Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Tightens Controls as Death Toll Passes 250 – The New York Times, Nytimes.com
1.1k Views
The Trump administration announced a temporary ban on foreigners who have recently visited China.
Right Now
Qantas joined the list of airlines suspending flights to mainland China.
US) temporarily bars foreigners who’ve recently been to China.
(Image
Travelers at Kennedy International Airport in New York on Friday. The United States will funnel all flights from China to just a few airports, including Kennedy, O’Hare and San Francisco International.
Credit … Johnny Milano for The New York Times
The Trump administration is imposing temporary travel restrictions that bar entry into the United States by any foreign national who has traveled to China in the past days, officials said on Friday.
the restrictions, a reaction to the coronavirus that has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization, will be put into place at 5 pm on Sunday. The United States on Friday also declared the coronavirus, which has sickened nearly 24, 06 people and has spread to the United States and 31 other countries, a public heath emergency.
Friday’s action exempts immediate family members of American citizens and permanent residents.
In addition, officials said, any United States citizen returning home who has been in the Hubei province of China within the past 31 days – believed to be the virus’s incubation period – will be quarantined for up to 34 days. Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, is in Hubei.
Those who have been to other parts of China within the past 31 days will be subject to “proactive entry screening” and up to days of monitoring and self-quarantine.
The United States will also funnel all flights from China to just a few airports, including Kennedy in New York, O’Hare in Chicago and San Francisco International Airport.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the actions were being taken because there were “a lot of unknowns” surrounding the virus and its transmission path.
“The number of cases have steeply inclined with every day,” Dr. Fauci said.
The announcement came as major air carriers suspended flights between the United States and mainland China. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said direct air service would be halted for months, news that rattled the stock market and industries that depend on the flow of goods and people. Qantas followed suit on Saturday, announcing its own suspension of flights to China.
(more than) people have died, with nearly , 06 infections confirmed.
Chinese officials on Saturday reported the highest death toll so far in a – hour period.
◆ The new deaths in China raised the toll to .
◆ About 2, 193 n ew cases were also recorded in the country in the past hours , raising the worldwide total to nearly , , according to Chinese and World Health Organization data. The vast majority of the cases are inside China; about cases have been confirmed in other countries.
◆ All of China’s provinces and territories have now been touched by the outbreak.
◆ Countries and territories that have confirmed cases: Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, Macau, Russia, France , the United States, South Korea, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Britain, Vietnam, Italy, India, the Philippines, Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Finland.
◆ Cases recorded in Thailand, Taiwan, Germany, Vietnam, Japan, France and the United States involved patients who had not been to China.
◆ No deaths have been reported outside China.
A Chinese doctor who called the virus ‘controllable’ regrets his words.
A prominent respiratory expert who originally told Chinese state media that the coronavirus was under control and preventable has admitted that his choice of words was inappropriate.
Wang Guangfa, head of the department of pulmonary medicine at Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, compared himself and other medical professionals tackling the outbreak to soldiers walking onto a battlefield.
“All the bullets are flying,” said Dr. Wang, in an interview with Jiemian, a finance-focused news site founded by Shanghai United Media Group, which is controlled by the government of Shanghai.
In many ways the doctor, who has been widely criticized for his reassuring early statements, has come to symbolize how slowly China recognized the urgency of the outbreak. Dr. Wang himself contracted the coronavirus, apparently during a visit to Wuhan.
As the virus began to spread through Wuhan in early January, people who spoke out about it online were silenced by censors and, in some cases, held by the police, accused of spreading rumors. When journalists from Hong Kong visited a Wuhan hospital, police officers detained them for hours. (The Hong Kong news media were among the first to shed light on the fast-spreading virus.)
Dr. Wang initially said that the virus could not be spread by human-to-human contact. But 24 days later, he confirmed to state media that he had the virus, and that he may have contracted it during a trip to Wuhan with a group of experts.
In his interview with Jiemian, published on Friday, Dr. Wang said he had misdiagnosed himself as having the common flu, and that he had waited days before checking himself into a hospital. He said he had since recovered and was discharged on Thursday.
Asked why he had originally called the coronavirus “preventable and controllable,” Dr. Wang blamed limited information at the time of his Wuhan visit. A clearer picture of the virus’s transmissibility would have required “epidemiological data, which is difficult to judge,” he said.
