan, throughout the country and across the globe, killing at least 304 people in China and infecting more than 14,380 worldwide.
The virus has infected more than 5,184,100 people in at least 177 countries.
The government’ s initial handling of the epidemic allowed the virus to gain a tenacious hold. At critical moments, officials chose to put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis to avoid public alarm and political embarrassment.
A reconstruction of the crucial seven weeks between the appearance of the first symptoms in early December and the government’ s decision to lock down the city, based on two dozen interviews with Wuhan residents, doctors and officials, on government statements and on Chinese media reports, points to decisions that delayed a concerted public health offensive.
In those weeks, the authorities silenced doctors and others for raising red flags. They played down the dangers to the public, leaving the city’ s 11 million residents unaware they should protect themselves. They closed a food market where the virus was believed to have started, but didn’ t broadly curb the wildlife trade.
Their reluctance to go public, in part, played to political motivations as local officials prepared for their annual congresses in January. Even as cases climbed, officials declared repeatedly that there had likely been no more infections.
By not moving aggressively to warn the public and medical professionals, public health experts say, the Chinese government lost one of its best chances to keep the disease from becoming an epidemic.
“ This was an issue of inaction, ” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies China. “ There was no action in Wuhan from the local health department to alert people to the threat. ”
The first case, the details of which are limited and the specific date unknown, was in early December. By the time the authorities galvanized into action on Jan. 20, the disease had grown into a formidable threat.
It is now a global health emergency. It has triggered travel restrictions around the world, shaken financial markets and created perhaps the greatest challenge yet for China’ s leader, Xi Jinping. The crisis could upend Mr. Xi’ s agenda for months or longer, even undermining his vision of a political system that offers security and growth in return for submission to iron-fisted authoritarianism.
On the last day of 2019, after Dr. Li’ s message was shared outside the group, the authorities focused on controlling the narrative. The police announced that they were investigating eight people for spreading rumors about the outbreak.
That same day, Wuhan’ s health commission, its hand forced by those “ rumors, ” announced that 27 people were suffering from pneumonia of an unknown cause. Its statement said there was no need to be alarmed.
“ The disease is preventable and controllable, ” the statement said.
Dr. Li, an ophthalmologist, went back to work after being reprimanded. On Jan. 10, he treated a woman for glaucoma. He did not know she had already been infected with the coronavirus, probably by her daughter. They both became sick. So would he.
Hu Xiaohu, who sold processed pork in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, sensed by late December that something was amiss. Workers were coming down with nagging fevers. No one knew why but, Mr. Hu said, several were in hospital quarantine.
The market occupies much of a block in a newer part of the city, sitting incongruously near apartment buildings and shops catering to the growing middle class. It is a warren of stalls selling meats, poultry and fish, as well as more exotic fare, including live reptiles and wild game that some in China prize as delicacies. According to a report by the city’ s center for disease control, sanitation was dismal, with poor ventilation and garbage piled on wet floors.
In hospitals, doctors and nurses were puzzled to see a cluster of patients with symptoms of a viral pneumonia that did not respond to the usual treatments. They soon noticed that many patients had one thing in common: They worked in Huanan market.
On Jan. 1, police officers showed up at the market, along with public health officials, and shut it down. Local officials issued a notice that the market was undergoing an environmental and hygienic cleanup related to the pneumonia outbreak. That morning, workers in hazmat suits moved in, washing out stalls and spraying disinfectants.
It was, for the public, the first visible government response to contain the disease. The day before, on Dec. 31, national authorities had alerted the World Health Organization’ s office in Beijing of an outbreak.
Here’ s what early research says about how the pathogen behaves and the factors that will determine how far it will spread.
City officials struck optimistic notes in their announcements. They suggested they had stopped the virus at its source. The cluster of illnesses was limited. There was no evidence the virus spread between humans.
“ Projecting optimism and confidence, if you don’ t have the data, is a very dangerous strategy, ” said Alexandra Phelan, a faculty research instructor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University.
“ It undermines the legitimacy of the government in messaging, ” she added. “ And public health is dependent on public trust. ”
Nine days after the market closed, a man who shopped there regularly became the first fatality of the disease, according to a report by the Wuhan Health Commission, the agency that oversees public health and sanitation. The 61-year-old, identified by his last name, Zeng, already had chronic liver disease and a tumor in his abdomen, and had checked into Wuhan Puren Hospital with a raging fever and difficulty breathing.
The authorities disclosed the man’ s death two days after it happened. They did not mention a crucial detail in understanding the course of the epidemic. Mr. Zeng’ s wife had developed symptoms five days after he did.
She had never visited the market.
About 20 miles from the market, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were studying samples from the patients checking into the city’ s hospitals. One of the scientists, Zheng-Li Shi, was part of the team that tracked down the origins of the SARS virus, which emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in 2002.
As the public remained largely in the dark about the virus, she and her colleagues quickly pieced together that the new outbreak was related to SARS. The genetic composition suggested a common initial host: bats. The SARS epidemic began when a coronavirus jumped from bats to Asian palm civets, a catlike creature that is legally raised and consumed. It was likely that this new coronavirus had followed a similar path — possibly somewhere in or on the way to the Huanan market or another market like it.
Around the same time, Dr. Li and other medical professionals in Wuhan started trying to provide warnings to colleagues and others when the government did not. Lu Xiaohong, the head of gastroenterology at City Hospital No. 5, told China Youth Daily that she had heard by Dec. 25 that the disease was spreading among medical workers — a full three weeks before the authorities would acknowledge the fact. She did not go public with her concerns, but privately warned a school near another market.
By the first week of January, the emergency ward in Hospital No. 5 was filling; the cases included members of the same family, making it clear that the disease was spreading through human contact, which the government had said was not likely.
No one realized, the doctor said, that it was as serious as it would become until it was too late to stop it.
“ I realized that we had underestimated the enemy, ” she said.
At the Institute of Virology, Dr. Shi and her colleagues isolated the genetic sequence and the viral strain during the first week of January. They used samples from seven of the first patients, six of them vendors at the market.
On Jan. 7, the institute’ s scientists gave the new coronavirus its identity and began referring to it by the technical shorthand 2019-nCoV. Four days later, the team shared the virus’ s genetic makeup in a public database for scientists everywhere to use.
That allowed scientists around the world to study the virus and swiftly share their findings. As the scientific community moved quickly to devise a test for exposure, political leaders remained reluctant to act.
As the virus spread in early January, the mayor of Wuhan, Zhou Xianwang, was touting futuristic health care plans for the city.
It was China’ s political season, when officials gather for annual meetings of People’ s Congresses — the Communist Party-run legislatures that discuss and praise policies. It is not a time for bad news.
When Mr. Zhou delivered his annual report to the city’ s People’ s Congress on Jan. 7 against a backdrop of bright red national flags, he promised the city top-class medical schools, a World Health Expo, and a futuristic industry park for medical companies. Not once did he or any other city or provincial leader publicly mention the viral outbreak.
“ Stressing politics is always No. 1, ” the governor of Hubei, Wang Xiaodong, told officials on Jan. 17, citing Mr. Xi’ s precepts of top-down obedience. “ Political issues are at any time the most fundamental major issues. ”
Updated May 20, 2020
Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.
Over 38 million people have filed for unemployment since March. One in five who were working in February reported losing a job or being furloughed in March or the beginning of April, data from a Federal Reserve survey released on May 14 showed, and that pain was highly concentrated among low earners. Fully 39 percent of former workers living in a household earning $ 40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13 percent in those making more than $ 100,000, a Fed official said.
If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. ( Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)
There is an uptick in people reporting symptoms of chilblains, which are painful red or purple lesions that typically appear in the winter on fingers or toes. The lesions are emerging as yet another symptom of infection with the new coronavirus. Chilblains are caused by inflammation in small blood vessels in reaction to cold or damp conditions, but they are usually common in the coldest winter months. Federal health officials do not include toe lesions in the list of coronavirus symptoms, but some dermatologists are pushing for a change, saying so-called Covid toe should be sufficient grounds for testing.
Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’ t live in your home. Even if you just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea.
Taking one’ s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “ normal ” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’ t have a thermometer ( they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications.
The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’ t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’ t replace hand washing and social distancing.
If you’ ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.
If you’ re sick and you think you’ ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’ s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’ re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’ t be able to get tested.
Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities.
Shortly after, Wuhan went ahead with a massive annual potluck banquet for 40,000 families from a city precinct, which critics later cited as evidence that local leaders took the virus far too lightly.
As the congress was taking place, the health commission’ s daily updates on the outbreak said again and again that there were no new cases of infection, no firm evidence of human transmission and no infection of medical workers.
“ We knew this was not the case! ” said a complaint later filed with the National Health Commission on a government website. The anonymous author said he was a doctor in Wuhan and described a surge in unusual chest illnesses beginning Jan. 12.
Officials told doctors at a top city hospital “ don’ t use the words viral pneumonia on the image reports, ” according to the complaint, which has since been removed. People were complacent, “ thinking that if the official reports had nothing, then we were exaggerating, ” the doctor explained.
Even those stricken felt lulled into complacency.
When Dong Guanghe developed a fever on Jan. 8 in Wuhan, his family was not alarmed, his daughter said. He was treated in the hospital and sent home. Then, 10 days later, Mr. Dong’ s wife fell ill with similar symptoms.
“ The news said nothing about the severity of the epidemic, ” said the daughter, Dong Mingjing. “ I thought that my dad had a common cold. ”
The government’ s efforts to minimize public disclosure persuaded more than just untrained citizens.
“ If there are no new cases in the next few days, the outbreak is over, ” Guan Yi, a respected professor of infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong, said on Jan. 15.
The World Health Organization’ s statements during this period echoed the reassuring words of Chinese officials.
It had spread. Thailand reported the first confirmed case outside China on Jan. 13.
The first deaths and the spread of the disease abroad appeared to grab the attention of the top authorities in Beijing. The national government dispatched Zhong Nanshan, a renowned and now-semiretired epidemiologist who was instrumental in the fight against SARS, to Wuhan to assess the situation.
He arrived on Jan. 18, just as the tone of local officials was shifting markedly. A health conference in Hubei Province that day called on medical workers to make the disease a priority. An internal document from Wuhan Union Hospital warned its employees that the coronavirus could be spread through saliva.
On Jan. 20, more than a month after the first symptoms spread, the current of anxiety that had been steadily gaining strength exploded into public. Dr. Zhong announced in an interview on state television that there was no doubt that the coronavirus spread with human contact. Worse, one patient had infected at least 14 medical personnel.
Mr. Xi, fresh from a state visit to Myanmar, made his first public statement about the outbreak, issuing a brief set of instructions.
It was only with the order from Mr. Xi that the bureaucracy leapt into action. At that point the death toll was three; in the next 11 days, it would rise above 200.
In Wuhan, the city banned tour groups from visiting. Residents began pulling on masks.
Guan Yi, the Hong Kong expert who had earlier voiced optimism that the outbreak could level off, was now alarmed. He dropped by one of the city’ s other food markets and was shocked by the complacency, he said. He told city officials that the epidemic was “ already beyond control ” and would leave. “ I hurriedly booked a departure, ” Dr. Guan told Caixin, a Chinese news organization.
Two days later, the city announced that it was shutting itself down, a move that could only have been approved by Beijing.
In Wuhan, many residents said they did not grasp the gravity of the epidemic until the lockdown. The mass alarm that officials feared at the start became a reality, heightened by the previous paucity of information.
Crowds of people crushed the airport and train stations to get out before the deadline fell on the morning of Jan. 23. Hospitals were packed with people desperate to know if they, too, were infected.
“ We didn’ t wear masks at work. That would have frightened off customers, ” Yu Haiyan, a waitress from rural Hubei, said of the days before the shutdown. “ When they closed off Wuhan, only then did I think, ‘ Oh, this is really serious, this is not some average virus.’ ”
Wuhan’ s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, later took responsibility for the delay in reporting the scale of the epidemic, but said he was hampered by the national law on infectious diseases. That law allows provincial governments to declare an epidemic only after receiving central government approval. “ After I receive information, I can only release it when I’ m authorized, ” he said.
The official reflex for suppressing discomforting information now appears to be cracking, as officials at various levels seek to shift blame for the government’ s response.
With the crisis worsening, Dr. Li’ s efforts are no longer viewed as reckless. A commentary on the social media account of the Supreme People’ s Court criticized the police for investigating people for circulating rumors.
“ It might have been a better way to prevent and control the new coronavirus today if the public had believed the ‘ rumor’ then and started to wear masks and carry out sanitary measures and avoid the wild animal market, ” the commentary said.
Dr. Li is 34 and has a child. He and his wife are expecting a second in the summer. He is now recovering from the virus in the hospital where he worked. In an interview via text messages, he said he felt aggrieved by the police actions.
“ If the officials had disclosed information about the epidemic earlier, ” he said, “ I think it would have been a lot better. There should be more openness and transparency. ”
This article is based on reporting and research by Elsie Chen, Sheri Fink, Claire Fu, Javier Hernandez, Zoe Mou, Amy Qin, Knvul Sheikh, Amber Wang, Yiwei Wang, Sui-Lee Wee, Li Yuan, Albee Zhang and Raymond Zhong. | business |
The Biggest U.S. Pension Bought Up Uber, Lyft, and Beyond Meat Stock Before They Rallied | California’ s so-called gig-economy law was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.
The upshot to the law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, is that it would classify workers such as Uber Technologies ( ticker: UBER) and Lyft ( LYFT) drivers as employees eligible for benefits including sick days and paid time off. Those two companies claim their drivers are independent contractors excluded from such benefits.
The California law was one more overhang for both Uber and Lyft stock, and both ended 2019 in the red from the prices set at their 2019 initial public offerings. Uber stock ended the year at $ 29.74, down 34% from its $ 45 May IPO price. Lyft stock crumbed 40% to $ 43.02 from its March IPO price of $ 72.
The largest U.S. public pension, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, literally had a front-row seat to issues around the gig-economy legislation. Of its 13-member board, two are appointed by the governor and four are members of the state government.
Yet Calpers, as the pension is known, chose to dramatically increase its investments in both Uber and Lyft stock in the fourth quarter, as the clock was ticking down for the companies to come into compliance with the new law. The pension also bought up Alibaba Group Holding ( BABA) and Beyond Meat stock ( BYND) in the quarter. Calpers disclosed the trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Calpers, which manages $ 372.6 billion in assets, declined to comment on the trades.
The pension increased investments in both Uber and Lyft by nearly sixfold in the fourth quarter. Calpers bought 1.63 million more Uber shares, lifting its holdings to 1.96 million shares at the end of 2019. It bulked up the Lyft investment by 275,521 shares to 336,500 shares.
Both stocks surged in the first month of 2020. Uber stock is up 22.0% through Friday’ s close, while Lyft stock has tacked on 10.4%, compared with the relatively sedate S & P 500, which is flat. Uber has allowed California drivers to set their own fares to bolster its case that drivers aren’ t employees. Lyft hasn’ t made the same change, but the two rivals are allies in opposing the reclassification of drivers as company employees.
American depositary receipts of Alibaba surged 54.7% in 2019, and the Chinese e-commerce giant had a strong showing with a listing in Hong Kong. We noted in December that at least one analyst saw a double-digit rise for Alibaba ADRs in 2020 as the company leverages its technology to an increasingly digital economy in China. For now, though, Alibaba ADRs are down 2.6% this year, as a deadly coronavirus outbreak has shut down entire cities in China.
Calpers bought 1.3 million more Alibaba ADRs in the fourth quarter, ending 2019 with 4.1 million.
The pension also loaded up on Beyond Meat stock in the quarter, multiplying its stake five times to 108,444 shares. The maker of plant-based burgers and more has seen shares rally 46.1% this year. Momentum from an expanded Canadian trial by McDonald’ s ( MCD) has provided some lift. Beyond Meat stock tripled in 2019 from an IPO price of $ 25.
One analyst thinks there isn’ t much upside left in Beyond Meat stock. But just this week, the company announced that Denny’ s ( DENN) would be serving Beyond Meat burgers in 1,700 outlets in the U.S. and Canada.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’ s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups. | business |
Japan succeeds in isolating Wuhan coronavirus in step toward vaccine and test kit | The National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Friday that it has succeeded in cultivating and isolating the new coronavirus, first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, from a person in Japan who has been confirmed to have the virus.
Using the isolated virus, the institute will start work to develop a vaccine and a drug for the coronavirus, as well as a test kit capable of quick diagnosis. It will also offer the isolated virus to researchers and companies, while trying to discover the infection mechanism and promoting research on the toxicity of the virus.
The isolated virus’ gene sequences 99.9 percent matched those released by the Chinese government, according to the Japanese institute.
In the isolated virus, there was no gene mutation leading to higher infectiousness or toxicity, the institute said.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. | tech |
Pentagon to provide housing for up to 1,000 people over coronavirus concerns |
The Pentagon said Saturday that Defense Secretary Mark Esper has approved a request to provide military housing for up to 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined upon arrival in the United States from overseas travel due to concerns about possible infection from
coronavirus
.
The Pentagon said the Department of Health and Human Services requested that the Defense Department provide several facilities capable of housing at least 250 people in individual rooms through February 29.
The Pentagon said the locations selected to assist, if needed, are: the 168th Regiment, Regional Training Institute in Fort Carson, Colorado; the Travis Air Force Base in California; the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas; the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.
`` Under the request, DOD will only provide housing support, while HHS will be responsible for all care, transportation, and security of the evacuees. DOD personnel will not be directly in contact with the evacuees and evacuees will not have access to any base location other than their assigned housing, '' the Pentagon said in a statement.
A deadly virus is spreading from state to state and has infected 19 million Americans so far. It's influenza
`` In accordance with ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, all evacuees will be monitored for a period of 14 days. Should routine monitoring of the evacuees identify ill individuals, HHS has procedures in place to transport them to a local civilian hospital, '' the statement continued.
The coronavirus outbreak has killed at least 259 people and infected close to 12,000 people globally, as it continues to spread beyond China.
Read More
For comparison, in the 2019-2020 season so far, at least 19 million people in the US have gotten the flu and 10,000 people have died from it, including at least 68 children. Flu activity has been widespread in nearly every region, with high levels of activity in 41 states, the CDC reported this week.
Coronavirus has been confirmed in more than a dozen countries and territories since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. Countries are now sending planes to evacuate their citizens from the infection zone, and imposing travel bans or restrictions on travelers from China.
Nearly 60 million people are under lockdown in Chinese cities as international researchers race to develop a vaccine and halt its spread.
CNN's Kate Sullivan and Scottie Andrew contributed to this report. | general |
India announces $ 40 billion spending on farms, tax cuts to revive faltering growth | India is grappling with its worst economic slowdown in a decade, with falling employment, consumption and investment ratcheting up pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revive growth.
The government estimates economic growth this year, which ends on March 31, will slip to 5%, the weakest pace since the global financial crisis of 2008-09. It has also warned that an expected bounce back in growth the following year might entail a blow out in fiscal deficit targets.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the 2020/21 budget for the financial year beginning April 1 to parliament on Saturday, said 2.83 trillion Indian rupees ( £30.3 billion) will be allocated for agriculture and allied activities including helping farmers set up solar power generation units as well as establish a national cold storage to transport perishables.
`` Farm markets need to be liberalised, farming need to be made more competitive '' she said.
She also said the government will spend $ 50.65 billion on a federal water scheme to address the challenges facing one of the world's most water stressed nations.
Agriculture accounts for 15% of India's gross domestic and a source of livelihood for more than half of the country’ s 1.3 billion population.
But higher government spending has put pressure on public finances, prompting caution from rating agencies. Sitharaman said the fiscal deficit for the current year would widen to 3.8% of gross domestic product, up from 3.3% targeted for the current year.
For fiscal 2020/21 Sitharaman set the fiscal deficit at 3.5 percent as it boosts state funding to shore up a sagging economy that has intensified pressure on Modi, who is already facing a public backlash over a new citizenship law seen as socially divisive. `
Gene Fang, Associate Managing Director, Sovereign Risk, Moody’ s Investors Service said: `` India's 2020/21 budget highlights the challenges to fiscal consolidation from slower real and nominal growth, which may continue for longer than the government forecasts. ''
India’ s government debt is already significantly higher than the average for Baa-rated sovereigns – a product of persistent fiscal deficits, it said.
`` While India’ s new budget calls for a modest narrowing of the deficit to 3.5% in the fiscal year 2020/21 from 3.8% in the fiscal year 2019/20, sustained weaker growth and tax cuts would make gross revenue targets difficult to achieve. ''
SHARES FALL
Indian shares slid to an over three-month low on Saturday, with sentiment dented by the lack of sufficient stimulus in the budget to lift the economy, analysts said. The NSE Nifty 50 index dropped as much as 2.1% to 11,717.45, while the benchmark S & P BSE Sensex slumped 1.95%
`` Markets had very high expectations from the budget, including that long term capital gains would be removed which would have incentivised people to hold on to shares for a longer time, '' said Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities `` These expectations have not been met. ''
Consumption, the bedrock of India's $ 2.9 trillion economy, has fallen so much that the IMF cited it as one reason for trimming its global growth forecast last month.
Sitharaman announced the introduction of a new personal tax system under which she offered cuts for those ready to give up a myriad of existing tax breaks.
`` People have reposed faith in our economic policy, '' said Sitharaman to the thumping of desks in parliament. `` This is a budget to boost their income and enhance their purchasing power. ''
The government also announced higher duties on a host of imports from walnuts to automobiles and even smartphone components.
Sitharaman increased taxes on imports of pre-assembled printed circuit boards to 20% from the previous 10%, and imposed new taxes on mobile phones ringers, display panels in a bid to boost local manufacturing of smartphones, like neighbouring China.
To help generate revenue, she also announced the government will reduce stakes in the country's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation as part of its divestment programme.
In its annual economic report, released on Friday, the government predicted that growth would rebound to 6.0% to 6.5% in the fiscal year beginning April 1, but warned that it may have to exceed its deficit target to revive growth.
Some economists said global trade tensions and the outbreak of coronavirus in China, which has killed more than 250 people so far, pose a new risk to economic recovery by hitting cross-border commerce and supply chains.
By Manoj Kumar, Aftab Ahmed and Mayank Bhardwaj | business |
York University student is one of two in UK to test positive for coronavirus | One of the first two people to test positive for coronavirus in the UK is a student at the University of York.
The pair – two members of the same family – are being treated at a specialist unit in Newcastle. They had checked into the Staycity apartment-hotel in York on Wednesday and were taken to hospital that evening.
Health chiefs confirmed on Friday that two people had tested positive for the virus, which has killed 259 people in China.
The university’ s vice-chancellor, Prof Charlie Jeffery, said: “ Our immediate concerns are for the affected student and family, along with the health and continued wellbeing of our students, staff, and the residents and visitors of our city.
“ We understand this development will cause concern and anxiety. I want to reassure our students, staff and the wider community that we are working closely with the lead agency, Public Health England, and other agencies to manage this situation. ”
He stressed that the university would continue to operate as normal. “ I want to reiterate to students, staff, parents and visitors that we’ re working with our partners across the city to ensure that York and the university remain a safe and welcoming place to live, work and visit. ”
The university students’ union president, Samara Jones, said many students were likely to be worried by the news. “ The student community at York is a tight-knit, global community and we will continue to support one another at this time, ” she said.
“ I would encourage students with any questions to keep an eye on the university website for any developments and key information. Our dedicated helpline will remain open over the weekend. ”
A spokesman confirmed that the university was continuing to operate as normal. He said: “ We are monitoring the situation closely and we continue to provide as much advice, care and support as we can to our university community. If people have any concerns about their health in relation to suspected coronavirus, we ask that they follow current PHE advice and contact NHS 111. ”
Staycity said the apartment involved had been thoroughly disinfected and that PHE had been providing support.
The patients are being treated by Newcastle-upon-Tyne hospitals NHS foundation trust in its specialist Airborne High Consequences Infectious Disease Centre ( HCID).
Prof Sharon Peacock said PHE was contacting people who had close contact – defined as being within two metres of the infected person for 15 minutes – with the pair. | general |
Coronavirus crisis brings out worst in toxic Hong Kong society already scarred by the revolution of our times | I must confess I did not put on a face mask even at the height of the | business |
Brexit supporters say'see EU ' with a bang | Hi, what are you looking for?
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Thousands of pro-Brexit supporters in central London erupted in cheers, sent balloons into the sky and sang `` Rule Britannia '', as Britain left the European Union on Friday.
Men and women of all ages from around the country, many decked out in the red, white and blue colours of the Union Jack flag, hugged and kissed, while fireworks were set off into the night sky.
`` Absolutely fantastic, '' said Karen Ollerton, 65, from Wigan, in northwest England. `` I wanted to be here tonight to see the celebrations. It was absolutely amazing. ''
Some perched on the statue of Britain's World War II leader Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, shouting `` freedom '' and `` Brexit '', and letting off a flare that blazed red in the darkness.
Organiser Nigel Farage, the arch populist who has made a political career out of euroscepticism, described Brexit as `` the greatest moment in the modern history of our great nation ''.
`` We can celebrate the fact that free from the constraints of the EU, we once again will be able to find our place in the world, '' he told the crowd, to huge cheers.
`` Westminster became detached from ordinary people. But those people started to rise. For the first time in history, the people have beaten the establishment. Democracy has won. ''
He added: `` What happens now marks the point of no return. Once we have left, we are never, ever going back... The war is over. We have won! ''
- Blind faith -
Farage joined prominent `` Brexiteers '' including the boss of the Wetherspoons pub chain Tim Martin, and veteran politician Ann Widdecombe, who earlier left Brussels as a European lawmaker.
But ordinary Britons said they were sad that the country's 47-year marriage to the EU ended in divorce.
`` I 'm just glad it's done, '' said Cory, 29, a blind man from southeast London, who listened to descriptions of the celebrations from others in the crowd.
`` But it's also sadness in a tiny part because the EU could have done more if they had been a little bit more in tune with member countries. It could have worked out. ''
Recruitment firm managing director John Moss, from Southampton, on the English south coast, said he had `` risked everything '' to back Brexit, lost money and fallen out with some of his family.
But he was convinced it would happen in the end -- and, like any split, hoped to stay friends.
`` I 've got a bottle of English sparkling wine for tonight and I 'm going to enjoy it. But I won't stop drinking German beer! They're our friends and that will continue. We're both free, '' he said.
`` They can now do their European project. My uncle won't talk to me because of my beliefs. Now we all need to come together. It's done. ''
Thousands of pro-Brexit supporters in central London erupted in cheers, sent balloons into the sky and sang “ Rule Britannia ”, as Britain left the European Union on Friday.
Men and women of all ages from around the country, many decked out in the red, white and blue colours of the Union Jack flag, hugged and kissed, while fireworks were set off into the night sky.
“ Absolutely fantastic, ” said Karen Ollerton, 65, from Wigan, in northwest England. “ I wanted to be here tonight to see the celebrations. It was absolutely amazing. ”
Some perched on the statue of Britain’ s World War II leader Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, shouting “ freedom ” and “ Brexit ”, and letting off a flare that blazed red in the darkness.
Organiser Nigel Farage, the arch populist who has made a political career out of euroscepticism, described Brexit as “ the greatest moment in the modern history of our great nation ”.
“ We can celebrate the fact that free from the constraints of the EU, we once again will be able to find our place in the world, ” he told the crowd, to huge cheers.
“ Westminster became detached from ordinary people. But those people started to rise. For the first time in history, the people have beaten the establishment. Democracy has won. ”
He added: “ What happens now marks the point of no return. Once we have left, we are never, ever going back… The war is over. We have won! ”
– Blind faith –
Farage joined prominent “ Brexiteers ” including the boss of the Wetherspoons pub chain Tim Martin, and veteran politician Ann Widdecombe, who earlier left Brussels as a European lawmaker.
But ordinary Britons said they were sad that the country’ s 47-year marriage to the EU ended in divorce.
“ I’ m just glad it’ s done, ” said Cory, 29, a blind man from southeast London, who listened to descriptions of the celebrations from others in the crowd.
“ But it’ s also sadness in a tiny part because the EU could have done more if they had been a little bit more in tune with member countries. It could have worked out. ”
Recruitment firm managing director John Moss, from Southampton, on the English south coast, said he had “ risked everything ” to back Brexit, lost money and fallen out with some of his family.
But he was convinced it would happen in the end — and, like any split, hoped to stay friends.
“ I’ ve got a bottle of English sparkling wine for tonight and I’ m going to enjoy it. But I won’ t stop drinking German beer! They’ re our friends and that will continue. We’ re both free, ” he said.
“ They can now do their European project. My uncle won’ t talk to me because of my beliefs. Now we all need to come together. It’ s done. ”
With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
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The EU's drug regulator will decide Monday whether to approve a Covid jab by Novavax, which uses a more conventional technology.
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White House imposes immigration restrictions on six more nations | Hi, what are you looking for?
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On Friday, the Trump administration announced its expansion of the travel ban, just four days after the U.S. Supreme Court gave the government the go-ahead to implement a rule denying legal permanent residency to certain immigrants deemed likely to require government assistance in the future.
Immigration restrictions will be imposed on Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar ( known as Burma), with exceptions for immigrants who have helped the U.S., according to CNN News.
This latest iteration comes three years after President Donald Trump took office, and in one of his first moves, signed a travel ban – a move that labeled it a “ Muslim ban ” by critics. The current travel ban already restricts entry into the U.S. in varying degrees from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, along with Venezuela and North Korea.
“ These tailored restrictions will make the US safer and more secure, ” Chad Wolf, acting homeland security secretary, said in a statement on Friday, reports the Financial Times.
Targeting African nations Friday’ s latest additions to the travel ban have already sparked angry debate and controversy over its targeting of African countries.
The new restrictions differ from the original ban in that they only include categories of immigration visa applicants. Specifically, all immigrants from Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, and Nigeria will be banned from the US.
“ The ban should be ended, not expanded. President Trump is doubling down on his signature anti-Muslim policy — and using the ban as a way to put even more of his prejudices into practice by excluding more communities of color, ” ACLU’ s director of its Immigrants’ Rights Project, Omar Jadwat, responded in a statement.
Vox.com cites a New York Times story dating back to 2017 when during an Oval Office meeting, Trump told his advisors at the time that Nigerians who set foot in the US would never “ go back to their huts ” in Africa.
Karen Graham is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for environmental news. Karen's view of what is happening in our world is colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in man's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, `` Journalism is merely history's first draft. '' Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.
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The USA grew `` arrogant and self-confident '' after the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the expansion of the NATO.
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Coronavirus garners headlines, but there's another virus stalking America | NEW YORK – A second wave of seasonal influenza is taking hold in the U.S. and elsewhere, just as health officials are on high alert for new cases of the novel coronavirus. Many of the symptoms are the same, but when it comes to immediate risk, people should fear the flu more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 19 million Americans have fallen ill with the flu so far this season, including 180,000 who ended up in the hospital. About 10,000 Americans have died, including more than 60 children.
The flu season has taken a backseat to the coronavirus emanating from Wuhan, China. That pathogen has already infected more than 11,700 people in more than two dozen countries, the vast majority in China.
Both viruses start off similarly: cough, fever and in some cases difficulty breathing. The key difference is that people most at risk for the coronavirus will have either traveled to China or been in close contact with someone who is already infected, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’ s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The flu strain that is emerging now in the U.S. is an H1N1 type of influenza A, the one that normally kicks off the season. It can take hold in adults and may be more severe, resulting in more deaths. Japan has also detected influenza activity slightly earlier than in previous seasons, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Gregory Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said: “ Coronavirus isn’ t a risk for the average American ( or) for anyone who hasn’ t traveled to China or been exposed to someone who has. Their risk is influenza, and it’ s substantial.
“ We get all worked up over exotic-sounding viruses, and I’ m not saying we shouldn’ t, ” Poland said. “ We ignore the annual toll of 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 deaths each year from a virus that we understand pretty well, have treatments for and can vaccinate against. ”
The flu outbreak in the U.S. still isn’ t as bad as 2017-2018, when the virus hit so hard that some hospitals had to set up triage centers in their parking lots. The influenza A that’ s circulating now is the milder form — the one that landed two years ago put 810,000 Americans in the hospital, and resulted in about 61,000 deaths.
