The Chinese National Health Commission said Friday that there are 830 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus countrywide, while at least 25 people have died.The Chinese government isolated more cities Friday, an unprecedented move to contain the coronavirus, which has spread to several other countries.In China, at least 10 cities, and at least 33 million people, have been put on lockdown — Wuhan, Huanggang, Ezhou, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang; Jingmen, Xiantao, Xiaogan and Huangshi — all in central China’s Hubei province, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese traditionally travel.Shanghai Disney Resort announced on its website that it is temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland, a major tourist attraction during Lunar New Year, “in response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety” of guests and cast.The municipality authorities of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated, said Friday that the city is building a new 1,000-bed hospital, expected to be completed by Feb. 3.On Thursday authorities first banned planes and trains from leaving the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. Toll roads were closed, and ferry, subway and bus services were suspended.A passenger wearing a protective facemask to help stop the spread of a deadly SARS-like virus that originated in the central city of Wuhan waits at Beijing railway station in Beijing, Jan. 24, 2020.Wuhan authorities have demanded that all residents wear masks in public and urged government and private sector employees to wear them in the workplace, according to the Xinhua news agency, which cited a government official.Similar measures were taken hours later in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou.The government also canceled holiday events in Beijing that usually attract large crowds.Fifteen medical workers are among those who have been infected by the virus, which has spread from Wuhan to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province, as well as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the United States.WATCH: WHO Warns Coronavirus Is ‘High Risk,’ Stops Short of Declaring EmergencySorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Director-general of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020.WHO considers an international emergency an “extraordinary event” that puts other countries at risk and one that requires a coordinated global response.The U.S. announced its first case Tuesday in the northwestern state of Washington. Health officials there said a man who returned to Seattle from Wuhan last week is hospitalized in good condition with pneumonia.U.S. President Donald Trump assured reporters during a press conference in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday that U.S. officials “have a plan” to deal with the new outbreak, praising experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “terrific, very great professionals, and we’re in great shape.”Airports around the world have begun screening travelers from Wuhan for any signs of the virus.A coronavirus is one of a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to the deadly SARS.
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The Chinese government isolated more cities Friday, an unprecedented move to contain the coronavirus, which has spread to several other countries.At least eight cities, and a total of at least 25 million people, have been put on lockdown — Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang, Jingmen and Xiantao — all in central China’s Hubei province, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese traditionally travel.On Thursday authorities first banned planes and trains from leaving the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. Toll roads were closed, and ferry, subway and bus services were suspended.A passenger wearing a protective facemask to help stop the spread of a deadly SARS-like virus that originated in the central city of Wuhan waits at Beijing railway station in Beijing, Jan. 24, 2020.Wuhan authorities have demanded that all residents wear masks in public and urged government and private sector employees to wear them in the workplace, according to the Xinhua news agency, which cited a government official.Similar measures were taken hours later in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou.The government also canceled holiday events in Beijing that usually attract large crowds.The virus has killed at least 24 people, according to Hubei health authorities, who have also confirmed about 550 cases of the new coronavirus.Fifteen medical workers are among those who have been infected by the virus, which has spread from Wuhan to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province, as well as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the United States.WATCH: WHO Warns Coronavirus Is ‘High Risk,’ Stops Short of Declaring EmergencySorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Director-general of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020.WHO considers an international emergency an “extraordinary event” that puts other countries at risk and one that requires a coordinated global response.The U.S. announced its first case Tuesday in the northwestern state of Washington. Health officials there said a man who returned to Seattle from Wuhan last week is hospitalized in good condition with pneumonia.U.S. President Donald Trump assured reporters during a press conference in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday that U.S. officials “have a plan” to deal with the new outbreak, praising experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “terrific, very great professionals, and we’re in great shape.”Airports around the world have begun screening travelers from Wuhan for any signs of the virus.A coronavirus is one of a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to the deadly SARS.
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The keepers of the Doomsday Clock on Thursday moved the symbolic countdown to global disaster to the closest point to midnight in its 73-year history, citing “existential danger” from nuclear war and climate change.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded after the creation of the atomic bomb in World War II and focuses on the greatest threats to human survival, said it moved the clock from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight — a 20-second advance.The decision was made by the group’s science and security board, in consultations with its board of sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates.In a statement accompanying the clock’s advance, the organization said the nuclear and climate dangers “are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare that undercuts society’s ability to respond.””The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode,” it said.Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said: “We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds — not hours, or even minutes.””We now face a true emergency — an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay,” she said.Former California Gov. Jerry Brown, the Bulletin’s executive chairman, warned that “dangerous rivalry and hostility among the superpowers increases the likelihood of nuclear blunder.””Climate change just compounds the crisis,” he said. “If there’s ever a time to wake up, it’s now.”Former California Gov. Jerry Brown speaks after unveiling the Doomsday Clock during The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists news conference in Washington, Jan. 23, 2019.The Doomsday Clock didn’t move in 2019 but in 2018 it advanced by 30 seconds from 2-1/2 minutes before midnight to two minutes to midnight.As the symbolic clock was moved on Thursday, the Bulletin’s experts were joined by former Irish President Mary Robinson who now leads The Elders, a group of prominent former world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, and ex-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, now deputy chairman of The Elders.Ban said that from the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal to deadlock at nuclear disarmament talks and divisions in the U.N. Security Council, “our mechanisms for collaboration are being undermined when we need them most.”Robinson called on world leaders to join in working “to pull humanity back from the brink.”
