Sunday, February 23, 2020

Coronavirus Updates: South Korea Reports New Cases, Italy Declares State Of Emergency


South Korea Reports 123 New Coronavirus Cases; Italy Declares State Of Emergency: Virus Updates





Summary:
  • South Korea reports 123 new cases, 1 new death
  • Italy announces 79 cases, declares "national emergency"; Nothern Italy put on lockdown. 
  • Japan cases triple in a week to 121
  • Japan confirms "seriously ill" patient in Tokyo
  • Hubei reports daily numbers
  • Chinese scientists find virus in urine
  • Experts propose 27 day quarantine, say 14 days likely not long enough
  • Cases outside China go exponential
  • 32 UK and European citizens arrive back in UK on evac flight
  • Outbreak reported in South Korean psychiatric ward
  • WHO team visits Wuhan; will give Monday press conference
  • Iran reports 10 new cases, deaths climb to 6
  • San Diego says 200 under 'medical observation'
  • Young woman infected five relatives without ever showing symptoms
  • South Korea cases surge 8-fold in 4 days to 433; country reports third death


Update (2105ET): China's National Health Commission has reported 18 new cases of Covid-19 and one new death outside of Hubei province. 
* * *
Update (2040ET): South Korea has finally released its numbers for Saturday. Authorities recorded an additional death, bringing the total to four, and another 123 confirmed cases, bringing the total to 556.


Weekend futures took a dive on the news, dropping 40 points. Another 6,039 cases are being tested.
  • S.KOREA REPORTS 123 ADDITIONAL CORONAVIRUS CASES, BRINGING TOTAL TO 556 - YONHAP
  • FOURTH S.KOREAN CORONAVIRUS PATIENT DIES - KOREA'S CDC
  • S.KOREA REPORTS 123 ADDITIONAL CORONAVIRUS CASES, BRINGING TOTAL TO 556 - YONHAP
Here's a breakdown of the new data:
  • 123 new cases, 1 new death
  • 75 new cases linked to church
  • 48 others with unknown link
  • Total: 556 cases, 4 deaths
  •  6,039 people being tested
That's a more than ten-fold increase in cases in a week...

Update (1940ET): Health officials from two South Korean provinces have reported a total of 28 new cases ahead of a national update, according to BNO.

Update (1920ET): NHK reports another case of a "seriously ill" patient in Tokyo. The man allegedly traveled to Indonesia - one of the few countries in the region that hasn't confirmed a single case - while he was sick.
* * *
Update (1820ET): Officials in Hubei have reported their latest figures on the outbreak, with the number of new cases doubling compared to yesterday (630 on Saturday new cases vs. 366 on Friday), while the number of confirmed deaths dipped (96 vs 106). 

Perhaps officials figured they could only fudge the number of new cases by so much since the WHO team was in Wuhan on Saturday. Who knows. But it's notable that cases doubled, the latest sign that China's policy of quarantine and containment doesn't seem to be working. At this point, whatever the numbers coming out of China, they almost are no longer relevant, since nobody believes them anyway.
  • CHINA'S HUBEI PROVINCE, EPICENTRE OF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK, REPORTS 630 NEW CASES ON FEB 22 VS 366 ON FEB 21
  • CHINA'S HUBEI PROVINCE, EPICENTRE OF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK, REPORTS 96 NEW DEATHS ON FEB 22 VS 106 ON FEB 21
  • DEATH TOLL FROM CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN CHINA'S HUBEI AT 2,346 AS OF END-FEB 22
And here's just one more reason why: In a video recently posted to twitter, a doctor from a hospital in Hunan confirms that he counted 50 new patients the other day and submitted those numbers to health officials. In turn, they included only 1 case in the official count.
Mainstream American news organizations including the Washington Post are now questioning China's numbers, as we noted earlier.
Meanwhile, it looks like Italian health officials have confirmed 3 new cases, bringing the total to 79.

Update (1730ET): The first offshore coronavirus cluster was the Diamond Offshore cruise ship, where it now appears hundreds of infected passengers mingled with healthy tourists (and it now appears that Japan lied that it had tested passengers) with many returning to their country of origin now that the quarantine has been broken; the second cluster and third clusters are South Korea and Japan; the former has seen cases doubling every day for the past four, hitting 433 on Saturday in an exponential increase in new cases (see chart below), while Japan is said to have hundreds of cases as well.
And while the recent surge in Iranian cases has put much of the middle east on notice over the possibility that the embargo-crippled nation may have emerged as a middle eastern hub of Coronavirus cases, the latest confirmed offshore cluster to emerge IS Italy, where late on Saturday prime minister Conte announced that a total of 76 cases have been confirmed in 5 regions, declaring the Coronavirus situation a "National Emergency." The Prime Minister also said that Italy has implemented a law decree to fight the coronavirus, and is committed to limiting the spread of the Coronavirus.

I'm in Rome and this just happened.
COVID/Corona? Who knows. They aren't taking chances.#italy #COVID #COVID19italia pic.twitter.com/W0lNQgxvCH
— GrainStats.com 🌾 (@GrainStats) February 22, 2020

And while Conte said that Italy won't ask for a suspension of the Shengen pact (yet) which allows customs-free travel across Europe, but will adopt a decree to support the economy in certain areas, Italy's Ansa reported that virtually all of Northern Italy is being put on lockdown and that all schools and universities in the affected areas to be closed until the end of the month.
  • NORTHERN ITALY WHERE CORONAVIRUS CASES REPORTED ON LOCKDOWN - ANSA NEWS
  • ITALY TO BAN TRAVEL FROM CERTAIN VIRUS AFFECTED AREAS: CONTE
  • ALL SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES IN AFFECTED AREAS TO BE CLOSED UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH, SCHOOL TRIPS ABROAD ALSO CANCELLED - ANSA NEWS

Elsewhere, as the global pandemic spreads, Israel's Ministry of Health said that it expected soon to close borders for non-residents.
Meanwhile, on Saturday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its alert level for travel in Japan to Level 2. That level warns of “sustained community transmission” and calls for “precautions for high-risk travelers,” such as those with chronic medical conditions.
Though Japan has reported only one death - amid nearly 80,000 cases and almost 2,400 deaths worldwide - it has a relatively large number of cases, 121, largely due to the spread of the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship which it facilitated.
To summarize, Iran, Italy and South Korea reported new deaths Saturday. In total, there are some 77,000 cases worldwide, with over 2,300 deaths, almost all in China, but that imbalance is set to shift dramatically in the coming days.





Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)