Wuhan, China, home to the quickly spreading coronavirus is also a major university town that hosts thousands of foreign students including many Afghan students. Getting them home is tricky but Afghanistan’s health minister says, an isolated 100-bed hospital has been setup for returning students.
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The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China passed 490 on Wednesday, as two U.S. airlines suspended flights to Hong Kong following the first fatality there and 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined Japanese cruise ship. China’s National Health Commission said another 65 deaths had been recorded on Tuesday, bringing the toll on the mainland to 490, mostly in and around the locked-down central city of Wuhan where the virus emerged late last year. There have been two deaths outside mainland China. A 39-year-old man in Hong Kong with an underlying illness who had visited Wuhan city, died on Tuesday. A man died in the Philippines last week after visiting Wuhan, the first virus-related overseas fatality. Across mainland China, there were 3,887 new confirmed infections, bringing the total accumulated number to 24,324. Ten people on a cruise liner under quarantine at the Japanese port of Yokohama tested positive for coronavirus, Japan’s health minister said, a figure that could rise as medical screening of thousands of patients and crew continued. Officers in protective gear escort a person (under the blue sheet) who was aboard cruise ship Diamond Princess and tested positive for coronavirus, after the person is transferred to a maritime police base in Yokohama, Japan, Feb. 4, 2020.The 10 confirmed cases were among 31 results from 273 people tested so far. There are around 3,700 passengers and crew aboard the Carnival Corp. ship. Another 176 cases have been reported in 24 other countries and regions, according to the World Health Organization. Economic impact spreads As the economic impact of the virus spreads, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the epidemic would delay a surge in U.S. exports to China expected from the Phase 1 trade deal set to take effect later this month, the first time a Trump administration official has said the outbreak would hamper the deal. “It is true the trade deal, the Phase 1 trade deal, the export boom from that trade deal will take longer because of the Chinese virus,” Kudlow said, adding he did not believe the virus would have a catastrophic effect on business supply chains.  Global markets stabilized on Tuesday after days of selling triggered by fears about China’s economic growth, with many factories closed, cities cut off and travel in and out of China severely restricted. The financial and health impacts of the epidemic were increasingly being felt in Hong Kong, with American Airlines Group and United Airlines suspending flights to and from the Asian financial hub after this week. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., which relies heavily on passengers who change flights in the financial center, said it plans to cut around 30% of its global capacity over the next two months, including around 90% of its flights to mainland China, as it grapples with the coronavirus. People wear masks as they walk at a marketplace downtown following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, in Hong Kong, China, Feb. 4, 2020.Thousands of medical workers in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous region of China, held a second day of strikes on Tuesday to press for complete closure of borders with the mainland after three checkpoints were left open. “We’re not threatening the government, we just want to prevent the outbreak,” said Cheng, 26, a nurse on strike.  Hong Kong has confirmed about 17 cases. It was badly hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a coronavirus that emerged from China in 2002, killed almost 800 people worldwide and cost the global economy an estimated $33 billion. Neighboring Macau, also a special administrative region of China lying across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, ordered its casinos to suspend operations on Tuesday, effectively closing off the lifeblood of its economy in a drastic measure to contain the epidemic. Asian stocks steadied on Wednesday on hopes of additional Chinese stimulus to lessen the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3%. Australian shares were up 0.58%, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 1.19%. Evacuations continue Beijing has criticized U.S. travel restrictions, barring foreign nationals who have visisted China, as an overreaction and has called on Washington to do more to help China. FILE – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar speaks to reporters about Trump administration efforts in regard to the corona virus outbreak in China, during a news briefing at the White House in Washington, Jan. 31, 2020.U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he hoped China would accept an offer from the United States and the WHO to send epidemiological experts to China. “We have been requesting this since January 6. The World Health Organization sent names over today. We’re hoping the Chinese will act quickly on that,” Azar told Fox Business Network in an interview. “This is a novel strain. That’s why we’ve got to get on the ground with the world’s best experts and run the studies to get to the bottom of what is the incubation period. We’ve got to confirm what is the risk of asymptomatic transmission,” he said. The WHO has declared the flu-like virus a global emergency and experts say much is still unknown, including its mortality rate and transmission routes. Chinese data suggest the new virus, while much more contagious, is significantly less lethal, although such numbers can evolve rapidly. Several countries including Australia and New Zealand continued to evacuate citizens from Wuhan city. The United States said it may stage additional evacuation flights for private U.S. citizens in China’s virus-hit Wuhan on Thursday. Wuhan authorities are converting an additional eight buildings, including gymnasiums, exhibition centers and sports centers, into hospitals, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. The latest announcement adds to plans revealed earlier this week to convert three other venues in the city into hospitals. Once all 11 buildings are converted, a process that is expected to be completed later on Wednesday, they will be able to accommodate 10,000 patients. A specially constructed hospital in Wuhan, designed with 1,000 beds, opened to patients on Monday, while the building of a second hospital, with 1,600 beds, is also scheduled to be completed on Wednesday. 
