Wuhan lab had three live bat coronaviruses: Chinese state media

Yahoo – AFP, May 24, 2020

The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology told a Chinese state broadcaster
that the lab has three live strains of bat coronavirus on-site, but that claims the
coronavirus could have leaked from the facility were 'pure fabrication' (AFP Photo/
Hector RETAMAL)

The Chinese virology institute at the centre of US allegations it may have been the source of the COVID-19 pandemic has three live strains of bat coronavirus on-site, but none match the new global contagion, its director has said.

Scientists think COVID-19 -- which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has killed more than 340,000 people worldwide -- originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal.

But the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology told state broadcaster CGTN that claims made by US President Donald Trump and others the virus could have leaked from the facility were "pure fabrication".

In the interview filmed on May 13 but broadcast Saturday night, Wang Yanyi said the centre has "isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats".

"Now we have three strains of live viruses... But their highest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 only reaches 79.8 percent," she said, referring to the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19.

One of their research teams, led by Professor Shi Zhengli, has been researching bat coronaviruses since 2004 and focused on the "source tracing of SARS", the strain behind another virus outbreak nearly two decades ago.

"We know that the whole genome of SARS-CoV-2 is only 80 percent similar to that of SARS. It's an obvious difference," she said.

"So, in Professor Shi's past research, they didn't pay attention to such viruses which are less similar to the SARS virus."

Plans for more labs

Conspiracy rumours that the biosafety lab was involved in the outbreak swirled online for months before Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the theory into the mainstream by claiming that there is evidence the pathogen came from the institute.

The United States and Australia have called in recent weeks for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

Chinese scientists have said that the virus first emerged at a market selling live animals in Wuhan, though officials in Beijing more recently cast doubt about its origins.

Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday blasted what he called efforts by US politicians to "fabricate rumours" about the pathogen's origins and "stigmatise China".

He said China would be "open" to international cooperation to identify the source of the novel coronavirus, as long as any investigation is "free of political interference".

The World Health Organization has said Washington offered no evidence to support the "speculative" claims about the Wuhan lab.

The Wuhan lab has said it received samples of the then-unknown virus on December 30, determined the viral genome sequence on January 2 and submitted information on the pathogen to the WHO on January 11.

Wang Yanyi said in the interview that before it received samples in December, their team had never "encountered, researched or kept the virus".

"In fact, like everyone else, we didn't even know the virus existed," she said. "How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?"

At a press conference Sunday, Zhao Chenxin, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said every Chinese prefecture must have its own P3 laboratory to ramp up preparations against infectious diseases.

Apart from the P3 lab plans -- the second-highest biosafety classification for labs handling pathogens -- Zhao said each city should also have a lower-level P2 laboratory so they could "quickly respond in a major epidemic".

The Wuhan institute has both P3 and P4 labs.

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Theory that Coronavirus Escaped from a Lab Lacks Evidence

"Kryon on Corona", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 13, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis and the Wuhan lab)

Qatar imposes mandatory masks on pain of prison

TRTWORLD – AFP, 17 May 2020

More than 30,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the tiny Gulf country — 1.1 percent of the 2.75 million population — although just 15 people have died.

In this file photo taken on March 16, 2020 A man wearing a mask as a precaution
against Covid-19 coronavirus disease, walks along the Doha corniche in the Qatari
capital. (AFP)

Qatar on Sunday began enforcing the world's toughest penalties of up to three years' imprisonment for failing to wear masks in public, as it battles one of the world's highest coronavirus infection rates.

More than 30,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the tiny Gulf country — 1.1 percent of the 2.75 million population — although just 15 people have died.

Only the micro-states of San Marino and the Vatican had higher per capita infection rates, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Violators of Qatar's new rules will face up to three years in jail and fines of as much as $55,000.

Drivers alone in their vehicles are exempt from the requirement, but several expats told AFP that police were stopping cars at checkpoints to warn them of the new rules before they came into force.

Wearing a mask is currently mandatory in around 50 countries, although scientists are divided on their effectiveness.

Authorities in Chad have made it an offence to be unmasked in public, on pain of 15 days in prison. In Morocco similar rules can see violators jailed for three months and fined up to $130.

Qatari authorities have warned that gatherings during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan may have increased infections.

Abdullatif al-Khal, co-chair of Qatar's National Pandemic Preparedness Committee, said Thursday that there was "a huge risk in gatherings of families" for Ramadan meals.

"(They) led to a significant increase in the number of infections among Qataris," he said.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia will enforce a round-the-clock nationwide curfew during the five-day Eid al Fitr holiday later this month to fight the coronavirus.

Labourers at risk

Mosques, along with schools, malls, and restaurants remain closed in Qatar to prevent the disease's spread.

