[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Intelligence officials warned Russia is working to get Trump re-elected CBS NewsView Full Coverage on Google News
• Two more deaths and new cases in Iran
• South Korean city declared 'special management zone' following spread from church
• Total number of infections stands over 76,000 globally
• Last healthy travelers to leave stricken cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan
• China reports spike in coronavirus cases in prisons
• China says earliest coronavirus vaccine to be submitted for trials late April
Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesperson for the Iranian Health Ministry, confirmed 13 new cases of coronavirus in Iran in a tweet on Friday. Two more people died Friday, bringing the total numbers of virus-related deaths in Iran to four.
Seven new cases were confirmed in the city of Qom, four in the country's capital, Tehran, and two in Gilan province. The total number of cases in Iran now stands at 18. — Amin Khodadadi
The mayor of South Korean city of Daegu said it was facing an “unprecedented crisis” after a series coronavirus infections linked to a single church service, as worries mounted in the country.
The number of cases of coronavirus in South Korea has doubled in 24 hours, reaching 204
As the government works to prevent the spread of the virus, events have been cancelled and delayed, and some facilities are being closed down until further notice.
The total number of COVID-19 cases stemming from “patient 31” in the city of 2.5 million people— which is two hours south of the capital, Seoul — comes to 58 and of the total 42 made contact at the church.
Another 15 were infected in contact at the local hospital, one person infected at the hospital has died, according to a briefing from Korea’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
The Shincheonji Church of Jesus — whose leader claims he is an angel of Jesus — has become the biggest cluster of viral infections in South Korea, where a surge in new cases raises fears that the outbreak is getting out of control.
Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin on Thursday urged the city’s 2.5 million people to stay home and wear masks even indoors if possible.
Little is known about the woman known as “patient 31" except that she is in her early 60s, had no recent record of overseas travel and was diagnosed with pneumonia last weekend. — Stella Kim
More than 76,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, and at least 2,200 people have died as of Friday. The vast majority of the deaths are in mainland China.
In Hubei province — the epicenter of the virus outbreak — the number of new confirmed cases in the province was revised from 411 to 631, and the total number of confirmed cases was revised from 62,442 to 62,662 as of Friday. — Dawn Liu
Japan's health minister said the last cruise ship passengers who tested negative for a new virus will leave the Diamond Princess on Friday after a much-criticized quarantine of the vessel ended.
The ship docked at Yokohama has the most COVID-19 cases outside of China, with 634 cases from the ship confirmed as of Friday. Two former passengers have died.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told a news conference the mass disembarkation into Japan of passengers from the ship is set to end Friday, while dozens of foreign passengers are flying back to their home countries on flights chartered by their governments.
This will leave roughly 1,000 passengers who tested negative but shared a room with a COVID-19 positive passenger, as well as the ship’s crew. They will be transported to a government facility to be quarantined and monitored for symptoms in isolation starting on Saturday.
Japan's government has been questioned over its decision to keep people quarantined on the ship, given the tight quarters and the difficulty of isolating sick people from the healthy. — Arata Yamamoto and the Associated Press
Hundreds of new coronavirus cases in China on Friday traced back to four prisons on the mainland, including two in Hubei, the center of the outbreak.
In Hubei, the Wuhan Women’s prison has 230 cases, and the Shayang Hanjin prison reported 41 on Friday.
Rencheng Jail in eastern China’s Shandong province has also confirmed 207 cases of the virus.
The Shandong government said that a prison guard at the jail started showing symptoms in early February. All 2,077 people held or working at the prison were given the nucleic acid test and, as of Thursday, 200 prisoners and seven prison officers had tested positive for the virus.
In Zhejiang province, 34 prisoners have been infected at Shilifeng jail. The provincial government said these were imported cases from Wuhan, and two prison officials had been removed from their roles. — Dawn Liu
The earliest vaccine for the coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 in China alone will be submitted for clinical trials around late April, China's Vice Science and Technology Minister Xu Nanping said on Friday. — Reuters
As of Thursday, the patient with the first confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Santa Clara County has fully recovered and has been released from isolation.
He was isolated at home and monitored by public health staff for the duration of his isolation. The second case remains in isolation.
