China's unprecedented reaction to the Wuhan virus probably couldn't be pulled off in any other country - CNN

With the number of confirmed cases in the country approaching three thousand, and at least 80 deaths, China has placed almost 60 million people on lockdown, with full or partial travel restrictions on 15 cities across Hubei, the central Chinese province of which Wuhan is the capital.

Thirty provinces and major cities have activated their highest level of emergency response, with checkpoints erected on roads and screening of travelers at airports and train stations. The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong has initiated a complete ban on anyone from Hubei, or non-residents traveling from the province, arriving in the city.

In Beijing, the Politburo Standing Committee -- the Communist Party's top body, headed by President Xi Jinping -- has taken direct control of the response. Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Wuhan Monday for a personal inspection of hospitals in the stricken city.

The unprecedented scale of the response speaks in part to the sheer size of China -- 60 million people is greater than the entire population of South Korea, and Hubei spans the equivalent area as Syria. Such a lockdown has never been carried out in China before, not even during the 2003 SARS outbreak. The cost of it is staggering, not just in terms of manpower or funds, but also the economic hit Hubei will take and the knock on effect this will have on the wider Chinese economy during a sensitive period.

That China is able to pull something like this off is thanks to the ability of a centralized, powerful leadership to react in a crisis. It's also a sign of just how vital it is for that leadership not to screw up.

Writing on Sunday, analysts Adam Ni and Yun Jiang said that the Chinese Communist Party's "prestige and legitimacy are both on the line" in how they handle the crisis.

"Having realized just how serious this is, and how potentially destabilizing it is for the Party, the Party is now scrambling to fully mobilize resources to tackle the crisis," they added.

"Xi's prestige is likely to take a hit, putting pressure towards collective leadership instead of the paramount leader model. Centralization of power under Xi means that inevitably Xi will take the blame if things go wrong, as would he be showered with glory when things go right. This is high risk, high reward for him."

Contrasting response

As more and more becomes known about the initial spread of the virus and the dangers posed by it, suspicion has grown over how authorities in Wuhan handled the first weeks of the outbreak.

While there is always some uncertainty at first with regard to new pathogens, that officials in Wuhan held a major provincial Communist Party meeting, an attempt at a world record for the largest potluck lunch involving 40,000 families, and had police go after people spreading "rumors" about the virus online, does not cast them in the most positive light.

Many observers have speculated that some officials will be punished in the days and weeks to come, especially after Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang admitted on state TV that the city's warnings "were not sufficient" and the infection rate will likely continue to climb.

There is also the almost staggering contrast in how the crisis has been handled since the central government got involved. Xi himself last week ordered "all-out efforts" to contain the virus' spread and treat those affected, about a month after the virus was first detected.

Beijing-based commentator Wang Xiangwei described that as a "watershed moment."

However, he added that the slow response from local officials was likely the result of "deeply entrenched issues," ones that may have actually been exacerbated by Xi's much vaunted anti-corruption campaign.

"Ironically, the Chinese leadership's keen efforts to push for accountability from bureaucrats and promise stiffer punishment for those who shirk responsibilities have contributed to their propensity to cover up disasters," Wang said. "As Xi has consolidated his power and urged other officials to conform completely to the Party leadership, this has also strengthened a tendency to avoid making any important decisions and instead wait for specific instructions from the Party leadership."

Huge effort

With more than a dozen countries now reporting cases of the virus, along with almost every region of China, the ability to rein in the pathogen's spread may be somewhat out of the hands of the Chinese government.

All eyes will be on the World Health Organization this week, to see if it reverses the decision to hold off on classifying the Wuhan virus as a "public health emergency of international concern." Doing so could enable a more concerted international response, though many affected countries have already independently begun putting in the types of screenings and quarantines that might be recommended.

Inside China, since January 22 when Xi intervened the government response has been colossal, but this does not seem to be having the desired effect, perhaps because of how far the virus spread before a reaction was ordered.

Two brand new hospitals are being constructed in Wuhan itself to aid its overstretched healthcare system, due to be completed by next week, while an additional 1,200 health workers -- along with 135 People's Liberation Army medical personnel -- will soon arrive in the city.

But the hugely advanced infrastructure that China is relying on to contain the virus and transport aid and support to where it's needed, is also what helped spread the pathogen in the first place.

A month ago, few outside China may have heard of Wuhan, yet the city -- and a small wildlife market within it -- has managed to impact countries the world over; a sign of just how connected we all are in a globalized world. Attempting to control this inter-connectivity, as China's and other governments must do to stop the virus, may be far harder than reaping the economic benefits.

The stringent measures placed on Hubei have also attracted criticism. Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Zhang Xuezhong denounced them as "savage" online, earning him the opprobrium of many panicked commentators. They may also carry major downsides in the long run, Xi Chen, a public health expert at Yale University, pointed out that lockdowns not only have negative economic repercussions but also break down the "social cohesion that binds people at this special moment."

As Xi and the rest of the Standing Committee meet this week to discuss how to tackle the virus's continued spread, they may decide on more draconian tactics. Whether their response is successful remains to be seen, as perhaps the world's most powerful state apparatus grapples with what has bedeviled many of its predecessors -- the sheer size and scale of China itself.

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2020-01-27 09:44:00Z
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China's unprecedented reaction to the Wuhan virus probably couldn't be pulled off in any other country - CNN

With the number of confirmed cases in the country approaching three thousand, and at least 80 deaths, China has placed almost 60 million people on lockdown, with full or partial travel restrictions on 15 cities across Hubei, the central Chinese province of which Wuhan is the capital.

Thirty provinces and major cities have activated their highest level of emergency response, with checkpoints erected on roads and screening of travelers at airports and train stations. The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong has initiated a complete ban on anyone from Hubei, or non-residents traveling from the province, arriving in the city.

In Beijing, the Politburo Standing Committee -- the Communist Party's top body, headed by President Xi Jinping -- has taken direct control of the response. Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Wuhan Monday for a personal inspection of hospitals in the stricken city.

The unprecedented scale of the response speaks in part to the sheer size of China -- 60 million people is greater than the entire population of South Korea, and Hubei spans the equivalent area as Syria. Such a lockdown has never been carried out in China before, not even during the 2003 SARS outbreak. The cost of it is staggering, not just in terms of manpower or funds, but also the economic hit Hubei will take and the knock on effect this will have on the wider Chinese economy during a sensitive period.

That China is able to pull something like this off is thanks to the ability of a centralized, powerful leadership to react in a crisis. It's also a sign of just how vital it is for that leadership not to screw up.

Writing on Sunday, analysts Adam Ni and Yun Jiang said that the Chinese Communist Party's "prestige and legitimacy are both on the line" in how they handle the crisis.

"Having realized just how serious this is, and how potentially destabilizing it is for the Party, the Party is now scrambling to fully mobilize resources to tackle the crisis," they added.

"Xi's prestige is likely to take a hit, putting pressure towards collective leadership instead of the paramount leader model. Centralization of power under Xi means that inevitably Xi will take the blame if things go wrong, as would he be showered with glory when things go right. This is high risk, high reward for him."

Contrasting response

As more and more becomes known about the initial spread of the virus and the dangers posed by it, suspicion has grown over how authorities in Wuhan handled the first weeks of the outbreak.

While there is always some uncertainty at first with regard to new pathogens, that officials in Wuhan held a major provincial Communist Party meeting, an attempt at a world record for the largest potluck lunch involving 40,000 families, and had police go after people spreading "rumors" about the virus online, does not cast them in the most positive light.

Many observers have speculated that some officials will be punished in the days and weeks to come, especially after Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang admitted on state TV that the city's warnings "were not sufficient" and the infection rate will likely continue to climb.

There is also the almost staggering contrast in how the crisis has been handled since the central government got involved. Xi himself last week ordered "all-out efforts" to contain the virus' spread and treat those affected, about a month after the virus was first detected.

Beijing-based commentator Wang Xiangwei described that as a "watershed moment."

However, he added that the slow response from local officials was likely the result of "deeply entrenched issues," ones that may have actually been exacerbated by Xi's much vaunted anti-corruption campaign.