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Japanese firms preparing for prolonged economic hit from coronavirus outbreak | Japanese companies that do business in China are starting to consider measures to cope with the possibility of a prolonged coronavirus outbreak.
The spread of the new strain of coronavirus, originating in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has limited the movement of goods and people in the country while forcing plants there to remain closed.
Many Japanese manufacturers have decided to extend the closures of their plants in China by about a week until Feb. 9, beyond the end of the Lunar New Year holiday on Sunday, following instructions from Chinese authorities.
The extended suspensions of operations are unlikely to severely impact the companies if they can reopen their plants by the new date, as many of the plants have certain levels of parts inventories. However, the spread of the new coronavirus seems to be intensifying, casting doubt on whether the plants can be restarted soon.
“ We don’ t know whether we can immediately reopen, ” a Sumitomo Chemical Co. official said.
In light of potential supply chain issues from prolonged suspensions, officials of auto parts makers Aisin Seiki Co. and Toyota Boshoku Corp. said Friday that they are considering the possibility of temporarily relocating their production in China to Japan, Thailand and other areas. The Toyota Motor Corp. affiliates produce parts including automatic transmissions and car seats in China.
Airlines operating routes connecting Japan and China are also responding to the change in the business environment caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
All Nippon Airways President Yuji Hirako said Friday that the company has no choice but to consider suspending some of its China flights as the number of reservations for flights from the country in February has halved from the year before. The airline has already suspended its route between Wuhan and Narita International Airport near Tokyo.
Hideki Kikuyama, Japan Airlines senior managing executive officer, said the same day that “ we need to consider suspending or reducing our flight services to and from China ” if demand falls.
Retailers are facing difficulties from the coronavirus outbreak as well.
On Friday, department store operator Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. revised down its consolidated sales forecast for the fiscal year ending in March by ¥35 billion to ¥1.155 trillion.
The bleaker estimate reflects shortened opening hours at outlets in China and sluggish sales to Chinese tourists at stores in Japan, in addition to slow demand at home following the consumption tax hike last October.
“ We can’ t predict how things will be from March, ” Isetan Mitsukoshi Executive Officer Akira Kinbara said.
The World Health Organization on Thursday declared that the new coronavirus outbreak is a global public health emergency.
The United States expanded its travel warning for the whole of China on the day although the WHO stopped short of advising that travel to and trade with areas affected by the coronavirus outbreak be suspended.
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China virus silences Macau's bustling casinos | Hi, what are you looking for?
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Macau is usually bustling with gamblers during China's Lunar New Year holiday but the flood of tourists has been reduced to a trickle this year as fears grow over a coronavirus that has killed almost 260 people.
The number of visitors to the world's largest casino hub has plunged nearly 80 percent in the past week, transforming the city into a shadow of its former self.
As the only place in China that allows gambling, the former Portuguese colony is normally a huge draw for people from other parts of the vast country.
But on the sixth day of the holiday, only several dozen people were seen at the usually teeming ruins of the 17th-century St Paul's church -- a tourist hotspot.
Most wore surgical masks as a preventative measure against the novel coronavirus, which has infected almost 12,000 people across the nation.
`` Everyone is wearing a mask. It is not convenient to take pictures -- we dare not remove the masks, '' 23-year-old Wei I Ting, a tourist from Taiwan, told AFP.
Shotah Zhang, who owns a pastry shop, said he was worried about the future of his business.
`` As you can see, almost no one is here. We have quite a big problem because we are a small business, '' Zhang said.
The outbreak is dealing a heavy blow to Macau's economy, which has bet most of its chips on gambling and tourism. Figures for January show gaming revenue fell 11.3 percent on the same month last year.
The city had confirmed seven cases of the virus as of Saturday and authorities have announced measures to curb its spread, including temperature checks and mandatory health declarations for visitors at the border with mainland China.
In casinos, all staff have been ordered to wear masks and temperature checks are being carried out at entrances.
The government has also banned anyone who has visited Hubei province -- the epicentre of the outbreak -- from entering casinos altogether.
But a 24-year-old marketing supervisor for a coffee shop was more hopeful.
`` We believe that after the virus is gone, customers will come back, '' she said.
Macau is usually bustling with gamblers during China’ s Lunar New Year holiday but the flood of tourists has been reduced to a trickle this year as fears grow over a coronavirus that has killed almost 260 people.
The number of visitors to the world’ s largest casino hub has plunged nearly 80 percent in the past week, transforming the city into a shadow of its former self.
As the only place in China that allows gambling, the former Portuguese colony is normally a huge draw for people from other parts of the vast country.
But on the sixth day of the holiday, only several dozen people were seen at the usually teeming ruins of the 17th-century St Paul’ s church — a tourist hotspot.
Most wore surgical masks as a preventative measure against the novel coronavirus, which has infected almost 12,000 people across the nation.
“ Everyone is wearing a mask. It is not convenient to take pictures — we dare not remove the masks, ” 23-year-old Wei I Ting, a tourist from Taiwan, told AFP.
Shotah Zhang, who owns a pastry shop, said he was worried about the future of his business.
“ As you can see, almost no one is here. We have quite a big problem because we are a small business, ” Zhang said.
The outbreak is dealing a heavy blow to Macau’ s economy, which has bet most of its chips on gambling and tourism. Figures for January show gaming revenue fell 11.3 percent on the same month last year.
The city had confirmed seven cases of the virus as of Saturday and authorities have announced measures to curb its spread, including temperature checks and mandatory health declarations for visitors at the border with mainland China.
In casinos, all staff have been ordered to wear masks and temperature checks are being carried out at entrances.
The government has also banned anyone who has visited Hubei province — the epicentre of the outbreak — from entering casinos altogether.
But a 24-year-old marketing supervisor for a coffee shop was more hopeful.
“ We believe that after the virus is gone, customers will come back, ” she said.
With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
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Apple closes China stores until Feb 9 due to virus | Hi, what are you looking for?
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Apple announced on Saturday the closure of its stores, corporate offices and contact centres in mainland China until February 9 due to the new coronavirus epidemic.
The virus has prompted the government extend the Lunar New Year holiday through this weekend in a bid to contain its spread, but many provinces and cities have called on companies to delay their return to work.
`` Our thoughts are with the people most immediately affected by the coronavirus and with those working around the clock to study and contain it, '' Apple said in a statement.
It added the closure was decided `` out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts ''.
Apple's online store remains open and the company said it would closely monitor the situation.
China is home to the firm's third-biggest consumer market and much of its supply chain.
But like every company in China, it has been affected by the virus that has killed 259 people and infected nearly 12,000.
Some of Apple's suppliers are based in the area near Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.
Apple chief Tim Cook said on Tuesday that the company was working on `` mitigation plans '' to make up for production loss with alternate sources.
The company had already closed one of its Wuhan stores while some retail partners have shuttered their shops or cut hours of business.
Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, which makes iPhone products, is keeping its Chinese factories closed until mid-February and is allowing local employees to delay their return after the new year break.
Apple announced on Saturday the closure of its stores, corporate offices and contact centres in mainland China until February 9 due to the new coronavirus epidemic.
The virus has prompted the government extend the Lunar New Year holiday through this weekend in a bid to contain its spread, but many provinces and cities have called on companies to delay their return to work.
“ Our thoughts are with the people most immediately affected by the coronavirus and with those working around the clock to study and contain it, ” Apple said in a statement.
It added the closure was decided “ out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts ”.
Apple’ s online store remains open and the company said it would closely monitor the situation.
China is home to the firm’ s third-biggest consumer market and much of its supply chain.
But like every company in China, it has been affected by the virus that has killed 259 people and infected nearly 12,000.
Some of Apple’ s suppliers are based in the area near Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.
Apple chief Tim Cook said on Tuesday that the company was working on “ mitigation plans ” to make up for production loss with alternate sources.
The company had already closed one of its Wuhan stores while some retail partners have shuttered their shops or cut hours of business.
Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, which makes iPhone products, is keeping its Chinese factories closed until mid-February and is allowing local employees to delay their return after the new year break.
With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
A reportedly indestructible steel box, roughly the size of a city bus will digitally collect and store climate-related conversations, data, artifacts.
China’ s tantrums on every possible subject are becoming a bore. The Chinese rage over diplomatic boycotts of the Olympics is no exception.
The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built, is finally set for launch in late December.
Nations need domestic capacity to produce trustworthy baseboard-level electronics for use in high-security settings.
COPYRIGHT © 1998 - 2021 DIGITAL JOURNAL INC. Digital Journal is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more about our external linking. | general |
Coronavirus case in U.S. treated with Gilead drug may spur wider tests | MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – The first reported use of an experimental Gilead Sciences Inc. drug to fight the novel coronavirus has encouraged doctors to support further testing of the medication.
Gilead’ s remdesivir was given to the first U.S. case, a 35-year-old man who developed pneumonia after he tested positive for the 2019-nCoV virus and was hospitalized in an airborne-isolation unit at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett in Washington state for observation.
“ To my knowledge, this is the first reported case in the world where this drug has been used in a human application against this virus, ” Jay Cook, chief medical officer at the center, told reporters on a conference call Friday. “ At the time, we felt the benefits of using this drug outweighed whatever potential risk there might be and we obtained his informed consent. ”
The patient’ s pneumonia appeared to improve within a day, with no obvious side effects, after the intravenous drug was administered, his doctors reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday. The finding should encourage randomized, controlled clinical trials to determine its safety and efficacy for treating 2019-nCoV infections, they said.
The drug was approved for use on compassionate grounds. It is not licensed or approved anywhere in the world, and hasn’ t been demonstrated to be safe or effective for any use, Foster City, California-based Gilead said in a statement.
The drugmaker, known for its antivirals to fight hepatitis C and HIV, is working with global health authorities to respond to the coronavirus outbreak through the “ appropriate experimental use ” of remdesivir, Gilead said. It is also cooperating with individual researchers and clinicians to lend its knowledge and antiviral expertise to help patients fight 2019-nCoV.
Remdesivir, a novel, so-called nucleotide analogue prodrug, was developed with the Ebola crisis in mind, said Scott Lindquist, the state epidemiologist for infectious disease at Washington’ s Department of Health.
“ There’ s been very limited use around the country, ” he told reporters on a conference call. “ We do know that the manufacturer of this product is trying to work with China to do studies and provide this overseas, along with other antivirals that are under investigation. ”
Preclinical studies of remdesivir and an older compound known as NHC indicate both are broadly capable of countering “ every bat and human and animal coronavirus we’ ve tested, ” said Mark Denison, director of infectious diseases and a pediatrics professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Denison and colleagues used a National Institutes of Health grant to screen compounds that are capable of thwarting a broad range of coronaviruses. Their five-year study found two — remdesivir and NHC — seem to block virus replication by interfering with their ability to correctly copy their genetic material.
Their studies found both are promising therapies for infections caused by SARS, mouse hepatitis virus, and bat coronaviruses, Denison said in a phone interview. He said he predicts they will also be effective against 2019-nCoV, possibly as a dual therapy to both prevent and treat disease.
Combinations of antiviral treatments have shown to be effective at suppressing HIV while avoiding the emergence of drug-resistant strains.
“ Combination therapy for emerging viruses is the way to go, ” Denison said. “ These are both exciting drugs that work well independently. It would, of course, make sense to consider multiple combinations of drugs that work independently. ”
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South Korea says Chinese tour guide arriving from Japan found to be infected with coronavirus | SEOUL – South Korea’ s Ministry of Health and Welfare said Saturday that a Chinese tour guide who entered the nation from Japan has tested positive for a new coronavirus raging through China.
While he was in Japan, the guide had contact with a person who had been found to have been infected with the virus, and he took a test in South Korea after the infected person in Japan recommended that he do so as well, according to the ministry.
After staying in Japan for work, the guide entered South Korea from Gimpo International Airport in the suburbs of Seoul on Jan. 19.
The mayor of Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, of which the male guide is a resident, said on Facebook that the man is presumed to have contracted the virus in Japan while he was with a tourist bus driver and guide who had already been infected with the virus.
The tour guide is the 12th case of the new coronavirus confirmed in South Korea.
On Saturday morning, a second group of South Koreans returned to South Korea from China on a government-chartered plane.
Including about 370 South Koreans who returned home on the first chartered plane the previous day, about 700 South Koreans have been evacuated from the central Chinese city of Wuhan — at the center of the outbreak — and its vicinity, according to local media. | tech |
How to survive coronavirus quarantine, French style | Hi, what are you looking for?
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Twice a day they will have their temperature taken and nurses will check them for coronavirus symptoms: other than that, their main concern will be how to keep their phone charged and get their laundry done.
The 179 evacuees -- mostly made up of French nationals and their Chinese spouses -- flown back from China were settling into their new life in quarantine on Saturday. A holiday resort in the southeast of France that will be their home for the next two weeks.
These special guests will have the run of their seaside base in Carry-le-Rouet, about 30 kilometres ( 19 miles) from the Mediterranean port city of Marseille -- so long as they wear a mask.
On Saturday, their first morning there, some were up to take in the sunrise, others sat outside in the mild weather reading while others explored inside the hotel complex.
`` There are worse places, '' said Marc Ziltman with a smile, as children's shouts echoed across the facility.
`` The easy solution would have been a disused barracks, '' Zilman, the senior Red Cross official on site, pointed out. Instead, the French authorities opted to make the evacuees stay as comfortable as possible.
`` The site needs to be as agreeable as possible because people are going to pass 14 days there, '' he told AFP.
- Gendarme patrols -
There is volleyball for the teenagers, art classes for the toddlers and a space for the grown-ups to relax over a coffee, making it more holiday resort than hospital or clinic.
For the moment, no one here has shown any symptoms that could indicate they have caught the new coronavirus. Two possible cases identified as the evacuees came off their plane on Friday tested negative at La Timone hospital in Marseille.
The medical team looking after the evacuees is about 20 strong, including doctors, nurses and psychologists. Backing them are are soldiers from France's civil security units and 30 Red Cross volunteers, who mainly take care of the logistics of their stay.
On their first day back on Saturday, the new arrivals got down to solving the immediate challenges raised by their rather hasty repatriation: how to do their laundry, change their Chinese currency and get hold of cigarettes.
A concierge service was already up and running to attend to their needs.
`` Yesterday, they were tired, which is quite normal, '' said Zyltman. They had their evening meal and went quietly to bed. `` Now, life is back on course and it's going rather well, '' he added.
As the special guests got their bearings, members of France's paramilitary gendarme force patrolled the site, keeping careful guard at the resort's only access point.
But they are in any case at a fairly isolated site, in the middle of a pine forest, in a cove more than 3 kilometres from the seaside village of Carry-le-Rouet itself.
The parents of a student flown back from China were already outside, having come to deliver him a travel bag with clean clothes. They had to leave it with the gendarmes at the entrance.
But the father seemed reassured that their son was being looked after in France.
Their son had described the atmosphere there as `` fairly convivial '', he said.
`` I think they are all relieved to be there, in very good conditions, he told the journalists gathered outside.
Twice a day they will have their temperature taken and nurses will check them for coronavirus symptoms: other than that, their main concern will be how to keep their phone charged and get their laundry done.
The 179 evacuees — mostly made up of French nationals and their Chinese spouses — flown back from China were settling into their new life in quarantine on Saturday. A holiday resort in the southeast of France that will be their home for the next two weeks.
These special guests will have the run of their seaside base in Carry-le-Rouet, about 30 kilometres ( 19 miles) from the Mediterranean port city of Marseille — so long as they wear a mask.
On Saturday, their first morning there, some were up to take in the sunrise, others sat outside in the mild weather reading while others explored inside the hotel complex.
“ There are worse places, ” said Marc Ziltman with a smile, as children’ s shouts echoed across the facility.
“ The easy solution would have been a disused barracks, ” Zilman, the senior Red Cross official on site, pointed out. Instead, the French authorities opted to make the evacuees stay as comfortable as possible.
“ The site needs to be as agreeable as possible because people are going to pass 14 days there, ” he told AFP.
– Gendarme patrols –
There is volleyball for the teenagers, art classes for the toddlers and a space for the grown-ups to relax over a coffee, making it more holiday resort than hospital or clinic.
For the moment, no one here has shown any symptoms that could indicate they have caught the new coronavirus. Two possible cases identified as the evacuees came off their plane on Friday tested negative at La Timone hospital in Marseille.
The medical team looking after the evacuees is about 20 strong, including doctors, nurses and psychologists. Backing them are are soldiers from France’ s civil security units and 30 Red Cross volunteers, who mainly take care of the logistics of their stay.
On their first day back on Saturday, the new arrivals got down to solving the immediate challenges raised by their rather hasty repatriation: how to do their laundry, change their Chinese currency and get hold of cigarettes.
A concierge service was already up and running to attend to their needs.
“ Yesterday, they were tired, which is quite normal, ” said Zyltman. They had their evening meal and went quietly to bed. “ Now, life is back on course and it’ s going rather well, ” he added.
As the special guests got their bearings, members of France’ s paramilitary gendarme force patrolled the site, keeping careful guard at the resort’ s only access point.
But they are in any case at a fairly isolated site, in the middle of a pine forest, in a cove more than 3 kilometres from the seaside village of Carry-le-Rouet itself.
The parents of a student flown back from China were already outside, having come to deliver him a travel bag with clean clothes. They had to leave it with the gendarmes at the entrance.
But the father seemed reassured that their son was being looked after in France.
Their son had described the atmosphere there as “ fairly convivial ”, he said.
“ I think they are all relieved to be there, in very good conditions, he told the journalists gathered outside.
With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
China has so far refused to condemn its ally Russia’ s war, but Chinese painter Huang Rui is convinced that Ukraine has already won.
But as Russian bombs fell on Ukrainian cities, a shadow has fallen on Merkel's 16 years in office.
Russian forces inched towards Kyiv Saturday and pounded civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities.
Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed 81 people convicted of crimes ranging from killings to terrorism.
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Art Basel: Hong Kong galleries back organiser amid calls to cancel fair over protests, coronavirus emergency | The Hong Kong Art Gallery Association has thrown its support behind the local arts community after foreign dealers called on organisers of Art Basel Hong Kong to cancel the fair because of ongoing political protests and the worsening coronavirus crisis. | business |
Advanced telescope reveals Sun's surface in remarkable detail | Hi, what are you looking for?
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The first images from the world’ s most sophisticate solar telescope show some unusual cell-like structures, said to be “ the size of Texas ”, dotted across the Sun’ s surface. The strange looking snapshots are actually patterns of “ turbulent boiling plasma ”, covering the entirety of the Sun’ s surface.
Some of the remarkable images of the Sun are showcased below in a video from the U.S. National Science Foundation:
The movie covers an area of 36,500 x 36,500 km ( 22,600 x 22,600 miles, 51 x 51 arcseconds).
The detail is so fine that astrophysicists can discern how hot plasma boils to the surface in the bright centers of the cells; this then cools and then sinks back down in dark lanes. Within these lanes, it is possible to detect small, bright markers of magnetic fields. These lanes channel energy up into the Sun’ s super-heated corona.
The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope has been especially designed for studies of the Sun. The telescope is located at the Haleakala Observatory on the Hawaiian island of Maui ( positioned atop Haleakalā, a 3,000 meter-high volcano). The telescope is by far world’ s largest solar telescope, and it has a 4-meter aperture. The telescope became active in January 2020, capturing images of the Sun in visible to near-infrared wavelengths. It will take a further six more months to install further scientific instruments so that the telescope becomes fully operational.
Further details about the telescope are revealed in the following video:
The primary aim of the telescope is to help to predict solar weather. According to scientist Matt Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy: “ Our predictions lag behind terrestrial weather by 50 years, if not more. What we need is to grasp the underlying physics behind space weather, and this starts at the Sun, which is what the Inouye Solar Telescope will study over the next decades. ”
Advancing our understanding of solar weather is a subject of great importance. As the BBC explains, significant emissions of charged particles and entrained magnetic fields can damage satellites at Earth, and carry the potential to harm astronauts, as well as degrading radio communications and taking power grids offline.
Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.
Semi trucks drive along Interstate 70 near Booneville, Missouri on Nov. 1, 2011. KOMUnews/Anna Burkart. CC SA 2.0.Hundreds of B.C. truckers took to the...
The prospects for peace in Ukraine are tenuous, with warnings of a huge Russian troop build-up on the edges of a separatist-held territory.
Several thousand people chanted “ no more mandates ” while marching in Washington D.C. Sunday afternoon in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and vaccine passports.
At Acumatica Summit 2022, the cloud ERP leader announced updates to its future-proof platform and new paths toward success.
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Fears of global economic slowdown as virus follows trade war | With tens of millions of Chinese people quarantined inside their cities and thousands of factories closed, it is already clear that the coronavirus is about to sideswipe the global economy.
Last year’ s tit-for-tat trade war between China and the US, which involved both sides slapping import tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods, knocked China’ s already ailing GDP growth rate down to 6% in 2019 and helped depress global growth: it fell from 3.6% in 2018 to 3% last year.
A Chinese official warned last week that the spread of the virus from its beginnings in Wuhan to about 10,000 victims across the country would add to the damage from the trade war, and possibly cause more economic harm than the Sars epidemic, almost two decades ago. And with eight key regions and two cities in China subject to closure of non-essential business until at least 9 February, the significance of the epidemic is beyond doubt.
Zhang Ming, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences ( part of Beijing’ s state council), predicted that China’ s annual growth rate could drop below an annualised 5% in the January-March 2020 quarter. That would be a sharp slowdown compared with 6% annualised growth in the previous quarter.
Goldman Sachs believes the fast-spreading coronavirus will knock 0.4 percentage points from annualised growth in the US over the first quarter of 2020, as Chinese tourism to the US dips and exports of American goods to China take a hit. Its central forecast is for a partial rebound in US growth in the second quarter, but the risks are “ skewed towards a larger hit ”.
It is clear that unless a cure and a vaccination are found rapidly, the fragile recovery that we predict is at risk
“ A change in the news flow could lead to increased domestic risk-aversion behaviour or a sustained tightening in financial conditions. A larger outbreak of the virus in the US or the fear thereof could lead to a decline in domestic travel, commuting and shopping, ” Goldman notes.
In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing about 750. The coronavirus is spreading at a faster rate.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research ( CEBR) says that because those who contract it are infectious before experiencing symptoms, the coronavirus could be much worse. Quarantine measures will largely be “ a matter of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, unless they apply well beyond those who are currently infected, ” it says.
The Chinese authorities were praised last week by the World Health Organization ( WHO) after it declared the coronavirus to be a public health emergency of international concern. But both the communist-run government in Beijing and the WHO have faced severe criticism for reacting slowly given what is known about the rapid spread of the virus.
It is not easy to estimate the extent of the economic damage the virus is likely to inflict, but it is possible to use the Sars epidemic as a guide. Pantheon Macroeconomics estimates that Sars dragged China’ s quarterly growth rate down to 1.8% in April-June 2003, from an average of 2.8%. The CEBR says the knock-on effect to world GDP was a fall in 2003 of between $ 30bn and $ 100bn, which was equal to between 0.08% and 0.25% of global GDP.
“ Our worst-case calculation assumes that the coronavirus has a six times multiple effect on the Chinese economy. As the Chinese economy is nearly four times larger relative to the world economy [ than in 2002 ], scaling up for this as well would create a world GDP negative impact of 1.8% to 6% based on the retrospective estimates of the impact of Sars, ” the CEBR says.
“ With world GDP set to grow by 2.9% this year before the coronavirus impact became apparent, it is clear that unless a cure and a vaccination are found rapidly, the fragile recovery that we predict is at risk. ”
Britain and the rest of Europe have already had people return from China with confirmed or suspected cases of the virus, leading many airlines to suspend flights to China and in some cases Hong Kong, though not Macau so far. The US and Canada have also seen their first cases and warned citizens not to travel to China.
The economic impact, though, will be most keenly felt across south-east Asia, where China is not only a major trading partner but a source of vital revenue from tourism.
Prakash Sakpal, an economist at ING, illustrates the point in a report on Thailand, where the local currency dropped by 3.7% in value against the US dollar in January, partially reversing an 8.6% appreciation last year. Tourism makes up a fifth of the Thai economy and visitors from China alone account for about a quarter of total tourism receipts.
Sakpal says a sharp fall in tourism spending will put a big dent in the country’ s current account surplus, which is a measure of the money coming into the country versus the funds leaving to be spent elsewhere. This surplus has been the main reason behind the Thai baht’ s appreciation in recent years, he says.
A decline in tourism spending has already hit the main cruise lines. US operator Royal Caribbean Cruises has cancelled three trips scheduled in February, which will hit 2020 earnings by about 10 cents per share, the company said. A ship owned by the Carnival Corporation, which is listed in New York and London, was briefly put in quarantine in the Italian port of Civitavecchia, trapping 66 Britons and 6,000 other passengers.
Shares in Norwegian Cruise Line Holding, Royal Caribbean and Carnival were all at least 5% lower on the New York stock exchange following the Italian incident before recovering some of their losses on Friday.
The consultancy S & P Global Market Intelligence says the decision of regional governments to extend factory closures beyond 2 February to control the virus’ s spread will be a major blow to China’ s GDP.
International companies are beginning to find ways of circumventing Chinese companies to obtain electronics parts, though US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross made it clear he thought most firms were unlikely to question strategic business relationships as a result of the outbreak.
That said, Apple, General Motors, Ikea and Starbucks have closed much of their Chinese operations, as have many other foreign companies.
Chris Rogers of S & P says commitments to buy $ 33.4bn of US agricultural exports this year, made by Beijing as part of a truce in the trade war, might be difficult to meet. But he believes there will be an opportunity later in the year to make up for lost time. The expectation is that the coronavirus will soon be under control and the overall effect, even on the Chinese mainland, will be limited.
The consultancy Oxford Economics has cut its forecast for global growth this year from 2.5% to 2.3%, which would be the lowest since the 2008 financial crash. “ Considering the affected areas account for just over 50% of total Chinese output, we think this could lead China’ s annual GDP growth to slow to just 4% in the first quarter from our previous forecast of 6%, ” it said.
Writing in Caijing magazine, Zhang Ming said the coronavirus’ s economic impact could be “ significantly bigger ” than Sars, based on a forecast that the outbreak would peak in mid-February and end by April.
That must be the hope of governments across the world; but with the virus already thought to be in thousands of people who have no idea they are infected, the fear must be that it claims more victims, ruins more businesses and depresses global growth by much more than so far estimated. | general |
China virus cases may be undercounted even as numbers skyrocket | BEIJING – The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in China has skyrocketed to almost 12,000 as of Saturday, surpassing the official count during the SARS epidemic. But the true number of infections may be even higher, as health workers struggle to catch up with the disease.
A shortage of testing kits and overworked hospital staff are straining China’ s health system, hampering efforts to accurately track how many people have the pathogen. The result is a hectic and imprecise process that’ s creating bottlenecks as health experts attempt to pin down the scope of a disease that has claimed more than 200 lives.
The challenge of keeping up with the tally can be seen in Hubei, at the center of the outbreak.
The province can process about 6,000 tests a day, health commission director Liu Yingzi told a press briefing Wednesday, noting that Hubei had about 50,000 test kits in stock. But with 5,806 confirmed cases and 32,340 people under observation, it’ s uncertain if that is enough.
Getting a handle on the numbers is becoming more urgent as the outbreak spreads beyond China’ s borders, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency. Neil Ferguson, a public health expert at Imperial College London, said his “ best guess ” was that 100,000 people could be infected around the world, according a Jan. 26 report in the Guardian.
Complicating the situation is the elusive nature of the disease and how it is transmitted, as well as the difficulty in diagnosing it. Evidence has emerged that the disease can be passed by people before they show symptoms, or who may show no symptoms at all.
Jonathan Yu, a doctor at a university hospital in Wuhan, is on the front lines, testing patients for the coronavirus. Accurately spotting the virus isn’ t easy and can take several attempts, he said.
“ A patient may be found as negative for the first or second test, and then found to be positive the third time, ” said Yu. “ It is like fishing in a pond: You did not catch a fish once, but that does not mean the pond does not have fish. ”
Another doctor in the city who declined to be identified said her hospital was facing shortages of testing kits to confirm that people have the disease, as well as lacking in spare beds and respirators for patients.
Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Qiushi said in a video posted on social media Wednesday that some hospitals in the city of Wuhan don’ t have enough kits and are telling patients that severe cases have to be prioritized. Chen, who has expressed anti-Communist Party sentiments in the past, cited interviews with people who suspected they have the virus as well as visits to local hospitals.
There were nearly 12,000 confirmed cases in China as of Saturday afternoon, according to the National Health Commission — a massive increase from a few hundred patients just 12 days ago.
Part of that may reflect increased efforts to test for the disease, which means it’ s being found in more and more places. Still, a lack of sufficient testing kits to confirm whether people have caught the virus is likely to mean there are more people sick than the figures show.
The spike in cases could continue after the Lunar New Year holidays. The incubation period for the coronavirus can be up to 14 days, so the impact of hundreds of millions of people traveling in China during the holidays may show up by mid-February. Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory disease expert who led the research into a treatment for SARS, told local media this week he expects the number of confirmed cases to peak within 10 days.
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at China Center for Disease Control And Prevention, downplayed the severity of the epidemic, saying the surge in the number of confirmed cases in Hubei in the past three days does not necessarily mean the situation there has deteriorated significantly.
In an interview with China’ s state TV Thursday, Wu said the latest jump was a result of a lack of medical resources in the early stage of the outbreak in the city. Many of the patients diagnosed with the disease in the last few days actually fell ill days before the lockdown of the city, but many of them could not be diagnosed and reported in time.
“ Don’ t be scared by the numbers in the past three days, ” Wu said. “ The ( real) statistics are far more promising. ”
China is making moves to improve the situation. Health officials approved two new kits on Tuesday, in addition to the existing four types, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. One of the two new kits can give results in about 30 minutes, shortening the time needed to diagnose cases, according to Technology Daily.
Roche Holding AG is also producing kits, and the government says it’ s streamlining transport access to make sure relevant supplies get through. However, Roche said Thursday it was still having trouble getting its equipment to where it’ s needed.
Yu, the Wuhan doctor, said the shortage of virus detection kits has lessened recently, although there is still a shortage of masks, glasses and other supplies.
Because the incubation period for the virus is so long, Yu has been sleeping and working at the hospital, afraid to go home to his family. | tech |
Op-Ed: US envoy warns Palestinians not to pan Trump plan at the UN | Hi, what are you looking for?
By
Published
Craft noted that she anticipated initial negative reactions to the plan but Palestinian displeasure should be channeled into negotiations. She said: “ Bringing that displeasure to the United Nations does nothing but repeat the failed pattern of the last seven decades. Let’ s avoid those traps and instead take a chance on peace. ” Why not negotiate in the first place instead of presenting a one-sided deal without any Palestinian negotiation? I think the answer is that the deal is intended not to be an agreement with the Palestinians but a plan to impose a solution on them that favors Israeli interests and is backed by the global power of the US.
US expected to veto any critical resolution in the UN Security Council
If there is a resolution criticizing the Trump peace plan, it is expected that the US will veto. Even if this happens the resolution would show the extent to which other countries reject the plan. No doubt this is why Riyad Mansour the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN has taken the plan to the UN already.
The Mansour resolution
Mansour is working on a resolution critical of the Trump peace deal. He called the plan a “ recipe for the destruction of the national rights of the Palestinian people. ” The Mansour resolution wants to condemn the text of the deal in the strongest possible language. This is doing exactly what the US envoy warned against.
Should the US veto the resolution the Palestinians will very likely take the issue from the Security Council to the General Assembly giving the resolution even more publicity and no doubt showing that many countries reject the plan.
The plan was created with absolutely no input from the Palestinian side. The plan is very much slanted towards the interests of Israel and many argue that it is slanted towards US interests. It would encourage Israeli annexation of the West Bank among other things. The US no doubt realizes that the plan will be roundly rejected by the UN. This is no doubt expect and will be used to advance the argument that the Palestinians will not negotiate peace. However, it is hardly surprising that the Palestinians do not accept a deal in which they were not involved and which favors Israeli interests.
