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China
February 29, 2020 Chinese scientists knew about the coronavirus and its deadly effects as early as December - but were ordered by government officials to suppress the evidence. In late December, several genomics companies tested samples from sick patients in Wuhan - the center of the coronavirus outbreak - and noticed alarming similarities between their illnesses and the 2002 SARS virus, the Sunday Times of London reported, citing Chinese business news site Caixin Global. The researchers alerted Beijing of their findings - and on Jan. 3, received a gag order from China’s National Health Commission, with instructions to destroy the samples. Rather than hunkering down to contain the virus, Wuhan officials went ahead with their annual potluck dinner for 40,000 families. Representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited Wuhan Jan. 8. Officials intentionally withheld information that hospital workers had been infected by patients - a telltale sign of contagion. News of the virus’ highly contagious nature didn’t surface publicly until Jan. 20. Wuhan was locked down and a mass quarantine ordered three days later. (Source: NewYorkPost)
February 27, 2020 Qianjiang, a city of around one million people located about 150km from the stricken provincial capital of Wuhan, has reported a total of 197 cases so far and is stepping up efforts to ensure its infected people are confined and treated. It will pay residents as much as 10,000 yuan (S$1,985) if they proactively report symptoms of the illness and it is confirmed after testing. Those who are not immediately ruled out as suffering from the disease will be given 1,000 yuan, while those declared to be"suspected" cases will earn 2,000 yuan. Media in the provinces of Jiangxi and Hebei have also reported local cities offering handouts of around 300-500 yuan. China has previously made it clear that people showing signs of infection would be able to get checked free of charge, and has also made funds available to local governments to ensure there are no financial disincentives preventing people from coming forward. (Source: StraitsTimes)
February 26, 2020 China confiscated over 31 million counterfeit face masks as coronavirus fears cause supply shortage and spike in demand. Manufacturers and distributors of non-CDC-approved masks have emerged, selling masks that are inadequate. There have been nearly 688 cases of fake mask production and distribution in China, involving about 1,560 arrests. Even N95 respirators masks, designed to filter out air particles 0.3 microns in diameter, are not able to block coronavirus, which can be as small as 0.2 microns. (Source: BusinessInsider)
Feb 26, 2020 How to balance epidemic control against economic development?” To succeed to quell public anger toward the government’s handling of the outbreak. Business executives and some local leaders are becoming more vocal about the need to streamline rules to reopen factories and get workers and supplies moving again in many parts of the country where activity remains at a standstill. But many local officials fear doing so could risk a resurgence of infections, prolonging the outbreak and putting their jobs on the line. Many privately complain that President Xi has put them in an impossible position, demanding they keep growth on track while also ensuring the virus doesn’t spread. Wuhan briefly announced in February 24 it would begin to ease its quarantines that day, only to retract the notice a few hours later as they struggle with the top leadership’s twin objectives. The city’s abrupt flip-flop on quarantine rules came a day after Mr. Xi held a rare teleconference with some 170,000 cadres throughout the country, calling on them to advance the work on coordinating the prevention and control of the Covid-19 virus, along with economic and social development. Mr. Xi has sent mixed messages, calling on leaders to stop at nothing to contain the virus while also urging them to ensure growth remains robust. Yesterday, Mr. Xi called on authorities to help farmers cross road barricades to return to rice paddies for “an all-out effort to secure a bumper summer grain harvest.” If the spring farming season is missed, China’s food security would be at risk. Tthe economy is fast weakening. Factories remain idle, and consumption and investment have plunged. Average coal consumption at major power companies was about 40% lower from a year earlier in the week through Feb. 25. Demand for steel was around 50% its normal rate in the past three years. Third of the people who left cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen for the Chinese Lunar New Year in late January and early February have returned. By this time last year, nearly all had. Migrant laborers make up about 40% of China’s workforce. Some analysts are predicting zero or even negative Chinese growth in the first quarter. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)
