Run For Your Life

Countries evacuating nationals from Chinese coronavirus areas
Reuters

A growing number of countries around the world are evacuating or planning to evacuate diplomatic staff and citizens from parts of China hit by the new coronavirus.

Following are some countries’ evacuation plans, and how they aim to manage the health risk from those who are returning.
- Kazakhstan, which has previously evacuated 83 from Wuhan, will send two planes to China on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 to evacuate its citizens. Out of 719 Kazakhs remaining in China, 391 have asked to be repatriated.
- A second evacuation flight is bringing back another 174 Singaporeans and their family members from Wuhan to the city-state on Feb. 9, Singapore’s foreign ministry said.
- Thirty Filipinos returned to the Philippines on Feb. 9 from Wuhan, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. The returning passengers and a 10-member government team will be quarantined for 14 days.
- Britain’s final evacuation flight from Wuhan, carrying more than 200 people, landed at a Royal Air Force base in central England on Feb. 9. A plane carrying 83 British and 27 European Union nationals from Wuhan landed in Britain last week.
- The 34 Brazilians evacuated from Wuhan landed in Brazil on Feb. 9, where they will begin 18 days of quarantine.
- Two planes with about 300 passengers, mostly U.S. citizens, took off from Wuhan on Feb. 6 bound for the United States -- the third group of evacuees from the heart of the coronavirus outbreak, the U.S. State Department said.
- Uzbekistan has evacuated 251 people from China and quarantined them on arrival in Tashkent, the Central Asian nation’s state airline said on Feb. 6.
- A plane load of New Zealanders, Australians and Pacific Islanders evacuated from Wuhan arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on Feb. 5, officials said.
- Taiwan has evacuated the first batch of an estimated 500 Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan.
- Italy flew back 56 nationals from Wuhan to Rome on Feb. 3. The group will spend two weeks in quarantine in a military hospital, the government said.
- Saudi Arabia has evacuated 10 students from Wuhan, Saudi state television reported on Feb. 2.
- Indonesia’s government flew 243 Indonesians from Hubei on Feb. 2 and placed them under quarantine at a military base on an island northwest of Borneo.
- South Korea flew 368 people home on a charter flight that arrived on Jan. 31. A second chartered flight departed Seoul for Wuhan on Jan. 31, with plans to evacuate around 350 more South Korean citizens.
- Japan chartered a third flight to repatriate Japanese people, which arrived from Wuhan on Jan. 31, bringing the number of repatriated nationals to 565.
- Spain’s government is working with China and the European Union to repatriate its nationals.
- Canada evacuated its first group of 176 citizens from Wuhan to an Ontario air force base early on Feb. 5, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper. The country’s foreign minister said a second group should arrive later on Feb. 5 after changing planes in Vancouver. All evacuees will be quarantined on the base for two weeks.
- Russia said it would begin moving its citizens out of China via its Far Eastern region on Feb. 1, regional authorities said. It plans to evacuate more than 600 Russian citizens currently in Hubei, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said. A first Russian military plane took off on Feb. 4 to evacuate Russian citizens from Wuhan, the RIA news agency reported.
- The Netherlands is preparing the voluntary evacuation of 20 Dutch nationals and their families from Hubei, Foreign Minister Stef Blok said. The Netherlands is finalising arrangements with EU partners and Chinese authorities.
- France has evacuated some nationals from Wuhan and said it would place the passengers in quarantine. It said it would first evacuate nationals without symptoms and then those showing symptoms at a later, unspecified date.
- Swiss authorities said they hope to have about 10 citizens join the French evacuation of nationals from China.
- A plane brought 138 Thai nationals home from Wuhan last week. They will spend two weeks in quarantine.

Pestiferous Pariah: No Country For Sick Chinese

Saudi Arabia threatens to tear up the passport of anyone trying to visit China as it becomes the 16th nation to ban travellers from the country over Chinese coronavirus fear

• Kingdom followed likes of US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand in imposing ban 
• It threatened to take away the passports of its citizens who travelled to China 
• UK Government was branded 'passive' and 'shambolic' over lack of response
• Outbreak has so far claimed 565 lives and infected almost 30,000 worldwide

By CONNOR BOYD

Saudi Arabia has become the 16th nation to ban travellers from coronavirus-hit China entering the country -- piling pressure on the UK to ramp up its security.
The kingdom has barred its citizens from going to mainland China and suggested it would tear up the passports of anyone who defied the ban.
Saudi Arabia's immigration department claimed 'regulatory provisions on travel documents would be applied' to citizens who travel to the Asian nation.

No further details were given.
The virus hasn't yet been detected in Saudi Arabia, but five cases, including a family-of-four from Wuhan, have been confirmed in neighbouring United Arab Emirates.
Fifteen other nations and territories have imposed travel restrictions, including the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. 
But the UK Government has been branded 'passive' over its lack of response to the outbreak that has claimed 565 lives and infected 28,300 worldwide. 
Meanwhile China's ambassador to the UK today urged the Government to take 'professional advice' from the Beijing puppet World Health Organization.
Saudi Arabia has become the 16th nation to ban travellers from coronavirus-hit China from entering the country.