The Public Health Department continues to work closely with healthcare providers, hospitals, and its partners to address novel coronavirus. Currently, there is no evidence that novel coronavirus is circulating in Santa Clara County and risk remains low. — Todd Miyazawa
“The piece by Siraj Haqqani in @nytopinion — which’s independent of our news operations & judgment — omits the most fundamental fact,” Mujib Mashal, the Times’ senior correspondent in Afghanistan, tweeted, “that Siraj is no Taliban peace-maker as he paints himself, that he’s behind some of most ruthless attacks of this war with many civilian lives lost.”
Haqqani used the Times op-ed to urge U.S. and Afghan leaders to find a path to end the decades-long strife in Afghanistan.
“For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day,” he wrote. “Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.”
The piece by Siraj Haqqani in @nytopinion - which's independent of our news operations & judgment - omits the most fundamental fact: that Siraj is no Taliban peace-maker as he paints himself, that he's behind some of most ruthless attacks of this war with many civilian lives lost
— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) February 20, 2020
Some of the criticism of the op-ed stemmed from the Times not explaining the Haqqani family’s role in the Taliban or the author’s involvement in deadly military strikes that have killed Afghan citizens and American soldiers. Sirajuddin Haqqani commanded a guerrilla force of at least 5,000 fighters in Afghanistan, The Washington Post’s Haq Nawaz Khan and Pamela Constable reported in 2017. He is a leader of the Haqqani network, established by his father and feared for particularly brutal attacks.
“The Haqqani and Taliban are responsible for the death of dozens of American soldiers and atrocities against Afghan civilians,” added Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) in a tweet Thursday. “@nytimes should be ashamed of itself for enabling this blatant propaganda from a designated global terrorist, all in the name of ‘diverse reviews.’”
The FBI offers $5 million for information leading to his arrest. “Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted for questioning in connection with the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed six people, including an American citizen,” the bureau says on its website. “He is believed to have coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Haqqani also allegedly was involved in the planning of the assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008.”
Midway through the story, the op-ed offered a link for readers to learn “more on the Haqqani network,” which directed to a 2016 news story that said the militant group was leading a “deadlier Taliban in Afghanistan.”
The Times defended the decision to publish the piece. “We know firsthand how dangerous and destructive the Taliban is,” Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy said in a statement emailed to The Washington Post. “But, our mission at Times Opinion is to tackle big ideas from a range of newsworthy viewpoints. We’ve actively solicited voices from all sides of the Afghanistan conflict, the government, the Taliban and from citizens. Sirajuddin Haqqani is the second-in-command of the Taliban at a time when its negotiators are hammering out an agreement with American officials in Doha that could result in American troops leaving Afghanistan. That makes his perspective relevant at this particular moment.”
The spokesperson also pointed out that the publication has employed a “fulltime team of reporters in Afghanistan since the start of the war nearly 20 years ago” and that several journalists, including former Times reporter David Rohde, who is now an executive editor for the New Yorker, have been kidnapped by Taliban-linked terrorists inside the Haqqani network.
Still, many observers found a link insufficient context for readers evaluating Haqqani’s opinion while some objected to affording him space with or without context.
“Sirajuddin Haqqani is a notorious war crimes suspect being investigated by the International Criminal Court,” Andrew Stroehlein, the European media director for the Human Rights Watch, wrote on Twitter. “Why does the New York Times give him op-ed space?”
Retired four-star Marine Corps general John R. Allen, who commanded troops in Afghanistan during the Obama administration and is now president of the Brookings Institution, told the Daily Beast the decision to publish the op-ed raised questions about judgment in the Times newsroom.
“Giving the Haqqani terror network the platform of the NYT for the expression of their views on the so-called peace plan creates a strategic communications coup,” he told the publication.
“PBS NewsHour” correspondent Nick Schifrin noted the magnitude of publishing an op-ed from Haqqani.
“For anyone who has lived in, covered, or otherwise cared about Afghanistan and Pakistan, that alone is extraordinary,” he tweeted.
The US’ first priority has been to get the Taliban to commit they will not allow any al Qaeda or ISIS presence, fundraising, or training on any part of territory they control.
— Nick Schifrin (@nickschifrin) February 20, 2020
But some lawmakers continued to voice their displeasure over the Times’ decision.