But construction sites remain open as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 World Cup, although foremen and government inspectors are attempting to enforce social distancing rules.

Officials have said workers at three stadiums have tested positive for the highly contagious respiratory virus. Masks have been compulsory for construction workers since April 26.

Tens of thousands of migrant labourers were quarantined in Doha's gritty Industrial Area after a number of infections were confirmed there in mid-March, but authorities have begun to ease restrictions.

Khal said that most new cases were among migrant workers, although there has been a jump in infections among Qataris. He said the country had not yet reached the peak of its contagion.

Rights groups have warned that Gulf labourers' cramped living conditions, communal food preparation areas and shared bathrooms could undermine social distancing efforts and speed up the spread of the virus.

Tibetan exile govt urges China to reveal whereabouts of Panchen Lama

This isMoney – AFP, 17 May 2020

The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima - the boy recognised as the reincarnation
of the Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama on May 14, 1995 - have not been known
since he was taken into custody three days later by Chinese authorities aged six

Tibet's parliament-in-exile on Sunday called for Beijing to confirm the "well-being and whereabouts" of the Panchen Lama, the second-most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism's largest school, a quarter of a century after he disappeared.

The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima -- the boy recognised as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama on May 14, 1995 -- have not been known since he was taken into custody three days later by Chinese authorities aged six.

"China must provide verifiable information on the wellbeing and whereabouts of the 11th Panchen Lama," the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, which is based in Dharamsala in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya, said in a statement.

"The disappearance of the Panchen Lama is not only an injustice to one person, but it is an injustice to six million Tibetans and their right to religious freedom."

The US Thursday renewed calls on China -- which has appointed its own Panchen Lama -- to free the Tibetan, who rights activists have called the world's youngest political prisoner.

The Dalai Lama has made India his home since fleeing Tibet in 1959, and resides in Dharamsala in the north of the country.

In February he marked the 80th anniversary of his enthronement as the spiritual leader of Tibet, a position held almost entirely in exile and as a target of constant vilification by the Chinese state.

China's officially atheist government has said it could seek to name a successor to the 84-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader.

In 2015 the official Xinhua news agency quoted an official in Tibet as saying that the Panchen Lama was healthy, enjoying an education and "does not want to be disturbed".

Race to prevent coronavirus 'nightmare' in Rohingya camps

Yahoo – AFP, May 15, 2020

There have long been warnings the coronavirus could race like wildfire through the
sprawling city of shacks housing nearly a million Rohingya in southeast Bangladesh
(AFP Photo/Suzauddin RUBEL)

Emergency teams raced Friday to prevent a coronavirus "nightmare" in the world's largest refugee settlement after the first confirmed cases in a sprawling city of shacks housing nearly a million Rohingya.

There have long been warnings the virus could race like wildfire through the cramped, sometimes sewage-soaked alleys of the network of 34 camps in southeast Bangladesh.

Most of the refugees have been there since around 750,000 of the Muslim minority fled a 2017 military offensive in neighbouring Myanmar for which its government faces genocide charges at the UN's top court.

Local health coordinator Abu Toha Bhuiyan initially said on Thursday two refugees had tested positive. The World Health Organization (WHO) later said one case was a local man.

On Friday, another senior health official said two more Rohingya had tested positive -- a 42-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man.

It was unclear if they had been in contact with the first two cases.

Mahbubur Rahman, the chief health official in the local Cox's Bazar district, said news of the infections had sparked "panic" in the camps.

The 35-year-old Rohingya man, whose positive result was announced Thursday, lives in Kutupalong, the largest of the camps. He sparked a manhunt at one point after he fled before police found him around four hours later.

"We are worried. He can spread the disease in the camps," community leader Abdur Rahim told AFP.

Rahim said the man is believed to have been infected in a hospital in a nearby town where he took his injured brother for treatment.

Major Rohingya refugee camp populations in Bangladesh, as of April 30, 2020. A 

Rohingya man has become the first person to test positive for COVID-19 in one 

of the camps. (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

WHO spokesman Catalin Bercaru told AFP that "rapid investigation teams" were being deployed.

Rahman, the health official, said an entire block in one camp, housing around 5,000 people, was shut off, and that all contacts of the men were being traced and would be brought to isolation centres.

"We have locked down the block, barring anyone from entering or leaving their homes," he said.

Rahman said they would ramp up coronavirus testing to "at least" 100 per day from just five to 10 at present.

Bercaru said that since February, the entire health sector had been "working round the clock" to increase capacity for testing, isolation and treatment, as well as to train health workers and talk to communities.

The UN refugee agency said that 12 severe respiratory infection treatment centres were being established locally, and that up to 1,900 intensive care beds, five quarantine centres, and 20 isolation facilities were planned.

Humanitarian groups would also help with visits by health workers to people inside the camps plus home deliveries of food and fuel.

"We call on additional international solidarity and support to ensure an adequate response for this particularly vulnerable population," a UNHCR statement said.

'Thousands may die'

In early April authorities had locked down Cox's Bazar -- home to 3.4 million people including the refugees -- after a number of COVID-19 cases.

Security personnel use a loudspeaker to raise awareness about the coronavirus in a 

Rohingya refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh (AFP Photo/Suzauddin RUBEL)

Bangladesh restricted traffic in and out of the camps and forced aid organisations to slash manpower by 80 percent.

The country of 168 million people is under lockdown and has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases in recent days, with almost 19,000 and 300 deaths as of Thursday.

Senior US official Sam Brownback, who has visited the refugees said it was inevitable the virus would reach the "incredibly crowded" camps and spread "very rapidly".

Daniel Sullivan from Refugees International called it the "realisation of a nightmare scenario".

Shamim Jahan at Save the Children said there was the "very real prospect that thousands of people may die", with "no intensive care beds" in the camps.

No internet, many rumours

Bangladesh has also been criticised for cutting the internet in the camps, which has restricted access to reliable information and spread false rumours.

"I have been calling on the Bangladeshi government to give internet access. It just seems to me ludicrous that they're not," Brownback told reporters in Washington.

With little prospect of being able to return to Myanmar -- where army operations persist in Rakhine state -- many of the refugees have in desperation tried to escape in rickety vessels.

Last month around 60 died in a boat stranded at sea for two months after being denied entry by Malaysia and Thailand because of coronavirus restrictions, survivors said.

S. Korea deploys mobile data, police to tackle nightlife cluster

Yahoo – AFP, May 12, 2020

Many nightclub customers are believed to be reluctant to come forward because of the
stigma surrounding homosexuality in the socially conservative country (AFP Photo/
Jung Yeon-je)

South Korean authorities said Tuesday they were using mobile phone data to trace Seoul nightclub visitors as they try to tackle a coronavirus cluster, promising anonymity to those being tested due to the stigma surrounding homosexuality.

The country has been held up as a global model in how to curb the virus, but a spike of new cases, driven by the cluster in venues in Seoul's Itaewon district -- including several gay clubs -- forced authorities to delay this week's planned re-opening of schools.

Many nightclub customers are believed to be reluctant to come forward because of the stigma surrounding homosexuality in the socially conservative country.

Seoul, as well as its neighbouring Gyeonggi province and the nearby city of Incheon, and the southern city of Daegu, have ordered the closure of all clubs and bars.

South Korea's handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak was widely praised, and how it deals with this latest spike will be closely watched as parts of Europe begin a cautious re-opening, where health experts are warning that moving too quickly will result in a surge in infection numbers.

Officials in the east Asian nation of 52 million announced 27 new cases Tuesday, taking its total to 10,936, after recording only single-digit increases for eight of the preceding 13 days -- many of them overseas arrivals.

As of noon Tuesday, 102 cases had been linked to the Itaewon cluster, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, up 16 in 24 hours, and the vast majority were men in their 20s and 30s.

Text messages

The city government of Seoul secured a list of 10,905 people who visited the district through data provided by mobile operators and has sent text messages asking them to get tested, said Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.

The Korea Disaster Management Headquarters said nearly 2,000 people believed to have visited the clubs are currently unreachable, and thousands of police will be deployed to track them down.

Many nightclub customers are believed to be reluctant to come forward because 

of the stigma surrounding homosexuality in the socially conservative country (AFP 

Photo/Jung Yeon-je)

"The National Police Agency has established an operation system with 8,559 officers... to track down who cannot be identified through credit card information or data provided by mobile operators," said Yoon Tae-ho, the director of KDMH.

More than 7,000 people who have visited the area over the past two weeks have been tested, said Mayor Park -- who on Monday announced a 2 million won ($1,630) fine for those who avoid testing.

Test rates doubled after the city said it will ensure people's privacy by introducing anonymous testing, he added, but authorities still need more visitors to come forward.

People in face masks lined up for tests at a health centre in Itaewon Tuesday, keeping at least one metre (three feet) apart.

"A large number of confirmed cases were discovered in the Itaewon district, and since I live in the area I came to get tested just in case," Jeon Seung-ho, a 25-year-old musician, told AFP.

"I believe that the government should have encouraged the clubs to close down in the first place," he added.

Former K-pop star Park Gyuri admitted visiting one of the Itaewon clubs in early May and apologised for not following social distancing rules.

She tested negative but remains in self-isolation, her agency said in a statement.

Homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea, but rights groups say intolerance remains rampant.

KCDC vice director Kwon Joon-wook said "prejudice and discrimination" only impede prevention activities, urging the public not to blame virus patients.