#better to specialize and work in a hospital and/or move to another province or country

[awkward-teabag]

And people (read: politicians) wonder why no one wants to go into family practice rather than specializing.

I'm glad the article mentions how BC just changed our system (granted it's opt-in) as before family doctors were making about $30/visit. It was at a point where people were either specializing, leaving the province, or opting to not move here in the first place because the pay wasn't enough with the high cost of living, particularly housing.

Of course it would also help if family doctors weren't also expected to pay out of pocket for equipment, leases, staff, etc... Because if you specialize, you make more money and get to keep everything after taxes for yourself.

So I'm not surprised Ontario pays so little, especially under Ford.

As the number of people across Ontario without a family doctor reaches a record high, Premier Doug Ford's government is facing a fresh push to make family practice more attractive to physicians by improving compensation.

The contract that covers how doctors are paid in this province, known as the physician services agreement, expires at the end of March. The government is in negotiations with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), the doctors' bargaining agent, on a new deal. 

Family doctors' pay in particular is in the spotlight in those talks, in a way that it hasn't been for a long time.

That's in part because there's a growing chorus of physicians arguing that compensation is one of the key root causes why at least 2.2 million Ontarians don't have a family doctor, a number forecast to nearly double in just a few years. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[newstfionline]

Monday, May 17, 2021

Colonial shutdown shows how Americans pay the price of efficiency (Washington Post) The drivers stuck in gas lines after the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, the Texans freezing in their homes after the February grid collapse, the Californians sweltering through their own power failures last summer—all were paying the unintended and unexpected price of efficiency. The market-driven energy sector has spent a decade or more cutting costs, streamlining and digitizing. Four big oil refineries have shut down in Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 2010 because it’s cheaper to bring in gasoline by pipeline from the Gulf Coast, 1,500 miles away—as long as that pipeline stays in operation. Texas and California have driven the price of electricity down by throwing out the old regulatory structure—the structure that made sure utilities earned enough to invest in backup resources. In the name of efficiency, “resilience was assumed,” said Daniel Yergin, a historian and author of “The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations.” But even as American fossil fuel producers proudly declared the country to be energy independent once more in recent years, the energy sector has stripped redundancy out of its systems, at the risk of leaving customers in the lurch when things go wrong. Some companies have declined to take the precautions needed to survive the unexpected, whether it’s bad weather or a cyberattack.

Police in Cities Across U.S. Brace for a Violent Summer (WSJ) Police departments in New York City and other large metro areas across the U.S. are bulking up patrols and implementing new tactics to prepare for what they say could be a violent summer. States lifting Covid-19 restrictions and more people out in public spaces in warmer weather increase the likelihood of more shootings, as well as less-serious crimes, officials say. Many crimes, including violent ones, normally rise in summer. Gun purchases also rose during the pandemic and cities have seen an increase in guns being used in crimes. Shootings and homicides in big U.S. cities are up this year again after rising last year. In the last three months of 2020, homicides rose 32.2% in cities with a population of at least one million, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report. In New York City, the number of homicides has reached 146 for the year so far, an increase of 27% from 115 during the same period in 2020. In Dallas, police have counted 75 homicides this year, up from 58 during the same period last year. Chicago police have recorded 195 homicides, up from 160 in the year-ago period.

Tensions Among Democrats Grow Over Israel as the Left Defends Palestinians (NYT) With violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories forcing the issue back to the forefront of American politics, divisions between the leadership of the Democratic Party and the activist wing have burst into public view. While the Biden administration is handling the growing conflict as a highly sensitive diplomatic challenge involving a longstanding ally, the ascendant left views it as a searing racial justice issue that is deeply intertwined with the politics of the United States. For those activists, Palestinian rights and the decades-long conflict over land in the Middle East are linked to causes like police brutality and conditions for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Party activists who fight for racial justice now post messages against the “colonization of Palestine” with the hashtag #PalestinianLivesMatter. With President Biden in the White House, traditional U.S. support for Israel is hardly in question from a policy perspective; he has made his support for the country clear throughout his nearly 50 years in public life. Still, the terms of the debate are shifting in Democratic circles. On Thursday, a group of leading progressive members of Congress offered a rare break from party unity, giving fiery speeches on the House floor that accused Mr. Biden of ignoring the plight of Palestinians and “taking the side of the occupation.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York directly challenged the president, who had asserted that Israel had a right to defend itself. “Do Palestinians have a right to survive?” she asked in an impassioned address. “Do we believe that? And if so, we have a responsibility to that as well.” “The base of the party is moving in a very different direction than where the party establishment is,” James Zogby said. “If you support Black Lives Matter, it was not a difficult leap to saying Palestinian lives matter, too.”

Bleak futures fuel widespread protests by young Colombians (AP) Thousands of young people and college students have been at the forefront of Colombia’s antigovernment protests for more than two weeks, armed with improvised shields made from garbage cans and umbrellas. They have taken the brunt of the tear gas and gunshots from security forces, and dozens have paid for it with their lives. The young men and women have become the voices for Colombians fed up with a government they say has mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic and crushed hopes of a better future. “To a large extent, we found that there was no fear of death. Sometimes it is the only thing that remains when the system is starving us and there are no opportunities,” said Yonny Rojas, a 36-year-old law student who also runs soup kitchens in one of the poorest areas of Cali, the city where the government response has been especially violent.

Pandemic triggers new crisis in Peru: lack of cemetery space (AP) After Joel Bautista died of a heart attack last month in Peru, his family tried unsuccessfully to find an available grave at four different cemeteries. After four days, they resorted to digging a hole in his garden. The excavation in a poor neighborhood in the capital city of Lima was broadcast live on television, attracting the attention of authorities and prompting them to offer the family a space on the rocky slopes of a cemetery. The same plight is shared by other families across Peru. After struggling to control the coronavirus pandemic for more than a year, the country now faces a parallel crisis: a lack of cemetery space. The problem affects everyone, not just relatives of COVID-19 victims, and some families have acted on their own, digging clandestine graves in areas surrounding some of Lima’s 65 cemeteries. The desperate lack of options comes as the country endures its deadliest period of the pandemic yet. More than 64,300 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in Peru, according to the Health Ministry, but that figure is almost certainly an undercount. A vital records agency estimates that the true figure is more than 174,900, counting those whose possible infection was not confirmed by a test.

UK readies for major reopening but new variant sparks worry (AP) Travelers in England were packing their bags, bartenders were polishing their glasses and performers were warming up as Britain prepared Sunday for a major step out of lockdown—but with clouds of worry on the horizon. Excitement at the reopening of travel and hospitality vied with anxiety that a more contagious virus variant first found in India is spreading fast and could delay further plans to reopen. On Monday, people in England will be able to eat a restaurant meal indoors, drink inside a pub, go to a museum, hug friends and visit one another’s homes for the first time in months. A ban on overseas holidays is also being lifted, with travel now possible to a short list of countries with low infection rates. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following similar but slightly different reopening paths.

Turkey eases COVID-19 restrictions but keeps many curfews (AP) Turkey’s interior ministry on Sunday lifted a full lockdown that had ordered people to stay home to fight COVID-19 infections, shifting to a less-restrictive program that still involved curfews on weeknights and weekends. Shopping malls will be able to reopen. Some businesses will remain closed, including gyms and cafes, but restaurants will be able to offer take away in addition to delivery. Preschools will resume in-person education but upper grades will continue remote learning. Turks can return to their workplaces but will have to stay home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of walking to a market to buy food. Civil servants will continue working remotely or in shifts in offices. Foreign tourists and workers with special permits are exempt.

Syria’s Surprising Solar Boom: Sunlight Powers the Night in Rebel Idlib (NYT) When the Syrian government attacked their village, Radwan al-Shimali’s family hastily threw clothes, blankets and mattresses into their truck and sped off to begin new lives as refugees, leaving behind their house, farmland and television. Among the belongings they kept was one prized technology: the solar panel now propped up on rock next to the tattered tent they call home in an olive grove near the village of Haranabush in northwestern Syria. “It is important,” Mr. al-Shimali said of the 270-watt panel, his family’s sole source of electricity. “When there is sun during the day, we can have light at night.” An unlikely solar revolution of sorts has taken off in an embattled, rebel-controlled pocket of northwestern Syria, where large numbers of people whose lives have been upended by the country’s 10-year-old civil war have embraced the sun’s energy simply because it is the cheapest source of electricity around. Solar panels, big and small, old and new, are seemingly everywhere in Idlib Province along Syria’s border with Turkey. “There is no alternative,” said Akram Abbas, a solar panel importer in the town of al-Dana. “Solar energy is a blessing from God.”

India to start evacuating parts of west coast as cyclone approaches (Reuters) India is preparing to evacuate thousands of people from low-lying areas along its western coast as a powerful cyclone is expected to make landfall on Tuesday morning in the state of Gujarat. Cyclone Tauktae, which formed in the Arabian sea, is expected to cross Gujarat with wind gusts of up to 175 kmph (109 mph) and is expected to make landfall in the state the following morning. The meteorological agency warned that there could be destruction of houses and flooding of escape routes. Disruption to railway services was also expected until May 21.

Israel stages new round of heavy airstrikes on Gaza City (AP) The Israeli military unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Monday, saying it destroyed 15 kilometers (nine miles) of militant tunnels and the homes of nine alleged Hamas commanders. Residents of Gaza awakened by the overnight barrage described it as the heaviest since the war began a week ago, and even more powerful than a wave of airstrikes in Gaza City the day before that left 42 dead and flattened three buildings. There was no immediate word on the casualties from the latest strikes. A three-story building in Gaza City was heavily damaged, but residents said the military warned them 10 minutes before the strike and everyone cleared out. Gaza’s mayor Yahya Sarraj told Al-Jazeera TV that the airstrikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. He also warned that the territory was running low on fuel and other spare parts. The U.N. has warned that Gaza’s sole power station is at risk of running out of fuel. The territory already experiences daily power outages of 8-12 hours and tap water is undrinkable.

Ethiopia again delays national election amid deadly tensions (AP) Ethiopia has again delayed its national election after some opposition parties said they wouldn’t take part and as conflict in the country’s Tigray region means no vote is being held there, further complicating Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s efforts to centralize power. The head of the national elections board, Birtukan Mideksa, in a meeting with political parties’ representatives on Saturday said the June 5 vote in Africa’s second most populous country would be postponed, citing the need to finish printing ballots, training staffers and compiling voters’ information. The board said she estimated a delay of two to three weeks.

Sharks use Earth’s magnetic field as a GPS, scientists say (AP) Sharks use the Earth’s magnetic field as a sort of natural GPS to navigate journeys that take them great distances across the world’s oceans, scientists have found. Researchers said their marine laboratory experiments with a small species of shark confirm long-held speculation that sharks use magnetic fields as aids to navigation—behavior observed in other marine animals such as sea turtles. The study sheds light on why sharks are able to traverse seas and find their way back to feed, breed and give birth, said marine policy specialist Bryan Keller, one of the study authors. “We know that sharks can respond to magnetic fields,” Keller said. “We didn’t know that they detected it to use as an aid in navigation ... You have sharks that can travel 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) and end up in the same spot.”

[bountyofbeads]

Coronavirus Live Updates: Japan Announces Its First Death https://nyti.ms/2wbgNtH

Coronavirus Live Updates: Japan Announces Its First Death

The victim, who was in her 80s and whose name was not released, lived near Tokyo, the authorities said.

Published February 13, 2020 | New York Times | Posted February 13, 2020 |

Here’s what you need to know:

READ UPDATES IN CHINESE: 新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总

JAPAN CONFIRMS ITS FIRST DEATH FROM THE CORONAVIRUS.

The Japanese authorities announced on Thursday the first death in the country from the new coronavirus.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference that a woman in her 80s who lived in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, had died that day.

Her death is the third from the coronavirus outside mainland China, after one each in the Philippines and Hong Kong. The Japanese woman had no record of travel to mainland China.

Japanese officials also said on Thursday that dozens of new cases had been confirmed, including 44 more on a cruise ship quarantined off Yokohama.

Mr. Kato said that one of the new cases not tied to the cruise ship was a taxi driver in his 70s in Tokyo who tested positive for the virus on Thursday.

Mr. Kato said on Thursday that the authorities would begin allowing some cruise ship passengers to serve out the remainder of the quarantine period onshore.

Mr. Kato said that passengers 80 or older who have existing medical conditions or who were assigned to cabins without windows or balconies would stay in onshore quarantine facilities until Feb. 19 if they test negative for the virus. Those who test positive will be taken to hospitals.

The cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, arrived in Yokohama on Feb. 3, and passengers were expecting to go home the next day. But after learning that a man who got off the ship in Hong Kong had tested positive for the coronavirus, the Japanese government quarantined all 3,700 people aboard. As of Thursday, 218 coronavirus cases have been confirmed on the ship.

Separately on Thursday, another cruise ship, the Westerdam, which had been denied permission to stop in Japan, Guam, Taiwan and the Philippines despite having no diagnoses of coronavirus, was able to dock in Cambodia.

PROVINCIAL LEADER AT THE CENTER OF THE OUTBREAK WAS OUSTED.

China’s ruling Communist Party fired the leaders of Hubei Province and Wuhan, its largest city, on Thursday amid widespread public anger over the handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the region.

Jiang Chaoliang, the party secretary of Hubei Province, is the highest-ranking official to lose his job over the handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 1,300 people in recent weeks.

After the outbreak first emerged in Wuhan, the leadership came under intense scrutiny for playing down the virus and delaying reports of its spread. The province then took drastic measures that included imposing a lockdown on Wuhan, a city of 11 million, and on tens of millions of people in surrounding areas.

For hospitals in Wuhan, already overwhelmed with patients, that cordon worsened a shortage of medical supplies.

Mr. Jiang will be replaced by Ying Yong, the mayor of Shanghai. The selection of Mr. Ying may underline the continued political control of Xi Jinping, China’s top leader. Before being transferred to Shanghai in a fairly senior role in 2008, Mr. Ying had come up through the political ranks in Zhejiang Province, Mr. Xi’s political base.

The party also ousted Ma Guoqiang, the top official in Wuhan, and replaced him with Wang Zhonglin, formerly the party secretary of the eastern city of Jinan.

NUMBER OF CASES IN HUBEI PROVINCE SOARS WITH NEW DIAGNOSTIC METHODS.

The number of people confirmed to have the coronavirus in Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, skyrocketed by 14,840 cases, to 48,206, the government said on Thursday, setting a new daily record. The announcement came after the authorities changed the diagnostic criteria for counting new cases.

Nationally, the new figures propelled the total number of coronavirus cases in China to 59,805 and the death toll to 1,367. The jump in new cases puts extra pressure on the government to treat thousands of patients, many of whom are in mass quarantine centers or in isolation facilities.

The sudden uptick is a result of the government including cases diagnosed in clinical settings, including with the use of CT scans, along with those confirmed with specialized testing kits.

After the sudden change, epidemiologists warned that the true picture of the epidemic is muddled, since accurately tracking cases can tell experts the number, location and speed at which new infections are occurring.

Health experts said the change in reporting is meant to provide a more accurate view of the transmissibility of the virus. The new criteria is intended to give doctors broader discretion to diagnose patients, and more crucially, isolate patients to quickly treat them.

Previously, infections were confirmed only with a positive result from a nucleic acid test. But a government expert said those tests were about 30 to 40 percent accurate. There is also a shortage of testing kits, and the results of these tests takes at least two days.

Because hospitals were overstretched and lacked testing kits, many infected patients were told to go home rather than be isolated and undergo treatment.

Many patients displaying symptoms of the coronavirus have complained that they had to wait days, and even weeks, to be tested and receive treatment. Others, including the recently deceased whistle-blower Dr. Li Wenliang, said they had to be tested four or five times before the tests showed a positive result.

[SHIFTING NUMBERS: Cases seemed to be leveling off. No longer. SEE BELOW]

BRITISH OFFICIALS SAY DELAYING THE ONSET OF AN OUTBREAK IS A TOP PRIORITY.

A day after the authorities in Britain announced that a ninth person in the country had tested positive for coronavirus, officials were working to trace anyone who had come into close contact with that person, saying that limiting the virus’s spread was a top priority.

England’s chief health official, Prof. Chris Whitty, told a BBC 4 radio program that containment and isolation were main concerns, and officials were focusing on how to control any potential coronavirus outbreak in Britain while containing current cases.

“If we are going to get an outbreak here in the U.K. — and this is an if, not a when — then putting it back in time, into the summer period away from the winter pressures on the N.H.S., buying us a bit more time to understand the virus better, possibly having some seasonal advantage, is a big advantage,” he said, referring to the National Health Service.

The first group of 83 people who returned to Britain from the Chinese province of Hubei after the virus was discovered were to be released from quarantine in a hospital near Liverpool, England, on Thursday, health officials said.

Elsewhere in Europe, officials were taking similar measures. Dr. Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said that her organization was carrying out regular risk assessments to help countries decide what measures were necessary.

“In general, quarantine measures, if implemented comprehensively, can be effective in limiting and slowing the introduction of novel pathogens into a population,” she said.

“Of course if we have multiple introductions or spread within a country,” she added, “then quarantine is not likely to be an effective measure.”

TAIWAN EXTENDS A BAN ON THE EXPORT OF PROTECTIVE MASKS.

Taiwan will extend a ban on exports of face masks through April, the government said on Thursday. The move comes as officials and institutions around the world are scrambling to ensure adequate supplies of masks for medical workers and other vulnerable groups.

Taiwan initially imposed a monthlong prohibition on mask exports on Jan. 24, a move that was condemned by state media and online commentators in mainland China.

Taiwan companies produce about a fifth of the face masks available worldwide, while the island itself has only 0.3 percent of the global population. The mismatch appears to have fed the criticism.

“Little Taiwan lacks conscience — it takes the benefit when the mainland gives it and if we have a problem, they walk away,” one user wrote last week on Chinese social media, referring to mainland China.

But officials in Taiwan, a self-governed democracy that denies Beijing’s claims of sovereignty, say it still has a problem: Its manufacturers produce most of their masks in factories in mainland China, not in Taiwan. Those masks are now being requisitioned by the local authorities in the mainland for use in high-risk settings.

According to data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, 53 percent of masks used in Taiwan last year were produced domestically, and the rest were imported, mostly from mainland China. Demand has soared faster than production so far this year.

Taiwan already has a form of mask rationing, with each resident permitted to buy two surgical masks a week. Health cards with computer chips are used by pharmacies across the island to control purchases.

HONG KONG AND SINGAPORE RUGBY TOURNAMENTS ARE DELAYED.

The Hong Kong Sevens and the Singapore Sevens rugby tournaments will be postponed to October from April because of the coronavirus outbreak, the sport’s governing body said Thursday.

The Hong Kong Sevens is one of the city’s biggest sporting — and partying — events, drawing in rugby fans from around the world. The decision to postpone was made “in order to help protect the global rugby community and the wider public,” World Rugby said in a statement.

Hong Kong, which now has 51 confirmed cases of the virus and one death, has closed or restricted a variety of public activities in response to the outbreak. Horse racing continues at Hong Kong Jockey Club tracks, one of the city’s other major sporting draws. But attendance is limited to a few hundred horse owners and guests, in addition to trainers, jockeys and officials.

Singapore confirmed eight new cases of the virus on Thursday, all linked to previous cases, bringing the total to 58.

SOUTH KOREA QUARANTINES HUNDREDS OF SOLDIERS WITH LINKS TO CHINA.

About 740 South Korean soldiers were under quarantine on Thursday as the country’s military tried to prevent an outbreak of the coronavirus among its ranks.

South Korea keeps a 600,000-strong army, largely filled with conscripts, as a bulwark against the threat from North Korea. Most of these soldiers live in communal barracks. After the outbreak in China, South Korea moved quickly to prevent the virus from infiltrating its military and undermining its readiness.

So far, no South Korean soldier has tested positive. The rest of the country has reported 28 confirmed cases, and no deaths. South Korea has reported no new cases in the past two days. North Korea has said it was also taking measures against the virus but has not released any official figures.

The quarantined soldiers included those who have visited mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau in recent weeks or those who have been in close contact with relatives or others who have been to China or tested positive for the virus.

PARADE OF WORKERS SPRAYS DISINFECTANT ACROSS WUHAN, BUT EXPERTS QUESTION ITS EFFECTIVENESS.

Mist cannons and water sprinkler trucks have been deployed to clean the streets of Wuhan, China, but experts said the effectiveness of such measures may be limited in preventing the spread of the illness.

Since Sunday, workers in Wuhan have been sanitizing public areas twice a day in an effort to disinfect the city. Public toilets as well as garbage disposal sites and transfer stations are sprayed at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., according to the local government’s official page on Weibo, a microblogging platform. Workers will spray disinfectant onto the main roads, at hospitals and around various isolation quarters as well.

Video footage shared by Chinese state media showed parades of trucks and workers in protective suits spraying plumes of white mist into the air and onto the streets of Wuhan. The city government said that by Tuesday a total of 21,130 liters of disinfectant and 720 liters of toilet cleaning products had already been used.

“I think it could help to reduce environmental contamination with coronavirus, but we have not yet seen evidence that coronavirus has been spreading through the environment,” said Benjamin Cowling, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong.

“Our current understanding is that most transmission occurs via prolonged close contact with infected persons,” he added.

A CHINESE PROVINCE USES TECH TO TRACKS RESIDENTS’ MOVEMENTS.

Officials in the southwestern province of Yunnan announced a plan to require residents to scan a QR-like code on their phones to enter public places as part of their effort to stop the virus’s spread.

The new program will “allow big data to become the ‘piercing eyes’ of epidemic prevention and control,” the Yunnan government said in a statement on Wednesday.

The program has already begun in the county of Luliang, and more than 5,600 scans have been performed at hundreds of venues, the statement said. In the next 12 days, it will be implemented across a broad variety of public venues, including medical facilities, hotels, malls, supermarkets, transport checkpoints, remote villages and farmers’ markets.

Residents who refuse to scan their codes could be barred entry or exit, and those who try to force their way through could face legal consequences, People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, said on the social platform Weibo.

Photographs shared on Wednesday by a party-run newspaper in the city of Lijiang in Yunnan showed sheets of paper emblazoned with the codes, labeled “enter” and “exit,” plastered across walls and counters.

VIDEOS OF XINJIANG MEDICAL WORKERS IN WUHAN RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR DEPICTION.

Video of medical workers from the Xinjiang region dancing with patients at a coronavirus hospital in Wuhan have prompted scrutiny of their roles helping with the outbreak.

A team of 142 medical professionals from Xinjiang traveled to Wuhan on Jan. 28 to help treat people infected with the new virus, and at least two more teams have followed.

As more people in Wuhan have been placed into mass quarantine, a number of videos have emerged showing the Xinjiang workers leading healthier patients in dance routines to get some exercise and ease boredom.

One of the leaders of the Xinjiang team told Xinhua, the state-run news service, that a patient had asked her to lead a dance. The leader, Bahaguli Tuolehui, seen in the video below, said she chose a Kazakh dance, the Kara Jorga. The patients “have done square dances before in the hospital,” she said. “I felt a Xinjiang dance would be pretty good, too.”

But to some Uighurs outside China, the videos were a reminder of the simplistic way Turkic minorities can be depicted inside the country, even in a time of emergency.

“That’s what China strives to achieve: not only to portray but also to force the entire Uyghur nation to become nothing but singers, dancers and menial workers,” Kamalturk Yalqun, a Uighur living in Philadelphia, wrote on Twitter.

China has put a million or more Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominately Muslim groups into indoctrination camps in Xinjiang, part of a campaign to enforce loyalty while eroding minority languages, religions and cultures.

Former inmates have described harsh conditions in detention, stirring concern that the spread of the virus within Xinjiang could prove dire in the camps. Xinjiang has thus far reported 55 coronavirus infections.

______

Reporting and research was contributed by Gillian Wong, Chris Buckley, Sui-Lee Wee, Steven Lee Myers, Keith Bradsher, Austin Ramzy, Choe Sang-Hun, Amber Wang, Zoe Mou, Albee Zhang, Yiwei Wang, Claire Fu, Amy Qin, Elaine Yu, Makiko Inoue, Hisako Ueno, Eimi Yamamitsu, Motoko Rich, Megan Specia, and Tariro Mzezewai.

*********

THREAD and article by Sui-Lee Wee regarding the spike in cases of the coronavirus:

1. There's a lot of buzz on the astronomical jump in cases from Hubei on Wednesday -- 14,840 new confirmed cases, almost 10 x compared to a day earlier. New deaths rose to 242, more than double fr day b4. The govt has changed the diagnostic criteria used to confirm cases. More ..

2. Effectively, this means the govt is giving doctors greater discretion to clinically diagnose patients. Previously, they could only confirm cases with the nucleic acid test kits. But a govt expert said recently these were only 30-40 percent accurate.

3. More crucially, we were interviewing patients, who were showing all the symptoms of the new coronavirus, who said they were tested four to five times before they got a positive result. Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor, was one of them.

4. Chinese health experts say this is why there's a change: they now realize that there's a group of patients who only test positive very late with the nucleic acid testing. Because of how transmissible the disease is, they want to include these people as confirmed cases.

5. The point is to isolate these patients quickly and treat them. Doctors are now clinically diagnosing these people with CT scans. The advantage of these scans are they are immediate. Previously, patients had to wait at least two days for their results.

6. Samples had to be transported for hours to the province's relatively few labs. The nucleic acid tests are also dependent on the people sampling these patients. There's room for error. But the disadvantage of using CT scans is that they might not catch people w mild symptoms.

7. I wrote about all these issues last week: As Deaths Mount, China Tries to Speed Up Coronavirus Testing https://t.co/NfOqiWJBjb

8. Pls read this story by my colleague, Roni Caryn Rabin. Problem with new numbers for experts now is comparisons and understanding the extent of the virus's spread. https://t.co/jBwYvycNk4

CORONAVIRUS CASES SEEMED TO BE LEVELING OFF. NOT ANYMORE.

On Thursday, health officials in China reported more than 14,000 new cases in Hubei Province alone. A change in diagnostic criteria may be the reason.

By Roni Caryn Rabin | Published Feb. 12, 2020 Update Feb. 13, 2020, 6:12 a.m. ET| New York Times | Posted February 13, 2020 |

阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

The news seemed to be positive: The number of new coronavirus cases reported in China over the past week suggested that the outbreak might be slowing — that containment efforts were working.

But on Thursday, officials added more than 14,840 new cases to the tally of the infected in Hubei Province alone, bringing the total number to 48,206, the largest one-day increase so far recorded. The death toll in the province rose to 1,310, including 242 new deaths.

The sharp rise in reported cases illustrates how hard it has been for scientists to grasp the extent and severity of the coronavirus outbreak in China, particularly inside the epicenter, where thousands of sick people remain untested for the illness.

Confronted by so many people with symptoms and no easy way to test them, authorities appear to have changed the way the illness is identified.

Hospitals in Wuhan, China — the largest city in Hubei Province and the center of the epidemic — have struggled to diagnose infections with scarce and complicated tests that detect the virus’s genetic signature directly. Other countries, too, have had such issues.

Instead, officials in Hubei now seem to be including infections diagnosed by using lung scans of symptomatic patients. This shortcut will help get more patients into needed care, provincial officials said. Adding them to the count could make it easier for the authorities to decide how to allocate resources and assess treatment options.

But the change also shows the enormous number of people in Hubei who are sick and have not been counted in the outbreak’s official tally. It also raises the question whether the province, already struggling, is equipped to deal with the new patients.

The few experts to learn of the new numbers on Wednesday night were startled. Lung scans are an imperfect means to diagnose patients. Even patients with ordinary seasonal flu may develop pneumonia visible on a lung scan.

“We’re in unknown territory,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

In China, health officials have been under exceptional strain. Hospitals are overwhelmed, and huge new shelters are being erected to warehouse patients. Medical resources are in short supply. It’s never been clear who is being tested.

Health workers have gone door to door in Wuhan to check people for symptoms. The prospect of forced isolation may be deterring some people with respiratory illnesses from presenting themselves at health facilities to seek health care, some experts say, making the dimensions of the epidemic even less clear.

“You have to be sick, the authorities need to find you, or you find them, and they need to test you,” said Dr. Arthur Reingold, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

The push to prioritize lung scans seems to have begun with a social media campaign by a physician in Wuhan, who last week called for using the scans to simplify the screening of patients and to accelerate their hospitalization and treatment.

Lung scans produce immediate results, she said, and Wuhan was running short of testing kits.

Even before today’s news, experts complained that epidemiological information from China has been incomplete, threatening containment efforts.

The new coronavirus is highly transmissible and will be difficult to squelch. A single infected “super-spreader” can infect dozens of others. Outbreaks can seem to recede, only to rebound in short order, as the weather or conditions change.

Recent clusters of coronavirus cases suggest the new coronavirus not only spreads quickly, but also in ways that are not entirely understood.

In Hong Kong, people living 10 floors apart were infected, and an unsealed pipe was blamed. A British citizen apparently infected 10 people, including some at a ski chalet, before he even knew he was sick.

In Tianjin, China, at least 33 of 102 confirmed patients had a connection of some sort with a large department store.

“This outbreak could still go in any direction,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday.

A change in diagnosis may make it still harder to track the virus, said Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, co-director of the University of Washington MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness and Global Health Security.

“It makes it really confusing right now if they’re changing the whole way they screen and detect,” he said. Now estimating the scale of the epidemic “is a moving target.”

It is not uncommon for scientists to refine diagnostic criteria as their understanding of a new disease changes. But when the criteria are changed, experts said, it makes little sense to continue to make week-over-week comparisons.

“It sounds simplistic, but it’s so very important — what numbers are you counting?” said Dr. Schaffner, the infectious disease specialist.

Scientists have been wary of the notion that the epidemic has peaked for other reasons, as well.

Unlike MERS and SARS, both diseases caused by coronaviruses, the virus spreading from China appears to be highly contagious, though it is probably less often fatal.

It is harder for public health officials to track a rapidly moving epidemic. Scientists often describe these epidemics as a sort of iceberg — their girth and true shape hidden below the surface.

Chaos makes it still more difficult to discern those dimensions. But an accurate grasp of the situation within China is necessary for the safety of the rest of the world, noted Dr. Tedros of the W.H.O.

The country is so central to the world economy that it can easily “seed” epidemics everywhere, he said.

“Our greatest fear remains the damage this coronavirus could do in a country like D.R.C.,” Dr. Tedros said, referring to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been struggling with outbreaks of Ebola and measles.

“It’s a huge task to manage a response effectively,” said Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. “This would be true for any country.”

“We’re in the dark in terms of knowing what to expect next.”

______

Reporting was contributed by Vivian Wang.

*********

How Many Coronavirus Cases in China? Officials Tweak the Answer

China’s health authorities have decided to no longer count as confirmed cases those patients who test positive but don’t show symptoms. Skepticism was immediate.

By Vivian Wang | Published Feb. 12, 2020 Updated Feb. 13, 2020, 1:03 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 13, 2020 |

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HONG KONG — The news was abrupt and, to some, surprising: Overnight, a Chinese province near Russia, had cut its count of confirmed coronavirus cases by more than a dozen.

The revision stemmed from what appeared to be a bureaucratic decision, buried in a series of dense documents from the national government. Health officials said that they would reclassify patients who had tested positive for the new coronavirus but did not have symptoms, and take them out of the total count of confirmed cases.

The documents offered little detail or explanation, and skepticism was immediate. A Hong Kong newspaper called the decision a “disguise.” World Health Organization officials seemed caught off guard when asked about the move at a news conference this week.

The change in counting cases is only one factor that has made it difficult for experts to determine the true scale of the epidemic. In fact, the shifting landscape of how infections are defined and confirmed has led to significant variations in the estimates for the extent of outbreak.

Early on Thursday, provincial officials in Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, announced that nearly 15,000 new cases and 242 new deaths were recorded in a single day, largely because the authorities expanded their diagnostic tools for counting new infections.

Until now, only infections confirmed by specialized testing kits were considered accurate. But those kits have been in such short supply — and so many sick people have gone untested — that the authorities in Hubei Province have started counting patients whose illness have been screened and identified by doctors.

The result was a sudden — and large — spike in the overall tally for the coronavirus: more than 1,300 people killed and well over 50,000 infected.

The surge in cases in Hubei, the result of a local change in how cases are counted, underscored how elusive the exact scale of the epidemic is.

The change in how cases are counted — both inside and outside the epicenter of the outbreak — reflects a two-headed problem in the global fight against the disease. On the one hand, health officials need to stay flexible in dealing with new outbreaks.

One the other hand, mistrust of the Chinese government — especially when it comes to being transparent about the threat and extent of the virus — remains pervasive.

“It’s pretty clear that there is an issue with trust about whatever the Chinese government comes out with at the moment,” said Kerry Brown, a former diplomat and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London.

“That may be terribly unfair,” Mr. Brown said. But, he added, “to redefine things — even legitimately — at a moment like this is always going to be a presentational challenge, because people are going to be very sensitive, and they’re going to suspect there’s another agenda.”

The new numbers out of Hubei came only a day after China reported that new infections had hit the lowest point in a single day since Jan. 30. Experts cautioned then that it was premature to draw any conclusions from the drop.

The shifting case counts are not the only example of conflicting or spotty information. Researchers have given differing estimates on when the outbreak might peak, ranging from a date already past to several months in the future. The Chinese authorities have closely guarded the demographic details about the fatalities, creating uncertainty about who is most susceptible.

Scientists have even debated just how much of a danger asymptomatic transmission poses. Chinese health officials were among the first to raise the prospect of asymptomatic transmission, even as health experts in other countries were skeptical of early reports that the virus could be passed on by such patients. But in recent days, Chinese officials have also played down the asymptomatic transmission risk.

The uneven information comes as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said that the containment efforts were working.

“After hard work, the epidemic situation has seen positive change, and the prevention and control work has achieved positive results,” he said during a meeting of the Communist Party leadership in Beijing on Wednesday, according to a summary of his remarks by state-run media. “This is hard-won, and all parties have contributed.”

The changes to the classification of asymptomatic coronavirus cases emerged on Jan. 29, in a set of guidance from China’s National Health Commission. The agency said that it would no longer count patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus but did not display symptoms as “confirmed cases.” Instead, those patients would be counted separately, as “positive diagnosis” patients, and would become confirmed only if they began showing symptoms.

Chinese health officials have given little public justification for the labeling change. The National Health Commission did not immediately return a request for comment.

The changes have prompted debate among some public health experts.

“Adapting definitions during an outbreak is not unusual, with increasing insights and also with prioritizing where efforts need to go,” said Dr. Marion Koopmans, the head of the viroscience department at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Still, even experts who said that the effect of discounting certain cases would be small said that it would be useful to epidemiologists — and the public — to have a complete count of all cases, including asymptomatic ones.

Dr. Malik Peiris, the chair of virology at the University of Hong Kong, said in an email that mild or asymptomatic infections could form an “invisible iceberg” that made a given virus’s fatality rate much lower than it initially appeared.

Determining the true denominator of the number of people infected — whether symptomatic or not — would, he said, “be most informative to, hopefully, calm current panic in China and the world.”

In a sign of just how much the changes could further muddle public understanding of the virus, even the W.H.O., which has praised the Chinese government for its cooperation in fighting the outbreak, expressed confusion.

Dr. Chen Bingzhong, a former senior government health official in Beijing who has been vocal in calling for more transparency about public health crises, said a full tally of the number of cases would keep the authorities accountable.

He added that a positive test result should be disclosed as such, regardless of symptoms.

“Testing positive means it is the new coronavirus,” he said. “If you don’t recognize it, you are covering the truth.”

______

Jin Wu contributed reporting from Hong Kong, and Yiwei Wang contributed research from Beijing.

*********

A Store, a Chalet, an Unsealed Pipe: Coronavirus Hot Spots Flare Far From Wuhan

A handful of buildings around the world have been linked to multiple cases of the new virus, raising fears of rapid transmission.

By Vivian Wang, Austin Ramzy and  Megan Specia | Published Feb. 11, 2020 Updated Feb. 12, 2020, 12:29 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted Feb 13, 2020 |

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HONG KONG — An apartment building in Hong Kong, its units linked by pipes. A department store in the eastern Chinese city of Tianjin, where more than 11,000 shoppers and employees mingled. A ski chalet in France, home base for a group of British citizens on vacation.

These sites, scattered around the world, have become linked by a grim commonality: They are places where pockets of new coronavirus cases have emerged in recent days, raising fears about the virus’s ability to spread quickly and far beyond its origins in central China.

Since the dangerous outbreak emerged in late December, the vast majority of cases have been concentrated in Wuhan, the city where the new virus was first reported. The authorities there and in the surrounding province have sealed off tens of millions of people in a desperate attempt at containment.

But as the outbreak’s toll has mushroomed — it has claimed more than 1,100 lives in China and sickened more than 44,000 — it has become clear how easily the virus can be transmitted and how hard it may be to contain, even in communities around the world that are far removed from Wuhan. Many of the people infected had not even been there.

In Tianjin, the authorities ordered more than 10,000 people into quarantine, after they traced one-third of cases in the city to a single department store.

In Hong Kong on Tuesday, dozens of residents were evacuated from their apartment building overnight, as two people living 10 floors apart were found to be infected with the coronavirus. Officials said an unsealed pipe might be to blame.

And in Britain on Tuesday, a businessman who is believed to be the source of 10 other cases in Britain and France said that he showed no symptoms before testing positive for the coronavirus.

The new coronavirus, though most serious in China, “holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said at a forum in Geneva on Tuesday.

As the outbreak’s health implications have mounted, so has its political toll: It is already one of the most significant crises for the central government in decades. China’s ruling Communist Party dismissed two health officials in Hubei, the province at the center of the epidemic, and replaced them with a leader sent from Beijing. They were the first senior officials to be punished for the government’s handling of the outbreak.

This week, the Chinese authorities urged factory workers and farmers to get back to work. But at the same time, other officials warned that there may be new outbreaks in the coming weeks — particularly in three populous provinces, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Henan — as migrant workers return to their jobs after the Lunar New Year break.

They also highlighted the role of clusters, which they defined as two or more infections within a relatively small area, in accelerating the disease’s spread.

Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Tuesday that there had been nearly 1,000 clusters in China, with 83 percent occurring within families. But schools, factories, shopping centers and medical facilities also contributed to the spread, he said.

In Tianjin, more than 600 miles from Wuhan, officials have taken drastic steps to contain a cluster of cases linked to the department store in the district of Baodi. An outbreak in that city could be especially troublesome for the central government: It is only a half-hour from Beijing by high-speed train.

At least 33 of the city’s 102 confirmed patients worked or shopped at the department store, or had close contact with employees or customers, according to local health authorities. Of those, many — including the latest patient, a 31-year-old woman announced on Tuesday — had no history of travel to Wuhan.

In response, officials said that people who had visited the store in late January would be required to quarantine themselves at home. They said they had already tracked down around 11,700 employees and shoppers but expected that number to rise.

Health officials in the city used loudspeakers along streets and in communities to urge residents to contact the government if they had been to the store recently, Chinese news reports said. They also sent teams of officials into villages and put out alerts on social media.

The authorities deployed round-the-clock security guards in parts of Baodi, and said they would allow residents in some areas to leave their homes only once every two days.

Mao Jinsong, the district head of Baodi, compared the department store to the seafood market in Wuhan where the outbreak is widely considered to have started.

“Do not let Baodi’s department store become Wuhan’s seafood market,” he said at a news conference.

In Hong Kong, the authorities ordered the evacuation of some apartment building residents after finding that a 62-year-old woman, who was newly confirmed as infected, had an unsealed pipe in her bathroom. The woman lives 10 floors below a resident who was earlier found to be infected.

Four other people living in three other units also displayed symptoms of the coronavirus, according to Sophia Chan, Hong Kong’s health secretary. Later on Tuesday, the city’s health authorities announced that three relatives of the 62-year-old woman had also been infected.

The news further rattled an already-nervous city, which is still scarred by the memory of the 2003 SARS outbreak. Back then, 329 residents of a crowded housing development became infected with the new virus, which some experts believe had spread through defective piping. Forty-two of the infected residents died.

The authorities sought to ease those fears on Tuesday, pointing to differences in the pipe systems of that building in 2003 and the newly evacuated one. But they acknowledged the risk of previously unknown modes of transmission, potentially even through the air, not just through droplets from coughing or sneezing.

On Tuesday afternoon, the police had blocked off the building, allowing in only residents who showed identification. A street cleaning vehicle sprayed down the road outside, even as light rain fell.

“We absolutely will not lower our guard, and will definitely conduct a detailed and comprehensive investigation,” Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said.

Still, Andrew Easton, a professor at the University of Warwick who specializes in the molecular biology of viruses, said it was virtually inevitable that the new coronavirus would spread rapidly within communities, even with heightened vigilance by both health officials and everyday people.

“Any situation that brings a group of individuals together in close proximity or frequently for extended periods of time will provide enhanced opportunities” for the virus to spread, he said in an email. He added: “Of course the virus can be transmitted before symptoms appear in an infected individual, so it is not possible to always avoid such situations.”

The case of the French chalet makes clear just how rapidly the virus can leap from person to person, even after global awareness of the outbreak has spread.

The infections there are believed to have roots in a conference in Singapore last month, which a British man, Steve Walsh, attended before flying to Geneva, according to the French authorities and to Mr. Walsh, who publicly identified himself on Tuesday. While there, Mr. Walsh is believed to have been exposed to the coronavirus, though he did not immediately show symptoms.

From Singapore, Mr. Walsh traveled to the chalet in the French Alpine village of Les Contamines-Montjoie, where he stayed with a group of other Britons. Then he went home to southern England.

Soon after his return, he was diagnosed with the virus. Then, five of the other Britons at the ski resort, who are still in France, tested positive for the virus, according to the French authorities.

And on Monday, the British authorities announced that four more people in Britain — including two health care workers — had been diagnosed with the virus, doubling the number of cases in the country. All the new cases were linked to the chalet cluster, officials said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Walsh, who identified himself in a statement issued from the hospital where he is in isolation, sent his sympathies to others who have been exposed.

“Whilst I have fully recovered, my thoughts are with others who have contracted coronavirus,” he said.

_______

Vivian Wang and Austin Ramzy reported from Hong Kong, and Megan Specia from London. Reporting and research was contributed by Steven Lee Myers, Russell Goldman, Elaine Yu, Richard C. Paddock, Ben Dooley, Motoko Rich, Amber Wang, Zoe Mou, Albee Zhang, Yiwei Wang, Claire Fu and Amy Qin.

*********

Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Spread of the Outbreak

By K.K. Rebecca Lai, Jin Wu, Allison McCann, Derek Watkins, Jugal K. Patel and Richard Harris | Updated Feb. 13, 2020 | New York Times | Posted February 13, 2020 |

The coronavirus outbreak has sickened more than 60,200 people in Asia, according to statements from health officials. Many other cases are suspected but not confirmed. As of Wednesday evening, at least 1,368 people have died, all but two in mainland China.

CONFIRMED CASES

As these maps( SEE WEBSITE) show, the disease has been detected in at least 24 other countries, most involving people who traveled from China.

Fourteen cases have been confirmed in the United States, including a 35-year-old man in Washington state, a couple in their 60s in Chicago and eight people in California.

The outbreak is believed to have begun in a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in central China. The virus is readily transmitted from person to person, scientists believe. But how lethal the virus is and and whether it can be contained is unclear.

How bad will the outbreak get? Here are six key factors.

WHAT’S BEING DONE TO CONTAIN THE OUTBREAK?

The Chinese authorities took the extraordinary step of closing off Wuhan, canceling planes and trains leaving the city and suspending buses, subways and ferries within it. By Jan. 24, at least 12 other cities in Hubei Province had issued travel restrictions, including Huanggang, home to seven million people, and Ezhou, a city of about one million.

A number of countries, including the United States and Australia, are limiting travel to some people who recently traveled to China, and several major airlines said they expect to halt direct service to mainland China for months.

Closing borders to highly infectious pathogens never succeeds completely, experts said, because all frontiers are somewhat porous. Nonetheless, closings and rigorous screening may slow the spread, which will buy time for the development of drug treatments and vaccines.

[dpr-lahore-division]

CM ANNOUNCES SPECIAL DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE WORTH 5.12 BILLION DURING VISIT TO NAROWAL

With the compliments of, The Directorate General Public Relations, Government of the Punjab, Lahore Ph: 99201390. No825/QU/Akram HANDOUT (A) LAHORE, May 24: Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar announced a special development package of 5.12 billion rupees during his visit to Narowal on Monday and laid the foundation stone of three projects under the second phase of the Naya Pakistan Manzalian Asan Program. He also visited the corona vaccination centre and inspected the jail during the visit. Talking to the media, the CM said the expansion of three roads of 17 kilometres length has been started with an amount of Rs 23.13 crore. Similarly, 5.12 billion rupees will be spent on 39 different projects adding that supply and drainage of water, roads and other projects will be completed in Zafarwal and Shakargarh with 84 crore rupees. 1.70 billion rupees will be spent on the construction of 33-kilometres long Narowal-Zafarwal road and Syed Chiragh Shah Bypass, he added. Meanwhile, 18.80 crore rupees will be spent on the up-gradation of schools and 38-kilometre long Narowal-Muridke road will be built through public-private partnership mode with an amount of Rs2.40 billion, he said. Punjab government has approached the federal government to include linkage of Narowal and Narang Mandi with Lahore-Sialkot motorway in its PSDP, he added. This project will be completed with 25.34 billion, he further said. Meanwhile, the CM said 10.35 billion are being spent on 111 ongoing schemes. Shakargarh to Zafarwal and Kartarpur to Darbar Sahib roads' improvement projects will be completed with 1.16 billion rupees. Work is in progress on 29 additional projects of roads' repair and expansion in Narowal, he added. 80 per cent of work on up-gradation of Zafarwal BHU to THQ hospital has been completed with 21.35 crore rupees. 75 per cent work of the public park has also been completed in Zafarwal, he added. Five projects including supply and drainage of water and tough tiles are underway in different areas with 24 crore rupees under the Narowal-Zafarwal city package. Similarly, a police station is being constructed in Narowal with 11.5 crore rupees and 16 crore rupees has been spent on the provision of missing facilities in 57 Narowal schools, he added. 15 Dahi Markaz-e-Maal have been established in Narowal and rescue 1122 service is also started in Kartarpur. He continued that 17 schemes are completed with 50 crore rupees in the local government and community development sector. Meanwhile, 31 schemes are under completion and work will also be started on additional 34 schemes, he said. 116 schemes have been completed under the Punjab Municipal Services Program with 15 crore rupees and work is in progress on the local government's ADP with an amount of Rs35 crore, he added. To a question, he said the number of vaccination centres has been increased to expedite the process adding that more vaccination centres will be established by the government. He disclosed that every citizen will have a sehat insaf card in Punjab by the end of this year for free, quality treatment adding that the universal health coverage program will be inaugurated from Layyah on 26 May. Similarly, the kisan card program has also been launched and the Punjab government has achieved its wheat procurement target, as well. 22 thousand schools are being upgraded and the tax collection target has been achieved in the current fiscal year despite unusual circumstances due to the corona pandemic, he said. Punjab government's performance is better than others, he added. To another question, he said the government wants to introduce a local bodies system in Punjab at the earliest as it seeks to resolve public problems at the grassroots through local bodies institutions. Development was limited to certain cities in the past but composite development has been ensured by the incumbent government through a separate development package for every city, he stressed. CM Usman Buzdar laid the foundation stone of three development projects under the second phase of the Naya Pakistan Manzalian Asan Program. 17 kilometres long roads will be constructed with 23 crore rupees. a 5.25-kilometres long link road from Sharif Chowk to Madian Chowk via Shahpur will be built with an amount of 6.74 crore rupees. a 6.5-kilometres long road from Ghummarwala to Lasser Kalan will be built with an amount of 9.12 crore rupees and 5.12 kilometres long Rabia Morr to Jamwal road will be built with an amount of 7.25 crore rupees, he said. This will facilitate the local people, he added. CM Usman Buzdar also inspected the corona vaccination centre at DHQ Hospital Narowal and spoke to the visitors and appreciated the work done by the health workers. The people appreciated the standard of facilities as best arrangements are made. The attendants also thanked the CM for the best arrangements made for the vaccination. The CM said five corona vaccination centres have been set up in Narowal. Auqaf Minister Syed Saeed ul Hassan Shah, PTI ticket holder Abrar ul Haq and others were present. CM Usman Buzdar paid a surprise visit to district jail Narowal and inspected various barracks. He inquired the prisoners about the standard of facilities and directed them to further improve the arrangements. Some prisoners apprised the CM about the delay in cases. The CM issued instructions to his staff to present the issue at the relevant forum adding that facilities be provided to the detainees according to the law. CM Usman Buzdar held meetings with parliamentarians, PTI ticket holders and office-bearers. He issued directions for the solution of problems of the area adding that Narowal has been moved on the road of development and prosperity. A separate development package has been designed for every district to ensure composite development and the government will leave the durable signs of genuine development at the grassroots. Only lip service was done in the past but the incumbent government has practically performed, he said. The parliamentarians have been consulted in the formulation of development schemes and new vehicles have been given to the police while setting up Dahi Markaz-e-Maal at the level of Qanoongoi, he added. Similarly, 40 mobile van centres have also been added to provide revenue related services at the doorsteps of the people. The CM also announced to start recruitments against vacant posts throughout the province adding that coordination committees will be constituted in divisions and districts. The party workers including Ibrar ul Haq thanked the CM for delivering the best performance in the province and welcomed the best development package for the district. On the complaint of Ibrar ul Haq, the CM directed the CMIT to hold an inquiry of the Narowal-Muridke road project and submit a report to his office. CM Usman Buzdar also inaugurated Pharma-D (Pharmacy) College under Sahara for Life Trust at Sughra Shafi Medical Complex in Narowal. He inspected various sections and appreciated the healing of the wounded and needy. Meanwhile, the Punjab government is giving special attention to the provision of necessary facilities in hospitals and every citizen will enjoy a free treatment by the end of this year, concluded the CM. Auqaf Minister Syed Saeed ul Hassan Shah, Ibrar ul Haq, Commissioner, DC and members of the administration were also present. **** No.823/QU/Zahid HANDOUT (A) POLITICS IS A MEANS OF PUBLIC SERVICE- USMAN BUZDAR LAHORE, May 24: The opposition weakened the national interests for the sake of promoting temporal political stakes. Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar said this in a statement issued on Monday. The CM said the opposition's negative role on corona and other issues will not be remembered in good words. The opposition parties have not played their democratic role nor they have any strategy for the country, he added. Meanwhile, those impeding the development process have faced defeat on every occasion, he continued. Politics is a means of public service but it was used to increase bank balances in the past, he regretted. The PTI government has put an end to the political culture of loot and plunder, concluded the CM. ++++ No827/QU/Akram HANDOUT (A) CM SEEKS REPORT LAHORE, May 24: Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has sought a report from RPO Bahawalpur about an incident of torture of poor people and directed to take stern action against the perpetrators of the crime. On his direction, an injured namely Amjad has been admitted to Bahawal Victoria Hospital while four nominated accused have been arrested by the police. ****

[vsplusonline]

Wuhan offers hope on virus front; Italy nears stark warning

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/wuhan-offers-hope-on-virus-front-italy-nears-stark-warning/

Wuhan offers hope on virus front; Italy nears stark warning

BEJING — Thursday was a day of contrasts on the front lines of the battle against the new coronavirus. In a sign of hope, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported no new homegrown infections, but in a stark warning for the world, Italy appeared set to surpass China’s death toll from the virus.

The two milestones were a dramatic illustration of how much the global outbreak has pivoted toward Europe and the United States. They also showed how the arc of contagion can vary in different nations, as Italy with 60 million people braces to see more carnage than China, a nation of 1.4 billion.

Italy registered 2,978 deaths on Wednesday after another 475 people died. Given that Italy has been averaging more than 350 deaths a day since March 15, it’s likely to overtake China’s 3,249 dead when Thursday’s figures are released at day’s end.

UN and Italian health authorities have cited a variety of reasons for Italy’s high toll, key among them its large elderly population, who are particularly susceptible to developing serious complications from the virus. Italy has the world’s second oldest population after Japan’s and the vast majority of Italy’s dead — 87% — were over age 70.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 80% of the nation’s 138 deaths have taken place in people over 65. Overall, 8,900 patients have died around the world, and 84,000 have recovered. Aside from the elderly and the sick, most people only have mild or moderate symptoms, like a fever or cough.

In the meantime, the news from China’s central city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged late last year, offered a rare glimmer of hope and perhaps a lesson in the strict measures needed to halt its spread. It came as President Donald Trump likened the fight to “a war” and invoked emergency powers that allow him to compel manufacturers to deal with the pandemic.

Wuhan once was the place where thousands lay sick or dying in hurriedly constructed hospitals, the first place in the world where medical facilities appeared overwhelmed. But Chinese authorities said Thursday that all 34 new cases recorded over the previous day had been imported from abroad.

“Today, we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort,” said Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector at the National Health Commission.

While China did not report any new cases in Wuhan or Hubei province, it did record eight additional deaths. Wuhan has been under a strict lockdown since January. Officials are moving to loosen travel restrictions, but only inside the surrounding province of Hubei. Wuhan remains cut-off, with only those with special permission allowed to travel in or out.

Still, the virus, which has infected 219,000 people around the world, took its toll elsewhere, both in human and economic terms.

European stock markets were up only slightly after losses in Asia despite a massive 750 billion-euro stimulus package announced overnight by the European Central Bank. Oil dropped below $21 a barrel Wednesday for the first time since 2002, and rose slightly Thursday to $23.

The United Nations warned that the crisis could lead to the loss of nearly 25 million jobs around the world.

Elsewhere around the world, more borders shut, leaving some to wonder how they would get back home. In the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand shut out tourists, allowing only citizens and residents to return, while Fiji reported its first case, a worrying development in a region with poor healthcare.

Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei planned to pardon 10,000 more prisoners — among them an unknown number of inmates whose cases are political — in an apparent effort to combat the coronavirus, Iranian state TV reported. The country, where more than 1,100 people have already died from the virus, has already released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave.

In London, home to almost 9 million, people were being urged to stay off public transport as authorities consider imposing tougher curbs on social distancing. London is the epicenter of Britain’s coronavirus outbreak, with about one-third of its 2,644 cases.

Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said it may be necessary to implement a curfew in the southern German state if people don’t start better following advice on restricting social contacts. In neighbouring Austria, the western province of Tyrol put 279 municipalities under quarantine in light of a large number of COVID-19 infections there, banning anyone from leaving their towns or villages except to go to work in the Alpine region.

The U.S. and Canada both closed their borders to all but essential travel and Trump said he plans to assert extraordinary powers to immediately turn back to Mexico anyone who crosses over the southern border illegally.

Russia and Mexico each reported their first death from the virus. Mexico closed its popular spring equinox visits to the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon at Teotihuacan.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 1,300 points on Wednesday, or over 6%, and has now lost nearly all of the gains it had posted since Trump’s inauguration. The White House pressed Congress to swiftly pass a potentially $1 trillion rescue package to prop up the economy and speed relief checks to Americans in a matter of weeks.