 
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Most U.S. adults report worrying about at least two financial issues, such as being able to afford medical bills, retirement or a child’s college education, new research finds.Individuals with two or more financial worries were far more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress than those who reported fewer money concerns, Dr. Judith Weissman, a mental health researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, and her colleagues found.Financial distress had a relatively greater effect on mental health in women and Latinos, while less-educated whites reported the most psychological distress.The findings show that “people are feeling very disturbed about financial matters,” Weissman told Reuters Health in a phone interview. “These financial matters are a proxy for our life stability.”Death rates among middle-aged white men and women in the U.S. have been on the rise since about 1999, largely driven by increases in deaths from drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic liver disease and suicide, the study team notes in the Community Mental Health Journal. While unemployment and other objective economic measures have been linked to mental and physical health, the role of subjective measurements — how people feel about their financial situation — is not as clear, they write.The researchers looked at serious psychological distress, which isn’t a diagnosis but a measurement of a person’s overall mental health and social functioning, in a sample of 24,126 U.S. adults who represented more than 245 million people nationwide.Study participants, who were surveyed in 2016, also reported whether they were worried about paying their bills, paying costs due to serious medical events, paying costs due to unexpected medical events, paying for retirement, paying for children’s college, or being able to maintain their standard of living.Tuition tops concernsCollege tuition was the top worry, reported by about 56% of participants, followed by paying for retirement, by about 49%.Fifty-nine percent reported at least two financial worries, while about 28% reported having no worries and 13% had just one financial concern.Women were more likely to report each of the financial worries than men, and the worries were also more common among Hispanic people compared to other groups. More-educated individuals reported fewer financial worries, while people with multiple chronic illnesses reported more.Weissman and her colleagues are now planning to investigate whether the financial worries they studied are associated with suicide risk.People suffering from distress should understand that care and treatment is available, Weissman said. “A lot of times feeling depressed or feeling distressed shapes the way we perceive our options,” she said. “Persevere, depression is treatable, even suicidal ideation is treatable.”
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Chinese authorities Thursday moved to lock down three cities with a combined population of more than 18 million in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds of people and spread to other parts of the world during the busy Lunar New Year travel period.
The open-ended lockdowns are unmatched in size, embracing more people than New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago put together.
The train station and airport in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, were shut down, and ferry, subway and bus service was halted. Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million were eerily quiet. Police checked all incoming vehicles but did not close off the roads.
Authorities announced similar measures would take effect Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou. In Huanggang, theaters, internet cafes and other entertainment centers were also ordered closed.
In the capital, Beijing, officials canceled major events indefinitely, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of holiday celebrations, in order to “execute epidemic prevention and control.” The Forbidden City, the palace complex in Beijing that is now a museum, announced it will close indefinitely on Saturday.
Seventeen people have died in the outbreak, all of them in and around Wuhan. Close to 600 have been infected, the vast majority of them in Wuhan, and many countries have begun screening travelers from China for symptoms of the virus, which can cause fever, coughing, trouble breathing and pneumonia.
Chinese officials have not said how long the shutdowns will last. While sweeping measures are typical of China’s communist government, large-scale quarantines are rare around the world, even in deadly epidemics, because of concerns about infringing on people’s liberties. And the effectiveness of such measures is unclear.
“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science,” Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization’s representative in China, said in an interview. “It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work.”
Jonathan Ball, a professor of virology at molecular virology at the University of Nottingham in Britain, said the lockdowns appear to be justified scientifically.
“Until there’s a better understanding of what the situation is, I think it’s not an unreasonable thing to do,” he said. “Anything that limits people’s travels during an outbreak would obviously work.”
But Ball cautioned that any such quarantine should be strictly time-limited. He added: “You have to make sure you communicate effectively about why this is being done. Otherwise you will lose the goodwill of the people.”People queue for receiving treatment at the fever outpatient department at the Wuhan Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Jan. 22, 2020.During the devastating West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014, Sierra Leone imposed a national three-day quarantine as health teams went door-to-door searching for hidden cases. Frustrated residents complained of food shortages amid deserted streets. Burial teams collecting Ebola corpses and people transporting the sick to Ebola centers were the only ones allowed to move freely.
In China, the illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus first appeared last month in Wuhan, an industrial and transportation hub in central China’s Hubei province. Other cases have been reported in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong reported their first cases Thursday.
Most of the illnesses outside China involve people who were from Wuhan or had recently traveled there.
Images from Wuhan showed long lines and empty shelves at supermarkets, as residents stocked up for what could be weeks of isolation. That appeared to be an over-reaction, since no restrictions were placed on trucks carrying supplies into the city, although many Chinese have strong memories of shortages in the years before the country’s recent economic boom.
Local authorities in Wuhan demanded all residents wear masks in public places. Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan’s train station.
Liu Haihan left Wuhan last Friday after visiting her boyfriend there. She said everything was normal then, before human-to-human transmission of the virus was confirmed. But things had changed rapidly.
Her boyfriend “didn’t sleep much yesterday. He disinfected his house and stocked up on instant noodles,”  Liu said. “He’s not really going out. If he does, he wears a mask.”
The sharp rise in illnesses comes as millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year, one of the world’s largest annual migrations of people. Chinese are expected to take an estimated 3 billion trips during the 40-day spike in travel.
Analysts predicted cases will continue to multiply, although the jump in numbers is also attributable in part to increased monitoring.
“Even if (cases) are in the thousands, this would not surprise us,” the WHO’s Galea said, adding, however, that the number of those infected is not an indicator of the outbreak’s severity, so long as the mortality rate remains low.
The coronavirus family includes the common cold as well as viruses that cause more serious illnesses, such as the SARS outbreak that spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002-03 and killed about 800 people, and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which is thought to have originated from camels.
China is keen to avoid repeating mistakes with its handling of SARS. For months, even after the illness had spread around the world, China parked patients in hotels and drove them around in ambulances to conceal the true number of cases and avoid WHO experts.