February 25, 2020 China reported 508 new cases and another 71 deaths, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan. The updates bring mainland China’s totals to 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths. The World Health Organization said yesterday the fatality rate was between 2% and 4% in Wuhan and 0.7% elsewhere in China. February 24, 2020 China reported 409 new cases of the illness today. It also announced 150 new deaths for a 2,592 total. More than 3,000 medical workers had been infected, the majority of them in Wuhan. (Source: AP)
February 24, 2020 The number of deaths in mainland China stands at 2,592, while 77,345 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the country. (Source: IrishExaminer)
24.02.2020 China decided to postpone the annual meeting of its parliament, due in March, for the first time since the Cultural Revolution. The new date for the parliament meetings, which usually last for 10 days, would be set later. (Source: SputnikNews)
February 24, 2020 Chinese police are at the forefront of the Chinese regime’s efforts to maintain the official narrative about the outbreak. As of Feb. 21, as many as 120,000 police officers have been stationed at all of the country’s designated hospitals for treating coronavirus patients. The police stands guard round the clock to protect doctors at the facilities, because of some emotional coronavirus patients and their relatives who may attack medical workers when they feel exasperated. Hubei alone has mobilized roughly 40,000 police amid the outbreak. The police force are assigned to 244 designated hospitals, 678 fever clinics, and 1,958 quarantine sites. They have arrested 84 people over outbreak-related criminal offenses, placed 39 people under home surveillance, detained 1,344 without trial, and issued other forms of punishment for 2,525 others. Hundreds of police officers at the center of the epidemic in Hubei Province have been infected with the virus. A doocument, dated Feb. 21, details how officials in Hubei are trying to cope with the crisis. The tally includes 61 retired officers and 381 officers’ family members who were infected. Another 277 officers are suspected to have the virus. At least four officers have died.. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, has been recruiting police forces from other cities. The move either indicates that Wuhan’s police force was severely reduced due to infections, or that there is a growing need to maintain power and stability. The province has also hired over 1,600 censors to erase “sensitive” information about the virus on the internet. The Feb. 21 internal document revealed that censors have deleted 3,248 “sensitive” or “harmful” posts and issued 199,000 “positive” posts about the authorities. Meanwhile, the police have identified 610 cases of “rumors” and reprimanded 601 people involved. (Source: TheEpochTimes)
February 22, 2020 The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China rose to 76,288, with the death toll at 2,345. An elderly man took 27 days to show symptoms after infection, almost twice the presumed 14-day incubation period. A woman from Wuhan had traveled 675 km and infected five relatives without showing signs of infection, offering new evidence of asymptomatical spreading. State television today showed the arrival in Wuhan of the “blue whale”, the first of seven river cruise ships it is bringing in to house medical workers, tens of thousands of which have been sent to Hubei to contain the virus. (Source: Reuters)
February 22, 2020 China has unleashed a plague on its own people. The human cost will be high. At an emergency meeting in Beijing held on February 14, Chinese leader Xi spoke about the need to contain the coronavirus and set up a system to prevent similar epidemics in the future. A national system to control biosecurity risks must be put in place “to protect the people’s health,” Xi said, because lab safety is a “national security” issue. Xi didn’t actually admit that the coronavirus now devastating large swathes of China had escaped from one of the country’s bioresearch labs. But the very next day, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology released a new directive entitled: “Instructions on strengthening biosecurity management in microbiology labs that handle advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus.” And just how many “microbiology labs” are there in China that handle “advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus”? It turns out that in all of China there is only one. And this one is located in the Chinese city of Wuhan. China’s only Level 4 microbiology lab that is equipped to handle deadly coronaviruses, called the National Biosafety Laboratory, is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, one of only two bioweapons research labs in all of China. Add to this China’s history of similar incidents. Even the deadly SARS virus has escaped - twice - from the Beijing lab where it was - and probably is - being used in experiments. Some Chinese researchers are in the habit of selling their laboratory animals to street vendors after they have finished experimenting on them. Instead of properly disposing of infected animals by cremation, as the law requires, they sell them on the side to make a little extra cash. Or, in some cases, a lot of extra cash. One Beijing researcher, now in jail, made a million dollars selling his monkeys and rats on the live animal market, where they eventually wound up in someone’s stomach. (Source: TheNewYorkPost)
