A collection of key developments in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus (nCoV-2019), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post.
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Previously: The previous day’s key developments post is here.
[5:10 pm] The big news of the past 24 hours is that there was a massive jump in cases out of China. [5:04 pm] Caixin has the news that there were cases of the new virus in Beijing and Shanghai in early January, well before those cases were reported later in the month.
On a related note, there is also word that Shanghai is going into lockdown, but there’s some dispute about this. We’ll keep watching and report back if and when we know more.
[5:04 pm] Two-thirds of Chinese airlines’ planes grounded over coronavirus [5:02 pm] Singapore announces eight more confirmed cases, for a total of 58. [5:01 pm] Alibaba Warns Virus Having Broad Impact on Chinese Economy. (Ya think?) [5:01 pm] Japan reported its first coronavirus death. [4:55 pm] The LA Times tackles the same fatality rate question that we took a look at, earlier. It’s the same story as everywhere else, though: the 2 percent number is the only one they offer for consideration, and they make sure you know it’s likely to go down, and also it’s mainly hitting old people, anyway. Again, there’s some sort of informal taboo against floating a CFR number bigger than 2 percent, even if that number comes from same paper as the 2 percent number you go. [4:53 pm] This is a very good development. We should be doing a lot more of this type of surveillance, here:
[4:51 pm] Today in “wild scenes from the Chinese quarantine zones”:CDC will begin using the national flu surveillance tracking system with health departments in 5 cities to test patients with flu-like symptoms for #coronavirus. This is an important and prudent step that’ll help identify outbreaks earlier. The cities are SF, LA, ATL, Chicago, NY.
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) February 13, 2020
First, they sprayed chemicals outside on the streets across China and now, the jet-packed fogmen are moving indoors and spraying while people are still inside the building. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/vb23yDcNpb
— Max Howroute▫️ (@howroute) February 13, 2020
I could do a whole post of nothing but these every day, but they’re too hard to verify.
[4:50 pm] New data reveals no country safe from coronavirus tentacles. “Horror data shows Wuhan residents fled to more than 350 cities around the world in the crucial two weeks before the coronavirus lockdown.” [4:48 pm] I’m seeing a lot of talk of “wartime measures” being implemented in this or that district in various Chinese language sources. Here’s an example, but I also saw this talk in the state-run Global Times, too. Apparently this means closing buildings and locking people indoors for the next few days. [4:46 pm] Another US case of COVID-19 brings the total here up to 15. The patient is someone who was already under quarantine, so they weren’t out and about with this. [4:24 pm] Things aren’t looking good for North Korea. Secretary Pompeo sends tweets and prayers their way, amidst reports that the virus has spread there and they are not equipped to handle it. They suddenly canceled a major military parade, likely due to the virus. [10:45 am] ‘It’s the pneumonia everybody in China knows about’ – but many deaths will never appear in official coronavirus figures