Calling himself a “wartime president,” Trump invoked the Defence Production Act of 1950 to steer industrial output and overcome shortages of face masks, ventilators and other supplies as hospitals brace for an expected onslaught of cases.

California’s governor warned that martial law could be imposed. The mayor of New York said the city’s 8.6 million residents should be prepared for a lockdown.

Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, along with Honda and Toyota, said they will shut all of their factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The closing of Detroit’s Big Three alone will idle about 150,000 workers, who are likely to receive supplemental pay in addition to unemployment benefits.

The U.S. has reported more than 9,400 coronavirus cases and at least 138 deaths, about half of them in Washington state, where dozens of residents from a suburban Seattle nursing home have died.

Scientists believe the true number of people infected in the United States is higher than reported because of the possibility that many mild cases have gone unrecognized and because of delays in ramping up testing.

——

Rising reported from Berlin. Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.

——

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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[dpr-lahore-division]

CM VISITS SHEIKHUPURA, HAFIZABAD AND GUJRANWALA DISTRICTS

With the compliments of, The Directorate General Public Relations,

Government of the Punjab, Lahore Ph 99201390.

No.453/QU/Zahid+Umer

HANDOUT (A)

LAHORE, March 24:

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar visited Sheikhupura, Hafizabad and Gujranwala on Wednesday and announced new development projects worth Rs. 25 billion along with the establishment of universities.

Talking to the media in Gujranwala, the CM announced new projects of Rs. 8.41 billion including Flyover at Alam Chowk and internal and external link roads in the city. 14 more projects will be started including a burn unit with a cost of Rs. 1.92 billion. He also announced the university of Gujranwala project having a sub-campus of Punjab University and both campuses of UET. The necessary process has already been started and I will monitor this project, the CM added. Meanwhile, instructions are an issue for the feasibility study of the children hospital and the federal government will also be approached for improvement of GT Road. Along with it, the CM announced that a road will be constructed to link Gujranwala with Sialkot-Lahore Motorway. Briefing the media about steps for public welfare, the CM said Sahulat Bazaars will be established at the level of tehsil and items will be provided at the rates of 2018 in Ramazan Bazaars. To a question, he termed it improper to lead processions to appear before institutions and asserted that law will come into action on any violation of the law. I will visit every nook and corner of the province to take steps for the betterment of the country, the CM maintained.  

The CM inaugurated four projects of 7.84 billion at Ghakar Sports Arena. He also inaugurated Ghakar Sports Arena, Gujranwala Arts Council Auditorium, OPD unit of teaching hospital medical college Gujranwala and 62.5 acre landfill site project. He handed over keys of 106 vehicles of Gujranwala Waste Management Company to the officials and laid the foundation stone of BS Block in Government Postgraduate College for Women, Shadab Training Institute and building of special education centre Kamoke worth 2. 23 billion and 83 lakhs. The Lahore-Sialkot Motorway will be linked with GT Road at Morr Eminabad.

The CM met with PTI leader Hamid Nasir Chatta and briefed him about the development agenda of the PTI government. CM also held meetings with different delegations including PML-N MPA Ashraf Ansari and Younis Ansari and assured to solve the problems of the city.

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar announced a development package worth more than Rs.10 billion for Sheikhupura along with the establishment of Waris Shah University during his visit to the district. Meanwhile, Tehsildar Muridke and SDO local government have been removed from their posts on public complaints. The CM also inaugurated a tree plantation drive at Sheikhupura Gymkhana.

At the outset, the CM inaugurated district education complex, Muridke trauma centre, CTD regional office and national model school to Faisalabad road Sharaqpur chowk dual road projects worth Rs.1.27 billion. He also laid the foundation stone of a water supply and drainage project costing Rs.41 crore in Sheikhupura besides meeting with parliamentarians and notables. PML (N) MPA Mian Jalil Sharaqpuri also called on the chief minister.

Talking on the occasion, the CM said the Sheikhupura development package will resolve problems of the area adding that 19 mega projects will also be started with an amount of Rs.8.38 billion in Sheikhupura. Meanwhile, 8 projects including Narang Mandi cadet college, supply and drainage of water, healthcare, educational and roads repair schemes will be started. The foundation stone of Manawala to Sucha Sauda road was laid to promote tourism. This project will cost Rs.64 crore. The government is working to complete the Sheikhupura-Gujranwala road, the CM added.

While talking to the parliamentarians, the CM announced to visit all the districts of the province and the development packages will be finalized with the consultation of the parliamentarians, he added. The development process has been extended to backward areas as progress is the right of every locality, he said. Early implementation of the district development package will be ensured and I will monitor the development schemes, the CM continued.

Mian Jalil Sharaqpuri MPA said that Usman Buzdar is moving the province towards genuine development. I trust CM Usman Buzdar and he will fulfil the promise of development, he continued. Parliamentarians thanked the CM for the development package. Provincial Minister Mian Khalid Mahmood, SACM Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Adil Mahmood and Anwar Rashid of Sheikhupura Chamber of Commerce & Industry, president DPA Azmat Mahmood Sidhu, general secretary Mian Ali Bashir and others were also present.

While talking to the media, the CM said a huge development package has been announced and an in-principle decision has also been made to detach Sheikhupura from the jurisdiction of LDA. Necessary steps are taken for the establishment of Waris Shah University as the establishment of universities in every district is a commitment of the government, he emphasised. The government intends to accord every district its rights and I will continue to conduct visits to review the development process, he stated. No one is politically victimised and the utmost effort is made to deliver on merit, the CM emphasised and further announced that he has always strived to follow rules and merit. Development is the right of every citizen and early implementation of the district development package will be ensured, he added. The CM said that issues pertaining to the Sheikhupura press club are sympathetically reviewed and journalists will be given health cards on a priority basis.

The CM took strict notice of complaints of corruption during his Sheikhupura visit and SDO local government Waseem-ud-Din and tehsildar Muridke Ahmed Raza Sultan were suspended and departmental action was ordered. Corruption is intolerable and there is no room for corrupt officers in the province, asserted the CM.

CM ANNOUNCES RS.7.2 BILLION DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE FOR HAFIZABAD: The CM announced Rs.7.2 billion development package for Hafizabad while land has been transferred for DHQ hospital and the University of Hafizabad projects. On his directions, the Hafizabad University Act will be presented before the cabinet meeting today. The CM also held meetings with parliamentarians and people from different walks of life at the district complex. On the occasion, the CM disclosed that land has been transferred to the University of Hafizabad and the new DHQ hospital building. The development package has been devised in consultation with parliamentarians and the series of district tours has been started from today. The proposals of parliamentarians are useful and the purpose of visits to different districts is to ensure speedy progress and resolution of public problems, he added. The development projects will be completed by taking personal interest as it is the right of the people, he continued. Senator Ijaz Chaudhary, SACM Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Altaf Asghar Bhatti, Amir Nazir Tarrar and others were present.

The CM also visited the integrated command and control room in the DPO office. He was briefed about police vehicles' tracking system and CCTV surveillance. The CM appreciated that technology is helping to improve the surveillance system adding that IT is also helping to improve the performance of the police department. The integrated command and control system will be made further effective and useful, he added.

Talking to the media, the CM said the package has been announced for the district adding that PM Imran Khan had announced to establish the University of Hafizabad and DHQ hospital. The University of Hafizabad Act is ready and will be presented before the cabinet for approval today. Similarly, land has been allotted for the University of Hafizabad while the PC-1 of the DHQ hospital was being prepared. Similarly, land has been allotted for DHQ hospital, he added. Hafizabad-Sukheki road, Kot Hara-Jallalpur Bhatian, Chowk Sukheki-Jalalpur Bhattian road will be restored with an amount of 3.98 billion, he added. 20 other projects are going to be launched along with 10 roads' rehabilitation schemes to be completed with an amount of 3.35 billion in the district, the CM added. Similarly, girls college will be constructed in Kolo Tarar along with the completion of a number of projects of beatification and supply and drainage of water. Promises made with the people will be fulfilled and journalists' problems will also be resolved, he assured. Meanwhile, PDM has died down. 7 billion development package has been announced for Ramadan and best arrangements have been made in Ramadan bazaars. Colleges will also be upgraded in the Hafizabad district, the CM stated in response to another question.

Senator Ejaz Chaudhary, SACM DrFrdous Ashiq Awan, parliamentarians, commissioners, RPOs and others were present.

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No.454/QU/Umer

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CM INSPECTS SHEIKHUPURA-GUJRANWALA ROAD

LAHORE, March 24:

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar landed his helicopter at Motorway near Sheikhupura exit point while going from Sheikhupura to Hafizabad and inspected Sheikhupura-Gujranwala road. He directed to expedite the construction work as it will accelerate business activities besides facilitating the commuters.

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No.455/QU/Umer

HANDOUT (A)

CM INAUGURATES GHAKAR SPORTS ARENA

LAHORE, March 24:

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar played hockey after the inauguration of Ghakhar Sports Arena and termed hockey a joyous sports activity. The sports stadium will spur the play of hockey, he added.

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No.456/QU/Umer

HANDOUT (A)

CM CONDOLES LOSS OF LIVES

LAHORE, March 24:

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has expressed a deep sense of sorrow over the death of two persons in a fire incident at a Ravi Road factory and extended sympathies to the heirs. He directed to expedite the rescue operation and sought a report from the administration about the incident.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, June 12, 2021

G-7 nations gather to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world (AP) World leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to share at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world—half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K. The leaders meeting in the resort of Carbis Bay hope to energize the global economy as well. On Friday they are set to formally embrace a global minimum tax of at least 15% on corporations, seconding an agreement reached a week ago at a meeting of their finance ministers. The minimum is meant to stop companies from using tax havens and other tools to avoid taxes. The official summit business starts Friday, with the customary formal greeting and a socially distanced group photo. Later the leaders will meet Queen Elizabeth II and other senior royals.

The West is the driest it's been in 1,200 years (NBC News) Trees are dying. Riverbeds are empty. Lake Mead's water level dropped to its lowest point in history, and Utah's governor asked residents to pray for rain. Water is increasingly scarce in the Western U.S.—where 72 percent of the region is in "severe" drought, 26 percent is in exceptional drought, and populations are booming. Insufficient monsoon rains last summer and low snowpacks over the winter left states like Arizona, Utah and Nevada without the typical amount of water they need, and forecasts for the rainy summer season don't show promise. This year's aridity is happening against the backdrop of a 20-year-long drought. The past two decades have been the driest or the second driest in the last 1,200 years in the West, posing existential questions about how to secure a livable future in the region.

Earthquakes and oil (Bloomberg) According to an analysis of data from Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico, in the shale-producing regions, there were 938 earthquakes registering at least a 2 on the Richter scale last year, quadruple the number detected in 2017. Such tremors are linked to shale production, which entails wastewater being pumped underground. In 2019, 12 billion barrels of wastewater were disposed of underground, which can make the seismic conditions a little more unstable. The figure has been rising steadily, and year to date there have already been 570 such earthquakes in the southwest, which is on pace for a record.

Bitcoin in El Salvador (Foreign Policy) The country has become the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency a legal tender. It will be exchangeable for dollars at a market rate, a system that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said could reduce transfer fees on migrant remittances and attract investment. The move also risks enabling money laundering and use of El Salvador as a tax haven.

Argentina Is the Pandemic’s Latest Hot Spot (Foreign Policy) At the end of a first-floor wing of the Mariano y Luciano de la Vega Hospital in the Argentine municipality of Moreno, the day unfolded like many others during the pandemic here, with razor-sharp focus on each and every bed—juggling patients who have COVID-19 and those who suffer from other ailments afflicting a working-class and low-income population. “Every bed is super important,” according to the hospital’s director, Emmanuel Alvarez. “We have to have a minute-by-minute accounting of the available beds,” he said. “The collapse can happen because of COVID or because of something else.” The prospect of a collapse is very real. Argentina has been cataloging record levels of contagion—41,000 new cases in one day last week. The country of 45 million people has counted more than 3.8 million cases and nearly 80,000 deaths since the pandemic began, with a growth rate trending upward even as other countries’ rates begin to slow. In the last two weeks, it has ranked among the three countries with the highest number of deaths per capita. Around 95 percent of intensive care beds are occupied in eight of the country’s 23 provinces, according to the Argentine Intensive Care Society, with 90 percent occupied in another five jurisdictions, including the capital city.

America May Be ‘Back’ in Europe, but How Much Has Really Changed? (NYT) Few images captured the rupture in trans-Atlantic relations better than that of President Donald J. Trump in 2018, arms folded across his chest as he resisted Chancellor Angela Merkel and other frustrated leaders in their doomed effort to salvage their summit meeting in Canada. When the same leaders reconvene in Cornwall, England, on Friday, President Biden will reverse the body language, replacing impasse with embrace. But beneath the imagery, it is not clear how much more open the United States will be to give-and-take with Europe than it was under Mr. Trump. “America’s foreign policy hasn’t fundamentally changed,” said Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the British Parliament. “It’s more cooperative and inclusive, but substantially it’s the same.” “Like all leaders,” he added, “Biden is putting his own country first. How he achieves that is what has distracted many.”

EU countries clear plan to ease cross-border tourism over summer (Reuters) European Union countries agreed on Friday to an easing of travel restrictions over summer that will allow fully vaccinated tourists to avoid tests or quarantines and broaden the list of EU regions from which it is safe to travel. Ambassadors from the 27 EU member states approved a modified European Commission proposal that people who have been fully vaccinated for 14 days should be able to travel freely from one EU country to another, current EU president Portugal said. Restrictions for other travellers should be based on the degree to which the country they are coming from has COVID-19 infections under control. The revised guidelines come as the EU introduces COVID-19 certificates that will indicate whether a person is vaccinated, has immunity because they were previously infected, or has had a recent negative test. The system is set to be ready by July 1, although some countries will launch certificates earlier.

