TheNewsGuru

Tag: Coronavirus

  • Fear of Coronavirus: Chinese couple weds in two minutes with masks on [Photos]

    Fear of Coronavirus: Chinese couple weds in two minutes with masks on [Photos]

    A Chinese couple has set the record with a two-minute long wedding attended by only six people, all wearing masks the entire time.

    Zhang Long and Chen Xiao from eastern China’s Shandong Province held a special wedding last Thursday in the bridegroom’s courtyard, with the bride’s father as the host and her mother as the photographer.

    Answering the government call for staying at home and avoiding crowds amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, many Chinese couples have chosen to postpone weddings, but Zhang and Chen agreed to press on with their schedule but scrapped all the festive trappings.

    “We’re in a critical time of epidemic prevention and control, so we decided not to invite guests or hold a banquet,” said Zhang, the bridegroom. “After all, a wedding is just a ceremony, and the most important thing is our happiness.”

    The Chinese couple, Zhang Long and Chen Xiao at the very short wedding ceremony

    On the day of the wedding, Zhang, wearing a mask, followed the custom to drive to the bride’s house in Licha Town, the city of Qingdao.

    There, in a romantic ritual, he lifted the bride’s red veil to see a mask on her face. “Because of the mask, I didn’t even know the colour of the lipstick she was wearing,” the bridegroom recalled.

    Presided by the bride’s father, the wedding lasted no longer than two minutes.

    “My father in law spoke very quickly. Bow to heaven and earth, bow to parents, bow to each other, and the wedding was over. We didn’t even have the chance to say our wedding vows,” Zhang said.

    Before the novel coronavirus swept the nation, Zhang’s plan was to have a typical Chinese wedding complete with all the pompous rituals.

    He booked a 50-table feast, 20 wedding cars and invited four pairs of groomsmen and bridesmaids.

    “Everything was canceled. He only spent several hundred yuan to marry me, but it doesn’t matter, as long as he is the right man for me,” said Chen Xiao, the bride.

    On the way back to the groom’s house, they passed three checkpoints where their body temperature was measured.

    “The volunteers there congratulated us during the checks,” Chen said. “Although no relatives or friends came in-person to congratulate us, I believe more people blessed us from their hearts.”

    Many villagers gave them thumbs up in the WeChat group chat after Zhang Long’s father announced the no-guest wedding.

    “We are in a critical time of novel coronavirus prevention. The villagers support their decision,” said Liu Jingming, party chief of the Licha Town.This is not the first no-guest wedding held amid China’s anti-coronavirus fight.

    On Jan. 27, Sun Wenlong and Liu Miaomiao also had a no-guest masked wedding in Qingdao. “When the epidemic is over, I will definitely make it up to her,” said Sun.

  • Coronavirus: China commences house-to-house arrest of sufferers

    Coronavirus: China commences house-to-house arrest of sufferers

    The Chinese authorities have allegedly started forcefully taking away people suspected of having coronavirus from their homes.

    The victims are being up in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak of the virus, and taken to camps, the London Mail reported yesterday.

    Video recordings show officials in protective suits holding onto two people by their arms before a third more resistive man is picked up from the floor and carried away in one shocking clip shared online.

    The footage, filmed in Wuhan, comes after China’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan called on a ‘people’s war’ against the fast-spreading epidemic.

    Penultimate week the country’s central government ordered the city to round up all suspected patients as well as their close contacts in mass quarantine camps.

    At the last count yesterday, more than 700 lives had been claimed by the virus, with 86 people dying on Friday alone.

    More than 34,500 are said to have been infected across the world.

    In the video one person wearing a face mask is seen being quickly pulled along by officials and is soon followed by a woman in a winter jacket who is held underneath the arms by someone in a protective suit.

    However, the officials have more trouble in removing a third person who is laying in a doorway and refusing to be picked up.

    Two people try to lift him, but after having no luck they are joined by a man in a blue apron and then two other officials.

    Despite the manpower, the group still struggle to lift the man who kicks out at them and struggles from the floor. Eventually three of the men manage to pick him up and carry the suspected patient down the stairs.

    While in another video, said to have also been filmed in China, a woman is seen being detained by several police officers and struggling against them.

    The clip was shared on Twitter claiming to show the woman being ‘arrested and put in isolation for not wearing a mask against coronavirus.’

    It comes after it was revealed that China’s central government ordered Wuhan to round up all suspected patients and anyone they are thought to have been in close contact with in mass quarantine camps.

  • Coronavirus death toll reaches 811

    Coronavirus death toll reaches 811

    The number of deaths from the new coronavirus has risen to 811 in mainland China, the country’s National Health Commission said on Sunday.

    The death toll thereby surpassed that of SARS, a respiratory disease which caused a global health scare in the early 2000, and which also began in China.