“Appalled @nytimes has given leader of the Haqqani network and leader in Taliban room in their editorial pages to espouse his views,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) tweeted. “Haqqani network is responsible for 1000s of Americans killed in Afghanistan and provides shelter to al Qaeda operatives … they sheltered Bin Laden.”
At least 11 American evacuees transported to the U.S. from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, as another doctor in China was pronounced dead from the virus Friday.
The American evacuees were transported to U.S. hospitals after delayed Japenese test results showed they tested positive. Five other people were confirmed to have shown symptoms of the virus.
None of the 16 evacuees has had confirmed tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so federal authorities have yet to report them. They have been staying at Travis Air Force Base in California.
Four were taken to a hospital in Washington state, while Scott Pauley, a CDC spokesman, wouldn't elaborate on where the others were taken.
The newly infected reportedly don't include the 14 people who officials had previously said tested positive before boarding two State Department chartered flights carrying 300 Americans from the Diamond Princess last Monday. Thirteen of them were brought to a hospital in Omaha, Neb., and the CDC says 11 are officially declared to have the virus.
Another doctor in Wuhan was also confirmed to have been killed by the virus Friday, adding to the list of leading medical professionals now deceased in the virus's epicenter.
Peng Yinhua, a 29-year-old respiratory doctor died Thursday. Others killed by the virus include Wuchang Hospital director Liu Zhiming and Li Wenliang, who warned authorities about the virus before it was public.
China has suffered the most from the virus, which is now known as COVID-19, with the country having 99 percent of the cases. The U.S. has 26 patients, including 11 confirmed so far at a Nebraska hospital, eight in California, one in Texas, one in Wisconsin, one in Arizona, one in Washington state, one in Massachusetts and two in Illinois. Those numbers don't include the 11 recently shown to have the new virus.
CDC officials added there will “likely be additional cases in the coming days and weeks, including among other people recently returned from Wuhan.”
UT AUSTIN ANNOUNCES CORONAVIRUS 'BREAKTHROUGH' COULD HELP YIELD VACCINE
The U.S. had announced that Americans who traveled to China within the last 14 days would be sent to designated airports for enhanced screenings. Foreign nationals who recently went to China would be denied entry in the U.S., except for the immediate family of American citizens and permanent residents.
China's Foreign Ministry had said the U.S. hasn't given the country any substantive help in its fight against the coronavirus outbreak. They added the U.S. was contributing to the international panic surrounding the illness, Reuters reported.
People wearing face masks walk through a public park in Beijing, Friday, Feb. 21, 2020. (Associated Press)
ISRAEL: PEOPLE WHO VIOLATE COROANVIRUS SELF-QUARANTINES COULD FACE YEARS IN PRISON
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global emergency as it spreads to countries outside of China and the number of infected patients continues to grow.
Countries around the globe have increased travel restrictions to the infected mainland China and Hubei province — with the U.S. State Department increasing its advisory to level 4: "Do Not Travel."
The CDC has issued an advisory to avoid all nonessential travel to the country.
Coronavirus has now killed about three times the amount of people in China than were sickened during the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s. The SARS outbreak killed 349 people in mainland China in 2002-2003 -- with 744 deaths and 8,096 infections globally, according to the CDC.
Here are the latest figures.
How many have been infected or have died?
The virus has claimed the lives of 2,236 people and infected 75,465 around the globe. Only 11 people have died outside mainland China.
South Korea recorded its first fatality from the virus on Thursday.
France announced its first death on Saturday in a Chinese tourist who died in the country. It was the first fatality outside of Asia.
Japan announced two people in their 80s who were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship had died on Thursday. A week earlier, an 80-year-old woman died after being hospitalized near Toyko since Feb. 1.
The other deaths were in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
The WHO said the number of cases will keep growing as tests are pending on thousands of suspected cases.
Where is the virus?
Roughly 99 percent of new cases have appeared in China with the vast majority of the cases in Hubei province and its provincial capital, Wuhan -- the epicenter of the virus.
The United Kingdom has nine cases in the country.