As U.S. Withdraws, Afghan Interpreters Fear Being Left Behind (NYT) It was an offhand comment, blurted out in frustration. It may have destroyed Shoaib Walizada’s chances of earning a cherished visa to the United States. Mr. Walizada, who interpreted for the U.S. Army for four years until 2013, said that he had complained one day, using profanity, that his assigned combat vest was too small. When the episode came to light later that year, Mr. Walizada’s preliminary approval for a visa was revoked for “unprofessional conduct.” Mr. Walizada, 31, is among thousands of Afghans once employed by the U.S. government, many as interpreters, whose applications for a Special Immigrant Visa, or S.I.V., through a State Department program, have been denied. The program, established to relocate to the United States Iraqis and Afghans whose lives are threatened because they worked for the American military or government, has rejected some applicants for seemingly minor infractions and others for no stated reason. Now, as American troops depart and Afghans experience a growing sense of anxiety and despair, the visa applications have taken on renewed urgency. With the Taliban taking advantage of the U.S. withdrawal, many former interpreters say they are more likely than ever to be killed.

Israel’s Netanyahu lashes out as end of his era draws near (AP) In what appear to be the final days of his historic 12-year rule, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not leaving the political stage quietly. The longtime leader is accusing his opponents of betraying their voters, and some have needed special security protection. Netanyahu says he is the victim of a “deep state” conspiracy. He speaks in apocalyptic terms when talking about the country without his leadership. “They are uprooting the good and replacing it with the bad and dangerous,” Netanyahu told the conservative Channel 20 TV station this week. “I fear for the destiny of the nation.” Such language has made for tense days as Netanyahu and his loyalists make a final desperate push to try to prevent a new government from taking office on Sunday. With his options running out, it has also provided a preview of Netanyahu as opposition leader.

France ends Sahel military operation (Reuters) President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France’s operation battling Islamist militants in the Sahel region of West Africa would come to an end with troops now operating as part of broader international efforts in the region. France, the former colonial power, has hailed some success against Sahel militants in recent months but the situation is extremely fragile and Paris has grown frustrated with no apparent end in sight to its operations and political turmoil especially in Mali. “The time has come to begin a deep transformation of our military presence in the Sahel,” Macron told a news conference, referring to the Barkhane operation, which has some 5,100 soldiers across the region.

In Tigray, food is often a weapon of war as famine looms (AP) First the Eritrean soldiers stole the pregnant woman’s food as she hid in the bush. Then they turned her away from a checkpoint when she was on the verge of labor. So she had the baby at home and walked 12 days to get the famished child to a clinic in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. Here, in war-torn Tigray, more than 350,000 people already face famine, according to the U.N. and other humanitarian groups. It is not just that people are starving; it is that many are being starved, The Associated Press found. In farming areas in Tigray to which the AP got rare access, farmers, aid workers and local officials confirmed that food had been turned into a weapon of war. Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers are blocking food aid and even stealing it, they said, and an AP team saw convoys with food and medical aid turned back by Ethiopian military officials as fighting resumed in the town of Hawzen. The soldiers also are accused of stopping farmers from harvesting or plowing, stealing the seeds for planting, killing livestock and looting farm equipment. “If things don’t change soon, mass starvation is inevitable,” said a humanitarian worker in the region, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to escape retaliation from armed groups. “This is a man-made disaster.”

Missing Characters (Annenberg) A new study of the 200 top-grossing films produced by the United States, U.K., Australia and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019 found that just 1.6 percent of the 8,965 speaking characters in those films were Muslim. Given that 24 percent of the global population is Muslim, that’s a rather steep under-representation; further, a deeper look at the characters determined that only one of the Muslim characters was portrayed in the United States. In aggregate, the portrayals of the characters were one-dimensional: of 41 primary and secondary Muslim characters, 58.5 percent were immigrants or refugees, 87.8 percent spoke English with an accent, if at all, 39 percent were perpetrators of violence, 19 percent were dead by the end of the film, and only eight of the characters were children.

[bountyofbeads]

FOURTEEN AMERICAN CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS WITH CORONAVIRUS (COVID19) among those evacuated to the U.S.

By Anna Fifield and Alex Horton | Published February 17 at 11:43 AM ET | Washington Post | Posted Feb 17, 2020

Two planes carrying 328 Americans evacuated from a coronavirus-stricken cruise liner in Japan have landed in the United States, carrying 14 people confirmed to have been infected.

Efforts are underway to trace the passengers from a second cruise ship, currently docked in Cambodia, after an American passenger tested positive for the virus.

HERE ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

● Fourteen Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan tested positive for coronavirus but were still allowed to return to the United States. More than 300 Americans were evacuated on the two flights.

● A sharp rise in cases in Japan has raised fears that the country is entering a “new phase” of local transmission.

● Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 99 new cases from passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, increasing the total number of infections from the ship to 454.

● In China, the number of confirmed infections now exceeds 70,000, with the death toll rising to 1,770 as of Monday.

● China’s ruling Communist Party all but confirmed that it would postpone the “Two Sessions,” the important annual political meetings scheduled for early March.

● Despite continuing fears of virus transmission, Macao’s casinos will reopen after a two-week closure.

BEIJING — Fourteen Americans evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan tested positive for the illness but were allowed to board two chartered planes bound for quarantine on U.S. military bases.

Their return almost doubles the number of confirmed cases, which previously stood at 15, of the new coronavirus in the United States.

The 14 passengers tested positive for the virus after disembarking the cruise liner, which is moored off the Japanese port of Yokohama, but before boarding the planes. They were all asymptomatic so health authorities deemed them “fit to fly,” the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Monday.

They were cordoned off from the other passengers during the flight, it said.

“These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols,” the departments said.

A total of 328 Americans were evacuated on the two flights; all are due to go into quarantine for 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus, at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., or Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Flight data showed that one flight had landed at Travis late Sunday night local time, and the other in San Antonio early Monday.

Another 44 Americans from the cruise ship had previously tested positive for coronavirus and had been taken to hospitals in Japan to recover.

The World Health Organization said new data has yielded better understanding of how the virus circulates and shows a decline in new cases, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference Monday. But he cautioned against that as a sign the virus has reached its apex.

“Trends can change as new populations are affected. It’s too early to tell if this reported decline will continue,” he said. “Every scenario is still on the table.”

There are still puzzling unknowns, such as why children make up relatively few cases, though researchers are confident that coronavirus is less deadly than SARS and MERS viruses.

'NEW CASES ON THE DIAMOND PRINCESS'

Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 99 new cases of coronavirus among the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, increasing the total number of infections from the ship to 454. Of those, 18 are in serious condition, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

Yosuke Kita, a senior official in the Japanese Health Ministry, said the government will have finished testing everyone on board the Diamond Princess by the end of the day on Monday.

One of the new cases was a Russian woman, who would be taken to hospital for treatment, the Russian Embassy in Tokyo said on Twitter, and two were Australians, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Australian government said it would evacuate more than 200 of its citizens stranded onboard the Diamond Princess on a charter flight that will depart from Japan on Wednesday. They will all have to spend two weeks in quarantine in the northern city of Darwin.

“I understand that those who were on board will feel very frustrated about this,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday. “But our first responsibility is that we have to protect the health and safety of Australians in Australia today.”

The Australian plane would also carry out the 11 New Zealanders stranded on the cruise ship, said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and they would have to go into quarantine once home.

With Monday’s new cases, a total of 26 Australians and two New Zealanders have been confirmed as having the virus.

The evacuations were underway amid a continuing scramble to contain the virus, especially in China, where the outbreak began in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, in December.

The number of confirmed infections in China now exceeds 70,000, with the death toll rising to 1,770, the overwhelming majority of both occurring in Hubei province. But China’s National Health Commission has stressed that the number of new cases outside Hubei province has been declining, as authorities impose draconian restrictions on people’s movements in an attempt to stop transmission.

'TRACKING DOWN WESTERDAM PASSENGERS'

Another cruise liner, the Westerdam, owned by Holland America Line, is at the center of a coronavirus-related investigation.

Hundreds of passengers have flown home, mostly through Thailand or Malaysia, after the ship docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville and Cambodian health authorities deemed it coronavirus-free.

But an American woman has since tested positive for the virus, setting off a scramble to trace the infection.

Holland America Line said Monday that it was working closely with government and health officials in Malaysia and Cambodia, as well as experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, to try to trace people who may have been exposed to the virus.

An 83-year-old American woman who disembarked from the ship at Sihanoukville on Friday took a charter flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, along with 145 other passengers. They had all passed health checks by Cambodian authorities and cleared to disembark and travel onward.

When the woman arrived in Kuala Lumpur, she reported not feeling well and tested positive for the virus. Malaysian authorities say she is in stable condition.

Her traveling companion tested negative and none of the other passengers or crew members reported symptoms, the company said in the statement.

The Westerdam on Monday remained in Sihanoukville, where it had docked last week after spending two weeks at sea. Authorities in Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand had turned it away after seeing what had happened with the Diamond Princess, where the number of infections had grown rapidly even while the vessel and its passengers were supposed to be quarantined.

Cambodia’s strongman prime minister, Hun Sen, who has vowed not to do anything to anger China and even wanted to visit Wuhan, said his country would take the ship, which had been deemed virus-free.

The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, W. Patrick Murphy, visited the cruise ship while it was in port and posted photos on Twitter of him and his family with American passengers.

President Trump tweeted on Saturday: “Thank you to the beautiful country of Cambodia for accepting the @CarnivalCruise ship Westerdam into your port. The United States will remember your courtesy!”

'JAPAN BRACES FOR NEW VIRUS TRANSMISSION PHASE'

Amid concerns over widening clusters of outbreaks outside of China and a possible new stage in transmission patterns, Japan and South Korea changed their approaches to confronting the virus on Monday.

Japan reported a sharp rise in the number of people with coronavirus over the weekend, with 65 people now confirmed to have the virus, up from 33 on Thursday. The fact that many of the latest cases cannot be traced directly to China forced Health Minister Katsunobu Kato to admit that the virus has entered a “new phase” of local transmission.

The country had initially employed a “quarantine-based” approach, for instance restricting entry to people who had recently been in Wuhan, said Shigeru Omi, chief director with the Japan Community Health Care Organization, an organization that runs medical centers across Japan. But now the country is shifting to an approach focused on community-based control and treatment, he said.

One aspect of this was a “highly sensitive surveillance system … to allow prompt detection of cases.” Health Minister Kato said Japan can now administer more than 3,000 tests a day.

Designated hospitals will be able to take 1,800 of the most severe cases, while other hospitals will be able to take milder cases “and citizens with very light symptoms will be requested to stay home,” Omi said. People who develop symptoms will be encouraged to contact special call centers, rather than visit hospitals on their own.

Omi said that the “goal of this strategy is to slow the speed of transmission and reduce mortality” — a de facto acknowledgment that it has now become impossible to prevent the virus from spreading further in Japan.

“My gut feeling is we can avoid a situation such as Wuhan,” he said. “Some transmission is inevitable, but the case fatality rate will not be as high as Wuhan and Hubei.”

As the country was bracing for more infections, Japan’s Imperial Household Agency canceled a birthday event for Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace scheduled for Sunday. The organizers of the Tokyo Marathon said they would only allow elite racers to compete at the event on March 1, preventing tens of thousands of people from being able to participate. The event doubles as a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Apart from Japan, South Korea similarly stepped up its efforts to confront the outbreak on Monday. The country will start testing individuals for the coronavirus if they have been identified by doctors as having pneumonia-like symptoms linked to the virus, even if they have not recently traveled abroad.

The announcement came as South Korean health officials were still attempting to trace the origins of a new infection, first reported on Sunday.

'PEOPLE’S CONGRESS SET TO BE POSTPONED'

In Beijing, China’s ruling Communist Party signaled that it would almost certainly postpone the annual meeting of its legislature, the National People’s Congress and the other national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Together, these meetings are known as the “Two Sessions” and have opened on March 5 every year since 1995, except for 1997 when the meetings convened on March 1.

Officials from the NPC standing committee will meet Feb. 24 to discuss postponing the meetings, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Monday.

At the meetings, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang take to the stage in the Great Hall of the People on the wester edge of Tiananmen Square and lay out their vision for the year ahead. Some 3,000 delegates from around the country attend.

The move to delay it “underscores the gravity of the coronavirus epidemic,” according to the analysts at the NPC Observer blog. “Officially, the Council is reported to have been mainly concerned with pulling NPC delegates (over a third of whom are local officials) away from their epidemic control efforts,” the analysts said in a blog post, linking to a state media article.

Other analysts point out that it would be bad optics for the party to hold a huge meeting at a time when all public gatherings are banned, and even worse to show thousands of cadres in masks. The party’s leaders are already being criticized for their slow response to the outbreak and apparent efforts to silence those who warned about it.

Also on Feb. 24, the NPC standing committee will vote on restricting the sale of, and banning the consumption of, wild animals. The coronavirus outbreak began in a food market in Wuhan where exotic animals, including snakes and hedgehogs, were on sale. The virus is thought to have mutated and jumped from the animals to humans.

'MACAO CASINOS TO REOPEN'

The semiautonomous Chinese territory of Macao is now set to reopen its casinos on Thursday, capping a 15-day closure that has been aimed at stemming the coronavirus outbreak from spreading further in the city of 670,000 — even as the government continues to urge people not to congregate.

Macao earns billions in tax revenue from its casinos, and tourism more broadly accounts for 80 percent of its economic output.

The move was an unexpected one, however, as most analysts believed the shutdown in the world’s largest gambling hub would be extended as cases continue to spike in mainland China.

Analysts said the decision could have been prompted by Chinese leader Xi’s desire for the coronavirus not to hinder China’s overall progress and its economy. He has warned against “overreactions” to the outbreak.

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Simon Denyer in Yokohama, Japan, Min Joo Kim in Seoul, Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong and Rick Noack in Berlin contributed to this report. Horton reported from Washington.

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Trump’s soft touch with China’s Xi worries advisers who say more is needed to combat coronavirus outbreak

By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey | Published February 16 at 2:33 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted Feb 17, 2020|

President Trump has lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his handling of the growing coronavirus outbreak — a posture some in his administration are growing increasingly uncomfortable with as his advisers remain concerned about China’s lack of transparency and handling of the epidemic.

