Doctors without Borders, the international medical aid group, can now send medical supplies to North Korea where the government is on high alert in an attempt to remain free of the coronavirus, despite its proximity to China and South Korea.
The U.N. Sanctions Committee on North Korea approved Doctors without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), to send supplies to North Korea, according to the committee’s website.The approval letter signed by Christoph Heusgen, the chair of the committee and the German ambassador to the U.N., allows the aid group to “engage in humanitarian activities” in North Korea by providing the country’s Ministry of Public Health “with essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and diagnostic items.”Approved items include goggles, thermometers, and stethoscopes, and kits to diagnose whether people with flu-like symptoms of COVID-19 have actually contracted the virus.  The exemption is in effect from February 20 to August 20.  Kee Park, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School who has worked on medical projects in North Korea many times, welcomed the exemptions at a time of a global health emergency.
“This is a good sign,” said Park.  “They’re speeding things up as quickly as possible. It’s within days that the approval comes through the Sanctions Committee. And nongovernment organizations [NGOs] can go ahead and start making arrangements to send the supplies in.”  Members from an emergency anti-epidemic headquarters in Mangyongdae District, disinfect a tramcar of Songsan Tram Station to prevent new coronavirus infection in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 26, 2020.North Korea is maintaining an elevated level of alert, ordering the public to follow guidance from the state’s central public health authorities with “absolute obedience.”We should bear in mind any moment of complacency could result in irreversible catastrophic consequences and should maintain a high state of alert,” said North Korea’s official newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun on Wednesday.
“[All] should show absolute obedience to unified guidance by the makeshift central public health committee and state measures.”  Fear of the virus spreading into North Korea from neighboring China, where the epidemic began in the city of Wuhan, has prompted Pyongyang to act quickly. It sealed off the border it shares with China and suspended all transportation links to China in early February.Under normal conditions, many North Koreans and Chinese cross the border each day, making North Korea susceptible to the coronavirus. China has the highest number of confirmed cases, 76,190, and deaths, 2,800 according to WHO as of Wednesday.In North Korea’s neighbor of South Korea, officials reported 169 new virus cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections there to 1,261. Just last week, that number was only 30. Twelve coronavirus patients in South Korea have died.North Korea, with a poor medical system, is considered to be lacking in supplies needed to diagnose and treat patients if they contracted the virus.The committee granted another exemption to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) this week to help North Korea fight the virus. International aid organizations are required to obtain exemptions from the committee because sanctions placed on North Korea since 2016 ban and restrict goods from freely entering and exiting the country to bar its exports and imports from aiding its nuclear weapons program.Harvard’s Park, who last worked in North Korea in November, 2019 and has been calling for a temporary waiver of sanctions, said such a process of seeking an exemption could be frustrating, especially under the exigencies of a global health threat like the coronavirus.
“These are not security threatening supplies. These are not going toward the nuclear weapons program or missile program,” said Park.  “These are medical diagnostic kits, personal protective equipment.”   According to Joshua Stanton, a Washington-based attorney who helped draft the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016, the committee wants to be cautious about sending supplies because North Korea has a history of misusing them.
“The U.N. and U.S. sanctions contain multiple humanitarian exemptions for medicines and medical supplies,” said Stanton. “But Pyongyang’s long and well-known history of corruption, diversion, and misuse of humanitarian aid forces us to be careful about what aid we provide and how it is distributed.”Stanton thinks U.N. and U.S. sanctions administrators should designate a “whitelist” of safe items and “graylist” of potential dual-use items. “U.N. and U.S. sanctions administrators should expand a “whitelist” of items that are not restricted by sanctions, that can help control the epidemic, and that do not pose dual-use risks of being turned against us as weapons,” said Stanton.  He continued, “We can also create a ‘graylist’ of potential dual-use items that we should be willing to provide if we can verify that they are only used for humanitarian purposes.”Stanton added, “I hope and expect that the U.S. and U.N. will act quickly to approve all appropriate exemptions.”Park expects there should be “an increase in humanitarian goods [sent] overall over time” to North Korea as aid organizations obtain sanction exemptions.  Once the supplies including diagnostic kits arrive in North Korea, Park said North Korean medical care professionals should have the skills to run “confirmatory testing for viral infections” on machines that he believes they already have.
“I think constant communication is vital, coordination of efforts to bring things in and speed things up,” Park added.   Christy Lee contributed to this report from VOA’s Korean Service.        
