Summary:
- Confirmed deaths: 427
- Confirmed cases: 20,676
- Aimerican Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Jetstar close routes to China
- Taiwan tightens travel restrictions
- WHO infectious hazard chief says outbreak 'not a pandemic'
- Japan says no coronavirus cases confirmed on cruise ship "Diamond Princess"
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No new coronavirus-related deaths were announced overnight, leaving the global fatality toll at 427, with all but two of those deaths occurring in China, according to the South China Morning Post. The total number of confirmed cases is closing in on 21,000, as nearly 200,000 are 'under observation' in China.
Yesterday, President Xi convened a second meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest governing body. The public meeting marked Xi's second appearance before the Chinese people since the coronavirus outbreak. According to reports in Chinee state media, Xi declared the outbreak "a major test of China's system and capacity for governance and we must sum up the experience and draw a lesson from it," while declaring the outbreak a threat to societal stability. As we reported yesterday, Xi also warned local officials that they would be punished if they failed to suppress the virus, or if they slowed down the government's efforts to fight the virus for the sake of "formalities" and "bureaucratism," according to the New York Times.
Already, more than 400 local officials have already officially punished for dereliction of duty, despite complaints from some (including the Mayor of Wuhan) that Beijing tied their hands.
China's financial 'support' of the WHO continued to pay off on Tuesday as the head of WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division said that the nCoV outbreak doesn't yet constitute a global "pandemic" - directly contradicting the organization's declaration.
VIDEO: The head of WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division says that the outbreak of the deadly novel #coronavirus, which has spread from China to two dozen countries, does not yet constitute a "pandemic" pic.twitter.com/YKuEh5IEbN
— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 4, 2020
As the world grows increasingly skeptical of the numbers and information coming out of China, Beijing's NHC said Tuesday that the coronavirus mortality rate would drop further as soon as "suitable treatments" are implemented in Wuhan. What kind of treatments are they talking about? Well, as we've repeatedly pointed out, nCoV responds to a cocktail of AIDS drugs (sometimes augmented with typical flu treatments). Some scientists have highlighted certain similarities between HIV and nCoV.
NHC Deputy Director Jiao Yahui said the national fatality rate was just 2.1%, with the vast majority of deaths in Hubei province. Some scientists have projected that the real death rate might be closer to 11%
Especially after Hong Kong suffered its first confirmed fatality due to the coronavirus, marking...