In the current outbreak, China has been credited with sharing information rapidly, and President Xi Jinping has emphasized that as a priority.
“Party committees, governments and relevant departments at all levels must put people’s lives and health first,” Xi said Monday. “It is necessary to release epidemic information in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation.”A picture released by the Central Hospital of Wuhan shows medical staff attending to patient at the The Central Hospital Of Wuhan Via Weibo in Wuhan, China on an unknown date.Health authorities were taking extraordinary measures to prevent additional person-to-person transmissions, placing those believed infected in plastic tubes and wheeled boxes, with air passed through filters.
The first cases in the Wuhan outbreak were connected to people who worked at or visited a seafood market, which has since been closed for an investigation. Experts suspect that the virus was first transmitted from wild animals but that it may also be mutating. Mutations can make it deadlier or more contagious.
WHO convened its emergency committee of independent experts on Thursday to consider whether the outbreak should be declared a global health emergency, after the group failed to come to a consensus on Wednesday.
The U.N. health agency defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
A declaration of a global emergency typically brings greater money and resources, but may also prompt nervous governments to restrict travel to and trade with affected countries. The announcement also imposes more disease-reporting requirements on countries.
Declaring an international emergency can also be politically fraught. Countries typically resist the notion that they have a crisis within their borders and may argue strenuously for other control measures. 
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China’s efforts to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus with a transportation lockdown are sparking confusion among residents who are unsure of what steps to take.Some 20 million people living in four cities are impacted by the lockdown, with authorities in Hubei province’s Wuhan, canceling flights and trains, and closing roads to prevent people from entering or leaving the metropolitan area, where hundreds have been infected with the pneumonia-like virus.   Paramilitary police stand guard at an entrance to the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, Jan. 23, 2020.But with few independent journalists operating in Wuhan, and Beijing maintaining a tight control over information, many Chinese are relying on anecdotal reports from inside the quarantined city for information about how severe the situation has become.A resident, who scrambled to flee before the lockdown, said that he was surprised to find the city’s airport screening measures at the last minute were looser than expected.“Upon my arrival [in another Chinese city], I had to go through stricter screening measures, which were not available before I flew out of Wuhan. This is so ridiculous that a stronger action is taken in a city, which isn’t hit as hard as Wuhan,” the resident told VOA on the condition of anonymity.      Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
In this image made from video, security officials turn away a traveler at an entrance to the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, Jan. 23, 2020.According to local media reports, lawyer Shang Manqing’ aunt and lawyer Gan Weidong’s uncle in Wuhan respectively died of pneumonia-like symptoms on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.  Both families accused health authorities of rushing to cremate their loved ones before the actual cause of their death was pronounced.  Rising Death TollWuhan’s lockdown comes as China braces for New Year celebrations, when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel to gather with family.In Wuhan, there remained uncertainty about the impact of the quarantine, even among hoteliers bracing for a busy week.
 
A five-star hotel, that is a 30-minute drive from the seafood market, was still accepting tourists at around the noon time Thursday.“If you have developed no symptoms, you can still enter Wuhan via taxi. Ma’am, it’s very safe. I assure you,” a hotel staff said.Meanwhile, another hotel, close to the hardest-hit market area, advised outsiders not to travel into the city, adding that no one is staying with the hotel except long-term guests.Weighing Economic ImpactThe province’s four other cities – Huangang, Ezhou, Xiantao and Chibi – have  shut down their partial public transportation systems.  With many cities having canceled New Year celebrations, the nation’s tourism sector will see an immediate impact, economists say. Quarantine measures could have broader impacts on the economy if they continue. “This first quarter’s numbers with respect to retail sales and restaurants and hospitality industries and the transportation industries will be affected as well,” said Raymond Yeung, senior economist of Greater China at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.“But fortunately, if you look at the Chinese economy on the back of this phase 1 deal and the overall improvement of the trade sectors whereas the tech cycles seem to be very supportive ahead of the 5G rollout this year. That seems to boost the trade numbers in the first quarter. That can offset the impact of this new SARS epidemic,” the Hong Kong-based economist added.          When the stock markets reopen in a week, investors will be keeping a close eye on any news, that may fluctuate shares prices, he said.If the outbreak is quickly contained, the impact will be limited. However, if it protracts and quickly spreads, the regional economy will take a hit as it had during the 2003 SARS outbreak, Yeung said.You Shibing, an economics professor at Wuhan University, said he agreed, noting the city’s tourism sector will suffer a big loss at least during the week-long New Year vacation.In recent years, Wuhan has been one of the most popular cities among domestic travelers with annual tourism income reaching $43.25 billion (300 billion yuan). In the previous National Day vacation last October, Wuhan attracted a record-high of 22.6 million travelers.Professor You said that the city’s manufacturing sectors may face a various degree of workforce challenges.“The high-tech industries such as the manufacturing of electronic and opto-electronics products mostly hire local people. But the service sector including the agricultural reprocessing industry mostly hire migrant workers, who have left the city and may not be able to return,” the professor said.Any worker shortages could force local businesses to shut down future production, he added. 