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Multinationals in China are seeing a “significant” revenue loss from the coronavirus outbreak, with most American and European companies expecting revenue to decrease this year if business cannot resume soon. They are urging China’s government to provide tax relief while putting a priority on transparency and consistent policies in its fight against the disease.An American Chamber of Commerce in China survey released Thursday found that nearly half of 169 company executives expect this year’s revenue to drop if their business operation does not return to usual by the end of April.Massive revenue dropNearly one-fifth of them forecast a massive 50% drop or more in 2020 revenue if the outbreak continues through the end of August, while 10% are already reporting a daily loss of about $70,000 (500,000 yuan), the organization said in a press statement.Another joint survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China and the German Chamber of Commerce in China also found that nearly half of their 577 member companies expect a double-digit revenue drop for the first half of this year, while a quarter of them forecast a drop of more than 20%, according to their press statement.“There is, in the short term, a clear and significant negative impact to member company operations, through travel disruptions, reduced staff productivity, increased costs, significant drops in revenue and more,” said AmCham China chairman Greg Gilligan in the statement, referring to major challenges currently facing American companies there.Workers are seen at an entrance to a Walmart store in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Hubei province, China, Feb.25, 2020.Some 44% of surveyed American companies also say that uncertainty around the epidemic has harmed their outlook about the U.S.-China relationship in the next two years, while one-third express pessimistic views toward China’s prospects for cost, profits and economic growth.Inconsistent rulesMeanwhile, half of surveyed European companies say that they face unpredictable and inconsistent rules applied across different jurisdictions and levels of government in China, which can change frequently on a short notice.For example, deliveries are subject to multiple onerous restrictions when passing through different areas, the statement said.Other major challenges facing foreign businesses also include highly restrictive quarantine demands and extensive pre-conditions to restart business operations.“The patchwork of conflicting rules that emerged from the fight against COVID-19 has produced hundreds of fiefdoms, making it next to impossible to move goods or people across China,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European chamber in China in the statement.“While virus containment is the most important task, standardizing measures across larger jurisdictions should also prioritized to get the real economy back on its feet,” he added.  While performing a balancing act between containing the outbreak and restarting the economy, China is required “to release supporting measures for those most affected – especially small- and medium-sized enterprises – until operations normalize,” said Stephan Woellenstein, chairman of the German Chamber.Tax alleviation neededIn addition to transparency and consistent policies, American companies urge the Chinese government to help foreign business weather the difficult time by offering tax relief.Moreover, a majority of them also urge the U.S. government to relax travel restrictions into the U.S. and provide further information both on the implementation of the U.S.-China phase one trade deal and clarity of its coronavirus-related business policies.Meanwhile, Taiwanese electronic and chipmakers operating in worst-hit Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, are hoping restart their operations after March 10.With any further delay, the impact on their future performance prospects will be huge, said Yen Shu-chiu, deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association in Taipei.Supply chain disruptionsAn employee wearing a face mask is seen at a workshop of computed tomography (CT) scanners of medical device firm Siemens Healthineers in Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Feb. 24, 2020.Major difficulties facing China’s electronics sector include disrupted supply of both raw materials and workforce.Due to quarantine measures, a worker shortage caused by  “migrant workers failing to return back to work has posed a negative impact on their business operations,” Yen said.”Another major impact comes from the disrupted supply of raw materials. Many companies have nearly used up their stockpile of raw materials. If the supply chain [of raw materials] remains shut, it will create a major headache,” she added.She said that the first quarter is traditionally a slow season for the electronics sector. However, the sector will see drops in full-year revenue if the disrupted supply of workforce and raw materials extends through March.Fortunately, hundreds of Taiwanese factories operating in Dongguan in Guangdong province and Kunshan in Jiangsu province have already resume 90% of their production capacity, although uncertainty remains regarding their future orders, according to Yen.While it is still too early to say how big an impact the outbreak will have on long-term business prospects, some local governments there have rolled out tax relief, rent cuts and financing to help improve the business conduction and sustainability for foreign businesses operating in China, although more help is needed, she added.    