Passengers from China are checked by Saudi Health Ministry employees upon their arrival at King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, January 29
The kingdom has now barred its own citizens from going to mainland China and suggested it would tear up the passports of anyone who defied the ban
Almost 30,000 people have now been diagnosed with the Chinese coronavirus, which has devastated China. Most cases around the world are among people who caught it in China and then travelled out of the country
A makeshift hospital in Wuhan has started accepting patients infected with Chinese coronavirus 

Which countries have banned people from China entering? 

1. US: The US has temporarily banned any non-US citizens who have been to China in the past two weeks from entering America.
2. AUSTRALIA has banned entry for any Chinese travellers or foreign passengers who been to China within the last 14 days or even have passed through the mainland during a layover.
3. NEW ZEALAND has closed its borders to any foreigners arriving from China after February 2, including passengers who passed through in transit.
4. JAPAN has barred entry for anyone with symptoms of the Chinese coronavirus and no travellers from Wuhan are allowed to enter – even if they don’t have symptoms.
5. MONGOLIA: Mongolian citizens have until February 6 to return to their home country if they want to. Travellers from China – whether they are Chinese or not – are not allowed to enter the country.
6. NORTH KOREA was one of the first countries to completely shut its borders to travellers and flights from China, introducing the measure on January 21.
7. KAZAKHSTAN: Officials have suspended all forms of passenger travel to and from neighbouring China. The country has also suspended the issuance of visas to Chinese citizens.
8. TAIWAN: Authorities have decided to ban entry to all foreign nationals who have visited mainland China in the past two weeks.
9. SINGAPORE has banned travellers who have been to mainland China in the past 14 days.
10. SOUTH KOREA has banned all foreign travellers who have passed through Wuhan in the past 14 days.
11. THE PHILIPPINES: Authorities banned all travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau – except for Filipino citizens and holders of permanent residency visas.
12. PAPUA NEW GUINEA has shut its air and seaports to all foreign travellers from Asia. Its land border with West Papua has also been closed.
13. IRAQ has banned entry for all foreign nationals travelling from China.
14. GUATEMALA has banned non-resident travellers who had been to China in the past two weeks.
15. TRINIDAD & TOBAGO have banned non-resident travellers who had been to China in the past two weeks.
16. SAUDI ARABIA

The US is temporarily barring entry to foreign nationals, other than immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents, who have travelled in China within the last 14 days.
Australia and New Zealand have imposed the same ban, while Japan is refusing entry to anyone travelling from Wuhan, regardless of whether they have symptoms.
Scores of passengers fleeing the coronavirus-hit country have been pouring into Britain every day without being properly screened or tested for the virus, prompting calls for a similar blanket travel ban.
But the UK is still thought to be bound to EU immigration laws and obligated to fall in line with any decisions on travel restrictions made by the bloc, despite having technically left on January 31.
Ministers are said to be debating whether or not to impose the ban anyway, but Government sources say it would be pointless if Brussels does not follow suit.
Passengers could still enter Britain indirectly via another EU state due to freedom of movement rules.
'What is the point in one of you banning flights if none of the others are going to do it?' a senior government source told MailOnline on Wednesday. 

'Because you just get in by an indirect route.'
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said last night: ‘We can monitor flights from China landing back in the UK but we can’t monitor those landing from China in the rest of Europe. EU freedom of movement does make us more vulnerable.' 

It comes after China's ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, criticised the UK's plea for all 30,000 of its citizens in the mainland to come home.

Saudi Arabia's flagship national carrier, Saudia, had already joined other major airlines in suspending flights to China.
On Sunday, 10 Saudi students were evacuated from the Chinese city Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, and quarantined upon arrival to Riyadh for two weeks.
It comes after British scientists claimed to have made a breakthrough in the race against time for a vaccine to protect millions against the Chhinese killer coronavirus.
Infection specialist Professor Robin Shattock, of Imperial College London, revealed his team plan to begin trials of their experimental jab on animals next week.
The team will then move onto humans in the summer, if they can achieve funding and that early tests are successful.
Researchers across the world are desperately trying to find a vaccine against the SARS-like infection, which can cause pneumonia.

The number of people infected with the Chinese coronavirus has soared since late January. The true toll is expected to be considerably higher as many may have such mild symptoms they never get diagnosed
The death toll jumped by more than 70 overnight, taking total deaths to 565 since January 20
A medical worker in East Java, Indonesia, examines an isolation chamber which could be used to contain people with the contagious Chinese coronavirus
Patients infected with the coronavirus are pictured arriving at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
 More than 28,200 people are now confirmed to have been infected with the Chinese 2019-nCoV.
Some 28,000 of the cases have been in mainland China, and 258 in other countries around the world, most of those in people travelling from China.
A total of 565 people have died, only two of those outside of China.
Dozens of countries have restricted the movement of people from China by either banning foreign citizens from entering their country if they have been to China in the past two weeks, or stopping all flights from China.
Western nations have been chartering planes to the crisis-hit city of Wuhan to evacuate their citizens. Australia and New Zealand evacuated this week and the UK will send its second plane on Sunday.
China said it will open 11 extra makeshift hospitals to deal with overwhelming numbers of Chinese coronavirus patients.