 
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The World Health Organization is welcoming China’s decision to temporarily suspend all transportation in and out of the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday placing the Chinese city of 11 million under virtual quarantine was a strong measure but appropriate measure based on the threats posed by the new coronavirus.”We stressed to them (China) that by having a strong action, not only they will control the outbreak in their country, but they will also minimize the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally,” he said.More than 500 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, with at least 17 deaths.  Most of the cases and deaths have occurred within China, but the disease has spread internationally to other countries; namely Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.  The spread has increased pressure upon the Chinese authorities to take more vigorous action to curb the outbreak.  Travelers wear face masks as they stand in the arrivals area at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, Jan. 23, 2020.In response, China’s government has temporarily suspended air and train travel in and out of Wuhan and closed the city’s internal bus and subway system.  Residents have been advised to wear masks and to avoid crowds.  Two other cities, Huanggang and Ezhou have instituted similar measures.Ghebreyesus said that there was nothing unusual about these actions, which were similar to other extreme measures that have been taken during previous health crises.“Public transport and other mass gatherings should be avoided.  So, they are taking measures based on that,” he said.  “They know what measures to take in order to prevent transmission — especially mass gathering is one of the risks.”Fears of the coronavirus spreading widely during the current Lunar holidays, when millions of people travel to join their families have prompted several airlines, including carriers from Malaysia and Singapore, to temporarily stop flights to and from Wuhan.While these de facto travel bans have been put in place, a WHO expert emergency committee, which remains split on a decision to declare the coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), has gone into a second day of deliberations.WATCH: Carol Pearson’s video report on the deadly illness Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Dr. Satish Pillai, at podium, a medical officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks along with other officials, Jan. 22, 2020, during a news conference in Shoreline, Wash.Older men at higher risk
The committee found that older men, approximately 72% of the cases, were at higher risk of getting ill and that some 40% of these patients “had underlying diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.”Coronavirus is mainly transmitted from animals to humans, but scientists have ascertained that there is limited human-to-human transmission.  The health experts meeting in emergency session have warned against people coming in close contact with anyone suspected of carrying the virus.”The primary issue is to limit human-to-human transmission, to reduce secondary infections, especially among close contacts, and particularly in health care environments,” said Michael Ryan, executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Program. “We need to prevent transmission through amplification events and super-spreading events, and obviously prevent further international spread. 
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The Trump administration was expected to announce completion as soon as Thursday of one of its most momentous environmental rollbacks, removing federal protections for millions of miles of the country’s streams, arroyos and wetlands.
The changes, launched by President Donald Trump when he took office, sharply scale back the government’s interpretation of which waterways qualify for protection against pollution and development under the half-century-old Clean Water Act.
A draft version of the rule released earlier would end federal oversight for up to half of the nation’s wetlands and one-fifth of the country’s streams, environmental groups warned. That includes some waterways that have been federally protected for decades under the Clean Water Act.
Trump has portrayed farmers — a highly valued constituency of the Republican Party and one popular with the public — as the main beneficiaries of the rollback. He has claimed farmers gathered around him wept with gratitude when he signed an order for the rollback in February 2017.
The administration says the changes will allow farmers to plow their fields without fear of unintentionally straying over the banks of a federally protected dry creek, bog or ditch.
However, the government’s own figures show it is real estate developers and those in other nonfarm business sectors who take out the most permits for impinging on wetlands and waterways — and stand to reap the biggest regulatory and financial relief.Environmental groups and many former environmental regulators say the change will allow industry and developers to dump more contaminants in waterways or simply fill them in, damaging habitat for wildlife and making it more difficult and expensive for downstream communities to treat drinking water to make it safe.
“This administration’s eliminating clean water protections to protect polluters instead of protecting people,” said Blan Holman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.The Trump administration has targeted a range of environmental protections for rollbacks. Trump says his aim is to ease regulatory burdens on businesses.  
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Pakistan announced Thursday airport authorities have begun screening travelers from neighboring China for signs of the coronavirus.China’s recent billions of dollars of investments in infrastructure development projects in Pakistan has led to a spike in the number of people traveling between the two countries, including thousands of Chinese workers.Pakistani officials said more than 40 direct or indirect flights from China land every week at three main airports, including Karachi, the country’s largest city, Lahore and the national capital of Islamabad.“These points of entry are being closely monitored in line with international health regulations,” Pakistani State Minister of Health Zafar Mirza said in a statement.No cases reported yetHowever, he noted, Pakistan has so far not reported any case of the coronavirus, which seems to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.“Major hospitals in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad are also being linked with surveillance systems on airports, seaports and ground crossings,” Mirza told the state-run broadcaster. He said emergency measures are being put in place in coordination with the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to make sure that a large number of Chinese workers, who recently went to their homeland in connection with their New Year’s celebrations, are strictly screened when they return back.WHO has confirmed nearly 500 cases, including nearly 20 deaths, all are said to be in or from China.The Pakistani government, Mirza said, was in constant touch with Chinese counterparts and the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure strengthened national surveillance and quarantine systems.Passengers arriving Thursday from China to the Lahore airport were being screened for the coronavirus responsible for nearly 20 deaths in China. (Courtesy Pakistan Health Ministry)Wuhan quarantineChinese officials cordoned off Wuhan starting Thursday in their bid to limit the spread of the disease nationally and internationally. Public transport in the city of 11 million people has been suspended, airports and train stations temporarily shut, and residents instructed not to exit Wuhan unless there are “special reasons.”International health experts are scrambling to contain the disease, but the virus is new and not much is known about it.The disease is mainly transmitted from animals to humans, but scientists have ascertained that there is limited human-to-human transmission. Health experts are warning people to avoid coming in close contact with people suspected of carrying the virus.