    Across China, 89 new deaths and 2,656 new confirmed cases were reported, the vast majority in the province of Hubei.

    According to the commission’s figures, health authorities recorded a total of 33,738 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak in December.

    The outbreak’s epicentre is located in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

    There, the number of new cases of pneumonia caused by the virus rose by 2,147, the provincial health commission said.

    Also 81 new deaths were reported over the last 24 hours in Hubei, bringing the total to 780.

    The virus, which has spread to about two dozen countries since first being identified, has only claimed the lives of two people outside mainland China, a Chinese man in the Philippines and a man in Hong Kong.

    Both victims had been to Hubei.

    The coronavirus broke out at a seafood market in Wuhan that reportedly sold exotic animals for consumption – similar to the outbreak of SARS.

    SARS infected 8,000 people and killed 800 globally between 2002 and 2003.

    It was linked to the consumption of civet cats, another exotic meat.

  • Ighalo out of Man Utd squad over coronavirus fears

    Ighalo out of Man Utd squad over coronavirus fears

    Odion Ighalo is not part of Manchester United’s squad, travelling to Spain for a training camp.

    The Nigerian striker has been left out over fears that he could be denied entry back into the UK because of the coronavirus outbreak

    Ighalo only arrived last week from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua on a six-month loan deal.

    There are currently three cases of coronavirus in the UK.

    United fly to Spain on Saturday for a warm-weather camp, but Ighalo will remain in Manchester, where he will undergo on a personal training and fitness programme.

    A club statement said: “The club can also confirm that, due to the current situation in China, it has been decided that new signing Odion Ighalo will not travel to Spain as it is not guaranteed that he’d clear UK immigration on return should border restrictions tighten on travellers who’ve been in China within the past 14 days.”

  • Coronavirus: U.S. announces $100m aid for China, others

    Coronavirus: U.S. announces $100m aid for China, others

    The United States Government on Friday announced its readiness to spend up to $100 million in assistance to China and other countries impacted by the deadly coronavirus.

    Secretary of State, Mr Mike Pompeo, who announced this in a statement, said the commitment would be met through existing funds.

    He said the fund would be spent “directly and through multilateral organisations, to contain and combat the novel coronavirus.”

    Pompeo said the Department of State had already facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people.

    He listed the materials to include masks, gowns, gauze, respirators and other vital items, stating that the donations underlined “the generosity of the American people’’.

    As of Thursday evening, the disease has killed no fewer than 600 persons with more than 30,000 confirmed worldwide, most of them in China where it broke out in December.

    The respiratory disease has spread to no fewer than 25 countries, including the United States, Philippines, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Thailand.

    China is reported to have earlier refused two direct offers from the U.S. to send infectious disease experts to help fight the virus’s spread earlier, and a third made through the World Health Organisation.

    But the Chinese government later told the WHO it would receive foreign assistance.

    On Monday, the Chinese government accused the U.S. of “spreading panic” over the coronavirus outbreak by evacuating its citizens from the country and restricting travel instead of offering help.

    Pompeo said the U.S. government’s commitment, in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars generously donated by the American private sector, “demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak’’.

    “This assistance only adds to what the United States has done to strengthen health security programs around the world.

    “The United States is and will remain the world’s most generous donor. We encourage the rest of the world to match our commitment.

    “Working together, we can have a profound impact to contain this growing threat,’’ he said.

  • Chinese doctor who issued early warning on coronavirus dies

    Chinese doctor who issued early warning on coronavirus dies

    A doctor who became a hero in China after sounding the alarm early on about a new coronavirus outbreak has died of the disease, the Wuhan hospital where he was being treated, said on Friday.

    Li Wenliang, a 33-year-old ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, triggered an outpour of support on social media as he was fighting the disease that has so far killed more than 600 people and infected tens of thousands.

    Li had told state media that he had been reprimanded by hospital management and party officials after alerting his colleagues about a cluster of infections tied to an animal market in the city of Wuhan.

    Li initially thought the disease was a resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an illness that killed hundreds across China in 2002-2003.

    He became a national symbol of people’s attempts to find answers about authorities’ initial reactions to the coronavirus outbreak.

    The Wuhan government has been criticised for what many saw as a failure to disclose in a timely manner the severity of the new illness, leading to possibly more infections among medical staff and the public.

    A total of 31,161 infections and 636 deaths from the new coronavirus were reported across China as of Thursday, according to the National Health Commission.

    The disease has also spread to more than two dozen other countries around the world.

  • Coronavirus not yet a pandemic – WHO

    Coronavirus not yet a pandemic – WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the coronavirus outbreak is a global public health emergency, not a pandemic.