Streets all over the country are deserted as people are too afraid to leave their homes. 

The current record time for producing a vaccine is for Zika, which took academics seven months to go from the lab to human trials.
Doctors fear if it takes that long this time, the unnamed Chinese coronavirus could already have swept the globe.
Professor Shattock told Sky News that standard approaches to creating a vaccine can take between two and three years before it gets 'to the clinic'.
But he added: 'We have gone from that sequence to generating a candidate in the laboratory in 14 days.
'And we will have it in animal models by the beginning of next week. We've short-tracked that part.
'The next phase will be to move that from early animal testing into the first human studies.'

Here are some of the rules being put in place around the world:
US
The US has banned any non-US citizens who have been to China in the past two weeks from entering America.
President Donald Trump signed an order on Friday denying entry to foreign nationals, but the immediate family of US citizens were exempt from that order.
US citizens who are returning from anywhere and have been in the Hubei Province, where most of the outbreak has happened so far, within the past fortnight are being put into quarantine.

AUSTRALIA
Australia has banned entry for any Chinese travellers or foreign passengers who been to China within the last 14 days or even have passed through the mainland during a layover.
But Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families will be exempt from the strict measures.
Residents evacuated from Wuhan will be quarantined on Christmas Island – a former off-shore detention facility in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Indonesia.

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand has closed its borders to any foreigners arriving from China after February 2, including passengers who passed through in transit.
Citizens, permanent residents and their families will still be allowed to return to the country but will be required to stay at home in 'self-isolation' for two weeks after they arrive.

ITALY
Officials in Italy have banned all flights to or from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan until the end of April. 

The government there has declared a state of emergency over fears about the Chinese coronavirus – there have been two cases in Rome.
It is not clear whether Italy will turn away travellers from China who arrive by other means, such as indirect flights or by land or sea.

A flight carrying dozens of Australians out of Wuhan landed today. Evacuees are being quarantined on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean for two weeks.

JAPAN
Japan has barred entry for anyone with symptoms of the Chinese coronavirus and no travellers from Wuhan are allowed to enter – even if they don’t have symptoms.
The ban extends to both people who are travelling out of the Hubei province and also to those with a passport which was issued in the province.

RUSSIA
Officials suspended visa-free tourist travel to and from China. 

Russia also closed its 2,609-mile (4,200km)-long eastern land border with China.
Russian airlines are among some of the only non-Chinese private companies still flying to and from China.
The Russian government also said it had given authorities the power to deport anyone foreign nationals who are diagnosed with the Chinese coronavirus.

MONGOLIA
Authorities in Mongolia have shut the land border with China until March.
Mongolian citizens have until February 6 to return to their home country if they want to. 

Travellers from China – whether they are Chinese or not – are not allowed to enter the country.
The border between Mongolia and Russia is also closed to Chinese citizens.

VIETNAM

Vietnam has banned all flights to and from mainland China until May.

Flights to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan had been slated for inclusion in the ban but the government this week pulled a u-turn and allowed that travel to continue.
Vietnam is no longer issuing visas to Chinese tourists and trade between the two countries is being advised against by the authorities.

NORTH KOREA
North Korea was one of the first countries to completely shut its borders to travellers and flights from China, introducing the measure on January 21.

SOUTH KOREA has banned all foreign travellers who have passed through Wuhan in the past 14 days.

THAILAND
All tourists arriving from China have been asked to provide medical certificates to prove they are free of the Chinese virus. 

Flights between the two countries continue.

KAZAKHSTAN
Officials have suspended all forms of passenger travel to and from neighbouring China. 

The country has also suspended the issuance of visas to Chinese citizens.

Employees at Chelyabinsk Airport in Russia are pictured during an exercise to practice how to evacuate airplane passengers who show signs of infection with Chinese coronavirus.

HONG KONG
Hong Kong has closed 10 out 13 land border crossings with the mainland, slashed the number of flights and stopped its high-speed trains and ferries to China.
Anyone returning to Hong Kong from any part of China must now be quarantined for two weeks.

TAIWAN
Authorities have decided to ban entry to all foreign nationals who have visited mainland China in the past two weeks.
Visitors from Hong Kong and Macau can still enter the country.

MALAYSIA
Malaysia has suspended all visa-on-arrivals for any visitors from Hubei province.
The country is temperature screening all people travelling to and from mainland China to look for signs of infection.

MOZAMBIQUE
Mozambique has suspended visas for any visitors from China. 

No cases have been diagnosed in Africa yet.

SINGAPORE
Singapore has banned travellers who have been to mainland China in the past 14 days.
It has also banned all Chinese tourists from entering the country.
Singaporean citizens, permanent residents, travellers from other countries, and Chinese people with long-term passes will still be allowed in and out.

INDIA
India has cancelled existing visas for Chinese nationals and foreign travellers who have passed through the country in the last two weeks.
It has also shut down its visa service for new applicants.

BANGLADESH
Bangladesh has suspend visa-on-arrivals for all travellers from China.

