Coronavirus: China announces more imported cases

Ten leaders of South Korean religious sect group Shincheonji have tested positive for the virus, reports Yonhap news.

The vast majority of the country’s positive cases have been linked to the religious group. South Korea reported 309 more cases on Friday, bringing its total number of cases to 6,593. Of these, 43 people have died.

Asian stock markets have fallen again amid fears that the coronavirus may cause a global economic slump.

Shares on the Nikkei index in Japan closed down 2.72%. Investors were disappointed that the Bank of Japan didn’t intervene to support the market. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 2.3% in afternoon trading.

The coronavirus will hit the economies of developing Asian economies hard, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said. There will be sharp declines in areas including tourism and business travel as well as supply disruptions, it said.

It is as yet not clear how serious the economic loss could be due to uncertainty surrounding how the outbreak with develop. The range of scenarios explored in the analysis suggests a global impact in the range of $77 billion (£59 billion) to $347 billion, or 0.1% to 0.4% of global gross domestic product (GDP).

Ajax have told assistant coach Christian Poulsen and two other members of their training staff to stay away from the Dutch football club due to fears they could have caught the coronavirus.

All three had attended the 40th birthday party of former Danish international Thomas Kahlenberg, who has since been diagnosed with the virus.

“They have no symptoms and if it stays that way they will return to work next week,” an Ajax spokesman told Dutch media.

It comes as Danish side Brondby quarantined 13 people after they came into contact with Mr Kahlenberg.

If you’re just tuning into our coverage now, welcome. Here’s a quick glance at some of the things that have happened over the past few hours:

• Asian stock markets have registered sharp falls over growing fears that coronavirus may cause a global economic slump.
• Tensions between South Korea and Japan have ramped up after Japan announced a two-week quarantine for South Korea visitors. South Korea took aim at Japan – saying its quarantine efforts were “ambiguous and passive”
• An Ecuadorean navy ship has been quarantined after it was discovered that one crew member had contact with someone known to have the virus
• Schools in Italy will remain closed until at least 15 March
• The US had admitted that it doesn’t have enough coronavirus test kits
• The UK recorded its first death on Thursday. Authorities have tried to reassure consumers that shops won’t run out of food

The World Health Organization has warned that countries are not taking the coronavirus crisis seriously enough.

The WHO called out a “long list” of countries for not showing “the level of political commitment” needed to “match the level of the threat we all face”.

“This is not a drill,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

“This epidemic is a threat for every country, rich and poor.”

The Premier League has announced that the pre-match handshakes between both teams and officials will not take place until further notice because of fears over the spread of coronavirus.

The measure comes the day after the UK government asked the league “to step up its contingency planning”.

The teams will still line up as usual but the home team will walk past the away side without shaking hands.

Read more here.

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Singapore’s Ministry of Health has said there’s a “theoretical
possibility” of the coronavirus getting transmitted from animals to humans – as
concerns have grown over whether pets can catch the Covid-19 disease.

The ministry’s Medical Services director Kenneth Mak said
today that if the infection transmits in droplets, there’s a “theoretical
possibility of the virus spreading from individual to animal” and vice-versa
through a contaminated surface, Singapore-based Channel News Asia website
reported.

At the same time, he voiced caution over considering pets as
“a serious vector of transmission”.

There are no immediate plans “to isolate, do contact tracing
for pets, or exercise any form of quarantine measures” on them, he added.

This comes as Hong Kong confirmed that a pet dog – whose owner had contracted the virus – had also tested “weak positive” for the virus.

Worried about panic buying, food supplies and toilet paper? The British government says it’s working with supermarkets to ensure that people who have to self isolate will receive food.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC he was confident food supplies would not run out.

“The government has supplies of the key things that are needed. And within the food supply, we are absolutely confident that there won’t be a problem there,” he told BBC One’s Question Time.

“Crucially, we are working with the supermarkets to make sure that, if people are self-isolating, then we will be able to get the food and supplies that they need.”

Kenya has named two popular tourism destinations among regions at high risk of coronavirus outbreak, according to local media reports.

The coastal towns of Mombasa and Kilifi, which have a high influx of tourists, have been placed on high alert.

The country’s capital, Nairobi, is also listed as a high risk area because of its main airport.

Kenya’s head of disease surveillance, Dr Daniel Lang’at, is quoted as saying that border regions in the western and north-eastern parts of the country are also at risk.

The country is yet to record any confirmed case of coronavirus.

Kenya has been working to boost its economy by making tourism more attractive.

Danish side Brondby have quarantined 13 people, including a player and their assistant coach, after retired former Denmark international Thomas Kahlenberg was diagnosed with coronavirus.

Brondby director of communications Christian Schultz says Kahlenberg contracted the virus in Amsterdam last weekend and was at Brondby’s game against Lyngby on Sunday as a spectator.

Defender Joel Kabongo, 21, is in quarantine alongside assistant coach Martin Retov, while Lyngby also have three players in isolation.

Schultz told BBC Radio 5 Live that Kabongo met Kahlenberg after the game because they were former team-mates and they “shook hands”.

Read more here.

And other questions you might have around the outbreak, answered here.

The song and dance about how to tackle the coronavirus go global on TikTok.

Aerial photographs, released by Colorado-based space technology firm Maxar, show Tiananmen Square in Beijing in February 2019 (top) and February 2020.

An Ecuadorean navy ship with 50 people on board was quarantined after it was discovered that one of the crew had contact with the first person in the country known to be infected with the new coronavirus.

Despite the sailors’ negative test results, the ship was placed in isolation until Friday, the health minister said.

The country has 13 confirmed cases.

Here’s a quick glance at the growing number of cases outside China, where the virus first emerged:

One US man who contracted the virus on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner said he received “graphic” death threats for having the virus.

Carl Goldman, who remains in self-isolation, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that there was “a lot of unnecessary hysteria” around the virus.

Loo roll, pasta, rice and hand soap – these are just a few of the many items that have been wiped off shelves amid a panic-buying frenzy.

But is there actually any reason for people to worry? Find out here.

Medical supplies such as masks, gloves, googles, gowns and hand hygiene products are to be sent to North Korea, a spokesman from Médecins Sans Frontières told news site NK News.

MSF was granted an exemption from international sanctions, enabling it to send the equipment.

The supplies have now arrived in Beijing and will eventually make their way across the border to China, though it’s not clear how long this might take.

North Korea says there are no virus cases in the country, though experts have cast doubt on this.

It’s not a comprehensive list, but here are some things you might want to take note of: