Customs department asked to dispose of hazardous goods after Beirut blasts

Revenue department sends letter after report last week 740 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was lying in storage near Chennai.

The Customs department must ensure “hazardous, explosive” goods lying in stores are disposed of safely, the revenue department has said after a devastating explosion on Friday killed more than a 100 people in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.

The department started a safety campaign Tuesday to dispose of “un-claimed/un-cleared/seized/confiscated goods” by August l. It was launched after reports last week that 740 tonnes of ammonium nitrate—the explosive material in the Beirut blasts–were stored in a Container Freight Station (CFS) near Chennai. Customs seized the material in 2015 after the company importing it failed to show a licence. A letter signed by Kevin Boban, Officer on Special Duty (Customs) at the Central Board of Indirect Taxes, was sent to all the Principal Chief Commissioner of Customs/ Custom (Preventive, Cental Tax and Customs on Monday.

“Expeditious disposal of goods that are of hazardous or explosive nature is especially necessary to prevent any damage to life and property that may arise. Needless to state, till the un-claimed/un-cleared/seized/confiscated goods are disposed as per law, they need to be kept securely and safely in accordance with all extant instructions,” said the letter. The revenue department asked the Commissioner of Customs to work with the Pollution Control Board or fire safety departments to ensure safe storage and handling of hazardous and explosive materials in a Customs area.

Coronavirus: Delhi mohalla clinic doctor tests positive, 800 quarantined

According to the Delhi Health Department, 800 people have been quarantined for 14 days

As many as 800 people have been quarantined for 14 days after they came in contact with a mohalla clinic doctor in Delhi, who was tested positive for the lethal infection, said the state’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain. The Minister informed that a mohalla clinic doctor and four others have tested positive after they came in contact with a woman who returned from Saudi Arabia. The doctor’s wife and daughter have also tested positive for lethal infection.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Delhi HC suspends hearings till April 15 amid lockdown

“Covid-19 cases in Delhi have risen to 36. A mohalla clinic doctor and four others have been tested positive after they came in contact with an infected woman who returned from Saudi Arabia. The doctor’s wife and daughter have also tested positive,” Jain told media. According to the Delhi Health Department, 800 people have been quarantined for 14 days as they came in contact with mohalla clinic doctor.”A total of 800 people who came in contact with the mohalla clinic doctor have been quarantined for 14 days,” he said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday assured people that the supply of essential commodities will not be hampered at any cost and added that personnel manning shops and engaged in other essential services would be issued E-passes promptly to facilitate their movement in the national capital during the 21-day lockdown period.

Coronavirus pandemic: Africa gets much-need care package from Jack Ma

An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from Guangzhou, China arrived with 5.4 million face masks, 1.08 million testing kits, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 protective face shields

With the coronavirus increasing its spread across Africa, the continent received a much-needed care package from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. A cargo flight containing more than 6 million medical items arrived Sunday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The supplies from Ma, the founder of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, will be distributed to African countries in need of supplies to battle the spreading Covid-19 pandemic.

An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from Guangzhou, China arrived with 5.4 million face masks, 1.08 million testing kits, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 protective face shields, according to Ethiopian officials and the Jack Ma Foundation. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week pledged to distribute the supplies to other countries in Africa. Ma has sent similar shipments of medical supplies to countries in Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.

The Coronavirus has been relatively slow to reach Africa but has now spread to at least 43 of the continent’s 54 countries, with more than 1,100 cases confirmed. In response many African countries are imposing restrictions. Mozambique confirmed its first case Sunday and cancelled all visas to the country, closed schools and banned gatherings of more than 50 people.

Kenya announced new restrictions Sunday, after it confirmed eight new cases, bringing its total to 15. It closed all bars and restaurants as of midnight Sunday and halted all services at churches and mosques, saying that houses of worship had not implemented safe social distancing. Kenya also suspended all international passenger flights effective Wednesday and closed the border posts to neighboring Uganda, except for the transport of cargo.

Covid-19 cases on rise; India needs to prepare for multiple scenarios: BCG

The number of coronavirus-affected people in India reached 360 on Sunday with reports of seven deaths

+As Covid-19 cases in India swell and its impact and recovery scenarios change by the day, it is high time for the Indian government and authorities concerned to prepare for multiple scenarios — act now, prepare for near term and build for medium term, a new BCG report has said. According to the report titled “Covid-19: India Perspective,” three potential scenarios could emerge – Rapid recovery (V) or Slow comeback (U) or Protracted challenge (L) driven by evolving properties of the virus, containment and mitigation, treatment/vaccine development lead-time and policy and fiscal response. The number of coronavirus-affected people in India reached 360 on Sunday with reports of seven deaths. “Covid-19 scenario is unprecedented — high contagious rate (vs. earlier flus), large scale lockdowns and fear and panic due to digital connectivity,” the report said.