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Global business is catching a chill from China’s virus outbreak.Mink breeders in Denmark called off a fur auction because Chinese buyers can’t attend due to travel curbs imposed to contain the disease.Airlines have canceled 25,000 flights to and within China after ticket sales collapsed, according to travel data provider OAG. General Motors Co. and other automakers are telling employees to limit travel to China, their biggest market.On Tuesday, the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau announced it was closing casinos for two weeks as a precaution. The territory is a big moneymaker for U.S. casino operators Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp.Hyundai Motors, meanwhile, said it is suspending production in South Korea due to disruptions in the supply of parts as a result of the outbreak. It said it is seeking alternative suppliers in other regions.Global companies increasingly rely on China, the world’s No. 2 economy, as a major buyer of food, cars, movie tickets and other goods. But that has left them more exposed than ever to the pain of its latest abrupt slump.The Singapore Air Show, due to open next week, announced Tuesday it is canceling a business conference due to the absence of Chinese participants.Tourism revenue in Thailand and other Asian destinations that rely on China for up to 30% of their foreign visitors plunged after Beijing canceled group tours. Business people were told to put off foreign trips.“Many national as well as international events are now already canceled,” the chief executive of Kopenhagen Fur, Jesper Lauge Christensen, said in a statement.The cooperative of 1,500 Danish breeders who account for 40% of global mink production called off this month’s auction of 2 million skins. Most of the group’s exports usually go to China and Hong Kong.Italy could lose up to 4.5 billion euros ($5 billion) in tourism revenue this year as virus fears keep visitors away, polling agency Demoskopika said in a study released Tuesday.In Milan’s luxury MonteNapoleone shopping district, dozens of luxury brands decked out their windows for Chinese New Year. But wealthy Chinese shoppers have failed to arrive in their usual numbers.The Italian National Fashion Chamber estimated that industry sales will decline 1.8% in the first six months, because of the virus. It had been expected to grow 3%.Chinese visitors are responsible for about one-third of all luxury purchases globally. In Italy, they spend more than Russians, Arabs and Americans combined.Chinese authorities have suspended most access to Wuhan, a manufacturing center at the center of the outbreak, and surrounding cities in Hubei province with a total of 50 million people.The eastern city of Hangzhou, the home of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and a center for telecom technology companies, imposed restrictions on movement in the city and said checkpoints will be set up to examine passersby for the infection’s fever.The government extended the end of the Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and reduce chances infection might spread.China already was dealing with the impact of a tariff war with Washington and a separate outbreak of African swine fever that does not infect people but has disrupted pork supplies, causing food prices to soar.Streets and subways in many cities are still largely empty even after most of China officially returned to work this week. Thousands of restaurants and cinemas have been closed to prevent crowds from gathering. Hollywood studios lost Lunar New Year ticket sales, usually a revenue high point for the industry.Officials express confidence China can weather the latest trouble but forecasters say it could knock up to 1 percentage point off this year’s growth, which might fall to as low as 5.2%. The economy already was expected to slow after hitting a multi-decade low of 6.1% last year.Forecasters including Barclays and Morgan Stanley say the outbreak could depress this year’s global economic growth by 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points.China suffered similar woes during the 2003 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Growth rebounded quickly afterward, and the global impact was limited.This time, even if China recovers quickly, the worldwide impact could be bigger than SARS, forecasters say. That is because China now accounts for 16.3% of global economic activity, more than triple 2003’s share of 4.3%, according to the International Monetary Fund.The anti-virus measures will drag down Chinese activity this quarter, which “will pose pressure on the global economy and spark fears in financial markets,” Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics for Oxford Economics, said in a report.The lockdown of Wuhan, a manufacturing center of 11 million, has disrupted production of liquid crystal and light-emitting diode panels, according to IHS Markit technology research, now a part of Informa Tech. That has depressed supplies and pushed up prices for manufacturers that use them in computer displays, TV sets and other products.As the curbs wear on, the impact could spread, depressing auto production and sales and prices of oil, iron ore and other materials from Australia, Brazil and African suppliers to China’s huge industries, forecasters say.    China is the world’s biggest importer of many commodities, including oil. The price of Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil trading, has fallen to about $55 per barrel from $70 in early January, partly due to weak Chinese demand.Lower oil prices mean cheaper gas for Western consumers but they hurt exporters such as Indonesia that use the revenues to help pay for schools, health care and social services.Demand and prices “will depend on how quickly transportation and industrial activities will return to normal levels,” Fitch Ratings said in a report.Even smaller companies are directly affected by the outbreak because of increasingly tight links with China’s nimble, efficient manufacturers.Many manufacturers have yet to feel the impact, because factories closed for up to three weeks ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. But forecasters say delays in reopening will quickly depress demand for imported components and materials such as copper and steel.As the deadly 2019-nCov strain of coronavirus has spread worldwide Asian communities around the world are finding themselves subject to suspicion and fear. 