"Ironically, the Chinese leadership's keen efforts to push for accountability from bureaucrats and promise stiffer punishment for those who shirk responsibilities have contributed to their propensity to cover up disasters," Wang said. "As Xi has consolidated his power and urged other officials to conform completely to the Party leadership, this has also strengthened a tendency to avoid making any important decisions and instead wait for specific instructions from the Party leadership."

Huge effort

With more than a dozen countries now reporting cases of the virus, along with almost every region of China, the ability to rein in the pathogen's spread may be somewhat out of the hands of the Chinese government.

All eyes will be on the World Health Organization this week, to see if it reverses the decision to hold off on classifying the Wuhan virus as a "public health emergency of international concern." Doing so could enable a more concerted international response, though many affected countries have already independently begun putting in the types of screenings and quarantines that might be recommended.

Inside China, since January 22 when Xi intervened the government response has been colossal, but this does not seem to be having the desired effect, perhaps because of how far the virus spread before a reaction was ordered.

Two brand new hospitals are being constructed in Wuhan itself to aid its overstretched healthcare system, due to be completed by next week, while an additional 1,200 health workers -- along with 135 People's Liberation Army medical personnel -- will soon arrive in the city.

But the hugely advanced infrastructure that China is relying on to contain the virus and transport aid and support to where it's needed, is also what helped spread the pathogen in the first place.

A month ago, few outside China may have heard of Wuhan, yet the city -- and a small wildlife market within it -- has managed to impact countries the world over; a sign of just how connected we all are in a globalized world. Attempting to control this inter-connectivity, as China's and other governments must do to stop the virus, may be far harder than reaping the economic benefits.

The stringent measures placed on Hubei have also attracted criticism. Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Zhang Xuezhong denounced them as "savage" online, earning him the opprobrium of many panicked commentators. They may also carry major downsides in the long run, Xi Chen, a public health expert at Yale University, pointed out that lockdowns not only have negative economic repercussions but also break down the "social cohesion that binds people at this special moment."

As Xi and the rest of the Standing Committee meet this week to discuss how to tackle the virus's continued spread, they may decide on more draconian tactics. Whether their response is successful remains to be seen, as perhaps the world's most powerful state apparatus grapples with what has bedeviled many of its predecessors -- the sheer size and scale of China itself.

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2020-01-27 07:20:00Z
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Coronavirus Live Updates: Wuhan May Have 1,000 More Cases, as Death Toll Rises - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• The death toll rises to 56, and Wuhan may have 1,000 more cases.
• ‘The epidemic has entered a more serious and complex period.’
• A third U.S. case has been confirmed in California.
• Hong Kong protesters set off fires at a possible quarantine site.
• China halts the trade in wildlife across the country.
• Americans in Wuhan are being evacuated to San Francisco.
• Global concern grows as the outbreak spreads.

Stocking up on food at a market in Wuhan on Sunday.Credit...Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The death toll rises to 56, and Wuhan may have 1,000 more cases.

The mayor of Wuhan, the city at the center of the viral outbreak, said on Sunday that there could be about 1,000 more confirmed cases of the mysterious illness in the city — a sign that the country’s monumental efforts to halt the disease may only just be starting.

In a news conference, the mayor, Zhou Xianwang, said that the estimate was based on the assumption that around half of the city’s nearly 3,000 suspected cases of the coronavirus would eventually test positive for the disease.

As of Sunday morning, the official count of confirmed cases across China stood at 1,975. The death toll in China was 56.

China announced 15 more deaths from the new coronavirus on Sunday, including one in Shanghai, the first reported in the metropolis. Thirteen deaths were also announced in Hubei Province, where the outbreak began, and one was announced in Henan Province. Across the country, 688 new cases were diagnosed on Saturday, the government said early Sunday.

Wuhan Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Spread of the Outbreak

The virus has sickened more than 1,900 people in China and a handful in other countries.

Deaths from the coronavirus had previously been reported outside of Hubei. But the death in Shanghai, which is among China’s most populous cities and a major commercial hub, is likely to fuel anxieties about the disease’s spread.

Shanghai’s municipal health commission said on Sunday that the patient who died was an 88-year-old man.

‘The epidemic has entered a more serious and complex period.’