    Coronavirus has claimed 490 lives as at Wednesday, with more than 20,000 reported cases in China and 158 cases outside that country.

    WHO, which stated this at a press conference on Tuesday in Geneva, said the agency was hopeful that that the virus would be contained.

    The UN agency acknowledged that it was challenging to contain the virus because of global mass movement.

    It explained that the virus was currently considered to be an epidemic with multiple locations.

    “We are not in a pandemic,” Dr Sylvie Briand, Director of the World Health Organisation’s Infectious Hazards Management Department, said.

    “We will try to extinguish the transmission in each of these,” she said, adding that the agency believes this “can be done with containment measures currently in place.”

    “Current control measures in place include early case detection, early isolation and treatment of cases, contact tracing and social detention measures in places where there is risk of transmission

    “ These are the core elements of any outbreak response and might be enough to stop an infection from spreading,” the official was quoted as saying.

    According to WHO, there is a “window of opportunity” to stop the deadly new coronavirus becoming a broader global crisis.

    WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the steps China took to fight the virus at its epicentre were a good way of stopping its spread.

    The praise comes as Chinese officials have been widely criticised for their initial handling of the outbreak.

  • China’s Coronavirus not as dangerous as Nigeria’s Lassa fever – NCDC DG

    Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said despite global concerns about the outbreak of Coronavirus, the disease is not as deadly as the media has painted it.

    He said Lassa fever could be more deadly than Coronavirus.

    Ihekweazu stated this when he addressed members of the House of Representatives Committee on Health Services in Abuja.

    The disease was discovered in China but has spread to about 23 other countries across the globe.

    The NCDC chief said there was no need for travel restriction to and from China due to the fear about the virus.

    He told the lawmakers that the nation was faced with a more deadly disease in Lassa fever than the Coronavirus.

    According to him, Coronavirus is a global disease with far less effect than Lassa fever.

    Ihekweazu said about 364 cases of Lassa fever had been identified in 23 states with 47 deaths.

    The NCDC noted that there might be more of such cases as a result of environmental issues in the country.

    The director general said about one per cent of those affected by Coronavirus had died, adding that the victims were mostly aged persons or those with health-related issues.

    He said human-to-human transmission of the virus had been reported in only three countries outside China.

    Ihekweazu explained that there had been a coordinated international response to the disease, stressing that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had warned against imposing travel and business restrictions against China due to the outbreak of the disease.

    On Lassa fever, the director general said there were no vaccines to control the disease.

    He said the centre was working with some development partners to develop a vaccine for Lassa fever, adding that the first stage of its tests will begin soon.

  • Coronavirus: China bows to pressure, agree to invite US health experts as death toll rises to 414

    Coronavirus: China bows to pressure, agree to invite US health experts as death toll rises to 414

    China has agreed to allow U.S. health experts into the country as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) effort to help fight the fast-spreading coronavirus, as the number of cases and mounted and deaths hit 414.

    In central China’s Hubei province, epicenter of the epidemic, China state TV reported there were 2,345 new cases of the virus and another 64 deaths, bringing the total of virus-related fatalities in Hubei to 414 by Monday.

    The Chinese stock market plunged about 8% on Monday, wiping $393 billion off the value of the Shanghai bourse, on the first day of trading following an extended Lunar New Year holiday in a bid to help keep people at home and contain the virus’ spread.

    The White House said on Monday China had accepted its offer to have U.S. experts as part of a WHO mission to study and help combat the virus that emerged in Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan.

  • Juventus stops training after opponents diagnosed with coronavirus

    Juventus stops training after opponents diagnosed with coronavirus

    Juventus suspended the activities of their under-23 team on Saturday after a fourth player at third-tier club Pianese, their most recent opponents, tested positive for the coronavirus.

    The Turin club, whose under-23 team play in Serie C, said it was a precautionary measure and they were in constant contact with health authorities.

    “It is specified that, six days after the game, the Juventus players remain asymptomatic and are under medical supervision,” added the club statement.

    Gazetta dello Sport said the players had been quarantined in their homes, though this was not mentioned by Juventus.

    Their under-23 side beat Pianese 1-0 last Sunday.

    Earlier, Pianese said that “after a series of checks, Pianese announce that a fourth player is infected by Covid-19.

    “He too is in solitary confinement at home and is under observation by the relevant authorities.”

    One member of staff has also been infected.

    The club, based in Piancastagnaio in the region of Tuscany, said on Friday that the entire squad have been quarantined in their homes.

    It said the first player tested positive on Thursday, several days after he missed a match because he was feeling slightly feverish.

    The number of deaths in Italy from the illness rose to 29 on Saturday and the accumulated total of cases reached 1,128, authorities said.

    Twenty of the 30 Serie C matches this weekend have been postponed because of the virus. Five Serie A games have also been called off.