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The United States and South Korea have postponed a series of joint military exercises “until further notice,” amid a major coronavirus outbreak in South Korea.In a statement, U.S. and South Korean military officials said the decision was “based on the severity of the present COVID-19 situation within South Korea.”  “The containment efforts for COVID-19 and the safety of the ROK and U.S. service members were prioritized in making this decision,” the statement said.  “The decision to postpone the combined training was not taken lightly.”The announcement comes a day after the U.S. military announced its first confirmed coronavirus infection: a 23-year-old male who was stationed at a U.S. base near the epicenter of the South Korean outbreak.  At least 20 South Korean soldiers have been infected and thousands more have been quarantined on South Korean military bases.The spread of the virus within military ranks would represent a dangerous new component of the outbreak, since many service members live in close quarters and share common meals.The postponement of the exercises, which were set to start next week, temporarily removes an irritant to U.S. relations with North Korea. Pyongyang says it views the drills as preparation to invade.  Several recent U.S.-South Korean military exercises have been modified or postponed in order to help facilitate nuclear talks with North Korea.North Korea has walked away from the negotiations, saying it wants the U.S. to relieve sanctions or provide more security guarantees.  ‘National survival’ in N. KoreaBut for now, North Korea appears focused on its own virus prevention efforts, which it has called a matter of “national survival.”  North Korea has not reported any infections, but several unconfirmed reports suggest the virus has reached the country.This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Feb. 15, 2020, shows people in protective suits spraying disinfectant at an undisclosed location in North Korea amid concerns about the coronavirus.North Korea was among the first countries to restrict travel from China, where the virus originated. It has also barred entry to all foreign tourists and imposed a 30-day quarantine on other arriving foreigners.  An outbreak in North Korea could be disastrous, as the country is impoverished and lacks adequate medical supplies.S. Korea situation worsensIn South Korea, the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen. South Korean officials on Thursday announced 334 new cases, the biggest daily increase yet.  A total of 1,595 people in South Korea are confirmed to have the virus, which causes a respiratory illness known as COVID-19. Just last week, that number stood at 30.Most of the South Korean infections are in and around Daegu, the country’s fourth-largest city. The U.S. military has thousands of service members in the region.Restrictions     At some military bases on South Korea, U.S. soldiers have been prevented from nonessential off-base travel. U.S. officials have also implemented virus screening efforts outside bases, creating long lines.  Some local Korean workers told VOA they waited 4-5 hours on Wednesday to get into Camp Humphreys, the main U.S. military base here. The lines were reportedly only around an hour on Thursday morning.Some on-base restaurants and entertainment venues have also been closed. Department of Defense schools in Korea have also been shuttered.Earlier this week, the U.S. military in South Korea raised its risk level to high after reporting that a 61-year-old woman with the coronavirus visited a store at Camp Walker in Daegu. The woman was the widow of a retired soldier.Highly contagiousThe coronavirus currently has a mortality rate of around 2%. But it is highly contagious, in part because infected patients can spread the disease before showing symptoms.More than 80,000 people worldwide have contracted the virus. Almost 3,000 people have died. Most the cases have been in China.But over the past week, countries including Iran, Italy and South Korea have reported a surge in confirmed cases. World health officials are now worried the outbreak could turn into a global pandemic.
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A Sunday school in a northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. is teaching the Uighur language and culture to Uighur-American youngsters as a way to counter the repression in China against Uighurs in Xinjiang Province.  The school, Ana Care & Education, was founded in 2017 and was the first Sunday school in the U.S. to offer these courses, as VOA’s Enming Liu reports. 
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Coronavirus outbreaks inside two South Korean medical facilities  reveal the vulnerability of people with disabilities to the disease that appears poised to become a global pandemic.On Tuesday, local media reported that 11 of 30 residents of a private, care center for the disabled in North Gyeongsang province have contracted COVID-19. An additional 10 employees, half of whom also have a disability, also tested positive for the pneumonia-like virus.According to the Grain of Wheat Love House, it’s remaining residents and staff have been quarantined inside the facility, which has undergone disinfection.“We apologize for the public concern caused by this unexpected situation,” said a notice posted on the charity’s website. This came just days after a surge of infections  at the Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo county, a region in the same province that Seoul has designated as a “special care zone.” At least 100 patients in the complex’s psychiatric ward were sickened from the coronavirus.  The Korea Center for Disease Control (KCDC) said by midday on Wednesday that more than1000 people have been infected with COVID-19  and that seven of the country’s 12 -deaths attributed to the illness originated at the Daenam Hospital.Kim Hyun-chung, a psychiatrist who formerly counseled patients  for nine-years at a general hospital in Seoul, says conditions inside such treatment centers are fertile ground for the transmission of diseases.  “If a patient has a chronic mental health condition, like depression or schizophrenia, social norms can deteriorate and they might not take care of their hygiene,” she says, adding that it’s the responsibility of the typically over-worked medical staff to ensure that patients shower and brush their teeth, for instance.Kim says rooms in South Korean hospitals often sleep up to six patients as well as their caregivers- increasing the potential spread of a virus among people who are already sick. And psychiatric facilities don’t always receive the same resources given to other hospital departments, she explains.“Mental health wards don’t make a lot of money for the hospital,” she says.The South Korean healthcare system has come under criticism for its reliance on institutionalizing people with a mental health disability.“Korea needs to reduce the level of dependence on long-term treatments in hospitals,” according to a study published last year in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems.  “Many patients become long-term residents at these facilities and lose their will to return to their own communities.”A worker in protective gear stacks plastic buckets containing medical waste from coronavirus patients at a medical center in Daegu, South Korea, Feb. 24, 2020.In response to the coronavirus outbreak at the Daenam Hospital, Seoul’s Ministry of Health says it will test patience at around 420 other mental health clinics across the country.For Kim, the psychiatrist, the outbreak is a reminder of how economic necessity as well as a sense of “shame and stigma” compel many South Korean families to “lock up” their loved ones who are suffering from mental illness in these institutions- putting them at greater risk of contracting diseases like COVID-19.Concern over quarantines    The World Health Organization has warned countries to prepare for the spread of the new coronavirus, suggesting that the disease could soon be declared a pandemic.“Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely it has,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday” Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet.”The majority of the more than 80-thousand cases of COVID-19 and at least two-thousand related deaths are still centered in China, where authorities have virtually locked down the city of Wuhan, where the disease was first detected, as well as much of surrounding Hubei province. And as clusters of the virus have spread in South Korea, Iran and Italy, governments are stepping up quarantine efforts and in some cases have limited access to and from affected areas.These enhanced measures concern Alex Ghenis at the World Institute on Disability in Berkley, California.“Somebody with an intellectual, developmental or psychological disability may experience heightened anxiety and stress-related factors if they are isolated,” he writes in a message to VOA. “People with other disabilities will surely have extra stresses due to managing disability-related life factors while under quarantine.”Ghenis says that during times of panic brought on by a public health emergency, people with disabilities could be viewed as “pariahs” due to incorrect perceptions that they inherently have compromised immune systems.He adds that if healthcare workers start to prioritize treating coronavirus patients who they determine would be “most likely to survive”, a person with a mobility, sensory or cognitive impairment could be regarded as  “lower on the triage list.”Official announcements and other important information must also be accessible for all, including making printed material available online so that it can be read by a visually impaired person using assistive technology or having a sign language interpreter on stage during televised press conferences.  The South Korean disability news site Be Minor reported this week that the deaf are unable to call the KCDC hotline since it does not offer a video service that would allow communication by signing, adding that for the same reason,  over the phone consultations with doctors are also inaccessible.“Hearing-impaired people also have the right to receive information and counseling for infectious diseases,” said an unnamed disability advocate quoted in the article.The report says people who are hard of hearing can still send text messages or chat through the KakaoTalk app with healthcare officials, but this service is only available during business hours Monday through Friday.  
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U.S. citizens should expect coronavirus outbreaks in their communities, warns the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.CDC vaccine expert Dr. Nancy Messonnier said Tuesday, “It’s not so much a question if this will happen in this country anymore but a question of when this will happen.”She urged Americans to expect their daily activities to be significantly affected by the virus but could not predict how severe the spread of the virus would be in the U.S.   President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “good shape” regarding the virus.  “We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” Messonnier warned.An airport agent wears a protective mask as she waits to assist international travelers at SeaTac International Airport, in SeaTac, Washington, Feb. 24, 2020.The warning comes on the heels of an urgent message from a top World Health Organization official who said Tuesday that countries throughout the world should think about preparing for a coronavirus outbreak and be ready with rapid response plans when the virus arrives.“If you don’t think that way, you’re not going to be ready,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, chief of the joint WHO-Chinese mission to combat the deadly coronavirus. “The world is simply not ready, but it can be ready.”Aylward praised China’s “extraordinary mobilization” to combat the outbreak as an example of how aggressive public health policy actions could limit the disease’s spread. “China knows how to keep people alive,” he declared.He urged countries to prepare isolation areas and hospital beds, and ensure the availability of oxygen and respirators for patients suffering from severe cases of a coronavirus infection.Few commuters ride in an almost empty subway train in Beijing, Feb. 24, 2020.China and South Korea reported more cases of a new coronavirus Tuesday, as stock markets in Japan had a second consecutive rough session following a day of global losses and U.S. President Trump sought $2.5 billion from Congress to fight the outbreak.Chinese health officials said there were 71 new deaths and 508 new cases there, bringing the overall toll in the country where the outbreak began two months ago to more than 2,663 dead and 77,500 people infected.South Korea has been the hardest-hit outside of China, with its total cases rising to about 1,000 Tuesday with ten dead.Authorities there have delayed the start of the school year, sterilized the halls of the National Assembly and urged people to stay home if they experience fever or respiratory symptoms.  Officials also postponed the start of the domestic football league, and on Tuesday the professional basketball league said games would go on without spectators.South Korean President Moon Jae-In called the situation “very grave” as he made a visit Tuesday to Daegu, where most of the country’s cases have been located.  Moon pledged the government would give its full support and said South Korea will “achieve a victory” in the fight against the virus.Iran reported its own spike to 95 total cases with at least 15 deaths.Pedestrians wear masks and gloves to help guard against the Coronavirus in downtown Tehran, Iran, Feb. 25, 2020.The United Arab Emirates announced through its state news agency a ban on all flights to and from Iran in response to the virus outbreak.Monday brought reports of the first cases in several countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, each of which had links to Iran.U.S. health officials announced Tuesday the launch of the first clinical trial testing of an experimental drug in hospitalized patients with the coronavirus.The U.S. National Institutes of Health said the antiviral drug remdesivir is being tested at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the Midwestern city of Omaha. The first participant was a patient is a U.S. citizen who was quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments around the world to do “everything that is needed.”Trump said Tuesday that China is “working very hard” and that he thinks the United States is “in very good shape” at this point.FILE – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.”We’re fortunate so far, and we think it’s going to remain that way,” he said.On Monday, his administration made its request to Congress, saying the money would go toward developing vaccines, and to buy supplies for treatment and protective equipment.Democrats pushed back against the plan, saying the White House is not doing enough while trying to divert funding from other health priorities.Markets in Japan closed down more than 3% on Tuesday, while markets in China rebounded from a sharp loss in early trading to closing just below Monday’s level.  Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rallied late to a small gain Tuesday.Key stock indexes in the United States fell about 3% Monday, and futures pointed to smaller losses when the markets open Tuesday.Italy has also been hit hard with more than 200 cases and at least seven deaths.  The government has canceled Carnival events and postponed major football matches, while also closing public sites.Israel disinvited 3,000 international runners who had signed up for Friday’s marathon in Tel Aviv, saying the race could go ahead as planned, but without the competitors arriving from outside its borders. 