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North Korea’s already tenuous economic lifelines to the outside world are now nearly severed as it seals its borders with China and Russia to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Already one of the most closed-off countries in the world, North Korea has stopped airline flights and train service with its neighbors, established weeks-long mandatory quarantines for recently arrived foreigners, suspended international tourism, and imposed a near-complete lockdown on cross-border travel.The shutdowns could hurt leader Kim Jong Un’s efforts to make good on his promise to jumpstart North Korea’s economy.Those efforts have been undermined by a lack of progress in denuclearisation talks with the United States, which has led the way in imposing international sanctions on North Korea.”They’re keeping the cargo out and they’re keeping the Chinese out; nobody can go in or out,” said one source with firsthand knowledge of the situation at the China-North Korea border.Kang Mi-jin, a North Korean defector in Seoul who reports for the Daily NK website, also confirmed that the border appears to have been almost entirely shut down since at least Jan. 30.”The Ministry of People’s Armed Forces ordered all guard posts to bar smuggling as well,” she said. “People, freight, nothing can come in or go out.”Pyongyang has reportedly asked Beijing not to repatriate North Korean defectors detained in China, according to one South Korean pastor who works with refugees.According to the source with knowledge of the situation at the border, North Koreans who work in restaurants and elsewhere in China, violating United Nations sanctions, are in “virtual captivity” in their homes under instructions from authorities back in North Korea.North Korea is typically adept at implementing public health interventions and acted “swiftly and decisively” to try to stop the disease from entering the country, but sanctions restrictions could make it difficult for them to get medical supplies, said Harvard Medical School’s Kee Park, who has worked on health care projects in North Korea.”Their actions, very costly in terms of revenue from tourists and trade as well as administratively for quarantining people, reflect their concerns regarding their health system’s capacity to handle an outbreak,” Park said.China lifeline 
The efforts — which appear to have been successful in preventing any cases in North Korea so far — mean North Korea has severed or drastically restricted the economic ties it relies on.”There could be a huge impact not just on the North’s market economy, but also on the entire economy of the country,” Kang said. “North Korea promotes localization, but even for products — candies, crackers, or clothing — manufactured in the country, the raw materials come from China.”Upcoming North Korean political holidays, which usually include gifts of sweets and crackers for children, may be more less festive than usual if the country’s supplies of sugar, flour, and other ingredients are scarce, she said.There are already signs that prevention measures could lead to the cancellation of military parades and other mass celebrations at least through February, which includes a commemoration of the North Korean army and former leader Kim Jong Il’s birthday.The extent of the economic risk to North Korea largely depends on the duration of the lockdown and how sweeping the restrictions are, said Artyom Lukin, a professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.”If the lockdown continues for several months and longer, this will certainly have a considerable negative impact on North Korea,” he said.There are no official numbers on the size of North Korea’s economy, but South Korea’s Bank of Korea estimated that in 2018 the country’s economy shrank for a second straight year, while its international trade fell 48.4 per cent in value.Since then, China and Russia have more publicly called for sanctions to be lifted, border trade picked up, and there were signs that North Korea’s economy may have been on a relative rebound.A recent report by a South Korean trade association found China’s proportion of the North’s overall external trade rose to 91.8 percent last year, compared with 17.3 percent in 2001.Thousands of Chinese tourists provided an additional economic lifeline.The crisis could weaken North Korea’s position in its standoff with the United States over denuclearisation talks, and could lead Pyongyang to try to offset its greater economic vulnerability by making provocative moves such as resuming long-range missile launches or nuclear tests, Lukin said.”If the coronavirus situation is not resolved quickly, it is going to make life much more difficult for North Korea in 2020,” Lukin said.