Worries about rattled financial markets and their effect on the economy as well as the delicate negotiations with China over a trade deal — a key to Trump’s reelection — have played a large role in influencing the president’s friendly posture toward China over the deadly coronavirus, according to several senior White House and administration officials. Trump has heralded Xi’s leadership and “discipline” in responding to the outbreak.

“I had a long talk with President Xi — for the people in this room — two nights ago, and he feels very confident. He feels very confident. And he feels that, again, as I mentioned, by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus,” Trump told the nation’s governors last week. “So that would be a good thing. But we’re in great shape in our country.”

U.S. and international health experts have for weeks expressed concerns that China has not been fully transparent about the breadth of the outbreak and that it cracked down on doctors who tried to sound the alarm in December. U.S. officials still do not have the information they have repeatedly asked for from China, which some have argued warrants a tougher line from the United States.

Trump has repeatedly told advisers that pushing for a harder line against China could backfire because Xi controls the government “totally” and will not work with the United States if it says anything negative about the country, said one of these senior administration officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

So far, the United States has 15 confirmed cases, though officials have warned that they expect to see more. On Sunday, Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post that 44 Americans who were traveling on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan have been infected.

Trump has remained uncharacteristically restrained in his public comments about the coronavirus, which has infected more than 70,000 people, the vast majority of whom are in China. Trump’s praise toward Xi has irked some advisers, who say the compliments are unwarranted as the United States is still working to get a team of experts access to data and Chinese sites to study the virus, aid in the response and secure all the needed information.

The United States has been working closely with the World Health Organization and engaged in other diplomatic efforts to get its experts into China. Several U.S. experts are now in Beijing, three senior administration officials said, but officials are still working to ensure that those experts get access to the data and sites they need. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still does not have the information it wants, administration officials said.

Although the United States has so far effectively contained the virus, some senior administration officials said there have been tensions within the administration over what information the president should receive, his posture toward China and what message to send to the American public. And several officials said there has been too much focus on evacuating Americans overseas — and too little on what to do if the epidemic spreads within the United States, given the continued growth of the virus.

Trump named a coronavirus task force last month that is led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and composed of top officials from the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House. It came after a Jan. 27 meeting in acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s office, where some officials argued that the administration was not taking the threat seriously enough.

For weeks, the administration’s message was that the threat to the American public remained low and the virus was not spreading within communities — but it warned that could change. Some advisers recently pushed for a more balanced message because they now expect there to be wider spread as more cases have been reported in countries outside China, according to three officials, and the administration has since adjusted its message to reflect that.

When it became clear late last month that the outbreak was far more serious and widespread than previously known, several major international and U.S. air carriers suspended flights to China for weeks. China has also halted work at several factories across the country as it tries to contain the virus, affecting some international companies’ ability to conduct business, including Hyundai.

The United States subsequently escalated its response, barring most non-U.S. citizens who recently visited China from traveling to the United States and mandating federal quarantines for Americans who had visited China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, within the past 14 days.

The markets fell as the outbreak grew. On Jan. 31, the same day several airlines suspended flights and the United States announced its escalated response, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 600 points, or 2 percent. Trump grew concerned that any stronger action by his administration would hurt the economy, and he has told advisers that he does not want the administration to do or say anything that would further spook the markets. He remains worried that any large-scale outbreak could hurt his reelection bid.

Four senior administration officials, including Fauci, a member of the task force, insisted that U.S. actions have been driven entirely by public health considerations and a desire to contain the virus.

“President Trump’s top priority is the health and welfare of the American people,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. “The president has received regular updates, including from experts within the federal government on infectious diseases.”

He added: “Secretary Azar is leading this whole-of-government approach in close coordination with the National Security Council, and is working around the clock to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.”

HHS officials have told Trump that infections could decrease in the spring when it gets warmer because most coronaviruses and upper respiratory infections — including the flu — level off as the weather warms.

The coronavirus spreading through China and in about two dozen other countries, however, has never been seen before, and little is known about how it behaves or whether it will eventually mutate. The idea that it will taper off in the spring is “mainly an educated guess,” according to one senior White House official. In Singapore, for instance, it is above 80 degrees and humid, but there are still more than 50 cases of the virus. CDC officials are now warning the president and others in the administration that cases could increase, administration officials said.

“In fairness to the president, someone told him something that has a basis in reality. . . . There is some validity in saying respiratory viruses like flu and coronavirus are seasonal,” Fauci said. “The only thing is, when you’re dealing with a pandemic-type virus that is brand new, there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen when the weather gets warm.”

Some of Trump’s advisers have contradicted his friendly posture toward China in public. Larry Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, said the United States was “disappointed” in China’s response and called on Beijing to be more transparent. Other officials, including Joseph Grogan, head of the Domestic Policy Council, have said China cannot be trusted. Peter Navarro, one of the president’s top trade advisers, has repeatedly pushed for a stronger tone.

Trump’s public statements about the virus and China’s handling of it are a stark contrast to his response as a private citizen during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, in which he panned the Obama administration’s response and called for the United States to shut its borders and not allow doctors who had been treating patients in Africa to come back to the United States for treatment.

Some officials have complained that Trump’s comments about the virus emanate from his briefings with Azar, who they say has been overly controlling in the response and has told other doctors not to get too far into the details of the virus and the outbreak with Trump. Azar is disliked by many in the White House, four administration officials said.

Fauci, however, said Azar has brought medical professionals with him to nearly every briefing and insisted they be part of Oval Office meetings.

Azar “always defers to the scientists. That’s the reason why whenever we’re in the Situation Room and the president would like some briefing, Alex always takes me and (CDC Director) Bob Redfield in with him,” Fauci said. “He always wants us to give the straight scientific information to the president.”

Azar has also wanted to be the one to announce major updates about the administration’s response to the virus, several officials said.

On Thursday, he briefed the Senate Finance Committee that the CDC would use public health labs in five cities that normally test for influenza to also test for the coronavirus, taking state health officials by surprise. One senior administration official said it was part of an effort to execute “radical transparency” with Congress and the public, noting that officials are doing their best to communicate clearly and effectively in a fast-moving situation.

It was not the first time state officials have been caught off guard by the administration’s actions. After the White House announced late last month that it would quarantine travelers who had been in the hard-hit Hubei province within the past 14 days, federal and state officials were struggling with how to carry out the travel restrictions and where to quarantine passengers because they said the order came with no advance notice and little planning.

Two administration officials said the White House was also struggling with the logistics, including last-minute planning for when planes landed with patients and potential patients. “Doing the best we can,” one official involved in the response said.

Some officials said the response has become smoother and better coordinated in recent weeks, with daily task-force calls.

“Our public health system’s the best in the world, and it’s working,” Azar said Friday. “That system is what identified the 15 cases that we have.”

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They Escaped an Infected Ship, but the Flight Home Was No Haven

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo had said that cruise ship passengers carrying the coronavirus would not be allowed to board evacuation flights, but the decision was apparently reversed at the last minute.

By Motoko Rich | Published Feb. 17, 2020, 9:54 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 17, 2020 |

TOKYO — The ground rules were clear. A day before 328 Americans were to be whisked away from a contaminated cruise ship in Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo told passengers that no one infected with the coronavirus would be allowed to board charter flights to the United States.

But as the evacuees began filing onto reconfigured cargo planes early Monday for departures to military bases in California or Texas, some noticed a tented area in one of them that was separate from the rest of the cabin.

Then reality hit: After 12 days stuck on the cruise ship as more and more people tested positive for the virus, they would now be sharing a plane with those carrying the same pathogen they were desperate to escape.

“I didn’t know until we were in the air,” said Carol Montgomery, 67, a retired administrative assistant from San Clemente, Calif. “I saw an area of plastic sheeting and tape.”

While the planes were aloft, the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement that the results for 14 passengers who had been tested two or three days earlier came back positive just as they were boarding buses to the airport. After consultations with health experts, the U.S. government decided to let the infected evacuees, who were not yet exhibiting symptoms, board the flights.

The reversal was the latest chaotic turn in a two-week quarantine of the ship that has become an epidemiological nightmare.

Even as the Americans were flying home and countries like Australia, Canada and South Korea were preparing to evacuate their own citizens, the Japanese Health Ministry announced on Monday that 99 more cases had been confirmed on the cruise ship, bringing the total to 454.

Among them was the third Japanese public health official to contract the virus while tending to passengers and crew members aboard the ship, the Diamond Princess.

The unstinting rise in infections raised questions about how the Japanese authorities would handle the offloading of passengers in two days when the quarantine period is supposed to end. Health officials have already raised the possibility that the quarantine could be extended for some passengers.

“The quarantine on the ship ended up being an unprecedented failure,” said Eiji Kusumi, a doctor specializing in infectious diseases at Navitas Clinic in Tokyo. “We should learn from this lesson that a quarantine on a ship is impossible, and we should not repeat this in the future.”

The U.S. authorities had strongly encouraged American passengers to accept the offer of a flight out. Getting them off the ship took several hours as they were screened, their passports were checked and they were loaded onto buses that took them from the port of Yokohama to Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

The State Department said the infected passengers “were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols.”

The American passengers were taken to either Travis Air Force Base in California or Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, and they will remain under quarantine for an additional 14 days.

When one of the planes landed in California, a line of officials from the military, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Homeland Security welcomed the passengers with banners that read “Welcome home.”

After being ushered through an isolation tent, they were assigned to apartments on the base. “They have flown in specialists from across the country,” said Sarah Arana, 52, a medical social worker from Paso Robles, Calif. “It’s a phenomenal amount of resources. I’m kind of blown away.”

Epidemiologists said U.S. officials had made a difficult decision to allow infected passengers onboard the charter flights.

“The degree of difficulty in getting someone sick home is much greater than repatriating people who are otherwise well and possibly incubating,” said Dr. Allen Cheng, an infectious disease specialist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr. Cheng added, “You don’t want to expose anyone on the plane who hadn’t otherwise been exposed before on the boat.”

Australia is planning to take approximately 200 passengers off the Diamond Princess on Wednesday. Dr. Cheng said that Australia had decided that “anyone who is sick or becomes sick in the next 48 hours will stay in Japan and stay in the hospital.”

With Australia and other countries preparing to help transport their citizens off the boat, the captain told the more than 2,000 people still on board that the Japanese health authorities could swab everyone for the coronavirus by the end of Monday and begin letting guests leave the ship on Wednesday.

“This disembarkation will be an ongoing process” until Feb. 22, the captain said in an onboard announcement.

The captain said the cruise line was “coordinating closely with your embassies to understand the arrangements for you once you are cleared from the quarantine on the Diamond Princess and how we can best support you.”

In a briefing on Monday, Shigeru Omi, president of the Japan Community Healthcare Organization, said that Japan had made the right decision to put the ship in quarantine based on the information available when the ship arrived in Yokohama on Feb. 3. “At that time, the international community was trying to contain the virus,” Mr. Omi said.

According to the Japanese Health Ministry, at least 55 Americans on the ship were infected with the coronavirus. Many of them remain in hospitals around Japan.

John Haering, 63, a retired operations manager for Union Pacific Railroad who lives in Tooele, Utah, was taken to a hospital in Chiba Prefecture last week with a fever and tested positive for the virus. He said he felt stranded as he lay in an isolation room.

His wife, Melanie, left on one of the charter flights. “I’m happy for her that she got out of here and that she’s going to get some attention in the U.S.,” said Mr. Haering, who retired in November and was about a third of the way through a six-month trip around the world. “But at the same time I’m sad. You feel that loss of somebody leaving.”

Mr. Haering, who said that he no longer had any symptoms or a fever but that a CT scan showed signs of pneumonia, said he was not sure how much longer he would have to stay.

“They did swab me today again, and I’ll get my test back tomorrow,” he said. “I asked the doctor if the swab shows that I’m negative, and he just shook his head and said, ‘I don’t know.’ There’s a lot of stuff that they don’t know.”

Mr. Haering said he had not heard from anyone at Princess Cruises, the company that operates the Diamond Princess, since he arrived at the hospital. Until Sunday, he had not heard from anyone at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, either.

He received a call and a follow-up email urging him to get in touch with the cruise ship company for further information about how he will get home.

“It’s very scary,” he said. “It feels like a little bit of abandonment.”

The spread of the virus on the ship was illustrated by one extended family.

Tung Pi Lee, 79, a retired physician, was left in a Tokyo hospital with a coronavirus infection while his wife, Angela, flew to California on one of the charter flights. Several of her siblings and their spouses were among the 14 infected passengers who flew home. Two were taken to Nebraska, and another was in California for treatment.

“I am glad for my aunts and uncles to be in the U.S. and to be receiving treatment here,” said JoAnn LaRoche Lee, one of Mr. Lee’s daughters. “Had they been left in Japan, I wonder what would have happened to them.”

Trying to coordinate her father’s care in Tokyo with her siblings in the United States, she said, “feels like a never-ending nightmare.”

______

Hisako Ueno, Eimi Yamamitsu and Makiko Inoue contributed reporting.

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Motoko Rich is Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times. She has covered a broad range of beats at the Times, including real estate (during a boom), the economy (during a bust), books and education.

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FOR ONE FAMILY AT CENTER OF CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, A DEATH, STRESS AND FIGHT FOR A HOSPITAL BED

By Anna Fifield and Lyric Li | Published

February 15 at 11:19 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted Feb 17, 2020

BEIJING — Twenty-first-century life pulls China’s only-child sandwich generation in two directions at the best of times. But these are not the best of times.

Take the case of Zhu Wei, a 38-year-old marketing manager for a real estate company in Wuhan, the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak that has radiated out across China and spilled into other countries around the world.

These days, Zhu is not just trying to be a good daughter and wife and mother and employee. She’s also trying to take care of her aging parents, both of whom have been infected with the pneumonia-like virus, while hoping not to put her husband and 9-year-old daughter at risk in the process.

AND ALL WHILE LIVING IN A CITY UNDER NEAR-TOTAL LOCKDOWN.

