An ARCHIVE of updates from the CORONAVIRUS outbreak in Croatia and worldwide. The virus originated in Wuhan City, China.
*Follow this page for updates from Total Croatia News on the coronavirus in Croatia. Contact numbers for epidemiologists, travel advisories and measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus can be found here.
*ARCHIVE OF UPDATES WHICH BEGAN JANUARY 27, 2020 AND ENDS HERE ON MARCH 1, 2020. UPDATES CONTINUE HERE BEGINNING MARCH 2, 2020.
18:40 – As of March 1, 2020; seven Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients have been reported in Croatia: 4 in Rijeka and 3 in Zagreb.
The first infected person is a Croatian citizen from Zagreb who became infected during his stay in Italy (Milan, Lombardy province). The two patients from Zagreb are close contacts of the first patient. A third patient from Rijeka became infected during a stay in Italy (Parma). The three other patients from Rijeka are close contacts of the third patient.
17:40 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
86,992 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
79,826 Mainland China
3,526 South Korea
1,128 Italy
705 Others
593 Iran
241 Japan
102 Singapore
100 France
96 Hong Kong
79 Germany
71 US
58 Spain
45 Kuwait
42 Thailand
41 Bahrain
40 Taiwan
29 Malaysia
25 Australia
23 UK
21 Switzerland
21 United Arab Emirates
20 Canada
16 Vietnam
15 Norway
13 Iraq
12 Sweden
10 Macau
9 Austria
7 Israel
7 Croatia
6 Oman
6 Netherlands
4 Pakistan
4 Mexico
4 Lebanon
4 Greece
3 India
3 Denmark
3 Philippines
3 Finland
3 Romania
3 Azerbaijan
2 Belgium
2 Russia
2 Brazil
1 Afghanistan
1 Qatar
1 Nepal
1 Lithuania
1 Cambodia
1 Georgia
1 Ireland
1 Nigeria
1 Ecuador
1 Algeria
1 Iceland
1 San Marino
1 North Macedonia
1 Luxembourg
1 Monaco
1 Belarus
1 New Zealand
1 Estonia
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
7,166 Total Cases Outside of China
2,979 Total Deaths
42,606 Total Recovered
17:30 – South Korean Christian sect leader Lee Man-hee could be charged with murder for spreading the coronavirus. It is suspected that they were hiding the names of infected church members, who officials tried to find before the virus spread. Read more about the sect HERE.
16:59 – First Cases in Czech Republic
It has been confirmed that three people have been infected with the coronavirus in the Czech Republic. All three were in Italy and have mild symptoms of the disease.
16:41 – Marathon Without Spectators Held in Tokyo
Ethiopian athlete Birhanu Legese wins the Tokyo Marathon, which will go down in history by a minimum number of spectators and participants for fear of the spread of coronavirus.
14:13 – In Germany, the Number of Infected People Doubled
The German Robert Koch Institute announced on Sunday morning that the number of newborns in Germany had doubled from 66 to 117 cases.
And Finland reported a fifth case of coronavirus infection on Sunday. The newly infected are one schoolboy and one pensioner. Both were in close contact with an infected woman who had come from Italy.
So far, 13 cases have been registered in neighboring Sweden, 15 in Norway and 3 in Denmark.
14:00 – The Louvre is Closed
Art lovers stayed at the door of the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, as staff decided to hold a meeting about the coronavirus. Long lines of disgruntled tourists huddled in front of the museum, which houses some of the world’s masterpieces of art, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Venus Milska’s sculptures.
A spokeswoman for the Louvre said a visitor museum was expected to open after a meeting of board members, staff and a museum doctor. She added that staff had not yet received an official order from the authorities to close the museum, but from yesterday until further notice in France, all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people were banned.
The government issued the provision on Saturday, seeking to influence the spread of the virus. As of Saturday night, a hundred cases of infection have been confirmed in France.
13:30 – First Coronavirus Case in Luxembourg
Luxembourg is the latest in a number of European countries to confirm the first case of a new coronavirus. The 40-year-old arrived home from Italy via Charleroi Belgian Airport earlier this week, Luxembourg Health Minister Paulette Lenert said, adding that the man is recovering well.
12:55 – Italian media reports that another coronavirus person has died in the Piacenza area. The area has 296 infected and is currently the most affected area in Italy by coronavirus. The deceased had numerous health problems.
12:01 – A rave party has been organized in the “yellow area” of Cremona, Italian Ansa reports. It says a police gathering of 300 young people from northern Italy gathered at the party. So far there are no problems, but the question is health security.
11:58 – 18 confirmed dead in South Korea.
11:50 – Greece has confirmed three new infected people, so there are now seven people infected with the coronavirus in that country.
11:30 – Washington, DC Health care workers are investigating a possible outbreak of coronavirus in a nursing home in Kirkland, northeast Seattle, where two people tested for the virus are positive. >>> More
11:00 – NASA and European Space Agency satellites monitoring pollution have registered significant reductions in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution over China. NASA notes that this change is at least partly related to the economic slowdown caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. >>> More
10:30 – Big Case Reduction in South Korea
Seoul reported that 376 new cases were reported on Sunday, a large decrease from the record Saturday when 813 cases were reported, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported. However, there are no new deaths in the country with the second highest number of infected, in which 17 people have died so far. The most infected, 333 of them, are from the southeastern city of Daegu, where the coronavirus spread in Shincheonji Church, Jesus Church. Reuters reports that several believers from that sect resided in Wuhan, where the sect’s community exists, in January, but it has not yet been confirmed that it contributed to the spread of the virus.
Healthcare institutions urged South Koreans not to attend masses and political gatherings and stay in their homes for the weekend, warning that a “critical moment” had been fought against the virus.
Authorities have deterred a dozen believers who planned to enter the Pentecostal Yoido Full Gospel Church, where a mass of about 560,000 YouTube followers was filmed.
There was a smaller orchestra of 60 people at the mass, although the orchestra had 200 members.
In Yongsan, central Seoul, believers from the Samil Presbyterian Church were informed that all gatherings had been canceled and the parking was closed.
10:00 – America Extends Restrictions
Washington on Saturday announced the extension of travel restrictions to Iran, Italy and South Korea after the first death in the United States.
Vice President Mike Pence said the current ban on travel to Iran, where 600 people were infected and 43 died, had been extended to foreign nationals who had been in Iran in the past two weeks.
Pence also urged US citizens not to travel to the affected areas of Italy and South Korea.
The first case of coronavirus infection was reported Sunday in Armenia, Reuters reports.
This is a twenty-nine-year-old who returned to Armenia from Iran on Friday.
Armenia closed its border with Iran for two weeks and suspended air traffic a week ago.
9:30 – First Death in Thailand
In Thailand, however, the first person has died from the coronavirus – a thirty-five-year-old who also had dengue fever, said Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoen, head of the Disease Control Division at a news conference Sunday.
A total of 42 people have been infected with coronavirus in Thailand since January of whom 30 were released from the hospital.
8:30 – On March 1, 2020; another confirmed coronavirus case was reported at the Infectious Diseases Clinic “Dr. Fran Mihaljević” in Zagreb, which means that seven patients have been confirmed so far in Croatia. This person is a close contact of one of the cases from Rijeka.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 29, 2020. UPDATES HAVE RESUMED BEGINNING MARCH 1, 2020:
21:07 – TIGER Ye, 21, lives in Wuhan, and began showing symptoms of coronavirus infection in mid-January. He told The Guardian that he had been living with the infection for three weeks. MORE
20:56 – Iraq has discovered five new cases of coronavirus, the health ministry announced, bringing the total number of patients in the country to 13. On Wednesday, Iraq banned public gatherings and the entry of workers from Kuwait and Bahrain and banned travel to and from nine countries. Iraq has cultural and religious ties to Iran, one of the most affected countries by the epidemic besides China.
All 13 coronavirus cases are linked to Iran, the health ministry said. The first case discovered was an Iranian student who was sent back and the other 12 were Iraqis who were in Iran.
20:08 – As Donald Trump revealed at a press conference, the first coronavirus victim in America is a woman in her late 50s who was seriously ill.
CNN reports that one person died in King County, Washigton, as a result of a coronavirus infection. No further details have been released, it will be announced at a press conference which will be around 10pm our time.
18:57 – There are no general bans on public gatherings in Croatia, given the epidemiological situation, but from the Civil Protection Headquarters they again appealed to those who were in the areas covered by the new coronavirus not to attend public meetings in the interest of public health .
The appeal concerns persons who have been to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Iran and the Italian provinces of Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Piedmont. >>> More
18:45 – It has been officially confirmed that 29 people died from coronavirus infection in Italy and a total of 1,128 cases were reported. 50 people have recovered. In some parts of Italy, schools are opening. The head of the civil protection agency reported this.
Eight more have died today as a result of a coronavirus infection, according to the Italian Civil Protection Agency, bringing the total death toll to 29.
The total number of Covid-19 positives has increased by 240 in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports.
18:15 – Trump has announced a press conference on coronavirus.
✔
@realDonaldTrump
I will be having a 1:30 P.M. Press Conference at the White House to discuss the latest CoronaVirus developments. Thank you!
10:02 AM – 29 Feb 2020
18:13 – The first case of coronavirus infection has been confirmed in Northern Ireland. This is a person who was reported to be infected on Thursday and has now been confirmed by tests.
17:37 – So far 630 people have been tested in Scotland. There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus so far.
17:37 – The Paris Half Marathon is due to be held tomorrow. About 44,000 runners have applied for it.
16:18 – It was said at the headquarters press conference that it would be good to avoid handling. They also instructed merchants and citizens to clear POS devices after each use, by typing PINs.
16:12 – “1151 have received a decision from the border sanitary inspector to inspect, some are in self-isolation, some have a different vision. This is for people who travel by truck, for example, to Italy. further, and we will have nothing on the shelves of our stores. So those persons who pass to Italy on a daily basis, they are under surveillance,” said the head of the HZJZ.
16:08 – “The person is feeling well, has mild symptoms. There is no reason to worry. The remaining two positive coronavirus cases in Rijeka are also good,” said Alemka Markotic.
16:05 – “176 have been tested, two are still waiting. Another positive finding. It is a close contact of patients from Rijeka. So everything is under control. Increase from 200 patients in Italy, 20 patients in France, 19 in Germany… I thank all Croatian citizens who are in isolation and quarantine… 120 contacts and 1151 are part of a decision on surveillance,” Beros said.
16:05 – Bozinovic says at a press conference that everything is working as agreed.
16:00 – Vecernji list reports that another person is infected with coronavirus in Croatia, which is the sixth in total.
15:42 – Borgonovo Mayor Val Tidone and his deputy are coronavirus positive.
15:35 – Management of the Student Center in Zagreb confirmed to RTL that there is currently one student in self-isolation in the accommodation facilities of the Student Center in Zagreb based on the decision on preventive measures. Where the home is located has not been revealed.
15:09 – There are four infected children in Western Germany. All children attended a kindergarten in North Rhine-Westphalia, a federal state of Germany, severely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. The preschool center is attended by more than a hundred children. It is believed that the virus was brought to the center by a preschool teacher near the Dutch border in Heinsberg County who was infected with the virus. The children are recovering well, Heinsberg officials said.
And in Bonn, also located in North Rhine-Westphalia, a nursery has been closed for two weeks after it was confirmed that one of the employees had been infected with the virus. Now 185 kindergarten children are being tested for the virus, said the head of the city’s Department of Health.
Austrian authorities announced on Saturday that nine cases had already been confirmed in the country.
Denmark reported a third case of coronavirus in the country on Saturday, explaining that a man employed at Aarhus University Hospital was likely infected during a visit to Germany.
He worked at a clinic for skin and sexually transmitted diseases and attended a conference in Munich, where he contacted an Italian national who was found to be infected.
Finland also recorded three cases of infection. The most recent case is a woman visiting northern Italy, the epicenter of the European epidemic. She is currently in home isolation.
France’s health minister reported on Saturday that the number of confirmed cases in the country had risen to 73 and announced that all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people were banned in France.
Italian authorities have reported that coronavirus is canceling classes at all schools in Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia and Romagna for another seven days. A total of 21 people died in that country and 889 were infected.
14:46 – New information related to the situation in Croatia will be reported at the Crisis Headquarters at 16:00 CET. Follow the conference on Index.
14:11 – US west coast services report three unexplained coronavirus infections, BBC reports. Patients from three states, California, Oregon and Washington, have no connection to any of the hard hit countries. MORE
13:36 – A patient was hospitalized at Dubrovnik General Hospital this morning for potential suspected coronavirus and placed in isolation. According to Dubrovnik OB Director Marijo Bekic, this is a man who has recently been in the north of Italy, reports the Dubrovnik Herald.
13:10 – “Coronavirus impact results are already being seen and I am sure that the Croatian economy will have some impacts, and the scale is difficult to predict at this point,” said Economy Minister Darko Horvat visiting N1. MORE
“In the first two months, there are 2 million fewer arrivals of Chinese tourists to the EU,” the minister answered when asked about the impact of coronaviruses on tourism, adding that Croatian tourism would also suffer, but that it is difficult to predict at this point how much.
12:52 – A controversial quarantine ordered by Japan for a Diamond Princess cruiser has led to a high number of avoidable coronavirus infected, scientists said. MORE
12:29 – There are now more than 3,100 people in South Korea. As of yesterday, 219 were newly infected and now the number is 3150.
12:15 – Saudi Arabia has temporarily barred entry to nationals of Gulf Cooperation Council member countries where a coronavirus has emerged. Among them are the citizens of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
11:43 – Economic analyst Damir Novotny said that this is the first time we see such a strong impact of the epidemic on economic processes. “The impact on the stock markets will be short-term. In the real sector, two things will happen – the flow of goods on pre-internet time will slow down and the flow of tourists will slow down,” he told N1.
11:21 – Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Ali Ramazani Dastak has died of coronavirus disease, state news agency reported.
11:05 – In Italy, 889 people are infected, of which 64 are in critical condition. France recorded 20 new cases, Germany 19, Spain 16, and Switzerland there are 15 new cases.
11:03 – On Saturday, Montenegrin health authorities temporarily banned flights from Montenegro to northern Italy to prevent the spread of coronavirus. These are flights to Bologna and Milan, for which low-cost airlines WizzAir and Ryanair regularly fly from Podgorica airport.
10:33 – After ZET workers demanded that workers be protected from coronaviruses, an employer reaction followed. MORE
“Liquid soap dispensers and hand sanitizers are installed at all terminals, and at TP Dubrava our valuable cleaning workers from the tram service are performing disinfection of all trams returning from traffic and preparing for exit to traffic,” the drivers and traffic workers union wrote. ZET – Zagreb on Facebook.
10:13 – Another sick person in Austria is now infected with the coronavirus.
9:55 – South Korea advised citizens on Saturday not to leave their homes and was warned that it was a “critical time” in the midst of fighting coronavirus, after the biggest daily increase in 594 new cases was recorded.
South Korea, which now has 2,931 cases of infection, is battling the largest spread of the virus outside of China. The death toll climbed to 17.
>> This is the mysterious sect that caused the coronavirus to erupt in South Korea
“Please do not participate in public events this weekend, including religious gatherings and protests,” said Deputy Health Minister Kim Kang-lip.
It was a critical moment in curbing the spread of the virus, he noted, adding: “Please stay in the house, refrain from going out and keep your contacts with other people to a minimum.”
Of the new cases, 476 are from the southeastern city of Daegu, where the church from which the disease began to spread, and 60 from the neighboring North Gyeongsang Province, said the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
9:35 – Due to coronavirus, the Ministry of Demography, Youth, Family and Social Policy has recommended a ban on visits to nursing homes and orphanages. MORE
9:29 – Australia has warned its citizens not to travel to Japan.
9:23 – Hong Kong Stock Exchange is donating $1.128 million to fight coronavirus.
9:05 – There are 935 coronavirus patients in Japan, as many as 705 are from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
8:41 – South Korea has the largest increase in the number of people infected in a single day, as many as 594 new cases were confirmed yesterday.
8:28 – There are 38 new infections in Taiwan.
8:15 – Factory activity in China plummeted to an unprecedented rate in February, suggesting more damage to the world’s second-largest economy than had been expected, with Chinese authorities saying recovery should be swift if the coronavirus situation does not worsen. MORE
On Saturday, the Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) had dropped to a record low of 35.7 points in February, from 50 points in January.
This is well below the 50-point mark, which indicates activity growth or decline.
7:59 – US will use special legal authority to increase production of coronavirus masks, gloves, clothing and other protective equipment. MORE
And as more and more countries report new coronavirus infections, companies are limiting travel to employees, global financial markets are in freefall, and healthcare professionals are trying to curb the possibility of expanding infections in the US.
“If necessary, we will rely on the Defense Manufacturing Act to allow our contracts to take precedence. This is the authority we have and we will use it to get everything we need,” Azar said at a briefing at the White House.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters a day earlier that the administration of Republican President Donald Trump was considering using special legal powers to quickly increase production of key national security or similar materials.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the United States is still relatively low, at around 60, mostly US travelers returning from the Diamond Princess cruise line, but there is growing concern that the country is on the verge of a major spread of the infection.
Otherwise, funding for the US crisis has become a political issue. The White House has asked Congress for $2.5 billion for this purpose, and the Democratic leader in the Senate is seeking $8.5 billion. Democrat-controlled Congressional lower house will vote next week on emergency funding for economic and medical expenses in the event of an outbreak.
4:20 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
85,176 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
79,250 Mainland China
2,931 South Korea
889 Italy
705 Others
388 Iran
234 Japan
96 Singapore
94 Hong Kong
64 US
57 France
48 Germany
45 Kuwait
41 Thailand
38 Bahrain
34 Taiwan
32 Spain
25 Australia
23 Malaysia
20 UK
19 United Arab Emirates
16 Vietnam
15 Canada
11 Sweden
10 Macau
8 Switzerland
8 Iraq
7 Israel
6 Norway
6 Austria
5 Croatia
4 Oman
4 Lebanon
4 Greece
3 India
3 Philippines
3 Romania
2 Netherlands
2 Finland
2 Russia
2 Pakistan
2 Mexico
1 Afghanistan
1 Nepal
1 Lithuania
1 Cambodia
1 Georgia
1 North Ireland
1 Nigeria
1 Algeria
1 Iceland
1 Belgium
1 San Marino
1 Denmark
1 North Macedonia
1 Monaco
1 Belarus
1 New Zealand
1 Brazil
1 Estonia
1 Egypt
1 Azerbaijan
1 Sri Lanka
5,926 Total Cases Outside of China
2,919 Total Deaths
39,431 Total Recovered
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 28, 2020. UPDATES HAVE RESUMED BEGINNING FEBRUARY 29, 2020:
20:18 – “As far as the coronavirus is concerned, we have left nothing to chance and have been proactive since the virus first appeared in China. We have prepared our response system and are communicating with the public on a daily basis so that everyone has timely and accurate information,” Minister Bozinovic said in a guest appearance on Dnevnik Nova TV.
Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros | N1
19:10 – The civil protection headquarters has issued a new statement with advice for citizens:
Given the epidemiological situation in the Republic of Croatia, there are still no general prohibitions on public gatherings. However, the Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia urges all persons residing in the areas affected by the coronavirus (China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Iran, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Piedmont) public health do not come to these public gatherings.
The Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia has recommended to the Croatian network of hotels and caterers providing accommodation, food and beverage services that they adhere to the Coronavirus Protection Guidelines in the Hotel Industry issued by the European Association of Hotel and Caterers (HOTREC).
The State Inspectorate’s sanitary inspection is present at the most frequent border crossings of the Republic of Croatia for twenty-four hours.
Persons who are only in transit through the Republic of Croatia are not undergoing epidemiological surveillance in accordance with the HZJZ instructions.
The Epidemiological Service has prepared a guide for drivers who are in daily migrations from epidemiologically endangered areas. For their own protection, the use of protective equipment will be necessary. In this regard, a special protocol has been defined according to the above which will be applied by the Border Police and the State Inspectorate.
The health status of members of the Croatian Army and police in missions and operations abroad is good and no cases of new coronavirus infection have been reported. The Ministry of Defense, the Croatian Army and the Police Directorate are in constant contact with them and are constantly monitoring the situation.
Pets are not carriers of the disease and do not contract the coronavirus, and so far there is no scientific evidence to suggest the transmission of the virus from humans to animals and vice versa.
The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has issued travel recommendations urging citizens to exercise caution and more detailed information before traveling abroad.
We repeat these instructions for citizens:
- All citizens with cold symptoms who have not been to China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Iran and the Italian Republic (Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Piedmont provinces) need not report to epidemiologists in the last 14 days. They can contact their family medicine doctor.
- Persons who have resided in the countries listed above for 14 days and do not cough, do not have a fever or other signs of a cold should contact a competent epidemiologist whose number can be obtained through county centers 112. Contact information can be found here.
- Persons who cough and have fever and other signs of a cold and have stayed within 14 days in the countries listed above are required to contact a competent epidemiologist for further guidance. Contact information can be found here.
18:12 – Zadar General Hospital has informed the public that due to a temporary precautionary measure, and in accordance with the recommendation of the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Prevention Strategy for possible spread, as well as the flu epidemic, hospital visits are forbidden until further notice.
18:03 – The girl in Dubrovnik does not have the coronavirus, according to findings which arrived this afternoon. On Thursday, at around 13:00 CET, she called the OB Dubrovnik after she started feeling symptoms of the disease. She had been in Venice.
17:50 – SDP’s Josko Klisovic has confirmed for Index that he is currently in self-isolation.
“I was at a rally in Zagreb where a person was diagnosed with coronavirus infection,” Klisovic told us. Read more.
16:25 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
83,975 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
78,824 Mainland China
2,337 South Korea
705 Others
655 Italy
338 Iran
228 Japan
94 Hong Kong
93 Singapore
60 US
48 Germany
43 Kuwait
41 Thailand
38 France
34 Taiwan
33 Bahrain
25 Spain
23 Australia
23 Malaysia
19 United Arab Emirates
19 UK
16 Vietnam
14 Canada
10 Macau
8 Switzerland
7 Sweden
7 Iraq
5 Croatia
4 Oman
3 Israel
3 Philippines
3 India
3 Austria
3 Greece
2 Lebanon
2 Finland
2 Russia
2 Pakistan
1 Afghanistan
1 Nepal
1 Lithuania
1 Cambodia
1 Georgia
1 North Ireland
1 Nigeria
1 Norway
1 Algeria
1 Belgium
1 San Marino
1 Netherlands
1 Denmark
1 Azerbaijan
1 North Macedonia
1 Belarus
1 New Zealand
1 Brazil
1 Romania
1 Estonia
1 Mexico
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
4,971 Total Cases Outside of China
2,867 Total Deaths
36,662 Total Recovered
16:08 – Media conferences announced tomorrow at 14:00 and 16:00 CET.
Fran Mihaljevic Clinic Director Alemka Markotic | N1
16:07 – The tests will be done by midnight and then we will have another round of findings, said Markotic.
16:06 – The virus does not have to be in large quantities and this is not uncommon, said Markotic.
This is different when we have a case where someone has not been in contact with the patients, if then the findings are negative then they are negative, explained Markotic.
16:05 – Although the girl infected was negative, she was in the high-risk group and was in isolation all the time, she was tested every day, and to that third test she was mildly positive, said Clinic Director Fran Mihaljevic Alemka Markotic.
16:03 – At this moment I can say that there are 156 tested, six are still under construction, said Minister Beros.
Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros | N1
16:00 – A press conference begins.
15:30 – In the area of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, between 100 and 150 people are being monitored for possible coronavirus infections, and on Friday morning, samples of two more people who are not related to the two people who have been confirmed have been sent for testing.
15:27 – There are no coronavirus infections in Osijek-Baranja County, but , if necessary, more than 1300 beds have been secured in the Osijek area, said Chief of the Civil Protection Headquarters Goran Ivanovic on Friday, adding that because of the instruction of the national headquarters he could not say where the quarantined facilities are located.
15:03 – Students who have returned from areas where the coronavirus has spread, especially from Italy, should be self-contained on campuses and under medical supervision, and if they have been in contact with infected persons, they should be tested at the Zagreb School of Medicine. Read more.
14:44 – The first coronavirus infected girl in Croatia has been confirmed to be coronavirus positive. This was determined after the third test, which was unofficially confirmed to Index. She is now also in the Infectious Disease Hospital of Fran Mihaljevic, and before that she was in self-isolation. She has no symptoms at the moment. She, according to reports, was in the hospital the whole time.
13:40 – “Two more samples were sent for testing this morning. These people are not related to two infected people in Rijeka. Testing and if there are no symptoms, then, yes, we’ll continue with analysis. And the infected person may have a negative test – regarding clinical and epidemiological identifications. They have respiratory problems, it’s not about the worsening of the condition. The second infected person, close contact of the first infected man in Rijeka, is also about 50 years old. The test of the close contact was first negative then positive,” according to a press conference at the county headquarters of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
10:10 – The doctor at Klaic Hospital in Zagreb and the head of Most Health Council Ivan Bekavac was a guest of the Novi dan on N1 Television. “The main emphasis should be that those who are ill should wear a green mask over their faces, and those who are healthy should be giving masks to sick people,” Bekavac said. Bekavac explains that now someone with the respiratory illness (coronavirus) may not be able to wear a mask because all masks have been snatched up by healthy people.
9:16 – Bozinovic has no answer to the question of whether football games might be canceled. “We’ll still talk about it throughout the day, but it’s brought to the county authorities,” he said.
9:14 – “Our pets do not contract this virus. Our animals are not a source of contagion, they are not a vector of disease. There is no scientific evidence in Europe about the transmission of disease from animals to humans,” said the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
9:11 – The director of the infectious hospital, Alemka Markotic, has no comment on the news that the virus has returned to some people in Asia. He says that it needs to be confirmed by experts and that he needs to know if these people have any other illnesses. She added that the first three infected were recovering well and could be released soon. “The symptoms must disappear and the findings must be negative,” she added. “These are now home infections, which leads us to need more frequent contact within the family to spread the infection. All three patients are well, with very mild symptoms. There is nothing to worry about and we believe they will be released soon,” explained Markotic.
“The virus acts as a family virus. Eight samples are being processed throughout Croatia,” Markotic said, adding that it is not uncommon for transmission in a close family.
9:10 – “Those sick people were in isolation at the hospital quarantine, which shows that our decision was very good, because if they were not quarantined they would have additional contacts, which would be an additional risk for the people they were in contact with. “This is a confirmation that our measures are effective and that we should continue to implement them,” said HZJZ Director Capak.
Is it a problem that the Rijeka patient was with a family doctor?
“Of course there are situations like this, we recommend that people who feel the symptoms contact their family doctor who has all the instructions,” Capak told reporters.
Two New Positive Coronavirus Cases in Croatia
9:00 – Two new positive cases, Croatian Health Minister Beros said at a press conference. They are all related to the infected so far. One new is associated with the first infected in Zagreb, another new patient is associated with the infected in Rijeka. “Everyone is being monitored. Those who were in closer contact with the infected were positive,” Beros revealed.