The head of China’s National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei, warned on Sunday that people who carried the disease but did not show flu symptoms could still infect others. That would be a major difference between the new virus and SARS, which spread in China and around the world nearly two decades ago, killing 800 people.

“The epidemic has entered a more serious and complex period,” said Mr. Ma, the director of China’s National Health and Health Commission.

He also said on Sunday that the new coronavirus’s incubation period was about one to 14 days, and that the period is contagious.

“There have been mild cases where observation has shown that the patients were contagious during the incubation period. The incubation period is around 10 days,” he said. “The shortest time before the disease’s onset was one day. The longest was 14 days. This is very different from SARS.”

The rate of the current epidemic is accelerating, he added, and is “likely to continue for some time.”

A study by the medical journal The Lancet, published on Friday, had raised concerns that people infected with the coronavirus might be able to spread it even if they do not have flulike symptoms.

But a longtime adviser to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called Dr. Ma’s remarks a “game changer” and said the information called into question the United States’ strategy for containing the virus. Officials are set to repatriate Americans from the center of the outbreak.

“When I heard this, I thought, ‘Oh dear, this is worse than we anticipated,’” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN. “It means the infection is much more contagious than we originally thought.”

Dr. Schaffner added, “Assuming that Dr. Ma is correct, we’re going to have to re-evaluate our strategy, that’s for sure.”

A third U.S. case has been confirmed in California.

A person in Orange County, Calif., has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Orange County Health Care Agency, which received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the person had been sent to a hospital and was in “good condition.”

The patient is a traveler from Wuhan, China, and “there is no evidence that person-to-person transmission has occurred in Orange County,” according to the agency. “The current risk of local transmission remains low,” it said in a statement.

It is the third confirmed case in the United States. The others involved a woman in her 60s in Chicago and a man in his 30s in Washington State.

Hong Kong protesters set off fires at a possible quarantine site.

Five cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed in Hong Kong, a city already hobbled by months of antigovernment protests. The local news media reported on Sunday that three other people appeared to have contracted it, although the authorities have yet to confirm those cases.

But the city’s efforts to contain the virus have also been met with resistance. A plan to convert an unused public housing block into a quarantine site incited protests on Sunday, with demonstrators setting fires in the lobbies of two of the buildings.

The unrest came a day after Carrie Lam, the leader of the semiautonomous territory, declared a health emergency and said that Hong Kong schools would be closed until February. She also said that trains and flights between Wuhan and Hong Kong would be halted.

In Hong Kong — which was badly hit by the SARS coronavirus in 2003, with nearly 300 deaths — worries about the spread of infectious diseases run deep.

Although the antigovernment protests have eased in recent weeks, calls have been circulated for demonstrations this week to demand the barring of new arrivals from the mainland.

Mrs. Lam initially said it would be “inappropriate and impractical” to block people from the mainland,” but on Sunday the government changed course, saying it would bar Hubei residents and people who had been to the province in the past 14 days from entering Hong Kong until further notice.

The government condemned the fires set at the public housing complex, in Hong Kong’s New Territories. But it also backed away from its plan to use the buildings for quarantine, saying that it would use government-owned sites first.

Fears about the spread of the virus are also affecting tourism in the city — whose economy depends significantly on money spent by visitors at malls, hotels and restaurants, and which is now in a recession.

Two of Hong Kong’s biggest attractions, Disneyland and Ocean Park, said on Sunday that they were closing until further notice. A notice on Hong Kong Disneyland’s website called it a “precautionary measure.”

Shanghai’s Disneyland park had earlier been shut indefinitely. China said on Saturday that it would suspend all tour groups and the sale of flight and hotel packages for its citizens headed overseas starting on Monday. The weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, which began on Saturday, is usually a peak travel period in China.

China halts the trade in wildlife across the country.

China has banned the wildlife trade nationwide until the epidemic passes, three government departments said on Sunday.

The outbreak has drawn fresh attention to China’s animal markets, where the sale of exotic wildlife has been linked to epidemiological risks. The Wuhan virus is believed to have spread from one such market in the city. The SARS outbreak nearly two decades ago was also traced back to the wildlife trade.