SOUTH KOREA REPORTS FIRST CORONAVIRUS DEATH: HEALTH OFFICIALS
Japan -- 519 (607 passengers on Diamond Princess cruise ship outside Yokohama) (3 deaths)
South Korea -- 104 (1 death)
Singapore -- 84
Thailand -- 35
South Korea -- 31
Taiwan -- 24 (1 death)
Malaysia -- 22
Germany -- 16
Vietnam -- 16
Australia -- 15
France -- 12 (1 death)
United Arab Emirates -- 9
Canada -- 8
India -- 3
Italy -- 3
Philippines -- 3 (1 death)
Russia -- 2
Spain -- 2
Iran -- 2
Sweden -- 1
Belgium -- 1
Nepal -- 1
Finland --1
Sri Lanka -- 1
Cambodia -- 1
Egypt -- 1
Hong Kong -- 67 (1 death)
Macao -- 10
Differences between coronavirus and the flu?
The flu has estimated to have killed roughly 10,000 to 25,000 people with nearly 19 to 26 million infected in the U.S. between October 1, 2019, and January 25, 2020, according to the CDC. Coronavirus has impacted a far lesser number, although it's not yet clear how many have been infected or how widespread it is.
There have also been reports it can be spread without symptoms showing up. In respiratory illnesses, people with the most symptoms are the most contagious, the agency said. Children and those over 65 are the most likely to get sick from the flu, the CDC added.
IS THE NOVEL CORONAVUS HERE TO STAY?
People wearing face masks walk on a down own street in Hong Kong Friday, Feb. 21, 2020. COVID-19 viral illness has sickened tens of thousands of people in China since December. (Associated Press)
Unlike the coronavirus, there's a seasonal vaccine for the flu. People over six months out are advised by the agency to get it during annual vaccination, with certain rare exceptions, such as severe allergies to the shot.
No vaccine has been developed for coronavirus as of yet, which makes it dangerous in that respect.
How did it start?
It's not entirely clear how it started, but Chinese scientists believe the virus may have originated in bats. The pangolin, a type of scaly anteater was reported to be a possible host, according to a Chinese University. A study by the Wuhan Institute of Virology said that genome sequences from seven patients tested were identical to the bat coronavirus.
How does it transmit?
It's believed the normal coronavirus can be transmitted most commonly through respiratory droplets in the air, as well as close contact with an infected person or touching areas contaminated with the virus before washing. The digestive tract may also transmit the disease, according to scientists from the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Science.
HOW IS CORONAVIRUS TRANSMITTED?
They recently discovered "virus genetic material" in feces samples and rectal swabs from some patients, Chinese state media reported.
What are the current travel restrictions?
The U.S. declared the coronavirus a public health emergency with Trump signing an order barring entry to foreign nationals who recently were in China, other than the immediate family of American citizens and permanent residents.
Officials at the CDC have advised travelers to avoid all nonessential travel to the country. The U.S. State Department raised its China travel advisory to "Level 4: Do Not Travel."
"Those currently in China should consider departing using commercial means. The Department of State has requested that all non-essential U.S. government personnel defer travel to China in light of the novel coronavirus," The advisory said.
Vietnam stopped all flights to and from China.
Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia all have similar policies to the U.S. on restricting non-citizens.
Mongolia and Singapore have shut their borders.
Singapore said it would ban travelers from China's Hubei province.
Pakistan says they're halting all flights to and from China
People wear face masks as they ride along a road in Beijing, Friday, Feb. 21, 2020. (Associated Press)
The United Kingdom and New Zealand advised their people against nonessential travel to China.
Russia has signed an order to close the border between them and China. They also blocked tour groups from China.
China has cut off access to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, trapping more than 50 million people
Hong Kong quarantining visitors from mainland China
Japan bars foreign nationals who had been to Hubei province.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean denying boarding of people who travel to China within 14 days.
Italy suspended all flights to China.
LONDON CAN HOST 2020 OLYMPICS IF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK PERSISTS, MAYORAL CANDIDATE SAYS
South Korea urged an increase in its level of caution to "restraint" when traveling to China.
Hong Kong reduced half its flights and shut down rail service to mainland China.
Cathay Pacific Airways asks 27,000 employees to take three weeks of unpaid leave.
Delta suspended all service to China.
United Airlines suspends all flights between China and the U.S.