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One of China’s top Africa diplomats — the ambassador to South Africa — says there is no need for Africans to panic over the coronavirus.No confirmed cases of the pneumonia-like virus have yet surfaced on the continent. Ambassador Lin Songtian says China is monitoring all visitors to South Africa, and that in China, officials are treating the thousands of African nationals who may be at risk.  The best thing Africans can do about the spread of coronavirus, says the ambassador, is to remain calm and stay put.The respiratory virus has now affected more than 14,500 people across 23 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Most cases — and most of the more than 300 deaths — occurred in China, where the virus originated last year.As fears spread globally, the ambassador sought to soothe frayed nerves in South Africa’s capital.”We have no choice but to work together to win the battle against this virus and bring them under our control,” Lin said Monday. “And that is our suggestion, we hope. American friends, European union, all the developed countries — you can feel ensured and relaxed. China is safe. We have shown, the capacity and the resources are strong enough to bring this disease, the coronavirus, under control as soon as possible.”More than 3,000 South African nationals reside in China, and he advised them — and others — to remain in place. Several countries, including Australia, Britain, Japan and the United States, have repatriated their citizens, which Chinese officials say may only spread the infection.Health officials say the virus can be spread from close contact with infected people.”All the foreigners, including the American people who are in China, they are the friend of China, they are the guest of China, they are our people, our friend,” he said. “So I would like to advise them: Trust China. Give the hand to us. Give us confidence and strength and solidarity. Stay well, in the community, in the village, at home, at the university, you are safe. In case something happens, the system is working.”Lin also noted that all newly arrived visitors from China are being monitored and screened by Chinese authorities, though he did not say how many people that involved. He noted that the embassy is advising all travelers from China to remain home for their first week, and to monitor their health and keep in contact with the embassy.Additionally, South Africa’s government has implemented temperature testing and health screening at the continent’s busiest airport. The nation’s health minister has assured the population that the government has contingency plans in place, including designated treatment facilities and a 24-hour hotline. 
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Wai Htet Aung, age 27, waits for his turn at a crowded betel quid stand in downtown Yangon. Customers have lined up by the table to place their orders. “It’s tasty,” he says. “I have bad breath and I want my mouth to smell better.”The signs of this popular habit are easy to spot from the roadside stands across the country to the red stains on teeth as well as on streets and sidewalks that stem from betel quid spit. “After I chew betel quids my mouth feels better,” says Ko Zaw Naing. “My mind feels relaxed.”Figures from the World Health Organization show that more than 60% of men in Myanmar chew betel quids and almost 25% of the women do. Aung Thura is 30-years-old and has been chewing betel quids for eight years. “It keeps me awake and keeps me from getting bored when I’m working,” he says.Betel quids are made from areca nuts that are placed in a betel leaf with slaked lime. In Myanmar it’s usually mixed with tobacco. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)’Addictive chemicals’
Betel quids are made from areca nuts that are placed in a betel leaf with slaked lime. In Myanmar it’s usually mixed with tobacco. Health advocates say the nicotine in the tobacco and the arecoline in the areca nuts are a bad combination.”They are addictive chemicals so by having these two things together people like to chew it more and more,” says Dr. Than Sein, head of the People’s Health Foundation, a health advocacy group in Myanmar that’s trying to educate the public about the risks.The group’s campaigns have included TV spots with betel quid chewers who are terminally ill. “Betel chewing the first major cause is mouth cancer, oral cancer, then larynx cancer, then lung cancer and also stomach cancer,” says Dr. Than Sein.Betel quid stands are easy to find across Myanmar. Surveys show that more than 60% of men in Myanmar chew betel quids and almost 25% of the women do. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Widespread skepticism of dangersAccording to the World Health Organization, someone who regularly chews betel quids mixed with tobacco for a long-period of time is more than seven-times more likely to get oral cancer than someone who doesn’t chew it. But many people in Myanmar dismiss the risks.”Chewing betel quid doesn’t lead to mouth cancer,” says Aung Thura. “The mouth cancer happens if you leave the betel quid in your mouth and sleep all night.” His rejection of the risks was echoed by other people interviewed for this story as well.Ni Ni Wah, age 54, runs a betel quid stand and is a chewer too. “It’s not like I’m worried about getting mouth cancer,” she says. “The mouth cancer happens to people who keep betel quids in their mouth all night while they sleep.”Ni Ni Wah puts a betel quid in her mouth. She dismisses the risks of cancer saying “mouth cancer happens to people who keep betel quids in their mouth all night while they sleep.” (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)But Doctor Than Sein says the risks are clearly there for all betel quid chewers especially anyone who chews it regularly for more than a decade. And he adds that all too often they find out they have cancer when it’s too late to cure.”Cancer is caused slowly and people do not know it and once they know it they are almost dying,” he saysBut in Myanmar, all signs point to betel quid chewing remaining one of the country’s most popular habits. 