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Rights groups in Hong Kong and abroad Tuesday denounced a Chinese court’s verdict to sentence former Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison on charges of “illegally providing intelligence to foreign entities.”They said the verdict only serves to send a chilling warning to dissidents in China and Hong Kong at a time when public anger at China’s top leadership over what critics call its lackluster management of the coronavirus outbreak have widened.They called on the international leaders to pressure China into releasing Gui immediately.  ‘Outrageous’ sentence“The deplorable verdict and shockingly harsh sentence handed to Gui on completely unsubstantiated charges demonstrates yet again that the Chinese authorities are not letting the coronavirus crisis distract them from repressing dissidents,” said Patrick Poon, China researcher of Amnesty International in an open statement.Calling Gui’s sentence “outrageous,” the rights group demanded China to unconditionally release Gui unless it can provide solid evidence of the crimes Gui has allegedly committed.It also accuses the Chinese authorities of secretly trying and denying Gui of an open and fair trial.  On Monday, the Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court announced on its website that Gui, 55, was found guilty of “providing intelligence to foreign entities” after being indicted by local prosecutors in January.  After alleged trials in the past two months, he has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and deprived of political rights for five years, the statement said, adding that Gui himself has also pleaded guilty and decided not to appeal.The judiciary there said it has safeguarded Gui’s legal rights and the trial was open to some people, according to its FILE – A customer holds a banned book featuring a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping on its cover, at a booth at the annual Lunar New Year market in Hong Kong, Feb. 3, 2016.Chilling warningBut Lam Wing Kei, Gui’s former colleague at Causeway Bay Books, also said Gui’s sentencing doesn’t make sense since he was just a businessman who tried to make profits from book sales.The verdict, he added, came at a sensitive time when China’s handling of the nation’s worst public health crisis has weakened the authority of its Communist leadership.Chinese leaders appeared to use Gui as an example to hush dissidents up, Lam suspected. “The [leadership] is now very fearful and worried about its own governance. So it is using the verdict to send a serious warning to dissidents,” Lam told VOA in Taipei, where he plans to reopen Causeway Bay Books.  And the verdict will have a ripple effect in Hong Kong.“There are also many dissidents in Hong Kong. One day if they are taken to China, won’t they share the similar fate and been given as a harsh sentence as 10 years or more?” he added.Knowledge of ‘state secrets’Both Lam and Gui were among those five booksellers in Hong Kong who disappeared in 2015 after publishing books critical of the Chinese government.Gui first disappeared from his vacation home in Thailand and then reappeared in early 2016 in an apparent forced confession on Chinese state media.  He was later jailed for his alleged involvement in a 2003 hit-and-run case.  Gui was released in 2017 but remained under tight police surveillance.  While traveling to Beijing for medical reasons with two Swedish diplomats in early 2018, Gui, a Swedish citizen until he reapplied Chinese citizenship later that year, was seized again by China’s plainclothes police.After authorities in China claimed that Gui had handed over ‘intelligence’ while in their custody, AI’s Poon said he suspected that China might have targeted his trip to Beijing with those two Swedish diplomats.But Lam doubted how Gui could produce and deliver intelligence since he was under China’s custody in the past two years.FILE – In an undated photo taken at an unknown location, Gui Minhai is seen with his daughter Angela. (Courtesy – Angela Gui via AFP)Peter Dablin, a Swedish activist who used to work with rights lawyers in China, said in a written reply to VOA that Gui’s conviction is a sign that China does not really care about upholding appearances anymore.  He said that the only ‘state secrets’ that Gui may have is knowledge about how Chinese agents kidnapped and tortured him.“It has long been feared that China could not leave Gui, as it could not allow information about his treatment, and kidnapping, to come out, and this is just one in a long list of steps they have taken,” Dablin said.Sending shock waves to Hong KongGui’s conviction, moreover, sends shock waves throughout Hong Kong as the city’s anti-China democracy fighters have grown discontented with the Chinese government’s repressive rule, said Emily Lau, former chairperson of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party.She said that many have marched and supported the innocence of these five booksellers. “His daughter, Angela, who has been in Europe, kept saying that her father is innocent. And now, he’s being given [a] 10-year sentence and not an open and fair trial. So, this is very very disturbing, I think, not just to Hong Kong and must be to the international human rights community,” she said.   VOA’s email request to Angela Gui for comments went unanswered.In a statement, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also condemns China’s “outrageous travesty of justice” and calls on the world’s democracies to press China into releasing Gui soon.Its president Erik Halkjaer said, in a statement, that “this case sets a dangerous precedent in which Beijing has assumed the right to kidnap an EU citizen… give him a jail term that amounts to a death sentence in the light of his state of health.”“If it doesn’t encounter more resistance, Xi Jinping’s regime will know that it can act with impunity when it kidnaps its opponents anywhere in the world, holds them incommunicado … [and] parades them on TV like cattle at a fair,” the statement added.   