“Set up a rapid response office, safeguard people and customers, stress test the financials, manage revenue and demand, reconfigure supply chain, renew business planning and restructure, reposition and reimagine the business,” it added. “It is time to establish a liquidity office to forecast cash flows and manage/mitigate risks, ensure rigorous, prudent cash management and governance and reduce non-critical uses of cash, assess the viability of current investment roadmaps and dividend policy and share repurchase plan, stress test cash-flow from financing/investing based on market scenarios and develop concrete action plans based on 3-5 medium term macro-economic scenarios,” the findings showed.

According to the report, it is necessary for the government to engage with shareholders and clearly communicate action plans to key stakeholders, revise target-setting and objectives (sales targets, production plans and related KPIs), re-define budgets and targets as frequently as possible and necessarily by geography/market/segment. “Establish demand-side rapid response team to monitor marketing, sales and pricing implications, understand changing customer needs, assess 1st order impact, downside risks on revenues, customer pipeline, accounts receivables and optimize pricing and product offering to meet immediate consumer needs,” the report highlighted…

China's HIV drug experiment to treat novel coronavirus outbreak fails

The test “was a heroic effort. Unfortunately, the trial results were disappointing”

A pill containing two HIV drugs that was touted as a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus was not effective, according to a study released late on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. A test in Chinese patients with severe COVID-19 disease found the 99 who received AbbVie Inc’s Kaletra, a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, fared no better than the 100 who received standard care.

People who received the combination showed small gains in the time to clinical improvement and mortality at 28 days, but the differences were not statistically significant. People on the drugs showed clinical improvement after a median of 15 days compared to 16 days with standard care, a difference the researchers characterized as “significant, albeit modest.” The study results were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The lopinavir-ritonavir combination also produced more side effects, prompting the treatments to be halted in 13.8% of patients. The drug combination was not tested against a placebo, which is the gold standard in assessing the effectiveness of a treatment. All of the patients had pneumonia and were treated at Jin Yin-Tan Hospital in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic began. The treatment “was not associated with clinical improvement or mortality in seriously ill patients with COVID-19 different from that associated with standard care alone,” concluded the team, led by Dr. Bin Cao of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases…

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Coronavirus may make 25 mn jobless, workers to lose $3.4 trn in income: UN

It added however that an internationally coordinated policy response could ‘significantly lower’ that number

The COVID-19 pandemic will significantly increase global unemployment, pushing up to nearly 25 million more people out of work, the United Nations said on Wednesday. “The economic and labour crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic could increase global unemployment by almost 25 million,” the International Labour Organisation said as it released a fresh study.

It added however that an internationally coordinated policy response could “significantly lower” that number. The COVID-19 pandemic will push millions more into unemployment, underemployment and working poverty, the United Nations said on Wednesday, warning that workers globally stood to lose up to $3.4 trillion in income this year alone. “Falls in employment… mean large income losses for workers,” the International Labour Organisation said, releasing a report showing workers stand to lose between $860 billion and $3.4 trillion by the end of 2020.

Covid-19: Entrepreneurs urge PM Modi to scale up testing infra, capacity

India must increase its efforts for asymptomatic testing at a large scale to diagnose community transmission, say entrepreneurs in their representation

India remains at the bottom among all nations affected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) when it comes to testing suspected cases, even as the number of cases in the country is increasing rapidly. There is a dire need for India to test, not just those who might die, but also those who might spread the virus. A group of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to scale up testing infrastructure and capacity by allowing the private sector to participate in the testing process.

In a presentation prepared by venture capitalists and founders of 51 start-ups and businesses, including Abhiraj Singh Bhal, co-founder of Urban Company (formerly Urban Clap), CRED founder Kunal Shah, and Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl, said that countries which had acted “early and strongly”, such as South Korea, Singapore and Japan, had been able to somewhat control the spread when compared with countries that acted late — Irab, Italy, France and the US, among others.