A statement issued by China’s markets regulator, agriculture ministry and forestry bureau said that all transactions of wildlife would be forbidden immediately in wholesale markets, supermarkets, restaurants and e-commerce platforms. It also encouraged consumers to understand the health risks of eating wild animals.

The consumption of exotic creatures has been driven partly by beliefs about their supposed health benefits, although such ideas are starting to lose their grip, particularly on younger people.

A popular travel blogger, Wang Mengyun, apologized recently for eating bat soup in a video from a few years ago. Ms. Wang, who has more than two million followers on the social platform Weibo, said that she had been unaware of the health risks of eating bats when she made the video in the Pacific island nation of Palau. She said she had been trying to highlight the local cuisine.

In her post, Ms. Wang emphasized that the bat had been locally raised and was not wild. “Many countries around the world eat these,” she wrote.

Her post has since been deleted.

Americans in Wuhan are being evacuated to San Francisco.

The United States government offered details on its plan to evacuate American diplomats and other citizens from Wuhan, saying on Sunday that it was arranging a flight that would leave on Tuesday and travel to San Francisco.

The State Department has ordered all American employees at the United States Consulate in Wuhan to leave the city. In an email sent on Sunday to Americans living in China, the department asked all other citizens who wanted a spot on the plane to contact the embassy. Capacity would be “extremely limited,” the message said, and priority would be given to people at greater risk from the virus.

It is unclear who will fall into that category.

Jonny Dangerfield, 30, an American who came to Wuhan to celebrate the Lunar New Year with his wife and children, said he hoped his family might be given priority because his three children are all under 5.

“If it weren’t for them, we maybe would not have much worry at all,” Mr. Dangerfield, who works in finance in Phoenix, said in a telephone interview.

He and his family are staying with his in-laws in Wuhan. With rising food prices in the city less of a burden on him than for the city’s poorer residents, he said he felt like one of the lucky ones in the situation. “Just to keep ourselves sane,” he said, “we have low expectations about getting on that plane.”

The authorities in France have said that they plan to provide a bus service for French nationals and their families who want to leave Wuhan. The Russian Embassy is also working with the Chinese authorities to evacuate Russian citizens from the area.

Global concern grows as the outbreak spreads.

Public health officials in Toronto on Saturday night announced test results showing that Canada had its first “presumptive” case of the coronavirus.

Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, said the patient was a man in his 50s who returned to Toronto on Jan. 22 after visiting Wuhan, China. The next day, he was admitted to a hospital with a respiratory infection. He is now in stable condition.

Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said that while they were convinced that they have a positive case, a government laboratory would run additional tests for confirmation.

Taiwan said, which on Sunday confirmed its fourth case of the coronavirus, said that it would bar all visitors from China’s Hubei Province to the self-governing island. Taiwan’s government also said it would suspend applications from Chinese citizens for travel permits except in special cases, such as disease control or humanitarian medical assistance.

Macau announced that starting from Monday, it would restrict travelers from Wuhan.

The Ivory Coast said on Sunday that an Ivorian woman who had recently returned from China was suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, although tests have not yet fully confirmed it.

Dr. Eugène Aka Aouele, the Ivorian health minister, said in a statement that on Saturday the authorities had been informed by the airport in Abidjan, the capital, that the woman, a 34-year-old student, had been living in Beijing for the past five years.

After arriving on a Turkish Airlines flight to Abidjan, and exhibiting flulike symptoms including coughing and respiratory difficulties, she was taken to a special facility at the airport for a medical examination, the statement said.

“Her general state is satisfactory,” the ministry said. “There are, at this stage, suspicions of a case of pneumonia tied to the coronavirus. The final diagnosis will be established after the results of analysis from the samples that were taken.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said that his government would help repatriate all Japanese citizens wishing to leave Wuhan amid the deadly outbreak.

“As soon as our arrangements with the Chinese government are set, we have decided to bring back all Japanese citizens who wish to return, by charter planes and all other means,” Mr. Abe told reporters at his official residence on Sunday.

Public health experts warn against mass anxiety.

Despite the rising number of coronavirus cases and the 56 deaths, public health experts say there is no cause for panic. The common flu kills roughly 35,000 people a year and hospitalizes about 200,000 in the United States alone.