February 21, 2020 Clinical course and outcomes of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a single-centered, retrospective, observational study. Of 710 patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, 52 critically ill adult patients were included. The mean age of the 52 patients was 59·7 years, 35 were men, 21 had chronic illness, 51 had fever. 32 patients had died at 28 days, and the median duration from admission to the intensive care unit to death was 7 days for non-survivors. Compared with survivors, non-survivors were older (64·6 years vs 51·9 years, more likely to develop ARDS (26 patients vs 9 patients), and more likely to receive mechanical ventilation (30 patients vs 7 patients), either invasively or non-invasively. Most patients had organ function damage, including 35 with ARDS, 15 with acute kidney injury, 12 with cardiac injury, 15 with liver dysfunction, and one with pneumothorax. 37 patients required mechanical ventilation. Hospital-acquired infection occurred in seven patients. Interpretation: The mortality of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia is considerable. The survival time of the non-survivors is likely to be within 1–2 weeks after ICU admission. Older patients (>65 years) with comorbidities and ARDS are at increased risk of death. The severity of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia poses great strain on critical care resources in hospitals, especially if they are not adequately staffed or resourced. (Source: TheLancet)
21 Feb 2020 Members of China's Uighur minority living in exile have also warned of the risk of the coronavirus spreading in internment camps, where rights groups say more than one million people have been rounded up by authorities. (Source: NationalHeraldIndia)
Feb 21, 2020 Reporting on an epidemic under China’s watchful eye. It is difficult to imagine any other nation being able to control the movements of so many people. And it is clear the controls are generating fear and paranoia. Never before has a nation tried to put so many people - more than 60 million - under full-time quarantine. Hundreds of millions more are being discouraged from leaving their homes. Others are being tracked by China’s leviathan surveillance system, which uses facial recognition and other technologies to monitor people’s movements. Checkpoints have been set up to keep people from driving freely in and out of towns or leaving their apartment complexes. Neighborhood-watch captains are keeping tabs on residents everywhere. Some drugstores have been required to report sales of fever and cough medicine to track down potential patients. In Sanghai, if you were returning from Wuhan for you would told to remain in your apartment for 14 days as a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus. Each day, the chief of his building’s Communist Party neighborhood committee - the front line to enforcing policies such as fire regulations and trash separation stopped by or sent an underling. Other visitors came by in goggles and hazmat suits. A woman in surgical garb and gloves, instructed you to put his signature on a form promising to remain housebound. How they knew where you had been? (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)
February 21, 2020 Even during an epidemic, medical staff need to protect themselves firs. State broadcaster CCTV last week described a nurse who was in her last month of pregnancy as “a great mother and angel in a white gown” because she had continued to work in the emergency ward of a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in central China. She said she wanted to share the burden. But the report triggered outrage online, as social media users raised concern about a heavily pregnant nurse working in a highly contagious and difficult environment. The video clip was later removed from CCTV’s website. This month, reports of female nurses having their heads shaved before joining a medical support team heading to Wuhan also prompted a wave of anger. (Source: InkStoneNews)
21 Feb 2020 Coronavirus: China prisons report 500 cases across three provinces. This includes 230 inmates at Wuhan’s Women’s Prison, where the director was sacked. Another doctor, 29 year old Peng in Wuhan working in respiratory and critical care died from the virus. Peng had contracted the virus and was admitted to hospital on 25 January, where his condition worsened by the 30th. The total numbers of infections stands at 75,685. Total deaths from the outbreak: 2,236. (Source: TheGuardian)
India
26 February 2020 Delhi protests: India's worst religious violence in decades. The death toll has risen to more than 20, as Muslims fled from their homes and several mosques in the capital burned after being attacked by Hindu rioters.(Source: BBC)