United's pilots, concerned for their safety, were able to drop trips to China without pay, a union memo said, according to Reuters.
American Airlines suspends all flights to China.
The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents 15,000 pilots for American Airlines filed a lawsuit to halt service with the airline, citing “serious, and in many ways still unknown, health threats posed by the coronavirus."
"I am directing all APA pilots to cease flight operations between the United States and China," said APA president Eric Ferguson. "Until further notice, if you are scheduled, assigned, or reassigned a pairing into China, decline the assignment by calling your Chief Pilot or IOC Duty Pilot. Inform them you are declining in accordance with the CDC and WHO declarations."
British Airways suspended all flights to and from mainland China.
Virgin Atlantic suspending operations to Shanghai
Lufthansa suspending flights to and from China
Air India and Seoul Air halting all flights to the country.
Egypt Air suspended all fights
Air France suspending all flights
Finnair, Cathay Pacific, and Jetstar also stopping service.
Lion Air canceled 50 flights to China into February.
Air Canada suspending all direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FOX HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Kenya Airways suspends all flights to China.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A seven-day "reduction in violence" between the US and the Afghan Taliban will begin on Saturday, officials say.
"This is an important step on a long road to peace," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.
If successful, the two sides will then sign the first phase of a deal aimed at ending nearly two decades of conflict.
The agreement, scheduled to begin at midnight local time, comes after more than a year of talks between American and Afghan Taliban representatives.
In a statement, Taliban negotiators said "a suitable security situation" would be created ahead of signing a deal they hoped would "lay the groundwork for peace across the country with the withdrawal of all foreign forces".
The Afghan government, which is currently grappling with a dispute over the results of the country's presidential elections, was not part of the negotiations.
Under the terms of the partial week-long truce, it is understood that no major offensive operations will be launched against the Taliban, Afghan or international forces.
"We have come to an understanding with the Taliban on a significant reduction in violence across Afghanistan," Mr Pompeo said in a statement.
"Upon a successful implementation of this understanding, signing of the US-Taliban [peace] agreement is expected to move forward. We are preparing for the signing to take place on 29 February," the statement added.
The US has spent billions of dollars since 2001 fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump, who pledged during his 2016 presidential campaign that he would end the US war in Afghanistan, has been pushing for the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
The BBC's Afghanistan correspondent, Secunder Kermani, says the move is seen as an opportunity for the Taliban's leadership to show they can control their fighters on the ground.
It could also pave the way for talks between Taliban negotiators and Afghan politicians, our correspondent adds.
In December 2018, the Taliban announced they would meet US officials to try to find a "roadmap to peace".
But the militants continued to refuse to hold official talks with the Afghan government, whom they dismissed as American "puppets".
Following nine rounds of US-Taliban talks in Qatar, the two sides seemed close to an agreement.
Washington's top negotiator announced in September that the US would withdraw 5,400 troops from Afghanistan within 20 weeks as part of a deal agreed "in principle" with Taliban militants.
But days later, Mr Trump said the talks were "dead", after the militant group admitted to killing a US soldier.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
"They thought that they had to kill people to put themselves in a little better negotiating position", he told reporters, calling the attack "a big mistake".
In the months since the deal collapsed, there has so far been no let-up in fighting. The Taliban has warned that the US would "lose the most" by cancelling the talks.
Since 2011, Qatar has hosted Taliban leaders who have moved there to discuss peace in Afghanistan.
It has been a difficult process. A Taliban office was opened in 2013, but closed the same year amid rows over flags. Other attempts at talks have stalled.
Qatar was also the host of a major conference in July that agreed a roadmap for Afghan peace. Significantly it included both the Taliban and Afghan government officials, though the latter attended in a "personal capacity".
It began when the US launched air strikes one month following the 11 September 2001 attacks and after the Taliban had refused to hand over the man behind them, Osama Bin Laden.
The US was joined by an international coalition and the Taliban were quickly removed from power. However, they later emerged as an insurgent force and continued deadly attacks, destabilising subsequent Afghan governments.
The international coalition ended its combat mission in 2014, staying only to train Afghan forces. But the US continued its own, scaled-back combat operation, including air strikes.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
The Taliban has, however, continued to gain momentum - in 2018, the BBC found that Taliban militants were active across 70% of Afghanistan.