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The Latest:Passengers arrive at LAX from Shanghai, China, after a positive case of the coronavirus was announced in the Orange County suburb of Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 26, 2020.Chad Wolf, acting Homeland Security secretary, said that the overall risk to Americans remains low. He added that the new rules could add stress and travel time for some passengers, but “public health and security experts agree these measures are necessary to contain the virus and protect the American people,” he said.President Donald Trump told Fox News that the United States has “shut down” the coronavirus coming in from China, even as officials in San Francisco reported a ninth confirmed U.S. case.”We’ve offered China help but we can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus,” Trump said. “So we’re going to see what happens, but we did shut it down.”U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday “a handful more flights” will be going to China to evacuate Americans from Hubei province.  Speaking during a visit to Kazakhstan, Pompeo said the United States “might bring in some medical supplies” as well.He said experts from the U.S. Centers from Disease Control and Prevention already are in Kazakhstan, which shares a long eastern border with China.Indonesia announced Sunday a ban on entry to all foreigners and visitors who visited China, and asked Indonesians not to go there.  A temporary halt on flights from China is due to begin Wednesday.China’s acting ambassador to Israel apologized Sunday for comparing the border closures in Israel and elsewhere to restrictions placed on European Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s.Dai Yuming said China was one of the few nations that opened its borders to Jewish refugees during “the darkest days in human history.”The embassy later issued a statement saying there was no intention to compare what is happening today to the Holocaust and apologized to anyone who “understood our message the wrong way.”The outbreak has taken an economic toll on China, with stock markets closing down nearly 8 percent Monday.The WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency last week.
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The Latest:A clerk wearing a face mask and a plastic bag stands in a pharmacy in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, Jan. 31, 2020.Reports, including some from Wuhan residents, indicate that early information about the outbreak was covered up, and many people, including doctors, speaking about the virus in December were threatened by the government or even detained.”These rumors were already flying around the Chinese internet,” Flora Fauna, an American Wuhan resident who asked to be referred to by her pseudonym, told VOA Mandarin about the beginning of the outbreak in December.”So, in response, the city governments dispatched the police to arrest people who were spreading this information,” she said.Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus, at the United Nations’ European Headquarters, in Geneva, Jan. 29, 2020.The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on Thursday, fearing the virus could spread to poorer countries that would have great difficulty containing it. The WHO has said it does not recommend that countries initiate any travel or trade restrictions with China. The virus has been detected in at least 27 countries, the majority of cases involving those who visited China.
 
The continuing spread of the coronavirus led U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to also declare a public health emergency on Friday and deny entry into the country to any foreign national who has recently traveled to China, except for those travelers whose immediate family members are U.S. citizens.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed eight cases of coronavirus in the United States. Health officials say the latest patient is a man in Massachusetts, who became ill after traveling to China.Taiwan said it will prohibit Chinese citizens from China’s southeastern coastal province of Guangdong from entering the country beginning Sunday, Taiwan state media reported Saturday. Travelers who visited the Guangdong area recently will be quarantined for 14 days. The U.S. State Department raised the coronavirus Saturday in criticizing China for banning Twitter messages that reference Taiwan. “Blocking Twitter users who make reference to Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, particularly given the global response to the coronavirus crisis, is outrageous, unacceptable, and not befitting of a U.N. organization,” said an official statement released Saturday.Also Saturday, two groups of stranded Hubei residents returned to China on chartered planes sent to Thailand and Malaysia by the Chinese government. The 199 Chinese nationals had been left without a way home when their return flights were canceled amid the virus scare. The state-owned Xinhua news agency reported the retrieved passengers were screened for fever and anyone who displayed symptoms of the coronavirus would be “quarantined immediately.”Members of a Hong Kong union for medical workers voted Saturday to go on strike Monday after the government dismissed their demand to close all entry points from China. The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said more than 9,000 of its members vowed to participate in a 5-day strike. 