“I don’t know what will happen next, but I will try my best to keep myself fed and stay strong,” Zhu said after getting her sick, 65-year-old father into a hospital in Wuhan. She had literally fought her way through the throngs at Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital — “I am not proud of it” — to nab a bed vacated by a patient who had just died.

She’d returned home to take a bath in disinfectant and eat a dinner of crackers and tinned meat.

“I hope I can finally have a good night’s sleep tonight. Maybe after a good cry,” she told The Washington Post by phone from Wuhan.

But Zhu would not get to rest for long. She found out this week — the week her daughter was starting online learning, because all schools in China are closed — that her mother was infected with the virus, too.

The story of Zhu and her family is not an exceptional one. It is the story of one Wuhan family and also the story of tens of thousands of Chinese families who are trying to protect their health and their sanity in a moment that feels apocalyptic.

Almost 55,000 people in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, have been infected with the virus, and 1,457 people have died as of Saturday.

The Zhu family’s showdown with the coronavirus began in an entirely unremarkable way.

Her father, who owned a small business until he retired, did not make his usual trip to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan to buy fresh fish and shrimp for their family celebration on Lunar New Year’s Eve, which fell on Jan. 24 this year.

Zhu Wei had planned to go to Europe over the holidays. So her parents were planning a more modest dinner that didn’t warrant a visit to the huge market, where the coronavirus is thought to have first jumped from animals to people working there.

“It still bewilders me how my father got infected,” Zhu said, guessing it must have been at the local supermarket.

Instead of the feast, Zhu Wei and her husband and daughter went to her parents’ house for a small get-together with them and her grandmother on Jan. 23. Wuhan had gone into lockdown that morning, and the mood was somber.

The next day, Zhu canceled the European vacation. That night, her 94-year-old grandmother began coughing and developed a fever. In a pattern that has now become all too familiar, they couldn’t get her a coronavirus diagnosis and therefore couldn’t get her into a hospital.

She died at home six days later. Staff from a local crematorium came to pick up the body, and forbade anyone from the family from accompanying her.

“My grandma loved having people around,” Zhu said. “But there was no family member by her side to say goodbye to her. We were not even able to get her ashes.”

There was little time for grieving, however; two days later, Zhu’s father, who has chronic emphysema, started to show symptoms.

Then began a struggle to get him diagnosed and admitted to a hospital. Without inpatient treatment, he would die in couple of days, the doctor said.

“My mother burst into tears and fell to her knees to beg the doctors for help. But they couldn't do anything about it,” she said.

THERE WAS SIMPLY NO SPACE ANYWHERE.

“I have never felt so hopeless,” Zhu said. She filled out countless applications and dialed hotlines and used whatever connections she had. She posted on social media. She paid for immunoglobulin and a respirator and wondered if she should buy an anti-Ebola drug people were talking about. Her father was getting weaker day by day. She was worried her mother would get infected. She lost 10 pounds in three days.

Then a colleague called to say a patient had just died and there might be vacancy at Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital.

“This was my only chance,” she said. “And I knew I had to be there personally and fight for it.”

She put on a hazmat-style suit, protective goggles and three face masks. “There was no time to hesitate. I literally fought my way through for that bed.”

That was just the first step in the family’s battle. Her mother went into quarantine in a government-requisitioned hotel room. Zhu stayed alone in her parents’ house to avoid the risk of infecting her husband and daughter.

Then her mother came down with a fever. On Feb. 10, she was diagnosed with coronavirus and on Wednesday was taken to Wuhan Zijing Hospital, a private institution that has been taken over the government.

“Two of us share one room here. It’s not the cleanest place I’ve been to, and it’s difficult to sleep without a pillow, but I try to get by,” Zhu’s mother, Ding Li, who had worked as an accountant, said in messages sent through her daughter. Zhu tried to send a pillow to the ward, but no delivery driver would go near the place.

“The doctors are quite nice, but unfortunately we don’t have a respiratory expert here because all the best doctors are taking care of severe cases in other hospitals,” Ding said. “You have to understand that most doctors in Wuhan are exhausted, and I don’t want to complain or blame anyone.”

Meanwhile, Zhu’s husband, Zhang Wei, a professor of computer science at Hubei University, is due to start back at work on Monday but will have to teach courses online. At the same time, he’s having to supervise lessons for their fourth-grader, Renyin.

“Math is a piece of cake, but music is something her mom and grandma are better at. It was a bit of a struggle for me, but now I’m doing okay, I guess,” Zhang said, adding that he has been finding ways to make the “extended quality time” less boring for his daughter.

After lessons, Renyin plays Minecraft with her friends, then jumps rope or plays Legos with her dad for a bit.

The situation is trying for everyone. But they’re attempting to adjust to this disruption to their family lives and the stress the situation is placing on everyone.

“I miss Mama and Grandma, and I hope my grandparents stay strong and recover soon so that we can go to parks and watch movies together,” Renyin said over the phone. “And I hope dad improves his cooking and stops nagging at me for taking more than one piece of tissue to wipe my mouth.”

Zhang’s parents are living with them to help out, and Zhang leaves the apartment only every third day, as mandated by the authorities, to buy more supplies.

“Before my in-laws got sick, I would probably have hated being stuck at home under these inflexible regulations,” he said. “But now, I believe it’s for the best of everyone because there is a huge risk of cross-infection when too many people are moving about.”

Even once this is over, the family expects they, and Wuhan, will have to deal with new problems. The real estate market will suffer, with construction projects planned for this year delayed and prices set to plummet, Zhu said.

But that is a worry for another day. For now, she has other priorities. She is just trying to make sure her family survives.

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TOM COTTON KEEPS REPEATING A CORONAVIRUS CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT WAS ALREADY DEBUNKED

By Paulina Firozi | Published February 17 at 11:04 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted February 17, 2020 |

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) repeated a fringe theory suggesting that the ongoing spread of a coronavirus is connected to research in the disease-ravaged epicenter of Wuhan, China.

Cotton referenced a laboratory in the city, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” He said the lab was near a market some scientists initially thought was a starting point for the virus’s spread.

“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton said. “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.”

Yet Cotton acknowledged there is no evidence that the disease originated at the lab. Instead, he suggested it’s necessary to ask Chinese authorities about the possibility, fanning the embers of a conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts.

“Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says,” Cotton said. “And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.”

Cotton is referring to a well-known lab in Wuhan, a “Cellular Level Biosafety Level 4” facility with a high level of operational security that works on researching dangerous pathogens.

In response to Cotton’s remarks, as well as in previous interviews with The Washington Post, numerous experts dismissed the possibility the coronavirus may be man-made.

“There’s absolutely nothing in the genome sequence of this virus that indicates the virus was engineered,” said Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University. “The possibility this was a deliberately released bioweapon can be firmly excluded.”

Vipin Narang, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it is “highly unlikely” the general population was exposed to a virus through an accident at a lab.

“We don’t have any evidence for that,” said Narang, a political science professor with a background in chemical engineering.

“It’s a skip in logic to say it’s a bioweapon that the Chinese developed and intentionally deployed, or even unintentionally deployed,” Narang said.

After the story published, Cotton as part of a series of tweets made a distinction between the possibility the coronavirus is a man-made result of biological weapons research – which experts say should be dismissed – and other possibilities such as a lab accident. He also continued to list the engineered virus as a “hypothesis.”

Ebright, in a tweet to Cotton, said he was “pleased to hear you now distinguish” between those ideas.

The British publication the Daily Mail was one of the first to suggest a connection between the coronavirus and the laboratory in Wuhan. Later, the Washington Times ran a story under the headline, “Coronavirus may have originated in lab linked to China’s biowarfare program.”

Cotton’s Sunday remarks were not the first time he has suggested the virus may have originated in the Wuhan lab. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai pushed back on such suggestions in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” earlier this month.

“It’s true that a lot is still unknown,” Cui said when CBS host Margaret Brennan asked about Cotton’s claims. “But it’s very harmful, it’s very dangerous, to stir up suspicion, rumors and spread them among the people. For one thing, this will create panic. Another thing is that it will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus.”

Cotton responded to the ambassador in a pair of tweets following the interview, referencing the Wuhan lab. “Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you & fellow communists,” he wrote.

After Cotton’s Sunday remarks, Narang said, “These kinds of conspiracy theories are unhelpful.”

“I don’t think it’s particularly helpful, and it’s borderline irresponsible to — and it’s without evidence, so at this point it’s a conspiracy theory — peddle it,” he said. “Cotton should spend more time funding the agencies in the United States that can help contain and combat the virus rather than trying to assign blame.”

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Adam Taylor contributed to this report.

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[dpr-lahore-division]

With the compliments of, The Directorate General Public Relations,

Government of the Punjab, Lahore Ph: 99201390

No.1808/QU/RANA

HANDOUT (A)

A DELEGATION OF CHINA-PAKISTAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION CALLS ON CM PUNJAB

LAHORE, November 26:

A 36-member business delegation led by President China-Pakistan Friendship Association (CPFA) and former Under Secretary General of the UN Mr Sha Zukang called on Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar at 90-SQA on Tuesday. During the meeting, both discussed matters of mutual interest including promotion of Pakistan-China relations and CPEC related projects and it was agreed to further promote bilateral cooperation under the CPEC. Talking on this occasion, the chief minister said that China is the most trustworthy and sincere friend which has always sided with Pakistan in every hour of trial. It is sanguine that Pakistan-China relations are touching new heights and bilateral friendship is even more strengthened today. In fact, Pakistan-China friendship is going stronger day by day, he added. He said that CPEC project is a game-changer initiative for Pakistan which has written a new history of economic cooperation between the two countries. China has become a global economic power due to untiring efforts of its leadership while a solid foundation of development has been laid through CPEC project in Pakistan, he added. Usman Buzdar expressed the satisfaction that bilateral relations are further strengthened during the incumbent government of PTI adding that continuous contacts are essential to further promote the relations in future. He assured that Chinese investment will be welcomed and investors will be given every possible facility by the Punjab government. He said that public-private partnership authority has been established to promote private investment in the province and Chinese investors can take benefit of projects launched through PPP mode. Mr Sha Zukang, on this occasion, said that CPEC has given new heights to Pakistan-China relations and added that this cooperation is being strengthened with every passing moment. The CPEC has given new dimensions to Pakistan-China relations while this friendship is a glowing example of mutual cooperation, love, affection and regional peace in the whole world. The CPEC is a flagship programme of road and belt project while the people are interlinked with each other through the bonds of mutual respect. Pakistan is another home for the Chinese people and every possible step will be taken to promote cooperation with Punjab in different sectors, he added. Advisor Dr Salman Shah briefed about the steps being taken for the promotion of investment and ease of business in Punjab. Chinese Consul General Mr Long Dingbin, besides provincial ministers Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, Sardar Muhammad Asif Nakai, Sardar Husnain Bahadur Dreshak, Muhammad Mohsin Leghari, Akhtar Malik, Malik Nauman Ahmad Langrial, Advisor Dr Salman Shah, Chairman P&D and others, was also present on this occasion.

US Ambassador calls on CM Punjab: US Ambassador Mr Paul Jones called on Chief Minister Usman Buzdar at 90-SQA on Tuesday and discussed matters of mutual interest. Talking on this occasion, the chief minister said that multifaceted Pakistan-US relations expand over many decades. He said the government is committed to transforming Pakistan as a welfare state in accordance with the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He emphasized that all the citizens, including the religious minorities, enjoy equal rights. Prime Minister Imran Khan is striving to develop a new Pakistan where everyone has equal access to facilities of life. Pakistani leadership is moving towards achieving the goals of a new Pakistan and a welfare agenda, aimed at public welfare, is being implemented by the government, he said. Usman Buzdar pointed out that steps have been taken for the restoration of historical heritage and added that the Walled City of Lahore Authority has been extended to the whole of the province. Similarly, an effective tourism policy has been devised and work has been started on Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib. Punjab government is also going to establish nine universities for providing quality higher education to the students. In addition to it, nine new hospitals are being established for giving better healthcare facilities to the people and this would add nine thousand beds. Ten special economic zones will be established in Punjab and the federal government has approved six such SEZs while work is in progress on four other SEZs, he added. Usman Buzdar said that Punjab government is fully utilizing information technology tools and nine incubation centers are being set up to promote e-employment. The government has also set up public-private partnership authority to encourage investment in the province and the special package has been introduced for the development of backward areas, he added. The chief minister said that 35 percent development funds have been allocated for southern Punjab and added that these funds are non-transferable. A feasibility study is also being conducted for the construction of small dams in southern Punjab, the chief minister added. Ambassador Paul Jones, on this occasion, said that America gives special importance to its relations with Pakistan and added that cooperation with Punjab government will be further promoted. He congratulated the government for opening the Kartarpur corridor and said that a positive message has been given to the world. US Consul General Ms Catherine Rodriguez, Political and Economic Chief Mr Barry Junker was also present on this occasion along with ACS (Home) and other high officials.

CM takes notice of molestation of a girl in Jhang: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has taken notice of molestation of a girl in Jhang and sought a report from the RPO. He directed to provide justice to the affected girl and strict legal action be initiated against the accused. He also directed to provide best medical facilities to the affected girl.

CM orders to investigate incident occurred with Mehboob Tabish: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has taken notice of incident occurred with Saraiki poet Mehboob Tabish in Taunsa and sought a report from Commissioner and RPO DG Khan within 48 hours along with the direction to take legal action against the responsible persons.

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No.1809/QU/Akram

HANDOUT (A)

CHIEF MINISTER PUNJAB CONGRATULATES PTI CANDIDATE ZEESHAN KHANZADA FOR WINNING SENATE ELECTION

LAHORE, November 26:

        Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has congratulated the PTI candidate Zeeshan Khanzada for winning senate election from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In a statement, he said that success of Zeeshan Khanzada is a victory of new Pakistan of Prime Minister Imran Khan and added that opposition parties should give up their negative politics after yet another defeat because their credibility is totally eroded in the people. The 22 crore people of Pakistan are siding with the most transparent government in the history of the country, the chief minister added.

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