Former President Carter’ s criticism
Carter noted that the Trump plan violated repeated calls by the UN for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. It was that year the Israel occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Trump plan considers occupied Jerusalem Al-Quds to be part of Israel’ s undivided capital. However, Palestinians want that part to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Carter claimed that the US deal broke international law concerning issues of Palestinian self-determination, acquisition of foreign land by force, and annexation of occupied territories. He urged UN member states “ to adhere to UN Security Council resolutions and to reject any unilateral Israeli implementation of the proposal by grabbing more Palestinian land. ”
The US proposal also “ breaches international law ” addressing the issues of Palestinian self-determination, acquisition of foreign land by force, annexation of occupied territories, and also denied Palestinians equal rights, he added.
Arab League rejects and condemns plan
In a statement this Saturday the pan-Arab bloc announced it “ rejects the US-Israeli ‘ deal of the century’ considering that it does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people. ”
The Arab states agreed not to cooperate with the US administration if it attempts to implement the plan and said that Israel should not implement the plan by force. The group insisted on a two-state solution based on borders before the 1967 war. They also called on East Jerusalem to be the capital of any future Palestinian State. The session was called by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. The Arab League took a clear stance opposed to the Trump plan as Mahmoud had requested.
However, Oman, Bahrain, and the UAE had attended the unveiling of the plan. Saudi Arabia and Egypt said they appreciated Trump’ s efforts. Some Arab countries appear to be cosying up to Israel.
The Trump deal is a dud
The Trump deal was not a deal in the first place but a plan that would have the US and Israel impose conditions on the Palestinians that would favor the Israelis. There was no participation by the Palestinians. What sort of agreement is it when one party is not involved or even consulted?
The US and Israel paint the deal as a grand opportunity for the Palestinians which would solve many of their problems and if rejected would be a huge lost opportunity. Israel may very well try to implement the deal in spite of its rejection by many. In doing so Israel will no doubt have the support of the United States. Resistance by the Palestinians will be taken as showing they are ungrateful and impossible to negotiate with. Any violent resistance will be retaliated against as fighting terrorism.
The Omicron variant that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up genetic material from another virus.
Hundreds of environmentalist demonstrators gathered on South African beaches to protest against oil and gas exploration by Shell.
The world's biggest weapons manufacturers largely avoided the economic downturn caused by Covid-19 and recorded a growth in profits.
This week’ s releases include revisiting a horror legend; a slasher version of a classic tale; a body switch movie from the vault and more.
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New model to estimate spread of the novel coronavirus | Hi, what are you looking for?
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Published
Determining how many people may have become infected with the novel cornavirus is unclear. This is due to the absence of a robust and detailed timeline from the Chinese authorities, plus concealed information, and incomplete records of suspected, probable, and confirmed cases. Moreover, assessing close contacts with those infected is not easy to assess. This means the actual size of the epidemic is unclear. From this, working out the pandemic potential remains is fraught with difficulty for epidemiologists.
To assist with the estimates a new model has been devised and it comes from the University of Hong Kong, as The Daily Telegraph reports.
The model uses more advanced data, such as accounting for the time lag between infection and symptom onset. The model also accounts for delays in infected persons coming to medical attention, plus the time needed to confirm cases by laboratory analysis.
Coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV) is a new respiratory illness that has not previously been seen in humans. The disease was first reported in the Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Most patients worked at or lived around the local Huanan seafood wholesale market, where live animals were also on sale.
The computer-based model reveals that during the initial stages of the Wuhan outbreak ( the period of time from December 1, 2019 to January 25, 2020) each person who was infected with 2019-nCoV will probably have infected between 2 and 3 other people. This means that the epidemic will have doubled in size every 6.4 days. During this period, up to 75,815 individuals were probably infected in Wuhan.
The associated risk is with those who left the Wuhan area. The model presents some stark analysis, such as the apparent underestimation about the numbers of Chinese cities, such as Guangzhou and Beijing, that have imported dozens of cases of 2019-nCoV infection from Wuhan, during December 2019.
The new model has been presented to the journal The Lancet. The research paper is titled “ Nowcasting and forecasting the potential domestic and international spread of the 2019-nCoV outbreak originating in Wuhan, China: a modelling study. ”
Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.
You can’ t ignore the possibility of malicious insiders or even staff accidents.
The big deal about the all-living 3D printable bioinks is that the training wheels are now off.
There is no stated power in the US Constitution to regulate human reproduction.
A small dog looking at a christmas tree which has colored lights. Source - Trogain, CC SA 4.0.If you are having trouble finding a...
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Airlines Must Own Up to Environmental Impact and 8 Other Top Aviation Stories This Week | Get exclusive stories and unlimited access to Skift.com news
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Danielle Hyams, Skift
February 1st, 2020 at 10:30 AM EST
This week in aviation news, carbon offsetting has become a popular way for airlines to improve their image, but the reality is they are still pumping millions of tons of CO2 into the air. In addition, the coronavirus continued to hamper travel, including cancelled flights for airlines.
Danielle Hyams
Throughout the week we post dozens of original stories, connecting the dots across the travel industry, and every weekend we sum it all up. This weekend roundup examines aviation.
For all of our weekend roundups, go here.
Aviation Wants Us to Trust It to Fix Its Own Green Problems: Should We? Airlines have tried to get out in front of regulators when it comes to sustainability. But their tweaks and solutions only scratch the surface of the problem. In 20 years’ time, will we all look back on an era of frequent flying as one of dangerous excess?
United, American, Delta Drop Flights to Mainland China After State Department Issues Guidance: U.S. airlines had no choice. Their customers and their crew members do not want to go to China. Why should they fly empty planes there?
China Cancels Group Trips as Coronavirus Control Measures Expand: It’ s going to be a long, cold winter for China’ s travel industry and for businesses that rely on outbound Chinese tourists, as the novel coronavirus epidemic expands, and people stay put during China’ s biggest travel season.
Designing a Better Airline Lounge Experience: Despite the investment and focus on lounges to compete for and retain premium passengers, there’ s a lot of thinking left on the table. Here are some simple fixes to design a better experience on the ground.
What the Sabre-Farelogix Antitrust Trial Could Reveal About Airline Technology: It’ s notable that we had a much easier time finding experts who supported Sabre’ s proposed merger of Farelogix than opponents. But this court case will be decided on legal nuances, and its outcome is impossible to predict. We pity the judge who has to endure this crash course in airline technology and distribution.
Wizz Air Looks to Middle East for Further Expansion: Wizz Air’ s announcement of a move into Abu Dhabi was certainly eye-catching, but we maybe shouldn’ t expect anything similar elsewhere. Rather, the airline seems to be happy just moving into those markets like Armenia, Georgia, and Israel that had previously been underserved
Chile’ s Latam Airlines Improves Premium Product Ahead of Delta Tie-Up: After changing its fare structure to compete with low-cost carriers and earmarking $ 400 million to improve its cabins, Latam’ s rollout of premium economy on domestic and regional routes makes sense. It puts the carrier in a position to offer higher-end services without the added complexity of a major business cabin reconfiguration.
Asian Destinations Reel From China’ s Outbound Travel Ban: For a string of Asian destinations, China is by far the number one market, so the outbound travel ban that became effective Monday there has shaken tourism businesses even though they know it is for the good.
Alaska Air Catches Up on Carving Out New Revenues: Customers may not like so-called segmentation in airplane cabins. But almost every U.S. airline is using it to boost revenues.
Skift Research products provide deep analysis, data, and expert research on the companies and trends that are shaping the future of travel.
Updated Feb. 28, 2022
Danielle Hyams, Skift | general |
‘ We’ re a bit unsettled’: York students on alert after coronavirus case | Life appeared to continue as usual at the University of York yesterday, with students scurrying to the library, supermarket and bar, despite the campus having become the focal point of the unfolding coronavirus outbreak in the UK.
Public Health England confirmed that a student at the university and a relative of theirs had tested positive for the UK’ s first cases of the virus.
Joseph, a second-year English student, said he had no serious concerns after hearing the news: “ I think the university’ s done a really good job of helping people stay calm and giving out the official advice. None of my friends are that concerned either – they’ ve even been making jokes, including some puns about corona being a beer. So no, I’ m not worried: it seems to have been contained. ”
Others felt more apprehensive. “ Everyone feels a bit unsettled, ” said law student Daniel Williams. “ In my house group chat, everyone is legitimately concerned. I live with a few European citizens who aren’ t registered with a GP and they are seriously thinking about whether they should go to lectures. ” He added that another student with a weakened immune system went straight home because he “ didn’ t want to take the risk ”.
Williams said he had noticed more Asian students were wearing masks on campus but that it was to be expected as “ we are all worried, knowing [ the virus ] is in such close proximity ”.
Social policy students Shuo Liu, 25, and Zhaoyuan Wang, 24, said that although they didn’ t feel the situation in the UK was that serious compared with China, they wore masks “ just in case ”. They said they felt people were looking at them differently because they are Chinese. Liu, from Hunan province, said: “ People stare at us because we are wearing masks. They think that because we are Chinese we’ re carrying it, without thinking about whether we have even been to China recently or not. ”
In a statement emailed to students by the university, Public Health England said the affected student “ did not come into contact with anyone on campus whilst they had symptoms of the virus ”.
But another undergraduate, who didn’ t want to be named, said: “ It is shocking to know it’ s so close. I don’ t think we’ ve been given enough information. From speaking to friends, there is definitely a touch of panic on campus – exams were only a couple of weeks ago, so this could possibly have already spread further than one student. An awful lot of students including myself will be wary going into lectures on Monday, worried about who may or may not have the virus. ”
The two Chinese nationals fell ill at Staycity Aparthotel in York last Wednesday and were taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle the following day by health professionals wearing hazmat suits. The hotel sealed the apartment where the patients had stayed, but the rest of the building has remained open.
Biology student Kate Bunting said it was “ quite scary ” to learn that the patients had been living at Staycity as it’ s close to where she lives. However, the second-year biology student said she and her friends felt some of the media coverage was scaremongering: “ I don’ t think it’ s as scary as it sounds, the fact that there’ s a low risk of further contamination gives me some security, and it’ s only because it’ s here that people find it a bit scary. But nobody I know is changing their behaviour because of it and the uni’ s done a good job of updating us throughout the week. It’ s just been a normal day on campus, it’ s quiet but then it always is on a Saturday. ”
In the north-west, where 83 evacuees had travelled from Wuhan to Wirral, Matt Raw and his wife were relieved to be in Arrowe Park hospital on Saturday, on the first day of their mandatory two-week quarantine.
“ We have all the essentials we need, ” he said of their digs, which the couple were sharing with a mother and daughter, in a block next to Wirral University Teaching hospital.
Despite the possibility that he might be infected, Raw was in bright spirits. “ There is an army of people here who are looking after us extremely well, ” he said.
Residents of Wirral were less enthusiastic at the arrival of the cohort from China on Friday night, despite Public Health England and Wirral University Hospital urging patients to remain calm and attend their appointments as normal.
In Wuhan, one British citizen remained stranded with his wife and family, worried that they would be forgotten by the UK government. Chris Hill, 38, has chosen to remain in the country where he lives with his wife, Caitlyn Gao, and daughter, Renee Gao, who are both Chinese citizens. “ My only worry now is after everybody pulls out, the FCO will forget about those who are staying and not give any support for us, ” he said. “ For British nationals that are staying in Wuhan, but also in China, to have the consulate and embassy evacuating, it’ s not a good sight to see really, is it? ”
Mr Hill, who is from Sunderland, said he received a call from the FCO on Saturday morning saying he, his wife and daughter would be able to get on an evacuation plane bound for France.
But his wife is unable to leave because she works as a nurse at a hospital and is also unwilling to abandon her parents.
“ I am not willing to leave her behind and take my daughter, ” Mr Hill said. “ It’ s either we all go or we all stay in Wuhan, which I told the FCO officer and she was shocked at my answer but respected my choice to not break up the family. ”
As of early Sunday morning local time, the total number of cases of coronavirus diagnosed in China stood at 14,380, according to China’ s national health commission. In the course of Saturday, 45 more residents died from the disease. | general |
Wuhan coronavirus: Cases continue to rise rapidly as US bans travel from China |
The number of confirmed cases of
the Wuhan coronavirus
is nearing 12,000, as the epidemic
continues to spread worldwide
, sparking travel bans and
outbreaks of ugly anti-Chinese xenophobia
.
According to Chinese health authorities, the number of confirmed cases grew by 2,102 on Friday, bringing the total to 11,791 nationwide. An additional 45 people died in Hubei -- the province at the epicenter of the outbreak -- and one person died in the megacity of Chongqing on Friday, as the number of fatalities reached 259.
The pronounced increase in cases and deaths show the virus is not slowing, even after over a week of much of Hubei being under partial quarantine and an extended Lunar New Year holiday. With most of China due to return to work on Monday, the concern will be how far the virus will now spread, and whether the country's economy can bear the type of further quarantines and travel restrictions that may be necessary to rein it in.
Worldwide the total number of cases now stands at 11,940, with 149 confirmed cases outside of China, including seven in the United States, two in the United Kingdom, four in Canada, nine in Australia and 13 in Singapore.
Washington announced Friday that it will impose a 14-day travel ban on all visitors from China, regardless of their nationality. US citizens arriving from Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, will have to undergo 14-days mandatory quarantine on arrival, while those traveling any other part of China will face screening and monitoring.
Read More
The mandatory quarantine is the first time the US has issued such an order in 50 years. The move came as the seventh case of the virus was confirmed in the US, an adult male in California who recently traveled to Wuhan.
China
criticized the move
, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying it went against World Health Organization ( WHO) recommendations not to impose travel bans.
`` A friend in need is a friend indeed. Many countries have offered China support in various means, '' she said. `` In sharp contrast, certain US officials ' words and actions are neither factual nor appropriate. ''
It may be part of a growing trend, however. The US ban comes after Singapore banned all visitors from mainland China, saying anyone who had been in the country in the past 14 days will not be able to visit or transit through the city state. Taiwan has also suspended visa applications for Chinese nationals, and banned entry to any from Hubei province.
Other countries have seen a wave of ugly xenophobia and racism
directed at Chinese travelers and those of Chinese heritage. In a statement last week, health authorities in Toronto warned concerns about the virus and misinformation were creating `` unnecessary stigma against members of our community. ''
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How long will it go on?
China has allocated almost $ 4 billion to the fight against the virus, and sent thousands of doctors, nurses and military medics to Hubei to help out with relief in the epicenter of the outbreak.
Two purpose-built hospitals in Wuhan, constructed in under a week, are
due to start accepting patients
on Monday and Thursday respectively. They have 2,500 beds between them, and will be focused purely on dealing with confirmed and suspected cases of the coronavirus, providing some relief to Wuhan's stretched health system.
On Friday, the country's National Health Commission ( NHC)
said
it was `` confident in and capable of effectively containing the novel coronavirus epidemic, and eventually defeating it, '' following the WHO's classification of the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern ( PHEIC).
The Lunar New Year holiday will be extended in Hubei to an `` appropriate extent, '' the Communist Party group in charge of the virus response said Friday. People in Hubei who work elsewhere in the country were also `` granted an extended holiday and were asked to stay put, ''
according to state-run news agency Xinhua
.
It remains unclear, however, how long parts of the country can continue to remain under lockdown, both from the perspective of making sure they are supplied with food and other necessary items, and from an economic point -- both the national finances and people's personal pocketbooks will be taking a massive hit from next week.
Worst of all, this sacrifice could be for nothing, with cases now reported in every province and region of China.
Researchers in Hong Kong on Friday estimated there could be more than 75,000 people in Wuhan alone infected with the virus. They warned that their model suggested that `` epidemics are already growing exponentially in multiple major cities of China with a lag time behind the Wuhan outbreak of about 1-2 weeks. ''
Study author Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at University of Hong Kong, said in a statement that their predicted number could be much higher than confirmed cases because `` not everyone who is infected with ( the virus) would require or seek medical attention, '' thus many may go uncounted. It may also be impacted by the delay between when someone gets infected, when they show symptoms, and when a lab is able to confirm.
Leung and his colleagues ' findings come as researchers in the US and Germany confirmed previous suspicions that the virus could be spread by people who are not showing symptoms.
`` There's no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring, '' said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after the research was published Friday. `` This study lays the question to rest. ''
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Medical staff wearing protective suits ride down an escalator at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on Wednesday, March 18.
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Hasidic Jewish men take part in a
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A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher in Rome on March 17.
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A pedestrian walks a dog through a quiet street in New York on March 17.
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People gather to collect free face masks in New Delhi on March 17.
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Dermot Hickey, left, and Phillip Vega ask a pedestrian in New York to take their picture on a thinly trafficked Fifth Avenue on March 17. Many streets across the world are much more bare as people distance themselves from others. In the United States, the White House has advised people
not to gather in groups of more than 10.
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Students at the Attarkiah Islamic School wear face masks during a ceremony in Thailand's southern province of Narathiwat on March 17.
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People wait outside a Woolworths store in Sunbury, Australia on March 17. Australian supermarket chains announced special shopping hours for the elderly and people with disabilities so that they can shop in less crowded aisles.
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A member of Spain's Military Emergencies Unit carries out a general disinfection at the Malaga airport on Monday, March 16.
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Displaced families near Atme, Syria, attend a workshop aimed at spreading awareness about the coronavirus.
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French President Emmanuel Macron is seen on a screen in Paris as he announces new coronavirus containment measures on March 16.
France has been put on lockdown,
and all nonessential outings are outlawed and can draw a fine of up to €135 ( $ 148). Macron also promised to support French businesses by guaranteeing €300 billion worth of loans and suspending rent and utility bills owed by small companies.
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A police officer checks the temperatures of bus passengers at a checkpoint in Manila, Philippines, on March 16.
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Flowers are stored prior to their destruction at a flower auction in Aalsmeer, Netherlands, on March 16. Lower demand due to the coronavirus outbreak is threatening the Dutch horticultural sector, forcing the destruction of products.
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Two nuns greet neighbors from their balcony in Turin, Italy, on Sunday, March 15.
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Pope Francis, inside the Church of San Marcello in Rome's city center,
prays at a famous crucifix
that believers claim helped to save Romans from the plague in 1522.
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Passengers wait for their flights at Marrakesh Airport in Morocco on March 15.
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US Vice President Mike Pence takes a question during a White House briefing about the coronavirus on March 15.
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A Sea World employee sprays disinfectant in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Saturday, March 14.
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People wait in line to go through customs at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on March 14. Travelers returning from Europe say they were
being made to wait for hours
at US airports, often in close quarters, as personnel screened them for the coronavirus.
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Hundreds of people lined up to enter a Costco in Novato, California, on March 14. Many people have been stocking up on food, toilet paper and other items. As a response to
panic buying,
retailers in the United States and Canada have started limiting the number of toilet paper that customers can buy in one trip.
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A member of the White House physician's office takes a media member's temperature in the White House briefing room on March 14. It was ahead of a news conference with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
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Reporters in Arlington, Virginia, sit approximately 4 feet apart during a briefing by Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie on Friday, March 13.
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People walk past a closed Broadway theater on March 13 after New York canceled all gatherings over 500 people.
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Body temperatures are scanned as people enter the Buddhist temple Wat Pho in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 13.
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A Costco customer stands by two shopping carts in Richmond, California, on March 13.
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A teacher works in an empty classroom at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain.
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A woman looks at an empty bread aisle in Antwerp, Belgium, on March 13.
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Employees of the Greek Parliament wear plastic gloves ahead of the swearing-in ceremony for Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
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A motorcyclist drives through disinfectant sprayed in Jammu, India, on March 13.
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Workers prepare to construct an additional building on a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow.
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Paul Boyer, head equipment manager of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings, wheels out equipment bags in Washington on Thursday, March 12. The NHL is among the sports leagues that have suspended their seasons.
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Students leave Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish, Washington, on March 12. Beginning the following day, schools in the Snohomish school district planned to be closed through April 24.
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An Uber Eats delivery biker stands at a deserted Piazza di Spagna in Rome.
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People at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, watch a live broadcast of US President Donald Trump on March 12. Trump announced that, in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, he would
sharply restrict travel
from more than two dozen European countries.
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Workers in protective suits disinfect Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace on March 11.
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A person wearing a face mask walks outside of a shopping mall in Beijing on March 11.
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Police officers restrain the relative of an inmate outside the Sant'Anna jail in Modena, Italy, on March 9.
Riots broke out
in several Italian jails after visits were suspended to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
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Medical staff in Wuhan, China, celebrate after all coronavirus patients were discharged from a temporary hospital on March 9.
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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 9.
Stocks plummeted
as coronavirus worries and an oil price race to the bottom weighed on global financial markets.
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Rescuers search for victims at the site of a
collapsed hotel
in Quanzhou, China, on March 8. The hotel was being used as a coronavirus quarantine center.
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The Grand Princess cruise ship, carrying at least 21 people who tested positive for coronavirus, is seen off the coast of San Francisco on March 8.
The ship was being held at sea.
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Sumo wrestlers attend a tournament in Osaka, Japan, that was being held behind closed doors because of the coronavirus outbreak.
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A couple rides a bicycle at a park in Seoul, South Korea, on March 7.
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A volunteer from Blue Sky Rescue uses fumigation equipment to disinfect a residential compound in Beijing on March 5.
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Airmen from the California National Guard drop coronavirus testing kits down to the
Grand Princess cruise ship
off the coast of California on March 5.
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Municipal workers are seen at the Kaaba, inside Mecca's Grand Mosque. Saudi Arabia emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilization over coronavirus fears, an unprecedented move after the kingdom suspended the year-round Umrah pilgrimage.
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Passengers react as a worker wearing a protective suit disinfects the departure area of a railway station in Hefei, China, on March 4.
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Teachers at the Nagoya International School in Japan conduct an online class for students staying at home as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus.
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Soldiers spray disinfectant throughout a shopping street in Seoul.
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A Muslim worshipper attends a mass prayer against coronavirus in Dakar, Senegal, on March 4. It was after cases were confirmed in the country.
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People wear face masks in New York's Times Square on March 3. New York reported its first case of coronavirus two days earlier.
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A security guard stands on the Shibuya Sky observation deck in Tokyo on March 3.
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US President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, speaks during a meeting with pharmaceutical executives and the White House coronavirus task force on March 2. Throughout
the meeting,
Trump was hyperfocused on pressing industry leaders in the room for a timeline for a coronavirus vaccine and treatment. But experts at the table -- from the administration and the pharmaceutical industry -- repeatedly emphasized that a vaccine can't be rushed to market before it's been declared safe for the public.
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Medical staff stand outside a hospital in Daegu, South Korea, on March 1.
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Healthcare workers transfer a patient at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, on March 1. The long-term care facility is linked to confirmed coronavirus cases.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a London laboratory of the Public Health England National Infection Service.
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Tomoyuki Sugano, a professional baseball player on the Yomiuri Giants, throws a pitch in an empty Tokyo Dome during a preseason game on February 29. Fans have been barred from preseason games to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
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Commuters wearing masks make their way to work during morning rush hour at the Shinagawa train station in Tokyo on February 28.
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Medical staff transport a coronavirus patient within the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan on February 28.
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Inter Milan plays Ludogorets in an empty soccer stadium in Milan, Italy, on February 27. The match
was ordered to be played behind closed doors
as Italian authorities continue to grapple with the coronavirus outbreak.
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A bank clerk disinfects banknotes in China's Sichuan province on February 26.
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A child wearing a protective face mask rides on a scooter in an empty area in Beijing.
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A Catholic devotee wears a face mask as he is sprinkled with ash during Ash Wednesday services in Paranaque, Philippines, on February 26.
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People disinfect Qom's Masumeh shrine in Tehran, Iran, on February 25.
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A worker in Daegu stacks plastic buckets containing medical waste from coronavirus patients on February 24.
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Paramedics carry a stretcher off an ambulance in Hong Kong on February 23.
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People attend a professional soccer match in Kobe, Japan, on February 23. To help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, the soccer club Vissel Kobe
told fans not to sing, chant or wave flags
in the season opener against Yokohama FC.
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A team of volunteers disinfects a pedestrian bridge in Bangkok, Thailand.
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A man rides his bike in Beijing on February 23.
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Hospital personnel in Codogno, Italy, carry new beds inside the hospital on February 21. The hospital is hosting some people who have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
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Doctors look at a CT scan of a lung at a hospital in Xiaogan, China, on February 20.
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A sales clerk wears a mask as she waits for customers at a hat shop in Beijing on February 18.
Small companies that help drive China's economy
are worried about how much damage
the coronavirus outbreak will cause to business.
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Buses carrying American passengers arrive at the Haneda Airport in Tokyo on February 17. The passengers
were leaving the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship
to be repatriated to the United States.
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A medical worker rests at the isolation ward of the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan on February 16.
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Authorities watch as the Westerdam cruise ship approaches a port in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on February 13. Despite having no confirmed cases of coronavirus on board, the Westerdam was refused port by four other Asian countries before being allowed to dock in Cambodia.
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A worker has his temperature checked on a shuttered commercial street in Beijing on February 12.
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Beds are made in the Wuhan Sports Center, which has been converted into a temporary hospital.
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A child rides a scooter past a police officer wearing protective gear outside the Hong Mei House in Hong Kong on February 11. More than 100 people evacuated the housing block after four residents in two different apartments tested positive for the coronavirus.
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Relatives of quarantined passengers wave at the Diamond Princess cruise ship as it leaves a port in Yokohama, Japan, to dump wastewater and generate potable water. Dozens of people on the ship
were infected with coronavirus.
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The Deneway branch of the County Oak Medical Centre is closed amid coronavirus fears in Brighton, England, on February 11. Several locations in and around Brighton were quarantined after
a man linked to several coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom
came into contact with health-care workers and members of the public.
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A police officer, left, wears protective gear as he guards a cordon at the Hong Mei House in Hong Kong on February 11.
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A worker wears a protective suit as he waits to screen people entering an office building in Beijing on February 10. China's workforce is
slowly coming back to work
after the coronavirus outbreak forced many parts of the country to extend the Lunar New Year holiday by more than a week.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has his temperature checked during an appearance in Beijing on February 10.
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Photojournalists wearing face masks take photos of a bus carrying passengers after they disembarked from the World Dream cruise ship in Hong Kong on February 9.
More than 5,300 people were quarantined on two cruise ships
off Hong Kong and Japan.
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People participating in a Lunar New Year Parade in New York City hold signs reading, `` Wuhan stay strong! '' on February 9.
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A shopper walks past empty shelves at a grocery store in Hong Kong on February 9. China's Ministry of Commerce
encouraged supermarkets and grocery stores
to resume operations as the country's voluntary or mandatory quarantines began to take an economic toll.
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A worker wearing a protective suit uses a machine to disinfect a business establishment in Shanghai, China, on February 9.
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Workers in protective gear walk near the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama on February 7.
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People in Hong Kong attend a vigil February 7 for
whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang.
Li, 34, died in Wuhan after contracting the virus while treating a patient.
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A woman grieves while paying tribute to Li at Li's hospital in Wuhan on February 7.
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The Anthem of the Seas cruise ship is seen docked at the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, New Jersey, on February 7. Passengers were to be screened for coronavirus as a precaution, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN.
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A light installation is displayed by striking members of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance and other activists at the Hospital Authority building in Hong Kong on February 7.
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Passengers are seen on the deck of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked at the Yokohama Port on February 7.
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Flight attendants wearing face masks make their way through Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok on February 7.
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Workers check sterile medical gloves at a latex-product manufacturer in Nanjing, China, on February 6.
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A woman wears a protective mask as she shops in a Beijing market on February 6.
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This aerial photo shows the Leishenshan Hospital that is being built in Wuhan to handle coronavirus patients.
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A passenger shows a note from the World Dream cruise ship docked at the Kai Tak cruise terminal in Hong Kong on February 5.
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A mask is seen on a statue in Beijing on February 5.
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An ambulance stops at a traffic light in front of the Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macao. The virus turned China's gambling mecca
into a ghost town.
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A dog in Beijing wears a makeshift mask constructed from a paper cup.
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Striking hospital workers in Hong Kong demand the closure of the border with mainland China on February 4.
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The Diamond Princess cruise ship sits anchored in quarantine off the port of Yokohama on February 4. It arrived a day earlier with passengers feeling ill.
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A medical worker wearing protective gear waits to take the temperature of people entering Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong on February 4.
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Medical workers in protective suits help transfer patients to a newly completed field hospital in Wuhan.
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People wearing protective overalls talk outside a Wuhan hotel housing people in isolation on February 3.
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A man stands in front of TV screens broadcasting a speech by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on February 3. Lam said the city would shut almost all border-control points to the mainland.
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A colleague sprays disinfectant on a doctor in Wuhan on February 3.
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Commuters in Tokyo walk past an electric board displaying dismal stock prices on February 3, the first business day after the Chinese New Year. Asia's markets recorded their
worst day in years
as investors finally got a chance to react to the worsening coronavirus outbreak.
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Medical workers move a coronavirus patient into an isolation ward at the Second People's Hospital in Fuyang, China, on February 1.
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Children wear plastic bottles as makeshift masks while waiting to check in to a flight at the Beijing Capital Airport on January 30.
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Passengers in Hong Kong wear protective masks as they wait to board a train at Lo Wu Station, near the mainland border, on January 30.
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A volunteer wearing protective clothing disinfects a street in Qingdao, China, on January 29.
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Nanning residents line up to buy face masks from a medical appliance store on January 29.
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Lyu Jun, left, a member of a medical team leaving for Wuhan, says goodbye to a loved one in Urumqi, China, on January 28.
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A charter flight from Wuhan arrives at an airport in Anchorage, Alaska, on January 28. The US government chartered the plane to bring home US citizens and diplomats from the American consulate in Wuhan.
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in wears a mask to inspect the National Medical Center in Seoul on January 28.
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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, center, attends a news conference in Hong Kong on January 28. Lam said China will stop individual travelers to Hong Kong while closing some border checkpoints and restricting flights and train services from the mainland.
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Workers at an airport in Novosibirsk, Russia, check the temperatures of passengers who arrived from Beijing on January 28.
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Alex Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, speaks during a news conference about the American public-health response.
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Two residents walk in an empty park in Wuhan on January 27. The city remained on lockdown for a fourth day.
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A person wears a protective mask, goggles and coat as he stands in a nearly empty street in Beijing on January 26.
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Medical staff members bring a patient to the Wuhan Red Cross hospital on January 25.
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People wear protective masks as they walk under Lunar New Year decorations in Beijing on January 25.
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Construction workers in Wuhan begin to work on a special hospital to deal with the outbreak on January 24.
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Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, speaks to reporters on January 24 about
a patient in Chicago
who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The patient was the second in the United States to be diagnosed with the illness.
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A couple kisses goodbye as they travel for the Lunar New Year holiday in Beijing on January 24.
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Workers manufacture protective face masks at a factory in China's Hubei Province on January 23.
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Shoppers wear masks in a Wuhan market on January 23.
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Passengers are checked by a thermography device at an airport in Osaka, Japan, on January 23.
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People wear masks while shopping for vegetables in Wuhan on January 23.
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A militia member checks the body temperature of a driver in Wuhan on January 23.
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Passengers wear masks as they arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines, on January 23.
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A customer holds boxes of particulate respirators at a pharmacy in Hong Kong on January 23.
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Passengers wear masks at the high-speed train station in Hong Kong on January 23.
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A woman rides an electric bicycle in Wuhan on January 22.
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People in Guangzhou, China, wear protective masks on January 22.
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People go through a checkpoint in Guangzhou on January 22.
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Medical staff of Wuhan's Union Hospital attend a gathering on January 22.
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Health officials hold a news conference in Beijing on January 22.
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Foreigners flee
With much of Hubei under effective quarantine for the foreseeable future, countries have begun airlifting their citizens from the stricken province. Two dozens countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and South Korea, have chartered planes to carry diplomats and citizens out of Wuhan.
Air traffic in the opposite direction is becoming increasingly sparse. More than 15 international carriers, including British Airways, Air Canada and American Airlines, have suspended some or all flights to and from mainland China.
Markets have dropped across the world on news of the virus ' spread, and the
expected hit to China's economy that it will result in
.