8:49 – The director of the HZJZ announced on Croatian radio this morning that he will provide new information at a press conference at 9:00 CET. “How quickly the virus is spreading we are seeing across Italy. It is a respiratory infection mostly associated with droplets. All respiratory infections diminish with the arrival of warmer weather. We expect coronavirus transmission to decrease with the advent of warmer weather. But the virus is new and we cannot say anything for sure,” Capak said.
“We have remained at a number of three positives at the moment, which is very good. If we compare the situation in some other countries, it was significantly different in the early days, so I can only believe that our situation will remain similar and that it will not change significantly. increase the number of new positives, “Minister Beros said at today’s second press conference of the National Civil Protection Headquarters yesterday afternoon.
“It is realistic to expect there will be new infections,” the minister told RTL last night. ” Compared to other countries, we are in much better circumstances. I am extremely pleased that we are only at this number (of cases), which is not that big. We have located the source of spreading the virus and in some ways it is easier for us to control the situation,” he adds.
Currently, there are 68 people in isolation, including the first two patients and a dozen in Rijeka, he reported.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 27, 2020. UPDATES HAVE RESUMED BEGINNING FEBRUARY 28, 2020:
19:24 – Cakovec County Hospital sent a statement to the media that the test findings were negative for a young man from Međimurje who was suspected to have coronavirus.
“According to the test results for a patient with suspected coronavirus, we inform the public that the findings are negative and the patient has been discharged home. We also inform you that there are no coronaviruses in Međimurje County at the moment,” said a statement from the Čakovec County Hospital.
19:09 – HZJZ Director General Krunoslav Capak explained the difference between Italy and Croatia. In Italy, however, they have not yet cleared up the epidemiological situation, Capak explained, adding that they have not yet found the so-called “epidemiological situation” therefore, they cannot identify who this person was in contact with.
“There has been a focal event in Italy that they have not yet cleared up epidemiologically. They have not found the first case yet, they do not know who it was and where it was.
Sometimes it can be very difficult to find a patient zero. What is happening in Italy is an exponential increase in the number of cases. It is almost unbelievable at which speed they were able to expand, but they were able to make sure that all the cases had to do with Lombardy. And they say that all subsequent cases are somehow related to that.
But I am saying, they have not found the first case and who knows where he was and who he was in contact with. They had three cases on Friday, declared 12 on Saturday and had 122 cases on Sunday. It is a huge exponential growth. We have these three cases so far, no one can predict what will happen, but we are doing our best to detect all cases as soon as possible and to isolate them so that they cannot spread the virus. We are also isolating their contacts and monitoring them,” Capak explained to N1.
18:30 – A man from the Rijeka area for whom coronavirus has been confirmed is hospitalized and in good general condition, two more potential cases are expected to be confirmed, and about 100 people are under surveillance by the epidemiologist in the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar, County Staff for Infectious Diseases said in a press conference on Thursday .
A man at a hospital in Rijeka is in good general condition, with no complications, and laboratory findings are expected for two people who are suspected of being infected. The chief epidemiologist at the County Public Health Teaching Institute, Dobrica Roncevic, said that the infected man had returned from work in Parma, Italy for a weekend on February 21.
After two days, he developed signs of illness and was confirmed by the family medicine office as a potentially risky case and hospitalized, Roncevic said, adding that he had relatively mild respiratory problems, flu-like symptoms, and the general condition indicates a mid-level respiratory infection.
He did not come to Croatia from the two Italian regions affected by the epidemic but from the Emilia-Romagna region, but in the meantime the region was also affected by the epidemic. Anti-epidemic measures are underway to treat people who have been in contact with him and one person has been hospitalized.
17:49 – Igor Rudan, one of the most successful and often-cited Croatian scientists, a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the initiator of the 21st Century School, addressed reporters and commented on the emergence of coronaviruses.
“The panic is completely exaggerated. Unfortunately, I cannot claim that there will be no deaths from this, as there are flu and traffic accidents, but proportions are another matter,” Rudan said.
17:30 – The first confirmed cases of coronavirus in Croatia have caused crisis shopping, so shelves with disinfectants, as well as durable products like canned goods, began to empty at shopping centers.
Citizens have been really buying more in recent days, as could be seen from the posts of empty shelves photos on social networks, confirmed from Konzum’s largest retail chain. But they also say that despite their increased demand, warehouses are well filled and that they have prepared their employees for this situation. Read more.
17:20 – The Open Door Day is scheduled to begin at 10:00 CET on Friday, February 28th at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. This event was delayed due to the coronavirus.
17:00 – The CEO of HUP Davor Majetic was a guest on N1. He points out that the Croatian economy will surely feel the consequences of the coronavirus epidemic, but also continues that it is difficult to estimate the consequences.
“It will surely be a consequence, we already know that we will have consequences as businessmen and for the emergence of a virus in China and Italy. It is the fate of employers that things happen to you unannounced and we must prepare for it,” he said.
16:26 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic responds to accusations from Slovenia that Croatia is damaging the Slovenian economy through excessive border controls due to coronavirus:
“I did not experience this dramatically on a personal level. I do not know if this was the last tweet of the outgoing Sharec government. I remember the strict Schengen regime (implemented by Slovenia), then that was explained as standard protocol for Schengen controls. This time we have a real reason to increase vigilance at the border. What we are doing now is good for us and Slovenia. We have taken the measures we think are necessary at the moment, and we are moving calmly without panic doing what we need to do and we will work to protect the public health and health safety of our citizens,” says Plenković.
16:25 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
82,548 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
78,497 Mainland China
1,766 South Korea
705 Others
528 Italy
245 Iran
189 Japan
93 Singapore
92 Hong Kong
60 US
43 Kuwait
40 Thailand
33 Bahrain
32 Taiwan
26 Germany
23 Australia
22 Malaysia
18 France
16 Vietnam
15 Spain
15 UK
13 United Arab Emirates
11 Canada
10 Macau
6 Iraq
4 Oman
4 Switzerland
3 Israel
3 India
3 Philippines
3 Croatia
3 Austria
3 Greece
2 Finland
2 Sweden
2 Russia
2 Pakistan
2 Lebanon
1 Afghanistan
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Norway
1 Algeria
1 Belgium
1 Georgia
1 Denmark
1 North Macedonia
1 Brazil
1 Romania
1 Estonia
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
4,051 Total Cases Outside of China
2,810 Total Deaths
33,243 Total Recovered
16:05 – The National Headquarters will hold a press conference with new information on coronavirus in Croatia.
16:02 – The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb has canceled the Open Door Days because of the coronavirus. Open days, where high school students can find out information about changing enrollment and study programs, and was scheduled to start tomorrow at 10am.
15:50 – President Zoran Milanovic and his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor comment on the Slovenian government’s attacks on Croatia over coronaviruses. Read more.
15:30 – The director of the Institute of Public Health of the County of Istria, Aleksandar Stojanovic, said Thursday that there are no cases of coronavirus infection registered in Istria, adding that “the situation is changing day by day as risk areas spread in neighboring Italy.”
14:22 – “Everyone who organizes public gatherings is urged to contact the headquarters to assess whether there is a risk for visitors coming to a particular gathering. So far, there are no plans for a gathering ban,” said the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Headquarters.
14:15 – Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts urges the National Crisis Staff to urgently address treatment for drivers who have been in northern Italy for the past two weeks and warns that carriers are in crisis if a health surveillance model is not found soon that will allow drivers to move freely and the transport sector functions. They say that some of the drivers have just been warned to report to an epidemiologist and that they have imposed an obligation of self-isolation, whereby they cannot move freely and perform their work obligations. Read more.
13:55 – Most Ericsson Nikola Tesla workers where the other infected twin brother works, will return to work tomorrow, but some remain in isolation. The company reported that their ill employee is stable and recovering. Read more.
13:32 – “For the time being, Croatian tourism does not feel any disadvantages due to the coronavirus, but the booking has stopped slightly, which was normal and to be expected,” Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli said at a cabinet session. He added that the biggest cancellations currently occur in the business and congress tourism segment for March.
13:19 – Plenkovic once again reported on the coronavirus on Twitter.
✔
@AndrejPlenkovic
We recognized the severity of the situation around the spread of the coronavirus and responded in time. The civil protection headquarters coordinates all activities, and the public health situation is under control. We urge everyone to be calm and responsible, there is no reason to panic. http://bit.ly/2Vvh9pF
12:29 – The Slovenian government has attacked Croatia over measures introduced as a result of the emergence of coronaviruses. Read more.
11:58 – A younger man in Međimurje County is suspected of being infected with a coronavirus and is awaiting findings from the Zagreb Infectious Diseases Clinic, a session of the Međimurje County Civil Protection Headquarters said Thursday. Read more.
10:43 – At a government session, Minister Beros outlines what has been done to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
10:41 – As Index learned, a new wing of the HEP building where the other infected twin brother works has been disinfected yesterday, but the old part of the building has only been cleaned in a conventional manner. Today, employees will work normal hours after having worked until 14:00 CET yesterday.
10:39 – “It is impossible to assess the effects of coronavirus on the budget,” said Finance Minister Zdravko Maric.
“Tourism is not the only industry, they are all equally important, although tourism is more vulnerable to a global disruption. Unless there is a significant escalation, our tourism still has enough strength and resilience as we have been seeing positive growth rates for a long time. This is happening at the beginning of the year and tourism has not boomed yet, hopefully it will all go down soon. Thes are extraordinary circumstances. If it does escalate, it can be dealt with. I cannot speculate on the amounts, but we have stabilized public finances and put them at a sustainable level,” Maric said.
10:23 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic spoke at the beginning of the cabinet session on the situation with the coronavirus.
“The civil protection headquarters coordinates all activities. Three cases have been confirmed, but the public health situation is under control. Another appeal to our fellow citizens is to remain calm and not to go on big shopping excursions, where everything disappears off the shelf. Croatia has recognized this situation on time. We, especially the economic sectors, will bear in mind how to deal with this unpredictable situation, primarily to minimize the consequences. We will be cautious, “Prime Minister Plenkovic said after he first thanked for the coronavirus engagement with Ministers Beros and Božinović and all relevant services.
9:37 – The Pula General Hospital has forbidden visits to all patients in hospital wards. The decision was made to prevent the possible spread of coronavirus, the hospital said.
9:34 – “When they no longer have the temperature, then, although it is not usual, we will still make another swab and then if it is negative, I can really go home,” explained the Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic Alemka Markotic regarding when she will be released from isolation.
“He arrived on February 21, before our measures were put in place,” Bozinovic said of the first infected.
9:30 – “All the athletes, as far as I know, are placed in other hotels. I don’t think this is a particular topic,” Bozinovic said about the expulsion of disabled athletes from the quarantine hotel in Sljeme.
9:27 – “We based our strategy on risk assessment, we are ready for all scenarios. If necessary, all health facilities will be redirected to treat these conditions, but I believe it will not happen,” Beros said.
9:17 – “We are asking the media (not to emphasize governmental mistakes or oversights). One newspaper published the confession of a woman who was all happy to say that she came back from Venice and that no one asked her at the border. If anyone makes a mistake, we ask the media not to emphasize it. “But we ask the media not to stress this,” said the head of the Croatian Institute for Public Health, Krunoslav Capak.
9:12 – “We have identified seven contacts from a man from Rijeka, they have been placed under surveillance. There are all sick in his family, and are being tested,” said Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.
9:10 – Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic Alemka Markotic thanked the infected twins for stepping out and reassuring the public concerned about coronaviruses.
9:08 – “In the afternoon we will establish another infectious outpatient clinic at the Infectious Diseases Clinic,” Beros said.
9:07 – “I have heard from a German minister who is very concerned and seeking joint action.”
9:06 – “Testing for 131 people is underway,” Health Minister Vili Beros said.
9:05 – “All services are working to the full extent. Preparations are being made to determine the location and quarantine space, in all counties in case of need. At 13:00 CET there is a meeting in the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, representatives will be present, along with businesses and the county, “says Bozinovic.
9:03 – The press conference began. The first address is from Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic.
8:51 – A new section of the Civil Protection Staff’s coronavirus is scheduled for 9 p.m. You will be able to follow it live on Index.
8:22 – Eighty people have sought coronavirus testing in Rijeka.
8:08 – A repeated finding of a young girl who was first infected with coronavirus in Croatia is again negative and she was discharged from hospital, N1 reports.
7:05 – The infected twins are together in a room at the Zagreb Infectious Diseases Clinic. They answered and said they realized they were infected and what symptoms they had.
“It didn’t occur to me that I could get infected. Even when I came back, and when there was talk about the spread of coronavirus in Italy, I didn’t think I could be infected. Let’s be real, who would have thought it was he the first in the country to get a virus which has been a global topic for almost two months,” the first infected patient to become ill after being in Italy told Jutarnji list.
On Monday, they both needed to go to work. One works from 7:00 and the other has sliding hours so he rises an hour later. “I went to work on Monday, just like every day. There were about seven colleagues in the office. It was a very ordinary day. About 12:00 my brother sent me a message saying he woke up with a temperature of 37.6 so he didn’t go to work ” said the other brother.
At first, they thought it was just the usual temperature, but their mother was worried, so the family medicine doctors came in, who referred them to Contagious Diseases. He was first hospitalized by his brother who was in Italy. He said an ambulance came with people dressed from head to toe. Through laughter, they said everything looked Chernobyl. Soon, another brother was hospitalized.
“Well, then it was afternoon. My brother was at the hospital, and I’m starting to feel weird. Thermometer, temperature … 37.4. The procedure is the same again. An ambulance, only this time another twin on the way to Contagious Diseases,” said his brother for Jutarnji list, adding that after his brother’s case, he was immediately aware of what was happening.
“I, unlike my brother, feel a little pain in my muscles and joints, but nothing terrible. My temperature was a maximum of 38, but all the time it was actually around 37,” he said.
The brothers said they had all the care they needed at the Infectious Diseases Clinic, and the first infected person said he felt uneasy about bringing coronavirus to Croatia.
7:00 – Another person was tested for coronavirus in Rijeka, presumably the daughter of a patient from Rijeka. One finding was borderline, in the morning there will be a new sample to confirm. Currently, 10 samples are being tested in Croatia, and 10 are will arrive in Zagreb overnight, Maja Grba Bujevic, the head of the Crisis Staff of the Ministry of Health, revealed to HRT Dnevnik.
Third Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Croatia, Hotel in Sljeme Became Quarantine
Hotel Tomislavov dom and apartments Snjezana kraljica have become a quarantine for coronavirus patients as of yesterday afternoon.
A third case of coronavirus was confirmed in Croatia yesterday afternoon. This is a man who works in Italy and is based in Rijeka. Namely, from the Infectious Diseases Clinic “Dr. Fran Mihaljević” in Zagreb today reported that a third case of new coronavirus infection has been proven.
“This is a man working in Parma, Italy. He is housed in a hospital in Rijeka,” the Civil Protection Directorate announced.
”The patient apparently became infected in Italy. Diagnosis was performed at the Infectious Diseases Clinic. He will be in isolation until he recovers. His case is mild, “Krunoslav Capak, Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CES), told RTL Danas.
And his daughter has a fever and is put in isolation and will be tested.
The second case of coronavirus in Croatia was confirmed yesterday morning, and it is the twin of the first infected patient. He works at HEP, which is why extraordinary measures were introduced there yesterday. The restaurant is closed, meetings were canceled and employees went home early.
The first to be infected was his brother, who spent two days with his girlfriend in Milan last week. He works at Ericsson Nikola Tesla and will continue to work from home. The first test of the girl of the first infected patient is negative, but the test will be repeated because she has certain symptoms. They traveled by bus and the Civil Protection Headquarters has indicated that other passengers and anyone with whom the 26-year-old had been contacted after returning from Italy were being checked.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 26, 2020. UPDATES HAVE RESUMED BEGINNING FEBRUARY 27, 2020:
21:04 – Iran Cancels Prayer Friday due to the coronavirus.
20:33 – Iraq has banned its citizens from traveling to China, Iran, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Singapore, and will soon do the same for Italy, their ministry said.
20:20 – 60 people are now infected in the US.
20:10 – A Georgian coronavirus patient recently returned from a trip from Iran.
19:54 – After six more cases of coronavirus infection, Health Minister Jens Spahn on Wednesday warned that Germany was at the beginning of the epidemic.
“We are at the beginning of a coronavirus epidemic in Germany,” said Minister Spahn (CDU Christian Democratic Union) in Berlin.
19:45 – The number infected in France has increased. There are now 18.
19:25 – British Airways cancels dozens of flights to Milan. They claim they are doing so because of a large drop in demand.
19:17 – Georgia confirms first coronavirus infection case.
19:00 – In Italy, 400 people are infected.
18:57 – First coronavirus case confirmed in Finland. This is a woman who has recently been to Milan.
18:55 – The European Parliament announced that it is delaying internships for interns from China, South Korea and northern Italy, the areas most affected by the coronavirus.
18:20 – Pakistan has just confirmed another contagion case, CNN reports.
18:15 – Representatives of several levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including medical staff, said at a joint meeting in Doboj on Wednesday that no cases of coronavirus have been reported in the country, and that the authorities are ready for the emergence of this infection. Read more.
18:11 – The United States has just confirmed that 59 people have been infected in the country.
18:10 – A third case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Croatia. Read more.
18:05 – Northern Macedonia has confirmed the first case of a coronavirus infection, a woman who recently returned home from Italy, the health minister announced on Wednesday. Read more.
“The patient tested positive for coronavirus on the test…She is the first positive patient in Northern Macedonia to have this pathogen,” said Minister Venko Filipce, adding that her condition is stable.
18:00 – The Nice Carnival has canceled a grand finale and fireworks out of concern for the coronavirus.
17:58 – US Department of Health says they have supplies of face masks.
17:40 – Russia has joined the list of countries that do not advise its citizens to go to Italy.
17:35 – According to Middle Eastern media, Pakistan has seen its the first case of a coronavirus infection.
17:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
81,245 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
78,064 Mainland China
1,261 South Korea
705 Others
374 Italy
178 Japan
139 Iran
91 Singapore
89 Hong Kong
57 US
40 Thailand
32 Taiwan
23 Bahrain
22 Australia
22 Malaysia
18 Germany
16 Vietnam
14 France
13 United Arab Emirates
13 UK
11 Canada
11 Kuwait
10 Macau
9 Spain
5 Iraq
4 Oman
3 India
3 Philippines
2 Israel
2 Russia
2 Austria
1 Afghanistan
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Algeria
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Croatia
1 Switzerland
1 Brazil
1 Egypt
1 Lebanon
1 Greece
1 Sri Lanka
3,181 Total Cases Outside of China
2,770 Total Deaths
30,311 Total Recovered
16:58 – Potential coronavirus patients admitted to Zabok General Hospital yesterday were not infected. Negative swab analysis tests performed at the Infectious Diseases Clinic at Fran Mihaljević in Zagreb confirmed this. This concerns a younger man and a 12-year-old girl who were living in the same household, and most recently resided in Italy.
16:15 – A sailor who arrived from Genoa and was hospitalized in the OB of Zadar does not have the coronavirus.
16:05 – “Regarding the organization of major public gatherings, there is a common agreement that there is no need for a general ban. But we have to take into account that it is always possible to make a change,” Bozinovic said at a regular press conference at 16:00 CET.
Health Minister Willie Beros said 87 people were tested and eight are being processed.
Among the people awaiting the results are the girl of an infected young man. The minister added the young man’s mother showed no signs of illness. Also, it is reported that 64 people are under intense surveillance.
“There are no new positive cases,” he said.
16:00 – Recommendations for schools have been issued.
“As we have previously communicated, it is necessary to further delay all organized departures of children and students in the affected areas, as well as organized meetings (such as sports competitions) with children and students coming from the affected areas.
Necessary hygiene measures, that is, general measures of protection in schools, should be ensured, as recommended by the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (attached).
Attached are specific recommendations and measures regarding students and children at risk (healthy children and students arrivine from the affected areas; healthy children/students, without signs of illness, coming from the affected areas, who have been in close contact with the patients children and students who come from the affected areas and have some respiratory symptoms) according to the definition of CES.
Teaching and implementation of the school curriculum should proceed as planned. The Ministry of Science and Education is constantly monitoring the situation and will keep you informed of any new circumstances and measures,” said the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports.
15:21 – The Ministry of Science and Education forwarded procedural recommendations to all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, pupils’ homes and founders prepared by the Croatian Institute of Public Health. Read more.
15:00 – The test findings for a woman from Slavonski Brod are negative. Two findings are not completed yet. Results are expected tomorrow.
14:30 – Some people have left the HEP building. People are calming down, there is no panic among employees which could be felt earlier this morning, Index reports. They have not received any instructions for tomorrow except to follow normal procedures.
14:25 – “In Croatia, only two people are currently infected with the coronavirus,” Health Minister Vili Beros confirmed. He added that guidelines were issued to all health care institutions regarding yesterday’s move by KBC Zagreb, where all non-urgent operations were canceled.
“Visits can be banned, but we must go on. Because life goes on and at this moment there is no threat that can challenge it,” Beros said.
He also announced a new space has been allocated for those with a suspected coronavirus to avoid crowds at the Infectious Diseases Clinic and their contact with cold or flu patients.
14:23 – The infected brothers’ mother works at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, but MVEP says she was not at the Ministry after contacting her son.
14:01 – Croatia Airlines has announced that they are continuing to operate all scheduled flights to all European destinations and are monitoring the situation. Read more.
13:47 – After the departure of the employees, as we learn, the premises of the building should be disinfected.
13:21 – A woman in hospital in Slavonski Brod is hospitalized for suspected coronavirus. The samples were sent to the “Dr. Fran Mihaljević” Clinic in Zagreb. Read more.
13:19 – HEP employees working in Zagreb’s Vukovarska 37 have been informed that their working hours will end today at 14:00. The notice also states that tomorrow is a regular business day.
12:35 – A new announcement came from HEP.
“The situation in the Croatian electricity industry with regard to coronavirus infection is being monitored. Upon finding out that one of the persons confirmed to have coronavirus infection, an employee with a position at the HEP Group headquarters in Zagreb, came to the said location by competent epidemiologists of the Institute public health of Dr. Andrija Štampar, who promptly began an epidemiological survey and checking all areas where the patient was moving.
In accordance with their instructions, recommended measures are implemented in HEP. All employees who were found to be in close social contact with the ill were informed that they should remain in self-isolation at home. They were instructed to monitor their medical condition and to contact their physician and a competent epidemiologist by phone if symptoms appeared. All major work meetings that are not necessary for work processes to be canceled have been canceled. Staff are instructed to apply enhanced hygiene measures and other measures recommended by the epidemiological service. During the day, disinfection will be carried out of all premises at the headquarters of the HEP that were moving the sick.
The authorized services of HEP provide conditions for the integrity of work processes in HEP of importance for the functioning of the Croatian electricity system. The HEP Board of Directors would like to thank Dr. Andrija Štampar, Public Institution for Public Health for prompt response and excellent cooperation, as well as the National Headquarters and the Ministry of Health, headed by Minister William Beroš, with whom he is in constant contact, “HEP said.
12:06 – Andrej Plenkovic says that panicking and shopping to stock supplies needs to stop. Read more.
11:58 – Employees Released to Return to HEP Building. Only 15 employees who worked directly with the infected person need to be at work.
11:56 – Index filmed what the HEP headquarters where the infected brother works today looks like. The employees we met told us they were not allowed to comment.
11:48 – The parking lot of Ericsson Nikola Tesla where the brother of the first infected works is empty today. Employees are working from home.
11:43 – Unlike what the department head and the top HEP have told us, workers say they are worried.
“Nobody tells us anything, we don’t know what’s going on, we didn’t even get a mail. We were just told to wait. There are too many of us here. Nobody in the administration cares about us and our families,” one HEP employee told us. He is currently in the building and added that everyone is in shock.
“People in the corridors exchange information among themselves because there are no officials from the top of the company,” an employee we spoke with told us.
11:32 – HEP employees are released. Only they can get in and out of the building.
11:26 – Index spoke to the head of the department where the infected brother works. She did not want to give us details, and referred us to the public relations department, but briefly commented on the current situation. “We’re at work. It’s all right,” she said briefly in a phone interview.
11:05 – KBC Split temporarily banned visits due to coronavirus. Read more.
11:00 – A woman from Koprivnica does not have the coronavirus. Read more.
10:58 – An HEP employee, one of the HEP interviewers we spoke with this morning, said the infected man was at a restaurant on Monday where the epidemiology service came to. She said the staff didn’t care and there were thousands in the building. Read more.
10:29 – As Index first learned, an infected twin brother of the first infected works at HEP. Another HEP employee is suspected to have symptoms. Read more.
9:36 – The first infected girl has coronavirus symptoms. That is why the test will be repeated even though the first test was negative, explained the Director of Contagion at the cross section of the Civil Protection Staff.
9:32 – “Please protect people who are ill. A third close contact has symptoms, but the test showed that the person was negative, so we repeat the sample and will keep that person for another day. Up to an hour ago, 72 people were tested, as many as 36 yesterday, “said the Director of Contagion at the cross section of the Civil Protection Staff.
9:23 – The first infected and his girlfriend traveled from Italy by bus, it was confirmed at the cross section of the Civil Protection Headquarters. Other passengers are being checked, and the Civil Protection Staff reports that they have contacted all friends of the first infected.
9:15 – Two cases have been confirmed and another person has a suspected coronavirus. The first finding is negative, but testing will be repeated, said Zagreb County Contagion Director Alemka Markotic at the cross section of the Civil Protection Headquarters. It is believed that this was the girl of the first infected who was with him in Milan, where he was allegedly infected.
8:58 – Minister Beros explained the circumstances of the infection of his first infected brother. “This was expected, namely the brother of the first positive patient is also positive, he also has a lighter clinical picture. While it is good that his girlfriend is negative, she is still being monitored and her condition will be monitored,” the minister said on Croatian radio.
8:26 – Index confirmed that tests showed that the girl first infected was negative for coronavirus.
8:15 – A second case of coronavirus infection in Croatia has been identified. The boy’s brother, who was diagnosed with coronavirus yesterday after returning from Milan, where he and his girlfriend were at the Champions League match, was also infected, Minister Beros confirmed to Index.
8:10 – Eighty people from the ferry that arrived in Split from Ancona have been released and one man has been detained. Read more.
7:20 – Ferry from Ancona, Italy, arrives in Split. It was greeted by police officers wearing protective masks.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 25, 2020. UPDATES HAVE RESUMED BEGINNING FEBRUARY 26, 2020:
23:00 – In Italy, 325 are infected with coronavirus, La Repubblica reports.
22:55 – U.S. authorities announced Tuesday that they expect a coronavirus epidemic to spread in the United States, urging schools, businesses and local governments to consider precautionary measures such as cancellation of public events.
“We expect an (epidemic) spread in the country,” said Nancy Messonnier, head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“It is not a question of whether this will happen, but of when it will happen and how many people in this country will become seriously ill,” she added.