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Dozens of homes were destroyed overnight in Australia’s southeast but the wildfire threat had diminished by Sunday across New South Wales state and around the national capital Canberra, officials said.Bega Valley Mayor Kristy McBain said damage in her region 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Canberra had yet to be assessed by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.“There have been additional homes lost in the Bega Valley,” McBain said.“We’re talking probably dozens more. We want to make sure we continue to support our community. This fire isn’t over yet,” she added.She said the overnight fire brought losses of homes in the valley to more than 400 in the current fire season.Rural Fire Service spokesman Greg Allan said damage assessment teams had yet to confirm media reports of homes lost near the village of Bumbalong, 92 kilometers (57 miles) south of Canberra.A dangerous fire threatened southern Canberra and the nearby village of Tharwa. The fire had burnt 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) of forest and farmland by Sunday, with a perimeter 148 kilometers (92 miles) long, the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency said.Residents close to the fire front were warned on Sunday to remain vigilant.“This morning the fire is still active. There are still days and possibly weeks of firefighting ahead of us,” Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr told reporters.He said a state of emergency for Canberra and its surrounds would remain in place until at least Monday. It is the first such emergency declaration in the Australian Capital Territory since 2003, when wildfires killed four people and destroyed almost 500 homes in a single day.There were no fires burning at emergency level — the most dangerous on a three-tier scale — across the Australian Capital Territory or surrounding New South Wales on Sunday.Fires across southern Australia have claimed at least 33 lives since September, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and razed more than 10.6 million hectares (26.2 million acres).
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Chinese officials in central Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak began, said Saturday that about 300 people had died and more than 12,000 had been infected by the virus, according to news reports.Australia, Japan and Singapore announced strict travel controls Saturday on foreigners who have been in China recently, over fears of the coronavirus. The U.S. announced similar restrictions and declared a public health emergency the day before. Taiwan also announced more limited travel restrictions.Also Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved a request from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for help in housing 1,000 people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus and need to be quarantined upon arrival in the U.S. from overseas, the department said in a statement Saturday.”HHS officials requested the Defense Department to provide several facilities capable of housing at least 250 people in individual rooms through Feb. 29, 2020,” the statement said. It said the people would need to be held for 14 days, which is the incubation period for the virus.The statement said the Department of Defense “will only provide housing support, while HHS will be responsible for all care, transportation and security of the evacuees.” Four military installations were identified for use — two in California, and one each in Colorado and Texas — if they are needed. Travelers wear face masks as they stand outside the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, Jan. 31, 2020.The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on Thursday, fearing the virus could spread to poorer countries that would have great difficulty containing it. The WHO has said it does not recommend that countries initiate any travel or trade restrictions with China. The WHO estimates the virus has been detected in at least 23 other countries, with the majority of cases involving people who visited China. The continuing spread of the coronavirus led U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to also declare a public health emergency on Friday and deny entry into the country to any foreign national who has recently traveled to China, except for those travelers whose immediate family members are U.S. citizens. He also said that any U.S. citizen who had traveled to China’s Hubei province within the past two weeks would be subject to a mandatory quarantine of 14 days. Sixth U.S. caseThe announcement came as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a sixth case of coronavirus in the United States. Health officials said the latest patient was a man in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, who became ill after traveling to China. Australia said Saturday it also was barring entry to foreigners who had recently traveled to China, and that it was requiring returning citizens to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Japan announced it was refusing entry to noncitizens who had visited Hubei province in the past 14 days, and to those who had passports issued there. Singapore also announced a ban on new visitors from China, the first Southeast Asian country to do so. The government, which earlier denied entry only to arrivals from Hubei province, will still allow entry to citizens and permanent residents.Taiwan said it would prohibit Chinese citizens from China’s southeastern coastal province of Guangdong from entering the country beginning Sunday, Taiwan state media reported Saturday. Travelers who visited the Guangdong area recently will be quarantined for 14 days.  The U.S. State Department raised the coronavirus Saturday in criticizing China for banning Twitter messages that reference Taiwan. “Blocking Twitter users who make reference to Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, particularly given the global response to the coronavirus crisis, is outrageous, unacceptable and not befitting of a U.N. organization,” said an official statement released Saturday. Chinese return homeAlso Saturday, two groups of stranded Hubei residents returned to China on chartered planes sent to Thailand and Malaysia by the Chinese government. The 199 Chinese nationals had been left without a way home when their return flights were canceled amid the virus scare. The state-owned Xinhua news agency reported the retrieved passengers were screened for fever and anyone who displayed symptoms of the coronavirus would be “quarantined immediately.” Members of a Hong Kong union for medical workers voted Saturday to go on strike Monday after the government dismissed their demand to close all entry points from China. The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said more than 9,000 of its members vowed to participate in a five-day strike. U.S. health officials Friday issued a two-week quarantine order for 195 Americans evacuated earlier this week from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak. The CDC said this was the first federal quarantine ordered since the 1960s, when there were fears of a smallpox outbreak. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden chided President Donald Trump on Friday for reducing U.S. oversight of global health issues before the onset of the coronavirus outbreak. Biden said now was not the time for Trump’s “hysterical xenophobia and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.” Matt Wolking, a Trump campaign spokesman, said the president “is listening to medical and scientific experts and taking every responsible precaution to protect the American people.” More flight suspensionsAlso Friday, the three U.S. airlines that fly to China announced they would suspend flights to the Chinese mainland. American Airlines said it would stop flights to mainland China through March 27 but would continue flights to Hong Kong. The decision came after the American Airlines pilots’ union sued the company to immediately stop flights to and from China because of possible health threats posed by the coronavirus. Delta said it would wait until February 6 to stop flights and keep them suspended through April 30. Shortly after saying it would only reduce service to China, United Airlines also announced Friday that it would suspend flights from February 6 through March 28 but would maintain one flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong. For all three airlines, these suspensions followed travel advisories issued by the State Department and the CDC. The State Department issued a Level 4-Do Not Travel advisory on Thursday and recommended that all Americans leave mainland China, drawing criticism from China’s government, which said the move was “certainly not a gesture of goodwill.” Other international airlines have also suspended service to mainland China or announced plans to do so, including Air France, British Airways, Indonesia’s Lion Air, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas and Scandinavian Airlines. Global stocks fell sharply Friday over concerns the outbreak of coronavirus would negatively affect the world economy. 