Nearly 3,500 members of the international coalition forces have died in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, more than 2,300 of them American.
The figures for Afghan civilians, militants and government forces are more difficult to quantify. In a February 2019 report, the UN said that more than 32,000 civilians had died.
The Watson Institute at Brown University says 58,000 security personnel and 42,000 opposition combatants have been killed.
The Taliban, or "students" in the Pashto language, emerged in the chaos that followed the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
They took Kabul in 1996 and were in charge of most of the country within two years, practising their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law.
Before being removed from power they banned TV, music and cinema, enforced strict dress codes, severely curtailed female education and introduced brutal punishments.
Mullah Omar continued to lead the Taliban after they were ousted. He died in 2013 although the Taliban did not confirm it for two years.
The Taliban are now led by Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Read updates in Chinese: 新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总
South Korea reported a surge in confirmed infections, giving it the world’s largest number of cases related to the new coronavirus outbreak outside China if those from the Diamond Princess cruise ship are not included in Japan’s total.
South Korean health officials confirmed 100 new cases on Friday, bringing the country’s total to 204. Among the new cases, 87 were connected to a church called Shincheonji in Daegu, a city of about two and half million people in the southeastern part of the country. Officials said a 61-year-old woman who tested positive earlier this week, and who had attended services at the church, may have spread the virus there.
The church, founded by Lee Man-hee in 1984, says it has over 200,000 members around the world, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap. It closed all of its churches in South Korea this week and told followers to watch its services online.
The vast majority of coronavirus cases are in mainland China, which has reported more than 75,000 cases. Japan has 97, not counting the more than 600 cases of people who had been aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
South Korea reported on Thursday what officials said could be its first death from the coronavirus. A 63-year-old patient with symptoms of pneumonia had died the previous day at the Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo, and officials learned later that he had been infected. Officials said the 61-year-old woman linked to the church had also visited the hospital in early February.
A 29-year-old respiratory doctor in Wuhan, the city at the center of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, died on Thursday night after being infected by the virus, according to an announcement from the hospital where he worked. It was the latest in a string of deaths among health care providers working to contain the outbreak.
The doctor, Peng Yinhua, was also among the youngest of the publicly announced victims of the virus, which has largely killed older men with underlying health conditions.
On Chinese social media, users expressed shock at Dr. Peng’s age. They also cited state media reports that Dr. Peng had planned to get married on Feb. 1, but that he had postponed the wedding because of the epidemic.
Last month, the death of another young Wuhan doctor, Li Wenliang, provoked an outpouring of anger and grief on social media. Dr. Li, 34, had been reprimanded by the local authorities for trying to warn his medical school classmates about the virus before officials had acknowledged an outbreak. When Dr. Li died of the virus, he became a potent symbol of perceived government mismanagement and concealment.
After Dr. Peng’s death, some users seemed to nod to Dr. Li as well. “We send away another hero,” one person wrote on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like platform.
“Exactly how many more medical staff have to die?” another wrote.
Earlier this week, another high-profile doctor, Liu Zhiming, died. Dr. Liu was the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan.
With much of China still on lockdown, businesses are struggling to get up and running. Foxconn, the Taiwan company that manufactures Apple’s iPhones and other gadgets, indicated just how difficult that will be.
The company on Thursday said its revenues would take a hit from the spread of the coronavirus, and that it would be “cautious” in resuming work at its factories in China. Plants outside of the country, in places like Vietnam and Mexico, were at full capacity, the company said.
The warning comes as Chinese leaders try to balance restarting the economy with controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Following repeated extensions of the Lunar New Year holiday, many migrant workers remain at home, facing mandatory quarantines and lockdowns. A number of businesses and officials have issued warnings that such policies need to be relaxed to avoid a new economic crisis.
Even if factories get all their workers back, other policies are likely to make life difficult. Some local governments require new preventive measures, like requiring workers to wear masks, or housing each worker in a single dorm room. In other cases, cities have invoked mandatory two-week quarantines on all returning workers.
Concerns about production at Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, underscore the broader impact the epidemic could have on global supply chains. A huge portion of the world’s electronics come out of China’s factories. A longer suspension of production could hit overall supply.