“With one of the lowest coronavirus testing rates in the world, the country must scale up its efforts by aggressively testing those with symptoms and those without symptoms, because asymptomatic people are more likely to spread the virus if they are not diagnosed in time,” said the presentation. It noted that India must increase its efforts for asymptomatic testing at a large scale to diagnose community transmission. As the number of coronavirus cases scale up, so should the testing of asymptomatic at the earliest.

According to the current testing protocols in the country, India can conduct up to 10,000 tests a day. And only those with a history of travel to high-risk countries affected by the virus and people who came in contact with those having tested positive are asked to be quarantined for 14 days, and those who show symptoms of the infection are tested.

Clinical trial for coronavirus vaccine to begin today in US, says official

Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine

A clinical trial evaluating a vaccine designed to protect against the new coronavirus will begin Monday, according to a government official. The first participant in the trial will receive the experimental vaccine on Monday, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the trial has not been publicly announced yet. The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, the official said.

Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. Testing will begin with 45 young, healthy volunteers with different doses of shots co-developed by NIH and Moderna Inc. There’s no chance participants could get infected from the shots, because they don’t contain the virus itself. The goal is purely to check that the vaccines show no worrisome side effects, setting the stage for larger tests.

Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as COVID-19 cases continue to grow. Importantly, they’re pursuing different types of vaccines shots developed from new technologies that not only are faster to produce than traditional inoculations but might prove more potent. Some researchers even aim for temporary vaccines, such as shots that might guard people’s health a month or two at a time while longer-lasting protection is developed. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia…

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Pak raises Kashmir issue at Saarc Covid-19 line; 'churlish', says India

PM proposed the creation of an emergency fund to combat the pandemic and pitched India’s initial offer of $10 million

It was “churlish” of Pakistan to politicise a humanitarian issue by raking up the Kashmir matter at a video conference between SAARC leaders held with an aim to chalk out a joint strategy to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Indian government sources said on Sunday. “Pakistan sent their Health Minister who was uncomfortable in speaking. He was given a slip. It’s a churlish approach. This is a humanitarian issue and Pakistan tried to politicise the humanitarian issue,” the government sources said.

They criticised Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s absence from the conference, noting that the initiative witnessed the participation of leaders of all SAARC nations including Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who was discharged from the hospital on Saturday after undergoing a kidney transplant. “Even Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli participated a day after he was discharged from the hospital. Each leader participated from the SAARC except Pakistani PM Imran Khan,” sources said.

The Pakistani side was represented by Zafar Mirza, State Minister for Health, who in his address at the conference, said that it was imperative that the lockdown in Kashmir be lifted in view of the health emergency after the coronavirus outbreak. “It is a matter of concern that COVID-19 has been reported from Jammu and Kashmir. In view of the health emergency, it is imperative that all lockdown in the territory must be lifted immediately,” Mirza said at the conference. “Opening up communications and movement will facilitate the dissemination of information, allow distribution of medical supplies, and enable containment and relief efforts to proceed unimpeded,” he added. Restrictions have been imposed in Jammu and Kashmir following the Indian government’s move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution that accorded special status to the region.

As coronavirus becomes pandemic, here's how the world is dealing with it

Mainland China had 15 new infections, down from 24 cases a day earlier, bringing the total to 80,793. The death toll touched 3,169, up by 11 from the previous day

More than 127,000 people have been infected globally and over 4,700 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements. Mainland China had 15 new infections, down from 24 cases a day earlier, bringing the total to 80,793. The death toll touched 3,169, up by 11 from the previous day.

EUROPE

• Poland has reported its first death from coronavirus. So far 47 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the country.
• Greece reported its first fatality, a 66 year-old-man who had returned from a religious pilgrimage to Israel and Egypt at the end of February.
• Italy’s death toll from the coronavirus epidemic shot past 1,000 as the economic impact worsened. The total number of infections rose to 15,113.
• The number of confirmed cases across the UK rose 29% to 590 over the past 24 hours. Ten people have died.
• The death toll in France rose to 61 from Wednesday’s 48. The country will close all nurseries, schools and universities from Monday.
• Turkish schools will be closed for one week and universities for three weeks from March 16 and sports events will be held without spectators until end-April.
• Austria will deny entry to people arriving from Italy, ban indoor events of more than 100 people and close schools from next week until April, along with the Czech Republic which is also closing schools and universities.
• Bulgaria plans to declare a state of emergency as the country’s confirmed cases rose sharply to 23.
• Ukraine said it would restrict mass events and close schools and universities in capital Kiev.

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Coronavirus outbreak can now be classified as a pandemic, says WHO

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was troubled by the spread and severity of the outbreak, along with a lack of action taken to combat it.