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North Korea has temporarily banned foreign tourists in response to the outbreak of a dangerous new virus in neighboring China. Depending on how long the ban lasts, it could hurt North Korea’s economy, which though heavily sanctioned, has received a boost by a recent influx of Chinese tourists.Starting Wednesday, North Korea closed its borders to foreign tourists, according to Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based company that leads trips to North Korea. On its website, the company says it is not clear how long the suspension will last, but that authorities say they intend to reopen the border as soon as they institute precautionary measures.The pneumonialike respiratory illness, which can be transmitted among humans, originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. It has infected more than 500 people, 17 of whom have died. Cases have been reported in countries including South Korea, Japan, the United States, and Thailand.FILE – Foreigners and North Koreans, facing increased safety measures to prevent the possible spread of Ebola, board an Air Koryo flight bound for Beijing in Pyongyang, North Korea, Oct. 28, 2014.Willing to close borderIt is not the first time North Korea has banned visitors in response to international outbreaks of infectious diseases. In 2014, the country shut its borders for four months during the Ebola outbreak, even though the disease never reached Asia. North Korea also restricted some visitors during the SARS epidemic in 2003.“North Korea is probably more willing to shut down exit and entry than any other country,” said Andray Abrahamian, who specializes in North Korea at the George Mason University Korea.But the move may be especially painful this time, Abrahamian said, since tourism is one of the only legal ways for the North Korean government to make money.“(During previous outbreaks) they had a number of legal revenue streams that are now prohibited by sanctions. Tourism was small. Now, tourism is a much bigger industry and their last major nonsanctioned sector. So shutting down the border will have a relatively higher impact,” he said.North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006, and unilateral U.S. sanctions for even longer, as a result of its nuclear and missile programs.FILE – Tourists from China pose for photos before the Three Charters monument in Pyongyang, April 15, 2019. North Korea will ban foreign tourists to protect itself against a new SARS-like virus that has claimed at least 17 lives in China.Need for tourism money growsAs the sanctions have expanded, North Korea has increasingly relied on the money brought by foreign tourists, almost all of whom come from China.NK News, a North Korea-focused online publication, estimates that around 350,000 mainland Chinese tourists visited North Korea in 2019, providing about $175 million in extra revenue for Pyongyang.North Korea is now in the middle of winter, typically off-peak season for foreign tours. But as the weather gets warmer, it may feel pressure to resume tourism as soon as possible.“There will be a number of stakeholders hoping the Wuhan virus doesn’t spread in the coming weeks as the weather warms up and more tourists are expected,” Abrahamian said.Rowan Beard, North Korea tours manager for Young Pioneer Tours, tells VOA that his company has had to delay some tours, but says the move is understandable given North Korea’s proximity to the outbreak and its apparently limited capacity to deal with the disease.“North Korea is very vulnerable due to its shared border with China, its largest trading partner,” said Kee Park, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School who also specializes in North Korea public health.“They also understand that drastic action is needed to prevent the new virus from entering North Korea since their capacity to diagnose, treat and contain the virus is limited should an outbreak occur inside North Korea,” Park said.Park, who frequently participates in medical exchange trips to North Korea, says humanitarian organizations “should send medical and isolation supplies immediately and the (U.N.) sanctions committee should be proactive and issue a special exemption.”North Korea has not yet reported any cases of the coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with North Korean officials to prevent an outbreak, North Korea state media reported this week, according to NK News.
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As a new virus spreads inside and outside of China, health officials are scrambling to contain it, but the virus is so new, not much is known about it. VOA’s Carol Pearson tells us what we do know about the coronavirus.
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A new virus spreads within and outside China, and the World Health Organization has confirmed nearly 500 cases, including nearly 20 deaths. Health officials are scrambling to contain the disease, but the virus is new and not much is known about it.People from China are being screened at airports, both in their own country and abroad. They’re being checked for fever and other symptoms of a new respiratory virus.The virus is a coronavirus. It’s called that because under a microscope, the virus appears to be surrounded by a crown.The common cold is an example of a coronavirus and so are SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — and MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome. SARS originated 17 years ago at a food market in China. Scientists traced the virus to civets, catlike animals that were sold for food.MERS emerged in 2012.FILE – A man looks at caged civet cats in a wildlife market in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, China, Jan. 5, 2204.Intermediate hostsMatthew Frieman is an expert on coronaviruses. He spoke by Skype from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.“MERS probably was from bats, but now is endemic in camels all over the Middle East, and spreading from camels to humans,” he said. “For all of these emerging coronaviruses, they have an intermediate host that allows the virus to jump from animals to people.”This latest coronavirus is associated with a market in Wuhan, a city in central China with a population of 11 million. Respiratory viruses are airborne. They’re transmitted by coughing or sneezing, touching an infected surface and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes. Frieman says it’s easier to catch a coronavirus than it is to catch Ebola because Ebola spreads by contact with infected bodily fluids and not from droplets in the air.WATCH: Coronavirus Deaths Rise as Health Agencies Try to Curb Its SpreadSorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
China Eastern Airlines flight crew wear protective masks on arrival at Sydney International Airport in Sydney, Australia, Jan. 23, 2020.No effective treatment“If you wind up getting a secondary bacterial infection, you can get put on an antibiotic. If you have respiratory distress and you need help breathing, you could be put on a respirator. But there is no proven, specific, effective treatment for the novel coronavirus,” he said.Scientists around the world are studying this virus. Frieman says scientists need to find out where the virus is coming from.“And then, the next steps are really looking at what this virus does, how it causes disease,” he said. “Can we develop diagnostics so we can better know how it spreads in the community?”The CDC recommends preventative measures such as washing your hands frequently, coughing into your elbow or a tissue, and immediately contacting a doctor if you suspect you have the virus.