The economic impact of the virus is still impossible to determine, but one state media outlet and some economists have said that China's growth rate could drop two percentage points this quarter because of the outbreak, which has brought large parts of the country to a standstill. A decline on that scale could mean $ 62 billion in lost growth.
China can ill afford that kind of hit. Growth last year was already the country's weakest in nearly three decades, as China contended with rising debt and the fallout from its trade war with the US.
Major banks have cut interest rates for small businesses and individuals in the worst-hit areas. And the Bank of China said it would allow people in Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province to delay their loan payments for several months if they lose their source of income because of the disruption.
Both tourism and China's film industry are taking a major hit already, with box office receipts at almost nothing since the outbreak. The spread of the coronavirus also threatens to cause job losses and push consumer prices higher, compounding economic woes that already exist.
CNN's David Culver, Yong Xiong, Natalie Thomas and Steven Jiang in Beijing; and Laura He, Helen Regan, Pauline Lockwood, Carly Walsh, Eric Cheung, Yuli Yang, Chermaine Lee, Alexandra Lin, Isaac Yee, Angus Watson and Sophie Jeong in Hong Kong contributed reporting. | general |
Coronavirus outbreak: latest warnings and advice for Australians | While globally there were more than 14,000 cases of coronavirus, and more than 300 deaths as of Sunday afternoon, there are still just 12 confirmed cases of the virus in Australia – four in New South Wales, four in Victoria, two in Queensland, and two in South Australia.
Health minister Greg Hunt said three of those in NSW have been discharged from hospital having been cleared.
See this explainer to find out how this coronavirus spreads and how to protect yourself.
On Saturday evening, prime minister Scott Morrison announced that except for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family, legal guardians and spouses, anyone travelling from or through China to Australia will not be allowed to enter in a bid to contain coronavirus.
The federal government cancelled the visas of 71 people who were attempting to fly out of China to Australia overnight, as the travel ban took effect.
People on flights that were in transit when the policy change was announced were allowed to enter Australia. More than 700 people arrived in Melbourne and at least 70 in Brisbane, according to Australian Border Force commissioner Michael Outram.
“ They’ ve been met on those flights by biosecurity officers, and they’ ve been asked questions and they’ ve been subject to health screening, including by state and territory health officials, ” he said. “ A small number of people, as I understand it, were then taken for further screening at a hospital, but that’ s a handful – two or three. ”
Twelve flights out of China to Australia have been cancelled since the travel ban was put in place. Outram said any non-citizen or non-resident who arrives in Australia having travelled through China will have their visa cancelled and they will be put into detention for the quarantine period.
Australia’ s chief medical officer, Prof Brendan Murphy, said the extreme measure was taken in order to contain the spread of the virus.
“ We are doing everything we can to contain the spread of the virus in Australia. We don’ t apologise, but we do understand that this could be a significant imposition on many people. ”
The government is still attempting to get about 600 Australian citizens or permanent residents in the Hubei province back to Australia. They will still be taken to Christmas Island for a 14-day quarantine period, once China has agreed to allow a flight in.
An Australian medical assistance team and a mobile hospital has arrived on Christmas Island, and the flight to collect people from Wuhan is expected to leave in the next 24 hours.
Hunt said it wasn’ t expected any of these people would have coronavirus, but the medical team was prepared for that.
The airline crew that will fly in to Wuhan will not be required to be quarantined, but will be wearing face masks and gloves during the flight, and will be subject to a health screening upon arrival in Australia.
The government has backed down on plans to charge people up to $ 1,000 to be evacuated to Christmas Island, with treasurer Josh Frydenberg telling the ABC that the department of foreign affairs gave the government incorrect information about the charge.
“ We won’ t be charging. Those people will be able to come to Australia with no cost incurred, ” he said.
This came despite home affairs minister Peter Dutton saying an hour earlier that people would still be charged.
The government had said previous governments had charged for airlifts such as those run out of Lebanon in 2006, and Egypt in 2011. But that claim was contradicted by Julia Gillard, who was prime minister at the time, and Kevin Rudd, who was foreign minister.
No.
Australians have been told not to travel to China, but Dutton went one step further and suggested Australians about to leave for any overseas holiday should reconsider their travel.
The chief medical officer said the medical advice around travel was currently limited to China.
Prior to 1 February, students who had travelled from the Hubei province were told to stay home for a 14-day quarantine period.
From 1 February, this now extends to any student who has travelled from mainland China on or since 1 February. | general |
Japan reports 20th case of coronavirus as Abe vows new steps to combat outbreak | The number of coronavirus cases in Japan rose to 20 on Saturday as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed ministers to come up with additional steps to respond to the outbreak.
The health ministry said three more returnees from the virus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan have tested positive, in addition to the 17 cases of infection reported earlier, including some without symptoms. The three were among the Japanese nationals who returned on government-chartered flights last week.
Abe on Saturday stressed the need to make sure people across the country have access to necessary medical examinations and supplies, including masks, as infections have been confirmed in various parts of the country.
“ I ask ministers to compile measures to use reserves ( in the state budget) and implement them as soon as possible, ” Abe told a meeting held at his office to discuss the government’ s response to the outbreak.
“ The new coronavirus is having a major impact on tourism, the economy and our society as a whole, ” the prime minister said. “ The government will do its utmost to address the impact. ”
The government officially classified the virus as a designated infectious disease on Saturday, enabling authorities to enact, among other measures, compulsory hospitalization when necessary. Taxpayers’ money will cover the costs of treating patients forced to stay in hospitals.
To prevent the deadly virus from spreading further, foreign nationals who have been to Hubei province within two weeks — the virus’ s estimated incubation period — prior to their arrival to Japan, will be barred. They are now required to declare at airports if they have been to Hubei during that period, Japanese officials said.
Holders of Chinese passports issued in the central Chinese province, the capital of which is the virus-hit city of Wuhan, will also be prohibited from entering the country in principle.
They are subject to the precautionary measures whether they display symptoms or not.
Government officials say it is not a blanket ban on holders of Hubei-issued Chinese passports, noting that exceptions will be made under special circumstances.
But it is still unclear, for instance, whether a case in which a person has a Chinese passport issued in Hubei but lives in a different province or country will warrant an exception. Uncertainty also remains over whether a Chinese national with a passport from Hubei who is married to a Japanese will be allowed to enter Japan.
The restrictions will remain in place “ for the time being, ” Abe said, with one immigration official saying, “ It will depend on ( the possibility of) an extensive outbreak. ”
Still, during his meeting Saturday, Abe said the measures need to be strictly and properly enforced, adding that the government will also continue to check on the health of over 560 Japanese nationals who were evacuated this week from Wuhan on government-chartered flights. The government had come under fire both at home and abroad for not quarantining citizens returning from Wuhan. It had said taking such forceful actions could violate human rights and instead asked them to monitor and report their own health and stay home or in lodgings provided by the government for two weeks.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. | tech |
Yemen's Huthi rebels in possession of new arms: UN report | Hi, what are you looking for?
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Yemen's Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran, according to a UN report obtained by AFP on Friday, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.
The crisis in Yemen pits the Iranian-backed Huthi rebels against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.
Some of the new weapons, which the rebels have possessed since 2019, `` have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, '' said the report, which was compiled by a panel of UN experts tasked with monitoring the embargo.
The panel didn't say whether the weapons were delivered to the Huthis directly by the Iranian government, which has repeatedly denied sending them arms.
`` In addition to the previously known weapon systems, they used a new type of Delta-design uncrewed aerial vehicle and a new model of land attack cruise missile, '' the document said.
The weapons, as well as commercially available parts constituting some of the weapons, potentially violated the embargo, according to the document.
The experts separately added that the Huthi rebels ' claim that they carried out the attacks against two key Saudi oil installations on September 14 was `` unlikely. ''
Several countries, including the United States, have ruled out the Huthis ' ability to conduct such an attack, and instead accused Iran, which has denied involvement.
The panel additionally said that it had identified a `` Huthi network involved in the repression of women who oppose the Huthis, including through the use of sexual violence. ''
`` Violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law continued to be widely committed by all parties in Yemen with impunity, '' the report said.
The war in Yemen has claimed tens of thousands of lives, most of them civilians, according to non-governmental groups.
Yemen’ s Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran, according to a UN report obtained by AFP on Friday, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.
The crisis in Yemen pits the Iranian-backed Huthi rebels against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.
Some of the new weapons, which the rebels have possessed since 2019, “ have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, ” said the report, which was compiled by a panel of UN experts tasked with monitoring the embargo.
The panel didn’ t say whether the weapons were delivered to the Huthis directly by the Iranian government, which has repeatedly denied sending them arms.
“ In addition to the previously known weapon systems, they used a new type of Delta-design uncrewed aerial vehicle and a new model of land attack cruise missile, ” the document said.
The weapons, as well as commercially available parts constituting some of the weapons, potentially violated the embargo, according to the document.
The experts separately added that the Huthi rebels’ claim that they carried out the attacks against two key Saudi oil installations on September 14 was “ unlikely. ”
Several countries, including the United States, have ruled out the Huthis’ ability to conduct such an attack, and instead accused Iran, which has denied involvement.
The panel additionally said that it had identified a “ Huthi network involved in the repression of women who oppose the Huthis, including through the use of sexual violence. ”
“ Violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law continued to be widely committed by all parties in Yemen with impunity, ” the report said.
The war in Yemen has claimed tens of thousands of lives, most of them civilians, according to non-governmental groups.
With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
The implant sends electrical pulses to his muscles, mimicking the action of the brain.
The EU launches a plan Tuesday to raise tens of billions of euros to boost semiconductor production in Europe.
We are only starting to see the beginning of how NFTs and education can come together.
Ongoing protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Canada blocked traffic at Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Canada.
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Apple store closings in China could impact 1 million iPhone sales | Apple's decision to temporarily shutter its stores in China as a result of the new coronavirus could delay up to 1 million iPhone sales but is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the company's revenue, analysts at Wedbush Securities said Saturday.
`` We believe with the limited transportation in major cities throughout China and limited foot traffic in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities that at most ~1 mm iPhones in the region could be at risk of shifting out of the March quarter into the June quarter if this continues into late February, '' analysts Daniel Ives and Strecker Backe wrote.
Ives and Backe said that the sum represented less than 3% of annual Chinese iPhone sales and that the impact would likely be neglible.
Apple said earlier in the day that out of `` an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts '' it would close its stores on the country's mainland until Feb. 9.
The company reported blowout earnings on Tuesday but issued guidance with a wider range than is typical, which CEO Tim Cook attributed to uncertainty around the new flu-like infection. The company has broad exposure to the Chinese consumer market and relies on the country for a majority of its manufacturing.
Ives and Backe wrote that the effect of the outbreak on the company's shares was mitigated because Apple did not roll out major sales around the Chinese New Year, which took place Jan. 25.
`` While the coronavirus outbreak is a sad situation and concerning headline for investors, for the stock we believe the fundamental impact from this issue to Apple's top-line is negligible especially as this year there were no major price cuts or last minute sales around the Chinese New Year, which we have seen in prior years to spur sales in the key region, '' they wrote.
The company reported revenue of $ 91.8 billion last quarter, beating its own estimates. Growth was fueled in large part by nearly $ 56 billion in iPhone sales, even as the company missed estimates for services revenue.
Nearly 12,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported globally and the death toll from the virus reached 259 by Saturday morning. Many businesses with footprints in China have fully or partially suspended operations in the country and restricted employees from traveling there.
President Donald Trump on Friday declared that the new coronavirus was a public health emergency in the United States. | business |
NYC tests first person for coronavirus; Massachusetts confirms case | The coverage on this live blog has ended. For the latest coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team.
All times below in U.S. eastern standard time.
4:27 pm: First person in New York City under investigation for coronavirusThe first person in New York City is under investigation for coronavirus, according to the Department of Health. The individual, who is under 40-years-old, has been hospitalized and is in stable condition after showing symptoms following travel to mainland China. Testing by the CDC to determine whether this is a confirmed case of coronavirus will take at least 36-48 hours, according to health officials.
`` An individual with a travel history to China felt unwell and sought help from a medical provider who promptly contacted the Health Department, '' said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot.3:15 pm: Pentagon will provide housing for those who need to be quarantined
The Pentagon approved a request on Saturday from the Department of Health and Human services to provide housing for 1,000 people who could need to be quarantined after traveling abroad due to the virus, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.
3:00 pm: Apple closing stores in China could impact 1 million iPhones
As Apple temporarily closes its stores in China, roughly 1 million of Apple's iPhones in China are at risk of shifting out of the March and into the June quarter if the virus outbreak continues into late February, according to a Webush analyst note. However, the firm notes that it would be a less than 3% of Chinese annual iPhone sales at most and would have a negligible impact.
2:00 pm: Virus outbreak still largely centered in Hubei, WHO reports
A World Health Organization report on Saturday said the outbreak is still largely centered in the Hubei Province in China. About 60.5% of all China cases since the start of the outbreak are from Hubei Province, and the remainder are from 33 other provinces, regions and cities, according to the report.
The second largest number of cases are from the Zhejiang Province. Furthermore, 101 of the 132 cases confirmed outside of China were people who had traveled to China in the 14 days before the onset of the virus.
1:00 pm: Case of the virus confirmed in Massachusetts
A case of the virus has been confirmed in Boston, Massachusetts, in a man in his 20s who recently traveled to Wuhan, China, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced Saturday. So far, eight cases have been confirmed in the U.S: three people in California, two in Illinois and one each in Washington state, Arizona and Massachusetts.
11:30 am: Delta accelerates plans to suspend all U.S.-China flights
Delta said it will accelerate its plan to temporarily suspend flights between the U.S. and China to Feb. 2, based on new U.S. requirements that deny entry to foreigners who have visited China in the past two weeks.
The last China-bound Delta flight from the U.S. leaves Feb. 1, and the last returning flight from China to the U.S. leaves Feb. 2. The airline's previous plan was to suspend flights starting Feb. 6.
10:00 am: New research suggests more than 75,000 people infected in China
Roughly 2,100 new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in China, raising the global total to nearly 12,000, according to the Chinese and World Health Organization. The death toll has reached 259. All of China's provinces and territories have been affected by the virus outbreak.
But up to 75,800 people in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, might have been infected with the virus as of Jan. 25, according to a new report from the medical journal The Lancet.
8:00 am: Vietnam and Qatar Airways suspend flights to ChinaVietnam banned all flights to China over coronavirus concerns, the government announced in a statement. Qatar Airways said it was suspending flights to China from February 3 until further notice.These are the airlines that have suspended flights to China amid the virus outbreak:
Vietnam Airlines, Qatar Airways, Delta Airlines ( until April 30), American Airlines ( until March 27), Air France ( until Feb. 9), British Airways, Air Seoul, Egyptair, Lion Air, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines and Austrian Airlines ( until end February), Kenya Airways, RwandAir ( till further notice), Vietjet ( effective Feb. 1), all Russian airlines ( except Aeroflot).
7:30 am: China will strengthen financial support for anti-virus campaign
China's deputy central bank governor, Pan Gongsheng, said in an interview with state run news agency Xinhua that if needed, the bank would inject liquidity into the markets after the open on February 3 amid stress over the spread of the virus and declines on Wall Street.
6:40 am: China cancels tariffs on some virus prevention materials imported from U.S.
Beijing announced that U.S. imports that help to combat the virus will be exempted from retaliatory tariffs imposed during the U.S.-China trade war, including products like disinfectants.
2:16 am: Apple closes all stores in mainland China
Apple has temporarily shut down all its stores, corporate offices and contact centers in mainland China through Feb. 9, the company said on Saturday. The online store in China will stay open. The company operates 42 stores in mainland China.
This is a live blog. Please check back for updates.
Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story misstated the age of the person in New York City undergoing testing. | business |
Eurozone growth slows sharply as French and Italian economies shrink – as it happened | Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as France’ s economy contracts by 0.1% in the last quarter
Graeme Wearden
Fri 31 Jan 2020 15.11 GMT First published on Fri 31 Jan 2020 07.45 GMT
3.11pm GMT 15:11
Time for a quick recap
Growth in the eurozone has almost fizzled out in the last quarter, hit by weak internal demand and a slowing global economy.
Eurozone GDP only expanded by 0.1% in October-December, down from 0.3% in July-September. It’ s the weakest performance since 2013, and raises the prospect that some countries will fall into recession this year.
France disappointed, with GDP falling by 0.1% in Q4. Finance minister Bruno Le Maire blamed the protests that have hurt its economy in recent months.
Italy was another laggard, shrinking by 0.3%. But Spain outperformed its neighbours, growing by 0.5%.
Economists have warned that the eurozone could struggle this year, having been wounded by trade conflicts in recent quarters.
But there are brighter signs in the UK, with mortgage approvals rising sharply in December.
Global stock markets are falling again today, as the coronavirus crisis continues to alarm investors.
Goldman Sachs has predicted that the efforts to contain the virus will knock China’ s growth down to 5.5% this year, from 5.9%, with a small impact on the US economy too.
3.06pm GMT 15:06
Britain’ s friends over the channel are threatening to block the rescue of British Steel.
The French government aren’ t happy about China’ s Jingy Group buying British Steel - which owns a factory making steel tracks for France’ s railways.
Not a great advert for entante cordials after Brexit ( due in 8 hours...)
3.01pm GMT 15:01
Brexit uncertainty may has hurt UK productivity and investment, and held back growth, but it hasn’ t harmed David Cameron’ s bank balance....
2.57pm GMT 14:57
Coronavirus fears have hit Wall Street again.
The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen by 264 points, or 0.9%, to 28,595 points.
Energy firms Exxon Mobile and Chevron are leading the fallers. The oil price has been hit by forecasts of lower growth due to the epidemic which reached the UK today.
The S & P 500 has lost 0.5%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq is 0.4% lower.
Brad Bechtel of Jefferies reckons the market reaction is overdone:
The steady drumbeat of negative headlines combined with government reactions to the spread of the virus is still roiling markets a bit and it’ s hard for markets to find that stability. It still feels like there is a lot of cash on the sidelines looking to buy the dip it’ sjust a matter of timing it appropriately. The idea that this virus is nowhere near as deadly as the common flu in the US was sort of helping calm the situation and yet we still are seeing reactions in the market on every new person infected or passing away.
Understand the fear around the spread of the virus but the market reaction is a bit strange to me still. The reactions of governments has been extreme and will be costly, that is important for markets, but to shake the mighty S & P in the face of such powerful earnings from US companies is a bit of a head scratcher.
2.00pm GMT 14:00
Newsflash: Airline manufacturer Airbus has ben hit with fines totalling €3.592 to cover a series of bribery cases.
France’ s financial prosecutor has just announced the penalties, which include more than €2bn to settle corruption charges in France.
The planemaker has been investigated by French and British authorities for suspected corruption over jet sales dating back over a decade. It has also faced U.S. investigations over suspected violations of export controls.
Airbus's EUR3.6 billion fine includes EUR1 billion in recovered profits from corrupt contracts
Breakdown: €2.08 billion for France, €984 million for UK, €526 million for the U.S.
1.37pm GMT 13:37
Back in the City, investment services platform Hargeaves Lansdown are the biggest FTSE 100 faller, down almost 7%.
HL reported that its net new business declined 9% year-on-year in the last quarter. That’ s partly due to the scandal around Neil Woodford’ s funds, which HL had promoted as “ best buy ” options.
“ Best avoid ” would have been better advice, given the huge losses which investors face.
HL’ s CEO, Chris Hill, says it has been a tough few months:
The external market was challenging in the second half of 2019, with political uncertainty, a General Election in the UK, Brexit and world trade tariffs all raising concerns. As we have seen in previous unpredictable periods, client confidence and retail investment flows were affected.
The Investment Association reported weak retail fund flows throughout and the suspension of the two Woodford funds also contributed to the general unease.
Paul Mumford, fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management, suggests 2020 will also be bumpy for Hargeaves Lansdown:
What price Neil Woodword? Well so far the problems haven’ t revealed themselves. The loss of new business must be a worry, especially if it’ s linked to a loss of trust as a result of the company’ s role in the Woodford scandal. Unfortunately the post-mortem of that debacle has only just begun. With the Woodford fund distribution guidelines announced recently, they’ re back under the microscope.
“ For Hargreaves you’ d expect to see at least a fine from the FCA, and perhaps even a class action lawsuit from shareholders. How that will affect their business remains to be seen. It could be a very long year ahead for the company. ”
1.16pm GMT 13:16
France’ s finance minister has blamed the industrial action and protests against the French government for the slump in growth in the last quarter.
Insisting that the underlying economy is strong, Le Maire says:
“ This temporary slowdown does not call into question the fundamentals of French growth, which are solid.
We are nonetheless particularly vigilant of international uncertainties. ”
Le Maire has a point - as explained earlier, consumer spending and investment was still positive. The 0.1% drop in growth was due to businesses running down inventories.
But, if those firms remain nervous, they could move onto cutting orders and axing staff....
Updated at 1.20pm GMT
12.29pm GMT 12:29
Capital Economics are also gloomy -- predicting that 2020 will be a weaker year than hoped.
“ The fourth-quarter GDP and January consumer prices data published today support our view that Eurozone growth and inflation will be weaker this year than most expect.
This underlies our forecast that the European Central Bank will eventually be forced to loosen policy further, perhaps in the second half of the year. ”
12.10pm GMT 12:10
Christoph Weil, economist at Commerzbank, reckons the European Central Bank will be very concerned by the eurozone slowdown - which could spur it into more stimulus measures.
Weil says ( via the FT):
“ The spectre of recession is back.
“ Economic growth in the eurozone came to a virtual standstill at the end of the year... The ECB is likely to view this with concern. ”
Updated at 12.10pm GMT
11.45am GMT 11:45
The eurozone growth slump is partly due to Donald Trump trade wars, says Barret Kupelian, senior economist at PwC.
This disappointing performance was not entirely unexpected, given that the Eurozone has been one of the economies most impacted by international trade disputes.
While we don’ t have a full national breakdown of the headline growth rate, some statistical agencies released estimates of the national GDP growth rate. In France, the economy shrunk by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter. However, without the inventory effect French GDP would have grown by 0.3% quarter on quarter. The Italian economy contracted in the last quarter of 2019, meaning that it didn’ t grow at all last year. But in contrast, Spain continued to grow in the fourth quarter, translating to an annual GDP growth figure of 2%.
We don’ t yet know how the UK fared in the last quarter; the most recent figures show 0.1% growth in September-November.
But Kupelian points out that the eurozone has actually outperformed the UK since the Brexit vote -- as Britain “ missed out on the synchronised upswing in economic activity in 2016/17. ”
11.25am GMT 11:25
European stock markets are sliding again today, hit by the unexpectedly weak growth figures and the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Every index is down, led by Italy ( down 1.4%) and Spain ( -1%).
In London, the FTSE 100 is also suffering, down 60 points or 0.8% to a six-week low.
The news that Britain now has two coronavirus cases is also worrying traders ( and the rest of the public too, I suspect).
11.24am GMT 11:24
`` Disappointingly slow GDP growth at the end of 2019, but in line with surveys and hard data. '' @ ClausVistesen on # Eurozone Advance Q4 GDP and January Inflation # PantheonMacro
11.22am GMT 11:22
Josie Dent, Senior Economist at the CEBR, points out that France and Italy are now half-way into recession following their contractions last quarter.
The eurozone economy scraped through with positive growth of just 0.1% at the end of 2019. Major economies, including France and Italy recorded contractions in Q4, and politicians in these countries will be anxious for GDP growth to return, as further contractions in Q1 would put the countries in a technical recession.
However, a glimmer of home comes from the pick-up in inflation, which suggests that demand for goods and services could have risen at the start of 2020. ”
10.47am GMT 10:47
Here’ s Reuters’ take on today’ s growth reports:
Euro zone economic growth was slower than expected in the last three months of 2019, a first estimate showed on Friday, while inflation in January picked up in line with expectations thanks to a jump in prices of food, alcohol and tobacco and energy.
The European Union’ s statistics office Eurostat said gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.1% quarter-on-quarter for a 1.0% year-on-year gain.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.2% quarterly and a 1.1% annual increase.
Separately, Eurostat said consumer prices fell 1.0% month-on-month in January for a 1.4% year-on-year rise, accelerating from a 1.3% rate in December and 1.0% in November.
However, the pick-up in headline price growth was mainly due to a jump in the volatile prices of food, alcohol and tobacco which rose 2.2% year-on-year. Energy prices were also up 1.8%.
Without unprocessed food and energy, what the European Central Bank calls core inflation, prices grew 1.3% year-on-year, decelerating from 1.4% in December.
An even narrower inflation measure watched by many market economists also excluding alcohol and tobacco prices which can move due to excise tax changes, decelerated even more to 1.1% from 1.3% in December in year-on-year terms.
The ECB wants to keep inflation below but close to 2% over the medium term but has been struggling for years to spur faster price growth despite its programme of government bond buying on the market to inject more cash into the economy.
10.36am GMT 10:36
In another blow to households, inflation across the eurozone has picked up.
Consumer prices rose by 1.4% year-on-year in December, up from 1.3%, due to rising food, alcohol and tobacco prices.
BREAKING: # Eurozone GDP inched up by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, that was slower than 0.2% quarterly growth expected by economists. @ EU Eurostat also reported annual inflation expected to be 1.4% in January, a tenth higher than Dec, while the core slowed to 1.1% growth vs 1.3%
10.12am GMT 10:12
Some snap reaction to the eurozone slowdown:
It is quite a relief, that eurozone Q4 GDP wasn't worse after the bad French & Italian numbers. But at 0.1% q/q growth remained weak at the end of 2019, while surveys only provide tentative evidence of a pick-up in early-2020. /1 pic.twitter.com/9n0rVs6aHl
Meanwhile Eurozone prelim Q4 GDP readings are ugly: - Italy: -0.3% qoq, cons +0.1% - France: -0.1% qoq, cons +0.2% But Spain beat +0.5% vs 0.4% cons Overall: EZ GDP +0.1% vs cons +0.2% ( weaker than exp) $ EUR
10.04am GMT 10:04
Newsflash: Growth across the eurozone, and the European Union, slowed sharply in the last quarter.
Eurozone and EU GDP both only rose by 0.1% in October-December, down from 0.3% in July-September, dragged down by Italy ( -0.3%) and France ( -0.1%).
Economists had expected the eurozone to grow by 0.2% in the last quarter, in the face of weak global growth and trade tensions.
On an annual basis, the eurozone economy is only 1% larger than a year ago -- a weak performance.
We don’ t yet know how Germany, the region’ s biggest economy, performed - that data comes out next month, as does UK GDP.
Eurostat, which compiles the survey, adds:
According to a first estimation of annual growth for 2019, based on quarterly data, GDP grew by 1.2% in the euro area and 1.4% in the EU28.
Euro area # GDP +0.1% in Q4 2019, +1.0% compared with Q4 2018: preliminary flash estimate from # Eurostat https: //t.co/x17Ql1VD2U pic.twitter.com/5FcqrG37Ir
# Eurozone GDP ( Q4 - 1st est.) YoY 1.0% v 1.1% exp. ( prev 1.2%) QoQ 0.1% v 0.2% exp. ( prev 0.2%) $ EUR
Updated at 10.12am GMT | general |
Strains of Coronavirus 2019-nCoV Detected in France Isolated | On the left, a cell layer not damaged by the viruses. On the right, a cell layer with a visible cytopathic effect ( CPE); the cells infected by the virus have been destroyed. Credit: Institut Pasteur/CNR for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur.
As well as sequencing the whole genome of coronavirus 2019-nCoV, the Institut Pasteur continued to work on the samples taken from the first confirmed cases. The quality of these initial samples enabled rapid cell-culture isolation of the new virus. The Institut Pasteur’ s scientists now have access to the virus responsible for the infection. The isolation of the virus paves the way for new diagnostic, therapeutic and prophylactic approaches.
With the whole viral genome of coronavirus 2019-nCoV having recently been sequenced at the Institut Pasteur, the isolation of strains of coronavirus 2019-nCoV detected in France has now been successfully finalized, in a very short space of time, using the samples taken from the first confirmed French cases.
Coronavirus 2019-nCoV, responsible for the cases of pneumonia that emerged in China, differs from two other viruses that are well known for causing respiratory outbreaks in recent years: the SARS-CoV virus, responsible for the SARS outbreak in 2003, and MERS-CoV, responsible for an outbreak that has been underway since 2012 in the Middle East.
The Institut Pasteur was actively involved in tackling these previous outbreaks, which yielded valuable lessons for the current situation. “ For both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, cells known as Vero E6 were identified to culture the two coronaviruses, ” explains Sylvie van der Werf, Director of the National Reference Center ( CNR) for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur. “ In January 2020, we brought them out of our collection, which is kept under strictly controlled conditions, so that we would be ready as soon as we detected a positive sample for coronavirus 2019-nCoV. ”
The Institut Pasteur was therefore well prepared, and on Friday, January 24, 2020, the very day that the first cases were confirmed, it began the process of culturing the samples that had tested positive for the virus on Vero E6 cells. “ Using detection methods, we had observed a high viral load in the samples taken from the patients in hospital in Paris. This enabled us to identify which samples should be cultured first, ” says Sylvie Behillil, Deputy Director of the CNR at the Institut Pasteur.
A cell layer with a visible cytopathic effect ( CPE); the cells infected by the virus have been destroyed. Credit: Institut Pasteur/CNR for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur.
The viruses continued to be cultured over the weekend of January 25-26, 2020. By the morning of Monday, January 27, the culture had already grown! “ We didn’ t think that it would grow so quickly, ” continues Sylvie Behillil. The rapid growth of the culture may be explained by “ the high viral load in the samples, ” but also by “ the quality of the samples, ” adds Vincent Enouf, Deputy Director of the CNR at the Institut Pasteur.
“ We could see the cells becoming damaged and then grouping together, which can indicate that they have been infected. But we did not observe this cytopathic effect for all the inoculated samples; that reassured us that we had managed to isolate the strains, and this was then confirmed by additional analyses. ”
Now that the Institut Pasteur’ s scientists have access to coronavirus 2019-nCoV, they can set out to improve scientific knowledge about the virus.
Research will focus on four main areas.
The National Reference Center ( CNR) for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur in Paris is one of WHO’ s reference laboratories for coronavirus 2019-nCoV.
A total of eight people from the CNR and two from the P2M sequencing platform have been working on the virus this week and will continue to monitor the outbreak in France.
The isolation of coronavirus 2019-nCoV clears a vital hurdle for research, which has now begun. The Institut Pasteur immediately set up a task force to mobilize its experts with the aim of developing diagnostic, prevention and treatment tools as quickly as possible to tackle the novel coronavirus. | tech |
This week, China took action against the coronavirus outbreak | Following the ongoing spread of the coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan in December, the Chinese government is building two prefabricated hospitals in the city to treat people with the contagious flu-like infection.
is due to open on 3 February, just 10 days after construction began. Progress is being documented in live footage by state broadcaster CGTN.
seen the cancellation of several design events across China.
Organisers of the country's biggest contemporary design show, Design Shanghai, said they were postponing the fair until May `` to ensure the welfare and safety of visitors ''.
Shanghai architect Neri & Hu also scrapped its plans for its Festival of Design conference after `` carefully evaluating the situation and potential risks ''.
after 88 years. Architect Ben Aranda said the decision was
Set to begin construction later this year, the OPPO headquarters will take the form of four different-sized towers unified by a sinuous glass facade.
that integrates both its screen and keyboard into a single pane of bent glass.
for a new Space Force military branch, which US president Donald Trump revealed on the social media platform.
– an annual award that exists to raise the profile of women in architecture. | business |
Opinion: How the coronavirus scare has driven dangerous arrogance and greed in the stock market | It is no secret that the stock market is driven by greed and fear. Normally I measure levels of greed and fear in the market using proven algorithms. At extremes, greed is a sell signal and fear is a buy signal for stocks.
The reaction to the coronavirus shows that there is an unprecedented amount of arrogance among the momo ( momentum) crowd and the people who influence them. The stock market these days is controlled by the momo crowd. This combination of greed and arrogance may prove to be dangerous for investors. Let’ s examine the danger with the help of two charts.
Two chart
Please click
here
for an annotated chart of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust
DIA,
+1.81%
,
which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.82%
.