25 February 2020 U.S. President Trump got a warm welcome from Indian Prime Minister Modi to kick off a whirlwind 36-hour tour. Trump said the two countries will sign deals today to sell military helicopters worth $3 billion and that the United States must become the premier defence partner of India, which relied on Russian equipment during the Cold War. Reuters reported earlier that India has cleared the purchase of 24 helicopters from Lockheed Martin worth $2.6 billion. (Source: scoop.nz)
Iran
27th February 2020 Ebtekar, regarded as the most powerful woman in Iranian politics, was said to have contracted the infection this week. Her case was said to be mild and she has not been admitted to a hospital. Iran's former ambassador to the Vatican, Khosroshahi, died of coronavirus. Earlier today the head of Iran's parliamentary security and foreign relations commission, Zonnour, announced he had also tested positive for the virus. This week the country's Deputy Health Minister, Harirchi, plus two MPs said they had been infected and were under quarantine. (Source: DailyMail)
26 February 2020 The Iranian government today said 19 people have died so far and 139 people have been infected, but the true number is expected to be much higher. Iranian President Rouhani says there are no plans to quarantine entire cities and towns. The most revered, the Hazrat Masumeh shrine, is visited by millions of Shia Muslim pilgrims every year from all over the world. People have been advised to avoid unnecessary gatherings, and asked not to travel to Qom, but there is no outright closure of religious sites in the city. Friday prayers have not been cancelled. Police in Tehran have banned the use of shisha water pipes in coffee shops and tea houses across the city. In affected provinces schools and universities have been closed and sports matches, gallery openings and film premieres cancelled. Iranian police have arrested 24 people accused of spreading rumours about the coronavirus online. A further 118 internet users were "talked to and let go" with warnings, the head of Iran's cyberpolice force Majid said. The WHO is supplying Iran with diagnostic kits and protective equipment for healthcare workers. Many Iranians are worried about a lack of equipment. An Iranian medical importer has said he is unable to purchase testing kits due to US-imposed sanctions. Iran says companies find it difficult to process payments with banks unwilling to risk breaking US rules and risk sanctions themselves. Iranians have been queuing up at pharmacies to purchase medical masks as well as disinfectant gels and sprays. Prices of these products, where they're available at all, have gone up by as much as 10 times. Iran donated three million face masks to China as sign of long-term and traditional friendship between two countries. The Iranian government has now said it has banned the export of face masks for three months and ordered factories to ramp up production. Iran has not banned foreign travel but countries including neighbouring Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq, have closed their borders. Turkey and United Arab Emirates have suspended flights from Iran. The Iranian government said flights to China were suspended on 2 February. However, flight records suggest there have been at least nine flights between Iran and China since then. (Source: BBC)
February 24, 2020 Farhani, who represents Qom as a member of Iran’s parliament announced today that 50 people had died from the new coronavirus in the city of Qom and accused Iran’s Health Ministry of covering up the true extent of the outbreak in the country. He also claims health care workers in the country aren’t equipped with the proper equipment to fight the outbreak. No adequate equipment is available and preventative packages have not reached the people and in some pharmacies there are no masks, he said. The Health Ministry claims just 12 people have died in Iran from COVID-19, with 66 people sick from the disease. The official numbers in Iran were up from a total of 8 deaths and 43 illnesses reported yesterday. Four new countries announced their first cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, including Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and Kuwait - all with links to Iran. (Source: Gizmodo)
February 23, 2020 The latest three deaths Iran reported today were among 15 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus, bringing the overall number of infections to 43 and fatalities to eight. The Supreme Leader accused foreign media of trying to use the outbreak to sabotage a general election. A low turnout had been widely forecast, as a conservative-dominated electoral watchdog disqualified about half the 16,000-odd candidates, mostly moderates and reformists. Four new infections surfaced in the capital Tehran, seven in the holy city of Qom, two in Gilan and one each in Markazi and Tonekabon. Authorities have ordered the closure of schools, universities and other educational centres in 14 provinces across Iran. Art events, concerts and film shows have been banned for a week. In every city, one hospital will be dedicated to treating coronavirus cases. This number would be greater in bigger cities like the capital. Tehran’s city hall has ordered the closure of snack shops and water fountains in metro stations. In Theran buses and underground trains were being disinfected. Iran's conservatives look set for a landslide win in the 290-seat parliament. Rouhani's slender majority of reformists and moderates elected with fanfare four years ago is nearly purged. (Source: TheHindu)