Yet the unknowns around the current outbreak are causing widespread worry. And there are signs that this outbreak could be more serious than the common flu. Other coronaviruses have far higher mortality rates than the flu, and have led to global outbreaks.

In addition, conclusive evidence about how this outbreak started is lacking. Although officials in Wuhan first traced it to a seafood market, some who have fallen ill never visited the market. Researchers have also offered disparate explanations about which animals may have transmitted the virus to humans.

China’s record doesn’t help. During the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003, officials covered up the extent of the crisis, delaying the response. The Chinese government has promised far more transparency this time, and the World Health Organization has praised its cooperation with scientists.

But mistrust of the local and national authorities, compounded by missteps and mistakes in handling the illness, runs deep. Though China’s initial delay in reporting cases of the new virus may suggest a cover-up, experts see something more worrying: weaknesses at the heart of the Chinese political system.

China’s central government deploys hundreds of workers.

In a sign that the central government is ramping up its response to contain the outbreak, China’s National Health Commission said it would send 1,230 medical experts to Wuhan to assist in treatment.

The army has sent another 450 people from three military medical universities, according to a state media article that the health commission shared on its website. And the air force sent military transport aircraft to the cities of Shanghai, Xi’an and Chongqing to pick up emergency airlifts of medical team members and medical supplies for Wuhan.

In Wuhan, health officials said that they would assign 24 hospitals to treat potential coronavirus patients only, according to People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main newspaper. National officials had called for patients to be concentrated in specialized hospitals, and new hospitals were being built specifically to treat patients.

A minister pleads for hundreds of thousands more masks.

A top Chinese official warned on Sunday that the nation needs many more masks and protective suits than it can currently produce.

His remarks, in a news conference, came as more local governments around the country mandated that citizens wear masks in public as the coronavirus outbreak grows. On Sunday, the government in Guangdong, China’s most populous province, became the latest to require people to wear masks in public — specifically, in hotels, restaurants, bars, hair salons, movie theaters, karaoke parlors, parks and many other places.

Wang Jiangping, China’s vice minister of industry and information technology, said that Hubei Province alone needed 100,000 protective suits a day to fight the illness, but that Chinese manufacturers could supply only 30,000 suits each day.

The Lunar New Year holiday is also making it difficult for factories to produce at full capacity, Mr. Wang said.

Chinese companies that manufacture items to export could produce an additional 50,000 suits a day, he said. But he said it would take time to make that change.

‘Every village around here is now putting up barriers.’

Roads were quiet. Where cars, trucks and motorbikes once roared and honked, there was the sound of birds tweeting and dogs barking. Shoppers mostly hauled their baskets home by foot or on bicycle.

Wuhan, the city at the center of China’s viral epidemic crisis, has been subdued since the government put it under a smothering net of travel restrictions on Thursday. It was even quieter on Sunday, after the city announced heavy restrictions on the use of cars, even within the urban limits.

But along with general silence, there was confusion.

The announcements about which vehicles were allowed on the roads was murky, leaving even police officers befuddled about what to do.

First, the Wuhan authorities said that most cars should stay off the roads and that a fleet of 6,000 taxis would be on call to transport people in need and deliver food and medicine. Then, the authorities said drivers would be notified by text message if they had to stay off the roads. Nobody seemed to receive text messages on Sunday.

“My understanding,” a police officer said, “is that you can drive in your district if you don’t get a text message telling you that you can’t. But you should check that with the transport authorities.”

In the end, most drivers stayed off the streets. But as the day went on, more ventured out, and the police did not seem to do much about it.

For some residents, it was another exasperating fumble by Wuhan officials who many believe have mishandled the epidemic. But most seemed to accept the restrictions with the same stoic fortitude that many have shown over the past several days as the city imposed bans on leaving for all but a select few.

On Sunday morning, many grocery shops in Wuhan were crowded with residents queuing to stock up, especially on fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. Many said they worried that even tighter rules that could deter them from leaving home or impede food supplies.

“Because it’s the New Year, a lot of stores close anyway, and now we have the disease and now this,” said Ai Wenjun, who had lined up to pay for a basket of turnips, cabbage and beans. “Each extra thing makes me worry more.”

