Employees from a disinfection service company sanitize a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea, on 27 February 2020. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
By Colin Packham and Parisa Hafezi | Reuters
SYDNEY/DUBAI, 27 February 2020
The coronavirus’ rapid spread in Iran, Italy, South Korea and elsewhere left alarmed governments and people across the globe rushing on Thursday to implement emergency measures.
For the first time, new infections around the world in the past 24 hours surpassed those in mainland China, where the flu-like disease emerged two months ago but is on the decline after an aggressive containment campaign.
In Japan, where cases rose to 200, there was particular concern after a female tour bus guide tested positive for a second time – one of very few worldwide to do so.
Tokyo has halted big gatherings and sports events for two weeks, and is closing schools early for the spring break. But it still plans to go ahead with the 2020 Olympics, whose cancellation or relocation would be a massive blow for Japan.
The coronavirus has mainly battered China, causing 78,596 cases and 2,746 deaths. But it has spread to another 44 countries with 3,246 cases and 51 deaths reported.
Though meeting the dictionary definition of a pandemic – widespread contagion across a large region – the World Health Organization (WHO) has so far held back from using that term.
“There is every indication that the world will soon enter a pandemic phase of the coronavirus,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said as he ordered hospitals to ensure sufficient medical supplies, protective gear and staff.
US President Donald Trump put his vice president, Mike Pence, in charge of America’s response, while France’s President Emmanuel Macron rallied the nation.
“We have a crisis before us. An epidemic is on its way,” Macron said at a Paris hospital where a 60-year-old Frenchman this week became the second person to die from the coronavirus in France.
Markets down for sixth day
Spooked by the impact on China, the world’s second-biggest economy and the heart of corporate supply chains, and the increasing effect on other countries, stock markets sank deeper into the red and oil prices fell
Global markets have dropped for six straight days, wiping out more than $3.6 trillion in value.
A rash of countries have had their first cases in recent days, the latest being Denmark with a man back from a ski holiday in Italy, and Estonia with someone returning from Iran.
There is no cure for the virus that can lead to pneumonia, and a vaccine may take up to 18 months to develop.
New cases in South Korea took its total to 1,261 with 12 deaths, while Europe’s hotspot Italy had 453 infections and 12 deaths, and Iran reported 245 cases and 26 fatalities.
Urging people to avoid unnecessary travel, Tehran extended its closure of cinemas, cultural events and conferences for another week. Iran’s outbreak has added to the isolation of a nation already under US sanctions.
The coronavirus has played havoc with global aviation and tourism as airlines cancel flights, countries ban visitors from hot spots and nervous passengers put off travel.
News that a Korean Air flight attendant who worked on flights between Seoul and Los Angeles later tested positive was likely to unnerve passengers further.
The United States is managing 59 cases – most of them Americans repatriated from a cruise ship quarantined in Japan where almost 700 cases developed. But Trump said the risk was “very low” in the United States which was “very, very ready”.
Chinese authorities said the number of new deaths stood at 29 on Thursday, its lowest daily tally since 28 January. There were just 433 new cases in mainland China in the last 24 hours, compared to 586 in nations and territories elsewhere.
When it comes to killing, there is no disease that can challenge the killing spree of the CCP. 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in rural China from 1958-1962. It was a systematic pogrom of Chinese peasants that has no other parallel except the great wars which killed millions. The CCP carried on a mass murder that deemed people as mere digits. State terror was unleashed with unheard of brutality such as if a child stole a potato, the child was tied and thrown into a pond or parents were forced to bury their children alive or douse them in excrement and urine or set alight or have their nose or ear cut off. People were forced to work naked in the middle of the winter! Whole villages were deliberately starved to death because they were too old to be effective workers. In one single episode in a region, 13000 opponents of the regime were eliminated in 3 weeks. The scale of state terror and unmitigated violence by the CCP is so terrifying in scale and magnitude that no other evil can ever compare with such butchery. The Coronavirus is perhaps the first retribution of the mammoth cruelty unleashed by the CCP in its 70 years of mass murder of its people and occupied peoples. In the long run this might have exposed the real evil the CCP is in the eyes of many intelligent Chinese that could act as a catalyst for the demise of the ruthless dictator Xi and his evil cult. He has shown that when it comes to the crunch, he is clueless and inapt. To cover up his inaction, he resorted to propaganda with non-existent meetings supposedly taken place without ever being reported by the CCP mouth pieces!! More and more Chinese people now see deception of the CCP and it’s knack for cover ups that they are no more buying them. The tide is turning against the CCP.
The CCP and it’s bosses- starting with Mao Tsetung – are habituated bullying anyone or anything into submission to it’s will and wish.
The microscopic animals called coronavirus are not kowtowing to will of the CCP’s boss – Xi Jinping. Far from it! These tiny animals may really bring down Xi to his knees in the end!
Of course, the sad thing is that in the process of struggle a number of people, especially the Chinese have suffered and died and will do so for sometime at least.
If the drama ends by coronavirus Killing CCP along with many people, the vast majority of Chinese and all the peoples like the Tibetans under the occupation of CCP will say:
“STILL CORONAVIRUS IS BETTER THAN CCP” because the CCP- during it’s rule has killed far more people than coronavirus can possibly while it’s Killing power lasts- say a year or little longer?
What is your take on it, my friends?
Hard to believe Italy has 453 covonavirus cases! Never thought it would hit europe that hard. Now it is scary to even venture outside.
may lord have mercy on us please. time of biblical pestilence and untold suffering has now come. om mani padme hung.
karmapa chenno! karmapa chenno