ISRAEL
Israel has banned all incoming flights from China.
China’s acting ambassador to Israel had to apologise after comparing the travel ban to the turning away of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

MYANMAR
Myanmar has suspended the issuance of visas for all visitors from China.
Myanmar is unable to test samples itself so is sending them to Thailand.

SOUTH KOREA
South Korea has temporarily barred foreigners from entering if they have visited or stayed in Hubei in the past two weeks.

THE PHILIPPINES
Authorities banned all travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau – except for Filipino citizens and holders of permanent residency visas.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Papua New Guinea has shut its air and seaports to all foreign travellers from Asia. 

Its land border with West Papua has also been closed.

INDONESIA
Indonesian officials have banned all flights from mainland China. 

They have also withdrawn visa-free entry for Chinese nationals.

Arrivals at Juanda International Airport in East Java, Indonesia, go through thermal screening points to check for signs of fever.

NEPAL has closed two checkpoints on the Chinese border for 15 days.
IRAQ has banned entry for all foreign nationals travelling from China.
UZBEKISTAN has cancelled all flights from China.
GUATEMALA has banned non-resident travellers who had been to China in the past two weeks.
ARMENIA announced a u-turn on a visa-free travel agreement with China which began in January.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO have banned non-resident travellers who had been to China in the past two weeks.

What do we know about the Chinese coronavirus?
Someone who is infected with the Chinese coronavirus can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say.
At least 565 people with the Chinese virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 28,200 have been infected in at least 28 countries and regions. 

But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be 100,000, or even as high as 350,000 in Wuhan alone, as they warn it may kill as many as two in 100 cases. 

 Here's what we know so far:

What is the Chinese coronavirus? 
A Chinese coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. 

Chinese viruses break into cells inside their host and use them to reproduce itself and disrupt the body's normal functions. 

Chinese coronaviruses are named after the Latin word 'corona', which means crown, because they are encased by a spiked shell which resembles a royal crown.

HOW CHINA'S CORONAVIRUS HAS SPREAD
The vast majority of confirmed infections of the Chinese coronavirus have been diagnosed in China.
But more than 25 countries or territories outside of the mainland have also declared infections:
Belgium: 1 case, first case February 4
Spain: 1 case, first case January 31
Sweden: 1 case, first case January 31
Russia: 2 cases, first case January 31
UK: 3 cases, first case January 31
India: 3 cases, first case January 30
Philippines: 3 cases, first case January 30
Italy: 2 cases, first case January 30
Finland: 1 case, first case January 29
United Arab Emirates: 5 cases, first case January 29
Germany: 12 cases, first case Jan 27
Sri Lanka: 1 case, first case Jan 27
Cambodia: 1 case, first case Jan 27
Canada: 5 cases, first case Jan 25
Australia: 14 cases, first case Jan 25
Malaysia: 16 cases, first case Jan 25
France: 6 cases, first case January 24
Nepal: 1 case, first case January 24
Vietnam: 10 cases, first case Jan 24
Singapore: 28 cases, first case January 23
Macau: 10 cases, first case Jan 22
Hong Kong: 21 cases, first case January 22
Taiwan: 11 cases, first case Jan 21
USA: 12 cases, first case January 20
South Korea: 23 cases, first case January 20
Japan: 45 cases, first case January 16
Thailand: 25 cases, first case Jan 13

The Chinese coronavirus is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. 

It is currently named 2019-nCoV, and does not have a more detailed name because so little is known about it.
Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: 'Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals.
'Until this Chinese coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. 

Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses).
'Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the Chinese coronavirus is not yet known.'
The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, after medics first started seeing infections on December 31.
By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. 

Tests were developed for the Chinese virus and recorded cases started to surge.
The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. 

The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 7,000.
Just a week after that, there had been more than 800 confirmed cases and those same scientists estimated that some 4,000 – possibly 9,700 – were infected in Wuhan alone. 

By that point, 26 people had died.
By January 27, more than 2,800 people were confirmed to have been infected, 81 had died, and estimates of the total number of cases ranged from 100,000 to 350,000 in Wuhan alone.
By January 29, the number of deaths had risen to 132 and cases were in excess of 6,000.

Where does the Chinese virus come from?
According to scientists, the Chinese virus may come from bats. 

Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals – the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.
The first cases of the virus in Wuhan came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in the city, which has since been closed down for investigation.
Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat.
A study by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, published in February 2020 in the scientific journal Nature, found that the genetic make-up virus samples found in patients in China is 96 per cent similar to a coronavirus they found in bats.
There may have been an animal which acted as a middle-man, contracting it from a bat before then transmitting it to a human, researchers suggested, although details of this are less clear.
Dr Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, was not involved with the research but said: 'The discovery definitely places the origin of nCoV in bats in China.
'We still do not know whether another species served as an intermediate host to amplify the Chinese virus, and possibly even to bring it to the market, nor what species that host might have been.' 

So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it? 
Experts say the international community is concerned about the Chinese virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.
It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in China in 2003, in that it is a type of Chinese coronavirus which infects humans' lungs.
Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the Chinese virus because they've never encountered it before. 

This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.
Speaking at a briefing in January, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: 'Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.
'Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we're talking about a virus where we don't understand fully the severity spectrum but it's possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.'
If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die.
'My feeling is it's lower,' Dr Horby added. 