These public statements, which call for more vigilance than before, come at a time when fears of a pandemic or worldwide epidemic are mounting.
22:20 – Nine cases of infection have been confirmed in Kuwait.
20:49 – The coronavirus has killed the 11th person in Italy. The latest victim is a 76-year-old from Treviso who was being treated at a hospital there.
20:25 – Austrian authorities have quarantined a hotel in the Austrian tourist city of Innsbruck, the capital of the Tyrol province in the center of the Alps, where an Italian receptionist infected with the coronavirus was working, according to media reports.
A spokeswoman for the Tyrolean government would not disclose where the Italian woman worked, but Austrian media reported that it was the 108-room Grand Hotel Europa located in the city center.
“No one can enter or leave until authorities determine who she was in contact with,” a spokeswoman for France Presse said, adding that the apartment in the same town where the girl lived has also been isolated.
The Italian and her partner, also an Italian, were quarantined at a city hospital where they were diagnosed with the coronavirus, said Guenther Weiss, director of the university’s internal medicine clinic in Innsbruck. These are the first two cases of coronaviruses in the country.
19:25 – Countries around the world must prepare for the outbreak of a coronavirus epidemic and be ready to respond quickly when it arrives, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Tuesday.
“Think of it as if the virus is going to emerge tomorrow,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China joint mission.
“If you do not think it will, you won’t be prepared,” he said in a statement to Geneva reporters after returning from China. Aylward reiterated several times the importance of educating the public about coronavirus. “Be organized, take advantage of the time you have at your disposal as it will save many lives,” he noted.
Aylward said China’s “incredible mobilization” in combating the virus showed how aggressive public health policies could curb the spread of the disease.
“China knows how to preserve people’s lives,” the WHO expert said.
19:15 – In Spain, a fifth case of coronavirus was reported Tuesday, and the first in the continental part of the country, after a woman in Barcelona fell ill.
The woman, 36, returned from northern Italy a few days ago and was screened to be positive for the Covid-19 virus, according to the Barcelona-based La Vanguardia newspaper. She stayed in Bergamo and Milan from February 12-22.
So far, only cases on the islands and exclusively among foreigners have been reported in Spain.
18:10 – A large group of students and teachers from Gracanica and one bus driver who stayed last week in northern Italy, the epicenter of the coronavirus, were placed in home isolation at the discretion of Tuzla county authorities.
The bus driver, who self-reported to a health facility after a three-day stay in Venice for a sore throat, was taken for a swab and sent for analysis in Sarajevo. He and his children were then sent to 14-day residential isolation, Tuzla County Health Minister Dajana Colic confirmed on Tuesday.
18:00 – In Slovenia, as of 16:00 CET on Tuesday, 44 people have been tested for the new coronavirus and all the results are negative, the Slovenian Ministry of Health announced on Twitter, and the medical chamber calls for the establishment of a network of specialized dispensaries for testing and treatment.
There are no coronavirus infected patients in the country at this time, the ministry announced, as confirmed earlier by two of Slovenia’s largest hospitals, the Ljubljana and Maribor clinical centers.
17:20 – Swiss authorities have reported the first person infected with the coronavirus in that country, near Italy. That first case was “confirmed,” a spokeswoman for the Federal Health Service told the French news agency France Presse. More information will be published in the evening.
The case was discovered in the canton of Ticino, in which the official language is Italian, along the border with Italy, published the canton on its website. Cases of infection that have occurred in China have already been reported in neighboring countries: France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
16:06 – Four Croatian nationals, who are crew members aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, have no symptoms of the disease, Foreign Ministry officials said.
15:55 – A female was admitted to hospital in Koprivnica on suspicion of coronavirus infection, ePodravina.hr reports. Test results are pending.
15:50 – The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MVEP) recommends increased caution and more detailed information before traveling to Italy and avoiding travel to the regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont and Lazio. Read more.
15:42 – There is a shortage of protective masks in pharmacies around the country, and Index has learned that they are unable to respond to the huge demand due to the widespread panic regarding the coronavirus.
Some are already taking advantage of the situation and trying to profit from the demand. Suppliers dealing with medical supplies and pharmacy products are offering masks for 8 HRK. Recall the price of the mask is 17 Lipa. Read more.
15:30 – The Institute for Public Health of Dubrovnik-Neretva County has published public recommendations for protection against coronavirus on its website. Read more.
14:50 – There is a shortage of protective masks in Italy. Internet prices are reaching up to 10 EUR per mask. The normal price is one eurocent. Read more.
14:47 – Two more cases of coronavirus infection confirmed in Oman.
14:40 – Tehran lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi is coronavirus positive. Earlier, it was confirmed that the deputy Iranian health minister had also contracted coronavirus.
14:30 – Due to fears of a coronavirus epidemic, the Iraqi government has extended a ban on the arrival of travelers from: China, Iran, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Singapore.
14:27 – There are nine new cases of coronavirus infection in Bahrain.
14:25 – The number of people infected in Italy has increased to 288, La Repubblica reports.
14:23 – Japan’s largest advertising agency Dentsu Inc. announced today that one of their employees at headquarters is infected with the coronavirus. They have instructed their employees working at the facility not to come to work and to work from home for a while.
14:21 – Several large South Korean companies announced Tuesday that they have decided to allow their employees to work from home as a precautionary measure prompted by the rapid spread of coronavirus in that country.
There have been 977 confirmed cases in South Korea so far, with the highest number recorded in Daegu City in the southeast of the country and the neighboring North Gyeongsang province.
14:15 – Turkish authorities have quarantined 132 passengers and a crew of Turkish Airlines from Iran on Tuesday on suspicion that some of them might be carriers of the new coronavirus.
13:58 – Fourteen children from Sarajevo have been quarantined for the coronavirus as a precautionary measure after returning from a northern part of Italy for a week, official sources confirmed on Tuesday. Read more.
13:50 – Two more people have been confirmed to be infected in Iran, the number of coronavirus patients in that country is now 16.
13:45 – Two schools in the English county of Cheshire have been closed after students from those schools returned from skiing in Italy.
13:20 – In Italy, 287 people are infected with a coronavirus. First infections reported in Tuscany, South Tyrol and Sicily.
13:17 – The ferry, which will embark on a regular line from Ancona to Split’s port on Wednesday, will be met by specially equipped Croatian naval police and a sanitary inspector, the Port Authority in Split learned on Tuesday.
13:15 – The deputy Iranian health minister has tested positive for the coronavirus.
13:10 – First two cases of coronavirus infection confirmed in Austria.
13:01 – The first case of the coronavirus in Croatia has been confirmed.
11:25 – In Italy, 271 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed, La Repubblica reports.
11:07 – A hotel in Tenerife, Spain has been quarantined after an Italian who was staying at the hotel tested positive for the coronavirus infection. Nearly a thousand hotel guests were instructed to stay in their rooms until all tests are completed.
11:02 – Zagreb International Airport has introduced measures to protect passengers and employees from coronaviruses. Read more.
South Korean health authorities announced Tuesday that they plan to test more than 200,000 members of a religious community, the center of a coronavirus epidemic in the country has reported that 977 people are infected, with President Moon Jae-in assessing the situation as “very serious”. Read more.
10:41 – La Repubblica reports that six more infected have been detected in Veneto, Italy.
10:10 – Minister Beros confirmed to us that some whose findings were negative yesterday will be tested again. The results for the 9 Croats who worked at the Italian factory will be known around 13:14 CET today February 25.
10:00 – In South Korea, coronavirus infections have increased to 977 people and death toll to 10, CNN reports.
9:25 – Serbian Blic has just announced that two Serbs have been infected with the coronavirus. These are crew members from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Tanjug issued a statement from the foreign minister saying that two of the 11 Serbian crew members have tested positive for the coronavirus. The infected crew members are 29 and 30 years of age.
9:19 – More than 2,400 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 37 deaths have been reported outside mainland China.
9:01 – Thailand reports two new cases of the coronavirus infection.
8:51 – A man in Florence showed up at Santa Maria Nuova Hospital yesterday afternoon. During the night, a test sample showed that he has the coronavirus. Another new case is a Bergamo tourist who was on vacation in Palermo. She was also tested for coronavirus, and showed flu symptoms. Her group of friends, with whom she was in close contact, were also quarantined. There have been 229 confirmed cases of the deadly virus in Italy so far, with seven people dead in that country.
8:40 – Two new cases of coronavirus have emerged in Italy, Florence and Palermo.
8:24 – “Nine workers who arrived from Italy have been accommodated at KBC Rijeka overnight. Their test findings have been sent for analysis and the results are expected today. One of them shows signs of illness,” Vili Beros tells N1.
At that same factory in Italy, twenty people have infected, the Croatian Health Minister added.
8:10 – Rome is hosting a meeting with health ministers of neighboring states today to tackle coronaviruses to discuss a coordinated response to the epidemic in northern Italy. The meeting will bring together health ministers from Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, France and Switzerland, the Italian health ministry said.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday that border controls cannot stop the spread of the virus. Asked if it would be possible to close entire cities, as Italy did in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, he replied that this was a theoretical option but not necessary at this stage.
“There are many intermediate stages from canceling major events to completely shutting down entire cities,” Spahn added.
8:05 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
80,149 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
77,659 Mainland China
893 South Korea
691 Others
229 Italy
160 Japan
90 Singapore
81 Hong Kong
61 Iran
53 US
35 Thailand
31 Taiwan
22 Australia
22 Malaysia
16 Germany
16 Vietnam
13 United Arab Emirates
13 UK
12 France
11 Canada
10 Macau
5 Kuwait
3 Spain
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Bahrain
2 Russia
2 Oman
1 Afghanistan
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Israel
1 Belgium
1 Lebanon
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Iraq
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
2,490 Total Cases Outside of China
2,699 Total Deaths
Total Deaths by Country/Region
2,563 Hubei Mainland China
19 Henan Mainland China
12 Iran
12 Heilongjiang Mainland China
8 South Korea
7 Italy
7 Guangdong Mainland China
6 Anhui Mainland China
6 Chongqing Mainland China
6 Hebei Mainland China
6 Shandong Mainland China
5 Hainan Mainland China
4 Beijing Mainland China
4 Hunan Mainland China
3 Shanghai Mainland China
3 Sichuan Mainland China
3 Tianjin Mainland China
3 “Diamond Princess” cruise ship
2 Hong Kong Hong Kong
2 Gansu Mainland China
2 Guangxi Mainland China
2 Guizhou Mainland China
2 Xinjiang Mainland China
2 Yunnan Mainland China
1 France
1 Japan
1 Fujian Mainland China
1 Jiangxi Mainland China
1 Jilin Mainland China
1 Liaoning Mainland China
1 Shaanxi Mainland China
1 Zhejiang Mainland China
1 Philippines
1 Taiwan Taiwan
27,683 Total Recovered
7:40 – There are no patients in Croatia yet. Yesterday, six tests were negative. Several tests from Rijeka are expected today, February 25, 2020.
7:35 – The coronavirus is the first true “infodemia” in the world. Here’s what that means.
7:30 – Minister Willi Beros said he expects that five cases that are under test will be negative. From Italy, Dr. Nela Srsen answered and described the situation there. Read more.
6:50 – No new infections have been reported in Italy overnight. The number of infected, as of last night, is 229 confirmed cases. The death toll is still at seven.
6:45 – A fourth passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died in Japan from coronavirus, NHK television reported, adding that he was 80 years old.
Japan’s Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday that regarding the spread of the coronavirus in Japan, it is still too early to talk about canceling the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which begin July 24.
Questions have emerged about whether the Olympics should be moved or canceled. One of the candidates for the mayor of London said that London was ready to host the games if necessary.
South Korea, in turn, has reported 60 new cases of coronaviruses, raising the country’s total infected number to 893, the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Tuesday.
6:40 – In Mainland China, on Monday, there were 508 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, a fourth passenger from the Diamond Princess ship died in Japan, and South Korea reported 60 more cases of coronavirus infection.
In mainland China, there were 508 newly diagnosed cases of coronavirus infected on Monday, the country’s National Health Commission announced Tuesday, according to 409 cases a day earlier. This is 77,658 total confirmed cases in mainland China so far.
The death toll in mainland China reached 2,663, up 71 from the previous day.
The central province of Hubei, which is the epicenter of the epidemic, has reported 68 new deaths, while 56 people have died in the capital of Wuhan province.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 18, 2020. UPDATES HAVE RESUMED BEGINNING FEBRUARY 25, 2020:
8:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
73,335 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
72,438 Mainland China
454 Diamond Princess
77 Singapore
66 Japan
60 Hong Kong
35 Thailand
31 South Korea
22 Malaysia
22 Taiwan
16 Germany
16 Vietnam
15 Australia
15 US
12 France
10 Macau
9 United Arab Emirates
9 UK
8 Canada
3 Italy
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Russia
2 Spain
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
897 Cases Outside of China
1,873 Total Deaths
12,842 Total Recovered
8:00 – Hundreds of millions are living under coronavirus lockdown in China (From CNN’s James Griffiths)
Stringent and often draconian measures are being ramped up in much of mainland China as the country continues to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
It comes as authorities make an effort to return to something like normality in many major cities and commercial hubs, with the long break forced by the outbreak taking its toll on the country’s economy.
780 million on lockdown: According to analysis by CNN of Chinese government orders, some 780 million people are still living under some form of restrictive movement, including all of Hubei, the northeastern province of Liaoning, and China’s two most important cities, Beijing and Shanghai. Restrictions include everything from self-quarantines to limits on who can come and go from neighborhoods.
Tight restrictions: Some of the strictest measures can be found in four cities in Hubei province. The cities of Wuhan, Huanggang, Shiyan and Xiaogan have completely sealed off all residential complexes and communities. The use of non-essential vehicles on local roads is also banned. Residents in each city receive daily necessities from neighborhood and community committees as they are not permitted to leave their homes.
China’s top political event under threat: In an almost unprecedented move, the central government announced late Monday that it was considering postponing its annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), a gathering of the the country’s nearly 3,000 national legislators. The full session was due to open on March 5. Instead, the NPC Standing Committee, a smaller group of fewer than 200 people, will meet in the capital on February 24 to review a proposal to postpone the plenary session, according to Chinese state media.
7:30 – Japanese health minister confirms Diamond Princess disembarkation to begin Wednesday (From CNN’s Yoko Wakatsuki in Tokyo)
The disembarkation of some passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama will being on Wednesday, the Japanese Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare said.
“Everyone wants to go home,” Katsunobu Kato said. “I would like to create the situation where they can go home smoothly.”
Kato said that disembarkation would being on Wednesday and last several days.
Massive outbreak: Another 99 people from onboard the ship tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the ministry announced on Monday. That brings the total number of cases linked to the stricken vessel to 456 — around half of all virus cases confirmed outside mainland China. It’s the largest single-day increase to date, and comes as several countries prepare to follow the United States in evacuating their citizens from the ship.
Who can get off the ship? Japanese authorities have said in recent days that passengers who test negative for the virus and have not been in close contact with those who have tested positive would be eligible for disembarkation. The ministry began testing passengers 80 years or older, then 70 years or older, and then others.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 17, 2020:
9:20 – Four Croatian nationals arriving on February 2, 2020 by special French aircraft from China to the Istres military airport near Marseille are completed a 14-day stay in isolation yesterday, the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry said.
“There were no signs of disease in the period, and the four Croatian nationals are considered healthy without restrictions.
The Croatian embassies in Beijing and Paris, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Croatia in Brussels, as well as the Ministry of Health and the Civil Protection Directorate through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism have worked intensively on their return from China since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic.
We thank the Chinese and French authorities once again for their great commitment and professionalism,” the MVEP added.
9:15 – Basic questions about the coronavirus, answered
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the novel coronavirus, officially called Covid-19, and scientists around the world are racing to gather data and develop a treatment.
Here’s what we can tell you so far:
- Is there a cure? There’s no cure, but patients can be treated for symptoms and may recover. The US National Institutes of Health said it’s also working on a vaccine — but it would take months for clinical trials to begin and more than a year until a vaccine might be available.
- What are the symptoms? Coronavirus symptoms can look like the flu — a runny nose, cough, sore throat, possibly a headache and maybe a fever, which can last for a couple of days.
- How does the virus spread? The virus is thought to spread from person to person through respiratory droplets emitted by coughing or sneezing. There’s also a possibility the virus can exist in and spread through contaminated fecal matter. Hong Kong authorities are exploring the possibility of the virus spreading through plumbing and pipes. There’s currently no evidence that the virus is airborne — meaning, for instance, it doesn’t travel across a large room.
- Who is at risk of infection? People of all ages can be infected with the virus, but older people and those with pre-existing medical conditions are especially vulnerable to severe complications.
- How can I protect myself? Take the same precautionary measures you would during flu season. Wash your hands often with soap and water, cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough, avoid close contact with people or large gatherings, and wear a face mask.
9:10 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
71,709 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
70,552 Mainland China
369 Diamond Princess
75 Singapore
65 Japan
57 Hong Kong
35 Thailand
30 South Korea
22 Malaysia
20 Taiwan
16 Germany
16 Vietnam
15 Australia
15 US
12 France
10 Macau
9 United Arab Emirates
9 UK
7 Canada
3 Italy
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Russia
2 Spain
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
1,157 Total Cases Outside of China
1,775 Total Deaths
11,160 Total Recovered
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 16, 2020:
8:40 – Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros said today that after the first coronavirus casualty in Europe, we have to be careful, but there is no particular cause for concern in Europe at this time.
The health minister said this after visiting the booth of the Love in Action Association, which marked the International Day of Children with Malignant Diseases in Zagreb’s Cvjetni Square.
Coronavirus Deaths Dncrease dramatically, First Death Confirmed in Europe
An eighty-year-old Chinese tourist has died at a hospital in Paris from a coronavirus caused by coronavirus, French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn confirmed on Saturday, the first death of a coronavirus in Europe.
Asked by a journalist about security after the first coronavirus casualty in Europe, Minister Beros said that we should be cautious, adding that there was no specific cause for concern in Europe at this time. Caution is needed because if a significant amount (of cases) are imported into Europe, the situation will certainly be more problematic, he stressed.
“At the moment, Croatia is taking steps, within the framework of HR PRES 2020, to come together at the European level, talk, plan and be as prepared as possible for the possible threat,” he added.
When asked what the procedure would be for Croatians returning from quarantine in France, Beros said it would be a normal procedure for them. Considering that the deadline for infection could be passed, the procedure will be adjusted accordingly, the Minister of Health explained, adding that he expects that they are healthy and that there will be no problems.
A Chinese tourist who died at a Paris hospital from coronavirus-induced lung disease lived in the province of Hubei, from which the epidemic spread. He arrived in France on January 16 and was hospitalized on January 25, after which his condition soon worsened. The daughter of the deceased is also infected with coronavirus but is recovering successfully and will soon be released, said French Health Minister Buzyn. In France, 11 coronavirus infections have been reported, of which three patients were released from hospital after recovery.
8:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
69,256 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
68,500 Mainland China
355 Others
72 Singapore
56 Hong Kong
43 Japan
33 Thailand
29 South Korea
22 Malaysia
18 Taiwan
16 Germany
16 Vietnam
15 Australia
15 US
12 France
10 Macau
9 UK
8 United Arab Emirates
7 Canada
3 Italy
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Russia
2 Spain
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Egypt
1 Sri Lanka
756 Cases Outside of China
1,669 Total Deaths
9,647 Total Recovered
8:10 – The coronavirus crisis is raising questions over China’s relationship with the WHO (Analysis by CNN’s James Griffiths)
Sitting alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was effusive in his praise of the country’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
“We appreciate the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership, and the transparency they have demonstrated,” Tedros said, in comments that would be repeatedly quoted in China’s state media for weeks.
This was in late January, after Xi had taken control of the situation due to local officials’ apparent failure to contain the outbreak to Hubei province.
As the two men met in the Chinese capital, the number of cases was rising, and revelations were emerging that officials in Hubei province and Wuhan — the city where the virus was first detected — had sought to downplay and control news about the virus, even threatening medical whistleblowers with arrest.
Days later, the WHO declared a global public health emergency, and once again Tedros praised Beijing’s response.
While China did act quickly following Xi’s intervention, placing several major cities on lockdown and pouring resources into the battle against the virus, it has maintained tight control over information about the virus and efforts to control its spread have veered on the side of draconian.
The WHO’s praise of China’s response has led critics to question the relationship between the two entities. The UN agency relies on funding and the cooperation of members to function, giving wealthy member states like China considerable influence. Perhaps one of the most overt examples of China’s sway over the WHO is its success in blocking Taiwan’s access to the body, a position that could have very real consequences for the Taiwanese people if the virus takes hold there.
The WHO’s position on China has renewed a longstanding debate about whether the WHO, founded 72 years ago, is sufficiently independent to allow it to fulfill its purpose.
4:10 – Confirmed infections on Diamond Princess keep climbing, as 70 more coronavirus cases revealed (From CNN’s Junko Ogura and Mick Krever in Tokyo)
Another 70 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked in Yokohama, have tested positive for novel Coronavirus, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has announced.
That brings the total number of cases from the ship to 356, and the total in Japan to 407.
Americans on board the ship had until Saturday 8 p.m. ET to tell the US Embassy whether they wanted to leave as part of a voluntary evacuation expected Sunday evening Japan time.
Anyone who remains on board, will begin to be tested for the virus on February 18, and get their results in three days. Staggered disembarkations are due to begin on February 21.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 14, 2020:
8:45 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
64,437 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
63,855 Mainland China
218 Others
58 Singapore
53 Hong Kong
33 Thailand
29 Japan
28 South Korea
19 Malaysia
18 Taiwan
16 Germany
16 Vietnam
15 Australia
15 US
11 France
10 Macau
9 UK
8 United Arab Emirates
7 Canada
3 Italy
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Russia
2 Spain
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Sri Lanka
582 Total Cases Outside of China
1,383 Total Deaths
6,983 Total Recovered
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 13, 2020:
17:15 – All Croatian citizens on the Japanese Diamond Princess cruise ship are well and have no symptoms of coronavirus, but remain in isolation until February 19, Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said in Brussels on Thursday.
“Six Croatian citizens, one passenger and five crew members are fine, have no symptoms. They are in isolation until observation time is over by February 19,” said Minister Grlic-Radman, relaying information he received from the Croatian embassy in Tokyo.
The Diamond Princess cruiser with 3,700 passengers and crew members have been quarantined since landing at Yokohama Harbor on February 3. To date, more than 200 passengers have tested positive for the coronavirus on this ship.
14:15 – Catch up: Here are the latest developments on the coronavirus outbreak (From CNN’s Jack Guy)
Here is a quick roundup of the latest coronavirus developments:
- The first deadly case in Japan: Japan has recorded its first death from the novel coronavirus, a woman in her 80s who was not on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is quarantined in Yokohama port.
- About the Diamond Princess: Passengers on board the ship have been told that the situation is “very dynamic,” but some vulnerable individuals may be allowed to disembark before the ongoing quarantine is scheduled to end on Feb. 19.
- Xenophobia in the UK: University students across the UK have criticized xenophobia against Asian students following multiple incidents involving discrimination related to the coronavirus outbreak.
- Politics in China: China has replaced key Communist Party officials as the situation in the country shows no sign of improvement.
- Effects on business: Experts predict that the outbreak will cause global oil demand to shrink for the first time in a decade, and Nissan has revealed worries over a shortage of parts as the coronavirus threatens the global auto industry.
13:30 – “We don’t know where this outbreak will go,” WHO spokesperson tells CNN (From CNN Health’s John Bonifield)
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s too early to make any predictions on when the novel coronavirus will be contained.
“We don’t know exactly where this outbreak will go. It can go either way,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Thursday.
“One of the reasons why it’s difficult to predict is we still don’t know much about the virus.”
China reported 15,000 new cases of coronavirus Thursday, and Jasarevic explained the dramatic spike is a result of how cases are being tallied.
“Now not only people who are confirmed by laboratory testing are being reported but also people who presented clinical symptoms and have been diagnosed clinically without going through testing,” said Jasarevic.
The change allows untested patients to get the same treatments as those who have been confirmed, he added. Jasarevic said more studies are needed on the spread of the virus in the population in order to determine whether the outbreak is bigger than previously thought.
“There may be more [mild] cases. People who do not see the doctor or people who see a doctor but are not necessarily tested,” he said.
12:00 – “As each day passes, the chances of evacuation slip by:” Nigerian students “abandoned” in Wuhan (From CNN’s Sheena McKenzie)
Victor Vincent is one of around 50 Nigerian students living in Wuhan — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — who say they’ve been abandoned by their country, their repeated pleas for evacuation and medical supplies largely ignored by government officials.
The students say they, along with over a dozen other Nigerian teachers and businesspeople living in Hubei province, have repeatedly written and called Nigerian government officials requesting assistance. But they say very little has been forthcoming in return.
Many countries, including the US, the UK and Japan, are working to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan. Nigeria is yet to take such a step.
Requests for evacuation, medical supplies: As well as evacuation, Vincent, who is an executive of the Nigerian Students in Wuhan Association, said they’ve asked the government for medical supplies, such as masks, goggles, gloves and disinfectant.
Money for food: The association received a grant of 20,000 yuan ($2,870) from the Nigerian ambassador to China last Thursday. The money was provided to “assist us in procuring foodstuffs and medical supplies,” Vincent said.
Chances of evacuation slip by: “Other than that, the situation remains the same. We still have no clear indication on when we are getting evacuation, where we will be quarantined or even if that will happen at all,” Vincent said.
“As each day passes, the chances of evacuation slip by. It’s the total lack of support and sense of abandonment by your country,” Vincent said.
CNN reached out to the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Nigerian embassy in Beijing, but has not received a response.
8:50 – Vietnam has placed an entire community on lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus after reporting the country’s 16th confirmed case, according to a government news report.
The 50-year-old male patient is the father of a previously confirmed case at the Son Loi commune in Vinh Phuc province, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the capital Hanoi. This is the first lockdown of a town outside of mainland China since the start of the outbreak, and some 10,000 people are affected, according to Agence France-Presse.
Local authorities locked down the area around the commune in Binh Xuyen district, and residents will be quarantined for the next 20 days starting from today, the report said.
8:45 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
60,335 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases By Country
59,810 Mainland China
175 Others
50 Singapore
50 Hong Kong
33 Thailand
28 South Korea
28 Japan
18 Malaysia
18 Taiwan
16 Germany
16 Vietnam
15 Australia
14 US
11 France
10 Macau
9 UK
8 United Arab Emirates
7 Canada
3 Italy
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Russia
2 Spain
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Sri Lanka
525 Total Cases Outside of China
1,369 Total Deaths
6,062 Total Recovered
8:40 – In an announcement to passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship this afternoon, Captain Stefano Ravera gave more details on which passengers will be allowed to disembark early.
Ravera said that everybody over the age of 80 has now been tested for the novel coronavirus.