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China and South Korea reported more cases of a new coronavirus Tuesday, as stock markets in Asia retreated following a day of global losses and U.S. President Donald Trump sought $2.5 billion from Congress to fight the outbreak.Chinese health officials said there were 71 new deaths and 508 new cases there, bringing the overall toll in the country where the outbreak began two months ago to more than 2,663 dead and 77,500 people infected.South Korea has been the hardest-hit outside of China, with its total cases rising to about 900 Tuesday with eight dead.Authorities there have delayed the start of the school year, sterilized the halls of the National Assembly and urged people to stay home if they experience fever or respiratory symptoms.  Officials also postponed the start of the domestic football league, and on Tuesday the professional basketball league said games would go on without spectators.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments around the world to do “everything that is needed” to combat the virus.”All countries — and this is now a problem that is affecting many countries in the world — all countries must do everything to be prepared, and all countries must do everything — respecting naturally the principle of non-discrimination, without stigmatization, respecting human rights — but doing everything that they can to contain the disease,” he said.The Trump administration made its request to Congress on Monday, saying the money would go toward developing vaccines, and to buy supplies for treatment and protective equipment.Members of President Trump’s Coronavirus task force, from left, Director of the CDC and Prevention Robert Redfield, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun on Feb. 7, 2020 at a news conference.Democrats pushed back against the plan, saying the White House is not doing enough while trying to divert funding from other health priorities.”Too little too late,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.  “That President Trump is trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola—which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren’t taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be. We’ve seen no sign that President Trump has any plan or urgency to deal with the spread of the coronavirus—we need real leadership and we need it fast.”Markets in Japan were down about 3% in afternoon trading, while markets in China were down about 1.5%.Key stock indexes in the United States fell about 3% Monday, following sharper losses in European markets.Monday brought reports of the first cases in several countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, each of which had links to Iran where authorities have reported 61 cases and 12 deaths.Italy has also been hit hard with more than 200 cases and at least seven deaths.  The government has canceled Carnival events and postponed major football matches, while also closing public sites.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the government is looking into “extraordinary measures” to stop further infections.Israel disinvited 3,000 international runners who had signed up for Friday’s marathon in Tel Aviv, saying the race could go ahead as planned, but without the competitors arriving from outside its borders.”What we see are epidemics in different parts of the world affecting countries in different ways and requiring a tailored response,”said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization.  “The sudden increase in new (virus) cases is certainly very concerning. I have spoken consistently about the need for facts, not fear. Using the word ‘pandemic’ now does not fit the facts, but it may certainly cause fear.”
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South Korea’s foreign minister called on Monday for a quick resumption of stalled U.S.-North Korean nuclear talks, adding that her government stood ready to engage with Pyongyang to facilitate dialogue.Kang Kyung-wha, addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, said the goal remained complete denuclearisation on the divided Korean peninsula.“A speedy resumption of the U.S.-DPRK negotiations is critical so that all stakeholders maintain and build upon the hard-won momentum for dialogue. We stand ready to engage with the North in a way that facilitates and accelerates the U.S.-DPRK dialogue,” Kang told the Geneva forum.
 
South Korea was promoting projects with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, she said, using the formal name of the isolated country.”And we will do so adhering faithfully to the international sanctions regime on the DPRK,” Kang added.North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006. They have been strengthened by the Security Council over the years in a bid to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.North Korea continued to enhance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs last year in breach of United Nations sanctions, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters in New York this month.North Korea told the Geneva talks last month that as the United States had ignored its year-end deadline for nuclear talks, it no longer felt bound by commitments, which included a halt to its nuclear testing and the firing of inter-continental ballistic missiles.There was no immediate reaction from the North Korean or U.S. delegations on Monday as the meeting continued.