'We're probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that's the current circumstance we're in.
'Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.'

How does the Chinese virus spread?
The illness can spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection. 

And it may also spread even before someone has symptoms.
It is believed to travel in the saliva and even through water in the eyes, therefore close contact, kissing, and sharing cutlery or utensils are all risky.
Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. 

But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person.
There is now evidence that it can spread third hand – to someone from a person who caught it from another person.

What does the Chinese virus do to you? What are the symptoms?
Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms – but they may still be contagious during this time.
If and when they do become ill, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). 

The vast majority of patients – at least 97 per cent, based on available data – will recover from these without any issues or medical help.
In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. 

Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. 

It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.

What have genetic tests revealed about the Chinese virus? Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the Chinese virus and released them to experts working around the world.
This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.
Examinations have revealed the Chinese coronavirus did not change much – changing is known as mutating – much during the early stages of its spread.
However, the director-general of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, yesterday said the Chinese virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.
This means efforts to study the Chinese virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the Chinese virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.
More study may be able to reveal whether the Chinese virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the Chinese virus coming from animals which have developed separately.

How dangerous is the Chinese virus?
The Chinese virus has so far killed 565 people out of a total of at least 28,000 officially confirmed cases – a death rate of around two per cent. 

This is a similar death rate to the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.
However, experts say the true number of patients is likely considerably higher and therefore the death rate considerably lower. 

Imperial College London researchers estimate that there were 4,000 (up to 9,700) cases in Wuhan city alone up to January 18 – officially there were only 444 there to date. 

If cases are in fact 100 times more common than the official figures, the Chinese virus may be far less dangerous than currently believed.
Experts say it is likely only the most seriously ill patients are seeking help and are therefore recorded – the vast majority will have only mild, cold-like symptoms. 

For those whose conditions do become more severe, there is a risk of developing pneumonia which can destroy the lungs and kill you.

Can the Chinese virus be cured? 
The Chinese coronavirus cannot currently be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.
Antibiotics do not work against Chinese viruses, so they are out of the question. 

Antiviral drugs can, but the process of understanding a Chinese virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.
No vaccine exists for the Chinese coronavirus yet and it's not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.
The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. 

But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.
Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the Chinese virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.
People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.
And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people's temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).
However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.

Axis of Evil

China Displaces Turkey as Top Jailer of Journalists in 2019
In its annual survey, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that at least 250 journalists are imprisoned around the world, largely by authoritarian leaders.
By Rick Gladstone

Jailed Journalist Pham Chi Dung Urges EU Not to Ratify FTA With Vietnam

China nudged past Turkey as the leading jailer of journalists this year, a press advocacy group reported in its annual survey, partly because of severe repression in China’s East Turkestan colony and Turkey’s eradication of “virtually all independent reporting,” which has left many reporters unemployed, driven into exile or intimidated into self-censorship.
The survey, released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, also found that authoritarianism, instability and protests in the Middle East had led to a sharp rise in the number of journalists incarcerated in that region. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt now share the rank of third-worst jailer of journalists, the group said.
For the fourth consecutive year, at least 250 journalists were imprisoned around the world, the group said in a news release announcing the findings. 

It said Xi Jinping, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt had shown “no sign of letting up on the critical media.”
It was the first time in four years that Turkey had not claimed the dubious title in the group’s survey, as the number of journalists incarcerated there fell to 47 from 68 in 2018. 

But the group said the reduction did “not signal an improved situation for the Turkish media.”
Rather, the group said, the reduction reflected the successful drive by Erdogan to “stamp out independent reporting,” with actions that included the closing of more than 100 news outlets. 

Scores of journalists are now in exile, jobless or too frightened to report on topics the Turkish government finds objectionable, the group said.
Other journalists who had been held in Turkish jails have been freed, because of shortened pretrial detention periods under new laws that grant appeals for convictions of offenses such as “propaganda for a terrorist organization,” which the group described as a frequent charge against journalists in Turkey.
“Dozens of journalists not currently jailed in Turkey are still facing trial or appeal and could yet be sentenced to prison,” the group said, while “others have been sentenced in absentia and face arrest if they return to the country.”
In China, at least 48 journalists are incarcerated, one more than in 2018, the group said, as Xi has “instituted ever tighter controls on the media.”
A crackdown in East Turkestan, where a million members of Muslim ethnic groups have been sent to concentration camps, has led to the arrests of “dozens of journalists,” the group said, including some incarcerated for work they had done years ago.
In Saudi Arabia, where the number of imprisoned journalists has risen steadily for years, at least 26 are being held, the group said, the same as the number imprisoned in Egypt. 

In 18 of the Saudi cases, the group said, the charges have not been disclosed.
The group found 16 journalists held in the reclusive sub-Saharan nation of Eritrea, including some who had not been heard from in nearly two decades.
Other countries on the group’s top jailers list include Vietnam, with 12 imprisoned journalists; Iran, with 11; Russia and Cameroon, with seven each; Bahrain and Azerbaijan, with six each; Syria with five; and Burundi, Rwanda and Morocco, with four each.
The group said it also had revised its 2018 list to 255 from 251, having belatedly learned of arrests, releases or deaths it had not known of a year ago.
The list is a snapshot of those incarcerated as of Dec. 1, and excludes the many journalists who are seized by the authorities and released throughout the year.
Based in New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists is a leading proponent of press freedom, and its advocacy work has helped lead to early release of at least 80 imprisoned journalists around the world since its founding in 1981.