So far, shops still have supplies, though some residents said prices had risen despite government warnings to keep them steady.

“If we can’t bring in produce, it will become more expensive, or we might even have to close up,” said Zuo Qichao, who was selling piles of cucumbers, turnips and tomatoes. As he spoke, a woman accused him of unfairly raising the price of the turnips.

“Every county, every village around here is now putting up barriers, worried about that disease,” Mr. Zuo said. “Even if the government says it wants food guaranteed, it won’t be easy — all those road checks.”

For now, the Wuhan city authorities have the benefit of a population willing to endure restrictions to slow the epidemic. But that could mood shift if the measures hamper food supplies and worsens medical shortages.

“Now is not the time for recriminations,” said Li Xiandu, a retired business manager. “The local government wasn’t forthcoming with information and didn’t take vigorous enough measures. But we need to get through this first, and then we can assign blame.”

Reporting was contributed by Raymond Zhong, Chris Buckley, Motoko Rich, Austin Ramzy, Ezra Cheung, Max Fisher, Vivian Wang, Ian Austen, Josh Keller, Yonette Joseph and Aurelien Breeden. Claire Fu and Wang Yiwei contributed research.

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2020-01-26 15:12:06Z
52780557239644

A third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the US as China struggles to contain outbreak - CNN

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Orange County health officials Saturday that a potential case of coronavirus tested positive.

The person who tested positive traveled from Wuhan, China, -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- and is in isolation and in "good condition" at a local hospital, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a statement.

State and federal officials are following up with anyone who may have had close contact with the person and is at risk of infection.

In the US, two previous cases of the virus have been confirmed in Illinois and Washington state.

The CDC said it's taking aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus in the United States, but while it considers it a serious public health threat, the immediate risk to Americans is low.

At least 56 people have been killed by the coronavirus in China, nearly 2,000 confirmed cases have been reported as the nation struggles to contain the outbreak.

Chinese authorities have imposed indefinite restrictions on public transport and travel, with motor vehicles banned in Wuhan's city center starting Sunday to control the flow of people. Only vehicles with special permits, free shuttles and government vehicles will be allowed to move around.

Amid the lockdown, countries like the US and France have been trying to evacuate their citizens from the central Chinese city. Outside of China, more than 40 confirmed cases have been identified in about a dozen countries.

Coronaviruses are transmitted by animals and people, and the Wuhan strain has been linked to a market in the city that was selling seafood and live animals, including wild species. The Chinese government announced Sunday that is banning all sales of wild animals throughout the country

Beijing will deploy an additional 1,600 medical professionals to Wuhan to help the city cope with the growing number of coronavirus patients, health officials said.

CNN's Alta Spells contributed to this report

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2020-01-26 12:57:00Z
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Iran's Zarif hits back after Trump's 'No thanks' Twitter post - Al Jazeera English

President Donald Trump has said the United States will not lift sanctions on Iran in order to enter negotiations with it, in a response to the Iranian foreign minister who suggested Tehran was still willing to talk on the condition Washington "correct[ed] its past" and removed a series of tough economic measures.

There has been growing friction between the two longtime foes since 2018 when Trump pulled his country out of a landmark nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers. The US has since reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran's economy while calling for negotiations on a new accord that also addressed Tehran's ballistic missiles programme and its support for regional armed groups. 

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The tensions reached the highest levels in decades earlier this month after the US assassinated top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad. Iran responded by firing missiles at US targets in Iraq on January 8, but the retaliatory strikes did not cause any fatalities and Trump signalled the US would not respond militarily and instead move ahead with more "punishing economic sanctions".

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine that he would "never rule out the possibility that people will change their approach and recognise the realities" when asked about possible negotiations with the US following Soleimani's killing.

"For us, it doesn't matter who is sitting in the White House, what matters is how they behave," he said in the interview published on Saturday, reiterating his country's demand that the US would have to first lift the sanctions before any new negotiations begin.

"The Trump administration can correct its past, lift the sanctions and come back to the negotiating table. We're still at the negotiating table. They're the ones who left," Zarif continued, before adding that "the day will come" when the US "will have to compensate for inflicting "great harm" on Iranians.