February 21, 2020 Iran discovered 18 cases and four deaths in two days - and that a traveler from Iran carried the virus to Lebanon, and another traveler from Iran to Canada. (Source: AP)
February 21, 2020 Iranians begin voting in parliamentary election. There are some 58 million Iranians eligible to vote for the country's 290-seat parliament. (Source: YeriSafak)
February 21, 2020 Iran reports 2 more deaths from the new virus that emerged in China, says they were from among 13 new confirmed cases. (Source: AP)
February 21, 2020 Chief adviser to Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Balali, yesterday claimed that as many as 120 US soldiers were killed in air strikes launched by the IRGC on the Ain Al-Assad military base in Iraq last month. On 8 January, Iran launched a missile attack on two military bases in Iraq, including Ain Al-Assad, which has about 1,500 US soldiers. The US maintains that none of its troops were killed in the attack but over 100 suffered brain injuries. (Source: MiddleEastMonitor)
Israel
February 25, 2020 A Korean Air flight attendant who recently visited Israel and the United States has tested positive for COVID-19. The cabin crew member flew to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv aboard the flight that brought some 200 Korean pilgrims to Israel, many of whom were later confirmed to have the virus. After leaving Israel on February 16, the flight attendant then flew to Los Angeles and back to Seoul’s Incheon Airport on February 21, before being diagnosed with coronavirus and entering quarantine. (Source: TheTimesofIsrael)
Feb 22, 2020 Nine tourists, South Korean pilgrims who had toured some of the holy land's most popular sites were later found to be carrying the virus. They were tested positive for coronavirus after returning to South Korea. Earlier this month they visited holy sites including Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Cave of the Patriarchs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Source: Reuters)
Saudi Arabia
February 28, 2020 Demonstration of values: when workers come to Saudi Arabia, they have to travel by the dangerous waters and through war-torn Yemen; when they get deported, they are flown home by aircraft. At Obock, Djibouti, 2,000 migrants gather each day along the waters of the Gulf of Aden; they look for boats to get them to Yemen. Of those who use the Eastern Route to migrate, over 90 percent come from Ethiopia, and most of them from the rural districts of Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray, districts which face terrible food insecurity and that there is a high level of food energy deficiency per adult. Roughly 11,500 people got on boats at places like Obock and Bosasso, Somalia, to go into Yemen, and then overland to Saudi Arabia, where they hope to get employment. Over the past two years, more migrants from Africa have used the “Eastern Route” rather than go across the Mediterranean Sea. Djibouti, at the tip of the Horn of Africa, within sight of Yemen, one of the smallest countries in the world is located at a strategic vantage, at the entrance of the Red Sea. It has been home to a very large United States military base and there are substantial bases for the militaries of China, France, Italy, and Japan. India and Saudi Arabia are building their own bases in Djibouti, with the Saudis even looking at Obock for land. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is prosecuting the war in Yemen with Saudi Arabia, already has military bases in Eritrea, Somaliland, and Somalia. In such a small country, through Djibouti, there is no effective way to prevent the migration of thousands of Ethiopians to Yemen. Neither the ports nor the waters are barriers to this human exodus. The Saudi-UAE war on Yemen has been going on for five years. Only since January, 35,000 Yemenis have been displaced from their homes. It is into this cauldron that the Ethiopian migrants come and are held in detention camps, where they are abused by human traffickers and by other gangsters. Migrants in these camps, including in Aden, face extortion - if they cannot pay the guards, they are beaten, raped, and held indefinitely. When the spotlight is shone on any one of these camps, it closes and another opens.elsewhere. If the migrants somehow make it to Saudi Arabia, the terror continues. Smugglers take the migrants into Saudi Arabia’s Jizan Province; often the migrants are made to carry qat (a stimulant grown in Eastern Africa) across the border. They are often shot at by Saudi border guards and - if caught - are either ransomed or held in places such as Jizan Central Prison (which might as well be a detention camp). Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia have a strangely symbiotic relationship. Ethiopia has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the world (after Myanmar and China). Saudi Arabia relies upon at least 400,000 Ethiopian workers, who come to do a variety of jobs in the kingdom. But, every few years, Saudi Arabia deports these workers. In 2013, the Saudi government removed 100,000 Ethiopian workers; they were deemed to be “illegal,” arrested, and removed in chartered flights. Then, slowly, Ethiopian workers returned, now with lower wages and almost no rights. In March 2017, Saudi Arabia deported 260,000 Ethiopians. Ethiopia conducted agreements with Saudi Arabia (2017) and the UAE (2018) to ensure protections for their citizens, but there is little evidence that this is helping. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been putting billions of dollars into the National Bank of Ethiopia and into its government, part of the foreign direct investment (FDI) that has heated up the Ethiopian economy. Given this money, it is impossible to imagine the government of Ethiopia standing up for its citizens in the Gulf. No plans are afoot inside Ethiopia to be able to generate employment to hold the population in place, and there are certainly no plans in Saudi Arabia to improve the conditions of its workers. (Source: CounterPunch)
27 February 2020 Saudi Arabia haled travel to Islam’s holiest sites over coronavirus. The Iranian example illustrates how a religious crossroads can so quickly amplify the spread and reach of the virus, where 19 people have died among 139 confirmed cases. The decision stops foreigners from reaching Mecca and the Kaaba, as well as Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina just months ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage, a move coming as the Mideast has over 220 confirmed cases of the illness. A cholera outbreak in 1865 killed 15,000 pilgrims and then spread worldwide. More recently, Saudi Arabia faced a danger from a related coronavirus that caused Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. The kingdom increased its public health measures in 2012 and 2013, though no outbreak occurred. (Source: TheTimesofIsrael)
South Korea
February 29, 2020 South Korea reported 813 new cases of coronavirus today, the infected are total up to 3,150 - the highest number outside of China. 657 of the new cases were from Daegu city. 17 people have died from coronavirus in South Korea so far. Health authorities have run tests on more than 210,000 members and 65,000 trainees of the Shincheonji church of which 3,300 have shown symptoms such as fever so far. (Source: BusinessInsider)
February 26, 2020 Coronavirus outbreak inside two S. Korean medical facilities highlights vulnerability of disabled patients. 11 of 30 residents of the Grain of Wheat Love House private care center for the disabled in North Gyeongsang province have contracted COVID-19. An additional 10 employees, half of whom also have a disability, also tested positive for the pneumonia-like virus. The facility's remaining residents and staff have been quarantined inside the facility, which has undergone disinfection. The Korea Center for Disease Control (KCDC) said by midday today that more than 1000 people have been infected with COVID-19 and that seven of the country’s 12 -deaths attributed to the illness originated at the Daenam Hospital. If a patient has a chronic mental health condition, like depression or schizophrenia, social norms can deteriorate and they might not take care of their hygiene. Rooms in South Korean hospitals often sleep up to six patients as well as their caregivers - increasing the potential spread of a virus among people who are already sick. And psychiatric facilities don't always receive the same resources given to other hospital departments. Mental health wards don't make a lot of money for the hospital, In response to the coronavirus outbreak at the Daenam Hospital, Seoul’s Ministry of Health says it will test patience at around 420 other mental health clinics across the country. The South Korean disability news site Be Minor reported this week that the deaf are unable to call the KCDC hotline since it does not offer a video service that would allow communication by signing, adding that for the same reason, over the phone consultations with doctors are also inaccessible. People who are hard of hearing can still send text messages or chat through the KakaoTalk app with healthcare officials, but this service is only available during business hours Monday through Friday. (Source: VoANews)
26 February 2020 Over 60 percent of people infected with the virus in South Korea are members of the Shincheonji group residing in Daegu city. Some group members are in quarantaine in Wuhan itself. The group has been active in China, where Christian groups that are not officially registered with Beijing’s Religious Affairs Bureau are illegal. “Shincheonji has an underground secret organization in China,” in Wuhan, Beijing and several other cities, according to Noh.of the World Council of Churches, who implies that the group has ties with the current opposition parties and wants to impeach current President Moon..After days of mounting public anger, the group did hand over a list of 212,000 members, according to the government, but Noh believes the actual number may be closer to 300,000. “It may be very difficult for the police to find the real number,” he says. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, which first reported the Shincheonji –Wuhan story, says the group heard “rumours of a virus circulating” in late November, but “no one took them seriously”. (Source: RFi.fr)