For the sake of full transparency, this chart was previously published and nothing has been changed since then.
Please click
here
for an annotated intraday chart of the Invesco QQQ Trust
QQQ,
+0.72%
,
which tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index
NDX,
+0.71%
. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the chart of the SPDR S & P 500 ETF
SPY,
+1.53%
.
Note the following:
• Smart money sold into the strength when the momo crowd proclaimed that the coronavirus was not of concern and the tiny dip in the stock market was a buying opportunity.
• The first chart shows that the trendline that has been in place during the latest acceleration in the stock market was broken on the coronavirus news.
• The first chart shows the support zone. If the stock market pulls back to the support zone, it may make sense to think in terms of buying opportunities.
• The first chart shows the Arora signal to raise cash and hedges near the highs in the stock market before the breakdown on coronavirus news. Based on this signal, the Arora Report long-term portfolios have been up to 63% protected.
• The first chart shows Arora signals to short-sell QQQ for a short-term trade. For those who could not short the signal was also given to buy the ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF
SQQQ,
-2.41%
.
This inverse ETF goes up when the stock market goes down. ( Bear in mind that short-selling and leverage ought to be used only by sophisticated investors.)
• The first chart shows RSI divergence. This is a negative.
• The second chart shows the gap down on the coronavirus news.
• The second chart shows proclamation of a buying opportunity by the momo crowd.
• The VUD indicator on the second chart shows aggressive buying after the momo crowd gurus proclaimed that the coronavirus was not of concern. The VUD indicator is the most sensitive measure of net supply demand in real time.
Earnings
Since the coronavirus news, Apple
AAPL,
-0.61%
and Microsoft
MSFT,
-0.18%
have reported exceptionally strong sales and earnings. However, both of these success stories should have already been discounted in the elevated stock prices.
Please see
Apple may have had blowout earnings, but these risks to the stock have emerged
.
Facebook
FB,
-0.07%
disappointed investors
with its earnings report.
Semiconductors have been the leading indicator of this stock market. Among semiconductors, Advanced Micro Devices
AMD,
+1.05%
and Xilinx
XLNX,
-0.20%
reported weaker than expected earnings but Lam Research
LRCX,
-4.62%
did better than expected.
Please see
This U.S. company will benefit as China tries to catch up in semiconductors
and
How and when prudent investors ought to buy these 5G stocks
.
Tesla
TSLA,
-0.95%
reported a
game-changing quarter
after the recent epic short squeeze.
Greed and arrogance
Most investors are familiar with greed. Please see
How an external event could stunt U.S. stocks
for the level of greed.
Would you say that there is extreme arrogance after considering the following points?
• The momo crowd, who are not virologists or epidemiologists, quickly declared that coronavirus was of no concern.
• Such proclamations happened at a time when epidemiologists and virologist were concerned.
• It was known that the virus had an incubation period of up to two weeks.
• It was known that asymptomatic patients were contagious.
• It was known that about 5 million people managed to flee the epicenter of the virus and were not likely to be tracked.
• There were serious concerns about the transparency of the information coming out of China. After all, no government would want to spread panic. It would seem to be in a government’ s interest to skew the statistics to minimize the impact.
• The buy signals were being given only after a pullback of only 2% to 3%, following a massive rally.
I previously wrote that there was 90% probability that the virus would be contained but investors should not ignore the small probability of a significant spread.
Consider watching the SPDR Gold Shares ETF
GLD,
-0.55%
,
the iShares Silver Trust
SLV,
+0.58%
and the United States Oil Fund LP
USO,
+2.66%
.
For details, please see
Watch these stocks and ETFs to gauge the impact of the coronavirus on markets
.
Disclosure: Subscribers to
The Arora Report
may have positions in the securities mentioned in this article or may take positions at any time.
Nigam Arora
is an investor, engineer and nuclear physicist by background who has founded two Inc. 500 fastest-growing companies. He is the founder of The Arora Report, which publishes four newsletters. He can be reached at
Nigam @ TheAroraReport.com
. | business |
Oil sector leads commodities lower in January, but gold shines as coronavirus shakes up the market | The commodities sector suffered a broad decline in January, the first monthly loss in five months, weighed down by expectations that the spread of the coronavirus will slow the global economy—and demand for energy, grains and industrial metals.
“ The markets are looking at demand destruction with the coronavirus, ” said Daniel Flynn, analyst at The Price Futures Group. “ The only information we can navigate through is the effect of the SARS virus in 2003 which took the market one year to recover. ”
“ We will know more as we have not hit the tip of the iceberg yet, ” and fears will continue “ until we have a solution to incubate this virus and control it. There will still be panic sells, ” he told MarketWatch.
Read:
What the 2003 SARS epidemic tells us about the potential impact of China’ s coronavirus on oil and metals
The S & P GSCI index
SPGSCI,
-1.10%
,
which tracks 24 commodities across five sectors, with energy its largest weighting, lost 11% this month, just ahead of the stock market close. That follows gains in each of the last four months.
However, the Bloomberg Commodity Index
BCOM,
+0.71%
,
which tracks 23 commodities, with gold the heaviest-weighted, lost more than 7% in January. It posted a gain of 4.9% in December.
Gold was among the bright spots in the commodities market, with futures prices for the metal
US: GCJ20
,
based on the most-active contract, settling around 3.8%
higher for the month
.
“ Precious metals tend to rally during times of great market uncertainty, ” said Craig Turner, senior commodities broker with Daniels Trading in Chicago, adding that this is know as the “ flight to safety trade. ”
Meanwhile, the energy sector took the biggest overall hit among commodities, with futures prices for West Texas Intermediate crude
US: CLH20
down nearly 16% and Brent crude
UK: BRNJ20
down almost 12% for the month. Heating-oil futures
US: HOH20
logged a monthly decline of nearly 20%.
Read:
‘ Hurricane-force headwinds’ pull oil lower, but the losses aren’ t built to last
Also see:
Jet fuel demand takes a hit as coronavirus leads to travel restrictions
“ Oil is the canary in the coal mine, as it were, for global economic activity, ” said Marshall Gittler, head of investment research at BDSwiss Group.
“ We’ ve already seen a lot of serious moves that will depress demand for energy: Chinese companies are taking extended vacations and some airlines are halting flights to China, ” he told MarketWatch. “ We can easily imagine such measures spreading—people may start to avoid travel in general if the virus is spreading, and demand may fall if people think shopping presents a risk. ”
“ What we saw with SARS was that once the epidemic was under control, demand bounced back, ” with Hong Kong seeing its biggest-ever jump in output during the third quarter of 2003, “ after the ‘ all clear’ was sounded for SARS, ” he said.
At the moment, however, “ there’ s no way of knowing when that will be ” for the coronavirus, said Gittler. “ The virus seems to be spreading much more rapidly than SARS did. So while the forward market may remain in demand, demand for spot barrels is likely to be depressed for some time. ”
Industrial metals were also among the hardest hit commodities in January. For the month, copper futures
US: HGH20
registered a monthly loss of about 10% and iron ore
US: TIOG20
was down over 11%.
“ Economic output tends to decline during epidemics because of the quarantine, ” said Turner. “ Large cities in China are coming to a standstill. This lowers demand in the short term for industrial metals and materials. ”
Among the grains, corn, soybeans and wheat were also down for the month. Corn futures
US: CH20
lost 1.7%, wheat
US: WH20
edged lower by 0.9% and soybeans
US: SH20
fell 8.7%.
“ At the risk of sounding cold-hearted, long-term global demand for grains will not be impacted unless literally hundreds of millions of people die, ” said Sal Gilbertie, president and chief investment officer at Teucrium Trading. “ Buyers of grains are simply waiting until the panic subsides before they step in and buy at what will likely be seen as artificially low prices, when we look back after the spread of corona virus is deemed to have peaked. ”
“ The Chinese people may now be facing travel restrictions and a subdued holiday, but they are still eating, ” he said. “ China must still rebuild its swine herd and China will still remain the world’ s largest importer of soybeans. ” In January, however, lean hog futures
US: LHJ20
fell nearly 13%.
Commodities known as the “ softs, ” such as coffee
US: KCH20
,
cocoa
US: CCH20
and sugar
US: SBH20
saw a mixed performance in January, with prices continuing to trade in their normal ranges since news of the coronavirus hit the wires, said Turner.
Coffee futures lost almost 21% for the month, but analysts said it saw little, if any, impact from news of the virus. Prices fell as rainy weather boosted prospects for production in Brazil, said Gilbertie.
“ Bottom line for all commodities is that uncertainty breeds bear markets and the global economic impact from rapidly spreading coronavirus is completely unknown at this time, ” Gilbertie said. “ Hence we are seeing bear markets across all asset classes with the exception of safe havens like precious metals. ” | business |
Inverted U.S. yield curve points to renewed worries about global economic health | The global economic growth concerns that rattled investors last year last year are overshadowing Wall Street once again as China’ s coronavirus outbreak threatens to dent the second largest economy in the world, along with hopes for a global rebound.
See
:
Coronavirus is dealing an early blow to bearish bond-market bets in 2020
The recent narrowing of short-term and long-term U.S. Treasury yields, flattening the yield curve, points to resurfacing worries that the disruption to travel and trade caused by the coronavirus epidemic could upset the U.S.’ s steady economic expansion. A flat or inverted yield curve has historically pointed to elevated growth concerns and has served as a trusty recession indicator throughout the U.S.’ s postwar history.
“ The flattening of the curve is an indication that the growth concerns are greater now, ” said Marvin Loh, senior global macro strategist for State Street. “ Everything is just a bit more fragile, and we’ re all wondering what the next headline is around the coronavirus. ”
While most analysts expect U.S. economic growth to slow this year from its 3% pace of 2018, they still expect trend growth of around 2% for 2020. In a repeat of last year, they see healthy consumer spending offsetting a slowdown in more export-sensitive manufacturing sectors.
Fed Gov. Richard Clarida said he was not concerned about the inversion of the yield curve, and said it was not indicative of the U.S. outlook, in an interview with Bloomberg television.
Read
:
Here’ s how the stock market tends to perform after the yield curve invests
The yield spread between the 3-month
TMUBMUSD03M,
0.212%
and 10-year note, a widely-monitored measure of the yield curve’ s slope, traded at negative 2 basis points on Friday. The 10-year Treasury yield
TMUBMUSD10Y,
1.803%
was trading at 1.538% at last check, around 22 basis points away from its all-time low of 1.32% carved out in June 2016.
Still, this yield curve measure is much flatter now than back at the end of last year when the spread stood at a positive 37 basis points.
Before the viral outbreak, bond-market analysts were forecasting slightly higher yields in 2020 based on the Fed’ s accommodative monetary policy stance and the signing of a preliminary U.S.-China trade deal, as both factors were seen lifting economic growth and inflation.
Yet with the potential for the coronavirus to derail China’ s economic engine in the first few months of this year, hopes that global economic growth would stabilize after the protracted U.S.-China trade spat may be dashed.
“ The coronavirus certainly presents a headwind to the reflation of global growth story, which investors were anticipating into this year, ” Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management, told MarketWatch.
Read
:
Economic hit from coronavirus likely to be short lived, but it’ s still ‘ a little scary, frankly’
The inversion of the 3-month/10-year spread has been mostly driven by the surge in demand for safe haven assets like long-term government bonds. At the other end of the yield curve, short-dated maturities have not budged much from current levels, with the Federal Reserve outlining its resistance to move interest rates either higher or lower.
Check out
:
Here’ s when the yield curve actually becomes a stock-market danger signal
However, few see financial conditions as being tight. Investors have attributed the optimistic projections for global stock-markets this year in part to major central banks, including the Fed, maintaining low or negative interest rates along with asset-purchasing programs.
Outside of the bond-market, similar concerns about the global economy’ s health have also showed up in commodity markets, including industrial metals.
This month, March futures for copper
US: HGH20
have fallen nearly 10% to $ 2.527 a pound, and March West Texas Intermediate crude futures
US: CLH20
are down more than 14% to $ 52.110 a barrel
on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
O
pinion
:
With global trade barely growing, there’ s no cushion for the world economy | business |
How the coronavirus outbreak has delivered a shock to stocks, bonds and other assets in January | A monthlong bout of coronavirus has ravaged China, claiming hundreds of lives and sickening thousands but the Asian influenza also has infected the stock market and other assets, chilling bullish sentiment for the moment and stoking uncertainty at a period of lofty valuations.
Heightened anxieties around coronavirus comes as the number of people infected world-wide approaches 10,000 and as authorities from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reported the first quarantine
in the U.S. in 50 years, as the U.K. and Russia each announced their first cases of the deadly illness that has drawn comparisons to SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Here are some of the assets and sectors that the novel Asian illness has impacted so far, since the infection was noticed Dec. 31.
Stocks get slammed Friday
Dow skids 0.7% in January and falls beneath its 50-day moving average at 28,443.30, a short-term line it hasn’ t closed below since October, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Moving averages are used by market technicians to help determine bullish and bearish momentum in an asset.
Friday afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.17%
was down 587 points, or 2%, to 28,272. The S & P 500
SPX,
+1.89%
shed 57 points, or 1.7%, 3,226. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
+3.41%
retreated 138 points, or 1.5%, to 9,161.
Stocks trading below trend lines
Source: Dow Jones Market Data
The share of S & P 500 components trading above their 50-day MA has dropped below 50% for the first time since Oct. 10, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Oil is on the verge of a bear market
Dow Jones Market Data
Coronavirus could hurt demand for crude because China is among the biggest importers of the commodity, putting oil prices on the verge of a bear market. Entry into a bear market is defined by a price drop of at least 20% from a recent high.
West Texas Intermediate
crude for March delivery
US: CLH20
was set for a 5.3% weekly skid and is off 18.9% off its recent peak of $ 63.27 hit on Jan. 6. A settlement below $ 50.62 would push it into a bear market, according to Dow Jones Market Data. WTI oil prices are down nearly 16% in January, according to FactSet data.
Read:
Coronavirus update: First U.S. case of person-to-person transmission confirmed, 195 U.S. citizens in isolation and WHO declares a public health emergency
The S & P 500’ s energy sector nears closing in a bear market
Source: FactSet data
The S & P 500 Energy sector
XLE,
+0.44%
is on the brink of closing on Friday in bear-market territory. It would need to close at or below 405.8 and is currently at 404.1.
Airlines
Airline stocks have been flattened. Shares of United Airlines Holdings Inc.
UAL,
+4.82%
slumped 14.9% so far in January. Delta Air Lines Inc.’ s stock
DAL,
+3.68%
slid 4.7% in the month to date and American Airlines Group Inc.
AAL,
+5.31%
shares have fallen more than 6.6%,
as both halted flights to China
as the coronavirus fears spread.
Bonds take a beating, signal recession
The 10-year Treasury note yields
TMUBMUSD10Y,
1.780%
hit its lowest level since October after starting the month at 1.92%, it was most recently trading at 1.53% and the differential between the benchmark bond. Bond prices rise as yields fall. On top of that, the 3-month Treasury bill rate
TMUBMUSD03M,
0.225%
had briefly inverted, a condition that has tended to be viewed as an accurate predictor of coming recessions. Fixed-income investors, however, have pointed to the fears of coronavirus as the big driver of yields lately.
Check out:
Why investors should buy stock-market dips as WHO declares coronavirus a public health emergency — and dump equities as they rebound
’ Fear’ on Wall Street rises
Source: FactSet data
The Cboe Volatility Index
VIX,
-10.23%
,
or VIX, which uses S & P 500 options to measure trader expectations for volatility over the coming 30-day period, is on track for its largest monthly jump to start a year on record, based on available data going back to 1990, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The gauge often referred to as a guide to the level of investor fear, was up 39.3% in January and tends to rise as stocks fall.
Read:
How the stock market has performed during past viral outbreaks, as coronavirus infects 9,500 | business |
‘ Hurricane-force headwinds’ pull oil lower, but the losses aren’ t built to last | Oil prices have fallen to a roughly four-month low this month, and U.S. benchmark crude suffered a loss of nearly 16% in January as the coronavirus epidemic intensifies the impact of seasonal weakness in the market, raising prospects for lower fuel oil prices.
The market is “ dealing with two issues giving hurricane-force headwinds to oil, ” says Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for fuel-price tracker GasBuddy. One is seasonal winter weakness in demand and the other is the “ Chinese coronavirus and the implications that it could throttle back demand in the world’ s second-largest economy. ”
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil may “ drop under $ 50 before the market finds some sort of traction, ” says DeHaan. That would bring prices to their lowest level since January 2019.
WTI crude
US: CLH20
and global benchmark Brent crude futures
UK: BRNH20
UK: BRNJ20
on Friday this week marked their lowest settlements
since August and October of last year, respectively, with WTI at $ 51.56 and Brent at $ 58.16 a barrel. WTI prices finished 15.6% lower for the month, while Brent lost 11.9% this month. Both logged the largest January loss since 1991, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
“ The market is betting that the worst is yet to come, ” says Manish Raj, chief financial officer at Velandera Energy. There is concern the virus will indirectly lead to economic slowdown in China, as the nation “ contributes to more than a quarter of the growth in global oil demand, ” he said. Yet, there is “ no doubt that actual oil-demand reduction resulting from coronavirus will be temporary at best. ”
He said he thinks that the virus-led fears are “ overblown, ” despite the World Health Organization classifying coronavirus as a global emergency. “ We believe that the market has over-reacted, ” says Raj.
WHO on Thursday
designated the outbreak in China a public health emergency of international concern.
“ Whereas we expect the disease to continue to spread over the next few weeks, it is unlikely to impact oil demand to the extent reflected in the dramatic price drop seen this month, ” says Raj. “ As psychological fears give way to on-the-ground reality of sustained oil demand, oil prices will revert back to pre-coronavirus levels. ”
Brent crude reached a settlement high of $ 68.91 in early January before news of the coronavirus really took flight.
The decline in oil prices has also led a fall in gasoline prices. Even before any real media coverage of the virus, there was a “ miserable period of transportation demand in the U.S., ” points out Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service.
Implied demand for U.S. motor gasoline over the past four weeks as of the week ended on Jan. 24 was at 8.5 million barrels a day, down 4.4% from the same period last year,
according to the Energy Information Administration
.
The average national price for regular gasoline fell to $ 2.495 a gallon on Jan. 29, below $ 2.50 for the first time since March, according to
data from GasBuddy
.
Read:
Jet fuel demand takes a hit as coronavirus leads to travel restrictions
DeHaan says given the loss in oil prices, retail gasoline could fall in the $ 2.30 range “ before all is said and done, ” though a downward move probably won’ t last much more than a few more weeks.
“
‘ Similar illness-related price declines have had an impact for a limited period of two to six months.’
”
— Jay Park, ReconAfrica
As for oil, there is “ no visible impact to demand just yet, ” but movements in oil are being driven by fear, says Jay Park, chief executive officer at oil and gas firm ReconAfrica. He notes that there was only a small impact on demand during the SARS outbreak in 2003, but a “ significant ” decline in prices.
The price impact of the coronavirus could be a drop of about $ 5 to $ 10 a barrel in Brent and WTI, he says. He believes that the impact is already priced in, with WTI falling from $ 63 to $ 53 and Brent down from $ 68 to $ 59 this month.
Keep in mind, however, that “ similar illness-related price declines have had an impact for a limited period of two to six months, ” says Park. | business |
Coronavirus flight captain: 'We were a lifeboat for people ' | Francisco Javier Martínez had been under no illusions as to the exceptional nature of flight PLM471P, but it was only as his 747 neared its destination that the captain realised exactly what he, the crew and a small team of British military medics were approaching.
“ Wuhan looked like a desert; there wasn’ t a car on the motorway and the airport was totally empty, ” he said of his arrival last Friday.
“ It was as if a bomb had gone off and left the city totally empty. No people, no cars, no movement, nothing. It was all a bit overwhelming. This was all a bit bigger than we’ d thought. ”
Martínez, 61, who has been a pilot for 40 years, received the call on Monday morning from his employers at Wamos Air. Would he be willing to captain the charter flight to bring home 120 people, most of them British and Spanish, from the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak?
The mission was voluntary, but Martínez said yes, as did three other Wamos pilots, 13 cabin crew, two mechanics and a loadmaster.
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. The World Health Organization ( WHO) has declared it a pandemic.
According to the WHO, the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Some patients may also have a runny nose, sore throat, nasal congestion and aches and pains or diarrhoea. Some people report losing their sense of taste and/or smell. About 80% of people who get Covid-19 experience a mild case – about as serious as a regular cold – and recover without needing any special treatment.
About one in six people, the WHO says, become seriously ill. The elderly and people with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, or chronic respiratory conditions, are at a greater risk of serious illness from Covid-19.
In the UK, the National health Service ( NHS) has identified the specific symptoms to look for as experiencing either:
As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work, and there is currently no vaccine. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system.
Medical advice varies around the world - with many countries imposing travel bans and lockdowns to try and prevent the spread of the virus. In many place people are being told to stay at home rather than visit a doctor of hospital in person. Check with your local authorities.
In the UK, NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days. If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.
China’ s national health commission confirmed human-to-human transmission in January. As of 6 April, more than 1.25m people have been infected in more than 180 countries, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
There have been over 69,500 deaths globally. Just over 3,200 of those deaths have occurred in mainland China. Italy has been worst affected, with over 15,800 fatalities, and there have been over 12,600 deaths in Spain. The US now has more confirmed cases than any other country - more than 335,000. Many of those who have died had underlying health conditions, which the coronavirus complicated.
More than 264,000 people are recorded as having recovered from the coronavirus.
At 6pm on Tuesday, the jumbo jet took off from Madrid’ s Barajas airport, bound for Hanoi where it would make a stopover. Also onboard were four British specialist military doctors who had joined the mission in the Spanish capital.
“ The British medics had told us how to put on our masks and gloves, and briefed us on the virus and how it was transmitted, ” said Martínez.
“ They told us that it was a serious business but not a dangerous one: the main thing was to treat it with respect. I told the crew that this had to be serious but that it could also be fun. ”
After a 20-hour rest in Hanoi, the plane headed for Wuhan.
“ We knew from the beginning that we had embarked on something important, but when we flew from Hanoi to Wuhan, it sunk in that we were on a very important rescue mission, ” said the pilot. “ We were a lifeboat for a group of people who needed to get out of Wuhan. ”
When they landed in Wuhan at 4.59am on Friday, they were greeted by a ghost city and two Chinese officials buried in layers of protective clothing. The Wamos crew, wearing their own masks and gloves, stayed on the plane as equipment from the British government was unloaded.
And then the passengers began to board.
“ For them, it was as if they were coming home and leaving it all behind, ” said Martínez.
Careful note was taken of who was sitting where so that anyone displaying symptoms of coronavirus – and those around them – could be isolated. The flight from Wuhan to Brize Norton took 11 hours and 40 minutes and was, according to the pilot, “ very pleasant and rather beautiful ” because of the skies through which they were flying.
“ The crew were always checking to see if people were OK and calm, and whether there were any cases, ” he said.
“ But people were relaxed – like the worst was behind them. The Britons and the British medics got off at Brize Norton and the Spanish doctors came aboard there and we flew back to Torrejón [ air base, just outside Madrid ]. All the passengers were really happy and excited to be back on their own soil, even though they knew they were going to be in quarantine for a while. ”
Martínez and his crew are on leave but have not been required to go into quarantine. While he is a little shocked by the fanfare, he is delighted that his team’ s efforts have been recognised.
“ My biggest memory of all this will be of a crew that worked together beautifully, ” he said.
“ They were more like a family than a crew. When I address a crew, I call them family. What started off as a flight crew, became a team and ended up being like a family. ”
By Saturday lunchtime, the week’ s excitement was beginning to recede and the pilot had firmly entered the airspace of the familiar and the domestic.
“ A friend jokingly told me I was a hero and I said, ‘ No, I was just doing my job’. But I guess this goes beyond a job. Sometimes it’ s like being a priest or a firefighter. But anyway, it’ s back to normality now. I’ m going shopping and then I’ ll help my wife make lunch. ” | general |
Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Climb to 11,953 Globally – 259 Deaths in China | Coronavirus Map: Distribution of 2019-nCoV case as of February 1, 2020. Credit: WHO
Note: There is now a newer Novel Coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV) Situation Report 13.
In France, for the first time outside China, a healthcare worker was diagnosed as being ill with 2019-nCoVacute respiratory disease. The health worker treated two patients who were later identified as probable cases. The first instance of third-generation human-to-human transmission outside China has been identified, in an individual who was exposed to a confirmed case from the cluster in Bavaria, Germany. For the first time, a case was exported from a country other than China: a patient was identified in South Korea following their exposure in Japan to a confirmed case. In the last 24 hours, additional instances of human-to-human transmission outside China were reported: in Japan, a tour guide who is part of the same cluster of Japanese cases who had contact with tourists from Wuhan; in Germany, a case that is part of the cluster in Bavaria; and in Thailand, a taxi driver who had no travel history to China.
The outbreak of 2019-nCoV is still largely centered around Hubei Province. In China, 60.5% of all cases since the start of the outbreak have been reported from Hubei Province. The remaining 39.5% of cases have been reported from 33 provinces, regions, and cities. After Hubei Province, the second largest number of cases has been reported from Zhejiang Province ( 599 cases). Of the 132 cases identified outside China, 14 were due to secondary transmission outside China. Of the remaining cases, travel history is available for 101 of them: all 101 had traveled to China in the 14 days before illness onset. Of the 81 for whom the exact destination in China was known, all had traveled to Hubei province.
During previous outbreaks due to other coronaviruses ( Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome ( MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ( SARS), human-to-human transmission occurred through droplets, contact, and fomites, suggesting that the transmission mode of the 2019-nCoV can be similar. The basic principles to reduce the general risk of transmission of acute respiratory infections include the following:
WHO does not recommend any specific health measures for travelers. In case of symptoms suggestive of respiratory illness either during or after travel, travelers are encouraged to seek medical attention and share their travel history with their healthcare provider. | tech |
Coronavirus: companies suspend China operations, restrict travel | Disney, Tesla, more than a dozen airlines and other global companies with significant footprints in China are suspending operations, temporarily shutting factories and instituting travel restrictions as they grapple with the coronavirus outbreak that's derailed commerce in China and sent global markets spinning.
Infections from the virus skyrocketed this week, topping 11,000 as of Friday and surpassing the total number of infections from the nine-month SARS outbreak in less than a month. The World Health Organization formally declared the pneumonia-like virus a global health emergency on Thursday, citing concern that the outbreak continues to spread to other countries with weaker health systems. U.S. officials followed suit on Friday, imposing mandatory quarantines on U.S. citizens who have recently traveled to the Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Local governments in China have extended mandatory factory shutdowns for the Lunar New Year from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, impacting U.S. companies from Walmart to Tesla. Analysts are beginning to sour on companies with exposure to China, pressuring some stocks. A slew of companies this week warned investors that as the impact of the virus continues to spread, and institutions respond, it threatens to disrupt sectors from travel and retail to technology that look to the Chinese market for consumer demand or cheaper manufacturing in China.
Most of the economic cost of the outbreak `` is not related to the virus, '' said CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council Gloria Guevara, who was the tourism minister for Mexico during the H1N1 outbreak. `` It's related to the panic, '' and it can take between ten months and 19 months for tourism and spending in an area to fully recover from a local outbreak.
Most of the consequences of an outbreak like this are caused by mismanagement, lack of communication and panicked responses, Guevara said. She pointed to the SARS outbreak of 2003 as one example, saying it cost the global economy between $ 40 billion and $ 60 billion and cost China 2.8 million jobs.
`` The management of the crisis is crucial. They need to be proactive and transparent. They need to work closely with the private sector and we need to not panic, '' she said of international health officials. `` They need to contain the spread of the virus and we fully support that, but at the same time we need to take the necessary measurements to protect the sector. ''
Each company is responding to the situation in its own way: suspending operations, restricting employee travel, canceling holiday celebrations and more. Here's how some companies have responded so far:
The airlines sector is feeling the immediate impact of the coronavirus. Demand for travel to mainland China has plummeted as the virus spreads. Many airlines reduced service to mainland China earlier in the week, but after the State Department placed a `` Do Not Travel '' warning on China Thursday, airlines began to cut service entirely to the mainland.
Similarly to airlines, entertainment companies with offerings in China are responding to the outbreak by suspending service. Disney has closed both its Shanghai resort and its park in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, cruise lines with ships in China are halting service and refunding customers. Here's how major entertainment companies in China are responding:
Tech companies this week warned shareholders on their quarterly conference calls about how coronavirus might impact their bottom-lines to kick off the year. Production at Tesla's new Shanghai factory has helped boost the stock over the past few months. The factory, Tesla told shareholders this week, will remain closed amid the outbreak. Here's how other tech companies are responding:
Car manufacturers have said the outbreak likely won't hit U.S. consumers or substantially impact company operations. However, the largest car companies all have exposure in China whether it be through manufacturing or supply chain. Here's how the biggest manufacturers are responding:
Stores throughout the country are suspending operations and extending the Chinese New Year holiday for employees. The hardest-hit provinces have released official recommendations for company operations there, with some calling for suspension of operations and reduced hours at factories and stores. Here's how store owners are responding:
— CNBC's Sunny Kim, Leslie Josephs, Amelia Lucas, Michael Wayland, Sarah Whitten, Dawn Kopecki and Reuters contributed to this report. | business |
For Trump administration, coronavirus quarantine presents a fine balancing act | U.S. health officials starting Sunday have instituted a mandatory 14-day quarantine of Americans who in the last two weeks have visited China's Hubei province, where Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, is located, marking an extraordinary step in the Trump administration's efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus which has sickened more than 10,000 people in mainland China.
The Trump administration is also instructing Americans returning to the U.S. to undergo a two-week self quarantine if they have been in other parts of mainland China in the last 14 days.
`` I want to stress the risk of infection for Americans remains low, and with these and our previous actions, we are working to keep the risk, '' Azar said Friday, as he declared a public health emergency due to the virus.
The emergency declaration provides funding for states and local health officials to deal with the viral outbreak, and flexibility to reassign federal health workers in their communities to help with the response. It is a measure often enacted during national disasters.
This is the first time the U.S. has declared a public health emergency due to viral contagion since the outbreak of the Swine Flu epidemic between 2009 and 2010, and the first time in 50 years that the U.S. has imposed a mandatory quarantine order. Federal health officials have resisted such extraordinary measures until now.
`` The problem of enacting a quarantine is that it's such a disruptive social measure, economically, socially, culturally … that you only use it as your last resort, like your nuclear option, '' said Dr. Howard Markel, professor at the University of Michigan school of public health, who has studied quarantines and epidemics.
`` They can work if they're done very early, but only as a temporary measure to tamp down cases, '' Markel explained, adding that it is prudent to check and observe travelers who may have been exposed to a new `` poorly understood easily transmittable infection. ''
Former health officials say mandatory restrictions on travel present a difficult balancing act, between proactively trying to contain a virus, while at the same time trying not to be too heavy-handed.
`` The way virus spreads and the way in which you combat it is a lot like a forest fire … find it early and be able to smother it before it spreads, '' said Michael Leavitt, former Health and Human Services Secretary during the George W. Bush administration.
In China, the government estimates 5 million people left Hubei province before travel restrictions were imposed. For the 50 million people who remain on lock-down in the region, travel restrictions are now entering their second week.
`` I don't think that's necessarily something that's that irrational in their situation, '' said Leavitt, but added `` it's quite unproductive, in most cases, to try to restrict movement to the point that commerce just can't move because truthfully, that means the supply chain isn't operating. ''
Beyond the potential economic dislocations that arise from quarantines, most experts say widespread mandatory restrictions are not the best tool to contain an epidemic. In Liberia, mandatory quarantine measures during the deadly Ebola outbreak five years ago resulted in a massive public backlash.
`` It caused a lot of protests. People found it difficult to get the things they needed like food, and work to support their families, '' Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
`` When governments take very heavy-handed measures … If ( people) don't perceive those to be in their best interest, then, I really worry about the ability to implement other control measures that we know are going to be effective, '' she said.
Secretary Azar has been mindful of the need to maintain public trust. Last week he told CNBC that transparency is key part of containing the spread of the coronavirus, to get people who are infected to seek treatment and to help track down others who they may have exposed to the virus.