The captain said that those who will be given the option of disembarking early are:
- Passengers 80 years or over with a chronic medical condition, and who test negative for the virus.
- Passengers 80 years or over staying in an inside cabin, and who test negative for the virus.
- Other passengers under 80 who have been given a test for any other reason, and tested negative.
- Those passengers will still have to remain in a “housing facility managed by the Japanese government” until the end of the quarantine. Anyone who has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will not be allowed to disembark.
Passengers who test positive will continue to be moved to on-shore hospitals.
2 weeks on lockdown: More than 3,700 passengers and crew are stuck on the cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan that is essentially a floating quarantine zone. The ship was placed under quarantine on February 4 and it isn’t scheduled to be lifted until February 19.
Rising infections: The number of infections aboard is increasing by the day. On Thursday, another 44 people tested positive for the virus aboard the ship, bringing the total to 219.
8:30 – Yesterday, 242 people died in the Chinese province of Hubei as a result of coronavirus. It’s the deadliest day ever, writes the BBC. Also, the number of new patients has increased rapidly. 14,840 new cases were reported.
Hubei, in fact, has begun to use a broader definition to diagnose new cases, and in doing so should seek part of the answer for the sudden leap of new patients. Until yesterday, the sudden increase in deaths and sick was considered to have stabilized. So far, 1350 people have died from coronaviruses. About 60,000 were infected.
“This epidemic can go in any direction”
Although yesterday it was thought that the situation was slowly stabilizing, the WHO warned that it was too early to predict the end.
“I think it’s too early today to talk about the beginning, the course and the end of this epidemic,” said Michael Ryan, head of the organization’s emergency department. Tedros World Health Organization President Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of new cases in China had stabilized over the last week, but that “it should be interpreted with extreme caution.”
“This epidemic can go in any direction,” Tedros added. The WHO organized a conference of hundreds of epidemiologists from around the world on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva to discuss ways to combat the new epidemic.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday highlighted a “positive development” as the number of new infections has declined over the last three days, though the death toll is more than 1,100. The president, however, stressed that caution in this “great war” should not be discounted.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 12, 2020:
12:45 – On the JAPANESE cruise ship, the number of coronavirus-infected people rose to 175 on Wednesday, none of them are Croatian yet, while at the same time around 300 employees were evacuated from Singapore’s largest DBS bank because one employee was infected. Four people are in critical condition.
39 Infected on Cruise Ship, Including Health Care Professional
The Diamond Princess cruiser, which is quarantined in Japan, has infected another 39 people, including one health care worker, the Japanese health ministry said on Wednesday. The cruiser has been quarantined for two weeks since arriving in Yokoham, south of Tokyo, on February 3, after a man who was disembarked in Hong Kong was found infected with the virus.
There are about 3700 people aboard the cruise ship, including six Croatians. Citing the Ministry of Health, the Kyodo News Agency reported that out of 39 cases, 10 were infected crew members and 29 were passengers and were taken to hospital. A healthcare professional was infected while screening patients and crew for Feb. 3.
He followed rules which required the wearing of a mask and gloves, but not the entire protective suit, according to the Nikkei business daily, cited by the Ministry of Health. A passenger from the ship who did not want to be named for Reuters said it was “horrible what happened to the healthcare professional.”
“The one who came to our room for the initial test was wearing gloves and surgical masks, and those who came to do the virus tests had full-face bathrobes and masks,” said the passenger.
How it can be contagious by wearing a mask and gloves, explained epidemiologist David Fisman of the University of Toronto. “There are many ways to transmit the infection even if you wear a mask. Hand hygiene, touching the mask after which you do not wash your hands, wearing a mask but touching the eyes with a contaminated hand …. It happens,” Fisman said. “Personal protection only reduces the risk, does not eliminate it,” he said.
Singapore Bank Evacuates Staff
In Singapore’s largest bank, after a virus was confirmed in one of the employees, all 300 employees working on the same floor were sent home on Wednesday.
“As a precautionary measure, all employees on that floor have vacated the premises and are working from home,” the BBC said in a statement.
8:25 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
45,188 Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide
Confirmed Cases by Country
44,670 Mainland China
175 Others
49 Hong Kong
47 Singapore
33 Thailand
28 South Korea
28 Japan
18 Malaysia
18 Taiwan
16 Germany
15 Australia
15 Vietnam
13 US
11 France
10 Macau
8 United Arab Emirates
8 UK
7 Canada
3 Italy
3 Philippines
3 India
2 Russia
2 Spain
1 Nepal
1 Cambodia
1 Belgium
1 Finland
1 Sweden
1 Sri Lanka
518 Total Cases Outside of China
1,116 Total Deaths
4,856 Total Recovered
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 11, 2020:
14:45 – The Chinese table tennis has flown to a Qatar training base to avoid returning home in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The squad of nearly 30 flew to Doha at the conclusion of the German Open and have settled into the Aspire Academy Arena ahead of the Qatar Open, which gets under way on March 3.
14:00 – The Wuhan coronavirus poses a “very grave threat for the rest of the world,” the head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday at the start of a two-day meeting in Geneva on the outbreak.
“With 99% of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, Reuters reported.
Tedros also said that there had been some “concerning instances” of onward transmission from people who had no travel history to China, including cases in France and the UK.
13:30 – The MS Westerdam, which has more than 2,000 people on board, has now been denied entry by at least four different ports over fears of the Wuhan coronavirus.
Thailand’s Prime Minister said the country would try to assist the ship but that it would not allow the boat to dock in Thailand to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. No cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed on the ship so far.
The ship had originally departed Singapore on January 16 and called into ports in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong,
13:20 – A total of 108 people in mainland China died from the Wuhan coronavirus on Monday, according to the country’s National Health Commission (NHC), marking the first time the single-day death toll has crossed into triple digits.
The number of deaths per day in mainland China has steadily risen over the past few weeks, since the Chinese authorities began issuing daily updates.
11:45 – Chinese officials studying the Wuhan coronavirus say most of the cluster cases they have observed from a study are within families. Cluster cases generally refer to “more than two infected cases within a limited space,” Wu Zunyou, a virus expert with China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Wu told reporters Tuesday that from a study of more than 1,000 cluster cases, 83% were identified as family clusters. Other cluster cases appeared to be from schools, supermarkets or places of work which appeared to be caused by “poor awareness of protection,” such as not wearing masks.
11:35 – Health officials in Hong Kong have confirmed seven additional cases of the virus, bringing the city-wide total to 49.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Dr. Chuang Shuk-Kwan of the Center for Health Protection said four of the additional cases can be traced back to previous confirmed cases. Chuang said one case number involves a patient who was a co-worker of a confirmed case who contracted the virus whilst eating hotpot at a dinner party.
8:25 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 43,111
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 42,647
Others: 135
Singapore: 45
Hong Kong: 42
Thailand: 32
South Korea: 28
Japan: 26
Malaysia: 18
Taiwan: 18
Australia: 15
Vietnam: 15
Germany: 14
US: 13
France: 11
Macau: 10
United Arab Emirates: 8
UK: 8
Canada: 7
Italy: 3
Philippines: 3
India: 3
Russia: 2
Spain: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Cases Outside of China: 464
Total Deaths: 1,018
Total Recovered: 4,098
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 10, 2020:
11:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread in China:
11:12 – Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in four more Britons, bringing the total number of infected people to eight in Britain.
9:33 – At least 27 foreigners in China are coronavirus positive, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Two of them died – one American and one Japanese, about 60 years old. Three foreigners have been released and 22 are still in hospitals, said ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
9:29 – The UK has declared the coronavirus a “serious and immanent threat to public health” which gives the government additional tools to prevent the virus from spreading further. In England, two hospitals have been designed as isolation facilities – Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside and Kents Hill Park Hospital in Milton Keynes, according to a statement.
8:55 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 40,547
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 40,171
Others: 64
Singapore: 43
Hong Kong: 36
Thailand: 32
South Korea: 27
Japan: 26
Malaysia: 18
Taiwan: 18
Australia: 15
Germany: 14
Vietnam: 14
US: 12
France: 11
Macau: 10
Canada: 7
United Arab Emirates: 7
Italy: 3
Philippines: 3
India: 3
UK: 3
Russia: 2
Spain: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Cases Outside of China: 376
Total Deaths: 910
Total Recovered: 3,410
8:03 – The Japanese health minister says 130 people from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which also has six Croatians, are positive for coronavirus. The previous figure was 70. There are more than 3600 people on the cruiser.
7:51 – The Women’s World Cup to be held in Singapore has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
7:17 – Car manufacturer KIA has discontinued production at nearly all production lines at its factories in South Korea, a spokesman for the company told CNN. Three factories in Gwangmyeong, Hwaseong and Gwangju have been closed due to problems with sourcing parts from China.
7:15 – Malaysia has confirmed another case of coronavirus, bringing the total to 17. According to state television, the latest case is a 31-year-old Malaysian who has not traveled to China.
7:11 – The Japanese government is working to increase domestic production of face masks due to coronaviruses.
“All the big factories work 24 hours a day to produce masks,” said government official Yoshihide Suga.
7:06 – The Japanese government is considering testing all cruise ship passengers, including six Croatians, for the coronavirus. This is the Diamond Princess cruiser that has been quarantined in Japan’s Yokohama since February 4th.
For now, priority has been given to testing passengers and crew members who have not been feeling well. 70 people on the cruise ship, tests have shown, have the coronavirus, and a total of 3700 people are on board.
Too Early to Say Whether Peak of Epidemic Has Passed
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of new cases in China in one day has now stabilized, but it is too early to say that the epidemic has passed. A group of international experts from the World Health Organization, led by Bruce Aylward, a veteran who also worked at other health crisis centers, traveled to China on Sunday night, WHO reported.
“In four days, we recorded a period of stability during which the number of reported cases of infection did not increase. This is good news and could have implications for surveillance measures,” said Michael Ryan, who is in charge of emergency health programs at WHO.
In mainland China, where a total of 2618 cases were reported in Hubei on Monday, a total of 39,800 are now ill. Compared to last Wednesday, when 3900 newborns were recorded, a slowdown in the spread of the disease was noted. About 2,600 new infections were reported on Sunday.
According to US expert Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, the epidemic could peak in two weeks before it recedes, although an increase in the number of people infected can start when people return to work.
Outside China, including the autonomous provinces of Macau and Hong Kong, more than 350 cases have been reported in some thirty countries.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 9, 2020:
12:30 – Hong Kong officials believe the impact of coronaviruses on their economy will be stronger than the impact of SARS.
11:40 – Two planes from Wuhan departed for Brazil today. They are evacuating Brazilian nationals.
Authorities in Spain have reported that a British citizen is coronavirus positive in Mallorca. It is a family member whose several members are infected in France. They became infected while on a ski trip together and hung out with a Chinese man who had contracted coronavirus in the meantime. Part of the family stayed in France and part went to Mallorca.
10:55 – Another cruiser, Westerdam, is in talks with two ports it does not want to disclose after three ports refused its consent.
Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan did not receive it, although it was not confirmed that there were coronaviruses on board. The quarantine is on board, with 1455 passengers and 802 staff.
10:30 – Hong Kong health authorities have announced that all 3,600 passengers and crew quarantined on a World Dream cruiser will be released, including six Croatian nationals, German news agency dpa reported.
Respiratory samples taken from 1,800 crew members are negative for a coronavirus that killed more than 800 people in mainland China, said Dr. Leung Yiu-hong, a senior health official.
10:00 – More and more people are infected on a cruise ship, which also includes Croatians.. Today, the number of infected people has risen to 70, six more than yesterday.
9:45 – No virus in Croatia so far, all tested for it were negative.
9:40 – A man reporting from Wuhan and posting pictures and photos of the situation in the city has disappeared. His family cannot get in touch with him and he fears for him.
More Dead Than SARS
Now the number of people who have died of coronavirus is greater than the number of people who have died of SARS.
The WHO announced today that it would send its team to China to investigate the spread of the deadly virus.
The Chinese health commission, meanwhile, has given the virus a temporary name. For weeks he has been called the virus from Wuhan, the city he started from. But from now on it will be provisionally called NCP (Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia).
No Coronavirus Cases in Croatia
Up to now, several cases of coronavirus have been suspected in Croatia. First it was the case of a woman in Pula, then a man in Osijek, then Vinkovci, and finally Zagreb. Just yesterday, three patients with symptoms of the virus were admitted to the Fran Mihaljevic Clinic.
Test results arrived, not infected.
The number of infected people worldwide is increasing. Malaysia has reported that they have 16 infected citizens so far, and the number of infected has also increased in Germany, which confirmed the 14th case of infection.
Increasingly Infected On Cruise Ship With Croatian Nationals
The number of those infected also increases on the cruise ship with Croatians. Specifically, 64 were infected yesterday, and today the number has increased to 70 infected. An additional medical staff arrived on the cruiser today, and nine passengers were disembarked and transported to Japan for health reasons.
They will be quarantined at the hospital. Whether Croatians are infected is unknown.
Another Chinese Citizen Reporting On Coronavirus Has Disappeared
While many in China are mourning the doctor who first tried to warn of the coronavirus epidemic, another man reporting from Wuhan has disappeared. He has criticized the virus’s actions in his posts, and his friends and family report that they have lost all contact with him. It’s about journalist Chen Qiushi, who has been in Wuhan since January 24th.
He visited overcrowded hospitals, wards that were isolated and published online what he would record for the world to see the crisis in Wuhan. His relatives say he was quarantined by police and users of the Weibo social network are asking him to be released and to say that he should not repeat the same as with a doctor who tried to alert the virus.
8:40 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 37,555
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 37,199
Others: 64
Singapore: 40
Thailand: 32
Hong Kong: 26
Japan: 26
South Korea: 25
Taiwan: 17
Malaysia: 16
Australia: 15
Germany: 14
Vietnam: 13
US: 12
France: 11
Macau: 10
Canada: 7
United Arab Emirates: 7
Italy: 3
Philippines: 3
India: 3
UK: 3
Russia: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Spain: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Confirmed Cases Outside of China: 356
Total Deaths: 813
Total Recovered: 2,736
8:25 – Your welfare is our top priority, US embassy in Japan tells citizens quarantined on cruise ship. When the Diamond Princess cruise ship went into quarantine in Yokohama, Japan, it had 428 US citizens on board.
At least 13 of them have already been confirmed to be infected with the novel coronavirus, which has spread quickly through the ship. In total, 70 passengers have the virus.
US author Gay Courter, who is on board the ship, told CNN that she was desperate to get off but was being blocked by US and Japanese authorities, despite her insurance provider agreeing to evacuate her.
“I (just) do not want to go home in a box,” she said.
7:00 – There are now 14 people confirmed to be infected with the Wuhan coronavirus in Germany, according to the government’s website. Twelve cases are in the state of Bavaria, and the other two are in the state of Hesse.
New cases are still trickling in from around the world today, including Singapore and South Korea. Earlier on Sunday, Vietnam confirmed it now has 13 cases of coronavirus.
6:30 – The last UK repatriation flight has taken off from Wuhan.
More than 200 passengers, including government officials and British nationals, took off from Wuhan on Saturday night, on the UK’s last evacuation flight out of the city. The British Foreign Office announced the flight had taken off and said that it would be the final trip out of the city at the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Multiple governments, including the United States, have tried to organize flights to take their citizens out of the city. Among the countries to have flown their citizens out of Wuhan are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Japan.
6:10 – The virus appears to be highly contagious and it is spreading quickly in hospitals according to Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A study published Friday in the medical journal JAMA found that 41% of the first 138 patients diagnosed at one hospital in Wuhan, China, were presumed to be infected in that hospital.
Why it’s big news: In plain English, it means that nearly half of the initial infections in this hospital appear to have been spread within the hospital itself. This is called nosocomial transmission. (Doctors use big words to hide bad things: Nosocomial means caught it in the hospital.)
Super-spreader event seems unlikely: What’s more, most spread doesn’t appear to have been the result of a so-called “super-spreader event,” in which a single patient transmits infection to many other people. In these events, a procedure such as bronchoscopy — where a doctor inserts a tube into the patient’s lungs — can result in many infections.
This would be a concern, but not nearly as much as what appears to have happened: Many health care workers and many patients got infected in many parts of the hospital. What’s more, since there’s a broad spectrum of infection and only patients who were sick were tested, it’s quite likely that there was even more transmission in the hospital.
Spreading in hospitals: So, like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) — other coronaviruses — before it, the Wuhan coronavirus is spreading in hospitals.
The virus appears to be quite infectious.
3:20 – Royal Caribbean bans all Chinese passport holders from boarding cruises.
The Royal Caribbean cruise line announced Saturday that it would no longer allow any guest with a Chinese, Hong Kong or Macao passport to board its ships.
“We apologize for the inconvenience to any guests affected by these measures put in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all our guests and crew,” the statement said. It added that all itineraries for the next six months that involved stopovers in mainland China were under review.
It comes as Royal Caribbean’s “Anthem of the Seas” cruise ship has been delayed during a stopover in the United States, over concerns that a number of passengers had previously traveled to mainland China. Today the US Centers for Disease Control announced that four passengers with flu-like symptoms who had been taken off the ship had tested negative for the Wuhan coronavirus.
END OF UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 8, 2020:
14:00 – Princess Dream Cruise ships have received medicine, better internet and a hotline for all passengers on board.
12:57 – A 14-day quarantine in Hong Kong is effective for all travelers from mainland China. So far, there are 161 people quarantined. 148 of them are in isolation in their homes, while the rest are in hotels.
11:08 – A family member has been in contact with another Briton who returned from Singapore in early January. They were in contact at a French ski resort in the east of France. He was contacted by four other members of the same family who have since gone to Mallorca and are being tested for the virus there.
10:48 – French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn announced this morning that five new cases of coronavirus infection have been reported in France. It is about five adults and one child. There are now 11 people infected in the country.
10:40 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 34,939
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 34,609
Others: 61
Singapore: 33
Hong Kong: 26
Thailand: 25
Japan: 25
South Korea: 24
Taiwan: 17
Australia: 15
Malaysia: 15
Germany: 13
Vietnam: 13
US: 12
Macau: 10
Canada: 7
United Arab Emirates: 7
France: 6
Italy: 3
Philippines: 3
India: 3
UK: 3
Russia: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Spain: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Cases Outside China: 330
Total Deaths: 725
Total Recovered: 2,236
10:48 – French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn announced this morning that five new cases of coronavirus have been reported in France. It is about five adults and one child. There are now 11 people infected in the country.
10:30 – “It’s hard to say how deadly a new coronavirus infection is,” Professor Allen Cheng, an infectious disease expert at Monash University in Melbourne, told Reuters.
“Although the death rate seems to be around two percent, there are probably many people who have been infected and not tested … We probably won’t know the right situation for a while.”
10:20 – The Chinese authorities have stressed that the death toll in the epidemic will soon exceed the number of 744 casualties worldwide recorded during the SARS pandemic, another coronavirus that passed from animals to humans in China.
During the spread of the SARS infection, 8098 cases were reported, suggesting a far lower transmission rate than the latest coronavirus but a higher mortality rate.
10:00 – Across China, with the exception of 2050 people who have recovered and those who died, the number of known cases is about 31,774.
9:05 – Yesterday the Chinese announced that they had completed another hospital in about ten days. She specializes in coronavirus and is already receiving patients, CNN reports.
8:40 – Hong Kong citizens continue to buy toilet paper as information is spread that it will disappear from sale.
8:20 – The United Arab Emirates has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus infection, while Thailand has confirmed seven new cases.
8:14 – US Embassy reports that a US citizen died at the age of 60 in Beijing as a result of the virus. It is the first death of a foreigner from a virus in China.
8:10 – There are Croatians on the cruise ship, it is unknown if they are infected. When 61 people were infected, they were not among the patients.
8:00 – Three more passengers on a Japanese cruiser are infected with a coronavirus, bringing the total number of infected to 64, the Japanese health ministry said on Saturday.
7:50 – A lawyer turned citizen journalist reporting from in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has been forcibly quarantined, friends and relatives said on Friday.
Chen Qiushi had been posting videos from Wuhan since January 24, the day after the city was put under lockdown. His dispatches offered a critical take on conditions in the city, including the state of hospitals as well as newly constructed isolation wards.
More Infected On Cruise Ship
The Diamond Princess cruiser with 3700 passengers and crew members has been quarantined since landing at Yokohama Harbor on Monday after a coronavirus was discovered by a man who disembarked from that ship in January in Hong Kong.
Three more passengers on the Japanese cruiser were infected with the coronavirus, bringing the total number of infected to 64, the Japanese health ministry said on Saturday.
Japan’s Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Friday that 41 passengers on the cruiser had been infected with a coronary virus in addition to 20 previously identified cases. Tested passengers showed symptoms or were in close contact with people who developed the symptoms, according to the health ministry. Infected patients will be transferred to hospitals in Tokyo and neighboring cities.
Coronavirus Tests Conducted
In the midst of a coronavirus epidemic that has already killed more than 720 people in China, the Japanese Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that about 279 of the 3,700 passengers and crew were tested for coronavirus.
Additional tests will be conducted if other passengers begin to show symptoms of the disease. Experts say the virus can be transmitted by coughing and sneezing an infected person, but also spreading through contaminated surfaces.
There are also six Croatian nationals on the cruiser, and it is not known if they are ill.
Increasing Number of Deaths
The death toll from a coronavirus epidemic in China has increased to 720 after 81 people died in the central Chinese province of Hubei on Friday, the province’s health commission said on its website. Most of the new deaths were in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, where the coronavirus epidemic began.
That figure is greater than the number of people – about 650 who died of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mainland China and Hong Kong from 2002 to 2003. In addition, a new 2,841 patients were officially registered in Hubei Province, bringing the total number of patients to over 34,000.
9:45 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 31,487
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 31,175
Others: 61
Singapore: 30
Thailand: 25
Japan: 25
Hong Kong: 24
South Korea: 24
Taiwan: 16
Australia: 15
Germany: 12
US: 12
Malaysia: 12
Vietnam: 10
Macau: 10
Canada: 7
France: 6
United Arab Emirates: 5
India: 3
Italy: 2
Russia: 2
Philippines: 2
UK: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Spain: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Cases Outside of China: 312
Total Deaths: 638
Total Recovered: 1,615
9:30 – Here’s the latest on the coronavirus outbreak:
As the coronavirus outbreak continues spreading across Asia and the rest of the world, grief and anger are cutting through the noise, after the death of Chinese whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang. Meanwhile, thousands remain quarantined offshore, and the outbreak is spiking in some countries.
Here’s what has happened today:
Whistleblower doctor dies: Li Wenliang, the Wuhan doctor who was targeted by police for trying to sound the alarm in December, died of the coronavirus late last night. Chinese social media has exploded into near-unprecedented levels of grief and fury against the government, with calls for accountability and freedom of speech — rarely seen in China’s tightly-controlled online sphere.
Cruise ship quarantine: More than 7,300 people are quarantined on two cruise ships off Hong Kong and Japan after former passengers were confirmed to have the virus. Today, authorities confirmed that 61 passengers were infected on the ship in Japan, while all test results for crew members on the Hong Kong ship have so far come back negative.
Spike in cases: Several Asian countries have seen worrying spikes in cases in recent days, sparking fears of self-sustaining outbreak clusters. Japan has 86 cases, including the cases on the cruise ship, the highest number in a country outside China; Singapore has 30; Thailand has 25; and South Korea and Hong Kong have 24 each.
8:30 – The director of Amnesty International criticized the death of Li Wenliang, the Chinese whistleblower doctor, as an indication of “human rights failings” in the coronavirus outbreak, which began in Wuhan, China.
“The case of Li Wenliang is a tragic reminder of how the Chinese authorities’ preoccupation with maintaining ‘stability’ drives it to suppress vital information about matters of public interest,” said regional director Nicholas Bequelin.
“China must learn the lesson from Li’s case and adopt a rights-respecting approach to combating the epidemic. Nobody should face harassment or sanctions for speaking out about public dangers, just because it may cause embarrassment to the government.”
8:15 – Australia will use a mining camp to quarantine patients suspected of having the Wuhan coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said today. The mining camp is located in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory.
There is already a campsite on Christmas Island — known for its notorious offshore immigration detention center — being used to isolate suspected coronavirus patients. But the site there “does not suit the purposes” due to an “inability to properly segregate the people in the facility,” said Morrison.
He added the government is currently consulting the local community in the Northern Territory on using the contingent campsite.
7:30 – Toyota’s plants in China will return to “normal operation” starting the week of February 17 and beyond, a Toyota spokesperson told CNN today. Toyota had been planning to resume operations on February 10. Car plants across China have been closed for two weeks for an extended Lunar New Year holiday as authorities try to contain the virus.
The spokesperson added that the situation will depend on the supplies of various plants, also taking into consideration “the guidelines from local and regional governments, including things like logistics.”
7:00 – China’s National Supervisory Commission, the country’s top anti-corruption agency, is sending a team to Wuhan to investigate the case of doctor Li Wenliang “in response to issues raised by the masses,” the agency said today.
The brief statement didn’t elaborate on the “issues” — but a glance on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, reveal what these may be.
6:45 – Japan’s fourth charter flight evacuating citizens from Wuhan has landed in Tokyo, according to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A total of 198 Japanese citizens and their family members were on board, and will now be placed under mandatory quarantine, said the ministry.
The previous three flights have already repatriated more than 550 Japanese evacuees from Wuhan.
6:25 – Chinese officials praised the country’s response to the coronavirus crisis at a news conference today — but sidestepped questions about the death of whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang. The virus, which has killed 636 people in mainland China, can be “prevented, contained, and cured,” said Xie Feng, commissioner of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong.
“It is the strength of China’s system that reflects such confidence,” he added.
He emphasized China’s speed in responding to the outbreak, claiming “governments at all levels in China were immediately mobilized.”
Fact check: In the weeks after the virus was first detected, authorities clamped down with knee-jerk censorship. Communist Party officials downplayed the severity of the virus, police targeted “rumormongers” like Li Wenliang, and online censors deleted anything that questioned the official line. As the crisis has worsened, it has become clear that the failure to take quick action likely undermined any chance of containing the virus.
5:45 – The death of Chinese whistleblower Li Wenliang after he became infected with the novel coronavirus has sparked an unprecedented outpouring of grief and anger toward the government in China. On social media, mourners have posted portraits and artwork of Li, vowing not to forget him.
But one of the reasons his death was met with such deep emotion from the public was because he was just an ordinary person they could relate to. He hadn’t set out to be a hero from the beginning — he was simply trying to protect his friends. He first warned about the disease in a group chat with fellow medical school classmates and alumni — messages that were screen-captured and then went viral.
5:20 – An evacuation flight bringing Canadian citizens out of Wuhan has departed with 176 passengers on board, according to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, François-Philippe Champagne.
The Canadian evacuees were checked by health officials for symptoms before entering the airport and boarding the plane, and will be continuously monitored during the flight, said officials yesterday. They will be checked again and quarantined once they land.
17:16 – Construction of a second hospital for coronavirus infected people is completed today in Wuhan. According to Chinese media, the hospital is already operating today. Both hospitals were built within a few days.