February 24, 2020 The total number of new cases raised to 763, with 8,725 people undergoing diagnostic testing. Seven South Koreans infected with the virus, called COVID-19, have died. The country of 51 million people now has the highest number of coronavirus cases outside mainland China. South Koreans are called on to limit any outdoor activities and refrain from inter-city travel. It is growing the sense of fear that, with each of the past several days bringing a sharp increase in the number of cases, the outbreak of COVID-19 may be reaching epidemic levels, with the government having missed the opportunity to contain it. On the streets of South Korean cities, the scent of disinfectant hangs in the air. Nearly all stairwells, subway stations and coffee shops now make hand sanitizer available at entrances. More than half of South Korea’s coronavirus cases are linked to Shincheonji members, and more 9,000 members are in quarantine. Shincheonji members hide who they are so that their friends and even their family members do not know they belong to the church. Now the government is unable to contact hundreds of Shincheonji members who attended the Daegu church. It might be painful and difficult to disclose they are Shincheonji members because that means they lied to their loved ones so that there is a possibility they could stay in danger of infection, which is the most scary scenario. Much of criticism has honed in on the government’s decision to not ban all Chinese nationals from entering South Korea. A petition to do just that on the website of the presidential office currently has more than 760,000 signatures. It calls on the South Korean government to follow the example of North Korea and seal off its borders. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, and some critics have accused Moon of failing to protect public health due to fears that a comprehensive entry ban would displease the Chinese government. By contrast, Taiwan has banned nearly all travelers from mainland China, while Hong Kong has suspended most border crossings with the mainland. President Moon raised South Korea’s public alert to its highest level. (Source: Time)
23/02/2020 South Korea has raised its coronavirus alert to the "highest level" following a sharp jump in new cases. The countrywide fatality toll is five. The number of infections has nearly tripled over the weekend to 602. More than 1,240 have reported symptoms. (Source: RFi)
February 21, 2020 Two people have died and 204 have been infected with the virus, quadruple the number of cases it had two days earlier. South Korea Prime Minister Chung started a government meeting on the health emergency by saying, “We have entered an emergency phase.” Chung promised support to ease a shortage in hospital beds, medical personnel and equipment for Daegu city. The city and its surrounding areas had 152 infected and 2 casualties. The central government declared a “special management zone” around Daegu, which didn’t restrict movement of residents or supersede local officials’ power but served as official recognition of the problem. All 74 sites operated by the Shincheonji Church have been closed and worshipers have been told to instead watch services online for a sect whose leader claims to be an angel of Christ. Its teachings revolve largely around the Book of Revelation, a chapter of the New Testament known mostly for its apocalyptic foreshadowing. Most of those cases have been linked to a single house of worship, a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, where a woman in her 60s attended two services before testing positive for the virus. The woman eyed as a potential transmitter at the church had contact with some 1,160 people, both at the church and at a restaurant and a hospital where she was treated for injuries from a car accident. Daegu was nearly deserted today as people wearing face masks lined up at clinics seeking testing. Crowds formed in supermarkets where shelves of ramen and curry were nearly bare. Eight hundred area schools, due to start a new academic year on March 2, delayed their openings by a week. Elsewhere in the country, angst grew too. In Seoul fears of the virus led many to avoid shops and restaurants and instead eat at home and order necessities online. Buses and subways were full of mask-clad commuters. The first three cases in the country’s 600,000-member military also sprung up on separate bases today. /see also: Spreadsheet: Where the new coronavirus has spread (Source: AP): https://tinyurl.com/vqrqwwx
Thailand