The new coronavirus episode would now be able to be portrayed as a pandemic, the leader of the World Health Organization declared Wednesday. WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was disturbed by the spread and seriousness of the episode, alongside an absence of activity taken to battle it.”WHO has been surveying this episode nonstop and we’re profoundly concerned, both by the disturbing degrees of spread and seriousness, and by the disturbing degrees of inaction,” he told a news gathering in Geneva.

“We have in this way made the appraisal that COVID-19 can be portrayed as a pandemic.” The quantity of cases in more than 100 nations around the globe has ascended to more than 124,000, with more than 4,500 passings, remembering a hop for fatalities in Iran and Italy specifically, as per an AFP count. China remains the most exceedingly awful influenced nation with in excess of 80,000 affirmed cases and more than 3,000 passings. Tedros said that in the course of recent weeks, the quantity of cases outside China had expanded 13-overlay and the quantity of influenced nations had significantly increased. He said he anticipated the quantity of cases and passings would develop in the coming days and weeks.

“Pandemic isn’t a word to utilize softly or recklessly,” he told correspondents, however he focused on that “depicting the circumstance as a pandemic doesn’t change WHO’s evaluation of the risk presented by the infection.”It should not be taken by countries as a signal to give up on efforts to contain the virus with methods like contact-tracing, he said.

Coronavirus scare: Over 140,000 fliers under surveillance, says Kejriwal

The chief minister said that 168 isolation beds have been set up at 25 hospitals for coronavirus patients.

The Delhi government has requested DTC and group transports, metro and emergency clinics to be cleaned all the time as a careful step to manage the novel coronavirus, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday. Tending to a question and answer session, Kejriwal said that three instances of coronavirus have been accounted for in Delhi up until this point and one case is still under scrutiny. The central priest said that 168 detachment beds have been set up at 25 emergency clinics for coronavirus patients. He spoke to the individuals in Delhi that in the event that anyone from their neighborhood had come back from outside nations in the previous 14 days, they ought to educate the administration.

The main priest, who led a state team on Sunday, said the legislature was completely arranged to manage the novel coronavirus, including that individuals don’t have to freeze. “A request has been given to sterilize DTC, group transports, Delhi Metro and emergency clinics consistently,” he said. “Three instances of coronavirus have been accounted for in Delhi up until now. One case is still under scrutiny. I need to advise this to everybody that the Delhi government is stressed over it yet we are completely arranged to handle it.

There is no compelling reason to frenzy and we need everybody’s participation,” he said. In the wake of looking at the three cases, it was found out that the main tainted individual interacted with 105 individuals, second interacted with 168 over the most recent 14 days while the third individual interacted with 64 individuals, he said.”All the individuals who interacted with them are being disengaged and their examples are being gathered and checked for manifestations,” he included. Sound individuals need not wear cover and there is no compelling reason to stock up veils at your homes it is possible that, he said.

Coronavirus outbreak: Airports start stringent screening to check spread

All thanks to several doctors on standby, the queues of fliers are manageable

The lines and monotony of air terminal travel just got longer, on account of another cleanliness convention at air terminals. Registration staff watch withdrawing travelers for sneezes, runny noses, and hacks. Mentors taking travelers to and from airplane are washed down every day with liquor based cleaning specialists. Infrared thermometers welcome every single worldwide traveler showing up at Indian air terminals. The screening of travelers from China had started on January 17 and was later extended to cover another 13 influenced nations yet with the identification of 39 cases, the administration has raised the preventive measures at all air terminals. Requests for all inclusive screening were given on Thursday and metropolitan and state specialists were quickly called to help with the undertaking.

Travelers showing up at Mumbai and Delhi air terminals needed to sit tight in a line for as long as 40 minutes for the pre-migration wellbeing check. By Friday, be that as it may, the lines possessed abbreviated and the hanging tight energy for most travelers had decreased to 5-15 minutes as extra specialists and paramedics were deputed for checks. Be that as it may, around the same time, the procedure was fixed further when the legislature requested separate entries at customs and movement and separate stuff belts for travelers showing up from 12 ‘helpless’ nations. The air terminals still can’t seem to execute this mandate.

“It took 10-12 minutes to finish the wellbeing screening. It was not packed however the air terminal specialists ought to give separate counters to senior residents,” said Saleel Mohidekar who showed up from the US in Mumbai on Friday. A US resident who likewise showed up on Friday said Mumbai air terminal expected to give hand sanitisers and wipes to outside nationals who are finger imprinted on appearance…

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US spy agencies monitor COVID-19 spread; concerned about outbreak in India

US intelligence agencies are also focusing on Iran, where the country’s deputy health minister has fallen ill during a worsening outbreak

US insight offices are checking the worldwide spread of coronavirus and the capacity of governments to react, sources acquainted with the issue said on Thursday, notice that there were worries about how India would adapt to an across the board flare-up. While there are just a couple of known cases in India, one source said the nation’s accessible countermeasures and the potential for the infection to spread given India’s thick populace was a focal point of genuine concern.

US insight organizations are likewise concentrating on Iran, where the nation’s appointee wellbeing priest has become sick during a compounding flare-up. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States was “profoundly concerned” Tehran may have concealed insights concerning the spread of coronavirus. A U.S. government source said Iran’s reaction was viewed as incapable on the grounds that the administration just has negligible capacities to react to the episode.

Another source said U.S. offices were likewise worried about the feeble capacity of governments in some creating nations to react to an episode. The U.S. Place of Representatives Intelligence Committee has gotten an instructions on the infection from the covert agent organizations. “The Committee has gotten an instructions from the IC (insight network) on coronavirus, and keeps on accepting reports on the episode regularly,” an authority of the House Intelligence Committee told Reuters…

Global shares head for worst week since 2008 crisis on coronavirus fears

Wall Street shares led the rout as the S&P 500 fell 4.42 per cent, its largest percentage drop since August 2011

Global share prices headed for the worst week since the darkest days of the world financial crisis in 2008 as investors braced for the coronavirus to become a pandemic and rapidly spread around the world. Hopes that the epidemic that started in China would be over in a few months and economic activity would return to normal have been shattered, as new infections reported around the world now surpass those in China.

“The coronavirus now looks like a pandemic. Markets can cope even if there is big risk as long as we can see the end of the tunnel,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. “But at the moment, no one can tell how long this will last and how severe it will get.” MSCI all country world index fell 3.3 per cent on Thursday to bring its losses so far this week to 8.8 per cent, on course for its biggest weekly decline since a 9.8 per cent plunge in November 2008.

Wall Street shares led the rout as the S&P 500 fell 4.42 per cent, its largest percentage drop since August 2011. It has lost 12 per cent since hitting a record close on Feb. 19, marking its fastest correction ever in just six trading days while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,190.95 points, its biggest points drop ever. In Asia, Australian shares dropped 2.8 per cent to a six-month low while futures suggested Japan’s Nikkei is on course to fall more than 2 per cent.

Facebook bans ads with false claims about products linked to coronavirus

Ads that guarantee a cure or prevention are also banned

Facebook said Wednesday that it is banning ads that make false claims about products tied to the new coronavirus. The social network said it is removing ads that feature a product and imply a limited supply, seeking create a sense of urgency in their mention of coronavirus. Ads that guarantee a cure or prevention are also banned, it said. For instance, ads for face masks that claim the products are 100% guaranteed to prevent the spread of the virus are not allowed, the company said.

The ban went into effect this week. Facebook had previously banned ads, along with regular unpaid posts, that peddle fake cures such as drinking bleach, spread conspiracy theories about the virus, or discourage people from seeking medical treatment. The ban went into effect as the World Health Organization reported that the number of new cases outside China exceeded the number of new infections inside the country for the first time on Tuesday. The COVID-19 virus has now spread to at least 39 countries.

Coronavirus : Toll crosses 1300; 242 deaths in a day in China’s Hubei

The death toll from coronavirus (COVID-19) in China jumped to 1355 on Wednesday, with the number of confirmed cases rising to 44,763. Catch LIVE updates

The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic continues to climb. So far, the virus outbreak has claimed 1,355 lives with 242 new fatalities reported in the worst-affected Hubei province on Wednesday. The number of confirmed cases abroad rose to 440 with one death so far in the Philippines. Japan reported the highest number of 203 cases with a majority of them from a cruise ship. On Wednesday, two Indian crew on board a cruise ship off the Japanese coast were tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Indian Embassy in Japan said as authorities confirmed that 174 people have been infected with the deadly disease. The virus, now named COVID-19, has spread to over 20 countries, including India.