17:08 – China takes even more restrictive measures to try to control the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. In some areas, these countries have banned group gatherings for dinners, restricted how often people can go outside, and in some buildings have switched off elevators. Read more.
17:00 – A doctor who was among the first to try to alert the world to the dangers of coronavirus has died after being infected with just this dangerous virus. Read more.
16:40 – A baby just 30 hours old, born at a Wuhan hospital, is coronavirus positive. This is the youngest person infected with this new disease.
The baby’s mother was infected, reports the South China Morning Post. This case revealed that there was a possibility of transmission of the virus in the womb as well, and doctors did not rule out the possibility of infection during childbirth or breast milk. Read more.
16:26 – The World Health Organization (WHO) daily press conference is just underway.
“Having the 2019nCoV virus genetic array has allowed us to develop our tests quickly. As we mentioned yesterday, we have sent 250,000 tests to more than 70 laboratories around the world and are training laboratory staff how to use them,” the WHO said.
16:05 – A Chinese city with only eight confirmed cases of coronavirus infection is accused of intercepting a consignment of surgical masks intended for a neighboring municipality with 400 confirmed cases of infection.
Dali city authorities shifted the blame to two officials. One of them, the city’s director of health, has been dismissed. China is considering postponing annual parliamentary session over coronavirus, Reuters reported. The National People’s Congress (NPC), consisting of about 3,000 MPs, usually meets on March 5 for a multi-day session in Beijing.
15:43 – Vietnam has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus and the total number of infected has risen to 12.
According to Vietnamese state media, the two most recent cases, a 16-year-old and a 49-year-old, are family members of a worker who was found to be positive for coronavirus after his return from Wuhan. All Vietnam schools remain closed until further notice.
15:20 – 3700 passengers and crew members of the cruise ship on which the coronavirus appeared until further quarantined. There are 171 people waiting.
15:10 – Britain and Germany confirm new cases of coronavirus infection. In Britain, a third person was found to be infected. There are 13 recorded cases in Germany so far.
14:58 – All three postal operators from Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to the appearance of the coronavirus, completely stopped sending all regular postal items for China, except express delivery via DHL service, while the delivery of shipments for customers from BiH from the Wuhan area was interrupted, and for other regions expect delays.
As reported by the Croatian Post in Mostar, the receipt of all types of regular shipments performed by postal operators from BiH, Croatian Post Mostar, Post of BiH and Post of Republika Srpska destined for the destination of the People’s Republic of China has been suspended until further notice.
14:52 – Another case of coronavirus confirmed in the UK, the third in the country.
14:02 – Varazdin Mayor Ivan Cechok wrote a letter to the residents of Wuhan. Read more.
14:00 – A British man who is among the 3700 people quarantined on a cruise ship near Japan on his Facebook posts about the situation on board. Read more. David Abel praised Diamond Princess for acting in this situation, but added that there was still a fear of spreading the disease on board.
13:11 – Chinese CCTV television continues to confirm information today about two babies infected with coronavirus. The youngest child is 30 hours old and his mother is infected too.
12:43 – A Chinese official said that canceling flights to China, which many companies do, is not rational.
“China is very concerned and dissatisfied. We hope that the countries that do so will think generally of the relations between the countries as well as the desire of people to continue to travel normally,” said a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry.
12:30 – The Bill and Melinde Gates Foundation will donate $100 million to find a vaccine.
11:53 – KLM and Air France suspend flights to China until March.
11:00 – The US will send two more evacuation planes to Wuhan this week for Wuhan citizens. It will also be the last evacuation aircraft.
10:25 – Former WHO Special Adviser says she thinks scientists are weeks away from testing coronavirus vaccines in animals, but also that it may take months to test for humans.
10:00 – Chinese railways record up to 80 percent fewer passengers, as many quarantine cities and people travel less.
9:40 – Saudi Arabia has banned citizens from traveling to China.
9:12 – Taiwan has introduced a quarantine obligation for incoming Macao and Hong Kong people.
8:48 – Uzbekistan has evacuated 251 of its nationals from China.
China is considering delaying its annual parliamentary session, several sources told Reuters at a time when the country is trying to stem the spread of a coronavirus epidemic that has left 563 people dead so far. Read more.
8:20 – Adidas closes its offices in China due to coronavirus.
8:15 – Taiwan confirms two new cases of coronavirus infection.
8:00 – Meanwhile, 1,800 cruise passengers near Hong Kong are awaiting the results of a coronavirus test
7:55 – There are six Croatians quarantined near Japan. The number of reported cases of coronavirus infection on that ship has doubled and climbed to 20, Japanese media reported citing health authorities.
Doctors have examined 273 of the 3,700 people aboard the ship since the disease was discovered in a man who went off that ship in Hong Kong in January. Passengers who were informed that they might have to stay on board for 14 days, even if their findings turned out to be negative, went out to the balcony, some greeted the cameras and others took photos.
When asked by the media, they said that there was great discomfort on the cruiser because they were locked in their cabin for fear of getting in touch with patients.
7:50 – The youngest infected victim is a baby 30 hours old. The baby is from Wuhan, and it is not yet known exactly how she got infected. Her mother is suffering from coronavirus, so experts take into account the transmission of the virus in the womb, but it is also possible that the baby became infected through normal, close contact with her mother. It is also possible that the baby became infected at birth.
7:40 – The number of infected people has increased the most in the last 24 hours.
7:30 – Taiwan closes its ports for international cruisers.
Six Croatians Quarantined On Cruise Ship
Six Croats are aboard the Diamond Princess cruiser, which was quarantined at a port in Yokohama yesterday.
We contacted a travel agency that organized a trip for Croatian nationals on a cruise ship to Japan. They confirmed that there are six Croats aboard the Diamond Princess. The agency is in contact with all of them and they are feeling well, have no symptoms of the disease.
The Agency informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry contacted them and the diplomatic office there was informed. Suspicious persons have been isolated and the ship is currently in quarantine and pending a decision by the shipping company on further proceedings.
“The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has received, through the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to Japan, confirmation that six Croat citizens are on the Diamond Princess cruiser. their competencies, “the Ministry replied.
4:50 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 28,254
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 27,997
Japan: 45
Singapore: 28
Thailand: 25
South Korea: 23
Hong Kong: 21
Australia: 14
Germany: 12
US: 12
Malaysia: 12
Taiwan: 11
Vietnam: 10
Macau: 10
France: 6
Canada: 5
United Arab Emirates: 5
India: 3
Italy: 2
Russia: 2
Philippines: 2
UK: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Spain: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Cases Outside of China: 257
Total Deaths: 565
Total Recovered: 1,171
4:30 – Here’s a roundup of some major airlines that have suspended or reduced their flights to mainland China to limit the spread of the virus:
North America
American Airlines: Suspended until March 27
United Airlines: Suspended until March 28
Delta: Suspended until April 30
Air Canada: Suspended until February 29
Asia and Oceania
Air Asia: Some flights suspended until February 29
All Nippon: Some flights suspended until March 29
Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon: 90% reduction in flights
Japan Airlines: Some flights suspended until March 28
Korean Air: Some flights suspended until the end of March
Singapore Airlines and SilkAir: Some flights suspended until March 1
Qantas: Suspended until March 29
Air New Zealand: Suspended until March 29
Europe and the Middle East
Air France: Suspended until February 9
British Airways: Suspended until February 29
Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines: Beijing and Shanghai flights suspended until February 29; other routes until March 28
Turkish Airlines: Suspended until the end of February
Etihad: Suspended from February 5
Emirates: Suspended from February 5
Qatar Airways: Suspended until further notice
Finnair: Beijing and Shanghai flights suspended until February 29; other routes to March 29
KLM: Beijing and Shanghai flights suspended until February 9; other routes to February 29
Iberia: Suspended until February 29
17:50 – “In the last 24 hours, we have had the highest number of reported infections in a single day since the outbreak,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), today.
17:35 – According to CNN, two people infected with the coronavirus arrived in the US, but the other passengers sitting near them did not show any symptoms. A spokesman for the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed this. These two patients are among 11 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States. Important information is that they had symptoms during the flight because it is considered highly likely that people who have coronavirus symptoms will infect others. But this does not seem to have happened in this case.
Two infected people traveled from China to Los Angeles on January 22. The 14-day incubation process has ended, so it is believed that people who were with them on the flight are no longer at risk of coronavirus infection.
17:30 – The White House has said the coronavirus is a “very dangerous and worrying virus” and that “the US will do everything to contain it and that it is there for the Chinese people.”
17:25 – Adidas closes stores in China due to coronavirus. According to the company, it will close a significant number of its stores across China. The company has about 12,000 stores in that country, including franchisees. They say they are already suffering losses in China, but it is too early to say how much.
16:30 – The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent an appeal for $675 million to fight coronavirus.
“We are seeking $675 million to fund a coronavirus spread plan for the next three months. $60 million will go to fund WHO operations, the rest to countries at particular risk,” WHO said. Singapore has confirmed four more cases of coronavirus infection, including a diseased six-month-old baby. The number of infected people in that country has climbed to 28, reports The Independent.
15:45 – German sportswear company Adidas (ADSGn.DE) announced today that it is closing a “substantial” number of stores in China, where nearly 500 people have died from coronaviruses.
“We can confirm that the epidemic has had a negative effect on our business in China,” a company spokeswoman said.
15:40 – We contacted a travel agency that organized a trip for Croatian nationals on a cruise to Japan. They confirmed that there were six Croatians aboard the Diamond Princess. The agency is in contact with all of them and they are feeling well, have no symptom of the disease. Otherwise, it was a journey that took 19 days. The departure was on January 18 from Ljubljana Airport.
15:00 – A dozen coronavirus-infected people are on the Diamond Princess cruiser in Japan. There are six Croatians on the cruiser. They are quarantined. Read more.
14:56 – The cruise ship quarantine near Japan, which has 3700 people, also has citizens of Serbia. According to the Telegraph, there are 14 Serbian citizens aboard the cruise ship, 12 are staff members and 2 are passengers. The information was confirmed for Tanjug by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has informed us that there are 14 Serbian citizens, 12 staff members and two passengers on board the Diamond Princess quarantined because of the coronavirus, as well as one Montenegrin citizen”; Dacic said.
He says Serbian citizens are feeling fine. The ship is currently undergoing coronavirus tests, and so far 10 results have been positive. The examinations and quarantine began after one passenger was found to be coronavirus positive.
14:44 – One person passed away in the Philippines.
14:25 – Hong Kong ambulances are closed as 4,500 health workers strike. They are asking the government to close all border crossings with China.
14:17 – A meeting of the Committee on Health and Social Policy was held in Parliament. The first item on the agenda was to inform the public about new coronavirus infection in Croatia and worldwide. The session also highlighted that there are no infected patients in Croatia so far, but that there is a real threat that the epidemic will come to Croatia. Read more.
14:00 – Royal Carbbean canceled eight cruises from China until the end of March.
13:38 – A charter with US citizens evacuated from Wuhan has landed in California.
13:22 – Disney could lose $280 million due to coronavirus and closing its center in China.
13:10 – A fourteenth infection case has been reported in Australia.
13:00 – CNN reports that a woman waiting for a coronavirus test in Austria has escaped from a hospital.
The 31-year-old fled the hospital around 3 a.m. and was found in her home around 10 p.m. She has been in the hospital since Tuesday and it is not clear why she escaped. Now the police are questioning her.
12:30 – In Wuhan, the epicenter of contagion, one person has died on 23 reported cases. In other Chinese regions, the number drops to one dead per 50 infected, with an average of one death per 114 reported cases outside China.
Experts say this discrepancy is present primarily because mild cases of the virus are not reported in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province, as the country struggles with a lack of testing equipment and hospital beds.
“When confronted with an infection, you have to interpret the mortality rate with a dose of skepticism, because only rarely do people come into focus,” said Amesh Adalja, a pandemic preparedness expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore.
11:45 – A leading British scientist has achieved significant success in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine after reducing the usual time of one phase of vaccine development from “two to three years to just 14 days,” Sky reported.
Robin Shattock, head of the mucosal infections and immunity department at Imperial College, London, said he should start testing the vaccine on animals next week and, if sufficient funding is available, will start testing the vaccine for humans in the summer. Sky reported. Read more.
11:20 – The UK sends the last plane to take British to Wuhan. The charter is expected to return to Britain on Sunday morning.
10:50 – Hong Kong manager Carrie Lam announced today that all persons coming to Hong Kong from China will be quarantined for 14 days.
10:40 – China has confirmed that the US has sent them supplies to fight coronavirus.
10:15 – Chinese police have begun detaining people who lie about their trips to Wuhan. They are said to pose a danger to public safety. A worker is being arrested in northern China and is being investigated for intentionally hiding from traveling to Wuhan. He returned from Wuhan last month because he had been working there for a while.
The report cited false weather and returns to the village to be before the epidemic. In addition, he coughs and has a fever he has been hiding from investigators, while also actively interacting with neighbors.
“What is particularly appalling is that he concealed that his son, who was hanging out with larger groups of people upon his return, returned with him from Wuhan,” police said.Both are infected and are now quarantined. They were accused of violating criminal law as well as infectious disease law.
9:45 – Out of 12 infected in Germany, 10 are infected in Bavaria and two are infected in Essen.
9:17 – Hong Kong Airlines Cathay Pacific asks employees, 27,000, to take three weeks of unpaid leave between March and June.
“Due to coronavirus, demand will decline. Saving money is key to protecting our business. We have already taken a number of measures to ensure this, and today we are also seeking help from our employees, ”they added.
9:10 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
Total Confirmed Cases: 24,562
Confirmed Cases by Country/Region:
Mainland China: 24,349
Thailand: 25
Singapore: 24
Japan: 22
Hong Kong: 18
South Korea: 16
Australia: 13
Germany: 12
US: 11
Taiwan: 11
Macau: 10
Malaysia: 10
Vietnam: 8
France: 6
United Arab Emirates: 5
Canada: 4
India: 3
Italy: 2
Russia: 2
Philippines: 2
UK: 2
Nepal: 1
Cambodia: 1
Belgium: 1
Spain: 1
Finland: 1
Sweden: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Cases Outside of China: 213
Total Deaths: 493
Total Recovered: 910
9:00 – Two cruise ships are now quarantined: one near Japan with 3,700 people and one near Hong Kong with 1,800 people.
8:25 – Of the ten infected on a cruise ship near Japan, three are from Hong Kong and Japan, two from Australia and one each from the US and the Philippines.
8:00 – Three cities in China now have over 1000 patients. These are Wuhan with 8,351 patients, Guanggang with 1,645 patients and Xiaogan with 1,462 patients.
7:40 – The Philippines confirms a third case of infection. A woman in her sixties became infected.
7:37 – Taiwan confirms eleventh infection case. It’s about a man in his fifties.
7:35 – Australia has confirmed a thirteenth case of coronavirus infection. He fell ill with an eight-year-old boy who is Chinese from Wuhan and came to Australia for a tourist. He is isolated at the hospital and is stable for now.
7:30 – Meanwhile, health workers in Hong Kong continue to strike. Authorities say it has had a serious effect on the work of the services. Workers are demanding that all border crossings with China be closed and warned that invisible chains of transmission of viruses within communities could take place in Hong Kong, as shown by new infections.
7:25 – CNN reports that a US plane with Americans living in China has departed from that country and is about to land in California.
7:20 – A Japanese cruiser was quarantined on Tuesday because it previously traveled to a person who has been confirmed to be infected with a coronavirus has a dozen infected people, the health ministry announced.
Inspections began on Tuesday for about 3,700 passengers and crew on a cruise ship after a coronavirus was confirmed to a Hong Kong passenger aboard the ship in January. Read more.
WHO Sends Important Message
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last night called on countries not to impose travel and trade bans on coronaviruses, warning that such measures could increase fear and stigma around the world. He emphasized that such measures have very little real impact on public health.
“Where such measures are put in place, we urge them to be short-lived and proportionate to the risks to public health and to be regularly reviewed in view of the evolving situation,” he added.
He also called on members of the World Health Organization to quickly establish cooperation between the public and private sectors to develop diagnostics, medicines and vaccines, all to put the spread of the deadly virus under control.
Ghebreyesus also urged members to share information with them, epidemiologically, clinically, and the results of other tests, as it is difficult for the WHO to track the evolution of the spread of coronavirus without this information.
“The risk of the coronavirus spreading even further globally remains high. Now is the time for countries to prepare for it,” he said.
18:00 – A resident of Split who was admitted to the Clinic for Infectology of the Clinical Hospital Center Split on Sunday on suspicion of coronavirus infection was not infected. Read more.
17:04 – Japanese authorities have announced that they will make it impossible for foreigners who have recently been to Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus, to enter the country.
16:53 – Pakistan reintroduces flights to China after suspending them on Friday.
16:28 – Coronavirus kills more people in China than SARS in 2003. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, coronavirus has killed more than 360 people in China, while 349 people have been killed by SARS in China.
Croatia is chairing the EU Council, ready to assume responsibility for preventing a possible global crisis with coronavirus, although it hopes it will not happen, Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday. Beroš met with Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic in Brussels.
“We talked about this global crisis that is on the rise, although we hope it will not come to pass,” Beros said. He added that he would organize a telephone conference with Member States’ health ministers this week.
16:00 – Two patients suspected of being infected with coronavirus arrived at the General County Hospital in Vinkovci. Both are hospitalized Croatian nationals who have worked in China. Read more …
15:40 – According to unofficial Dalmatia, the first finding of the analysis of his blood and swabs of his nose and throat is negative. A final finding from the Zagreb Infectious Diseases Clinic “Dr. Fran Mihaljevic”, which is very likely to confirm this first finding, is expected in the afternoon. Read more …
15:30 – Some media in BiH reported that a child in Tuzla was hospitalized for suspected coronavirus, but soon denied that information from the hospital. China Easter became the first major Chinese airline to cancel flights to and from the United States.
A number of large companies have already canceled flights to China, including Air Canada, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways.
14:50 – The Vatican has sent hundreds of thousands of face masks to China’s Hubei, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the masks were being sent to stop the spread of coronaviruses.
14:10 – It has been reported that the patient from Đakovo in KBC Osijek is healthy and that the results on coronavirus are negative. He is likely to be discharged for home treatment today. Read more … Swallows have announced that they will prevent entry to the country by all foreigners who have recently been to Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus.
13:27 – Vietnam has confirmed the eighth case of coronavirus infection.
13:20 – Split Crisis Headquarters addresses coronaviruses. “A man was received yesterday for suspected coronavirus. He recently returned from China. Since he came from China and has symptoms, we isolated him, took samples, and the findings were sent to Zagreb. Test results should be known when they are finished,” it is said. Read more.
12:35 – Russian TASS reports that the country may deport foreigners infected with the virus. This information was published by Prime Minister Mishustin. TASS cites a federal law that allows foreigners to be deported if their presence poses a threat to public health. Misustin also added that the national plan is to prevent the spread of coronaviruses in Russia.
12:30 – Split Crisis Headquarters at 13:00 commented on the condition of a patient suspected to have coronavirus. More tests pending. Patient is stable.
China plans to inject a net 150 billion yuan ($22 billion) into the economy today to support it in the face of a coronavirus epidemic. The central bank will inject a total of 1,200 billion yuan ($174 billion) into the financial system, the largest amount in a day since such operations began, according to the BBC. Read more.
11:55 – In Germany, eight people are infected with a coronavirus. Seven of them, five Germans and two Chinese are employed by Webasto car parts suppliers. The company is headquartered in Bavaria in Stockdorf. The eighth person is the child of one of the employees. All eight patients are stable and only one of them has flu symptoms. Four infected people were at a workshop held by a Chinese company employee who began to feel unwell on returning to China where she was confirmed to be infected.
The company headquarters in Stockdorf have been professionally disinfected over the weekend and will be closed by Tuesday. 140 company employees are tested for the virus and none are positive, but 80 of them must stay in their homes and avoid contact with people.
11:30 – Primarius Krunoslav Capak, Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, spoke today to HRT about the coronavirus
“On Sunday, the first case of a dead person outside China was reported. So far, these have only been cases in China. There are 10 cases in Germany, with a total of 26. There are no cases in Croatia. There was one suspicion in Osijek, but the findings were negative, “he said, adding that there was another suspicion in Split, but he believes that this is not a coronavirus either.
11:10 – The Italians who were in Wuhan, 56 of them, landed in Italy. They are now followed by a medical examination and a 14-day quarantine.
10:50 – Hong Kong has announced further closure of borders. Carrie Lam announced that additional measures would be taken to ensure border controls and to reduce the number of border crossings.
The main two border crossings will close at midnight today. Thus, only three crossings will remain open for the crossing from China to Hong Kong.
10:30 – Earth G7 will hold a joint conference call today to discuss the fight against coronaviruses.
10:15 – Today at 13:00 it will be announced if the Split patient has coronavirus. As a reminder, a younger man has been in isolation at the Infectious Diseases Unit of KBC Split yesterday because of a suspected coronavirus. The patient has mild symptoms, so it is most likely not a coronavirus, but given that he has recently returned from China and has symptoms, he must be isolated from other patients by protocol. Read more.
10:10 – Indonesia suspends food and water supply from China.
9:52 – Today is the worst day on the Chinese stock exchanges in years, CNN reports.
9:40 – “What China urgently needs are medical masks, protective departments and safety goggles,” Chinese Ministry of Health spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a media conference.
“At full capacity, Chinese factories can only produce about 20 million masks a day,” she said, adding that they have already received donations from South Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and Hungary.
9:30 – A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says the US is overreacting to the coronavirus. He says the US is spreading mass hysteria.
“Most countries appreciate and support China’s efforts to fight the virus. We understand and respect them when they introduce or tighten border quarantine measures. But in the meantime, some countries, especially the United States, are overreacting, which is against WHO advice, ”said spokeswoman Hua Chunking. Read more.
9:15 – Thai doctors say they are now treating another patient with a combination of HIV and influenza medicines, adding that the combination of the medication has cured one woman. Waiting for test results for another person.
9:10 – First tests made on French evacuees from Wuhan are negative, CNN reports.
9:02 – China’s first major airline, China Eastern Airlines, suspends flights to the United States. They canceled flights from Shanghai to Los Angeles and to New York until Feb. 10, citing a recent health incident.
8:55 – A third case of coronavirus has been confirmed in India.
8:40 – Russia today plans to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, the epicenter of contagion in central China, and has suspended direct passenger trains to a country where the death toll of coronavirus has climbed to 361.
Russia, whose border with China is 4,300 km long, reported the first two cases of virus infection last week, one in the Siberian region of Tyumen and the other in the Zabaykalsky region in the far east of the country. In both cases, they are Chinese nationals. Read more.
8:33 – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the US will send more planes to Hubei province to evacuate remaining US citizens.
8:10 – The Burj Khalifa in Dubai last night glowed in the colors of China to show support for a country battling the virus.
8:04 – In the US, 11 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed.
7:55 – Findings of a Split patient hospitalized and suspected of having coronavirus still unknown. The index was told to call after 8:30 p.m.
7:51 – A charter flight with Australian nationals has departed from Wuhan and is about to land in Australia.
7:44 – Stock prices have plummeted on Asian stock markets, largely in Chinese markets, where more than $400 billion in market value was erased on the first business day after the New Year’s Day.
7:37 – The Maldives has forbidden entry to the country by all travelers coming from China.
7:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
7:30 – The city of Guyan, located about 1,200 kilometers from Wuhan, has decided that no more than 25 people should be in a 100-square-foot public space at any one time. So they try to prevent the virus from spreading. In fact, public gatherings are completely prevented, and people’s lives are greatly restricted.
7:28 – Hundreds of Hong Kong medical workers are on strike this morning, demanding the full closure of the border with China to reduce the risk of coronavirus.
“If the border is not completely closed, there will not be enough people, protective equipment and isolation rooms to fight the epidemic,” said Winnie Yu, president of the new hospital workers union.
7:10 – A new hospital in China is completed. In just ten days it was built from the ground up and completely renovated.
6:51 – The infectious diseases ward of KBC Split from Sunday evening on suspicion of coronavirus contains a younger man who has recently returned from China, but the results are not yet complete, the hospital has learned.
Thai doctors say they have successfully cured two coronavirus-infected Wuhan patients using a combination of antiviral drugs, the Thai Ministry of Health reported Sunday, CNN reports. Dr. Kriangsak Atipornwanich, a doctor at Bangkok’s Rajavithi Hospital, said he used a combination of medicines used to treat people infected with HIV and flu on a 71-year-old patient.
“We treated the patient in serious condition and the results are very satisfactory. The patient’s condition improved very quickly within 48 hours,” said Dr. Atipornwanich. Ministry officials said at a press conference that recent lab tests showed that there were no more traces of the virus in the patient’s respiratory system.
18:00 – A resident of Split who was admitted to the Clinic for Infectology of the Clinical Hospital Center Split on Sunday on suspicion of coronavirus infection was not infected. Read more.
17:04 – Japanese authorities have announced that they will make it impossible for foreigners who have recently been to Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus, to enter the country.
16:53 – Pakistan reintroduces flights to China after suspending them on Friday.
16:28 – Coronavirus kills more people in China than SARS in 2003. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, coronavirus has killed more than 360 people in China, while 349 people have been killed by SARS in China.
Croatia is chairing the EU Council, ready to assume responsibility for preventing a possible global crisis with coronavirus, although it hopes it will not happen, Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday. Beroš met with Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic in Brussels.
“We talked about this global crisis that is on the rise, although we hope it will not come to pass,” Beros said. He added that he would organize a telephone conference with Member States’ health ministers this week.
16:00 – Two patients suspected of being infected with coronavirus arrived at the General County Hospital in Vinkovci. Both are hospitalized Croatian nationals who have worked in China. Read more …
15:40 – According to unofficial Dalmatia, the first finding of the analysis of his blood and swabs of his nose and throat is negative. A final finding from the Zagreb Infectious Diseases Clinic “Dr. Fran Mihaljevic”, which is very likely to confirm this first finding, is expected in the afternoon. Read more …
15:30 – Some media in BiH reported that a child in Tuzla was hospitalized for suspected coronavirus, but soon denied that information from the hospital. China Easter became the first major Chinese airline to cancel flights to and from the United States.
A number of large companies have already canceled flights to China, including Air Canada, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways.
14:50 – The Vatican has sent hundreds of thousands of face masks to China’s Hubei, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the masks were being sent to stop the spread of coronaviruses.
14:10 – It has been reported that the patient from Đakovo in KBC Osijek is healthy and that the results on coronavirus are negative. He is likely to be discharged for home treatment today. Read more … Swallows have announced that they will prevent entry to the country by all foreigners who have recently been to Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus.
13:27 – Vietnam has confirmed the eighth case of coronavirus infection.
13:20 – Split Crisis Headquarters addresses coronaviruses. “A man was received yesterday for suspected coronavirus. He recently returned from China. Since he came from China and has symptoms, we isolated him, took samples, and the findings were sent to Zagreb. Test results should be known when they are finished,” it is said. Read more.