25 February 2020 Thailand's popular, anti-government graffiti artist Headache Stencil wrote racist rants about Chinese infected with the coronavirus, "Hey Chink! Please go back to ur shit-eating country. Our government need ur money to keep their power but you all not welcome for us now, he wrote on his Twitter site on January 26. He claimed, without evidence, that infected Chinese were coming to Bangkok because Thailand's hospitals were better than China's medical care - and endangering the lives of Thais. (Source: Scoop.nz)
Turkey
29. 02. 2020 Greek police have clashed with migrants on the Turkish border where as many as 4,000 migrants attempted to cross into the EU. Greek police fired tear gas at migrants who amassed at a border crossing in the Turkish state of Edirne. There were also reports of stones being hurled by refugees at the officers. Greek border police have been frequently firing pepper/tear gas to hold people back. One Afghan man said "I don't know why they're doing this. We came here to make a new life, but they won't let us enter." (Source: DW)
February 28, 2020 Ankara will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe. Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials had been ordered to stand down on refugees’ land and sea crossings towards Europe in anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib. At around midnight around 300 migrants, including women and children in the group began heading towards the borders between two European Union countries - Greece and Bulgaria - and Turkey’s Edirne province. Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were among those in the group. Migrants had also gathered on the western Turkish coastal district of Ayvacik in Canakkale province with the aim of travelling by boat to Greece’s Lesbos island. Migrants tried to cross the Kapikule border into Bulgaria, but were not allowed through. The same group of migrants had then walked through fields to reach the Pazarkule border crossing into Greece. Turkish President Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates for migrants to travel to Europe. Some one million civilians have been displaced in Syria near the Turkish border since December as Russian-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. (Source: Reuters)
February 28, 2020 A new wave of refugees and migrants headed for the Greek land and sea border after Turkey said it would no longer hold them back. Greece and Bulgaria increased security at their borders with Turkey in preparation for an influx as hundreds boarded buses in Istanbul, apparently headed for the Greek border or the Turkish coast opposite the Greek islands. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted that no illegal crossings would be tolerated and that Greece was not to blame for the “tragic events in Syria.”. Police and military border patrols were deployed on the Greek side. At one point, Greek police used tear gas and flash grenades to move the crowds back after an estimated 450 people massed at the Turkish side of the Kastanies border. Off Turkey’s west coast, several rubber dinghies with groups of people aboard headed for the island of Lesbos. Five boats carrying a total of 151 people had arrived. Bulgaria was deploying “army units, national guard and border police staff to its border with Turkey to counter “a real threat” of an influx, Prime Minister Borissov said. The crisis stems from a Syrian government offensive that began Dec. 1 with Russian military support to retake Idlib province in northwestern Syria. Turkey, the main backer of the Syrian opposition, has lost 54 soldiers this month. Turkey’s 28 NATO allies expressed their condolences over the deaths and urged deescalation today, but no additional NATO support was offered. Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees. The Turkish stock market fell 10%, today. Two Russian frigates armed with cruise missiles were en route to the Syrian coast. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Turkish troops that came under fire were deployed among “terrorist battle formations.” , there were no Turkish military units in the area ... and there weren’t supposed to be. In recent weeks, Turkey has sent thousands of troops as well as tanks and other equipment to Idlib. As recently as February 26, Erdogan gave the Syrian government until the end of February to pull back from its recent advances or face Turkish “intervention.” The offensive has triggered the largest single wave of displacement in Syria’s nine-year war, sending nearly 950,000 people fleeing to areas near the Turkish border for safety. Ankara sealed its borders in 2015 and agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees under a 2016 deal with the European Union. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said Turkey was trying to back insurgents who had lost more than 130 villages over the past weeks. It said Syrian troops will continue their mission to eradicate all “terrorist presence.” Russia and Syrian President Assad have said Turkey has failed to honor a deal to separate extremist groups from other fighters in the region. (Source: AP)
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