February 10 coronavirus news

CNN’s live coverage of the coronavirus has moved here.

The Hubei health authority reported that 103 more people died of the coronavirus in Hubei province on Monday, raising the death toll in the epidemic’s epicenter to 974.

This brings the total number of deaths in mainland China to at least 1,011. Globally, a total of 1,013 people have died, including one death in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.

Hubei authorities confirmed an additional 2,097 cases of the virus in Hubei on Monday, which brings the total number of cases in the region to 31,728.

More than 25,000 patients have been hospitalized in Hubei, including 1,298 who are in critical condition, according to the health authority. More than two thousand patients have been cured and discharged.

The global number of confirmed coronavirus cases now exceeds 42,500. The vast majority of cases remains in mainland China.

China’s National Health Commission is expected to release numbers for all of China’s provinces later.

Cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in more than two dozen countries, and health officials are working to contain the spread.

Here’s a look at where the cases are throughout the world, according to World Health Organization data. These numbers may differ from those reported by national health authorities, who report updated totals at different times than the WHO.

After fears of the novel coronavirus kept it docked for almost two days, the Royal Caribbean “Anthem of the Seas” cruise ship left port in New Jersey at 3 p.m. today and is en route to Bermuda, according to a revised itinerary from the cruise line.

A customer service representative for Royal Caribbean also confirmed to CNN that the ship has departed.

The four passengers evaluated for coronavirus all tested negative and were discharged from the hospital, according to a statement from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says a team of international experts from WHO arrived in China on Monday to assist with containing the novel coronavirus outbreak. WHO says this is an “advance” team.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the team will “lay the groundwork for larger international team” who will join them “as soon as possible.” The team could range between 10 and 15.

On Sunday, as the team departed for China, Director-General Ghebreyesus said on Twitter the international expert mission to China will be “led by Dr. Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies.”

Aylward lead the WHO’s response to Ebola, as well as initiatives for immunization, communicable diseases control and polio eradication.

The newly unveiled Trump administration budget proposal includes steep cuts for global health programs and the World Health Organization, even as the world grapples with the spread of the novel coronavirus. However, it does increase its proposed funding for Global Health Security. 

The FY21 Budget Proposal, released today, outlines a nearly $65M proposed cut to the World Health Organization – a more than 50% decrease from FY20 funding.

It also proposes a 34% overall cut to Global Health Programs.

It includes a proposed $115 million for Global Health Security aimed at enabling “the U.S. government, in partnership with other nations, international organizations, and public and private stakeholders, to prevent avoidable epidemics, detect threats early, and respond rapidly and effectively to disease outbreaks and other critical infectious disease threats (including anti-microbial resistance) in an effort to prevent them from becoming national or global emergencies.” This is an increase of $25 million from last year’s request.

Asked by CNN about the impact the WHO cut could have on the global coronavirus response, the Director of the Department of State’s Bureau of Budget & Planning downplayed the potential negative consequences.

Jim Richardson, the Director of US Foreign Assistance Resources at the State Department, said the US was the “largest donor overall to global health around the world.”

“We do think that it’s important to balance the multilateral against the bilateral assistance,” Richardson said. “Both are important, but it is important for us to make sure that we get the appropriate reform to the multilateral while delivering the best assistance that we possibly can on the ground, and that’s often through bilateral.”

Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun claimed that the budget bolsters “country capacity to prevent, detect and respond to outbreaks and to prevent epidemics from reaching our borders.”

“It also allows us to provide the necessary flexibility to respond to emerging global health threats such as the novel coronavirus and Ebola,” he said at the State Department. Biegun praised the State Department and USAID efforts in responding to the novel coronavirus.

A charter plane carrying passengers evacuated from Wuhan, China, lands at March Air Reserve Base on January 29.

No one from the first group of Americans evacuated from Wuhan has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to Riverside County Health Officials.