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Australia, Japan and Singapore announced strict travel controls Saturday on foreigners, who have been in China recently, over fears of the coronavirus, after the U.S. announced similar restrictions and declared a public health emergency the day before.The action was taken as China’s government announced another jump in deaths from the outbreak.Chinese officials in central Hubei province, where the outbreak began, said Saturday at least 259 people have died and nearly 12,000 have been infected by the virus.Travelers wear face masks as they stand outside the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, Jan. 31, 2020.The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on Thursday, fearing the virus could spread to poorer countries that would have great difficulty containing it. The WHO has said it does not recommend that countries initiate any travel or trade restrictions with China. The WHO estimates the virus has been detected in at least 23 other countries, the majority involving those who visited China.The continuing spread of the coronavirus led U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to also declare a public health emergency on Friday and deny entry into the country to any foreign national who has recently traveled to China, except for those travelers whose immediate family members are U.S. citizens.He also said that any U.S. citizen who has traveled to China’s Hubei province within the past two weeks will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of 14 days, the incubation period for the virus.The announcement came as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a sixth case of coronavirus in the United States. Health officials say the latest patient is a man in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, who became ill after traveling to China.Australia said Saturday it was also barring foreigners who recently traveled to China from entering the country, and requiring returning citizens to quarantine themselves for 14 days.Japan announced it is refusing entry to noncitizens who recently visited the Hubei province in the past 14 days, or to those who had passports issued there.Singapore also announced a ban on new visitors from China, the first Southeast Asian country to do so. The government, which earlier denied entry only to arrivals from Hubei province, will still allow entry to citizens and permanent residents.On Saturday two groups of stranded Hubei residents returned to China on chartered planes sent to Thailand and Malaysia by the Chinese government.  The 199 Chinese nationals had been left without a way home when their return flights were canceled amid the virus scare.  The state-owned Xinhua news agency reported that the retrieved passengers were screened for fever and anyone who displayed symptoms of the coronavirus would be “quarantined immediately.”U.S. health officials Friday issued a two-week quarantine order for 195 Americans evacuated earlier this week from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak. The CDC said this was the first federal quarantine ordered since the 1960s, when there were fears of a smallpox outbreak.Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden chided President Donald Trump Friday for reducing U.S. oversight of global health issues before the onset of the coronavirus crisis.  Biden said now is not the time for Trump’s “hysterical xenophobia and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”Matt Wolking, a Trump campaign spokesman, said the president “is listening to medical and scientific experts and taking every responsible precaution to protect the American people.”Also Friday, the three U.S. airlines that fly to China announced they would suspend flights to the Chinese mainland.  American Airlines said it would stop flights to mainland China through March 27, but would continue flights to Hong Kong. The decision came after the American Airlines pilots union sued the company to immediately stop flights to and from China due to possible health threats posed by the coronavirus.  Delta said it would wait until Feb. 6 to stop flights and keep them suspended through April 30. Shortly after saying it would only reduce service to China, United Airlines also announced Friday it would suspend flights from Feb. 6 through March 28, but would maintain one flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong.For all three airlines, these suspensions follow travel advisories issued by the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The State Department issued a Level 4-Do Not Travel advisory on Thursday and recommended that all Americans leave mainland China, drawing criticism from China’s government, which said the move was “certainly not a gesture of goodwill.”Other international airlines have also suspended service to mainland China or announced plans to do so, including Air France, British Airways, Indonesia’s Lion Air, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Scandinavian Airlines.Global stocks fell sharply Friday over concerns the outbreak of coronavirus would negatively impact the world economy. 