`` This is what solves public health outbreaks of infectious disease. It has in every instance in the past. It's what we did with the latest measles outbreak. It's what we're doing now, '' he said.
Still, on Friday Azar warned that if the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. likely rises over the coming days and weeks, the administration will continue to evaluate what further measures may be necessary.
Correction: U.S. health officials starting Sunday have instituted a mandatory 14-day quarantine of Americans who in the last two weeks have visited China's Hubei province, where Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, is located. The Trump administration is also instructing Americans returning to the U.S. to undergo a two-week self quarantine if they have been in other parts of mainland China in the last 14 days. An earlier version micharacterized the quarantines. | business |
Honeywell Outlook Clouded By Virus, MAX Grounding -- WSJ | By Thomas Gryta and Dave Sebastian
Honeywell International Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit dropped 9% on lower sales after spinning off two divisions last year.
The Charlotte, N.C., industrial conglomerate said Boeing Co.'s production halt of the 737 MAX would dent its aerospace business and expressed some caution in its full-year outlook because of economic and other uncertainties. For the quarter, net income dropped to $ 1.56 billion, or $ 2.16 a share, from $ 1.72 billion, or $ 2.31 a share, last year.
`` We're not going to promise things that we either don't have visibility or can't do, '' Chief Executive Darius Adamczyk told investors Friday. He added that there are `` quite a few unknowns, '' including the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
Honeywell shares were down $ 4.60, or 2.6%, to $ 173.74 amid a steep drop in the broad market.
Adjusted earnings were $ 2.06 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting adjusted earnings of $ 2.04 a share. Sales fell 2.4% to $ 9.5 billion from the same period last year as it accounted for the spinoffs of its homes and global-distribution businesses in 2018. Analysts were looking for $ 9.61 billion.
The company's organic sales, which exclude currency fluctuations and the effect of deals, rose 2%. Sales in the company's aerospace business rose 7% by the same measure.
The company expects earnings of $ 8.60 a share to $ 9 a share for 2020, up 5% to 10% on an adjusted basis. It sees sales of $ 36.7 billion to $ 37.8 billion for the full year, reflecting a growth of flat to 3% on an organic basis.
Mr. Adamczyk said the wide range of projections reflects some uncertainty around industrial sales cycles and other items, including the coronavirus outbreak.
`` The coronavirus right now as an example is something that's very difficult for us to predict around the impact, '' he said. `` What if this continues to spread? What if it gets worse? That impact could be substantially worse than what we're expecting. ''
Honeywell has limited travel to areas affected by the virus but hasn't estimated a financial impact if the coronavirus outbreak becomes more significant. It said the aviation industry is already seeing some reduced flight hours, something that hurts companies providing services to the airline industry.
Chief Financial Officer Greg Lewis said the outbreak `` could also have a broader negative impact on supply chains in the economy as was experienced with the SARS outbreak. ''
The aerospace business, Honeywell's largest unit by sales, generated $ 3.66 billion in sales in the quarter, compared with $ 3.43 billion in the prior year. The company produces a range of aerospace systems and technology, from electric power systems to engine controls.
The company said that Boeing's production halt of the 737 MAX would hurt the aerospace business, which accounted for about 40% of revenue and almost 50% of total segment profit in 2019. Previously, when the MAX was grounded but still being produced, Honeywell said it wasn't significantly hurt by the situation and didn't expect any effects for 2019.
Mr. Lewis said Friday that Honeywell is trying to mitigate the MAX effects from higher aftermarket sales and by using improved efficiency in its supply chain to increase production of back-ordered products. Honeywell has aligned its expectation with Boeing's communications that the plane will return to service in the middle of the year.
Honeywell said the earnings reduction will be `` somewhat muted '' and it expects Aerospace's organic sales to rise in the low to mid single digits for 2020, down from the 9% increase in 2019.
`` From a revenue perspective, it's not insignificant, '' Mr. Adamczyk said in reference to the MAX halt.
Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta @ wsj.com and Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian @ wsj.com
| business |
Apple to close all China mainland stores due to virus outbreak | ( Adds Apple statement, background)
Feb 1 ( Reuters) - Apple Inc on Saturday said it would shut all of its official stores and corporate offices in mainland China until Feb 9. as fears over the coronavirus outbreak mounted and the death toll more than doubled to over 250 from a week ago.
`` Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9, '' Apple said in a statement. The company said looked forward to re-opening stores `` as soon as possible ''.
Earlier this week, Apple closed three stores in China due to concerns about the spread of the virus.
It's joining a handful of overseas retailers, including Starbucks Corp and McDonald's Corp to temporarily shut storefronts as a precautionary measure.
Many other companies, meanwhile, have called for employees in China to work from home and cease non-essential business travel in the first week of February.
Normally, businesses in China would be preparing to return to normal operations following the end of the week-long Lunar New Year Holiday.
Apple remains heavily reliant on China both for smartphone sales as well as for its supply chain and manufacturing. Many factories in Hubei province, including plants run by AB InBev and General Motors Co, have temporarily suspended production due to the virus.
In a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was working out mitigation plans to deal with possible production loss from its suppliers in Wuhan. The city where the virus outbreak originated is home to several Apple suppliers. ( Reporting by Akshay Balan in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Lincoln Feast.) | business |
UN biodiversity talks moved out of China on virus fears | - The next round of talks on a global biodiversity treaty due to be held in the Chinese city of Kunming on Feb. 24 will be moved to Rome as a result of a coronavirus outbreak, the United Nations announced.
The U.N.'s Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity said it had reached the decision after consultations with the Chinese government.
Kunming is still set to host the main round of global biodiversity talks in October this year. ( Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Sandra Maler) | business |
Coronavirus live updates: China's death toll, confirmed cases | The coverage on this live blog has ended — but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's U.S. team.
China will suspend retaliatory tariffs on products from the United States that can be used to combat the coronavirus outbreak in China, according to the country's Ministry of Finance.
It was not immediately clear which products are covered by the suspension.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang asked the European Union to facilitate China's urgent procurement of medical supplies from member countries, according to a Reuters report.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the country will deny entry to all foreigners traveling from mainland China, effective from Saturday. The ban covers anybody who has been in China from Feb. 1.
`` Effective immediately, foreign nationals ( excluding permanent residents) who are in mainland China from today forward, will not be allowed to enter Australia for 14 days from the time they have left or transited through mainland China, '' Morrison's office said in a statement.
Australia raised its travel guidance for China to the highest level, which means it has officially advised citizens not to travel to China at all.
Thailand said Saturday it will likely evacuate its citizens from Wuhan after Feb. 2, adding that 182 Thais in the Wuhan area have registered with the government.
The country last had 19 coronavirus cases.
The People's Bank of China on Saturday said it will lower lending rates to companies affected by the virus outbreak.
Regulators in Guangdong province, Chengdu and Beijing also unveiled measures to support firms, according to a Reuters report. That includes delaying loan repayment deadlines and cutting interest rates, as well as providing more credit lines.
Tech giant Apple has temporarily shut down all its stores, corporate offices and contact centers in mainland China through Feb. 9, according to a statement from the company on Saturday.
It says its online store in China remains open.
Britain is withdrawing some staff from its embassy and consulates in China due to the coronavirus outbreak, the UK government said in a statement on Saturday.
Trade and travel restrictions were not needed amid the coronavirus outbreak, Gauden Galea, World Health Organization's representative for China, told Reuters on Saturday.
`` We would want countries to focus on the mitigation efforts of identifying the possible importation of cases and responding to any domestic outbreak, '' she said.
That statement comes as a few countries in the past few days imposed travel restrictions on Chinese nationals, or those with travel history in China.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order for the U.S. to deny entry to any foreign nationals who have traveled in China within the past two weeks. Over in Singapore, those arriving from mainland China, who had been there in the past 14 days, will be barred from entry or transit. Authorities also stopped issuing visas to those with a Chinese passport.
Some countries, such as Italy and Pakistan, have suspended all flights to and from China, while Mongolia closed all ports of entry from China.
As of midday on Saturday, at least 19 provinces, municipalities and regions have told businesses not to resume work before Feb. 10 at the earliest, based on publicly available information.
Last year, these parts of China accounted for roughly 80% of national GDP, and 90% of exports, according to CNBC calculations of data accessed through Wind Information.
Morgan Stanley economists estimated earlier this week that if the Lunar New Year holiday was extended by a week nationwide, January and February industrial production could be hit by as much as 5 to 8 percentage points.
These cities, provinces or municipalities have announced a delay to resumption of work:
Beijing: Companies in the city will have to find ways to work remotely till Feb. 10 — except essential industries, according to state media Beijing Daily.
Hubei: Businesses are not to resume work no earlier than midnight on Feb. 13. However, on Friday, China officials said that Hubei would further extend the holiday to an `` appropriate extent, '' reported the state-owned People's Daily. Hubei residents who work outside the province were also asked to stay put.
Tianjin: Businesses and schools are not to reopen until further notice.
Hunan, Xi'an, Shanghai, Chongqing, Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Suzhou, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang: work to resume no earlier than midnight on Feb. 9.
A roughly week-long rapid construction of two hospitals in Wuhan will be complete by next week and will start taking in coronavirus patients, state media CGTN said on Saturday, citing the mayor of Wuhan.
One 1000-bed hospital will admit patients from Feb. 3, while another 1,500-bed hospital will take in patients from Feb. 6.
Wuhan — the epicenter of the outbreak — started rapid construction on those hospitals from just a week ago, a process that was watched by millions of viewers via live-streaming.
Meanwhile, local railway security has been told to step up epidemic control measures to stem the spread of coronavirus during the holiday season travel rush, according to state media People's Daily.
These are the airlines which have suspended all flights to China amid the outbreak: American Airlines ( until March 27), Delta Airlines ( Feb 6. to April 30), Air France ( until Feb. 9), British Airways, Air Seoul, Egyptair, Lion Air, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines and Austrian Airlines ( until end February), Kenya Airways, RwandAir ( till further notice), Vietjet ( effective Feb. 1), all Russian airlines ( except Aeroflot).
Airlines which suspended some flights, or reduced capacity:
- Qantas: suspending flights from Sydney to Beijing and Sydney to Shanghai ( Feb. 9 to March 29).
- United Airlines: suspending flights from its hubs to Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu from Feb. 6 to March 28.
- Air New Zealand: reduced flights between Auckland and Shanghai to four return services a week from Feb. 18 to March 31, from the daily frequency.
- Singapore Airlines: reduced capacity on flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xiamen and Chongqing.
- Cathay Pacific: progressively reducing capacity to and from mainland China by 50% or more, from Jan. 30 till end March.
- Finnair: suspended flights to Nanjing and Beijing until end March.
- Turkish Airlines: reducing frequency of flights to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Xian from Feb. 5 to Feb. 29.
Mask manufacturers in some Chinese cities resumed the production of masks, even as many provinces have delayed the start of work. 17 companies in Shanghai and 30 others in Jiangxi have started work manufacturing masks, according to state media People's Daily and CGTN on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, overseas Chinese have donated over one million masks, according to People's Daily citing a Fujian official.
The Chinese government said the U.S. latest measures to impose travel restrictions goes against a World Health Organization ( WHO) recommendation to avoid travel bans. It called the U.S. move `` not a gesture of goodwill. ''
`` Certain US officials ' words and actions are neither factual nor appropriate. Just as the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, the US rushed to go in the opposite way, '' said China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. `` Certainly not a gesture of goodwill. ''
China has flown home a total of 310 Hubei residents from Bangkok, Thailand, Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and Tokyo in Japan, according to state media CGTN.
That's in view of the `` practical difficulties '' that residents in Hubei — the epicenter of the outbreak — have been encountering overseas, officials said previously.
Spain confirmed the country's first case of coronavirus after a man was diagnosed on the island of La Gomera in the Canaries, according to a Reuters report citing the country's Health Ministry.
China's National Health Commission said there have been an additional 46 deaths and 2,102 new confirmed cases, as of the end of Friday. That brings the country's total to 259 deaths and 11,791 confirmed cases, the government said.
Hubei Province's local health commission reported 45 new deaths from the outbreak on Friday, bringing the total for the province to 249. The province confirmed 1,347 new cases of infection on Friday, with the total reaching 7,153 by the end of the day.
All times below in Eastern time.
The Trump administration is issuing a mandatory quarantine for U.S. citizens who 've visited Hubei province in the last 14 days and denying entry to foreign nationals who `` pose a risk of transmitting '' the virus in the U.S., administration officials said in declaring the coronavirus a public health emergency. `` Any US citizen returning to the United States who has been in the Hubei province in the previous 14 days will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they're provided proper medical care and health screening, '' Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said.
Sweden's Public Health Agency said a woman tested positive for coronavirus and was being kept isolated at a hospital in southern Sweden, the country's first confirmed case. The woman visited Wuhan and experienced symptoms after her return to Sweden, the agency said.
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines are planning to suspend their already reduced service to China as the rapid spread of coronavirus hurts demand to the country for airlines around the world. Delta said its China service suspension will begin Feb. 6 and last through April 30, but it will continue to operate the service until then to `` ensure customers looking to exit China have options to do so. '' Dozens of carriers including United, Cathay Pacific, British Airways and others have slashed or suspended service to China because of the outbreak. Delta was the first in the U.S. to suspend service altogether.
Italy declared a six-month state of emergency after two Chinese tourists in the country tested positive for the coronavirus in the first cases detected in the country. The move will enable authorities to make rapid decisions if needed. Italy has already banned all flights to and from China. The two patients came from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, and fell ill during their trip to Italy.
Singapore's health ministry banned entry to all Chinese visitors and foreigners with a recent history of travel to China. The move, which effectively shuts out the island's largest group of visitors, takes effect Saturday. It is the first Southeast Asian country to implement a travel ban for China travelers to contain the outbreak. The announcement came after the U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory on Thursday for China from Level 3 to Level 4. Mongolia also said it's closing all ports of entry to and from China, giving citizens until Feb. 6 to get home.
For more of CNBC's coverage on the coronavirus, read the overnight blog from CNBC's U.S. team.
— CNBC's Evelyn Cheng, Ted Kemp, William Feuer and Berkeley Lovelace Jr., as well as Reuters contributed to this report. | business |
Coronavirus: More of China extend shutdown, accounting for 80% of GDP | The majority of China's growth hubs have delayed the resumption of business by at least a week as the country tries to control the spread of a new coronavirus that has killed more than 200 people.
As of Monday morning, at least 24 provinces, municipalities and other regions in China have told businesses not to resume work before Feb. 10 at the earliest. That's according to publicly available statements from the governments.
Last year, those parts of China accounted for more than 80% of national GDP, and 90% of exports, according to CNBC calculations of data accessed through Wind Information. As a result, these delays in getting back to work could have a significant impact on the growth and international trade of what is now the world's second-largest economy.
Morgan Stanley economists estimated earlier last week that if the Lunar New Year holiday was extended by a week nationwide, January and February industrial production could be hit by as much as 5 to 8 percentage points.
It's unclear yet to what extent these virus-related disruptions will have to China's full-year economic growth. The Chinese government has also mandated that provinces resume the production of medical resources needed to prevent and control the virus. In most regions, businesses involved with public utilities, supermarkets or other essential industries are to remain open.
The Lunar New Year holiday was initially set to run from Jan. 24 to Jan. 30, with work resuming on Jan. 31. Nationwide, the Chinese government has extended the holiday so that businesses would not reopen until Monday, Feb. 3.
These cities, provinces or municipalities have announced a delay to resumption of work:
Beijing: encouraged companies to have employees work from home until Feb. 10.
Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, has told businesses not to reopen until at least Feb. 14. However, officials said Friday that Hubei would further extend the holiday to an `` appropriate extent, '' according to state-owned newspaper People's Daily. Hubei residents who work outside the province were also asked to stay put.
Tianjin: Businesses and schools are not to reopen until further notice.
Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Shanxi, Suzhou, Xi'an, Yunnan, Zhejiang have all said work is to resume no earlier than midnight on Feb. 9. | business |
Apple temporarily closes all 42 stores in China as coronavirus spreads | Apple ( AAPL)'s website in China says that all 42 stores will be closed until February 9. The online website still works for customers in China.
`` Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores and contact centers in mainland China through February 9, '' Apple told CNN Business in a statement. `` We will continue to closely monitor the situation and we look forward to reopening our stores as soon as possible. ''
Almost 12,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 11,800 of those in China. At least 26 other countries have reported cases, including three in Japan, two in the UK and two in Australia Saturday.
Beijing has taken unprecedented measures to try to contain the virus, including placing millions of people in major cities on lockdown and extending the Lunar New Year holiday.
Apple stores are usually a communal place for customers to gather, touch the same electronic devices and sample them before deciding on purchases. According to people in the country, Chinese streets are growing emptier in the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday, leading to less foot traffic to shops.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an earnings call Tuesday that Apple had been regularly deep cleaning stores this week and conducted temperature checks on employees to avoid spreading the virus. He added that while sales in a Wuhan store, one of the first to close, were relatively small, he expected the decline in retail traffic and other store closures to negatively impact sales. Sales in China make up about 15% of Apple's total revenue.
Analysts expect the immediate impact of the virus to be small, but that could change depending on how long the outbreak goes on for.
`` The coronavirus impact looks to be, at worst, 3% of iPhone units pushing out from March to June, '' said Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, `` However, if the lockdown in China [ and ] outbreak spills into later February or March, then we have darker storm clouds on the horizon for the tech space and global markets, with China consumer demand doldrums. ''
Ives said that Apple's device manufacturing would similarly be able to weather the storms unless the outbreak continued into late February, bringing `` systemic risks '' to the supply chain.
Other major businesses have temporarily closed operations in China amid the outbreak, including Starbucks and Ikea. | business |
Paranoia and frustration as China places itself under house arrest | Last week, in the last few days of China’ s lunar new year holiday, the streets of Beijing were decorated with fairy lights and glowing red lanterns, but eerily empty. Normally busy restaurant and bar strips were dark. Residential compounds, often lax in their security, closed their gates, with guards ordering anyone entering to register and have their temperature taken. Public buses carried only a few passengers. Those restaurants that were open were mostly empty, with only small groups of diners. At Beijing Capital airport, staff, including some health workers in full hazmat suits, outnumbered passengers.
“ It’ s weird, ” said Li, 42, a teacher from Beijing who has remained in the city since the outbreak of the coronavirus. “ This isn’ t Beijing. Beijing always has a lot of people. Right now the roads, restaurants and malls are all empty. ” She spends her days at home cooking and eating, occasionally going to the shop for supplies.
Authorities are implementing “ grid-style management ” – total coverage – to uncover infections in communities. Over the past week, neighbourhood committees have knocked on doors, asking residents whether anyone in their household has recently visited Wuhan, the provincial capital where the virus is believed to have originated, or surrounding areas in Hubei province. Police have called to check on those in Beijing with Wuhan hukou, or household registrations.
In a city that attracts millions of workers from across the vast country, paranoia about outsiders has increased. Districts outside Beijing have set up checkpoints, and some villages have created their own de facto quarantines, ordering residents not to leave and barring anyone from coming in. Before the end of the national holiday on Sunday, officials have tried to persuade local residents not to treat those returning for work or school with hostility.
“ As long as they have not been confirmed with the virus and there are no obvious signs of fever or cough, returnees should be allowed to freely enter and leave the community, ” Zhao Jigui, deputy director of the Beijing municipal civil affairs bureau, said last Friday, referring to the districts or neighbourhoods where residents live. “ Each district is a family and we must support each other, ” Zhao added.
Across China, cities have turned into ghost towns as residents cloister themselves at home to avoid the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 300 people and infected almost 14,000 as it has reached every province, territory and municipality in China, as well as 19 other countries.
As the crisis, now declared a global health emergency, widens and more countries issue travel warnings for China, or cut off transport links, frustration and anxiety, as well as boredom, have grown.
“ I haven’ t been outside in a week, ” said Yang, 39, an entrepreneur based in Shanghai who lives with his wife and newborn child. “ I’ m on self-imposed house arrest. I just don’ t want to bring it back to the house. ”
In Hubei province, the heart of the outbreak, where most of the deaths have occurred, residents live an even more isolated life. In a county near Huanggang, the worst-hit city after Wuhan, Li, 31, who works at a bank, has been at home with her parents for a week. The roads are shut.
Now, I dare not look at the news. Every day there are people dying
Every day she hears a loudspeaker twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon advising residents not to go out. The neighbourhood committee visits residents every day to check on them. Two families in her neighbourhood – a couple who recently visited Wuhan and another who’ ve been to Huanggang, a city a few kilometres east – have signs on their doors advising other residents not to visit.
Whenever a family member takes the rubbish out, one of the few times they leave, they are disinfected as soon as they return. Li is most anxious about the risks health workers are taking and the lack of supplies at hospitals. “ I dare not look at the news. Every day people are dying, ” she said.
In the face of public anger over what many see as the government’ s slow and ham-fisted response to an outbreak first detected on 8 December, Chinese authorities have tried to appear decisive and transparent.
After widespread traffic restrictions that put about 50 million people in Hubei province under lockdown, Chinese leader Xi Jinping described the coronavirus epidemic as a demon. “ We can not let this demon hide, ” he said on Tuesday, promising the “ timely release of information ” domestically and internationally. Following a directive vowing to hold local officials accountable, a health official in Huanggang was fired.
But criticism and mistrust have grown. Chinese internet users say officials are “ tossing the pot ”, or passing the buck, by blaming other departments or other officials for the crisis. Reports of desperate conditions in Hubei, where many residents have told of not being able to get help or reach hospitals where staff are overworked and undersupplied, have only increased public anger.
China’ s Red Cross, in charge of all donations, has come under fire for distributing only an eighth of funds it has received, even as a doctor in Wuhan said that his hospital had run out of protective medical equipment. Photos posted online showed staff making protective gear out of garbage bags and bedsheets. A 17-year-old boy with cerebral palsy reportedly died from hunger in Huanggang last week after his father and brother were quarantined.
A study published on Wednesday compounded the frustrations. The study in The New England Journal of Medicine used data from the first 425 cases in Wuhan and found evidence of human-to-human transmission in mid-December. Until 20 January, Chinese officials had insisted that there was no evidence the disease was transmissible by humans and that the virus was still manageable.
“ What is the cost of being lied to? It’ s not that we will mistake lies for truth. The real danger is that if we listen to too many lies, we can no longer recognise facts, ” read one of the most popular comments in response to the study. “ We don’ t care who the heroes are. All we want to know is whose fault this is. ”
Additional reporting by Lillian Yang | general |
Coronavirus updates: Philippines reports death; countries suspend China flights | The coverage on this live blog has ended — but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's US team.
All times below in Beijing time.
A plane repatriating 250 French and European nationals from Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the fast-spreading and deadly coronavirus — landed at a military airbase in Istres, France Sunday afternoon local time. Some 65 French citizens will be quarantined in the south of France, French authorities said, while the other passengers will be repatriated to their home countries.
Five military aircraft will evacuate Russian nationals from China over the coronavirus, Russian news agency Interfax said Sunday, citing the country's defense ministry.
The conditions in Hubei province are `` severe and complicated '' and medical resources are weak at the county level, vice governor Xiao Juhua told a press conference Sunday, according to a Reuters report. Hubei province is home to Wuhan, the center of the deadly coronavirus outbreak and the site of the vast majority of deaths from the illness.
Still, the accuracy of testing kits has reportedly improved, according to Wang Wei, director of Hubei's science and technology department, who also spoke at the briefing. The time required to confirm cases with test kits has halved to around two hours, Reuters reported.
Iraq is barring entry to all foreigners coming from China, its interior ministry said Sunday. The Middle Eastern country hosts workers from the China National Petroleum Corp, one of its top foreign investors.
All-electric car racing series Formula E has dropped plans for a race in the Chinese city of Sanya, the organization said Sunday, citing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. The event in the southern Chinese resort city, on the coast of Hainan island, was planned for March 21. Formula E said in a statement that it would continue working with its local partners to `` study the viability of potential alternative dates should the situation improve. ''
Indonesia is the latest country to announce a temporary suspension of flights to and from China, to go into effect Wednesday, amid a mounting death and infection count from the deadly coronavirus. The southeast Asian country of 264 million will also suspend its policy of issuing visas on arrival to Chinese nationals, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Sunday. Foreign nationals who have visited China in the last 14 days will also be barred from entry.
The vast majority of coronavirus deaths and infections — now at more than 300 and 14,300, respectively — are in Wuhan, China, where the virus first appeared.
A group of 59 students from Myanmar are the latest foreign nationals to be evacuated from Wuhan, China, Burmese authorities said Sunday. They will be quarantined for 14 days in a hospital in Myanmar upon return, health officials said. At least three Burmese students are currently remaining in China, two of which had high fevers and are being kept there by Chinese authorities.
Myanmar can't test for the virus itself, so is sending samples to neighboring Thailand, where results are expected within a week of testing.
Oman and Saudi state airline Saudia announced suspension of flights to China on Sunday amid mounting cases of the coronavirus. The number of confirmed cases in China early Sunday was at least 14,380 with 304 deaths, and one death outside China, announced in the Philippines on Sunday morning.
Business has been shut down in more than half of China — 21 provinces that accounted for more than 80% of national GDP last year — in an effort to contain the virus.
South Korea has become the latest country to announce a ban on travelers who have visited the province of Hubei, China, the center of the coronavirus outbreak. The ban will come into place on Tuesday, South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday, according to local news agency Yonhap.
South Korea confirmed three new cases of the respiratory illness on Sunday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 15.
The Indian government confirmed the country's second case of coronavirus. This case involves a patient in Kerala, a southwestern coastal state where India's first case was also reported.
The person in the second case has been isolated in a hospital and is in stable condition, the government said in a statement.
New Zealand raised its travel advisory for China to `` Do not travel, '' recommending its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.
It also said it will place temporary entry restrictions for foreigners with recent travel history in China. The restrictions take effect Monday and will be in place for 14 days. The New Zealand government said it will review this position every 48 hours.
Citizens, permanent residents and their families may still enter the country, but will be required to self-isolate for 14 days upon returning to New Zealand.
`` It is critically important that we both protect New Zealanders from the virus and play our part in the global effort to contain it. I am particularly mindful that we are a gateway to the Pacific, and must factor that into our decision making, '' Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement.
A man who tested positive for the new coronavirus died on Saturday in the Philippines.
The 44-year-old man was the second confirmed case in the country and the companion of the person in the first confirmed case, a 38-year-old woman, officials said. Both people are from Wuhan, China — the city at the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak.
Officials said the 44-year-old man was admitted to the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila on Jan. 25 after experiencing a fever, cough and sore throat. Officials said he developed a severe pneumonia due to viral and bacterial infections before stabilizing in his last few days. The man's condition, however, deteriorated rapidly in his last 24 hours, officials said.
`` This is the first reported case outside of China. However, we need to keep in mind that he came from Wuhan, China, '' Dr. Rabi Abeyasinghe, a World Health Organization representative in the Philippines said in a statement on Twitter.
The White House said President Donald Trump discussed the coronavirus outbreak with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a Friday call. They discussed their countries ' `` efforts to monitor, contain, and mitigate the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus, '' according to the White House statement.
Philippines broadcaster GMA News reported that President Rodrigo Duterte has barred foreign nationals coming from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. GMA noted that the country had already barred travelers from Hubei province, where the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, is located. Filipinos and Philippine residents returning from China will be quarantined for 14 days, GMA reported.
Health officials confirmed three new cases of coronavirus in South Korea, bringing the total to 15.
Foreigners who have recently been in mainland China have been barred from entering Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday. He said, however, this is a temporary measure that will be reviewed in 14 days.
This does not apply to permanent residents or Australian citizens. The government said it will require these groups to self-isolate for 14 days from the time of their departure from mainland China. Airline crews are also exempt, as long as they have been `` using appropriate personal protective equipment. ''
Morrison also said the Australian government has raised its travel advisory for all of mainland China to Level Four: `` Do not travel. ''
China's National Health Commission said it confirmed an additional 45 deaths and 2,590 cases through the end of Feb. 1. All of the additional deaths were in Hubei, according to the NHC. It said it has confirmed a total of 14,380 cases and 304 deaths.
Chinese health officials confirmed an additional 45 deaths and 1,921 cases in Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Through the end of Feb. 1, Hubei authorities said they confirmed a total of 9,074 cases, 294 deaths and 215 cured people so far in this outbreak.
All times below in U.S. eastern standard time.
The first person in New York City is under investigation for coronavirus, according to the Department of Health. The individual, who is under 40-years-old, has been hospitalized and is in stable condition after showing symptoms following travel to mainland China. Testing by the CDC to determine whether this is a confirmed case of coronavirus will take at least 36-48 hours, according to health officials.
`` An individual with a travel history to China felt unwell and sought help from a medical provider who promptly contacted the Health Department, '' said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot.3:15 pm: Pentagon will provide housing for those who need to be quarantined
The Pentagon approved a request from the Department of Health and Human services to provide housing for 1,000 people who could need to be quarantined after traveling abroad due to the virus, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.
As Apple temporarily closes its stores in China, roughly 1 million of Apple's iPhones in China are at risk of shifting out of the March and into the June quarter if the virus outbreak continues into late February, according to a Webush analyst note. However, the firm notes that it would be a less than 3% of Chinese annual iPhone sales at most and would have a negligible impact.
A World Health Organization report said the outbreak is still largely centered in the Hubei province in China. About 60.5% of all China cases since the start of the outbreak are from the region, and the remainder are from 33 other provinces, regions and cities, according to the report.
The second largest number of cases are from the Zhejiang province. Furthermore, 101 of the 132 cases confirmed outside of China were people who had traveled to China in the 14 days before the onset of the virus.
For more coverage on the coronavirus, read the overnight blog from CNBC's U.S. team.
— CNBC's Emma Newburger contributed to this report.
Correction: This story has been updated to remove a reference to a tweet from the World Health Organization Philippines, which contained erroneous information about the type of infections found in the 44-year-old man who died. This story has also been updated to correct where the plane evacuating French nationals landed. | business |
Australia Barring Entry to Non-Australian Citizens Amid Coronavirus Fears | Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the measures are being put in place across Australian boarders.
On Saturday, the Australian government announced that it would bar non-citizens arriving from mainland China from entering the country. The new preventative measures are there to help stop the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.
`` Australian citizens, Australian residents, dependents, legal guardians or spouses '' would be permitted into the country from mainland China from Saturday, said Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Yahoo Only.
`` The arrangements are being put in place through our border authorities to ensure that that can be actioned, '' he added.
Border control authorities would be able to `` step up '' processes in the next 24 hours to screen those who had departed or transited through China, Morrison said.
Exceptions will be made for airline crew `` using appropriate personal protective equipment. ''
`` We're in fact operating with an abundance of caution in these circumstances. So Australians can go about their daily lives with confidence, '' Morrison told reporters.
`` We're acting here in advance of many countries in terms of when similar types of arrangements are being put in place. ''
In addition, several other measures have been put in order or protect the country, including people arriving in Australia from China to self-isolate for 14 days, and Australia's foreign ministry's advice for travel to China has updated `` do not travel. ''
As of yesterday, the death toll currently stands at 213 inside China, and confirmed infections are 9,096 while possible infections are at 12,167 inside China with recoveries listed as 163.
Cases outside of China have been increasing and are now estimated to be over 100. Recent updates include Italy ( 2), France ( 6), Germany ( 5), Australia ( 9).
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By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. | tech |
Here's your guide to biotech companies working on coronavirus | The deadly coronavirus worsened quickly this month, roiling the financial markets as investors fled risk assets amid concerns the outbreak would disrupt the global economy. Meanwhile, a number of biotech companies have ramped up vaccine or drug programs to battle the disease, causing investors to bid up their shares amid the market rout.
Traders are hoping their initiatives to develop treatment and prevention for the coronavirus could come to fruition at some point. Vir Biotechnology surged 111% in the past month, while Novavax gained 91% during the same period.
`` At least a dozen companies have informally or formally announced vaccine or drug development initiatives to address '' the virus, Needham's analyst Alan Carr said in a note. `` It appears at least a few programs will have moved into clinical testing within a few months. ''
These programs include drugs already approved for other viral infections, unapproved drugs initially developed for other viruses, new monoclonal antibodies, new vaccines, the analyst pointed out.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals skyrocketed 37% in January as it said it's in the process of developing a vaccine against the new deadly virus.