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The days of passengers bringing rabbits, turtles and birds on planes as emotional-support animals could be ending.The U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday proposed that only specially trained dogs qualify as service animals, which must be allowed in the cabin at no charge. Airlines could let passengers bring other animals on board, but hefty fees would apply.Airlines say the number of support animals has been growing dramatically in recent years, and they have lobbied to tighten the rules. They also imposed their own restrictions in response to passengers who show up at the airport with pigs, pheasants, turkeys, snakes and other unusual pets.”This is a wonderful step in the right direction for people like myself who are dependent on and reliant on legitimate service animals that perform a task to mitigate our disability,” said Albert Rizzi, founder of My Blind Spot, which advocates for accessibility for people of different ability levels.Tighter rules praisedThe U.S. airline industry trade group praised the tighter rules. Industry officials believe that hundreds of thousands of passengers scam the system each year by claiming they need their pet for emotional support. Those people avoid airline pet fees, which are generally more than $100 each way.”Airlines want all passengers and crew to have a safe and comfortable flying experience, and we are confident the proposed rule will go a long way in ensuring a safer and healthier experience for everyone,” said Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America.Flight attendants had pushed to rein in support animals, too, and were pleased with Wednesday’s proposed changes.”The days of Noah’s Ark in the air are hopefully coming to an end,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. The union chief said untrained pets had hurt some of her members.Veterans groups pleasedVeterans groups have sided with the airlines, arguing that a boom in untrained dogs and other animals threatens their ability to fly with properly trained service dogs. Last year, more than 80 veterans and disability groups endorsed banning untrained emotional-support animals in airline cabins.”It’s just interesting how people want to have the benefits of having a disability without actually losing the use of their limbs or senses just so they can take their pet with them,” Rizzi said.Southwest Airlines handles more than 190,000 emotional support animals per year. American Airlines carried 155,790 emotional support animals in 2017, up 48% from 2016, while the number of checked pets dropped 17%. United Airlines carried 76,000 comfort animals in 2017.Department officials said in a briefing with reporters that they are proposing the changes to ensure safety on flights. They also said some passengers have abused the current rules.The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposed changes, and they could take effect any time after that.The Transportation Department proposes a narrow definition of a service animal — it would be a dog that is trained to help a person with a physical or other disability. Passengers who want to travel with a service dog will have to fill out a federal form on which they swear that the dog is trained to help them with their disability. A dog that is trained to help a passenger with psychiatric needs would continue to qualify as a service animal.Note from medical professionalCurrently, passengers have been allowed to bring many other animals if they have a medical professional’s note saying they need the animal for emotional support.The proposal would prohibit airlines from banning particular types of dog breeds — Delta Air Lines bans pit bulls, for example — but airline employees could refuse to board any animal that they consider a threat to other people.The president of the Humane Society of the United States said airlines had “maligned” pit bulls by banning them. Kitty Block said the Transportation Department’s rule against breed-specific prohibitions “sends a clear message to airlines that their discriminatory practices are not only unsound, but against the law.”The new rules would also bar the current practice by many airlines of requiring animal owners to fill out paperwork 48 hours in advance. A department official said that practice can harm disabled people by preventing them from bringing their service dog on last-minute trips. But airlines could still require forms attesting to an animal’s good behavior and health, which could present challenges if the form has to be completed by a specific institution, Rizzi said.The proposal also says people with service animals must check in earlier than the general public, and would end the rarely seen use of miniature horses as service animals, although a Transportation Department official indicated the agency is open to reconsidering that provision.Airlines could require that service animals be on a leash or harness and fit in its handler’s foot space. They could limit passengers to two service animals each, although it is unclear how often that happens under the current rules.
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International students remaining in Wuhan, China — where the government has issued a lockdown to avoid the spread of the deadly coronavirus — report being provided surgical masks and being asked to stay indoors.“As I write this message, the school is on lockdown as the school authorities are putting in place measures to protect the remaining foreign students on campus,” emailed an international student who identified himself as @Vince Vela Nova from Ghana who is doing a post-graduate degree program in land resource management.“There are just a handful of Chinese students around as most of them have gone back home to celebrate the Chinese New Year,” he wrote. “This morning the international office provided the students with surgical masks and entreated every one of us to stay indoors.”Medical students from India training in Wuhan have been advised to stay home and away from their hospital workplace, according to the Hindustan Times. While about 600-700 medical students from India study in Wuhan, most have returned home for the winter-New Year’s break from school.A 45-year-old teacher from India working at an international school has been admitted to the hospital with flu-like symptoms, reported the Telegraph. The outflow of international students to points around the globe for winter break has caused rapid anxiety.”My niece is stuck in Wuhan China, with airport closed she can’t travel to India,” tweeted @harinatha with a video showing a van blocking a roadway. “Please get Indian citizens safely back to India till this virus crisis is over? Few more Indian students, not knowing what to do! University Roads blocked, Please help!!”@DrSJaishankarMy niece is stuck in wuhan China, with airport closed she can’t travel to India. Please get indian citizens safely back to India till this virus crisis is over? Few more Indian students, not knowing what to do! University Roads blocked, Please help !! pic.twitter.com/S5gzze3217— harinatha (@harinatharasu) January 22, 2020″There are Maldivian students in Wuhan [who] need immediate attention as the virus is spreading so fast,” tweeted @Anjumaa on Monday, Jan. 20, imploring the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Maldives to “take an action.”Wuhan of China is in danger of outbreak of coronavirus-related pneumonia. There are Maldivian Students in Wuhan need immediate attention as the virus is spreading so fast. ⁦@MoFAmv⁩ need to take an action ⁦⁩ ⁦⁦⁦⁦@abdulla_shahid⁩ https://t.co/eIWsJeFfrr— Anjum Dark Stone (@Anjumaa) January 20, 2020Friends in Wuhan “are scared of how fast the virus has spread & they also fear it will mutate & affect students when they get back from the school break,” tweeted Yarella Espinoza, an English professor in Osorno, Chile.I’ve got a friend living in Wuhan. He’ll stay at home for 10 days; he already bought groceries & supplies & many ppl are doing the same. They’re scared of how fast the virus has spread & they also fear it will mutate & affect students when they get back from the school break.