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A vaccine against the new Wuhan coronavirus may start testing in as little as three months, according to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.That’s fast.It took 20 months before a vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, was ready for clinical trials.That doesn’t mean you can line up for a shot in three months. The vaccine will need to be tested for safety and efficacy. That will take months more.But the time it takes to go from outbreak to vaccine candidate is shorter than ever, thanks in part to a new kind of vaccine.A lab assistant works on samples with Christian Drosten, director of the institute for virology of Berlin’s Charite hospital on his researches on the coronavirus in Berlin, Jan. 21, 2020.Eighteenth century techEver since Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine in the 18th century, against smallpox, vaccines have worked essentially the same way. Patients get an inoculation containing a weakened or killed germ or some of its key proteins. The body’s immune system reacts to it, and the next time the germ shows up, the body can recognize and neutralize it.FILE – A staff member works at an egg testing workshop of Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a Chinese vaccine-making company, during the production of a vaccine for the H1N1 flu virus in Beijing, Nov. 19, 2009.Companies grow the germs or germ parts in chicken eggs or vats of live cells. Manufacturing enough vaccine-ready germs or proteins for millions of shots takes a year or more in big manufacturing facilities.In recent years, though, scientists have started exploring a different approach. Rather than injecting part of the germ itself, experimental vaccines deliver the genetic blueprints for germ parts and let the patient’s own body manufacture them.The active ingredient in these vaccines is DNA or RNA, the genetic instructions for building proteins.“You don’t even need an infectious virus,” said molecular microbiology professor Andrew Pekosz at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All scientists need is the virus’s genetic code. “And that became available very early in this outbreak,” he said.Vaccine design in three hoursChinese scientists first announced cases of unusual pneumonia Dec. 31, 2019. By Jan. 11, they had isolated the new coronavirus and published its complete genome.With the virus’s blueprints in hand, Inovio Pharmaceuticals designed a vaccine in three hours. Manufacturing started the next day.“It’s pretty remarkable, right?” said Kate Broderick, Inovio’s chief of research and development.Inovio’s vaccine is based on DNA. Two other companies, Moderna and CureVac, are using what’s called messenger RNA. If DNA is the master blueprint for a protein, mRNA is the working copy taken to the construction site. It’s what the body’s machinery uses to turn blueprints into finished products.FILE – Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen in a mosquito cage at a laboratory in Cucuta, Colombia, Feb. 11, 2016. An experimental vaccine for the Zika virus is to begin human testing after getting light from U.S. health officials.Both methods are easily adapted when a new disease appears. Inovio has a vaccine in clinical trials against Middle East respiratory syndrome, caused by another coronavirus. The company also is working on vaccines for Zika, Ebola, Lassa, HIV and others.DNA and RNA medicines also have the potential to treat cancer. Inovio, Moderna and CureVac are among the companies with genetic therapies in the works for cervical, lung, skin, prostate and other cancers.The technology has been around for about 20 years, Broderick said, but has made big advances in recent years. There are no human DNA or RNA medicines on the market yet, but there are several for animals, including treatments for West Nile virus in horses, a viral disease in salmon, melanoma in dogs and a gene therapy that produces growth hormone in pigs.Clinical trials and tribulationsWhile a DNA or RNA vaccine is quick to make, “what takes time — and it should take time — is the process of testing it,” Broderick said.After manufacturing, animal safety tests will take a few months. Then the first phase of clinical trials can begin. Phase 1 tests for safety in healthy volunteers will take three months, according to NIAID’s Fauci.After that, “some vaccines can get emergency approval for use in these epidemics,” Pekosz at Johns Hopkins said, “particularly if they’re the only means by which people can be afforded some level of protection.”Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar gets a flu shot to during a news conference in Washington, Sept. 26, 2019.Once a vaccine is proved to be safe, researchers then must prove it works. That takes several months more.By then, the outbreak could be over. That’s what happened with SARS. By the time researchers got an experimental vaccine through phase 1 safety trials, old-fashioned quarantine had stopped the virus from spreading.“This is always the problem that we have with these outbreaks,” Pekosz said. Once the outbreak is over, “interest in generating the vaccine wanes, and the perceived need for the vaccine then wanes,” he added, “and these vaccines end up in this never-never land of being partially studied, but never pushed all the way through to completion.”And then another outbreak hits.“We could have done a much better job of preparing for this epidemic if we just followed through on some of the SARS vaccine work all the way to its completion,” he said.That’s a job government agencies should be doing, he said, “so that we do have data on how good a vaccine is before we actually need it.”
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