Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the majority of Hong Kong’s cases had been imported
Hong Kong will quarantine all people arriving from abroad for 14 days, its leader Carrie Lam has said.
The restrictions, which will kick in on Thursday, will not apply to those from Macau or Taiwan. Entrants from mainland China already had to self-isolate.
Ms Lam said the majority of Hong Kong’s cases had been imported, adding that “strict measures” were needed.
Hong Kong has seen 57 new infections over the past two weeks, 50 of which were imported, said Ms Lam.
“If we exclude these imported, we only have seven local cases in the past week,” she said.
“If we do not impose strict measures, our previous efforts could be wasted.”
Ms Lam also advised residents to avoid all non-essential travel.
There are at least 155 confirmed cases in the territory, which detected its first cases in January.
The territory – a special administrative region of China – has so far been able to avoid the contagion seen elsewhere, thanks partly to a quick government response.
In January, cross-border travel with mainland China was slashed. Soon afterwards, health workers went on strike to demand a total border shutdown.
Some of the restrictions in the Asia-Pacific region, as of 17 March:
Australia – All travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days. Foreign nationals who have been to China, Iran, Korea and Italy not allowed in
New Zealand – Everyone entering the country will have to self-isolate for 14 days. This excludes those from small Pacific islands with no confirmed virus cases
South Korea – Travellers from China’s Hubei province not allowed in. International arrivals from certain countries will need to submit papers on their health condition
Singapore – All visitors with travel history to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea and China banned from entering or transiting. Residents with recent history to these countries will have to self-isolate for 14 days. All those entering from Japan, Switzerland, the UK and Asean countries will have to self-isolate for 14 days
Malaysia – All foreign visitors have been banned, all Malaysians will not be allowed to travel overseas until 31 March. All returning Malaysians will have to self quarantine for 14 days
Japan – Ban on entry to travellers who have been to parts of China, South Korea, Iran or Italy in 14 days before arrival
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths outside China has now surpassed the number inside.
More than 100,000 people have been infected outside China, while just over 80,000 cases have been reported inside.
There have been more than 182,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus globally and over 7,000 deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
Media caption Steps the NHS says you should take to protect yourself from Covid-19
BEIJING (Reuters) – The death toll from China’s coronavirus outbreak jumped on Saturday to 41 as the Lunar New Year got off to a gloomy start, with Hong Kong declaring a virus emergency, scrapping celebrations, and restricting links to mainland China.
Australia on Saturday confirmed its first four cases, Malaysia confirmed three and France reported Europe’s first cases on Friday, as health authorities around the world scrambled to prevent a pandemic.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Saturday declared a virus emergency in the Asian financial hub, with five confirmed cases, immediately halting official visits to mainland China and scrapping official Lunar New Year celebrations.
Inbound and outbound flights and high speed rail trips between Hong Kong and Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, would be halted, and schools, now on Lunar New Year holidays, would remain shut until Feb. 17. The territory was also treating 122 people suspected of having the disease.
RELATED COVERAGE
U.S. to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China – WSJ
China’s President Xi holds politburo meeting on curbing virus outbreak – state TV
The death toll in China rose to 41 on Saturday from 26 a day earlier and more than 1,300 people have been infected globally with a virus traced to a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife.
Hu Yinghai, deputy director-general of the Civil Affairs Department in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, made an appeal on Saturday for masks and protective suits. Hospitals in the city have made similar pleas.
“We are steadily pushing forward the disease control and prevention … But right now we are facing an extremely severe public health crisis,” he told a news briefing.
Vehicles carrying emergency supplies and medical staff for Wuhan would be exempted from tolls and given traffic priority, China’s transportation ministry said on Saturday.
Wuhan said it would ban non-essential vehicles from its downtown starting Sunday to control the spread of the virus, further paralysing a city of 11 million that has been on virtual lockdown since Thursday, with nearly all flights cancelled and checkpoints blocking the main roads leading out of town.
Authorities have since imposed transport restrictions on nearly all of Hubei province, which has a population of 59 million.
In Australia, three men, aged 53, 43 and 35 in New South Wales were in stable condition after they were confirmed to have the virus after returning from Wuhan earlier this month.