But analysts cautioned any commercial treatment from Inovio could be years away. Buyers in these stocks should beware as that could be the issue with any of these names amid the rampant speculation.
Morgan Stanley is bullish on Moderna, who recently indicated that it is working on a potential vaccine for the coronavirus.
`` Moderna has a potential benefit over traditional vaccine makers in that once it has the sequences that code for the most immunogenic part of the virus ' surface proteins, or antigens, management can rapidly make a clinical development candidate, '' the bank's analyst Matthew Harrison said in a note.
The analyst also has high hopes for Regeneron, saying its screening technology could be used to potentially produce therapeutic antibodies against the virus.
`` During the Ebola outbreak, Regeneron was able to move from development to validation of its therapeutic candidate in 6 months, '' Harrison said.
— CNBC's contributed to this report. | business |
Wuhan Coronavirus ‘ Super-Spreaders’ Could Be Wildcards | Tracking the spread of disease requires precision and math. But super-spreaders, who transmit germs faster and further than other patients, can confound the model. | tech |
Delta, United, and American Airlines Are Suspending Service to China, and People Are Taking It Very Seriously | American, United and Delta Airlines each made a remarkable decision Friday: they're suspending almost all air service between the U.S. and China as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Specific details:
As the day went on, other airlines around the world made similar announcements, from Air New Zealand to Vietnam Airlines. The moves came after some U.S. pilots and flight attendants objected to traveling to China -- even suing their own airline and advising their union members not to accept assignments.
Obviously this suspension first affects people who would otherwise be going back and forth to China.
However, it also adds up to a warning for anyone running a business, given concerns that the coronavirus could have a significant impact on the world economy.
`` It is a wild card, '' Richard Clarida, the vice chair of the Federal Reserve, said in an interview Friday with Bloomberg Television. `` We're looking into how it translates into the outlook for Chinese growth, for global growth and for how it impacts the U.S. ''
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all announced restrictions on their employees traveling to China this week, where even densely populated areas are reportedly `` almost empty '' as a result of fears of the virus.
However, it was the announcement that U.S. airlines will be suspending travel to China for two to three months that seemed especially significant. As the New York Times summarized:
The travel disruption sent shocks through the stock market and rattled industries that depend on the flow of goods and people between the world's two largest economies. Planning was upended for companies across a vast global supply chain, from Apple to John Deere, the tractor company.
The S & P 500 suffered its worst loss since October, falling 1.8 percent, as the spread of the virus -- and the increasingly urgent efforts by companies and governments to contain it -- fanned fears of an economic slowdown.
There are now about 12,000 cases of the coronavirus worldwide, 259 people have died from it, and health officials say they're concerned that as many as 75,000 people in China may be infected but not yet diagnosed.
Fortunately, there have been only a handful of U.S. cases ( and no deaths), but Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, called the coronavirus `` a public health emergency in the United States. ``
Meanwhile, the U.S. Government made several related moves on late Thursday and Friday:
On that last point, a Reuters photo appeared to show at least one quarantined child among the Americans who are now confined to March Air Reserve Base for two weeks, in Riverside, California.
Meanwhile, a passenger who tried to leave the base without permission was `` intercepted, '' the New York Times reported.
`` It's not Club Med, but we're fortunate to be here, '' said Matthew McCoy, who lives in Shanghai but was visiting Wuhan for work and made it home on a U.S. government plane -- only to be quarantined on the military base. | business |
Researchers investigate eye health effects of COVID-19 | News and features about the latest developments relating to professional support from across optics. This includes updates from optical organisations such as the AOP and the GOC
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Macau casino revenue drops 11.3 percent in Jan as coronavirus worries mount | - Gambling revenue in the Chinese territory of Macau dropped 11.3 percent in January year-on-year, with the world's biggest casino hub a near ghost town after authorities announced a raft of measures to keep visitors away and contain a fast-spreading new coronavirus.
January's figure of 22.1 billion patacas ( $ 2.76 billion) was worse than analyst expectations of a drop of around 2 percent - estimates that were made prior to the implementation of visitor restrictions last week.
Some analysts forecast a decline of at least 30% for as long as visiting restrictions are in place.
Transport links with mainland China have been curtailed, with dozens of flights and ferry services cancelled. The local government has also extended the Lunar New Year break to the end of the week, keeping banks and businesses closed as the death toll from the virus outbreak topped 250 and hundreds of new cases were confirmed.
( $ 1 = 8.0750 patacas) ( Reporting by Farah Master) | business |
Airlines Aren’ t About to Succumb to the Coronavirus | ( Bloomberg Opinion) -- Airlines are perpetually on the alert against crashes. That doesn’ t mean the coronavirus epidemic will lead to any corporate disasters.
The outbreak that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan could push some airlines in Asia to the wall, according to Alan Joyce, chief executive officer of Australia’ s biggest carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. “ A lot of airlines may not be able to keep some of these operations going, ” he told Angus Whitley and Kyunghee Park of Bloomberg News. “ It’ s survival of the fittest. ”
Such an outcome would provoke some schadenfreude at Qantas, the best-performing full-service carrier in a Bloomberg index of Asia-Pacific airlines over the past year. At the same time, it’ s hard to point to any major company that’ s plausibly close to the edge. While the aviation industry is perpetually teetering on the edge of profitability, one of the main reasons is that so many carriers are controlled by indulgent shareholders who will go to extraordinary lengths to see their businesses through rough patches.
The impact of the epidemic is likely to be sharp. In 2003, SARS caused Asia-Pacific carriers to lose $ 6 billion in revenue and 8% of their traffic, according to the International Air Transport Association.
At the same time, it will probably be short, too. As we’ ve written, coronaviruses are winter diseases that should be well and truly in retreat by late spring. Should control measures now being implemented prove effective, recovery could be under way even sooner. If SARS is any guide, that will trigger a surge of pent-up demand from leisure and business travelers.
Then there’ s the fact that people around the world don’ t just decide to stop travelling because there’ s a virus outbreak in China. Indeed, the more likely response in many countries will be to encourage tourists to stay closer to home. That may benefit airlines’ domestic aviation businesses, which tend to be more profitable than longer-haul international arms.
China’ s market has remained frustratingly closed. Right now, that may be a blessing. About two-thirds of the passenger traffic beginning or ending at Chinese airports is operated by mainland carriers or Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. The remaining traffic with a Chinese leg represents only about 5.7% of the global market, so only the most China-exposed operators are likely to see a material shock.
Some airlines are clearly more vulnerable than others. Thailand, a major destination for Chinese tourists, is home to four struggling carriers where fierce competition has driven passenger revenue below operating costs, causing the listed industry to lose about three-quarters of its market capitalization in the past three-and-a-half years.
Still, while all four are failing to pay their interest expenses out of income and only Thai Airways International Pcl can boast positive free cash flow, other factors may support them.
Bangkok Airways Pcl was founded and is controlled by Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, who may do quite well over the next few months since his fortune is based on operating private hospitals. Nok Airlines Pcl has a similar relationship with the Jurangkool auto-parts dynasty, and had already been acquiring fresh loans and capital infusions to keep its planes in the air. Thai Airways, which quashed speculation of imminent bankruptcy last year, is majority-owned by the government, while Asia Aviation Pcl is the local arm of the AirAsia Bhd empire, so should be able to count on similar support from head office.
There’ s no shortage of forgiving shareholders among cash-strapped airlines elsewhere in the region. PT Garuda Indonesia is, like Thai Airways, controlled by the government; PAL Holdings Inc. by Philippines billionaire Lucio Tan. Asiana Airlines Inc. and Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. have been struggling for years, but the former was bailed out by a consortium of local investors in December while the latter has a long history of being supported by offshore airlines interested in keeping Qantas on the backfoot in its home market.
It’ s a similar picture in China itself, which will take the brunt of the impact. Only Air China Ltd. has been consistently racking up positive free cash flow of late, but every major listed carrier has ample interest coverage so shouldn’ t be fearing imminent talks with creditors.
Those that are state-owned enterprises will be able to count on the state standing behind them; Hainan Airlines Holding Co., which isn’ t exactly, is already being looked after as part of the multi-year workout of the buying spree that its controlling shareholder HNA Group Co. went on in the middle part of the last decade.
Cathay, for its part, has endured an annus horribilis but has for generations been a favorite child of its largest shareholder Swire Pacific Ltd. Like Virgin Australia, it has enough deep-pocketed owners to see it through a rough patch.
That doesn’ t mean that the region’ s airlines won’ t struggle over the months ahead. Still, the dream scenario for Qantas — where competitors go under and take some capacity out of Asia’ s fiercely competitive market — may remain just that: a dream.
To contact the author of this story: David Fickling at dfickling @ bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1 @ bloomberg.net
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.
David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion
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©2020 Bloomberg L.P. | business |
Plane evacuating citizens of Azerbaijan, Turkey from China flies out from Mongolia | The military cargo plane that evacuated the citizens of Azerbaijan and Turkey from Chinese Wuhan city due to a new type of coronavirus has flown out from Mongolia’ s capital Ulan Bator to Turkey after refueling, Trend reports referring to Turkish media on February 1.
The plane belongs to the Turkish Armed Forces.
Turkey’ s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said that Turkey evacuates Azerbaijani citizens from China to their country.
“ The Minister of Health said that we have no threat so far. But there are citizens of Azerbaijan in China. They want to come back, '' Erdogan said.
The president instructed relevant authorities to take necessary actions and bring the citizens of Azerbaijan to Turkey.
Evacuation is conducted as part of operation planned by Turkish Ministry of Health. Evacuated citizens will be quarantined in Turkey for 14 days.
The 2019-nCoV coronavirus was detected in December 2019 in the Chinese Wuhan city. Infection has already been registered in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the US, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Nepal, France, Australia, Malaysia, Germany and Finland.
In China alone, the number of patients with pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus reached 11,100 people, 259 patients died. | general |
Azerbaijani president expresses condolences to chairman of People's Republic of China | Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to Chairman of People's Republic of China Xi Jinping.
“ I am deeply saddened by the news of the deaths of people as a result of the outbreak of the new coronavirus in your country, ” President Aliyev said.
“ I highly appreciate the steps taken by the government of China and the perseverance shown by the people of China in order to prevent the spread of epidemic and human casualties, ” the Azerbaijani president said. “ I believe that under your leadership the People's Republic of China will decently cope with this disaster. ”
“ You can rest assured that even in these temporary tough times, the people of Azerbaijan stand in solidarity with the friendly people of China, and we are ready to provide any assistance, ” President Aliyev said.
“ On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deepest condolences to the families of those who died of the disease and wish those infected the swiftest possible recovery, ” the Azerbaijani president said. | general |
Vietnam Airlines to suspend flights to China, HK, Taiwan over virus | - Vietnam Airlines will suspend its flights to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with effect from Saturday, over the outbreak of a new coronavirus, the company said.
The carrier had said late on Friday it would suspend flights to China from Thursday next week and cut flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong to seven from 10 per week.
`` Considering how widespread the virus is and following the government's order, all flights to China will be suspended from today, '' the company said in its latest statement.
Budget carrier Vietjet said on Friday it will suspend all flights to and from China from Feb. 1.
On Thursday, Vietnam said it would stop issuing visas for Chinese tourists.
Several other airlines globally have suspended flights to China following the outbreak of a coronavirus in a central province that has killed more than 250 people. ( Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Neil Fullick) | business |
Coronavirus just starting to have an impact on global economy, geopolitics | The World Health Organization has made it official: Coronavirus is the first `` global health emergency '' of our new era of major power competition. It will affect global markets, but also geopolitics, as well.
It's already clear that the coronavirus ' impact, though too early to fully measure, will be significant on Chinese and global supply chains, markets and economies; on the legitimacy and the trust enjoyed by the Chinese Communist Party with its own people; and on Asian regional politics and U.S.-Chinese relations, where trust already was in such short supply.
So, it's not too early to contemplate the potential, unintended consequences of the virus, thought to have originated in a Wuhan wildlife wet market yet already having resulted in more than 210 deaths and more than 10,000 confirmed cases in 19 regions of China and 20 countries around the world. The cases now include the first person-to-person transmission in the United States, and a rare State Department level four advisory of `` do not travel '' to anywhere in China.
So even in a heavy news week during which the United Kingdom left the European Union, the United States announced a new Mideast peace plan, and the Senate advanced its impeachment trial of President Trump, none of that beats the potential of coronavirus for global impact.
The first effect, and perhaps the easiest of them all to measure, will be the hit to Chinese and other markets and economies, at a time when the world in any case was wary of a `` black swan '' event that might nudge it toward recession after the world economy's worst year in a decade in 2019. U.S. markets convulsed Friday, falling by more than 600 points.
The impact is all the greater as it coincides with what was already a slowing Chinese economy. It comes at a time when American and other countries ' companies were already shifting supply lines from China to elsewhere due to new tariffs and trade tensions. The virus will serve as another reminder for companies to more rapidly diversify their supply chains.
Following the `` phase one '' trade deal with the United States, the coronavirus hit also undermines the whiff of bilateral trade optimism that had buoyed markets. It has quickly changed the narrative and increased the odds of a global market downturn in 2020. That's particularly true among emerging markets and investments in commodities from oil to copper, both down double-digits.
Should the crisis stretch out for another month, and experts now consider it more likely than not to reach well into summer, the cost could be a two-percentage point decline in Chinese growth to 4% or lower this year. First quarter growth figures in China could fall to 2% year-on-year – which would be the lowest in decades, and down from 6% in the last quarter of 2019.
The impact on the global economy will be far more significant than during the SARS pandemic of 2003, which is estimated to have provoked a global economic loss of $ 40 billion and a hit of 0.1% on global GDP. That's because China's share of global GDP has quadrupled since then to 16% from 4% – and fully a third of global growth has been coming from China.
Tourism markets will take an outsized hit, as about 163 million Chinese tourists in 2018 accounted for nearly a third of travel retail sales worldwide. Thailand, for example, has already reduced its 2020 GDP forecast, based on expected revenue losses of as much as $ 1.6 billion from 2 million fewer Chinese visitors, should travel restrictions continue for a further three months.
More difficult to calculate will be the impact of the virus on Chinese President Xi Jinping's legitimacy and that of his Communist Party.
Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger referred to a rare public apology by Wuhan's mayor, Zhou Xianwang, as `` an epitaph '' for the People's Republic of China. `` As a local government official, '' said the mayor in explaining his slow response, `` after I get this kind of information I still have to wait for authorization before I can release it. ''
Wrote Andy Xie in the South China Morning Post: `` Wuhan's failure shows up the systemic weaknesses in the top-down structure of the China model, where everyone in the hierarchy is accountable to someone above. ''
`` Though the economy will bounce back when the virus fades, '' writes The Economist, `` the reputation of the Communist party and even of Xi Jinping may be more lastingly affected. The party claims that, armed with science, it is more efficient at governing than democracies. The heavy-handed failure to contain the virus suggests otherwise. ''
That brings one to the hardest impacts to calculate of all, and that is the geopolitics of coronavirus.
What's known is that Chinese leaders ' confidence in their own rise, and the competitiveness of their alternative authoritarian capitalist economic model grew enormously during and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
Could the coronavirus have the reverse impact? The virus may or may not be overblown as a pandemic threat, but Xi's legitimacy in any case will be tested in his handling of the emergency, given how much power has been concentrated in his own hands. Conversely, his authority could grow if he's perceived at handling the crisis well.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab this week spotted what might be a sneak preview of how the global finger-pointing might shift through disinformation should the crisis deepen.
Several narratives have spread first on extreme Russian nationalist sites and to the Chinese internet, blaming the U.S. for the coronavirus outbreak. They 've now been amplified by the Russian mainstream publications Pravda and Izvestiya. It's reminiscent of Operation Infektion, when Russian propaganda during the Cold War tried to pin the spread of the AIDS virus on the United States.
At the same time, the Washington Times quoted a former Israeli military intelligence officer, who has studied Chinese biological warfare, saying that the coronavirus may have originated in an advanced virus research laboratory in Wuhan.
Mercifully, Chinese authorities are taking full responsibility thus far, although without being definitive about the virus ' origins, and U.S. officials thus far have praised the efforts.
That said, this is a story in its first stages. How it unfolds will help shape the contours of our age.
Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, prize-winning journalist and president & CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States ' most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked at The Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant managing editor and as the longest-serving editor of the paper's European edition. His latest book – `` Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth '' – was a New York Times best-seller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @ FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his look each Saturday at the past week's top stories and trends. | business |
Eighth US coronavirus case confirmed in Boston | The man, a student at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts, recently returned from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, health officials said.
The man sought medical care after his return on January 29, according to health officials, and he's been isolated since then. His few close contacts have been identified and are being monitored for symptoms.
The case poses no increased risk to other students on the university's campus, said Dr. Jennifer Lo, medical director of the Boston Public Health Commission, on a call with reporters on Saturday.
`` He was very appropriate in seeking medical attention. He did not participate in any university activities from the time he arrived in the United States to his home, '' Lo said during the call.
The student is `` doing quite well '' and is quarantined at his home, which is not in a residence hall, Lo said. He is being monitored by public health nurses who call him regularly.
`` We won't release him from isolation until we are satisfied it's safe to do so, '' said Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences.
The state public health department and the Boston Public Health Commission were notified late Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the positive test results.
`` Our priority is not only to protect and inform the residents of Boston but also to help this man continue to recover, '' said Rita Nieves, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission. `` We are pleased that he is doing well. ''
Nieves said the risk to the general population `` remains low. ''
`` And we continue to be confident we are in a good position to respond to this developing situation, '' Nieves said.
CDC is sole US lab that can confirm cases of virus
This is the first case in Massachusetts. There are three confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in California, one in Washington state, one in Arizona and two in Illinois. The second Illinois case is the first instance of person-to-person transmission in the United States.
The CDC is the only lab in the United States that can confirm cases of the novel coronavirus. It said Friday there are 241 patients under investigation in 36 states. Among them, 114 had tested negative and 121 had results pending.
There are more than 14,300 cases in China, where more than 300 people have died. At least 26 other countries have reported cases, including three in Japan, two in the UK and two in Australia Saturday.
The US government on Friday declared the virus a public health emergency, and President Donald Trump signed a proclamation suspending the entry of foreign nationals who have traveled in China in the last two weeks.
In response, Delta Air Lines moved up its planned suspension of all US flights to China to Sunday, February 2. The last flight from the US to China until April 30 will leave Saturday, and the last to the US from China will be Sunday, Delta said Saturday in a news release.
American and United airlines have canceled flights to China, and American moved up its planned suspension beginning Friday, January 31 until March 27. United said Friday it is suspending flights from its US hub cities and Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai from February 6 to March 28.
Sunny Gao, a project manager who lives in Atlanta and was visiting her parents in Shanghai, caught one of the last Delta flights back.
She originally was scheduled to return to the United States a week from Sunday, but her boss helped her arrange an earlier flight and she returned to Georgia on Saturday.
She said the situation in Shanghai is still good.
`` But because my parents are there, so I 'm also a little bit worried. Because I want all my family and my friends to stay safe and healthy, '' Gao said.
She said she 'll work at home for the next two weeks.
China asks EU for help
China has asked the European Union for help in buying medical supplies, the Chinese government said, as the country is running out of beds and supplies. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to a government statement, and is hoping to buy supplies through `` commercial channels '' from EU countries.
Struggling to contain the spread of the virus, China's Hubei Province, where Wuhan is the capital, has extended the Lunar New Year holiday break until February 13. Schools and some government offices will remain closed.
China's government had extended the holiday until February 2. The break originally was to take place from January 24 to January 30.
Villages and cities in China have resorted to using drones with speakers to patrol streets, scolding people who are out in public without masks, Chinese state media reported. | business |
Jim Cramer's 'Mad Money ' recap & stock picks Jan. 31, 2020 | CNBC's Jim Cramer offers a preview of next week's busy earnings schedule, which includes quarterly reports from companies such as Clorox and Disney. The `` Mad Money '' host also argues there is still too much uncertainty about the coronavirus and the stock market. Cramer then takes viewers ' calls on eBay and Peloton.
So far, companies that are reported earnings have had generally good numbers, CNBC's Jim Cramer said.
But that fact has been massively overshadowed by the fast-spreading coronavirus, which means the focus heading into next week, the `` Mad Money '' host said.
`` We hoped to take the temperature of the moment, '' Cramer said. `` We didn't realize the only temperature this market cares about is one that's well north of 98.6 degrees, because right now Wall Street only has eyes for the coronavirus. ''
The coronavirus outbreak remains a highly dynamic situation, and investors need to approach it with extreme caution, CNBC's said Friday.
`` You need to be prepared and remember my wild card thesis, '' the `` Mad Money '' host said. `` We don't know what's going to happen with this virus. ''
While it's clear there may be immediate short-term impacts on the Chinese economy, the bigger picture remains highly opaque, Cramer said.
`` Peloton, I think, is going to have a good quarter... The company's done very well. I think they're going to have a very good story to tell. ''
`` They had a non-chill quarter frankly. I was really disappointed with them. Just keep moving. Look away from that one. ''
: `` This one is coming down. It's China. It should never have been as high as it is. This is a Chinese coffee company. I think you take a pass. I don't want you near it. ''
Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC
Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram
Questions, comments, suggestions for the `` Mad Money '' website? madcap @ cnbc.com | business |
Coronavirus Test That Works in Under Minutes 15 Developed in China | It is already being used at the frontlines in Hubei Province.
We have seen how the Wuhan coronavirus has left the globe in a panic with cities rushing to build hospitals and biotech firms competing over who will bring the first vaccine. Now, it seems a Chinese firm has developed a test that works in under 15 minutes.
According to XinHua Net, `` experts have developed a rapid nucleic test kit for the novel coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV) in the city of Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province. ''
The novel kit can detect the virus within eight to fifteen minutes, has high sensitivity, and is easy to use and transport. It was a joint cooperation from the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention and a Wuxi-based high-tech company.
It is now being mass-produced, and the firm hopes it can deliver 4,000 kits per day. Some of the kits are already used at the front lines in Hubei Province.
Meanwhile, the reach of the virus has significantly affected other regions. Vietnam has declared a public health emergency and stopped all flights to and from China. And Turkmenistan Airlines has suspended flights to and from Beijing.
However, the World Health Organization has advised that it is safe to receive correspondence from China.
As of 6 hours ago, the number of confirmed deaths from China’ s coronavirus outbreak has risen to 259, and the number of infected people in China now counts over 11,790.
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By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. | tech |
Wuhan coronavirus: Cases continue to rise rapidly as US bans travel from China | According to Chinese health authorities, the number of confirmed cases grew by 2,102 on Friday, bringing the total to 11,791 nationwide. An additional 45 people died in Hubei -- the province at the epicenter of the outbreak -- and one person died in the megacity of Chongqing on Friday, as the number of fatalities reached 259.
The pronounced increase in cases and deaths show the virus is not slowing, even after over a week of much of Hubei being under partial quarantine and an extended Lunar New Year holiday. With most of China due to return to work on Monday, the concern will be how far the virus will now spread, and whether the country's economy can bear the type of further quarantines and travel restrictions that may be necessary to rein it in.
Worldwide the total number of cases now stands at 11,940, with 149 confirmed cases outside of China, including seven in the United States, two in the United Kingdom, four in Canada, nine in Australia and 13 in Singapore.
Washington announced Friday that it will impose a 14-day travel ban on all visitors from China, regardless of their nationality. US citizens arriving from Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, will have to undergo 14-days mandatory quarantine on arrival, while those traveling any other part of China will face screening and monitoring.
The mandatory quarantine is the first time the US has issued such an order in 50 years. The move came as the seventh case of the virus was confirmed in the US, an adult male in California who recently traveled to Wuhan.
China criticized the move, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying it went against World Health Organization ( WHO) recommendations not to impose travel bans.
`` A friend in need is a friend indeed. Many countries have offered China support in various means, '' she said. `` In sharp contrast, certain US officials ' words and actions are neither factual nor appropriate. ''
It may be part of a growing trend, however. The US ban comes after Singapore banned all visitors from mainland China, saying anyone who had been in the country in the past 14 days will not be able to visit or transit through the city state. Taiwan has also suspended visa applications for Chinese nationals, and banned entry to any from Hubei province.
Other countries have seen a wave of ugly xenophobia and racism directed at Chinese travelers and those of Chinese heritage. In a statement last week, health authorities in Toronto warned concerns about the virus and misinformation were creating `` unnecessary stigma against members of our community. ''
How long will it go on?
China has allocated almost $ 4 billion to the fight against the virus, and sent thousands of doctors, nurses and military medics to Hubei to help out with relief in the epicenter of the outbreak.
Two purpose-built hospitals in Wuhan, constructed in under a week, are due to start accepting patients on Monday and Thursday respectively. They have 2,500 beds between them, and will be focused purely on dealing with confirmed and suspected cases of the coronavirus, providing some relief to Wuhan's stretched health system.
On Friday, the country's National Health Commission ( NHC) said it was `` confident in and capable of effectively containing the novel coronavirus epidemic, and eventually defeating it, '' following the WHO's classification of the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern ( PHEIC).
The Lunar New Year holiday will be extended in Hubei to an `` appropriate extent, '' the Communist Party group in charge of the virus response said Friday. People in Hubei who work elsewhere in the country were also `` granted an extended holiday and were asked to stay put, '' according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
It remains unclear, however, how long parts of the country can continue to remain under lockdown, both from the perspective of making sure they are supplied with food and other necessary items, and from an economic point -- both the national finances and people's personal pocketbooks will be taking a massive hit from next week.
Worst of all, this sacrifice could be for nothing, with cases now reported in every province and region of China.
Researchers in Hong Kong on Friday estimated there could be more than 75,000 people in Wuhan alone infected with the virus. They warned that their model suggested that `` epidemics are already growing exponentially in multiple major cities of China with a lag time behind the Wuhan outbreak of about 1-2 weeks. ''
Study author Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at University of Hong Kong, said in a statement that their predicted number could be much higher than confirmed cases because `` not everyone who is infected with ( the virus) would require or seek medical attention, '' thus many may go uncounted. It may also be impacted by the delay between when someone gets infected, when they show symptoms, and when a lab is able to confirm.
Leung and his colleagues ' findings come as researchers in the US and Germany confirmed previous suspicions that the virus could be spread by people who are not showing symptoms.
`` There's no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring, '' said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after the research was published Friday. `` This study lays the question to rest. ''
Foreigners flee
With much of Hubei under effective quarantine for the foreseeable future, countries have begun airlifting their citizens from the stricken province. Two dozens countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and South Korea, have chartered planes to carry diplomats and citizens out of Wuhan.
Air traffic in the opposite direction is becoming increasingly sparse. More than 15 international carriers, including British Airways, Air Canada and American Airlines, have suspended some or all flights to and from mainland China.
Markets have dropped across the world on news of the virus ' spread, and the expected hit to China's economy that it will result in.
The economic impact of the virus is still impossible to determine, but one state media outlet and some economists have said that China's growth rate could drop two percentage points this quarter because of the outbreak, which has brought large parts of the country to a standstill. A decline on that scale could mean $ 62 billion in lost growth.
China can ill afford that kind of hit. Growth last year was already the country's weakest in nearly three decades, as China contended with rising debt and the fallout from its trade war with the US.
Major banks have cut interest rates for small businesses and individuals in the worst-hit areas. And the Bank of China said it would allow people in Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province to delay their loan payments for several months if they lose their source of income because of the disruption.
Both tourism and China's film industry are taking a major hit already, with box office receipts at almost nothing since the outbreak. The spread of the coronavirus also threatens to cause job losses and push consumer prices higher, compounding economic woes that already exist. | business |
Coronavirus: Apple temporarily shuts all stores and offices in mainland China | Apple has temporarily shut down all its stores in mainland China through Feb. 9, the company said on Saturday.
The tech giant said in a statement on Saturday: `` Our thoughts are with the people most immediately affected by the Coronavirus and with those working around the clock to study and contain it. ''
`` Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores and contact centers in mainland China through February 9, '' it said.
Apple's online store in China will stay open, according to the statement.
It added that it will continue to monitor the situation, and re-open its stores `` as soon as possible. ''
Apple does the majority of its manufacturing in China, and considers it a key market. It shipped 3.2 million iPhones in China through December, according to CNBC calculations using government data, and that figure was up from 2.7 million units shipped in December 2018. China is a key growth area for Apple, which has struggled against low-cost phone makers that sell Android phones.
Apple had hit a record high on Wednesday after topping earnings and sales estimates in its recent quarter.
Its revenue was up 9% to $ 91.8 billion, which beat its own guidance, and earnings were partially powered by iPhone revenue, which was up 8% on the strength of new iPhone models to $ 55.96 billion.
CEO Tim Cook said that Apple's `` Greater China '' segment, which also includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, had returned to growth in the quarter, which ended in December.
— CNBC's Eunice Yoon and Kif Leswing contributed to this report. | business |
Hyatt, Shangri-La extend cancellation policy for Chinese travellers | ( Adds statement from Shangri-La, Meituan Dianping on cancellations)
Feb 1 ( Reuters) - Hyatt said it was extending its cancellation policy for Chinese travellers and hotels by nearly three weeks to Feb. 29 amid the coronavirus epidemic.
The extension will apply to guests from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan looking to stay at any Hyatt hotel globally, the hotel group said on its official WeChat account on Saturday.
The policy allows guests who had booked stays through Hyatt's official channels and are canceling due to coronavirus or Chinese guests outbound to its Asia Pacific hotels, to cancel or change dates free of charge. The cancellation policy was initially offered for bookings made up to Feb. 10.
Customers that had booked to stay at Hyatt hotels in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan can also cancel or change their reservations free of charge, it said.
Shangri-la Hotels also said on Saturday it would allow travellers from China to cancel hotel bookings through Feb. 29. Customers booked into its Chinese hotels can also cancel free of charge, it said in a statement posted on WeChat.
And Chinas Meituan Dianping said it would extend a free refunds policy for hotel reservations on its travel booking platform, also until the end of February.
( Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Clelia Oziel) | business |
Eighth US case of new coronavirus confirmed in Massachussetts | Authorities said on Saturday that the eighth U.S. case of the new coronavirus was detected in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Department of Health said in a press release that a man in his 20s, who recently returned from China and lives in Boston, tested positively. The man, who was not named, had traveled to Wuhan, the city where the virus originated.
`` We are grateful that this young man is recovering and sought medical attention immediately, '' said Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Dr. Monica Bharel. `` Massachusetts has been preparing for a possible case of this new coronavirus, and we were fortunate that astute clinicians took appropriate action quickly. ''
The case was the first reported in Massachusetts. Health officials said that the risk to those living in the state remained low. The previous U.S. cases were reported in California, Illinois, Washington state and Arizona. The outbreak has spread to more than 20 countries, but the overwhelming majority of cases have occurred in China.
President Donald Trump on Friday declared that the new coronavirus was a public health emergency in the U.S. and imposed new travel restrictions between the U.S. and China.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the U.S. will deny entry to foreign nationals who have traveled to China within the past two weeks, aside from the immediate family of U.S. citizens.
More than 12,000 cases of the new coronavirus have been reported globally. The death toll reached 259 as of Saturday morning.
Massachusetts health officials said that they were working closely with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. | business |
One Medical IPO was on same day coronavirus concerns crashed market | On the same day that concerns surrounding the coronavirus sparked the biggest plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average since August, primary care chain One Medical held its stock market debut.
It's not the kind of coincidence a company in the health care industry wanted. Market selloffs are typically bad for IPOs.
But the stock did fine, climbing 58% in it is first day on the Nasdaq, albeit after the San Francisco-based company priced at the bottom end of its expected IPO range. With a closing price of $ 22.07, One Medical is valued at about $ 2.7 billion.
Speaking from the Nasdaq on Friday, One Medical CEO Amir Rubin told CNBC that his company is built to help patients when potential crises like the coronavirus emerge. That's because One Medical combines a network of primary clinics and a membership base of almost 400,000 people with a suite of digital services that allow the company to share information with patients from local and national authorities as well as medical professionals.