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Vietnam is sharply divided on how long to close schools because of the coronavirus, which has prevented parents from going to work and threatens further economic damage. Supporters want to keep students at home until April, while opponents say the panic is overblown.The biggest population is in Ho Chi Minh City, where government leaders have proposed extending the public school closures all through March and then continuing the semester into what would usually be a summer break. The city leaders also recommended making this a nation-wide policy.Le Thanh Liem, Vice Chair of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, tasked the city education department with keeping the disease from reaching the schools.The department will “strictly and fully implement measures to prevent and treat the new coronavirus, preventing the spread of an epidemic in the school environment,” he wrote in an official letter.Those who agree with the government decision see the coronavirus as a collective action problem, requiring people to keep physical contact at a minimum. Pham Khanh said it is better to be safe than sorry.“I decided on my own to take my children out of school,” she said. “There is a long incubation period, I will wait two weeks before I do anything.”She was referring to the two weeks when doctors believe that people, if they have the coronavirus, would show symptoms.While parents are keeping their children at home, another kind of school is catching on: online classes. After some initial excitement, with foreign governments from the U.S. to Britain promoting e-learning in Vietnam, the trend stalled for years, because of regulatory hurdles and lack of internet access.“E-learning deployment within the academic system in Vietnam has not really taken off, mostly due to the over-focus on hardware and remaining confusion between digitization of educational contents and online education,” Alice Pham wrote in a 2018 report for the Consumer Unity & Trust Society think tank.Parents in Vietnam are having to find new places to take their children while the coronavirus keeps schools closed. (VOA News)However the coronavirus may be a factor that finally drives e-learning into the mainstream in Vietnam. This month students are increasingly doing homework that their schools send to them over the internet, as well as turning to startup companies such as Yola, Topica, and Mindx, which let Vietnamese learn through smartphone apps or web videos.Supporters say Vietnam should see the school closures as an opportunity for children to get some experience as self-directed learners, through online lessons.’“Definitely in Vietnam this model needs to spread as soon as possible,” writer Nguyen Hong wrote in a commentary for the Thanh Nien newspaper.Besides the benefit to education technology companies, the coronavirus has meant a windfall for some other companies as well. Foreign buyers such as Nintendo and Apple that are struggling to source from China are increasingly turning to suppliers in Vietnam to make their products.However most companies, and households, are waiting for a return to normal.After the Lunar New Year holiday ended in late January, most Vietnamese welcomed the school closures as a logical precaution against the coronavirus. However as the weeks drag on, parents now struggle with what to do with their school age children.Le Hang, a 40-year-old mother, decided to take her children to the hair salon where she works. “When there aren’t many customers, I run over to feed and take care of the children,” she said.However the most vulnerable, such as factory workers, are those who can’t afford babysitters, aren’t allowed to bring children to work, and can’t afford the lost income of skipping work. Some send the children to stay with neighbors or relatives, while others consider the latch-key life.Nguyen Viet, a tour guide, doesn’t know what to do with his daughter.  “The unexpected break is too much to bear for us,” he told newspaper Vnexpress.What’s more, some believe the extended school closures are an overreach. Vietnam has had more than a dozen coronavirus cases and no fatalities. Most of the over 2,000 people who died were in China, and most of them were senior citizens or in poor health already. By comparison there have been more than 16,000  flu associated  deaths  reported in the United States  so far this flu season according to estimates of the U.S. based Centers for Disease Control.   “I believe that with the solutions currently being applied, children will be safe at school,” said Le Kien, a father in Hanoi.  
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China’s leader said Sunday the new coronavirus epidemic is the communist country’s largest-ever public health emergency, but other nations were also increasingly under pressure from the deadly outbreak’s relentless global march.Italy and Iran began introducing the sort of containment measures previously seen only in China, which has put tens of millions of people under lockdown in Hubei province, the outbreak’s epicenter.Italy reported a third death while cases spiked and the country’s Venice carnival closed early.Tourists are wearing protective masks against coronavirus in Venice, Italy, Feb. 23, 2020. (S. Castelfranco/VOA)Iran’s confirmed death toll rose to eight, prompting travel bans from neighboring countries.The virus has so far killed more than 2,400 people, with about 80,000 infected globally, though China remains by far the worst hit.President Xi Jinping said the epidemic was the “largest public health emergency” since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.”This is a crisis for us and it is a big test,” he said during remarks carried by state television.In a rare admission, at a meeting to coordinate the fight against the virus, Xi added that China must learn from “obvious shortcomings exposed” during its response.The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Beijing for its handling of the epidemic, but China has been criticized at home for silencing early warnings from a whistleblower doctor who later died from the virus.South Korea said it was raising its alert to the highest level, after the number of infections nearly tripled over the weekend to 602.  Workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant at a market in the southeastern city of Daegu, South Korea, as a preventive measure after the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.The country now has the most infections outside of China, apart from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.South Korea reported three deaths on Sunday, taking the countrywide fatality toll to five. The Yonhap news agency later reported a sixth death.Around half of South Korea’s cases have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus sect in the southern city of Daegu, where thousands of members have been quarantined or asked to stay at home.Police checkpointsItaly’s cases spiked to 152 on Sunday, including three deaths.Virus panic crept onto catwalks, leading to the cancellation of some runway shows at Milan Fashion Week. Others were held behind closed doors and livestreamed.Most cases are confined to the northern town of Codogno, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of Milan.  