— Yarella Espinoza (@yarellacraft) January 21, 2020Wuhan is a university center in China, with more than 30 universities, and international students from around the world. In the U.S., Chinese students comprise more than 33% of the 1,095,299 international students studying there. At the University of Illinois, which has more than 6,000 Chinese students among its nearly 14,000 international students, the health center has begun screening students who “come for care presenting with respiratory illness, with and without a travel history to areas with confirmed cases of coronavirus infections.””All appropriate students will be masked and those of particular concern will be masked and then seen in an isolation room,” according to Chanelle Thompson, the university’s chief communications officer.Neighboring University of Indiana hosts more than 10,000 international students, according to the Institute for International Education. Amber Denney, assistant direction of strategic communications at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), said the school is following Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and WHO guidelines.”We are evaluating the situation,” Denney said. “No students are scheduled to travel to that area but we have no clear assessment of students who have traveled and been to that region.” Health officials are at the ready, she said, to respond to anyone with flu-like respiratory symptoms.Columbia University in New York City hosts nearly 16,000 international students — the fourth-largest population of international students in the U.S. — and issued an advisory to its community and says it is monitoring the situation. Jennifer Stevens, Ph.D., and interim Associate Dean for the College of Visual and Performing Arts at James Madison University, said her school has postponed an exchange program.”We just can’t send them abroad in good faith at the moment,” she told VOA. Emails and calls to other universities with large international and Chinese student populations were not returned.Panic over the potential spread of the virus reached suburban Washington, as residents and parents took issue with the Fairfax County Public School system’s hosting a group of Chinese middle-school students.”Allowing 20-ish Chinese’s exchange students of Yichang, 214 miles from Wuhan-epic center or coronavirus outbreak to come to Longfellow MS this afternoon completely irresponsible! If anyone got the virus, it’ll be on you!” tweeted @FairfaxNova to the superintendent of schools in the county.@FCPSSupt@fcpsnews Allowing 20ish Chinese’s exchange students of Yichang, 214 miles from Wuhan-epic center or coronavirus outbreak to come to Longfellow Ms this afternoon completely irresponsible! If anyone got the virus, it’ll be on you!— FairfaxNova (@FairfaxNova) January 22, 2020Writing on Saturday, Jan. 18, Weijia Cai (@cai_weijia) compared China’s response to the coronavirus to the outbreak of the severe-acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus there in 2003.”Comparing with the outbreak of SARS in 2003, when I was a graduate student for medical virology program in Wuhan University, China obtained great achievements in many fields of dealing with a novel virus. I believe my hometown will defeat this outbreak. Bless Wuhan!”The CDC started a “public health entry screening” on Friday, Jan. 17, at San Francisco (SFO), New York (JFK), and Los Angeles (LAX) airports and said it will expand that to Atlanta (ATL) and Chicago (ORD) airports. “This is a rapidly evolving situation,” they wrote on their website.The CDC has reported that cases of the virus have spread to Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.CDC has updated information about an outbreak of novel #coronavirus in China with cases exported to Thailand and Japan. See new information for healthcare providers and laboratorians on who to test and what specimens to take to detect #2019-nCoV. https://t.co/6pRrNuYAnipic.twitter.com/qa7EQXVcwE— CDC (@CDCgov) January 18, 2020 
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In parts of Britain, thousands of children have fallen victim to so-called “county lines,” drug networks run by gangs, with many forced to sell drugs in small towns and rural areas. Helping affected children in the $600 million illegal narcotics industry is a long and difficult process.Officials estimate that some 46,000 children are involved with gangs across Britain, and many of them are exploited through drug networks and routes termed “county lines.”The children are groomed and forced to travel across the country to sell heroin and crack cocaine, using dedicated mobile phone lines.The children exploited through the “county lines” witness a lot of violence and intimidation.Tamsin Gregory works with the St. Giles Trust, an organization that offers support to youngsters who have been affected by “county lines.”Gregory says it is common to see post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD among the young people they work with.”It takes a lot of care and kindness, and non-judgmental support to help young people overcome those kinds of experiences,” Gregory said. “And it’s not a quick process. What we often find is that young people, they don’t stop their ‘county lines’ activity overnight. So they will reduce it over a period of time. And then eventually over maybe a period of a year or so we can help them fully accept that lifestyle and put them back in touch with things such as helping them get back into education.””County lines” have been around for a long time, but the number of people involved in selling drugs in rural areas has grown in recent years. There are currently about 2,000 operational “county lines.”Anton Noble was a gang member as a teenager. Although not personally involved in “county lines,” he witnessed it. After almost ending up in jail, he says he turned his life around.Noble founded the organization Guiding Young Minds in 2018 to warn young people in Britain about the dangers of gangs and “county lines.””This generation they’re ain’t no level, they’ll go to any level,” Noble said. “They’ll go to four-year-olds, they’ll go to six-year-olds, they’ll do anything just to move their product. It’s not a gang anymore, it’s a business. Money is the motive but obviously I educated the kids to say to them money don’t make you happy.”While its mostly vulnerable youngsters who end up being exploited, children from a variety of backgrounds are targeted. The children are victims but often end up in the criminal system for selling drugs or committing violent acts.Noble says he has seen through his work as a youth mentor that it takes time to connect with young people and change their mindset. He says the root causes of the drug epidemic must first be address.If you take a drug runner off the road, it replaces itself, it’s a business,” Noble said. “But if you take the root out, it’s gone. It won’t grow again.”The British government announced it would spend nearly $33 million to tackle drug networks, mostly through strengthening law enforcement.Critics of that approach note that austerity policies in the last decade have led to thousands of British police and social workers losing their jobs, and the closing of hundreds of youth centers across the country.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this month he wanted “county lines” to be stopped because “they are killing our children.” 