A Chinese national in his 50s, who had been in Wuhan, was also in stable condition in a Melbourne hospital after arriving from China on Jan. 19, Victoria Health officials said.
State-run China Global Television Network reported in a tweet on Saturday that a doctor who had been treating patients in Wuhan, 62-year-old Liang Wudong, had died from the virus.
Police officers stand guard in front of the closed gate of Lama Temple where a notice saying that the temple is closed for the safety concern following the outbreak of a new coronavirus is seen, in Beijing, China January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
It was not immediately clear if his death was already counted in the official toll of 41, of which 39 were in the central province of Hubei, where Wuhan is located.
U.S. coffee chain Starbucks said on Saturday that it was closing all its outlets in Hubei province for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, following a similar move by McDonald’s in five Hubei cities.
PROTECTIVE SUITS
In Beijing on Saturday, workers in white protective suits checked temperatures of passengers entering the subway at the central railway station, while some train services in eastern China’s Yangtze River Delta region were suspended, the local railway operator said.
The number of confirmed cases in China stands at 1,287. The virus has also been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal, and the United States.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it had 63 patients under investigation, with two confirmed cases. While China has called for transparency in managing the crisis, after cover-up of the 2002/2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome spread, officials in Wuhan have come in for criticism over their handling of the current outbreak.
In rare public dissent, a senior journalist at a Hubei provincial newspaper run by the ruling Communist Party on Friday called for a “immediate” change of leadership in Wuhan on the Twitter-like Weibo. The post was later removed.
REINFORCEMENTS TO WUHAN
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus an “emergency in China” this week but stopped short of declaring it of international concern.
Human-to-human transmission has been observed in the virus.
China’s National Health Commission said it had formed six medical teams totalling 1,230 medical staff to help Wuhan.
Hubei province, where authorities are rushing to build a 1,000 bed hospital in six days to treat patients, announced on Saturday that there were 658 patients affected by the virus in treatment, 57 of whom were critically ill.
The newly-identified coronavirus has created alarm because there are still many unknowns surrounding it, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.
Symptoms include fever, difficulty breathing and coughing. Most of the fatalities have been in elderly patients, many with pre-existing conditions, the WHO said.
NEW YEAR DISRUPTIONS
Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, though some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of such screenings.
There are fears the transmission could accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which began on Saturday, although many have cancelled their plans, with airlines and railways in China providing free refunds.
The virus outbreak and efforts to contain it have put a dampener on what is ordinarily a festive time of year.
Sanya, a popular resort destination on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, announced that it was shutting all tourist sites, while the island’s capital city, Haikou, said visitors from Wuhan would be placed under 14-day quarantine in a hotel.
Shanghai Disneyland was closed from Saturday. The theme park has a 100,000 daily capacity and sold out during last year’s Lunar New Year holiday.
Beijing’s Lama Temple, where people traditionally make offerings for the new year, has also closed, as have some other temples.
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) — President Xi Jinping’s latest remarks on the Hong Kong situation are the strongest voice from the central government on the work of ending violence and chaos in Hong Kong, a spokesperson said Friday.
Xi’s remarks on Thursday in Brazil have pointed the way to stabilizing the situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), said Yang Guang, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.
The president’s words came as the disturbances in Hong Kong have lasted more than five months and radical violent crimes have been escalating recently, the spokesperson said.
His remarks are a strong support to the Hong Kong SAR government led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, a great inspiration to Hong Kong residents, and a stern warning to the rioters and their backroom supporting forces, Yang said.
The office will work with resolve to implement the president’s requirements to firmly support the chief executive in leading the SAR government to govern in accordance with the law, firmly support the Hong Kong police in strictly enforcing the law, and firmly support the Hong Kong judicial bodies in severely punishing the violent criminals in accordance with the law, Yang said.
The spokesperson pledged various means of supporting and encouraging the Hong Kong people from all walks of life to build up “overwhelming positive energy” in countering violence and safeguarding rule of law, for the end of chaos and the restoration of social stability in Hong Kong as soon as possible.
“The central government and 1.4 billion people of China will always be the strongest backing for Hong Kong to overcome any challenges and risks,” he said.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 