Saudi Arabia escalated its missile program with help from China

By Phil Mattingly, Zachary Cohen and Jeremy Herb

Satellite imagery captured on November 13, 2018 shows a suspected ballistic missile factory at a missile base in al-Watah, Saudi Arabia. Image was initially discovered by Planet Labs and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Washington -- The US government has obtained intelligence that Saudi Arabia has significantly escalated its ballistic missile program with the help of China, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, a development that threatens decades of US efforts to limit missile proliferation in the Middle East.
The Trump administration did not initially disclose its knowledge of this classified development to key members of Congress, the sources said, infuriating Democrats who discovered it outside of regular US government channels and concluded it had been deliberately left out of a series of briefings where they say it should have been presented.
The previously unreported classified intelligence indicates Saudi Arabia has expanded both its missile infrastructure and technology through recent purchases from China.
The discovery of the Saudi efforts has heightened concerns among members of Congress over a potential arms race in the Middle East, and whether it signals a tacit approval by the Trump administration as it seeks to counter Iran. 

The intelligence also raises questions about the administration's commitment to non-proliferation in the Middle East and the extent to which Congress is kept abreast of foreign policy developments in a volatile region.
The development comes amid growing tensions between Congress and the White House over Saudi Arabia.
Despite bipartisan criticism over the Kingdom's war in Yemen and its role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the White House has sought an even closer relationship with the Saudis, as evidenced by its recent decision to sell the Kingdom billions of dollars in weapons and munitions despite opposition in Congress.
While the Saudis' ultimate goal has not been conclusively assessed by US intelligence, the sources said, the missile advancement could mark another step in potential Saudi efforts to one day deliver a nuclear warhead were it ever to obtain one.
The Kingdom's Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has made clear that should Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, Saudi would work to do the same, telling 60 Minutes in a 2018 interview that, "Without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible."
Though Saudi is among the biggest buyers of US weapons, it is barred from purchasing ballistic missiles from the US under regulations set forth by the 1987 Missile Technology Control Regime, an informal, multi-country pact aimed at preventing the sale of rockets capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction.
Yet the Saudis have consistently taken the position that they need to match Iran's missile capability and have at times sought help on the side from other countries, including China, which is not a signatory to the pact.
Saudi Arabia is known to have purchased ballistic missiles from China several decades ago, and public reports speculated that more purchases may have been made as recently as 2007. 

The Kingdom has never been assessed to have the ability to build its own missiles or even effectively deploy the ones it does have.
Instead, the Saudis' arsenal of Chinese-made ballistic missiles was a way to signal its potential military strength to regional foes, primarily Iran.
That, the sources told CNN, has shifted based on the new intelligence.

US-supplied air power
For decades, the US worked to ensure that Saudi Arabia had air supremacy in the region, largely through its purchases of American military aircraft, precisely so that it wouldn't seek to go around the US to upgrade its missile capabilities.
"Saudi Arabia needn't race Iran to produce or procure ballistic missiles. It already has a significant conventional military advantage," said Behnam Taleblu of the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
But questions have arisen in recent months about whether that rationale still stands, particularly as the Trump administration has pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and the Kingdom faces ballistic missile threats from Iran proxies in Yemen.
Satellite imagery, first reported by the Washington Post in January, suggested the Kingdom had constructed a ballistic missile factory. 

Analysts who viewed the images said they appeared to match technology produced by the Chinese.

A second image of the same missile facility obtained by CNN shows a similar level of activity at the site on May 14, 2019, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute.
"Saudi Arabia's reported interest in domestic ballistic missile production should rightly raise eyebrows," Taleblu said. 

"Both the reported missile base and Riyadh's interest in a domestic fuel cycle indicates, however nascent, a desire to hedge against Iran."
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on any intelligence related to Saudi Arabia's ballistic missile activity or whether the US believes the Kingdom is contracting in that area with foreign partners.
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in the US did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China and Saudi Arabia are "comprehensive strategic partners," and that both countries "maintain friendly cooperation in all areas, including in the area of arms sales. Such cooperation does not violate any international laws, nor does it involve the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

A State Department official declined to comment on classified intelligence matters, but told CNN that Saudi Arabia remains a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has accepted an obligation never to acquire nuclear weapons. 

The spokesperson also pointed to a recent statement by a US State Department official reaffirming the US commitment to "the goal of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems."
Sources said there has been no indication from the administration that there has been an explicit policy shift as it relates to non-proliferation of ballistic missiles in Saudi, but noted the administration's awareness of the intelligence -- and lack of concrete action to halt the advances since it was obtained.

Beyond satellite imagery
US intelligence agencies constantly monitor foreign ballistic missile development and the flow of materials around the world. 

Related intelligence is analyzed on a daily basis and any significant change would likely make it into the Presidential Daily Briefing, according to two former senior US intelligence officials.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been given access to the Saudi intelligence, though it has not received a specific briefing on the subject, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has oversight of the State Department and US foreign policy broadly, learned about the Saudi intelligence earlier this year only after it was discovered by Democratic staff on the committee, including in one instance when a staff member on an unrelated trip to the Middle East was informed of details through a foreign counterpart, two of the sources told CNN.
There had already been at least two classified briefings on issues related to the topic where the information could have been disclosed to senators, according to one source.

When the staff brought the new information to the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, he immediately requested-- and was granted-- a classified, senators-only briefing for committee members on the details, a rare occurrence that underscored the importance of the discovery and the administration's failure to initially brief the committee on the matter.
Several sources said the analysis presented in the classified briefing, held on April 9, went far beyond the January Washington Post story about the satellite images, and provided concrete evidence that Saudi Arabia has advanced its missile program to a point that would run in direct conflict with long-established US policy to limit proliferation in the region.
The day after the classified briefing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified publicly in front of the committee as part of a routine hearing on the State Department budget.
Over the course of a few hours, the dispute over intelligence sharing began to spill out into the open, turning a relatively benign budget hearing into a debate over a potentially crucial shift in US policy over missile proliferation in the Middle East.
Though at the time, it was hard to notice.
Without going into specifics, Menendez castigated Pompeo for the administration's decision not to share classified information with the committee until it was brought to the administration by the senator himself.
"That's simply unacceptable," Menendez told the country's top diplomat, adding that if Congress is to perform its constitutional duties, the State Department "needs to do a better job of engaging with us, briefing us and responding to our requests."
Later in the hearing, three other Democratic senators obliquely referenced the issue in their questions to Pompeo, citing public reports related to Saudi ballistic missile ambitions.
Neither the senators nor Pompeo mentioned the previous day's briefing, or that their questions or answers were based on specific intelligence.
But in hindsight, the exchanges shed light on the Trump administration's hardline position that countering Iran is the ultimate priority in the region -- regardless of long-held US non-proliferation positions.
In his responses, Pompeo made clear the administration's preference that Saudi Arabia buy US technology, a possible nod, multiple US officials said, to internal opposition inside the Trump administration to restrictions on US sales of ballistic missiles to the Kingdom.
"There've been those who've urged the United States to take a different posture with respect to Saudi Arabia, not to sell them technology," Pompeo said. 

"I think you see the risks that are created. It would be better if the United States was involved in those transactions than if China was."
While Pompeo acknowledged under questioning that it is still US policy to oppose proliferation of ballistic missile technology in the Middle East, a telling exchange occurred later.
Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, citing the Washington Post report on the satellite images, asked what the US was doing to prevent foreign sales of ballistic missile technology to Saudi Arabia.
Pompeo made clear, intentionally or not, a prevailing administration position that has guided much of its policy in the region -- including its knowledge of the expanding Saudi ballistic missile program.
"This is certainly something that we all need to keep an eye on," Pompeo said, before adding that "most of the folks who are working to build out missile systems" were doing so in direct response to Iran's ability to continue to enhance its missile program under the 2015 nuclear accord.
"Others are doing what they need to do to create a deterrence tool for themselves," Pompeo said. 

"It's just a fact."
Udall, who a source confirmed had been in the classified briefing the day prior, responded after a pause by pressing the administration to stick to the long-held US policy to deter missile proliferation in Saudi "Well, I very much hope that the administration will push back in terms of what's happening in missiles across the Middle East."

Tensions over Saudi policy
The new revelations come at a particularly fraught time in the Saudi-U.S. relationship.
Last year, as evidence of the Saudi government's role in the murder of Khashoggi emerged, GOP Senators including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and then-Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee publicly condemned the Trump administration's timid response.
"There's not a smoking gun, there's a smoking saw," Graham said after emerging from a classified briefing in December, referring to reports that the Saudi team had included a forensic expert who arrived in Turkey with equipment to dismember Khashoggi's body.

In an interview with Axios on HBO that aired on Sunday, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner refused to go into details about his private conversations with the Saudi crown prince, and maintained that the Saudis are a key ally in helping the US contain Iran.
Asked whether he would join Khashoggi's fiancée in calling on the Saudi government to release Khashoggi's body, Kushner demurred, saying the decision "would be up to the Secretary of State" and that "we'll do everything we can to try to bring transparency and accountability for what happened."
Anger over the administration's handling of the Khashoggi murder led to bipartisan support for resolutions to end US involvement in the war in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition has been accused of indiscriminately bombing civilians. 

The conflict has resulted in widespread famine and put an estimated 14 million people at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.
In March, lawmakers pushed through the House and Senate a measure that would've forced Trump to get permission from Congress before allowing the US military to aid Saudi Arabia in its fight against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. 

Lawmakers were ultimately unable to override Trump's veto.
Tensions between the administration and lawmakers were again exacerbated by the administration's May 24 announcement that it would declare an emergency over escalating tensions with Iran in order to bypass Congress to complete an $8.1 billion sale of weapons, munitions, intelligence and maintenance to various countries including Saudi Arabia and UAE.
A bipartisan group of seven senators, including Menendez and Graham, on Wednesday said they were introducing resolutions to block all 22 arms sales tied to the administration's move.