The group of passengers arrived at the base on Jan. 29 after arriving from China. Many of the passengers work for the US State Department or are related to someone who does. They have been isolated from base personnel and were not permitted to leave the fenced quarantine area.

They have been on a 14-day quarantine that expires on Tuesday, and they will be free to leave March Air Reserve Base if they do not display any symptoms.

The total number of cases and deaths related to the Wuhan coronavirus continue to rise, as officials attempt to stop the virus from spreading.

Here are today’s updates on the virus:

Health officials in Hong Kong are conducting a partial evacuation of residents from an apartment block following possibility that the coronavirus may have been transmitted via the building piping system, Professor KY Yuen said during an impromptu midnight press conference held on Tuesday morning local time.

Health officials have traced at least two confirmed cases of the coronavirus to the specific residential building called Hong Mei House in the Tsing Yi area of Hong Kong.

“As the pipeline that transfers feces is connected to the air pipe, it is very likely for the virus in the feces to be transmitted through the air fan into the toilet,” Professor Yuen said. 

Parts of the building were evacuated as a precaution while health officials and engineers carried out emergency checks, he added.

Professor Yuen said that the transmission route is not clear yet, so the evacuation was taken to protect the residents of the building.

This comes as local health officials confirmed that both the 42nd confirmed and latest case in the city and the 12th confirmed patient both lived in Hong Mei House. The 12th case was confirmed on January 30 and the 42nd case was confirmed on February 10. 

 Hong Kong now has 42 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus.

Two of the latest four coronavirus infections in the UK are healthcare workers, and British authorities are now “working urgently to identify all patients and other healthcare workers who may have come into close contact” with them, Public Health England Medical Director, Yvonne Doyle, said in a statement. 

Here’s the full statement:

With travel advisories across the globe, four cruise ship were put in effective lockdowns over growing concerns of the novel coronavirus. 

Here’s what you need to know about each ship:

President Trump repeated his belief that a coronavirus outbreak in China could subside when temperatures rise with the changing seasons, despite expert opinion that it’s too early to make such a linkage.

Speaking to US governors at the White House, Trump said the temperature issue arose last week in his telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

“That would be a good thing,” Trump went on.

Earlier, Trump said “a lot of people think that goes away in April, with the heat.”

More on this: Trump first raised his theory about coronavirus and warmer weather in a tweet last week. Afterward, infectious disease experts told CNN that it’s too early to say whether warmer temperatures would weaken the virus.

“It would be reckless to assume that things will quiet down in spring and summer,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.

“We don’t really understand the basis of seasonality, and of course we know we absolutely nothing about this particular virus,” Hotez said.

“His hope is our hope,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, referring to Trump’s tweets. “But we don’t have knowledge that it will do that.”

In his remarks at the White House, Trump said China was “doing a good job” containing the coronavirus, even as the disease spreads and the death toll rises.

Yesterday alone, the coronavirus — which originated in Wuhan — killed 97 people. It has killed 910 people globally since the outbreak began, according to authorities. More than 40,000 people have been infected.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed 398 people under investigation for the novel coronavirus in 37 states, according to an update posted to the agency’s website on Monday. Of them, 12 have tested positive, 318 negative and 68 are still pending. 

Trump touted those numbers on Monday, saying “many of them are in good shape now.”

There are now 42 confirmed cases in Hong Kong, according to The Center for Health Protection.

The latest case and the twelfth case lived in the same building, according to The Center for Health Protection’s Dr. Wong Ka Hing.

He added there are 10 floors between these two apartments.

Hong Kong officials are currently holding a late-night press conference on the coronavirus.

While coronavirus has spread to more than two dozen countries across the world, the vast majority of cases are in mainland China.

Here’s a look at where the cases are throughout mainland China, according to World Health Organization data. These numbers may differ from those reported by Chinese health officials, who report updated totals at different times than the WHO.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed 398 people under investigation for the novel coronavirus in 37 states, according to an update posted to the agency’s website on Monday.