12:35 – Russian TASS reports that the country may deport foreigners infected with the virus. This information was published by Prime Minister Mishustin. TASS cites a federal law that allows foreigners to be deported if their presence poses a threat to public health. Misustin also added that the national plan is to prevent the spread of coronaviruses in Russia.
12:30 – Split Crisis Headquarters at 13:00 commented on the condition of a patient suspected to have coronavirus. More tests pending. Patient is stable.
China plans to inject a net 150 billion yuan ($22 billion) into the economy today to support it in the face of a coronavirus epidemic. The central bank will inject a total of 1,200 billion yuan ($174 billion) into the financial system, the largest amount in a day since such operations began, according to the BBC. Read more.
11:55 – In Germany, eight people are infected with a coronavirus. Seven of them, five Germans and two Chinese are employed by Webasto car parts suppliers. The company is headquartered in Bavaria in Stockdorf. The eighth person is the child of one of the employees. All eight patients are stable and only one of them has flu symptoms. Four infected people were at a workshop held by a Chinese company employee who began to feel unwell on returning to China where she was confirmed to be infected.
The company headquarters in Stockdorf have been professionally disinfected over the weekend and will be closed by Tuesday. 140 company employees are tested for the virus and none are positive, but 80 of them must stay in their homes and avoid contact with people.
11:30 – Primarius Krunoslav Capak, Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, spoke today to HRT about the coronavirus
“On Sunday, the first case of a dead person outside China was reported. So far, these have only been cases in China. There are 10 cases in Germany, with a total of 26. There are no cases in Croatia. There was one suspicion in Osijek, but the findings were negative, “he said, adding that there was another suspicion in Split, but he believes that this is not a coronavirus either.
11:10 – The Italians who were in Wuhan, 56 of them, landed in Italy. They are now followed by a medical examination and a 14-day quarantine.
10:50 – Hong Kong has announced further closure of borders. Carrie Lam announced that additional measures would be taken to ensure border controls and to reduce the number of border crossings.
The main two border crossings will close at midnight today. Thus, only three crossings will remain open for the crossing from China to Hong Kong.
10:30 – Earth G7 will hold a joint conference call today to discuss the fight against coronaviruses.
10:15 – Today at 13:00 it will be announced if the Split patient has coronavirus. As a reminder, a younger man has been in isolation at the Infectious Diseases Unit of KBC Split yesterday because of a suspected coronavirus. The patient has mild symptoms, so it is most likely not a coronavirus, but given that he has recently returned from China and has symptoms, he must be isolated from other patients by protocol. Read more.
10:10 – Indonesia suspends food and water supply from China.
9:52 – Today is the worst day on the Chinese stock exchanges in years, CNN reports.
9:40 – “What China urgently needs are medical masks, protective departments and safety goggles,” Chinese Ministry of Health spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a media conference.
“At full capacity, Chinese factories can only produce about 20 million masks a day,” she said, adding that they have already received donations from South Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and Hungary.
9:30 – A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says the US is overreacting to the coronavirus. He says the US is spreading mass hysteria.
“Most countries appreciate and support China’s efforts to fight the virus. We understand and respect them when they introduce or tighten border quarantine measures. But in the meantime, some countries, especially the United States, are overreacting, which is against WHO advice, ”said spokeswoman Hua Chunking. Read more.
9:15 – Thai doctors say they are now treating another patient with a combination of HIV and influenza medicines, adding that the combination of the medication has cured one woman. Waiting for test results for another person.
9:10 – First tests made on French evacuees from Wuhan are negative, CNN reports.
9:02 – China’s first major airline, China Eastern Airlines, suspends flights to the United States. They canceled flights from Shanghai to Los Angeles and to New York until Feb. 10, citing a recent health incident.
8:55 – A third case of coronavirus has been confirmed in India.
8:40 – Russia today plans to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, the epicenter of contagion in central China, and has suspended direct passenger trains to a country where the death toll of coronavirus has climbed to 361.
Russia, whose border with China is 4,300 km long, reported the first two cases of virus infection last week, one in the Siberian region of Tyumen and the other in the Zabaykalsky region in the far east of the country. In both cases, they are Chinese nationals. Read more.
8:33 – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the US will send more planes to Hubei province to evacuate remaining US citizens.
8:10 – The Burj Khalifa in Dubai last night glowed in the colors of China to show support for a country battling the virus.
8:04 – In the US, 11 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed.
7:55 – Findings of a Split patient hospitalized and suspected of having coronavirus still unknown. The index was told to call after 8:30 p.m.
7:51 – A charter flight with Australian nationals has departed from Wuhan and is about to land in Australia.
7:44 – Stock prices have plummeted on Asian stock markets, largely in Chinese markets, where more than $400 billion in market value was erased on the first business day after the New Year’s Day.
7:37 – The Maldives has forbidden entry to the country by all travelers coming from China.
7:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
7:30 – The city of Guyan, located about 1,200 kilometers from Wuhan, has decided that no more than 25 people should be in a 100-square-foot public space at any one time. So they try to prevent the virus from spreading. In fact, public gatherings are completely prevented, and people’s lives are greatly restricted.
7:28 – Hundreds of Hong Kong medical workers are on strike this morning, demanding the full closure of the border with China to reduce the risk of coronavirus.
“If the border is not completely closed, there will not be enough people, protective equipment and isolation rooms to fight the epidemic,” said Winnie Yu, president of the new hospital workers union.
7:10 – A new hospital in China is completed. In just ten days it was built from the ground up and completely renovated.
6:51 – The infectious diseases ward of KBC Split from Sunday evening on suspicion of coronavirus contains a younger man who has recently returned from China, but the results are not yet complete, the hospital has learned.
Thai doctors say they have successfully cured two coronavirus-infected Wuhan patients using a combination of antiviral drugs, the Thai Ministry of Health reported Sunday, CNN reports. Dr. Kriangsak Atipornwanich, a doctor at Bangkok’s Rajavithi Hospital, said he used a combination of medicines used to treat people infected with HIV and flu on a 71-year-old patient.
“We treated the patient in serious condition and the results are very satisfactory. The patient’s condition improved very quickly within 48 hours,” said Dr. Atipornwanich. Ministry officials said at a press conference that recent lab tests showed that there were no more traces of the virus in the patient’s respiratory system.
21:59 – The United States will further tighten measures for all travelers who have recently arrived from China, and enforcement is beginning these days.
20:57 – A man with suspected coronavirus was admitted to the KBC in Split. Read more.
19:20 – A man was been placed in isolation at a hospital in Osijek under the suspicion that he had been infected with the coronavirus. His first test for the virus returned negative results. Doctors were awaiting the results of the second test according to Dnevnik on February 2, 2020. The second test confirmed that man does not have the coronavirus according to HRT.
19:15 – Italian scientists at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases have isolated a rapidly expanding coronavirus, according to Italian media when it was confirmed that it has infected more than 14,000 people in more than twenty countries. Read more.
18:45 – Thai doctors have noticed that severe cases of coronavirus can be treated with a combination of flu and HIV medicines. Read more.
18:07 – Students from Pakistan studying at the University of Wuhan say they have been detained. The Pakistani government last week announced that it would not evacuate its own students from the epicenter of coronavirus infection.
18:05 – The second plane with US citizens will leave Wuhan tomorrow.
17:10 – A student who left the Chinese city of Wuhan – the epicenter of the contagion – left two weeks ago to return to Zagreb. Read more.
16:35 – Israel has temporarily closed all land, sea and air traffic from China for coronavirus protection.
16:27 – The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has confirmed that four Croatian nationals have arrived in France from China and will remain there for two weeks in isolation. Read more.
16:20 – A French aircraft of 250 Europeans departing from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus epidemic, has landed at a military base near Marseille, but the news agency news has not confirmed whether the four Croatians are on that plane.
16:10 – A man who came to the hospital in Osijek yesterday with a suspected coronavirus infection was immediately hospitalized. The first test was negative and doctors are awaiting the results of additional tests to confirm whether the man is infected with the coronavirus. The final result should be available around 19:00 CET tonight, KBC Osijek said. Read more.
16:00 – Another case of coronavirus infection has been confirmed in Hong Kong and the number of infected has risen to 15.
15:59 – German Minister of Health Jens Spahn has announced that two new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Germany. This means that this is the tenth infection in Germany.
15:40 – There are currently no confirmed coronavirus patients in Croatia, 21 people are ill with the virus in the European Union, 14,564 in the world, and 305 people have died so far, the Croatian Institute of Public Health announced on Sunday at 3pm.
15:35 – A man is currently in isolation at a hospital in Osijek and is suspected of being infected with a coronavirus. The first test was negative and doctors are awaiting results of a second test. Read more.
15:12 – The Formula E race in China has been canceled and the date for the event has been postponed to March 21.
15:10 – The Croatian who left Wuhan 12 days ago arrived in Zagreb. She was met by the crisis staff and will be under surveillance for two days. Read more.
12:52 – Iraq has also joined the growing list of countries that have banned travelers from China.
12:09 – Rumors have been circulated on social media this morning about a suspected case of a coronavirus infection in Osijek. Index contacted the HZJZ, and were told that there were no reported cases of coronavirus infection in Croatia. Read more.
11:45 – Chinese scientists say they have discovered a new way of spreading coronavirus infection – the digestive tract. Read more.
11:03 – Although more countries are banning travelers from China, experts from the World Health Organization say it’s a bad idea. Read more.
10:52 – The world stock markets fell sharply last week due to the spread of coronavirus. Read more.
9:45 – How the coronavirus currently compares with SARS. Infection rate nearly double. Death rate lower.
9:30 – The South Korean government is banning entry to all foreign nationals who visited China’s Hubei province in the past 14 days.
The measure starts on February 4, according to South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun. Chung also said South Korean citizens who had visited the province in the past 14 days should voluntarily quarantine themselves at home for two weeks after they arrive back into the country.
A system that allows Chinese citizens to enter South Korea’s Jeju Island without a visa is to be temporarily suspended. Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States have banned all foreign nationals traveling from China from entering the country.
9:26 – Croats evacuated from Wuhan arrived in southern France today where they will be placed in a 14-day quarantine, according to HRT.
9:15 – Oman has decided to cut off air links with China from today, and the same decision was made by Vietnam.
8:45 – More and more countries around the world are closing their borders for people arriving from China. The US and Australia have announced they will ban all foreigners who have recently been to China. Previously, similar restrictions were announced by Russia, Japan, Pakistan and Italy, the BBC reported.
8:30 – The Central Bank of China has decided to pump $174 billion into the economy to mitigate the negative economic consequences of the coronavirus epidemic.
8:15 – How the coronavirus outbreak went global in two months. The first case of coronavirus was detected in central China in early December. Now, nearly two months later, it’s a full-blown global emergency, with more than 14,300 confirmed cases across the world.
Here’s a chronology:
December 8: First patient develops symptoms of Wuhan coronavirus
December 31: Earliest cases of virus reported to World Health Organization (WHO)
January 1: Seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have originated, is closed for disinfection
January 7: Chinese scientists identify pathogen involved as new strain of coronavirus
January 9: First death linked to virus
January 20: Cases reported in Beijing and Shenzhen
January 23: Wuhan is placed on lockdown, with movement halted in or out of the city. A total of 60 million people are affected by travel restrictions in Wuhan and neighboring cities. WHO says virus is not yet a public health emergency of international concern
January 28: Death toll tops 100. The number of confirmed cases in mainland China overtakes the deadly 2003 SARS outbreak
January 30: WHO declares a public health emergency of international concern
January 31: Death toll tops 200
February 2: First Wuhan coronavirus death reported outside of mainland China
8:00 – The first death from a coronavirus epidemic outside China was reported in the Philippines, where a 44-year-old from the Chinese city of Wuhan died, which just appeared in December last year.
7:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
6:40 – New Zealand joins the US and Australia by banning entry to foreigners traveling from China.
If you’ve traveled in or transited through mainland China, you won’t be allowed into New Zealand unless you’re a New Zealand national. The new restrictions on foreign nationals begin on February 3, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in a press release Sunday.
The ban will be in place for up to 14 days, and is aimed at helping contain the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. So far, there have been no confirmed coronavirus cases in New Zealand or any South Pacific island. New Zealand citizens and permanent residents and their immediate family members will still be able to enter — but must self-isolate for 14 days after arriving back into the country.
6:00 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread in China:
5:30 – Airlines operating in the United States will be required to ask all passengers booked on flights from outside the US if they’ve been to mainland China in last 14 days. The Transport Security Administration (TSA) will issue a new security directive to airlines from Sunday, according to a person briefed on the restrictions.
Chinese nationals coming from China and connecting through another foreign airport will be denied travel. Those with pre-clearance are exempted. There are also new directives that relate to US citizens.
US citizens who have been to China in the last 14 days need to re-book to one of seven gateway airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport, Seattle, San Francisco International Airport, Chicago, Atlanta and Honolulu. TSA notified airlines Saturday about the restrictions.
21:20 – The U.S. Department of Defense will provide accommodation for up to a thousand people in military facilities to be quarantined after returning from China, said US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
20:34 – Princess Cruises cruisers are barred from entering passengers and staff who have recently visited China.
20:20 – American Airlines, the airline that canceled all flights to China yesterday, also canceled flights to Hong Kong.
19:30 – A Boston man who recently returned from Chinese Wuhan has a coronavirus. It is the eighth confirmed case of this deadly virus in the US.
18:54 – China has asked the European Union to facilitate the dispatch of medicines from member countries.
18:08 – European Commission announces that it will invest 11m euros in coronavirus research.
17:40 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have announced they will join forces to fight coronaviruses.
17:26 – The big US airline Delta temporarily suspends all flights from the US to China tomorrow and vice versa. Flight interruptions occur four days before planned, CNN reports.
16:57 – Health Minister Vili Beroš has stated that there is no need for panic in Croatia because of the coronavirus epidemic, and stressed that the government is taking all appropriate measures to adequately protect Croatian citizens from the danger of spreading this infection. Read more.
16:40 – Iran, Vietnam and Uzbekistan announced on Saturday that they would cancel all flights to and from China, Australia would ban foreigners traveling through China, and Russia would begin evacuating its nationals from regions most affected by the coronavirus epidemic. There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iran and Uzbekistan, and six cases have been reported in Vietnam.
Foreigners will not be able to enter Australia for 14 days from their last trip to China, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced.
Russian planes will begin evacuating their nationals from regions most affected by the coronavirus epidemic on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, as reported by Interfax and TASS.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the US government’s decision to ban Chinese nationals from entering the country. Foreign nationals who have traveled to China for the past 14 days are also prohibited from entering the US.
15:22 – Villages and cities in China have resorted to flying drones with speakers to patrol streets and scold people not wearing masks in public amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to Chinese state media.
Both Xinhua and the Global Times have published videos of drones warning various people in rural areas that masks need to be worn in “these times.” The drones were seen scolding an elderly lady and chasing a child down the road. The videos have gone viral on Chinese social media and have been praised as a novel way to raise awareness of the disease.
15:15 – Thousands of Hong Kong public medical staff have voted to strike on Monday if the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government does not agree to demands to close the border with mainland China.
The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance has 13,000 members. Of those members who voted on Saturday night, 3,123 voted yes for the strike action, 10 against and 23 abstained. 8,825 members signed an online petition saying they will go on strike next week if demands to close border are not met. Thousands of medical staff are calling on the HKSAR government to ban all visitors from mainland China to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus to Hong Kong.
14:26 – Qatar Airways cancels flights to China.
13:57 – The foreign ministry confirmed that four Croatians had been evacuated from Wuhan.
“The Croatian Embassies in Beijing and Paris, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Consular Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Croatia to the EU in Brussels, have undertaken all activities to transport four Croatian nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan to Europe as soon as possible.
Successful coordination and swift action with European partners ensure rapid repatriation, taking into account primarily the safety and health of Croatian citizens.
Organized by the French Republic, they should land in the south of France in the late morning hours. For precautionary measures, they will be placed in isolation on arrival and will stay for 14 days before returning to Croatia.
MVEP takes the opportunity to thank the French and Chinese central, provincial and city authorities, as well as all other stakeholders, who have been committed to organizing the rapid return of Croatian nationals to Europe.
The Croatian Embassy in Beijing, as chair of the EU Council, in co-operation with the Delegation of the European Union, continues to coordinate Member States’ joint activities with the new coronavirus and to provide all consular assistance and support to Croatian nationals across the PRC,” they said.
13:30 – The search for two workers infected with the virus is underway in Macau.
13:10 – WHO urges people to know the facts:
13:03 – Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has asked the EU for assistance in procuring medical supplies.
12:25 – The newly elected Minister of Health, Vili Beroš, will meet with the Chief Inspector of State, the Ministers of Interior and Defense and the Ministry of Health at 14:00 CET to raise the level of crisis to the national level.
Before that, they will assemble a crisis headquarters to arrange the preparation of a simulation exercise.
“In order to achieve an adequate level of defense against possible threat to satisfy this last level of training; I have been in communication with the Prime Minister since the early morning and have allowed us to undertake some simulation exercise to prepare for the treatment of an infected patient entering Croatia,” Beroš said to HRT.
11:20 – A Zagreb student who has been studying in the Chinese city of Wuhan for the past two years, and was banned from flying to Cambodia to travel with a colleague due to the coronavirus epidemic, can finally return home today.
Anamaria Matušek and her English colleague were scheduled to return to Wuhan yesterday, but were told at the airport that passengers who came from the city were not allowed to fly anywhere, although medical checks confirmed that they were healthy. Yesterday they were at a resort in the Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, and today they are in the capital Phnom Penh. The closest Croatian embassy, in Malaysia, told them that it was possible for them to fly on any airline.
She wants to go to Zagreb. “We just went to Phnom Penh, this is now our second attempt to get out of here,” Anamaria Matušek told HRT this morning at about 8:00 CET or 14:00 local time.
“We hope to be able to get home somehow, he adds. There will be controls, but it’s understandable,” she says.
10:42 – New cases confirmed in Australia: There are now 12 in total.
Hong Kong has confirmed its 13th case of a virus infection, while Taiwan has confirmed a 9th case.
9:59 – According to the health ministry, there are four Croatian nationals in Wuhan awaiting evacuation via France.
9:32 – Air India aircraft carrying 324 passengers departed from Wuhan. There are mostly students are on the plane.
9:30 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
8:59 – A sixth case of the coronavirus infection has been confirmed in Vietnam.
Germany has confirmed the seventh case of a coronavirus infection in Bavaria. This is a man who worked with five who have already been confirmed to have the virus. They were all infected by a colleague who had returned from a trip from China.
8:32 – Australia has banned entry into its territory by all travelers arriving from or departing from China. The exception will be Australian citizens and their families who have “used adequate protective equipment,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
8:22 – Most people in China will return to work on Monday, despite the fact that the virus is spreading rapidly and has claimed 259 lives so far.
More Cases in Europe
7:53 – The United Kingdom, Russia, Sweden and Spain on Friday reported the first cases of coronavirus disease in those countries.
More than a hundred patients are found in twenty countries around the world. One study says it could be as high as 75,800.
Number of cases in China:
Britain confirmed on Friday its first two cases of coronavirus disease. Two people from the same family fell ill and are being treated in Newcastle. However, health officials have not released more details about the patients.
Two Chinese nationals in Siberia become the first cases of coronavirus disease in Russia. Patients are located in the Zabaykal region on the border with China and the Tyumen region on the border with Kazakhstan, said Russian Deputy Health Minister Tatiana Golikova.
Swedish health authorities said the country was first diagnosed with coronavirus disease in a patient who recently visited Wuhan and returned to Sweden on January 24 without symptoms of the disease. The patient later contacted the health services for a cough.
Spain’s health ministry announced on Friday that the country’s first coronavirus case has been identified in the Canary Islands. The patient is part of a group of five people who were isolated and placed under observation on Thursday after some were found to have been in contact with a German who was diagnosed with the virus.
Evacuations
7:51 – A number of countries have already evacuated their nationals from China, including the US, Japan, South Korea, Jordan and the United Kingdom.
A German Air Force plane departed Wuhan, the Chinese city most severely affected by the epidemic, with 130 people, 90 German nationals and 40 nationals from other countries on Saturday morning. He is due to arrive in Germany on Saturday afternoon. The evacuees will be quarantined at barracks near the Frankfurt airport.
Some countries have also decided to restrict entry to those who have traveled to China to prevent the spread of the disease.
7:30 – Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights to and from China, Air Canada, Lufthansa, British Airways, Turkish Airlines, American Airlines, KLM and Air France.
Australia and New Zealand airlines also announced a halt to flights to China on Saturday. Quantas Airlines has announced that it is suspending direct flights between Sidney and Beijing and Shanghai from 9 February to 29 March. Air New Zealand has announced that it is also ceasing to fly to China during the same period.
00:15 – The death toll from China’s coronavirus outbreak has surpassed 250, the government said Saturday, as foreign nations tightened restrictions on travellers from China in response to the rapid spread of the illness. At least 258 people have died and more than 11,000 people have been infected in China by the new coronavirus, according to new figures from officials in hard-hit Hubei province.
22:00 – US has banned foreign nationals who have been in China within the past two weeks from entering the US.
The Trump administration announced a ban on foreign national travel for those who have been in China within the last 14 days, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Friday. The United States, Azar said, is “temporarily suspending the entry into the United States of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the 2019 novel coronavirus.”
Azar noted that any US citizen who has been in the Hubei Province in the last 14 days will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine upon return to the United States. US citizens returning from the rest of mainland China who have been there in the last 14 days will undergo screening at US ports of entry and up to 14 days of self-monitoring.
The basis for the temporary ban, Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters, is “the unknown of the aspects of this particular outbreak.”
The ban will be in effect beginning at 5 p.m. ET Sunday February 2, 2020.
21:55 – The novel coronavirus is now a public health emergency in the United States, Alex Azar, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, announced at a White House press briefing today.
21:50 – The US Pentagon is considering other quarantine sites for its citizens to be evacuated from Wuhan. The quarantine will include government officials and businessmen returned by the US to China.
21:05 – Current coronavirus data from Johns Hopkins CSSE:
Total Confirmed Cases: 9,925
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 9,783
Thailand: 19
Japan: 15
Singapore: 13
Hong Kong: 12
South Korea: 11
Taiwan: 10
Australia: 9
Malaysia: 8
Macau: 7
US: 6
France: 5
Germany: 5
United Arab Emirates: 4
Canada: 3
Italy: 2
Russia: 2
UK: 2
Vietnam: 2
Cambodia: 1
Finland: 1
India: 1
Nepal: 1
Philippines: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Sweden: 1
Confirmed Cases Outside China: 142
Total Deaths: 213
Total Recovered: 222
20:35 – Around 200 U.S. citizens who have returned from Chinese Wuhan have been placed in preventive quarantine in California to prevent the possible spread of coronaviruses, U.S. health authorities said on Friday.
“We are in a very serious public health situation,” said Nancy Maessonner of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “If we take strict action now, we may be able to mitigate the impact of the virus on the United States,” she explained.
She added that the CDC had designated quarantine for the first time in more than 50 years.
19:02 – British Institute of Public Health seeks people who have been in close contact with two people who have been confirmed to have coronavirus infection. The question then arose as to what is considered close contact, so the office clarified this. Close contact is considered to be within two meters of an infected person for 15 minutes.
18:47 – US State Department on Friday advised US citizens not to travel to China for possible coronavirus infection.
Beijing soon condemned such a move, saying that “the words and actions of some US officials are neither fact-based nor appropriate.”
“While the World Health Organization has recommended that travel should not be restricted, the US has rushed to do the opposite. It is certainly not a gesture of goodwill,” said Chinese diplomacy spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
18:10 – The American Center for Disease Control tested 241 people for coronavirus.121 The test results are still pending and the remaining 120 results are negative.
17:46 – Italy and France are working to get their nationals back from Wuhan. France has already returned some of them home, and is now organizing a second flight to evacuate the remaining French citizens. Italy, on Monday, sent a military plane to rescue Italians from Wuhan.
17:19 – US Delta Airlines suspends all flights to China from February 6 to April 30.
17:05 – First case of coronavirus infection confirmed in Sweden. The infected woman had previously traveled to Wuhan.
17:00 – Almost 10,000 flights from China and China have been canceled so far due to the coronavirus.
16:40 – Sixty-two countries have implemented some form of immigration control on Chinese citizens, as the deadly coronavirus has spread from Wuhan — capital of China’s Hubei province — around the world.
Six countries have tightened visa rules for Chinese citizens, four have restricted Chinese citizens’ entry into their countries, and five have launched restrictive measures on anyone from Hubei or with recent travel history to the province, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
Forty-seven countries have required Chinese citizens to undergo temperature checks and submit health declarations, according to the Ministry. The Ministry advised Chinese citizens to arrange travel plans based on their health, and obey immigration regulations of their destination countries.
16:35 – Top US infectious disease doctor says a study published Thursday night shows people can spread the Wuhan coronavirus before symptoms set in.
There’s no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “This study lays the question to rest.” In the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, German researchers described four business associates who became infected through asymptomatic transmission.
“They were in workshops together, they went to the company canteen together,” Dr. Camilla Rothe, an infectious disease specialist in Germany who co-authored the paper, told CNN.
16:30 – The Canadian government has evacuated its diplomats and their families from Wuhan.
15:58 – France has evacuated 180 citizens from Wuhan today. One woman was rushed to hospital for showing symptoms of coronavirus, French health minister Agnes Buzyn confirmed. She said everyone who was evacuated was going to a resort near Marseilles where she would be quarantined for the next 14 days. They will be at the resort, wearing masks and their temperatures will be measured twice a day.
15:47 – Due to the increased interest of the public and the media, the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) will publish the latest data on coronaviruses every day at 15:00 CET on its website (see above), and according to current data, there are no coronavirus patients in Croatia, while there are 14 cases in the EU.
15:25 – Singapore is no longer issuing Chinese visas and is forbidding entry into the country for visitors who recently traveled to China, CNN reported.
15:19 – British citizens coming from Wuhan have landed in Great Britain, reports the Guardian. They were greeted at the airport they were arriving at by Arrowe Park Hospital, where everyone would spend two weeks in quarantine. They were transported by RAF military personnel, who will also be quarantined at the hospital for two weeks.
14:31 – Russian authorities say two people have been infected with a coronavirus in the country. Tatiana Golikova, deputy prime minister, said the coronavirus had infected Chinese nationals residing in Russia. She added that as of midnight, all direct flights to China from Russia will be suspended, except for some flights by the national airline Aeroflot. Read more.
14:18 – Croatia has elevated its warning for the coronavirus, Vili Beroš, Croatian Minister of Health, confirmed.
13:49 – A police security camera recording has been released of the body of a dead man who was found on the sidewalk yesterday in Wuhan. Read more.
WARNING: This video may be disturbing to some viewers:
13:40 – Confirmed 17th case of coronavirus infection in Japan.
13:20 – Thailand confirms 5 new cases of coronavirus, the number infected in that country has climbed to 19.