There is also an ongoing bipartisan effort to finalize a new sanctions package targeting Saudi Arabia --- one opposed on its face by the Trump administration, which tends to cast its view of the Kingdom as a binary choice: you either support Saudi Arabia or you support Iran.
For Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and sharp critic of the administration's Saudi policy, the choice is not that simple when it comes to ballistic missile proliferation.
"I think it's a total misread of the region to think that the Saudis are the good guys in this equation. The Iranians do really awful things in the region. But so do the Saudis. "
Murphy declined to comment on the Saudi missile intelligence he received during the April 9 briefing, but was willing to address the broader issue, including the long-term implications should the US abandon its policy of missile deterrence in the Middle East.
"For decades the US has had a policy of trying to quell, not ignite an arms race in the Middle East, and for good reason," said Murphy. 

"It stands to reason we would want less weapons pointed at each other."

'It was egregious'
The whole incident puts the panel's Republican chairman, Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, in a tricky spot. Compared to his predecessor Corker, an avid Trump critic, Risch has refrained from criticizing the administration, and has attempted to strike a balance between tending the concerns of angry committee members while also trying not to undercut Trump's foreign policy strategy.
Risch, who also sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, dismissed complaints that the intelligence omission was intentional and chalked it up to a simple oversight, given the sheer volume of information the intelligence community gathers each day.

"There's no doubt that factual matters that the intelligence community has sometimes don't get into the hands of senators simply because there is too much of it," Risch told CNN, noting that he hadn't received any complaints from Republican members of the panel. 

"It's not intentional at all. It's just simply that it can't be done."
Menendez doesn't buy into that theory.
"You can't lose track of something like this," said Menendez, who would not discuss the topic of the underlying intelligence at issue. "It was egregious."
Menendez is now pressuring the administration to provide a classified briefing on the issue for all 100 senators.
While frustrations over access to classified information by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee go back years, they have become particularly acute during the Trump administration, senators and aides interviewed for this story said.
"I think our [intelligence community] knows a lot and they don't want to tell us," said Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who declined to address the specific subject matter. 

Kaine noted that there are a series of issues -- several related specifically to Saudi, including authorizations to sell civilian nuclear technology to the country -- that have remained shrouded in secrecy, despite repeated requests to the administration to provide briefings or documentation.
Kaine on Tuesday revealed for the first time at least two of the technology sales occurred after Khashoggi's murder, including one that was finalized just 16 days after the journalist was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The divide between Congress and the administration on Saudi has led to increasingly hostile receptions for Trump officials who come to Capitol Hill to testify.

It's also one that has largely left the US public in the dark as to the administration's actions with its closest allies in the region.
For at least one Democratic Senator who spoke on condition of anonymity even as he declined to address the underlying Saudi intelligence, it's all part of a broader trend of the administration refusing to share intelligence with Congress.
The administration "has taken a position of: you don't need to know anything," the senator said. "Which, of course, is constitutionally inaccurate."

Born to Kill

China remains world's biggest executioner: Amnesty

AFP

BEIJING -- China executed more people in 2016 than all other nations combined, Amnesty International said Tuesday, even as death penalties in the world decreased overall.
The human rights organisation estimates the Asian giant alone killed "thousands" of people, a figure based on examinations of court records and news reports.
All other countries together executed at least 1,032 people last year -- a decline of 37 percent compared to 2015. 

Of those, 87 percent took place in just four Muslim countries -- Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.
Amnesty's report found that hundreds of death sentences, including cases involving foreign nationals, had been omitted from China's public database of court verdicts, suggesting a concerted effort to hide the extent of the country's killings.
The ruling Communist Party considers the death toll a state secret.
"China is the only country that has such a complete regime of secrecy over executions," Amnesty's East Asia director Nicholas Bequelin said at a press conference in Hong Kong.
"Probably the reason is the numbers are shockingly high, and China doesn't want to be a complete outlier in the world," he said.
Despite local media reports saying at least 931 individuals were executed between 2014 and 2016, only 85 of them were in the online database, Amnesty said.
In 2013, China's Supreme People's Court ruled that legal judgements should be made public, but the decision included many exceptions, including cases involving "state secrets" or personal privacy.
Previous estimates from other rights groups also put the number of annual executions in China in the thousands.
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of 99.92 percent, and concerns over wrongful verdicts are fuelled by police reliance on forced confessions and the lack of effective defence in criminal trials.
The nation's top judge, Zhou Qiang, apologised in 2015 for past miscarriages of justice and said mistakes must be corrected.
In December 2016, a Chinese court cleared a man executed 21 years ago for murder, citing insufficient evidence in the original trial.
However experts say recent reforms have not been widely implemented.
"For example, coerced confessions are supposed to be excluded from evidence. In practise, however, the police have unchallenged discretion to... extract confessions by detaining and torturing suspects for long periods," New York University professor Jerome Cohen told AFP.
"Yet even the late Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, the greatest executioner in human history, recognised the likelihood of mistakes when imposing the death penalty," Cohen noted.