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Chinese state media say the city of Wuhan is shutting down outbound flights and trains as the country battles the spread of a new virus that has sickened hundreds and killed 17.The official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday that the city also asked people not to leave Wuhan without specific reasons.The state-owned People’s Daily newspaper said in a tweet that no one would be allowed to leave the city starting at 10 a.m. and that train stations and the airport will shut down. It said that city buses, subways, ferries and long-distance shuttle buses would also be temporarily closed, citing Wuhan authorities.In Geneva, the World Health Organization said it had put off deciding whether to declare the outbreak a global health emergency and asked its expert committee on the issue to continue their meeting for a second day Thursday. The organization defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.The number of new cases has risen sharply in China, the center of the outbreak. Seventeen people have died, all in Hubei province, since the outbreak emerged in its provincial capital of Wuhan late last month, officials announced Wednesday night. They said the province has confirmed 444 cases there.Passengers wear masks to prevent an outbreak of a new coronavirus in the high speed train station, in Hong Kong, Jan. 22, 2020.”There has already been human-to-human transmission and infection of medical workers,” Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said at a news conference with health experts. “Evidence has shown that the disease has been transmitted through the respiratory tract and there is the possibility of viral mutation.”The illness comes from a newly identified type of coronavirus, a family of viruses that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as the SARS outbreak that spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002-2003 and killed about 800 people. Some experts have drawn parallels between the new coronavirus and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus that does not spread very easily among humans and is thought to be carried by camels.But WHO’s Asia office tweeted this week that “there may now be sustained human-to-human transmission,” which raises the possibility that the epidemic is spreading more easily and may no longer require an animal source to spark infections, as officials initially reported.Global spreadAuthorities in Thailand on Wednesday confirmed four cases, a Thai national and three Chinese visitors. Japan, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan have all reported one case each. All of the illnesses were of people from Wuhan or who recently traveled there.”The situation is under control here,” Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters, saying there are no reports of the infection spreading to others. “We checked all of them: taxi drivers, people who wheeled the wheelchairs for the patients, doctors and nurses who worked around them.”Macao, a former Portuguese colony that is a semi-autonomous Chinese city, reported one case Wednesday.Emergency statusSome experts said they believe the threshold for the outbreak to be declared an international emergency had been reached.Dr. Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at Oxford University, said there were three criteria for such a determination: the outbreak must be an extraordinary event, there must be a risk of international spread and a globally coordinated response is required.”In my opinion, those three criteria have been met,” he said.Hospital staff wash the emergency entrance of Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China, Jan. 22, 2020.In response to the U.S. case, President Donald Trump said: “We do have a plan, and we think it’s going to be handled very well. We’ve already handled it very well. … we’re in very good shape, and I think China’s in very good shape also.”In Wuhan, pharmacies limited sales of face masks to one package per customer as people lined up to buy them. Residents said they were not overly concerned as long as they took preventive measures.”As an adult, I am not too worried about the disease,” Yang Bin, the father of a 7-year-old, said after buying a mask. “I think we are more worried about our kids. … It would be unacceptable to the parents if they got sick.”Medical workers in protective suits could be seen carrying supplies and stretchers into Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some of the patients are being treated.Travel agencies that organize trips to North Korea said the country has banned foreign tourists because of the outbreak. Most tourists to North Korea are either Chinese or travel to the country through neighboring China. North Korea also closed its borders in 2003 during the SARS scare.Other countries have stepped up screening measures for travelers from China, especially those arriving from Wuhan. Worries have been heightened by the Lunar New Year holiday rush, when millions of Chinese travel at home and abroad.Learning processOfficials said it was too early to compare the new virus with SARS or MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, in terms of how lethal it might be. They attributed the spike in new cases to improvements in detection and monitoring.”We are still in the process of learning more about this disease,” Gao Fu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, said at the news conference.Gao said officials are working on the assumption that the outbreak resulted from human exposure to wild animals being sold illegally at a food market in Wuhan and that the virus is mutating. Mutations can make it spread faster or make people sicker.Staff members sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan, China, Jan. 22, 2020.Jiao Yahui, a health commission official, said the disease “will continue to develop. It has developed different features compared with the early stage, and the prevention and precautionary measures need to change accordingly.”One veteran of the SARS outbreak said that while there are some similarities in the new virus — namely its origins in China and the link to animals — the current outbreak appears much milder.Dr. David Heymann, who headed WHO’s global response to SARS in 2003, said the new virus appears dangerous for older people with other health conditions, but doesn’t seem nearly as infectious as SARS.”It looks like it doesn’t transmit through the air very easily and probably transmits through close contact,” he said. “That was not the case with SARS.”Health officials confirmed earlier this week that the disease can be spread between humans after finding two infected people in Guangdong province in southern China who had not been to Wuhan.Fifteen medical workers also tested positive for the virus, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission has said. Fourteen of them — one doctor and 13 nurses — were infected by a patient who had been hospitalized for neurosurgery but also had the coronavirus.”This is a very profound lesson, which is that there must not be any cracks in our prevention and control,” Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang said about the infections of the medical workers in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV.Experts worry in particular when health workers are sickened in outbreaks by new viruses, because it can suggest the disease is becoming more transmissible and because spread in hospitals can often amplify the epidemic.The Lunar New Year is a time when many Chinese return to their hometowns to visit family. Li, the health commission official, said measures were being taken to monitor and detect infected people from Wuhan, and that people should avoid going to the city, and people from the city should stay put for now.
 
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