13:00 – “Borders should remain open and people and trade move normally despite the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic,” the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today, adding that countries have the right to take measures to protect their citizens. Read more.
12:50 – The number of cases of coronavirus infection outside China has increased dramatically. 100 cases outside China were discussed this morning, with news from 140 confirmed cases outside China already coming.
The South Korean government will send another charter flight to Wuhan to evacuate its citizens, the country’s foreign ministry has confirmed. The plane is scheduled to depart for Wuhan early Wednesday morning.
12:31 – Israel will quarantine all travelers flying from China to the country, the Israeli Ministry of Health said. The quarantine will last for two weeks and the People who come from China will have to stay home for two weeks and not go to public places. Yesterday Israel imposed a ban on direct flights from China to China, and the quarantine decision applies to passengers arriving from China to Israel via indirect flights.
12:22 – Germany will return its citizens from China, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. He said they had sent military planes to China for them. About 100 people will be evacuated and none of them are showing signs of the virus. They will be quarantined for two weeks.
12:09 – Hong Kong is considering that electronic devices it develops identify coronavirus infected. So far, 12 people have died in the country from the deadly virus.
11:40 – Italy has declared a state of emergency due to a coronavirus epidemic.
11:22 – Singapore has banned the arrival of visitors from mainland China for fear of the coronavirus
11:13 – The number of coronaviruse in South Korea has climbed to 11, up 4 cases from yesterday.
11:05 – To prevent the spread of coronavirus, schools in Hong Kong will not operate until March 2.
10:33 – India will evacuate some 400 nationals from Wuhan by charter flight. The aircraft leaves today and will return with rescued passengers on Sunday and land in New Delhi.
10:30 – Two cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK, according to the UK’s National Agency for Public Health, Sky News reports.
10:25 – South Korean nationals were evacuated today from Wuhan. They landed in the city of Asan where they will spend quarantined for 14 days. Some residents of the city supported the rescued nationals, while others protested fears that the evacuees would bring a coronavirus to South Korea.
10:20 – Fears are rising that a coronavirus is popping up in the UK after a York hotel guest is rushed to hospital.
Medical personnel at the security wards took a guest from China on Wednesday night and were transported to a hospital, The Independent reports. The hotel said the guest’s room was sealed. Search results are pending to determine if it is a coronavirus infection.
9:57 – The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago sets a 14-day travel limit for visitors from China, the country’s health minister said.
9:55 – French nationals boarded an evacuation plane from Wuhan. Police are guarding a resort near Marseille, where the French evacuees are likely to be quarantined for 14 days.
9:50 – Earlier this week, a Wuhan hospital employee told Shi Muying that they had no room for her and her father. When Shi asked when they would be received, the staff member replied, “We will receive you if you die”.
9:30 – The US State Department raised its travel advisory for China to Level 4: Do Not Travel due to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak — it’s highest level.
The alert reads:
“Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. On January 30, the World Health Organization has determined the rapidly spreading outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. Commercial carriers have reduced or suspended routes to and from China. 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.”
Last week, the State Department ordered the departure of all non-emergency US personnel and their family members from Wuhan. On Thursday, nearly 200 Americans landed at a California military base following their evacuation from the city.
9:25 – Here’s where the coronavirus has spread worldwide:
8:55 – Kenya Airways has suspended all flights to or from China.
Beijing officials issued a statement this morning warning foreign visitors and tourists about the outbreak of a coronavirus epidemic in the city, urging them to take preventative measures and co-operate with authorities, CNN reported.
“Beijing declared the highest level of public health crisis on January 24 due to the epidemic of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV),” the statement said.
8:50 – A French military aircraft evacuating 200 French nationals departed this morning from Wuhan for France and is expected to land at the Istres-Le Tube airbase in southern France around noon local time.
8:29 – Air traffic between Italy and China will be suspended, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti said, taking more drastic measures than most other countries after Italy confirmed the first cases of the virus with two Chinese tourists. More airlines have suspended flights to mainland China, including Air France, KLM SA, British Airways, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, while others have reduced the number of flights.
8:24 – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament that the government has decided to raise the level of preparedness for China, urging citizens to avoid traveling to that country which is not an emergency.
8:20 – US authorities have warned Americans not to travel to China. In his proclamation on travel, the State Department warned that travel to China was as dangerous as that to Afghanistan and Iraq, noting on its website: “Don’t travel to China because of the new coronavirus that has emerged in Wuhan.”
8:11 – A British government has sent a plane evacuating 110 people from Wuhan. The aircraft left Wuhan around 9:45 am local time, with 83 British nationals and 27 other foreign nationals. It is expected to land in London around 1pm local time (or 2pm local time).
7:41 – As the virus spreads globally, so does public paranoia and anti-Chinese fears. Many people of Asian descent have experienced discomfort in Europe and the US.
7:36 – Pakistan has canceled all flights to China.
7:06 – Turkish airlines have canceled all flights to China by February 9th.
7:00 – In Germany, a fifth case of coronavirus has been reported. Vietnam confirmed five cases of coronavirus infection, and South Korea seven.
20:50 – The World Health Organization has declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, after an emergency committee reconvened Thursday in Geneva.
Last week, the organization said the virus did not yet constitute the emergency declaration. But with rising numbers and evidence of person-to-person transmission in a handful of cases outside of China, WHO leadership called the committee back together due to the “potential for a much larger outbreak,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters earlier this week.
WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.” Previous emergencies have included Ebola, Zika and H1N1.
20:40 – Two cruise ship passengers suspected of having coronavirus do not have the virus, the Italian Ministry of Health said Thursday night. The 6,000 passenger ship had been forced into quarantine near Rome because of fears the passengers might have the virus. The ministry said the patients instead had the H1N2 virus. It is not clear when the ship will be allowed to depart.
20:25 – The total number of people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus in mainland China alone has surpassed those infected with SARS worldwide during the 2002-2003 epidemic. SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, infected 8,098 people worldwide with approximately 774 official SARS-related deaths. As of Thursday, there have been 8,235 confirmed cases of Wuhan coronavirus in mainland China, including 171 deaths.
18:20 – Here are the latest statistics on the coronavirus:
Total Confirmed Cases: 8,235
Confirmed Cases by Country:
Mainland China: 8,124
Thailand: 14
Japan: 11
Hong Kong: 10
Singapore : 10
Australia: 9
Taiwan: 9
Malaysia : 8
Macau: 7
France: 5
US: 5
Germany: 4
South Korea: 4
United Arab Emirates: 4
Canada: 3
Vietnam: 2
Cambodia: 1
Finland: 1
India: 1
Nepal: 1
Philippines: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Deaths: 171
Total Recovered: 143
17:02 – The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, through the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Rome, has received confirmation that five Croatian nationals are also on the Italian cruiser Costa Smeralda, Costa Crociere.
The Ministry is in contact with Costa Crociere through the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Rome and will provide further details in a timely manner.
16:47 – The emergence of a new dangerous coronavirus strain has sparked a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment around the world, with some traders refusing to allow Chinese tourists to enter, the Chinese meat markets being vehemently criticized on the internet and the health of Chinese workers monitored.
16:46 – Oil prices plummeted below $59 in international markets on Thursday due to the spread of coronavirus worldwide as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced it could move its regular meeting from March to February.
In the London market, the barrel price dropped $1.29 from the previous close to $58.52. In the US, the barrel was trading at $1.07 a lower price, from $52.26.
16:30 – According to initial test results, there is still no coronavirus on the quarantine cruiser.
16:15 – British authorities have been approved to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan.
15:40 – The index from one of the tourist agencies that organize the Costa Smeralda trip confirmed that at least two Croats are on board, and as we have learned, it is a couple – a woman and a man.
Next to them, there are two other Slovenes on the cruiser who have booked their trip through the same agency.
The agency is in contact with all four of its passengers, including, as we have indicated, two Croats.
15:00 – More than 6000 people are quarantined on a cruiser. One woman and her husband show symptoms of coronavirus infection and testing is ongoing. Both are from Hong Kong.
So far, none of the other travelers show symptoms of infection.
13:33 – The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MVEP) has given new information on the evacuation of Croatian states from Wuhan.
“The Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Beijing has informed four Croatian nationals about the organization of their imminent return to Croatia, carried out by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with European partners, as part of the political crisis response (ICPR), or the Council’s special crisis mechanism EU.”
“They were also informed that they had to stay in quarantine for 14 days when arriving in Europe. The departure is scheduled for the next few days, and we will provide further details in a timely manner. The Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Beijing remains in constant contact with our citizens in Wuhan and the People’s Republic of China,” reads a statement from the MVEP.
12:29 – A cruise ship in Italy has been quarantined on suspicion of coronavirus infection, AFP reports. In Italy, the Costa Smeralda cruiser was quarantined in the port of Civitavecchia on suspicion of coronavirus infection, La Repubblica reports.
Two passengers have symptoms of the disease, one has a high fever. Tests are currently underway to determine if they have contracted the strain of the deadly virus that originated in Wuhan. The couple are originally from Hong Kong and Macau and landed in Italy on January 25 and then boarded a cruise ship.
10:55 – Russia closes border with China over coronavirus. New Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin confirmed this, adding that they are doing so to stop the spread of the virus.
“We will inform everyone about the closure of borders in the Far East, as well as other measures the government has taken,” the Russian prime minister said. The decision comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed officials in that country to do everything possible to prevent the spread of coronaviruses.
10:15 – The Northern Mariana Islands have issued an emergency ban on all Chinese travelers for the next 30 days due to the coronavirus epidemic. It is a US island territory in the Pacific.
9:50 – First coronavirus infection confirmed in India. This is an Indian student who studied at Wuhan University.
9:30 – These countries are actively working to evacuate their population from Wuhan or Hubei province –
Australia: There are more than 600 Australian nationals in the province of Hubei, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying he will first focus on bringing back “young people, especially infants, and the elderly.”
Germany: The evacuation of German nationals will start in the next few days, the German Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
France: The first aircraft to deliver a portion of French nationals is launching on Thursday. A second flight is planned to include Frenchmen with symptoms of coronavirus infection.
Italy: Evacuation of Italians begins Thursday.
Spain: The Spanish government is working with China and the EU on the return of citizens from Wuhan. No flight has been determined yet.
European Union: On Tuesday, Janez Lenarcic said EU citizens would be rescued via two aircraft. Around 250 French nationals will be flown in the first flight, while 100 people from other EU countries will depart with another aircraft departing later this week.
Croatia: It is unknown at this time whether Croatian nationals will be on that second flight.
India: India has begun the process of “preparing for the evacuation” of Indian nationals from Hubei province.
New Zealand: The New Zealand government has chartered an Air New Zealand aircraft to deliver its nationals currently based in Wuhan.
Japan: Two flights with more than 400 passengers returned Japanese nationals yesterday and today from Wuhan.
South Korea: In the process of evacuating its citizens.
Turkey: More than 30 Turkish nationals will be evacuated from Wuhan in the next few days.
Great Britain: Britain has planned to deliver 200 of its citizens from Wuhan today, but there has been a flight delay.
United States: A plane carrying about 200 U.S. citizens arrived in California yesterday. Additional flights are planned to evacuate other U.S. citizens from Wuhan.
9:00 – South Korea plans to send $ 5 million worth of humanitarian aid to China so it can better equip itself with medical supplies and more effectively combat the spread of coronaviruses.
8:50 – A total of 15 of 206 Japanese who have returned from China have been hospitalized and three of them have been infected with coronavirus. Test results are not yet known for 210 Japanese who were returned Thursday morning by another plane.
NHK Television reported that 14 were detained at the hospital. In total, 416 of the 650 were returned on this second plane to Japan, expressing their desire to return. The third flight is already scheduled, but it is possible that the number of those who wish to return to the country will increase if the situation worsens. With three new cases, the number of confirmed coronavirus infected patients in Japan has climbed to 11.
8:15 – Current coronavirus data from Johns Hopkins CSSE:
Total confirmed cases: 7,783
By Country:
Mainland China: 7,678
Thailand: 14
Japan: 11
Hong Kong: 10
Singapore : 10
Taiwan: 8
Australia: 7
Macau: 7
Malaysia : 7
France: 5
US: 5
Germany: 4
South Korea: 4
United Arab Emirates: 4
Canada: 3
Vietnam: 2
Cambodia: 1
Finland: 1
Nepal: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Total Deaths: 170
Total Recovered: 133
7:29 – Customs in Hong Kong has carried out a major action in which they have targeted shops selling fake surgical masks amid demand driven by the spread of coronaviruses. The controls were done at nearly 200 stores across the city.
7:25 – Three Japanese evacuees from Wuhan have the coronavirus, the Japanese health ministry confirmed. One of the three patients has fever and the other two have visible symptoms. They are currently being quarantined in Tokyo.
New Zealand has sent a charter plane to retrieve its citizens currently in Wuhan, according to a government statement. The plane has a capacity for 300 passengers.
7:18 – Tesla S car production will be slowed by the coronavirus situation in China, where Tesla’s Elon Musk factory is located, CNN reports.
7:15 – IKEA announces that it is closing all its stores in China due to the coronavirus epidemic. The stores, according to IKEA, will be closed until further notice.
Coronavirus infected people may face criminal penalties if they intentionally infect others, authorities said in China’s Hubei province, which is the focus of the deadly virus. Specifically, spitting on others in the public is also cited as a reason to initiate criminal proceedings.
7:10 – The White House has announced it is forming a task force to address the threat of coronaviruses to the United States. The statement states that “the President’s Coronavirus Working Group will lead efforts to monitor, contain and stop the spread of the virus while ensuring that US citizens have the most accurate and timely health and travel information.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) expert committee will meet again today to decide whether to declare the rapid spread of the infection a public health threat of international concern.
WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization “deeply regrets” that it had rated the risk of spreading the virus “moderate” instead of “high” in several reports last week.
6:50 – There are more than 100 cases of Wuhan coronavirus in 19 places outside mainland China.
6:47 – The White House announced Wednesday the creation of a new task force to deal with the threat of the coronavirus in the United States.
In a statement, the White House wrote that the “President’s Coronavirus Task Force” will, “lead the Administration’s efforts to monitor, contain, and mitigate the spread of the virus, while ensuring that the American people have the most accurate and up-to-date health and travel information.”
“Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7!” wrote President Trump on Twitter.
5:15 – At least three of the Japanese citizens evacuated from Wuhan on Wednesday have been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus.
Only one of the patients has a fever, while the other two are not showing any symptoms, Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry announced today. They are currently quarantined in Tokyo. Two flights carrying more than 400 Japanese citizens arrived back in the country from Wuhan on Wednesday and Thursday.
5:00 – Wuhan coronavirus has now spread to every region within mainland China.
00:15 – A planned flight to bring British citizens back from Wuhan will no longer leave on Thursday as originally anticipated, a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said Wednesday.
“We are doing everything we can to get British people in Wuhan safely back to the UK. A number of countries’ flights have been unable to take off as planned. We continue working urgently to organise a flight to the UK as soon as possible” the spokesperson said.
“We remain in close contact with the Chinese authorities and conversations are ongoing at all levels” the spokesperson added. It is understood the flight has been delayed due to Chinese permissions that have not yet come through.
00:00 – There are now at least 162 dead from Wuhan coronavirus in China’s Hubei province – the epicenter of the outbreak – and a total of 4,586 confirmed cases in the province by the end of Wednesday, according to Hubei’s provincial health authority.
The case count for the province has gone up by 1,032, and death toll has gone up by 37 from the previous day.
This brings the number of cases for mainland China to over 7,000 and the death toll for mainland China to 170.
23:50 – US official says enhanced coronavirus screening has expanded to 20 airports.
Chad Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said on Wednesday that enhanced coronavirus screening has expanded to 20 airports, including Miami, which is hosting Super Bowl LIV.
Wolf, during a news conference in Miami, addressed security concerns and measures ahead of the NFL’s annual championship and biggest draw. Sunday’s game, which pits the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers, will attract thousands of fans to the area.
22:35 – Dutch airline KLM announced it is reducing some of its flights to China because of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the company said on Twitter today.
Starting Jan. 30, direct flights to Chengdu and Hangzhou will be suspended, and from Jan. 30 the number of weekly flights to Shanghai will be reduced from 11 to 7 per week, the airline said. From Jan. 31, direct flights to Xiamen will be suspended, it added.
22:00 – Google has closed its offices in China in response to the coronavirus outbreak. They have offices in Hong Kong and in Taiwan, all of which are closed.
21:15 – “Continued growth in the number of cases and evidence of human-to-human transmission outside China is very worrying. Although figures outside China are still relatively small, they have the potential for a much greater epidemic,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, on his return from Beijing. Read more.
20:55 – Here’s all the countries where Wuhan coronavirus has spread:
20:30 – A fifth case of coronavirus infection has been confirmed in France, CNN reports. The daughter of one of the first four people infected with the virus in that country was infected.
20:25 – United Airlines, American Airlines, Lufthansa have also reduced the number of flights to China.
However, British Airways has completely suspended flights to and from that country.
“We have suspended all flights to and from China with immediate effect. This decision was made following the Foreign Ministry’s advice not to travel to that country except in case of emergency. We apologize to passengers for the inconvenience caused, but the safety of our users and staff is our priority, ” British Airways said in a statement.
19:55 – Air France has reduced the number of flights to China. They say demand is down. From now on, it will only have one flight to Beijing and one to Shanghai.
18:18 – The executive director of the WHO reports that China is taking all measures for the coronavirus.
He added that the epidemic center is still in Wuhan. The mortality rate is estimated to be around 2 percent, while for SARS it was 10 percent. Due to the spread of the virus, tomorrow the WHO is meeting with the Director-General of the UN Health Agency to see if it is a global crisis.
17:56 – A six-ton heavy shipment of protective masks and health-care suits in Wuhan arrived today in China, from which the coronavirus began to spread, Reuters reported. The shipment was sent by UNICEF from its Copenhagen center. Read more.
17:35 – The US evacuated 200 of its citizens from Wuhan. The plane that transported them from Wuhan just landed in California, and they also stopped in Alaska to pick up fuel. There, all passengers were screened.
17:30 – In the US 165 people are tested for the coronavirus.
17:25 – The WHO Emergency Committee will meet again tomorrow. It will be the third meeting this week to assess whether it is an international crisis when it comes to coronavirus.
“The whole world has to act,” they added from the WHO.
17:15 – Lufthansa has canceled all flights to China by February 9, a spokeswoman in Frankfurt confirmed. She added that these measures also apply to their subsidiaries in Switzerland and Austria.
17:05 – Finland confirms first case of coronavirus infection.
This is a tourist from Wuhan who was visiting Lapland. He is being quarantined at a Lapland hospital to which he has responded after noticing coronavirus symptoms. About 15 people could have been exposed to the virus through contact with this patient.
16:45 – American Airlines is the second US carrier to suspend some flights to China due to coronavirus concerns.
They canceled the Los Angeles-Shanghai line and Los Angeles-Beijing until March 27. They report as they do to reduce demand for those flights, CNN reported.
16:22 – The coronavirus has also spread rapidly in the city of Huanggang, the governor of Hubei Province revealed, warning that the city should not be allowed to become the new Wuhan. The city reported five deaths and 324 patients by the end of Tuesday, making it the worst-hit city after Wuhan. Read more.
16:10 – A Serbian national is isolated on arrival from China to India and quarantined for medical symptoms in Goa, due to coronavirus symptoms. Read more.
16:10 – Wuhan coronavirus: Symptoms and complications (image).
15:55 – Where has the coronavirus spread (map)?
15:49 – Alibaba’s founder and the richest man in China, Jack Ma, has donated 100 million yuan, or about 14.4 million USD, or about 13.1 million EUR, to research the coronavirus vaccine.
He donated the money through his foundation, and 40 of the 100 million yuan goes to two Chinese government organizations leading the research. The rest of the money, or 60 million yuan, will go towards financing infection prevention and treatment of the diseased, his foundation reported on CNN Business.
15:25 – According to Kleine Zeitung, two cases of Graz infection are suspected. These are two women, one of whom is from Asia. They were isolated and their condition monitored and coronavirus tests performed.
15:20 – Russia and China are working together to develop a coronavirus vaccine and official Beijing has handed over the genome of the virus to Moscow, the Russian consulate in China announced on Wednesday.
“Russian and Chinese experts have begun to develop the vaccine,” the Russian consulate in Guangzhou announced. The release said it was unclear whether Russian and Chinese scientists were working together or separately, adding that the consulate was not available for comment.
15:15 – The Guardian reports that a British student studying in Beijing was on a trip to Wuhan and was told on her return to the dormitory that she should not leave her room for the next 12 days.
15:10 – According to recent data, 132 people have died from coronaviruses in China, with at least 6,061 confirmed cases of those deadly viruses. The virus is present almost everywhere in China.
14:50 – Italy will start evacuating its citizens from Wuhan this week, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio announced today.
“The Italian government wants to give maximum support to our compatriots in China. A flight will be launched tomorrow to evacuate Italians in Wuhan,” Di Maio wrote on Twitter.
14:05 – Here are latest worldwide statistics on the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.
13:05 – The first Chinese hospital for coronavirus infected patients opens in Huanggang. For two days, workers and volunteers worked to transform the vacant building into a 1,000-bed health facility.
Another hospital is being built at the epicenter of the epidemic, Wuhan City, and is expected to be completed later this week; a week after its construction began.
12:40 – Four cases of coronavirus infection confirmed in Germany. All infected persons are employees of the same Webasto auto parts company.
12:20 – Hundreds of Britons to be evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan could be quarantined during the two weeks following their return to the UK.
“We may be able to keep our passengers in the military base upon our return,” the British Ministry of Health and Welfare said. The evacuation of the British is due to start this Thursday.
12:10 – A man and two children were hospitalized in Hadera, Israel on suspicion of coronavirus infection, according to the Jerusalem Post.
11:56 – British government plans to evacuate 200 British citizens from Wuhan on Thursday, BBC reports. The Minister of Health issued an instruction to quarantine for two weeks on his return to Britain. BBC sources say the British will receive the best medical care and advice.
11:52 – The British government plans to evacuate 200 British citizens from Wuhan on Thursday by plane.
11:45 – The Indian Ministry of Health has updated its travel advice to China and asked its nationals not to travel to the country unless in need. State authorities announced yesterday that “they may take steps” to prepare for the possible evacuation of Indian nationals from Wuhan.
11:35 – Kazakhstan has announced that it has cut off all traffic links with China due to the coronavirus.
11:22 – A Serbian citizen was quarantined on Tuesday in Goa, India, on suspicion of being infected with a coronavirus. The unnamed Serb, only mentioned to be a middle-aged man, recently came to India from China.
He arrived in India last week, staying in China about 750 kilometers from Wuhan.
11:15 – Australian authorities have quarantined a Chinese women’s soccer team for fear of the spread of coronavirus.
10:58 – In addition to British Airways, all flights to and from China were canceled by Lion Air and Seoul Air, AP reports.
South Korea has announced that it will evacuate its citizens from Wuhan on Thursday morning, local time. Upon return, passengers will remain in preventive isolation for the next 14 days.
Turkey will evacuate 32 Turkish nationals in the next few days. As far as we know, all Turkish citizens who have stayed in that Chinese city are in good health and have no symptoms of coronavirus infection. After returning to Turkey, however, he will spend some time in quarantine.
10:20 – As previously reported, British Airways has canceled all flights to China as well as flights from China.
“We have suspended all flights to and from China with immediate effect. This decision was made following the Foreign Ministry’s advice not to travel to that country except in case of emergency. We apologize to passengers for the inconvenience caused, but the safety of our users and staff is our priority. “, British Airways said in a statement. Read more.
10:19 – AM Seoul hospitals are preparing for an epidemic in South Korea. Four cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed there. Doctors at the hospital said they were concerned about the virus’s ability to mutate and spread and that they expected to receive a large number of potential patients in the next few days. Rooms at the hospital are being prepared to accommodate patients.
10:12 – In China, 5974 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed, bringing the number of SARS outbreaks in that country in 2003, CNN reports.
9:50 – The disease also appeared in the United Arab Emirates. A family from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who has returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan, has been diagnosed with a coronavirus infection, the UAE health ministry announced today. It is the first occurrence of the disease in that country. It is not known for now how many family members are infected.
9:35 – News on the evacuation of foreign nationals from the city of Wuhan and Hubei province has arrived, and Australia, New Zealand, India, South Korea and France have so far confirmed that they are preparing an evacuation. There are four Croats in Wuhan, and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced yesterday that it had offered them “an evacuation organized by EU partners and continued contact”.
8:57 – A comparison of mortality and infection rates between SARS and coronaviruses.
8:50 – According to the latest official reports:
Coronavirus Infection Number: 6057
Deaths: 132
Number of patients recovered (who were discharged from hospital): 110
You can follow the evolution of the coronavirus spread situation here.
8:40 – A US flight that evacuated more than 200 U.S. citizens from Wuhan landed about an hour ago in Alaska.
8:38 – British Airways has suspended all flights to and from China.
The decision of British Airways comes after numerous countries are increasingly working to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Australia scientists say they have successfully developed a version of a new coronavirus in the lab, which could accelerate vaccine production.
Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne have announced that they will share a sample of coronaviruses grown from an infected patient with the World Health Organization and laboratories around the world. Read more.
8:10 – CNN has released a list of countries planning to evacuate its citizens.
Australia: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that the government plans to evacuate all Australian citizens from Hubei Province, with a focus on young people, especially babies and the elderly. More than 600 Australians are in the region, CNN reports.
New Zealand: The governments of New Zealand and Australia have agreed to jointly evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, but details are yet to be agreed.
India: The Indian government has begun preparations for the evacuation of Indian nationals affected by the situation in Hubei province, a government spokesman confirmed.
South Korea: Four charter flights will evacuate South Korean nationals from Wuhan, a government spokesman said. Nearly 700 South Korean nationals have asked to leave China.
France: The plane will come for French nationals in Wuhan this week, the French health minister said on Sunday. About 800 French nationals are in Wuhan.
United Kingdom: The UK is “considering all options” to help British detainees in Wuhan, a British official said when asked about possible evacuation flights.
7:21 – Hundreds of foreign nationals have been evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus, as news of more deaths in the Wuhan area and surrounding area arrives. According to the BBC, Australia plans to quarantine its 600 citizens returning from China to an island two thousand kilometers from the mainland, where they should stay for two weeks. Both Japan, the US and the EU are also evacuating their nationals.
Almost 6,000 Infected
There are nearly 6,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and experts estimate the epidemic will last several months. A total of 132 people have died so far.
Hubei province has a population of 57 million, and in addition to the capital city of Wuhan, which has nearly ten million citizens, there are fifteen more large cities with between one million and six million inhabitants.
At the same time as new news on the spread of coronaviruses comes news that some airlines have canceled part of their flights to China as demand has fallen sharply, and some global companies have told their employees not to travel to China, whose province is affected by a flu-like virus epidemic.