The Chinese Embassy in Nepal has attacked a Nepalese newspaper for publishing a column criticizing Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and an illustration of Mao Zedong wearing a face mask.
The Embassy said in a statement this week that the Kathmandu Post had “deliberately smeared” the government and people of China, and “viciously attacked” the nation’s political system.
The statement, which singled out the paper’s top editor, was the latest example of the Chinese government’s increasingly muscular brand of diplomacy and its efforts to publicly quash criticism of its policies, even abroad. This week, Beijing also announced it would expel three Wall Street Journal reporters in retaliation for a headline on an opinion piece.
The column in question in the Kathmandu Post is a syndicated opinion piece, entitled “China’s secrecy has made coronavirus crisis much worse” and originally published in The Korea Herald, that was reprinted in the Post on Tuesday. The paper accompanied the column with an illustration of a Chinese bank note digitally altered to depict Mao wearing a surgical face mask.
The Chinese Embassy’s rebuke singled out Anup Kaphle, the Kathmandu Post’s editor-in-chief, for scorn, saying that he was “a parrot of some anti-China forces.” It warned that the Chinese government could take further action.
One of Asia’s poorest and least-developed democracies, Nepal has grown closer to China as it seeks to reduce its dependence on India. Chinese investors have pumped millions of dollars into the country.
In an editorial on Wednesday, the newspaper alluded to China’s growing economic influence on Nepal and accused the embassy of violating diplomatic norms by using threatening language against the outlet and disparaging its top editor.
“The Chinese embassy’s statement, ultimately, is not just about the Post, or its Editor-in-Chief,” the editorial said. “It is a rebuke to not bite the hand that feeds.”
Officials in Canada announced a new case of the coronavirus on Friday in a patient who had recently returned from Iran, which itself had just confirmed its first few cases of the virus.
Iranian officials on Wednesday announced two coronavirus cases in the country, and then just hours later reported that both patients had died. On Thursday, officials there announced three more confirmed cases.
The case of the new Canadian patient, the sixth in the western province of British Columbia, could raise fears of cluster cases and an expanding global reach of the virus. Health officials are investigating viral clusters in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Britain and France.
The source of the virus in Iran remains unknown. A senior health official there said that none of the people who have been diagnosed had traveled to China or been in contact with anyone who had traveled there, according to the state-controlled IRIB news agency.
The authorities in British Columbia said the new patient was a woman in her 30s, who was presumed positive based on local testing and was awaiting final confirmation from national officials.
Chinese officials announced on Friday that 889 new cases of the coronavirus had been reported in the previous 24 hours, raising the overall total above 75,000.
The death toll went up by 118, to 2,236.
All but three of the new deaths were in China’s central Hubei Province, the focus of the outbreak. Hubei was also the source of nearly three quarters of the new confirmed cases of infection.
The new count came one day after Chinese health authorities said they were using new criteria to count cases of the coronavirus. The move appeared to undo a change they made last week.
That earlier change allowed health officials in Hubei to count cases diagnosed in clinical settings, including with the use of CT scans showing lung infections, not just those confirmed using specialized kits to test for the virus.
On Thursday, officials said Hubei would now resume using the same criteria as the rest of the country. Cases will be considered confirmed only if the virus is found.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that two new drug therapy trials to help fight the coronavirus are set to begin in China and that early results may be available within three weeks.
One trial involves an experimental antiviral drug made by Gilead. It has not yet been licensed for use.
The drug was tested against the Ebola virus in Congo, where it was not very effective. But when it was given to the first American known to be infected with the coronavirus, an unidentified man in Washington State, he recovered.
The second trial involves a combination of two anti-H.I.V. drugs that is sold as Kaletra in the United States and available in generic versions.
If either therapy helps prevent severe pneumonia, sepsis or organ failure in coronavirus patients, death rates may fall. Two other drugs — favipiravir and chloroquine — have also been discussed as potential treatments.
Reporting was contributed by Vivian Wang, Paul Mozur, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Choe Sang-Hun, Roni Caryn Rabin, Carlos Tejada, Elaine Yu, Steven Lee Myers, Tiffany May, Amber Wang, Claire Fu, Yiwei Wang and Zoe Mou.
