Coronavirus: China deaths pass 560 as 10 more cruise passengers test positive – latest news | World news

Chinese officials were “concerned” that Boris Johnson has not yet sent a personal message of support to the country over the coronavirus outbreak.

Stanley Johnson, the prime minister’s father, met with Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming on Tuesday, and reported back to UK officials – and accidentally copied in the BBC.

The email, to the environment minister Lord Goldsmith and other UK officials, said:

Re the outbreak of coronavirus, Mr Liu obviously was concerned that there had not yet – so he asserted – been direct contact between the PM and Chinese head of state or government in terms of a personal message or telephone call.

A government spokesman said the UK had been in close contact with the Chinese authorities since the outbreak.

A former special adviser to the World Health Organization has said he thinks researchers are “weeks away” from testing a coronavirus vaccine on animals, but it could be months before human trials.

Speaking on Sky News this morning, David Harper said: “The researchers around the world are working very hard.

“We feel that we’re within a matter of weeks of the animal tests that are necessary before we go into the trials of the vaccine in humans, which could take some months of course, but still very much shorter than we would normally expect for a vaccine of this type.”

A former World Health Organization official who helped lead the response to SARS has said “the full potential” of the coronavirus is not yet known.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, David Heyman, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene, said:

The full potential of this virus is not yet known. Will this virus become a virus which is endemic in humans and continue to transmit in the coming years?

We don’t understand the spectrum of the disease. We don’t know how many infections are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms like cold, so it is impossible to identify all cases.

He said the disease is spread via droplets, when people are in a close enough area that they can cough on each other, and there is no evidence to suggest it is transmissible over longer distances.

A British man who is among 3,700 people under a coronavirus quarantine on a cruise ship in Japan has voiced concerns over ongoing monitoring for the disease on board.

David Abel, from Northamptonshire, has praised Princess Cruises for its handling of the situation so far, but said fears remain about efforts to fight the disease on the ship.

“What health checks have we had in the last three or four days, or since the health check when the quarantine officers came on board? None whatsoever,” Abel said in a Facebook video post.

There has been no health check, so we do not know whether there are people on board still who have got symptoms that may have the virus. We do not know.

So I am now getting a fraction concerned about the health checks that I believe should be taking place, because if there are more infected people on board they should be taken off. We want a virus-free ship.

Health workers in the port city of Yokohama said on Thursday that 10 more people on the Diamond Princess had tested positive to the disease, in addition to 10 others on Wednesday when the ship was first isolated.

Those 20 people are receiving treatment at nearby hospitals while the remaining passengers are confined to their cabins.

Abel, who along with his wife are believed to be the only two Britons on board, added: “And what happens when we finally get back to the UK? Are we going to be put in quarantine yet again for another 14 days?”

It is thought the Foreign Office has offered support, but is letting cruise ship staff manage the situation.

China has announced it will halve tariffs on $75bn worth of US goods, as the country’s economy comes under additional pressure amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Tariffs on some goods will be cut from to from 10% to 5%, and from 5% to 2.5% on others.

The announcement is part of a partial resolution of the long-running trade war between the US and China agreed last month, and the US will also roll back some tariffs as part of the agreement.

The cuts will take effect on 14 February, but tariffs will remain on $35bn worth of US goods.

China’s economy has suffered as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with factories across the country closed and its manufacturing sector seeing a drop in production.

This is Jessica Murray taking over from Alison to track the latest developments with the coronavirus outbreak throughout the day.

Global health experts have warned that “hidden” coronavirus cases mean that we could just be seeing the “tip of the iceberg”.

Tom Frieden, a former director at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there could be “vastly more cases” than previously thought.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that containment is very unlikely,” Frieden said. “It probably isn’t worth giving up, but trying to contain Wuhan coronavirus like Sars and Mers is very unlikely, just because of the number of cases and the number of [Chinese] provinces and the ease with which it is ease spreading in families.”

He added:

It’s a fog of war reality, which is what makes me suspect that what are seeing is the tip of the iceberg.

Here’s a summary of what we know so far today about the spread of the coronavirus.

Here’s the latest tracker image from Johns Hopkins University on the spread of the coronavirus. If you want to check in on the tracker, you can find it here.

A 28-year-old doctor in Hunan province has died after working for 10 days on the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese state media is reporting.

For a further exploration of why stock markets are surging ahead despite the prospect of a marked slowdown in China (see this blog post), look no further than this piece by our economics editor Larry Elliott.

But he asks whether the outbreak is the kind of freakish, unforeseen event that could yet spark a global economic crisis – a “black swan” event in the market parlance.

China’s People’s Daily is reporting the drug Remdesivir is “officially” in clinical trial stage on coronavirus patients in Wuhan’s Jinyintan hospital.

“The trial will include 453 critically ill patients and 308 with less severe symptoms, a medical expert said,” the China Daily reported.

A couple of Canadian readers in China have got in touch with me to say the Canadian consular service in Beijing is advising Canadians to leave China at their own cost if their presence is not essential.

“Please note that the Travel Advice and Advisory for China has recently been updated to indicate: If your presence in China isn’t essential, you should consider leaving by commercial means,” the advisory says, dated 6 February.

The government previously chartered a flight from Wuhan to Canada for Canadian citizens looking to return to Canada.

The coronavirus is having a significant impact on sports events. Last week the Chinese Football Association cancelled all domestic games at all levels. Many other events are also being affected:

Athletics:

• The World Athletics Indoor Championships, which had been scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed until next year
• The Asian Athletics Association cancelled its 12-13 February indoor championships in Hangzhou.

Football:

• Asian Champions League matches involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG have been postponed.
• Guangzhou and the Shanghai clubs will join the competition in April, with their group matches due to be played in May.
• Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG were due to play away at Perth Glory and Sydney FC but Australian officials sought to reschedule matches after their government imposed a travel ban on foreign nationals arriving from China.
• A four-team women’s Olympic qualifying tournament involving China, Australia, Taiwan and Thailand was moved from Wuhan and rearranged to be held in Australia by the AFC.
• Vietnam’s government said it would not allow the country to host sporting events in February, meaning home AFC Cup group stage matches for Ho Chi Minh City and Than Quang Ninh will have to be switched to away fixtures.
• Ho Chi Minh City will now face Yangon United in Myanmar on 11 February while Than Quang Ninh meet Ceres Negros on 25 February in the Philippines.

Car racing:

• The all-electric Formula E motor racing series abandoned plans for a race in Sanya on 21 March.
• The move puts Formula One in the spotlight, with Shanghai due to host the Chinese Grand Prix on 19 April, now looking in doubt.

Badminton:

• The China Masters tournament in Hainan due to take place 25 February-1 March, was postponed after several players withdrew. The BWF said it hoped the flagship Badminton Asia Championships could still go ahead in Wuhan from 21-26 April.

Boxing

• The International Olympic Committee announced Jordan as hosts of the boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania after an event in Wuhan was cancelled. It will now take place in Amman, 3-11 March.

Basketball

• The International Basketball Federation moved the 6-9 February Tokyo Olympics qualifiers to be held in Foshan to Belgrade.
• The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 qualifying match between China and Malaysia, to be held in Foshan on 24 February, will be rescheduled.

Golf

• The elite women’s LPGA golf tour cancelled the 5-8 March Blue Bay tournament to be held on Hainan.
• The PGA Tour Series-China moved its 25-28 February global qualifying tournament to Lagoi, Indonesia, from Haikou.

Stock markets continue to shrug off the deepening crisis with the Nikkei up a whopping 2.6% with less than an hour of trading to go while Seoul had also gained a healthy 2.55%. Hong Kong was even better, up 2.71%, and Shanghai was up 1.3%.

In Sydney, the Australian bourse rallying to its second highest close of all time. The ASX200 was paused at 7,047 points, a rise of 1% on the day and only 43 points off the record high set back in January.

Nguyen Trinh, senior economist for emerging Asia at the investment bank Natixis in Hong Kong, said investors were obviously expecting that the disruption seen across China would be temporary and that the policy response by China and Asian central banks would be enough to inject into markets much-needed liquidity.

However, she noted that commodities had seen a more turbulent few weeks with oil, for example, down more than 10% for the year.

She said:

The commodity market is much more aggressive in pricing in a reduction of activity with iron ore, copper, oil, soy beans all dropping more than double digits.