Of them, 12 have tested positive, 318 negative and 68 are still pending. 

These numbers are cumulative since Jan. 21 and include people with a travel history to China, as well as those who have been in close contact with confirmed cases or other people under investigation.

Pending cases include specimens that have been received and not yet undergone testing, as well as those in transit to CDC from health authorities in various states.

There are 12 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States. Six cases have been confirmed in California, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, one in Wisconsin and two in Illinois. This includes two instances of known person-to-person transmission, one in Illinois and one in California.

Previously, there were 337 people under investigation in 36 states as of Feb. 6, including 12 positive, 225 negative and 100 pending cases.

The United States’ top infectious disease doctor said that the novel coronavirus is currently under control — “but that could change very quickly,” rendering travel restrictions ineffective against the spread of the virus.

“You’re going to have to do what we call mitigation, or dampen the effect within a country,” Fauci added. “Clearly we’re not there yet. We still have very few cases. But we need to be alert to the possibility that this will get worse.”

Fauci said the coronavirus spreads more easily than SARS but appears to be less severe. The novel coronavirus has killed more people than SARS did in 2002 and 2003 — however, it has infected many more people than SARS did. 

“This particular virus has a much, much greater capability of spreading widely,” Fauci said.

About the virus in the US: There are 12 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States. Six cases have been confirmed in California, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, one in Wisconsin and two in Illinois. This includes two instances of known person-to-person transmission, one in Illinois and one in California. 

The Anthem of the Seas cruise ship is seen docked in Bayonne, N.J. on Friday.

The Anthem of the Seas — the Royal Caribbean cruise ship that was delayed last week after passengers aboard the ship became ill — will take off today at 3 p.m. ET, according to Royal Caribbean. 

The ship will finally set sail after a coronavirus scare kept the ship docked this weekend. 

Royal Caribbean updated their itinerary on Monday to include Bermuda as the only port of call on the trip. 

The Government of Bermuda says arriving passengers will “apply our own protocols currently in place at all of Bermuda’s points of entry.”  

“Arriving travelers will undergo a travel risk assessment by a Health Officer and could have their health monitored and movement on island restricted for up to 14 days,” the Government of Bermuda says. 

People shop for vegetables at a market in Beijing on February 2.

The coronavirus outbreak is driving up the cost of food — and almost everything else in China — adding to the pressure on household budgets. 

China’s consumer price inflation hit 5.4% in January, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics today. Prices rose last month at their fastest rate since October 2011, when China was battling to control months of soaring inflation. 

Food, which makes up nearly a third of spending by Chinese consumers, is spiking the most:

Other items saw modest price rises by comparison: Health care was 2.3% more expensive, for example, while clothing prices rose 0.6%.

The statistics bureau acknowledged the role coronavirus played in causing prices to surge. In a statement, it attributed the increase to the outbreak and to the Lunar New Year holiday, which was observed in January this year rather than February, as it was in 2019.

A worker passes health and safety signage during the Mobile World Congress preparations in Barcelona, Spain, on February 7.

Tech giants Amazon and Sony are the latest firms to pull out of Mobile World Congress, one of the world’s biggest annual business conferences amid the coronavirus spread.

“Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about novel coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020, scheduled for Feb. 24-27 in Barcelona, Spain” Amazon said in a statement to CNN.

Sony also issued a similar statement following the outbreak.

The latest withdrawals follow Ericsson and LG electronics, who announced last week they also wouldn’t attend the event.

The event organizers said Monday that Mobile World Congress will go ahead as planned and that they would ban access to all travelers from the Hubei province.

Organizers outlined additional safety measures including temperature screening. All travelers who have been to China will also need to demonstrate proof they have been outside of China at least 14 days before the event.

A man wears a protective suit outside an office building in Beijing on Monday, as he waits to screen people returning to work.

Officials in China and around the world are working to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which began in December.

Here’s where things stand now: