The latest now on the Japanese drug deemed “effective” on Covid-19 patients:
Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday.
Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging outcomes in clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.
“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang told reporters on Tuesday.
Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared to a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug, public broadcaster NHK said.
In addition, X-rays confirmed improvements in lung condition in about 91% of the patients who were treated with favipiravir, compared to 62% or those without the drug.
Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, which developed the drug – also known as Avigan – in 2014, has declined to comment on the claims.
Doctors in Japan are using the same drug in clinical studies on coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms, hoping it will prevent the virus from multiplying in patients.
But a Japanese health ministry source suggested the drug was not as effective in people with more severe symptoms. “We’ve given Avigan to 70 to 80 people, but it doesn’t seem to work that well when the virus has already multiplied,” the source told the Mainichi Shimbun.
Updated
Here now is today’s latest coronavirus pandemic news, at a glance:
- The global death toll is nearing 8,000. The number of deaths from coronavirus around the world has risen to 7,948, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Infections, meanwhile, are nearing 200,000: there are 198,006 recorded cases worldwide.
- Travellers are scrambling to reach home, after nations began closing their borders, airlines cut flights and governments urged their citizens to return. On Tuesday, Australia joined Canada, New Zealand, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates in calling back its citizens.
- The WHO has called for aggressive action in south-east Asia. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO’s regional director, said the response in the region needed to be “scaled up”. Hours later, Thailand recorded a jump in cases of nearly 20% to 212.
- The US death toll passed 100, as coronavirus reached every state. California governor Gavin Newsom warned that most schools in the state will likely remain closed for the rest of the school year – until the end of August – because of coronavirus.
- There is treatment hope in Japan. Shares in the Japanese firm Fujifilm have shot up after medical authorities said a drug developed to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients.
- There is more trouble ahead for financial markets, which are set for another volatile day as the selling frenzy of the past two weeks continued in Asia Pacific on Wednesday where Australia’s main index lost 6.4%. More significantly, US futures trading suggest renewed losses on Wall Street when markets open in New York later.
- Non residents are banned from Taiwan. Authorities have said non-residents will be banned from entering the country from midnight. The restrictions exclude diplomats and holders of alien resident certificates.
- Two Canadian provinces have called a state of emergency, including the country’s most populous province, Ontario.
- Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, stepped up the country’s response to the coronavirus crisis by announcing sweeping new measures to try to slow the spread of coronavirus, including a ban on indoor gatherings of more than 100 people, a global do-not-travel order, and strict new rules for visiting aged care homes.
- Kylie Moore-Gilbert is not among the prisoners released in Iran. British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has not been reported among the 85,000 prisoners temporarily released from Iranian jails out of fear coronavirus could sweep through the country’s overcrowded prisons.
In Australia, we are getting some more details on how faith communities will manage the government ban on gatherings of more than 100 people.
- The Lebanese Muslim Association is temporarily suspending all activities at its mosques and prayer halls from Thursday morning. It is encouraging prayer at home. Additional activities and the night prayer during Ramadan will also be suspended. Religious counselling and other services will be offered online and over the phone.
- The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney earlier today suspended all church gatherings until further notice. He is encouraging churches to provide their services and sermons online or via other communication methods. Easter services will not take place and he will record a video of a Good Friday and Easter Sunday sermon.
- Sydney synagogues have also suspended services after a recommendation from the Sydney Beth Din.
- The Permanent Committee of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference was meeting today to determine its response.
New Zealand police have been enlisted to check up on people in self-isolation after some tourists refused to comply with mandatory measures.
Twenty cases of the coronavirus have now been recorded in New Zealand, all of them originating from overseas arrivals into the country.
Jacinda Ardern’s government has imposed strict self-quarantine measures on all arrivals into the country, including New Zealanders, and also asked anyone arriving before the announcement to abide by the same guidelines.
However, some travellers have refused to comply, and at least two tourists have been detained and may be deported.
The ministry of health has asked police to assist with the enforcement and this week officers conducted 50 “compliance visits on a random sample group of travellers”.
In a statement police said the visits involve officers “sighting” those in self-isolation and asking them a series of questions about their wellbeing.
Most people were taking the self-isolation requests seriously, police said.
Travellers across the world are scrambling to find flights home as governments urged their citizens to return and some nations announced the imminent closure of airports and borders.
As coronavirus cases near 200,000 globally, a growing number of countries have imposed lockdowns and barred entry to foreigners. As a result, passengers around the world are navigating rapidly changing travel advice, high fares and cancelled flights.
There have been 7,944 deaths worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
On Tuesday, the Australian government advised citizens to return home as soon as possible by commercial means, warning that overseas travel was becoming “more complex and difficult” as countries impose travel restrictions.
Canada, New Zealand, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates have issued similar blanket advice.
In the UK, the foreign office has continued to issue a flurry of updated guidance for specific countries, warning against all but essential travel to a vast number of countries across Europe, as well as elsewhere. On Tuesday evening, it announced that it was withdrawing some staff from its embassy in Myanmar and told British citizen to leave the country if they were able to do so, adding: “This is due to potential pressures on medical facilities and the risk of air routes out of Myanmar being cancelled.”
South Africa has confirmed that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country has risen by 23 to 85, the health ministry said late on Tuesday night.
Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said there have been eight cases of local transmission.
South Korea said on Wednesday it would inject more dollars into its banking system to ensure businesses have enough funding, amid concerns about the deepening global economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The finance ministry and the Bank of Korea announced moves that are expected to beef up dollar supply in the market by US$5bn to $10bn, as the coronavirus causes chaos in global financial markets and a scramble for US dollars, Reuters reports.
Authorities will raise a cap on foreign currency forward positions for local banks to 50% of their equity capital from the current 40% starting on Thursday. For foreign banks, the ceiling will be relaxed to 250% from 200%.
South Korean policymakers have unveiled a string of measures in recent days, including an emergency interest rate cut and an extra 11.7 trillion won ($9.43bn) budget, in a bid to reduce pressure on Asia’s fourth-largest economy and keep its financial system operating normally.
Though the number of new virus cases is declining domestically, they continue to soar internationally, raising fears of a global recession.
Sanders pressured to exit in push for unity against twin threats: virus and Trump
For more than three years it seemed impossible to millions of Americans that anything could be more important than voting for an alternative to Donald Trump.
Yet right now the US president is no longer seen as the most pressing threat to national security. The coronavirus crisis has temporarily turned the US presidential election into a sideshow.
It was Senator Bernie Sanders who compared it in scale to “a major war” and suggested it may result in more casualties than the US military suffered against Germany and Japan in the second world war.
Now Sanders, who suffered another drubbing in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in Arizona, Florida and Illinois, is facing calls to make a gesture worthy of wartime and call it quits for the national good. “#DropOutBernie”is trending on Twitter.
Updated
Katharine Murphy, Guardian Australia’s political editor here:
There needs to be an overt caveat placed on all political commentary at the moment. Given how rapidly events are changing, and given we are all enduring circumstances well outside any recent frame of reference, we can only snapshot particular moments in time.
Let me be clear. It is dumb, and counterproductive for people like me, the first draft of history people, to bloviate, or grandstand, or speculate, or have righteous feelings, or make wild predictions at a time when people are overwhelmed and deeply anxious. It’s best to report forensically, and share what can be known.
So from where I stand, at the appropriate social distancing ratio from Scott Morrison – this much can be known about the prime minister’s performance on the morning of 18 March.
The prime minister got the tone right. The prime minister accurately and soberly projected the fight Australia and the world is currently in.
Updated
The Australian market plunged more than 6.4% on Wednesday, wiping out gains it made on Tuesday.
After a rollercoaster ride this week the benchmark ASX200 index is now back where it was in early April 2016.
Since coronavirus selling gripped the market on 21 February it has shed 30% of its value.
Today it also dropped below the psychologically important 5,000 mark, closing the day at 4,953.2.
The former market darling Afterpay lost a third of its value on Wednesday, with stock that was changing hands for more than $40 just a few weeks ago worth just $13.07 at the close of trade today.
The fintech, Wednesday’s biggest loser, is heavily exposed to the coronavirus-ravaged retail sector and some analysts question its financial model.
Almost every sector lost ground today, with only utilities rising.
Tom Hanks says he feels the blahs but has no fever as he and wife Rita Wilson remain in isolation in an Australian residence after being discharged from a hospital following their coronavirus diagnosis.
The actor posted a picture of a “Corona” typewriter on Instagram with the caption:
Hey folks. Good News: One week after testing Positive, in self-isolation, the symptoms are much the same. No fever but the blahs. Folding the laundry and doing the dishes leads to a nap on the couch. Bad news: My wife @ritawilson has won 6 straight hands of Gin Rummy and leads by 201 points. But I have learned not to spread my Vegemite so thick. I travelled here with a typewriter, one I used to love. We are all in this together. Flatten the curve. Hanx
The couple arrived in Australia in late January on the Gold Coast, where an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann was to be shot. Hanks plays Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The film, slated for release in October 2021, has suspended production, Warner Brothers said.
Updated
In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, which last year saw almost two million visitors, closed at day-end Tuesday and won’t reopen for at least a week.
To contain the virus spread, Brazil’s Chico Mendes Institute on Tuesday ordered the closure of all national parks it oversees, including the one that’s home to the Christ.
It was the latest in a series of escalating measures being taken in response to the outbreak in the city.
On Monday, firemen began blaring recordings that urge beachgoers to stay home. On Tuesday, Rio’s Governor Wilson Witzel decreed a state of emergency. They did the same Tuesday, though it was hardly a beach day.
Among other things, Witzel’s decree recommended that restaurants and bars limit themselves to 30% capacity for 15 days, that boats and buses halve their passenger loads, that shopping malls close and people avoid beaches and public pools.
The decree also suspended classes and all other activities and events that entail gatherings.