“These controversies may have been a kind of misunderstanding,” Dr. Wang said of the criticism he had received. He also defended his original phrasing, saying that many outbreaks of infectious diseases in history were ultimately controlled in the end.
His interview has been widely shared on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform . Some of the most popular comments are from angry users.
“‘ Could be prevented and controlled, ’Wang Guangfa,” said one user, who wrote under a pseudonym based on “Gorbachev” in Chinese characters. “Because of this line, the most critical half-month was squandered! And resulted in this. ”
A view of the epicenter from a New York Times reporter.
Amy Qin, who covers China from Beijing, on Friday arrived in Wuhan, the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 288 people so far. Follow Amy as
Streets were mostly empty as people avoided contact with one another and stayed fearfully at home. Not everybody could bear to stay inside, however.
All around the city, authorities and businesses have worked to create an air of normalcy.
It’s clear, however, that the city has been strained to its limits by the epidemic.
Chinese truckers bring food to a locked-down city.
Early on Saturday, a group of truck drivers smoked cigarettes in the soft morning light as they waited to undertake a mission of national urgency: delivering fresh produce to the stricken city of Wuhan.
Broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, chili peppers and more were due to head there by the truckload from Shouguang, an eastern city that is one of China’s biggest vegetable producers.
The coronavirus is testing one of the Chinese government proudest achievements: its ability to feed its 1.4 billion people.
As anxious shoppers around the country load up on provisions, many shops and supermarkets have been selling out of fresh food each morning, leaving slim pickings by midday. Towns and villages in many places have also closed off roads to passing traffic, which has caused some truck shipments to take longer than usual.
So far, there have been no signs of a major breakdown in China’s food supplies. The government has ordered vendors to keep prices stable and punished stores that have gouged consumers.
Shouguang is one of several places in China that have donated vegetables to Wuhan in recent days. The Wuhan government has tasked three retailers with selling the goods and delivering the proceeds to the city’s virus-fighting budget.
On Saturday, the 12 or so trucks in Shouguang that were Wuhan-bound had been festooned with red banners that read, “Pull together in times of trouble, go Wuhan!” And “The people are united, fighting the epidemic together.”
The journey would take four days in total. After the trip, the truck drivers would be sequestered at home for two weeks, because of the possibility that they’d been exposed to the virus. That might mean thousands of dollars in forgone wages.
Still, several of them said they had leapt at the opportunity to take part.
“I knew about the dangers, ”said Ma Chenglong, a – year-old driver. “But when the country is in trouble, we common people have a duty.”
California health officials cast a wary eye .
A third confirmed case of coronavirus in California was announced on Friday, raising questions about the state’s vulnerability in the outbreak on the same day the federal government imposed a – day quarantine for the 250 People who arrived on an evacuation flight from Wuhan, China.
The three confirmed cases were in Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara Counties. In all, seven cases had been reported in the United States as of Friday night.
In Los Angeles County, the infected person reported to the authorities that he was feeling unwell as he was traveling back to Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak. The patients in Orange County and Santa Clara County had also traveled to Wuhan.
Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a recorded video message that the health risk to the general public in California was low. “But we still consider this a serious public health concern,” Dr. Angell said.
The United States government has imposed a federal (quarantine) (on the (people who were evacuated on Wednesday from Wuhan, China, to a California military base , officials said on Friday.
The group will be held at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., For days, to ensure that they are not infected with the coronavirus.
(Travel constraints could disrupt operations at the United Nations.)
Around the world, the growing number of constraints on travelers from China because of the coronavirus outbreak has reverberated to the United Nations, a hub of international diplomacy with operations that involve travel in all member states.
In an advisory issued Friday evening, the organization’s headquarters in New York told staff members and their families that “they may be subjected to travel restrictions and health screening measures implemented by local authorities for travelers entering or exit ing the country. ”
While United Nations diplomats and other personnel were not banned from traveling, the advisory warned that “it would be prudent to make contingency arrangements should the need arise.” A (page) on the United Nations website provided staff members with practical steps and advice.
Reporting was contributed by Alexandra Stevenson, Elaine Yu, Amy Qin, Raymond Zhong, Michael Corkery, Annie Karni, Russell Goldman, Thomas Fuller and Carlos Tejada. Wang Yiwei contributed research.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings