February 20 coronavirus news

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) the total global lost revenue for airlines could be $29.3 billion due to coronavirus.

IATA announced that its initial assessment of the impact of the novel coronavirus 2019 outbreak — also known as COVID-19 — shows a potential 13% full-year loss of passenger demand for carriers in the Asia-Pacific region. 

“The sharp downturn in demand as a result of COVID-19 will have a financial impact on airlines — severe for those particularly exposed to the China market,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO.

Here's how the group explained it in a press release:

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new travel advisory today for Japan due to the coronavirus outbreak — the second coronavirus-related travel advisory the agency has issued outside of mainland China.

The CDC advises travelers to “practice usual precautions,” in accordance with a “Watch - Level 1” notice out of three possible levels. 

Yesterday, the agency listed the first travel notice outside of mainland China — for Hong Kong, which also carries the “Level 1” advisory.  

These precautions include avoiding contact with sick people and cleaning hands. The agency also advises people to seek medical advice if they have spent time in Japan during the last two weeks and feel ill with fever or respiratory symptoms.

The agency currently lists mainland China as “Warning - Level 3” and advises travelers to “avoid nonessential travel.” The notice excludes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Chinese officials say the government has taken prudent action in the handling of the novel coronavirus. China's State Council Information Office held a news conference today to lay out this case.

Yu Xiangyang, the deputy secretary general of State Council, said the city of Wuhan was put under travel restrictions and the Lunar New Year holiday was extended after President Xi Jinping instructed a senior adviser to "supervise efforts to contain the novel coronavirus." 

Yu also said the government mobilized resources and imports after finding daily demand was 15,000 protective suits a day when the supply was only 10,000 suits a day.

Yu said there were not enough hospital beds at first but it was not acceptable to turn suspected cases away. He said the government established an "accountability mechanism" to ensure that "officials and governments at all levels are held accountable in a city and a province". 

In a bid to ensure accountability, Yu said, "We will exercise maximum penalty to all those not doing their job well while working on prevention and control of the epidemic” and said the government was conducting “undercover investigations in communities.” 

Yu went on to say all reported missed cases covered in the media have been investigated by Xi’s adviser, Sun Chunlan, and that all patients involved have been treated.

US health experts are part of a World Health Organization team in China investigating the novel coronavirus outbreak, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday during a press briefing.

Tedros said the team on the ground in China includes experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US National Institutes of Health, as well as experts from Singapore, Korea, Japan, Nigeria, Germany and Russia. The team includes experts in epidemiology, virology, clinical management, outbreak control and public health, he said.

Team members are working with Chinese counterparts to study transmissibility of the virus and the impact the of measures taken in China, Tedros said.

US health officials have said they made repeated offers, starting in early January, to send health experts to China, and expressed frustration that US experts had not yet been invited in.

A plane carrying Ukrainian citizens and other nationals evacuated from Wuhan, China, arrived today at Kharkiv Airport in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

The statement said border guards provided clearance for 94 people arriving on the special flight: 22 crew members and accompanying medical personnel, along with 72 passengers. The ministry said the passengers included 45 Ukrainian citizens and 27 citizens of other countries, including Argentina, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Montenegro, Panama and Israel.

Video released by the ministry showed border control inspectors carrying out their inspections in full protective gear.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defended the move, describing security measures on the flight as “unprecedented.” Passengers on board the aircraft, he added, were all healthy but would be quarantined and monitored over a period of 14 days at a medical facility belonging to the Ukrainian National Guard in the town of Novi Sanzhary.

Video circulating on social media showed local residents in the town protesting the arrival of evacuees, blocking roads and confronting police. In a Facebook post, Zelensky called on citizens to stop “attempts to block routes, block hospitals, not allow Ukrainian citizens into Ukraine."

There are currently no diagnosed cases of coronavirus in Ukraine.

US citizens who were on board the Diamond Princess cruise and tested positive for the novel coronavirus must be cleared per US guidelines before returning home, according to letters sent by the US embassy in Tokyo to these passengers. 

These guidelines were sent to at least one American passenger who is still in Japan. The US began evacuating some passengers earlier this week.

In order to be eligible to board a US-bound flight, three key criteria must be met:

This is in line with existing guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on when to release patients from isolation in hospitals.

"You will not be cleared to travel simply by waiting 14 days,” the embassy specified. Fourteen days is the upper estimate of the virus’ incubation period.

These criteria are set by the CDC and the US Department of Health and Human Services. Carnival Corporation, which owns and operates the Diamond Princess cruise ship, has agreed to cover testing costs for these passengers if the Japanese government doesn’t, according to the letters.

After submitting test results to the CDC, passengers must wait to receive notification by a US embassy representative notifying them they are cleared to fly to the US. 

For the rest of those aboard, CDC said on Tuesday that "all passengers and crew of the ship have been placed under travel restrictions, preventing them from returning to the United States for at least 14 days after they had left the Diamond Princess.”

John Haering and his wife Melanie were on a six-month world trip. He’d just retired. But shortly after the Diamond Princess quarantine began, John’s temperature spiked, and he was taken off the ship and into isolation in a local hospital.

Now, the couple are thousands of miles apart. Melanie isn't sick, but she’s in quarantine -- on a California military base -- one of several hundred Americans evacuated Monday on charter flights.

“There’s a strange feeling of loneliness that you’re by yourself, that there’s nobody else here to take care of you,” John told CNN.

Japan says its decision to quarantine the ship was the best option.

But the US Centers for Disease Control says people on board that ship during quarantine were of higher risk to catch the virus -- but the US didn’t evacuate its people for nearly two weeks after it began. Both John and Melanie are grateful the flights happened.

John only wishes they’d done it sooner.

"If that were the case, I would be sitting in a U.S. facility with U.S. doctors. My wife would be there and I would get the best care that I possibly get on my home soil,” he said.

Japan announced 12 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, including two government officials who worked onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Both of the officials helped with administrative work onboard.

The remaining 10 new cases originated on land, according to the Japanese health ministry.

Among the cases on land is one taxi driver in Okinawa who drove a tourist from the Diamond Princess and has now tested positive. The vessel stopped at a port in Okinawa on February 1, just days before the coronavirus cases were confirmed onboard.

The total tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in Japan now stands at 78 on land and 626 on the Diamond Princess.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to share information about the two countries’ coronavirus clinical treatment experiences during a phone call today.

In a written statement, South Korea’s Blue House said that President Xi explained the Chinese government’s actions in response to the novel coronavirus and told President Moon that “the Chinese people has broken away from the initial fear and are seeing the prospect and hope of overcoming the infectious disease.”

President Moon thanked President Xi for China’s active cooperation during South Koreans’ repatriation from China on charter flights, the Blue House said, adding that the South Korean government would like to add to the Chinese efforts in combating the novel coronavirus.

The two leaders also agreed to share clinical treatment experiences and to strengthen cooperation between the countries’ quarantine authorities.