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Stranded by coronavirus blockade, Chinese man fights to get back to work

Tian Bing has spent six straight nights curled up in the back of his white sedan, stranded at an expressway service station in eastern Jiangsu province in China because of a blockade aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday, the 35-year-old completed a near-2,000 km (1,243 mile) drive from his hometown to Taixing, a city of about 1 million people in Jiangsu, to return to work. But policemen guarding the highway exit to the city, where he runs a home appliances repair business, told him turn back. The reason: Tian is not considered a local resident under China’s Byzantine hukou system, barring him from entry due to the city’s recent decision to keep out outsiders.

China’s Hubei province communist party chief relieved of duty

The head of the Communist Party in the Chinese province of Hubei, the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than a thousand people, has been relieved of duty, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong has been appointed as the new secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Coronavirus Update: 636 dead, 31,161 infected; Twitter mourns doctor’s death

The virus, called 2019-nCoV, is a coronavirus – which infects the nose, throat, or sinuses – and has pneumonia-like symptoms. The death toll has now risen to 636 in China. Catch LIVE update

The death toll from the novel coronavirus in China jumped to 636 on Friday, with 31,161 infected. Out of the total rise in the toll, central Hubei province – the epicentre of the outbreak – reported 69 deaths, including 64 in the provincial capital Wuhan. Across mainland China, there were 3,143 new confirmed infections. Authorities are fighting to stop it from spreading as millions travel for Chinese New Year, and scientists are trying to understand the virus, which has not been seen by humans before, and its effects. Experts say the virus, called 2019-nCoV can be spread from human to human.

Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of the eight whistle-blowers who warned other medics of the Novel coronavirus outbreak but were reprimanded by the police, died of the epidemic on Thursday. Meanwhile, China vehemently denied a Taiwan media report that Beijing is under-reporting the death toll and infected cases from the virus outbreak.

“On late Saturday evening, the Tencent, which runs popular social media APP weChat showed confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus in China as standing at 154,023, ten times the official figure at the time…Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day,” the report claimed.

Yuan inches lower, set for losing week on anxiety over virus impact on economy

China’s yuan eased against the dollar on Friday as it staggered towards a feeble end to a week that saw no end in sight to the country’s coronavirus epidemic even as Beijing stepped up containment efforts and support measures for the economy. While investors have been comforted by China’s moves to restore calm to battered markets, confidence remains fragile as the death toll from the outbreak continued to climb sharply to over 600, leaving policymakers fretting over the potential drag on global growth..

India’s first coronavirus case: Kerala student in Wuhan tested positive

Around 806 people are under observation now, of which almost 796 are in-home quarantine

India has reported its first case of novel coronavirus in Kerala, where a woman studying in China’s Wuhan University has tested positive for the deadly virus. The patient has been kept in an isolation ward at the general hospital in Thrissur and her condition is stable, according to an official release.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state government was closely monitoring the situation. “While we need to be cautious, it is no cause for panic. Our health network is capable of handling any emergencies. People should avoid spreading the news that is intimidating,” he said.

Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a virus identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan. The death toll from the virus has risen to 170, and the majority of the victims are from China. According to Kerala officials, the state government has asked people arriving from China to “voluntarily report” to the health department for screening for the virus, and it was during such screening that the patient was detected with coronavirus symptoms. Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja has called a meeting with the health secretary and other officials from the Directorate of Health Services to take stock of the situation.

Coronavirus: Air India, IndiGo join global peers to suspend China flights

The airlines saw a large number of cancellations impacting loads.

Air India and IndiGo joined their global peers British Airways, Lion Air and Lufthansa in announcing temporary suspension of their China flights, as India clamped down on travel to stop the outbreak of coronavirus.

Air India said Mumbai-Delhi-Shanghai flight has been cancelled from January 31 to February 14, while IndiGo is suspending its Delhi-Chengdu and Bengaluru-Hong Kong flight from February 1-20. IndiGo, however, will continue to operate its Kolkata-Guangzhou flight. Air India has also decided to cut the frequency of its daily Delhi-Hong Kong flights to thrice per week from January 31 to February 14. Bookings on the routes slumped in the last few days as businesspeople postponed their tours. The airlines saw a large number of cancellations impacting loads.

Read: What is Coronavirus

In a statement, IndiGo said it has taken the decision after a careful assessment of the situation. “These are purely temporary and precautionary measures. We understand that the measures will cause inconvenience to our customers and we be refunding the full amount to impacted passengers.”

“For now we will continue to operate our Kolkata-Guangzhou flight which we are monitoring on a daily basis. As for our operating crew we are ensuring they return to India on inbound flights without any layover in China.”