The United States and South Korea have warned their citizens that they should not travel to China, while the United Kingdom is against all travel to mainland China except the necessary ones.
However, the Trump administration has suggested to US airlines at Tuesday’s meeting not to cancel flights.
Companies Advise Employees Against Travel
Facebook became the first major US company to announce a suspension of travel following a US government warning, saying it had asked employees to stop irrelevant travel to mainland China and if they were leaving to work at home.
Europe’s largest bank, HSBC Holdings, has banned people from traveling to Hong Kong under Chinese rule and onshore for two weeks until further notice, and US rival Goldman Sachs Group has introduced similar measures.
LG Electronics home maker South Korea has completely banned travel to China and advised employees on business trips to China to return home as quickly as possible.
In Germany, the car supplier Webasto, which has 11 locations in China, including Wuhan, stopped all corporate travel to and from China after one employee was infected with the virus.
Japan’s Honda Motor says it recommends employees avoid traveling to China, while Nissan Motor says it plans to evacuate its staff and their families from Wuhan by a government-hired flight.
Airlines Reducing Number of Flights
Chicago-based United has announced that it is suspending 24 US flights to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai between February 1 and 8 due to a significant drop in demand.
South Korean air carrier Air Seoul has announced that it will stop all flights to China, while Taiwanese China Airlines has delayed and canceled some flights to China until February 10.
Taiwan’s Eva Airways also said some flights to China could be canceled.
Air Canada has announced it is canceling some of its 33 weekly flights to China, and Germany’s Lufthansa said it has been declining bookings to and from China.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways of Hong Kong announced that it would gradually reduce the number of flights to China by 50 percent or more from January 30 to the end of March, in line with government directive and market demand.
SOS, a medical and travel security firm that advises travel companies, believes that business travel to China outside Wuhan province in Hubei province can continue.
20:00 – The following is a list of countries and territories where coronavirus infection has been confirmed since its occurrence in December in Wuhan, China.
CHINA
More than 4,500 people were infected in China and 106 died, according to the last official census since January 28. Almost all died in the Hubei region, the epicenter of the infestation, but authorities have confirmed the deaths elsewhere, including the first in Beijing.
Eight cases were reported in the Hong Kong Autonomous Region, and several of those infected resided in Wuhan. Seven patients were detected in the Macau Autonomous Region. The first was an infected businesswoman (52) who arrived from the Chinese city of Zhuhai three days earlier by train.
THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Thailand
Authorities announced 14 confirmed cases on Jan. 28. This is after China the most affected country, all infected are Chinese except for the 73-year-old Thai resident in Wuhan.
Taiwan
A total of seven cases of infection have been reported, with the last two Chinese arriving on the island on January 22nd.
Singapore
So far, seven cases of persons recently arriving from Wuhan have been confirmed.
Japan
Authorities confirmed six cases on Jan. 28, including the first human-to-human transmission of the virus. The 60-year-old was carrying tourists from Wuhan in his car.
Australia
Five cases were confirmed. The fifth case is a 21-year-old who arrived in Sydney from Wuhan. The first diseased is a man who arrived in Melbourne from Wuhan a week earlier.
Malaysia
There are four people in the country, all of them Chinese from Wuhan who came on holiday to Malaysia. Among them, the 66-year-old and two boys arrived two days earlier via Singapore, as well as the 40-year-old traveling on a bus with a group of Chinese tourists.
South Korea
Authorities on Monday recorded the 4th case, three Chinese and South Koreans, all from Wuhan.
Vietnam
So far, two Chinese have been confirmed to be ill, one arrived in Vietnam on January 13 from Wuhan and his son was infected later.
Cambodia
On January 27, the Ministry of Health recorded a patient who had arrived from Wuhan.
Nepal
One case was discovered on 24 January, a man, 32, who arrived from Wuhan on 9 January.
Sri Lanka
The first case of the infection was recorded on January 27, a 43-year-old tourist from Hubei province.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Five people have been infected with the virus, according to authorities.
Canada
The first case of a man traveling to Wuhan was reported in Canada on Monday. It has not yet been confirmed whether he has infected his wife.
EUROPE
France
In France, four people have been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. Three cases, the first in Europe, were confirmed on 24 January, one in Bordeaux and two in Paris. Everyone has recently traveled to China. A fourth infected Chinese tourist was hospitalized in Paris in serious condition.
Germany
The first case of infection in Germany is a man in Bavaria. It is the first case of human-to-human transmission in Europe.
19:00 – CNN reports that a fourth case of coronavirus has been confirmed in France, citing a statement by the French head of the Public Health Institute, Jerome Solomon.
This is an 80-year-old tourist from the Chinese province of Hubei, whose condition is serious. He was hospitalized in Paris.
17:53 – The number of people infected in China has increased. There are now 4610.
17:25 – Oil prices stabilized on Tuesday in international markets above 59 USD, balancing between concerns over more than 100 coronavirus infections in China and producers’ signals that they could further curb supplies.
Japan, one of the world’s leading oil buyers, has warned that the virus is a threat to its economy, prompting investors to buy assets they consider safe, such as US government bonds and gold. Oil investors fear the epidemic could dampen demand for crude oil and derivatives under conditions of abundant supply.
16:25 – Croatian nationals wishing to leave the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, have been offered evacuation by a partner from the European Union, according to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
The Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Beijing is in constant contact with local Chinese authorities and European partners, as well as with four Croatian nationals located in the city of Wuhan, MVEP answered Hina on Tuesday.
16:06 – The Hong Kong Health Workers Union has asked the government to close borders on Chinese nationals to prevent the spread of coronaviruses.
They agree with the measures so far, but also demand that all persons from China be banned from entering Hong Kong. This union represents 6,000 workers and threatens to strike if the government fails to meet their demand.
15:45 – Taiwan has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus infection.
15:30 – According to CNN, the case in Germany is believed to be the first case of infection from person to person in Europe.
15:15 – In the UK, 97 people are tested for the coronavirus. All tests were negative.
15:12 – Taiwan has confirmed the first patient-to-patient infection within that country. Namely, the man was infected by his wife, who had previously contracted the virus in Wuhan.
15:00 – The World Health Organization (WHO) today acknowledged that it underestimated the epidemic and that the threat was very high for China and high for the region and the rest of the world, not moderate, as said in a report on Friday.
Here is a country-by-country look at confirmed coronavirus cases:
14:25 – Experts predict that coronavirus will infect tens of thousands of people and will last several months.
“The best case scenario is that it will last through the spring and summer and subside thereafter,” David Fisman, a professor at the University of Toronto, told AFP.
“It’s not something that will end next week or next month,” said Alessandro Vespignani, a professor at Northeastern University.
The official number of infected people is more than 4000 in China, with more than 100 dead. Experts from Hong Kong University estimate that the number of current cases has exceeded 40,000, and that it will continue to grow.
14:10 – France will evacuate its nationals from Wuhan on Thursday, French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said today.
The aircraft is scheduled to land in Wuhan on Thursday, returning either on Friday or Saturday. According to the Deputy Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the first flight will contain passengers who have no symptoms of coronavirus infection, and a second flight is planned to return sick citizens to France.
13:09 – Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country was in serious battle with the coronavirus epidemic, which he called demonic, and promised even greater transparency for government institutions while fighting the disease.
“This epidemic is a demon we should not allow ourselves to hide,” Xi said when meeting with the head of the World Health Organization, AFP reports.
12:40 – German auto parts supplier Webasto announced today that another Chinese employee had contracted coronavirus after a visit by Chinese personnel.
“We confirm that a coronavirus has infected an employee from Starnberg and an employee at the company’s headquarters in Stockdorf,” Webasto said, according to Reuters. The company has 10 branches in China, including one in Wuhan. Official confirmation from German authorities is awaiting.
12:00 – Coronavirus infected numbers climbed from 4470 to 4583 within a few hours.
11:40 – The first man to be infected with Coronavirus is a 33-year-old German who works in Starnberg, south of Munich. He was not in China but had a meeting with a Chinese national last week who was later found to be suffering from coronavirus, said doctor Andreas Zapf, head of the Bavarian State Office of Health, today.
11:00 – The Philippines suspends visas for Chinese nationals.
10:55 – Hong Kong authorities have announced that they will “temporarily” close part of their borders with mainland China and that continental Chinese tourists will no longer be allowed entry permits.
Border crossings: The four border crossings will close on Thursday, January 30, until further notice.
Aviation: The number of flights from mainland China will be reduced by 50%.
Rail: Cross-border trains from West Kowloon and Hung Hom station will be suspended.
Ferries: All cross-border ferry services will be suspended.
Visas: It is planned to revoke individual travel permits for tourists from mainland China.
10:40 – Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s health minister, said a case of coronavirus infection was reported in Japan without an infected person visiting Wuhan. It is a tourist bus driver in his 60s working in the city of Nara. Health ministry officials were not immediately available for comment, Reuters reports.
9:55 – The US Secretariat of State will evacuate 240 US citizens Wednesday from Wuhan.
9:50 – Coronavirus spread accelerated: Mainland China has seen a 65 percent increase in confirmed cases in just one day.
9:40 – According to the latest data on the number of infected and died of coronary virus, the situation is as follows
Infected: 4474
Died: 107
Recovered (discharged from hospital): 63
9:30 – The Australian Government has asked students who have recently returned from China not to attend school for the next 14 days. Most New South Wales students are home to summer holidays tomorrow and classes start.
9:30 – 107th Coronavirus infection death confirmed.
Experts at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) in the United States have developed an interactive map of the world that can be used to track the spread of coronaviruses around the globe hour by hour. The map, which you can see at this link, allows you to track all the key information: where all the virus was confirmed, how many cases were confirmed, how many people died, how successfully it was cured, in which countries, or regions, the virus appeared, etc.
8:40 – Croatian Margita Puzan went to visit a friend in Wuhan, where she suddenly found herself at the epicenter of the virus.
“When I arrived, a few days after that, I found out about a virus that no one else was too afraid of. Life went on quite normally, and then we were imprisoned a few days later,” Margita Pauzin, a story on HRT, begins. She is currently locked in an apartment with her friend Tajan, also a Croatian, and Stefan from Montenegro.
8:15 – Chinese officials announced a temporary suspension of animal trade nationwide, which will not be lifted “until the epidemic is declared over.” Violators could face criminal prosecution.
Amid evidence pointing to a wild animal and seafood market in Wuhan as a possible epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, considerable attention has been paid to the trade in wild animals in parts of China.
8:02 – Thailand now has 14 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Thailand has confirmed six more cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 14, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health.
All of those infected are Chinese and five out of the six new cases are members of the same family who had traveled from Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, said Sukhum Kanchanapimai, permanent secretary to the MOPH in a press briefing Thursday.
7:35 – China deploying more medical teams to Hubei province at heart of coronavirus outbreak.
China is deploying an additional 1,800 medical personnel to Hubei province, according to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), to help ease the burden on hospital staff who are struggling to cope with the number of coronavirus patients. 13 teams will be deployed to the province’s main seven cities including Wuhan, Huanggang, Xianning, Xiaogan, Xiantao, Tianmen and Qianjiang.
They’ll be reinforcing the 30 teams — or 4,130 medical staff — already there. In Wuhan, all 59 hospitals have fever outpatient departments that are treating and testing patients for the coronavirus.
7:03 – Hong Kong medical workers threaten strike and urge city to ban Chinese visitors.
A trade union representing medical workers in Hong Kong is threatening to strike if the government does not shut its border with China to prevent the spread of Wuhan coronavirus. The HA Employees Alliance, which claimed to represent 6,000 members working for the Hospital Authority, said the government must meet its “five demands” or it will start taking industrial action next Monday.
6:57 – Japan lists Wuhan coronavirus as a special infectious disease.
“The designation will enable the government to force suspicious cases for hospitalization and testing, allowing us to take all possible measures to prevent the expansion of the infection,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Tuesday.
6:47 – Hong Kong waives medical treatment fees for all patients suspected of Wuhan coronavirus.
All patients suspected to have contracted the Wuhan coronavirus and who need to be placed under isolation will not have to pay medical fees when they receive treatment at public hospitals, the Hong Kong government has announced.
Dr. Chung Kin-lai, Director of Quality and Safety at the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, said during a news conference on Monday that anyone whose conditions meet the reporting criteria can receive treatment in Hong Kong for free, regardless of whether they are local residents.
6:30 – Death toll from Wuhan coronavirus tops 100 as infection rate accelerates.
6:15 – Japan is sending a charter plane to Wuhan to evacuate Japanese citizens.
Japan is sending its first charter flight to Wuhan to repatriate its citizens on Tuesday night local time, following successful negotiations with the Chinese government.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters at a press conference that the charter plane will then leave Wuhan on Wednesday morning and will arrive in Tokyo by midday local time. The plane will deliver masks and protective medical gear on arrival and repatriate about 200 people.
6:05 – Here’s the latest breakdown of the coronavirus cases.
5:40 – Hong Kong urges government workers to work from home to stop virus spread and asks private sector to follow suit.
The Hong Kong government has announced that government workers will be allowed to work from home when the Chinese New Year holiday ends on Wednesday.
The directive excludes emergency service workers and people who work for essential public services. The private sector has also been urged to make similar arrangements, a government spokesman said.
5:30 – Philippines suspends visa on arrival for Chinese nationals.
5:10 – Compulsory quarantine for all travelers to Tibet: The only region with no coronavirus cases in China.
Tibet, the last region in mainland China with no confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, announced the indefinite closure of all tourist attractions effective from Monday, state-run newspaper People’s Daily reported, citing the regional Communist Party committee.
All travelers, including tourists, entering Tibet will have to register with authorities and be quarantined for 14 days.
4:55 – There are more than 60 cases of coronavirus outside mainland China. The total number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus outside mainland China is now more than 60 across 17 places.
Here’s a breakdown:
Hong Kong: 8 cases
Thailand: 8 cases
Macao: 5 cases
Australia: 5 cases
Singapore: 5 cases
United States: 5 cases (Washington State, California (2), Arizona, Illinois)
Malaysia: 4 cases
Japan: 4 cases
South Korea: 4 cases
Taiwan: 4 cases
France: 3 cases
Vietnam: 2 cases
Canada: 1 case
Cambodia: 1 case
Germany: 1 case
Nepal: 1 case
Sri Lanka: 1 case
4:50 – Wuhan coronavirus can be transmitted through contact, China says.
China’s National Health Commission has said the Wuhan coronavirus can be transmitted through contact, as well as droplets. The announcement, released in a statement Tuesday morning, follows results of the fourth trial of a coronavirus treatment scheme run by the NHC.
4:40 – Chinese travelers forced to cancel Lunar New Year holidays to Japan.
4:30 – The number of confirmed cases in China jumped by nearly 65% in one day.
By the end of day Monday, the number of confirmed cases of people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus in mainland China was 4,515, according to China’s National Health Commission.
The majority of confirmed cases are in Hubei province, which is where the virus was first identified. By the end of day Sunday, the number of cases in mainland China stood at 2,744. That’s a jump in reported cases of nearly 65% over the course of a day.
During the 2002 and 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), there were 8,098 confirmed cases worldwide from November 2002 to July 2003, with 774 deaths.
4:00 – Chinese exchange student in Philadelphia tested for Wuhan coronavirus.
3:40 – Singapore confirms fifth case of coronavirus
(Updates continue Tuesday January 28, 2020)
21:20 – US Department of State raises alert for Americans traveling to China. It is now at the third level, which encourages all potential travelers to reconsider traveling.
21:00 – Sri Lanka has confirmed that one person in that country has been infected with a coronavirus.
20:33 – Ukraine advises its citizens not to enter the Hubei province of China unless necessary.
20:25 – The British government has asked citizens who have traveled to Wuhan in the last 14 days to stay in isolation and avoid contact with other people. There are about 1400 of them.
20:00 – 19 people are under special surveillance in Ontario for the coronavirus.
19:33 – The US has announced that another 73 people have been tested for the coronavirus. Test results are pending.
19:15 – Turkey warned its citizens not to travel to China unless necessary.
18:50 – The WHO (World Health Organization) has raised the coronavirus threat level from “moderate” to “elevated” internationally.
18:33 – According to CNN, the first person to be infected with a coronavirus has died in Beijing. This is a man who was 50 years old. He traveled to Wuhan on January 8, and one week after returning to Beijing he noticed the first symptoms of the disease. He sought medical attention on January 21, and was confirmed the next day to be suffering from coronavirus.
18:20 – New Coronavirus Infected Data Released.
So far, a total of 2,866 people have been infected. Of these, 2827 were infected from China.
Australia confirmed four cases, Cambodia one case, France three, Hong Kong five, Japan three, Macau two, Malaysia three, Nepal one, Singapore four, Taipei three, Thailand five, Vietnam two, South Korea two, Canada two, and the United States confirmed five.
17:50 – The Ivory Coast has tested one person for a coronavirus. The results are not yet known.
17:30 – Dubai Emirates advises its staff to stay in their hotels exclusively when traveling to China.
16:55 – The Chinese government will allocate about 7.8 billion euros to fight the spread of infection and treatment of coronavirus patients. The government is setting up a foundation, which they promise will not change its purpose after the virus has passed, nor will it draw money from it.
16:35 – According to CNN, three more new cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed in the US.
16:25 – A team of 800 Chinese are working on the construction of the highway. Montenegrin authorities have agreed with a Chinese company that employs them that the Chinese will not return to Montenegro until April to reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading. Read more.
16:15 – The Chinese economy is also experiencing the effects of coronavirus. Analysts are debating how long it will take to recover. Read more.
16:00 – As Chinese media reports, a hospital being built in Wuhan is making rapid progress. The entire hospital wing has already been built.
15:30 – Another person contracted the disease in Toronto, Canada. It is the wife of a man who was the first coronavus diseased person in that country.
15:15 – In the UK, 73 people were tested for coronavirus. All tests are negative, no one in that country is infected, the Guardian reports.
15:00 – WHO leaders will meet with officials in Beijing today to discuss how to control a coronavirus that killed 80 people and put more than 400 in critical condition, the Guardian reports.
14:25 – Shanghai authorities have determined that all companies located in the city will remain closed until 9 February. They added that classes were suspended until February 17.
Only key facilities, such as gas stations, pharmacies and supermarkets, will remain open.
14:20 – The number of new coronavirus patients is likely to be closer to 25,000, far more than the 2744 cases officially confirmed by Chinese authorities, and nearly 44,000 people are likely to be at the incubation stage, a senior Hong Kong public health official said on Monday.
So far, 81 people have died and 2,744 cases have been confirmed across China, the Chinese National Health Commission reported. Among them is a nine-month-old baby.
Gabriel Leung, dean of the Li Ka Shing School of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, said a study by his team showed that the number of patients was probably closer to 25,000, while in the incubation phase, which still has no symptoms, it could be about 44,000 people.
Leung, who advises the Hong Kong government in preparing for the disease, said his team expects the number of infected to “double every six days if there is no public health intervention.”
He urged national authorities around the world to take “draconian” measures as soon as possible to limit population movements.
14:10 – Schools and offices in Shanghai will be closed by mid-February, authorities said, adding that they are introducing a series of new measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
The schools will not operate until February 17th.
The decision comes after it was confirmed that 53 people were infected in Shanghai. One person has passed away.
13:00 – The mayor of Wuhan admitted that the government did not “inform the public in a timely manner.”
Zhou Xianwang said today that citizens were “unhappy” with the speed at which the government released coronavirus data. He explained that under Chinese infectious disease law, local government must first report to the national health department before releasing information, and then get approval from the State Council.
12:35 – The Crisis Staff of the Ministry of Health in Croatia today presented measures to prevent the spread of coronaviruses, emphasizing that there is no need for panic and that all services are ready for the eventual emergence of patients in Croatia.
The head of the Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Croatia, Antoinette Kaić Rak, said there was no room for panic. She added that the WHO had not yet declared a public health crisis of international importance for the coronavirus because China had proved transparent and had taken measures to curb the spread of the infection.
A group of Chinese tourists arriving in Croatia said they had been screened, had no symptoms and were in control. “One need not fear the Chinese,” she said.
Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CIPH) Krunoslav Capak points out that the epidemiological service has taken measures appropriate to the situation, made a number of contacts and prepared the documents necessary for the possible occurrence of coronovirus cases in Croatia.
“We are preparing for the situation for the disease to occur in our country, protective equipment has been agreed, reception at airports, treatment of patients, diagnostics and hospitalization,” he said.
Head of the CIPH Epidemiological Service Bernard Kaić noted that the clinical picture of coronavirus is similar to the flu with more severe respiratory symptoms but does not spread as effectively as the flu.
It can result in death as well as the flu, but with coronavirus the mortality is higher – it ranges from 2 to 4 percent, while it is 0.1 percent with the flu.
12:30 – Israel advised its citizens not to travel to China except in case of emergency. He also warned them to completely avoid the Hubei region, which is the epicenter of the virus.
12:25 – Spanish government co-operates with China and European Union to return Wuhan nationals, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzales Laya said
“We are working with our consulate in Beijing and with officials in China and the EU to bring back about 20 Spaniards from Wuhan, in the Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus,” she wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, France, the US and Japan announced that they were working to prepare for the evacuation of their nationals.
11:42 – Germany is considering the evacuation of its nationals from the Chinese region affected by the coronavirus, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said today.
“We are considering a possible evacuation of all Germans who would like to leave the area,” Maas said at a news conference, adding that employees of the German Embassy in Beijing would arrive in Wuhan later in the day to help German nationals.
11:20 – Malaysia temporarily bans Chinese visitors from Hubei province.
For fear of coronavirus, the Malaysian government has imposed a temporary ban on Chinese visitors from Hubei province with immediate effect, according to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office.
France will evacuate its citizens from Wuhan “in the middle of next week,” Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said yesterday.
“The prime minister has requested a return via direct air link with the consent of the Chinese authorities … We are arranging a direct flight from Wuhan,” she added.
10:50 – The number of people infected with Wuhan coronavirus could double every six days, said doctor Gabriel Leung, head of the department of public medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), today.
Leung, who is also director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborative Center for Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Control in Hong Kong, gave his outlook on the epidemic’s progression and said the number of infections in major cities could peak between mid-April and May.
To prevent this, “stringent measures should be put in place that will sooner or later limit the mobility of the population,” Leung said, adding that the public should be prepared for the epidemic to become global.
10:44 – Graph of the outbreak and the number of coronavirus patients in China.
10:07 – Graphic representation of symptoms and possible complications after coronavirus infection.
10:05 – The coronavirus is mostly transmitted by droplet, Feng Luzhao of the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control said at a news conference today.
Airborne transmission (droplet) means that particles of viruses or bacteria contained in droplets formed in the mucous membranes of an infected person are transmitted to others by coughing, sneezing, and speech.
British scientists estimate that every person infected with Wuhan coronavirus will further infect two to three people, according to a report released on Saturday.
The death toll from coronavirus has increased to 81, with at least 3,000 people infected, BBC reports.
Confirmed cases: 3,000
Possible (unconfirmed) cases: 5.794
In critical condition: 461
Patients recovered and discharged from hospital: 51
9:35 – Lady MacLehose tourist resort located in Hong Kong’s Sai Kung Park has been quarantined. As of January 23, it has housed those persons who have been in close contact with confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Hong Kong.
The resort houses 52 bungalows and can accommodate 268 residential campers, CNN reports.
9:30 – The German Foreign Ministry advised against traveling to all of China except in case of emergency.
It advised its citizens:
– to delay travel to China unless it is an emergency
– register with one of the German government’s crisis prevention offices if they are located in China
– to avoid travel to Hubei Province
9:20 – Mongolia to close China’s border with cars. It also intends to close schools from January 27 to March 2 as a preventative measure against the spread of coronavirus.
In Mongolia, there are no cases of infection so far, but authorities say the country is at high risk of spreading the virus in the border area with China.
9:00 – In China’s Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, located along the southern border of Mongolia, the first case of a coronavirus infection was reported last week.
Twenty-nine cases of infection outside China are spread across a dozen countries. Among others, there are five in the US, four in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, and three in France, Japan and South Korea.
“The ability to spread the virus is growing stronger,” senior officials said Sunday, though the coronavirus is “not stronger than SARS.”
President Xi Jinping acknowledged that the situation was difficult on Saturday night, warning that the spread of the infestation that had erupted in December in Wuhan was accelerating.
China Coronavirus Spread Within a Few Months
Recall, the deadly virus was first discovered two months ago in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province and has since infested at least 2,700 people in mainland China and claimed the lives of 80 of them.
The virus has spread to other Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and to other countries including the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France and Canada. The ability to spread coronaviruses is increasing and the number of infected is expected to increase.
China’s national health commissioner Ma Xiaowei said at a press conference that knowledge of the virus was limited. According to him, incubation lasts from one to 14 days and the virus can infect others during this period as well, which was not the case for SARS, which was also caused by a coronavirus, which originated in China and killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2002 and 2003.
56 Million People Cut Off From Rest of World
Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced that he will travel to China to talk to authorities about ways to stem the epidemic.
“I’m on my way to Beijing to talk to the government and health experts about ways to respond to coronavirus,” he tweeted.
The WHO announced Thursday that it is too early to declare an international emergency.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, meanwhile, has come to visit Wuhan to “lead” efforts by authorities, but also to “meet patients and medical staff on the front lines of the epidemic,” the government announced.
It is the first visit by a Chinese senior official to the city from which the infestation started. Li is leading a task force that is tasked with overseeing the fight against the epidemic.
As the DPA news agency reports, hundreds of Chinese doctors have been sent to Wuhan. Hospitals there are crowded with patients, with hundreds waiting in line.
Wuhan and its region have been quarantined since Thursday to prevent the disease from spreading further. A total of about 56 million people are cut off from the world.
The epidemic has reached both Europe and Australia, with one possible case reported in Canada.
France, the US and Japan are preparing to evacuate their nationals from the quarantine zone.
The United States, where five cases have been confirmed, have announced they are organizing the departure of their diplomatic staff and citizens blocked in Wuhan and hope to be able to take off on Tuesday.
Evacuation of Foreign Nationals
Other countries are also in communication with Beijing to evacuate their citizens
The French health minister announced on Sunday that France would organize the evacuation of its nationals “by direct air” and would be subject to a 14-day quarantine, the longest incubation time.
Japan plans to transfer hundreds of its citizens, and it is likely that as early as Tuesday a charter plane will be sent to Wuhan, which should transfer Japanese citizens who want to return to the country.
Despite all the alarming news, preliminary analyzes show that the death rate from the virus is very low.
Gui Yi’en, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Wuhan, says the number of infected people could peak on February 8, and then begin to weaken.
Follow this page and our Lifestyle page for updates on the Coronavirus and local preventative measures.
*ARCHIVE OF UPDATES WHICH WHICH BEGAN JANUARY 27, 2020 AND ENDS HERE ON MARCH 1, 2020. UPDATES CONTINUE HERE BEGINNING MARCH 2, 2020.
*Follow this page for updates from Total Croatia News on the coronavirus in Croatia. Contact numbers for epidemiologists, travel advisories and measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus can be found here.