"We have a lot of patience," he said.

In Washington, Trump said in a Twitter post late on Saturday, "Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran wants to negotiate with The United States, but wants sanctions removed," and added: "No Thanks!".

Zarif hit back on Sunday by tweeting an excerpt from the interview with Der Spiegel.

"@realdonaldtrump is better advised to base his foreign policy comments & decisions on facts, rather than @FoxNews headlines or his Farsi translators," Zarif said in the tweet with the interview excerpt.

.@realdonaldtrump is better advised to base his foreign policy comments & decisions on facts, rather than @FoxNews headlines or his Farsi translators

To be better informed, he can read my entire interview (in English) https://t.co/eZR8NzuWXV

Too many words? Then just read this: pic.twitter.com/URkbUll49P

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 26, 2020

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Ali Asghar Zarean, an aide to Iran's nuclear chief, said the country's enriched uranium stockpile has exceeded 1,200 kilogrammes (2,646 pounds), which is far beyond the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers allowed.

"Iran is increasing its stockpile of the enriched uranium with full speed," he said. The claim has not been verified by the United Nations's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Under the 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium under the watch of UN inspectors in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

In reaction to Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the deal and its reimposition of sanctions, Iran has gradually rolled back its commitments. On January 5, days after the US drone strike that killed Soleimani, Tehran announced it would no longer abide by any of the JCPOA's limitations to its enrichment activities.

In November, the IAEA said Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium had grown to 372.3kgs (821 pounds) as of November 3. The nuclear deal limited the stockpile to 202.8kgs (447 pounds).

Iran has routinely promised to begin enriching its stockpile of uranium to higher levels closer to weapons-grade if world powers fail to negotiate new terms for the nuclear accord following Washington's moves.

The other signatories to the JCPOA - Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China and Russia - have been struggling to keep it alive.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2020-01-26 10:58:00Z
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A third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the US as China struggles to contain outbreak - CNN

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Orange County health officials Saturday that a potential case of coronavirus tested positive.

The person who tested positive traveled from Wuhan, China, -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- and is in isolation and in "good condition" at a local hospital, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a statement.

State and federal officials are following up with anyone who may have had close contact with the person and is at risk of infection.

In the US, two previous cases of the virus have been confirmed in Illinois and Washington state.

The CDC said it's taking aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus in the United States, but while it considers it a serious public health threat, the immediate risk to Americans is low.

At least 56 people have been killed by the coronavirus in China, nearly 2,000 confirmed cases have been reported as the nation struggles to contain the outbreak.

Chinese authorities have imposed indefinite restrictions on public transport and travel, with motor vehicles banned in Wuhan's city center starting Sunday to control the flow of people. Only vehicles with special permits, free shuttles and government vehicles will be allowed to move around.

Amid the lockdown, countries like the US and France have been trying to evacuate their citizens from the central Chinese city. Outside of China, more than 40 confirmed cases have been identified in about a dozen countries.

Coronaviruses are transmitted by animals and people, and the Wuhan strain has been linked to a market in the city that was selling seafood and live animals, including wild species. The Chinese government announced Sunday that is banning all sales of wild animals throughout the country

Beijing will deploy an additional 1,600 medical professionals to Wuhan to help the city cope with the growing number of coronavirus patients, health officials said.

CNN's Alta Spells contributed to this report

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2020-01-26 10:18:00Z
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Coronavirus "whistleblower" nurse says China has 90,000 sick - New York Post

The Coronavirus now has a whistleblower — a nurse in Wuhan who insists in a shocking online video that close to 90,000 people in China have the disease, far more than the 1,975 reported by officials.

“I am in the area where the coronavirus started,” her video begins. Wuhan is the epicenter of the outbreak.

“I’m here to tell the truth,” the anonymous nurse says in the video, which shows her wearing a full-head face mask.

“At this moment, Hubei province, including the Wuhan area, even China, 90,000 people have been infected by a coronavirus.”

She does not reveal how she arrived at the sobering statistic.

The video has been viewed on YouTube some two million times, the Daily Mail reported.

Other horrifying videos have shown dead bodies covered in sheets lying in hospital hallways.

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2020-01-26 08:32:00Z
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