More than 50,000 people in about a dozen northern Italian towns have been told to stay home, and police set up checkpoints to enforce a blockade.Austrian railways said traffic on a major route to Italy through the Brenner Pass would be suspended, after a train was stopped because of two suspected cases of the virus.Neighboring Slovenia asked vacationers returning from ski resorts in northern Italy to be particularly vigilant for symptoms.Italy became the first European country to report one of its nationals died from the virus on Friday.Two more fatalities came over the weekend but Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged people “not to give in to panic”, and asked them to follow the advice of health authorities.”The rapid increase in reported cases in Italy over the past two days is of concern,” World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said.Not all reported cases seem to have clear epidemiological links, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case, Jasarevic added.”At this stage, we need to focus on limiting further human to human transmission.”Iran ordered the closure of schools, universities and cultural centers across 14 provinces following eight deaths — the most outside East Asia.The outbreak in the Islamic Republic surfaced Wednesday and quickly grew to 43 confirmed infections, a sudden rise that prompted regional travel restrictions.Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian said his country will close its border with Iran and suspend flights.Like the Italian leader, he, too, said there is no reason to panic.But Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia, said the situation in Iran has “major implications” for the Middle East.”It is unlikely that Iran will have the resources and facilities to adequately identify cases and adequately manage them if case numbers are large,” Hunter said.Pakistan and Turkey announced the closure of land crossings with Iran while Afghanistan said it was suspending travel to the country.Japan criticizedThe outbreak in China remains concentrated in the city of Wuhan — locked down one month ago — where the virus is believed to have emanated from a live animal market in December.China’s infection rate has slowed, but flip-flopping over counting methods has sown confusion over its data.There also was growing concern over the difficulty of detecting the virus.Japan on Sunday confirmed a woman who tested negative and disembarked from the virus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship later tested positive.Similarly in Israel, authorities confirmed that a second Israeli citizen who returned from the ship had tested positive. They were among 11 Israelis allowed off the ship and flown home after initially testing negative.Japan has been criticized over its handling of cases aboard the vessel quarantined off Yokohama.A third passenger died Sunday, Japan’s health ministry said, without specifying if it was as a result of the virus.Four Britons who returned from the Diamond Princess on Saturday also tested positive for the COVID-19 illness, the NHS health service said.
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South Korea has raised its alert level for the coronavirus disease to the highest level.South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged officials to not hesitate to take “unprecedented powerful measures” to contain the outbreak.Moon made the comments as authorities reported 123 more cases Sunday, raising the total to 556 with five deaths.South Korea’s prime minister said the coronavirus in his country had entered a “more grave stage” as the new cases of the disease were reported Sunday.Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun made the remark late Saturday in a nationally televised address. He said Seoul is making all-out efforts to contain the further spread of the disease.US travel advisoryKorea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said of the 123 new cases reported Sunday, 113 were in the fourth-largest city, Daegu, and surrounding areas. South Korea now has 556 reported coronavirus cases with five deaths. South Korea is testing 6,039 other people for the virus.Also Saturday, the U.S. State Department issued travel advisories for Japan and South Korea because of the coronavirus outbreak, urging travelers to “exercise increased caution” if visiting those countries.The State Department statement said a Level 2 advisory means travelers should avoid contact with sick people and practice basic hygiene, such as washing their hands often to guard against contracting the disease.People wearing protective face masks walk on a street in Beijing, Feb. 23, 2020. South Korea and China both reported a rise in new virus cases Sunday, as the South Korean prime minister warned the outbreak was entering a “more grave stage.”China reported 648 new infections Sunday, for a total of 76,936. It said 97 more people had died, raising the death toll in the country to 2,442.Outside China, more than 1,200 people have been infected with the virus and more than a dozen have died.Beyond ChinaIn Southern California, a federal judge issued a restraining order to prevent the U.S. government from sending 50 people infected with the coronavirus to Costa Mesa, a city of about 100,000 people. A hearing will be held Monday.The death toll in Iran rose to six. Italy said two people have died, and said a cluster of coronavirus cases triggered a lock down of about a dozen towns in several northern regions of the country. Italian authorities said Saturday there are about 54 cases in the country.Samsung Electronics on Saturday confirmed a case of coronavirus at its mobile device factory in Gumi, South Korea. The plant has been shut down and is expected to remain closed until Monday morning; the floor where the infected person worked will not reopen until Tuesday, according to media reports.FILE – Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaks during the news conference on the novel coronavirus in Geneva, Feb. 11, 2020.World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was concerned about new cases of the virus in Iran after an Iranian traveler carried the virus to Lebanon, and another traveler spread the virus from Iran to Canada.Iranian health officials reported Sunday that six people have died from the virus, making it the highest death toll outside of China. Iran has reported 28 cases of people sickened with COVID-19.Iran said Saturday it has suspended religious pilgrimages to Iraq during the coronavirus surge.
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