`` We hope this is contained, but we stand ready to serve and we're ready to answer members ' questions, '' Rubin said. `` Certainly there is concern and people are reaching out. ''
In the midst of Rubin's interview with CNBC, Trump Administration officials were speaking to reporters at the White House about the coronavirus. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that President Donald Trump signed an order for the U.S. to deny entry to any foreign nationals who have traveled in China within the past two weeks, aside from the immediate family of U.S. citizens.
The Dow plunged 2.1% on Friday, the index's worst day since August, while the S & P 500 tumbled the most since October, falling 1.8%. Selling was sparked by fears that the coronavirus would spread to a degree that it would start hurting the global economy.
The virus, first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has reached at least 18 other countries. China's National Health Commission confirmed on Friday that there have been 9,692 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 213 deaths. The World Health Organization recognized the deadly pneumonia-like virus as a global health emergency on Thursday, citing concern that the outbreak is spreading to countries with weaker health systems.
One Medical's business is built around its 77 clinics, including some on corporate campuses, in nine metropolitan areas across the country, with three more on the way. The company charges $ 200 a year to individuals and has 6,000 companies — Google accounts for 10% of revenue — that provide the service to employees.
In addition to primary care, members get access to a mobile app that allows them to access prescriptions and lab results and a messaging tool for reaching out about `` medical issues or health questions around-the-clock, '' according to the prospectus. The filing says that 47% of members engage with the mobile app or website every month.
Rubin, who was a senior executive at UnitedHealth Group before taking over One Medical in 2017, said the company is in regular contact with local health departments and the Center for Disease Control. Any information from those agencies can be shared, as needed, with patients who may be traveling or could otherwise be at risk. Rubin said the company has built algorithms that remind people when to followup with a physician or go in for a cancer screening, and that same technology can be used to determine who to reach with critical information about the spread of a disease.
`` We are absolutely getting inbound inquiries and triaging patients, '' Rubin said. `` This is what we do. ''
WATCH: CNBC's interview with One Medical CEO
Follow @ CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech industry news. | business |
Delta speeds up coronavirus-related China flight suspensions | Delta Air Lines said on Saturday that it will suspend flights to and from China earlier than the carrier had previously announced as a result of new screening protocols implemented by the Trump administration in response to the new coronavirus.
The last China-bound flight departing from the U.S. will leave on Saturday, the airline said in a statement. The last return flight from China to the U.S. will depart on Sunday.
The airline had previously said that it would begin suspending flights on Thursday.
The Trump administration declared the new coronavirus a public health emergency in the United States on Friday. During a press conference at the White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that the U.S. will deny entry to foreign nationals who have traveled to China within the past two weeks, aside from the immediate family of U.S. citizens.
Air travel between the U.S. and China has slowed significantly since the outbreak of the flu-like respiratory illness in late December, airlines have reported. Meanwhile, other American companies with footprints in China, including Apple, Ford and Kraft Heinz, have restricted employees ' China business travel or scaled back operations as a result of the disease.
Markets sold off sharply on Friday on growing fears that the new coronavirus could hamper global growth. Nearly 12,000 cases have been reported globally, the vast majority of which have occurred in China. The death toll from the new coronavirus was more than 250 as of Saturday morning.
Delta's flight suspension is expected to end April 30.
The full statement from Delta is below:
Delta has made the decision to accelerate its plan to temporarily suspend flights between the U.S. and China to Feb. 2 following updated U.S. Health and Human Services screening protocols that will go into effect on Feb. 2. The last China-bound flight departing the U.S. will leave on Saturday, Feb. 1 with the last return flight back to the U.S. departing China on Feb. 2.
The airline had previously announced a plan to suspend operations effective Feb. 6 but advanced that timeline based on new U.S. requirements that will deny entry to foreign nationals who have traveled to China within the past two weeks, or subject to possible quarantine those U.S. citizens who have been in China's Hubei province.
Delta's first priority is to assist its customers and take care of its crews. The airline is working with customers to make adjustments to their travel plans, leveraging codeshare partners where appropriate.
Customers with affected travel plans can go to the My Trips section of delta.com to help them understand their options, including:
Delta expects flights between the U.S. and China to remain suspended through April 30, though the airline will continue to monitor the situation closely and may make additional adjustments as the situation continues to evolve.
| business |
These five companies reporting earnings in the week ahead almost always beat the Street | ( This story is part of the Weekend Brief edition of the Evening Brief newsletter. To sign up for CNBC's Evening Brief, click here.)
Of the hundreds of big companies set to report earnings next week, there are five key names that investors should be focused on because they almost always top expectations.
CNBC crunched the numbers using data from Bespoke Investment Group and found five stocks that nearly always beat Wall Street's earnings forecasts. Plus, these companies normally trade positive after their surefire earnings beat.
Outerwear company Columbia Sportswear reports quarterly earnings after the bell on Thursday and if history is any guide, profits will beat estimates. Bespoke data shows that Columbia Sportswear beat's earnings estimates 97% of the time and trades up an average of 0.7% on the day it reports.
Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting Columbia to report earnings per share of $ 1.64 on revenue of $ 952 million. In the same period a year prior, Columbia reported earnings of $ 1.68 on revenue of $ 899 million.
Citigroup said the estimates for a decline in EPS year-over-year is due to a challenging outerwear environment in the fourth quarter. VF Corp's challenges with North Face and a higher number of markdowns at Lululemon and Macy's worries the firm about Columbia's holiday shopping quarter.
With a market value of about $ 6.4 billion, shares of Columbia Sportswear have gained 6% in the past 12 months. The S & P 500 has returned more than 20% in the past year.
Of the 12 analysts that cover Columbia Sportswear, 8 recommend buying the stock, according to FactSet. Four analysts have a hold rating.
Agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO tops Wall Street's earnings forecasts 93% of the time, according to Bespoke. The Georgia-based company trades up slightly on the day it reports, on average. AGCO, which has a market value of about $ 5.4 billion, reports quarterly earnings after the bell on Wednesday.
Analysts polled by FactSet estimate AGCO will report earnings per share of $ 1.55 on revenue of $ 2.666 billion. The company earned $ 1.31 per share on revenue of $ 2.592 billion in the fourth quarter a year earlier.
Stephens lowered its earnings estimates for AGCO by 3% due to a weak finish to retail sales in December, but the firm said `` AGCO is well positioned in the ag tech competitive landscape with differentiated technology and growth drivers. ''
`` Recent commodity weakness from the corona virus is a wild card, but AGCO could be better insulated than peers given disproportionate exposure to Europe, '' Stephens analyst Ashish Gupta said in a note to clients.
Shares of AGCO are up about 10% in the past 12 months.
Of the 19 analysts that cover AGCO, only eight have a buy rating, according to FactSet. Eight analysts have a hold rating and three recommend selling the stock.
IT services company Cognizant Tech reports quarterly earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Bespoke data shows the company tops Wall Street earnings estimates 91% of the time, and trades up 1.2% on average after its reports.
Cognizant Tech is expected to report earnings per share of $ 1.04 on revenue of $ 4.228 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. The company reported earnings per share of $ 1.13 on revenue of $ 4.129 billion in the fourth quarter a year earlier.
JPMorgan said Cognizant Tech's earnings will likely be hurt by weakness in its banking customers, specifically the large European banks, and healthcare customers.
`` We're optimistic the new CEO's stated actions should yield improved results, but patience is required, recognizing risks in turning around a people based business, '' JPMorgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang said in a note to clients.
Shares of Cognizant Tech are down more than 11% in the past 12 months. The company has a market value of $ 34.2 billion.
Of the 32 analysts that cover Cognizant Tech, only nine recommend buying the stock, according to FactSet. Sixteen, or half, have a hold rating and seven have a sell rating.
Paycom Software reports earnings after the bell on Wednesday and if history is any guide, the payroll and human resource technology provider will top analysts ' forecasts. Paycom beats EPS estimates 91% of the time and trades up an average of 4.2% on the day it reports, according to Bespoke.
Paycom will report earnings of 77 cents on revenue of $ 190.3 million, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Paycom reported earnings of 61 cents per share on revenue of $ 150.3 million in the same quarter a year prior.
Citigroup said it has high expectations for sustained growth and elevated profitability for Paycom.
`` We like PAYC given strong mix of growth ( > 20%) and EBITDA margins ( > 40%) which cumulatively represent best of class in software, '' Citigroup analyst Daniel Jester said in a note to clients.
Shares of Paycom Software have soared an impressed 120% in the past year, bringing the company's market value to about $ 19 billion.
Of the 17 analysts that cover Paycom Software, eight have a buy rating on the stock, according to FactSet. Eight analysts have a hold rating and one has a sell rating.
Tools and equipment manufacture Snap-on reports quarterly earnings before the bell on Thursday. Bespoke Research shows Snap-on, which has a market value of about $ 9 billion, beats Wall Street estimates 90% of the time and trades up about 2.1% on average following earnings.
Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting Snap-on to report earnings per share of $ 3.08 on revenue of $ 965 million. Snap-on reported earnings of $ 3.03 per share on revenue of $ 953 million in the same quarter a year prior.
Shares of Snap-on are flat for the last 12 months.
Of the nine analysts that cover Snap-on, only three recommend buying the stock, according to FactSet. All of the other analysts have a hold rating.
To be sure, beating quarterly estimates isn't necessarily indicative of a company's health. Sometimes companies purposefully put out lower estimates, also known as sandbagging, so that they are virtually guaranteed to beat estimates.
— with reporting from CNBC's Nate Rattner and Michael Bloom. | business |
The Wuhan virus has highlighted the dangers of China's censorship system | As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread around China and the world, many are questioning how much the country's colossal censorship apparatus played a role in withholding vital information about the epidemic until it was too late.
In the weeks after the virus was first detected in Wuhan, local and national authorities followed the usual playbook for any potential controversy: knee-jerk censorship and tight control of the narrative. Politicians downplayed the severity of the virus, while police went after `` rumormongers '' and censors deleted any commentary that questioned the official line.
As the crisis has worsened, however -- with thousands of confirmed cases and hundreds of deaths nationwide -- it has become clear that the failure to take quick action likely undermined any chance of containing the virus.
Heads will likely roll in Wuhan, where the city's mayor Zhou Xianwang has already publicly offered to resign, admitting that his administration's warnings were `` not sufficient. ''
But even as censorship has lessened somewhat in the face of intense public anger and scrutiny, allowing Chinese media to swarm Wuhan and blow holes in parts of the official line, the government continues to shape and control the story in China, and there are signs that any tolerance for dissent may already be slipping away.
The costs of control
Speaking to state broadcaster CCTV this week, Zhou said that Wuhan officials `` understand that the public is unsatisfied with our information disclosure. ''
But even as he was very publicly being set up as the fall guy, Zhou hinted that there was plenty of blame to go around. `` I hope the public can understand that it's an infectious disease, and relevant information should be released according to the law, '' he said. `` As a local government, we can only disclose information after being authorized. ''
Indeed, for all their personal failings, officials in Wuhan operate in a national system which encourages exactly the type of approach they took.
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, control over the media and internet has increased and tolerance for dissent and counter narratives has practically disappeared. Government critics and `` rumormongers '' have been arrested and imprisoned, and Chinese media's already tight leash has been shortened further since he came to power.
This has allowed Xi to secure control of the Communist Party and the country, making him the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, but it has also severely undermined the important watchdog role that the media and internet play on the government in freer societies. In most cases, this additional control is to the Party's benefit, but the Wuhan crisis shows the dark side of only having the official narrative.
Even some Party officials seem to realize this. In a commentary published by the country's Supreme Court this week, a senior judge condemned police in Wuhan for arresting `` rumormongers '' who, it has since emerged, were merely medical workers trying to warn people of the potential dangers of the new virus.
According to state media, those arrested included a doctor who told a private group chat that a new, SARS-like virus ( severe acute respiratory syndrome) was spreading in Wuhan -- something that was completely true. Speaking to the Global Times, one top health official praised them as `` whistleblowers. ''
`` If the public listened to this 'rumor ' at the time, and adopted measures such as wearing masks, strict disinfection and avoiding going to the wildlife market ( at the center of the outbreak), this might have helped prevent and control the virus ' spread today, '' the Supreme Court commentary said.
It added that `` after this battle, we must learn profound lessons from it, '' though it emphasized this does not mean abandoning the Party's direction of `` authoritative informational channels '' or allowing widespread criticism.
Charlie Smith, founder of GreatFire.org, a censorship monitor, told CNN that `` it's a tough situation for the censors. Can you actually imagine being a censor at this moment and wondering if these rumors might actually be true? ''
Smith has long predicted a breaking point for censorship in China, due in part to how it affects handling of crises like Wuhan. `` This is one of those moments where it really could end, if the authorities decided it was more important to stop the virus from spreading than to protect the Party. ''
Tolerance of dissent
China may have the most sophisticated censorship apparatus in the world, but a system of restriction that does not bend risks breaking entirely. Far from banning all dissent and discussion, it is instead allowed in a sudden burst, like a pressure valve releasing, and then quickly tightened up again.
This was the case after SARS in 2003, when the cover-up was far wider reaching and the blame spread across the entire government, leading to a rare public apology. It was also the case in 2011, when a high-speed rail crash saw a sudden flowering of citizen reporting and overoptimistic predictions that the Great Firewall was unable to control the new world of social media.
After both of those incidents, the Party maintained control and was able to rein in both an emboldened press and whatever new challenge would supposedly prove too much for the Firewall, be it blogs, social media, or encrypted messaging apps.
The head of the World Health Organization ( WHO) has praised China for being `` completely committed to transparency, both internally and externally, '' and undoubtedly, the government has been far more open than it was in 2003, when it covered up details about SARS even from the WHO.
But as the ( limited) public discussion of the Wuhan virus and response to it continues online for now, we are already seeing signs that greater control is on the horizon -- especially as Xi assumes personal direction of the response, as any criticism of it risks undermining his authority.
Speaking at a meeting of a top level committee looking into the virus, Xi twice emphasized the importance of `` strengthening the guidance of public opinion '' -- Party speak for censorship. He has also appointed Wang Huning, China's top propagandist, to the second most senior place on the committee, behind only Premier Li Keqiang.
And for all the Supreme Court's talk of tolerating rumors, China's top social platforms know which way the wind is blowing. In a statement published by state media, the country's biggest messaging app WeChat promised to `` resolutely and continuously crack down on rumor-like information. '' | business |
Coronavirus is a proving ground for scientific transparency — Quartz | As the number of people who have contracted coronavirus increases, several groups at universities in the US and Europe have rolled out predictions over the last few days about where and how the disease, which epidemiologists have now dubbed nCoV19, will spread next.
Some predictions focus on ranking the countries and Chinese provinces most at risk of seeing new cases ( an analysis led by Northeastern University group puts the US fifth). Others have tried to estimate what the final tally will be—an estimate from the UK’ s Lancaster Medical School says the caseload in Wuhan could reach above 190,000 people within two weeks.
Mapping out the future of an epidemic is invaluable for officials scrambling to implement travel restrictions and allocate health care resources. But it requires a mountain of data. You need to know airline traffic patterns and keep up with shifting travel bans. You need to stay on top of virologists’ rapidly-evolving understanding of disease transmission. And you need to know where new cases are cropping up—no small feat for an outbreak of this size.
With all that in hand, you can design a computer model to calculate the probability that the virus will spread in a given time along any number of possible routes.
Alessandro Vespignani, who leads the Modeling of Biological and Socio-Technical Systems Lab that produced the ranking analysis, said his team was already well-equipped with air travel data from their work on previous epidemics. But they needed more data about existing caseloads to plug in. So he turned to a public online repository of caseload data uploaded by researchers from a range of universities to the open-source platform Github. That, plus other academic and government sources, are helping him complete the puzzle.
In past epidemics, some public health researchers have been guilty of hoarding top-shelf data sets for meticulous study—and hopefully a splashy journal article—until long after the public health crisis has passed.
But global health scientists who are working to track the coronavirus say that the outbreak has sparked an unprecedented level of openness and collaboration between normally competitive research outfits. The result, they say, is that actionable computer models to predict where the disease might spread next—and the genetic data needed to develop treatments—are coming online faster and at a higher quality than in any previous epidemic.
“ The communication between modeling teams has been the best that I’ ve ever seen in my life, ” Vespignani said.
The Github repository includes some data sources derived from artificial intelligence, like Harvard Medical School’ s HealthMap, which uses AI to sift through news articles and other digital media for signs of new cases. Johns Hopkins University has also opened up the data behind its case-tracking map, which aggregates data from a range of official Chinese, American, and WHO sources.
The current field of predictive models wouldn’ t be possible to make so quickly—within a week or so after the disease was first confirmed to spread between people—without those open data sets, Vespignani said.
“ In previous outbreaks you could wait weeks or months to see a paper come out that had that one piece of information you needed in your work, ” he said. “ That was really hindering the process. This time is different. ”
David Pigott, a scientist at the University of Washington’ s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation who has contributed to the Github repository, says global health researchers are now reaping the benefits of data-sharing networks that have evolved over the last few epidemics, especially Ebola and Zika.
“ With each event, there’ s a snowballing of like-minded individuals being increasingly aware of each other, ” he said. “ So when the coronavirus was detected, we knew who to reach out to. ”
Meanwhile, a number of papers on the disease’ s viral characteristics and genetic makeup have sped through peer review at The Lancet in the last few days. And at least one private AI-based outbreak monitoring company is also joining the fray: Metabiota, a San Francisco-based service for government agencies and insurance companies, plans to make the province-level data behind its nCoV19 tracking map freely available early next week, CEO Nita Madhav told Quartz.
That will be the first time the company has ever shared its data, Madhav said, a decision that she said was influenced by WHO’ s emergency declaration. “ With such an important outbreak going on, we’ ve been getting a lot of requests for data, ” she said. “ We’ re seeing a trend toward open data and we want to contribute to that. ”
Dirk Brockmann, a biologist at Humboldt University in Berlin who is maintaining his own projection of nCoV19 global transmission risk, attributes all this newfound openness to the increasing influx of computer scientists into public health fields, who bring with them a more liberal ethos toward transparency than has traditionally been found among epidemiologists.
“ There’ s a cultural shift happening in the next generation of scientists which is very promising, ” he said. “ It’ s really changing the field. ”
That’ s especially important in the context of nCoV19, because of China’ s track record on transparency during epidemics. When the country was hit by SARS in 2003, it took months for officials to admit the true scale of the caseload, and to share genomic data collected from patients with outside scientists.
So when nCoV19 started to take off in early January, there was good reason to be concerned about what China would be willing to share. The outcome has been mixed: The World Health Organization and some scientists have praised the country’ s relative openness with epidemiological and genetic data. But on Jan. 28, two top US health officials pressed the country for more data on the disease’ s human-to-human transmission potential, and on efforts to develop a vaccine.
An urge for more data was also reinforced Thursday by WHO in its official designation of the outbreak as a global health emergency. So far, Chinese scientists, if not their bureaucrats, seem one step ahead: The Lancet genomics paper published that same day listed more than 30 authors from China’ s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. | tech |
What's likely causing the market sell-off and how worried you should be | Wall Street is suffering a risk-off relapse, producing a milder but familiar set of the symptoms felt during last year's overdone summertime recession scare.
Bond yields have rushed toward their old lows, flattening the gap between very short-term and 10-year Treasuries. World growth expectations are rolling over, as China's work and travel restrictions to contain the Wuhan coronavirus defer the payout of the trade-peace dividend that investors expected after the U.S.-China trade deal.
And a stock market has gotten a pretty good rinse — though not yet a true washout. The S & P 500 has dropped 3% from its record high. Economically cyclical groups have been purged. Bonds are leading stock returns one month into the year. And the top-performing sector for the year so far is utilities, followed by the marquee tech giants believed to be impervious to economic ebbs and flows.
All this is happening in a market that had become quite stretched in terms of valuation, investor sentiment and positioning, as noted here three weeks ago. Something was bound to come along and prompt a pullback. As it happened, the viral outbreak arrived to do the job, in the process fogging the growth outlook and draining risk appetites.
The action and Wall Street narrative recall the backdrop to the August-September market retrenchment. So, what does that period imply about the correct playbook now?
On a tactical basis, it means watching for signs of climactic selling, rising fear levels and oversold conditions that often accompany the end stage of a pullback. Given that a perfectly routine decline following a strong multi-month rally could amount to 2% to 5%, a further drop of 2% to 3% would not compromise the broader uptrend.
Such a spillback from here would take the index back to where it broke out to a string of record highs in mid-December. In both August and May of last year, sell-offs that caused investor anxiety to spike and hedging activity to grow fevered. By the end of last week, these responses were starting to show up but not in a decisive way.
Tim Hayes, chief global investment strategist at Ned Davis Research, noted the worldwide recoil from risk and said, `` To an increasing extent, breadth indicators reflect downside momentum, yet sentiment indicators are far from indicating that the excessive optimism has given way to extreme pessimism. And it has yet to become evident that the market has adjusted to the probability that the outlook for economic growth and earnings is less favorable than suggested by the stretched valuations. ''
And the build-up of investor anxiety over the U.S. election and rise of Bernie Sanders in the polls for the Democratic nomination suggests that primary results will be a part of any crescendo in Wall Street worry that would be a part of this sentiment reset.
Meantime, attention has already turned to what this all means for already-easy monetary and fiscal policies around the world.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell last week sounded a dovish note in his press conference emphasizing the Fed's commitment to lift inflation to and beyond its 2% target. This along with the downscaling of Chinese activity, collapse in commodity prices and interruption of world trade flows was enough to get bond markets pricing in a high likelihood of another Fed rate cut around mid-year. With the 10-year yield now beneath the three-month Treasury bill yield, the market is effectively hinting the Fed needs to clip overnight rates before too long.
Last year, of course, the Fed delivered three rate cuts, and after it went on hold and U.S. GDP remained roughly at 2%, the markets effectively concluded that it could enjoy the gain of easier money without the pain of a punishing downturn.
Could something similar be ahead this year? Canaccord Genuity strategist Tony Dwyer, who turned neutral on stocks from a bullish stance Jan. 20, is now waiting for technical indicators to reach extreme oversold readings before dialing up equity exposure again.
Yet he points out that in coming months, `` The global monetary and China fiscal stimulus coming out of this is going to be extraordinary. ''
Investors did not come into this year expecting it to be another year of soft economic footing, sliding bond yields and market anticipation of ever-more stimulus. It was meant to be about cyclical reacceleration, upward drift in yields and central banks standing pat.
Yet here we are. Investors can take some comfort in a few things. The S & P 500 dividend yield again exceeds the 10-year Treasury yield. Exxon Mobil's dividend yield above 5.5%, jarringly, is above the yield on the junk-bond index. Consensus earnings forecasts are nudging higher. And credit markets, while registering some nervousness with wider risk spreads in recent weeks, are not under severe stress or growing too stingy just yet.
None of this amounts to an all-clear signal for a re-risking of portfolios. But it suggests the process of curtailing excesses, trimming valuations and resetting expectations is well underway. | business |
Travel bans plunge China into deepening isolation over coronavirus | The growing coronavirus epidemic is isolating China, as other countries, trying to ward off infection or contain their own smaller outbreaks, bar entry to travellers from China, and companies including Apple scale down travel and business there.
The UK announced on Saturday it had withdrawn all but essential staff from embassies and consulates in China, as authorities at home dealt with fallout from the first two cases confirmed in Britain – a student at the University of York and a visiting relative.
The university’ s vice-chancellor, Charlie Jeffery, said that although he understood the diagnoses would “ cause concern and anxiety ”, it would not disrupt studies. “ We’ re working closely with the lead agency, Public Health England, and other agencies to manage this situation, ” he said.
The two patients are now under quarantine in Newcastle, and the York hotel room they had been staying in has been disinfected. The university said the student is not believed to have come into contact with anyone on campus while they had symptoms.
Authorities are trying to trace people who had “ close contact ” with the pair – which is defined as spending at least 15 minutes within two metres of the infected person.
In total, 203 people have been tested for the disease in Britain, and only two results have been positive. The vast majority of infections and all deaths are still inside China, and concentrated in Hubei province. By Saturday, 13,968 cases and 304 deaths had been confirmed, 45 of them overnight in Hubei province. But the rapid spread of the virus beyond Chinese borders has raised fears that other countries could face large-scale outbreaks, and many governments are taking increasingly strong measures to prevent an epidemic on their territory.
On Saturday, Australia followed the US by imposing a ban on entry to most travellers from China. Canberra said citizens, residents or relatives would still be allowed in. Countries including Uzbekistan and Vietnam cancelled flights from China altogether.
Dozens of commercial carriers have cut back or halted flights to China, and several hotel chains have said they will allow cancellations by Chinese travellers. Major companies such as Google and Facebook have banned travel to the country, while international retailers such as Starbucks and Apple have shut stores.
In Hong Kong, where there are strong memories of the impact of the 2003 Sars outbreak, thousands of hospital staff went on strike, demanding that authorities close the border.
Britain has not yet brought in similar bans, but precautions are being increased. Eighty-three British nationals flown out of Wuhan on Friday spent their second night of two weeks in quarantine at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral yesterday.
The University of Derby also asked a “ very small number ” of students who left Wuhan before restrictions were imposed to self-isolate for 14 days. All are currently well.
A UK-wide public health campaign is to be launched on Sunday urging people to use tissues and wash their hands regularly to help stop the spread of the virus. The message will be in adverts in newspapers and on radio and online forums known to be used by Chinese nationals living here.
Cases of human-to-human transmission, which has driven the fast rise in infections inside China, have been detected in Germany, Thailand, Taiwan, France, Japan and the US.
“ The real issue now for the world is what happens outside China, ” Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, told the BBC. “ What we need to look out for now is when does [ it ] start to spread – if it spreads – in the community or between people outside China itself. And that will be the signal that actually other countries may suffer from the same sorts of issues we see in China. ”
He said the severity of any wider outbreak could lie anywhere between something like seasonal winter flu and “ something akin to what we are seeing in China at the moment ”.
“ The uncertainty at the moment means we can not be sure which pathway this epidemic is going to take, ” Farrar added.
Covid-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. The World Health Organization ( WHO) has declared it a pandemic.
According to the WHO, the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Some patients may also have a runny nose, sore throat, nasal congestion and aches and pains or diarrhoea. Some people report losing their sense of taste and/or smell. About 80% of people who get Covid-19 experience a mild case – about as serious as a regular cold – and recover without needing any special treatment.
About one in six people, the WHO says, become seriously ill. The elderly and people with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, or chronic respiratory conditions, are at a greater risk of serious illness from Covid-19.
In the UK, the National health Service ( NHS) has identified the specific symptoms to look for as experiencing either:
As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work, and there is currently no vaccine. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system.
Medical advice varies around the world - with many countries imposing travel bans and lockdowns to try and prevent the spread of the virus. In many place people are being told to stay at home rather than visit a doctor of hospital in person. Check with your local authorities.
In the UK, NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days. If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.
Modelling published in the Lancet suggested more than 75,000 people could have been infected in Wuhan a week ago, about 50 times higher than the official worldwide total of cases at the time. If the transmissibility of the disease was “ similar everywhere ”, the paper said, epidemics could already be “ growing exponentially in multiple major cities of China with a lag time behind the Wuhan outbreak of about one to two weeks ”.Inside China, quarantine rules that have put around 50 million people on lockdown are being tightened in some places.
Huanggang, the second-worst-affected city, with over 700 infections and 14 deaths, has effectively confined almost everyone to their homes. One person from each family will be allowed out to get food every two days, although there are exceptions for medical workers, sick people seeking treatment, and those staffing supermarkets and hospitals.
Elsewhere, local governments have pushed back the end of the lunar new year break; schools and universities will not resume classes this week as planned, and in some places factories have been told to delay restarting work.
People have been urged to delay weddings, particularly the large numbers planned for today, 2 February – a popular date because, written as a sequence of numbers, it is a palindrome: “ 02 02 2020 ”.
Even funerals are under pressure, with families asked to keep mourning “ simple and expeditious ” to avoid gatherings. Bodies of coronavirus victims are to be cremated as soon as possible. | general |
Philippines reports first coronavirus death outside China | BEIJING — China sent medical workers and equipment Monday to its just-completed, 1,000-bed hospital for treating victims of a new virus that has caused 362 deaths and more than 17,300 infections at home and abroad.
Reopening of schools was also delayed to keep the virus from spreading further in hardest-hit central Hubei province, where the specialized hospital in the provincial capital Wuhan was completed in just 10 days. A second hospital with 1,500 beds is under construction. Restrictions were tightened still further in one city by allowing only one family member to venture out to buy supplies every other day.
Medical teams from the People’ s Liberation Army continued to arrive in Wuhan to relieve the city’ s overwhelmed health workers and to work at the new hospital, located in the countryside far from the city center. Footage shown by state broadcaster CCTV showed prefabricated wards equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and ventilation systems.
Leading Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said additional hospital space was crucial to stopping the spread of new infections.
“ The lack of hospital rooms forced sick people to return home, which is extremely dangerous. So having additional ( beds) available is a great improvement, ” Zhong told CCTV’ s 24-hour news channel.
Zhong played a major role in overcoming China’ s 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, a coronavirus from the same family as the current pathogen.
In a sign of the economic toll of the outbreak, China’ s Shanghai Composite index plunged 8.7% when it reopened Monday following the Lunar New Year holiday.
In Hong Kong, thousands of health care workers were threatening to go on strike Tuesday unless the government agrees to talks before a 6 p.m. Monday deadline. Hong Kong has recorded 14 cases of the virus and has cut flights and train and bus connections to the mainland, but a push is growing for the semi-autonomous Chinese city to close the border completely.
Strike organizers say about 6,000 medical staff were prepared to participate. Hong Kong was severely impacted by the outbreak of SARS in 2002-03, which many believe was intensified by official Chinese secrecy and obfuscation.
South Korea, which has 15 confirmed cases, was quarantining 800 soldiers who had recently visited China, Hong Kong or Macao or had contact with people who had, defense m inistry spokeswoman Choi Hyunsoo said. Military service is required of all young South Korean men to guard against the threat from the communist North.
In Beijing, officials sought to reassure the country’ s 1.4 billion people of adequate supplies of face masks and disinfectant, despite reported shortages in parts of the country.
China’ s new totals of 361 deaths and 2,829 new cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the Chinese total to 17,205 cases, come as other countries continued evacuating hundreds of their citizens from Hubei and imposed travel restrictions affecting Chinese or people who recently traveled in the country.
The World Health Organization said the number of confirmed cases will keep growing because thousands of specimens from suspected cases have yet to be tested.
The Philippines banned the entry of all non-citizens from China after two cases were confirmed there, including the only death outside China. The U.S., Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia have imposed similar restrictions despite criticism from China and WHO’ s guidance such measures were unnecessary.
About 150 cases have been reported in two dozen other countries. The Philippine Health Department said a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan died from the virus and his companion remained hospitalized. Vietnam counted its seventh case, a Vietnamese American man who had a two-hour layover in Wuhan on his way from the U.S. to Ho Chi Minh City.
The U.S. total rose to 11 cases, mostly involving recent travel to Wuhan. The U.S. said Sunday that Americans who had traveled in China within the last 14 days would be routed to designated airports for enhanced health screenings and most non-Americans who recently were in China would be denied entry.
Amid accusations of a slow official response to the outbreak, six officials in the city of Huanggang, next to Wuhan in Hubei province, were fired over “ poor performance ” in handling the outbreak, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It cited the mayor as saying the city’ s “ capabilities to treat the patients remained inadequate and there is a severe shortage in medical supplies such as protective suits and medical masks. ”
The trading and manufacturing center of Wenzhou, with nearly 10 million people in coastal Zhejiang province, confined people to their homes, allowing only one family member to venture out every other day to buy necessary supplies. Huanggang, home to 7 million people, imposed similar measures on Saturday.
With no end in sight to the outbreak, authorities in Hubei and elsewhere extended the Lunar New Year holiday break, due to end this week, well into February to try to keep people at home and reduce the spread of the virus. All Hubei schools are postponing the start of the new semester until further notice.
The crisis is the latest to confront Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has been beset by months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the reelection of Taiwan’ s pro-independence president and criticism over human rights violations in the traditionally Muslim territory of Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the domestic economy continues to slow, weighed down by slowing demand and the trade war with Washington. | business |
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