Coronavirus — February 9th, 2020 Facts

▶️ China’s Hubei province reported an additional 91 deaths and 2,618 new confirmed cases related to coronavirus. The Wuhan coronavirus has killed 910 people globally, the vast majority in mainland China, and infected more than 40,000 people.

▶️ Petitions calling for freedom of speech spread in China. Chinese academics, professionals and others have created digital petitions calling for freedom of speech amid a widespread outpouring of anger and grief online for Dr. Li Wenliang, who gave early warnings about the coronavirus in Wuhan, only to die of it last week himself.

▶️ WHO heads to China: A team of international experts from the World Health Organization is heading to China to investigate the outbreak.

▶️ Britain confirmed a new coronavirus case on Sunday, bringing the total cases in the country to four. The authorities in Spain said on Sunday that the country had confirmed its second coronavirus case: a British man who lives on the island of Majorca with his family.

▶️ In Hong Kong, eight confirmed cases came from one family cluster.

▶️ Fourteen Americans, including a woman from Oregon, who were on the Diamond Princess cruise have tested positive for coronavirus. Six more people on a cruise ship that has been quarantined for nearly a week in Yokohama, Japan, have tested positive for the coronavirus, passengers were told on Sunday. Five of them were crew members.The six new cases, which were confirmed by the Health Ministry on Sunday, bring the total to 70.

▶️ New York City has already spent more than $1 million in their coronavirus response and “could spend millions of local dollars more over the next 60 days to help tackle the virus,” according to a press release from New York Sen. Chuck Schumer.

▶️ The coronavirus outbreak could diminish China’s international profile for two reasons, according to ratings agency Fitch. First, China will turn inwards and second, foreigners will turn away, it said.

▶️ Reopening of China’s factories could be delayed, many localities pushing to Mar. 1.

▶️ Numerous reports in the Arab press have accused the US and Israel of being behind the creation and spread of the deadly coronavirus as part of an economic and psychological war against China, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported.

▶️ Quarantine ends for cruise ship held in Hong Kong.

▶️ In an unusual move, a county in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak, is offering cash rewards to people who report a fever — whether their own or someone else’s. People who report their own fevers will receive 1,000 renminbi, the equivalent of $143 — a few days’ salary for the average Hubei resident. The statement also said that people who report the fevers of others would get 500 renminbi, which raised the prospect of neighbors turning one another in. Communist Party cadres who investigate and verify such reports would receive the same amount.

▶️ Since Jan. 29, State Department had evacuated around 850 people, most of them Americans, on five charter flights out of Wuhan.

Photo by Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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