Tag: virus outbreak

Suspected coronavirus patient in Odisha tests negative

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Suspected coronavirus patient in Odisha has tested negative and has been discharged from a state-run hospital in Cuttack, authorities of the medical institution said on Sunday.

Earlier, two medical students admitted to the hospital had also tested negative, they said.

The remaining patient, who was admitted to the coronavirus isolation special ward of the SCB Medical College and Hospital, was discharged on Saturday after reports from Pune’s National Institute of Virology verified he was not infected, hospital authorities said.

The person, who hails from Jagatsinghpur district, is an engineer working with a Beijing-based firm and had recently visited Hong Kong, they said.

He was admitted to the hospital after he showed symptoms of novel coronavirus, the authorities said.

The state government has set up a special isolation ward with 84 beds in the hospital to treat patients suspected to be infected by the novel coronavirus.

A three-member central team had on Thursday visited the hospital and inspected the facilities available for the treatment of suspected novel coronavirus patients in Odisha, officials said.

The team had also visited Paradip Port, Biju Patnaik International Airport and another hospital in Bhubaneswar to check whether arrangements have been made as per guidelines of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, they added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Huawei, Chinese chip makers keep factories humming despite coronavirus outbreak

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Some Chinese technology firms are continuing to manufacture parts and products despite government calls across various cities and provinces for work to be halted as Being seeks to stop the spread of the coronavirus ravaging the country.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said on Monday it had resumed production of goods including consumer devices and carrier equipment, and operations are running normally.

The company restarted manufacturing in line with a special exemption that allows certain critical industries to remain in operation, despite Beijing’s call to halt all work in some cities and provinces.

The spokesman said most of the production was in Dongguan, a city in the southern Guangdong province.

Other companies have also kept production running, in some cases even through Chinese New Year, in a sign of the critical importance Beijing places on its domestic tech supply chain, a subject of friction with the United States

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd (YMTC), a state-backed maker of flash memory chips based in Wuhan – the city where the virus outbreak originated – confirmed on Monday that it has not yet ceased production.

“At present, production and operations at YMTC are proceeding normally and in an orderly manner,” a company spokesman wrote in a statement on Monday.

The spokesman added that no factory employees have been confirmed as infection cases, and that the company has enacted certain isolation measures and partitions to ensure the safety of employees.

State media reported that the chip maker did not cease operations over the Lunar New Year holiday.

Meanwhile Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) also kept production running throughout the holiday break.

In a post on social media on Monday, the company said that it organised a work group before Chinese New Year to ensure the plants could stay open, while protecting the safety of employees and adhering to government regulations.

“SMIC needs to ensure that factory production runs 365 days a year and 24 hours a day to meet customers’ fabrication needs,” the post read.

The chip fab, which rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, has facilities in Tianjin, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China finishes new hospital for coronavirus patients as toll grows

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China completed building a 1,000-bed hospital for treating victims of a new virus that has caused 362 deaths and more than 17,000 infections at home and abroad, according to the latest figures Monday.

Reopening of schools was also delayed in hardest-hit central Hubei province, where the specialized hospital in the provincial capital Wuhan was completed in just 10 days. A second hospital with 1,500 beds is under construction. Restrictions were tightened still further in one city by allowing only one family member to venture out to buy supplies every other day.

China’s new totals of 361 deaths and 2,829 new cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the Chinese total to 17,205, come as other countries continued evacuating hundreds of their citizens from Hubei and imposed travel restrictions affecting Chinese or people who recently traveled in the country.

The World Health Organization said the number of confirmed cases will keep growing because thousands of specimens from suspected cases have yet to be tested.

The Philippines banned the entry of all non-citizens from China after two cases were confirmed there, including the only death outside China. The US, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia have imposed similar restrictions despite criticism from China and WHO’s guidance that such measures were unnecessary.

About 150 cases have been reported in two dozen other countries. The Philippine Health Department said a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan died from the virus and his companion remained hospitalized. Vietnam counted its seventh case, a Vietnamese American man who had a two-hour layover in Wuhan on his way from the US to Ho Chi Minh City.

The U.S. also reported its ninth case, a woman in northern California who recently traveled from Wuhan.

Also, six officials in the city of Huanggang, next to Wuhan in Hubei province, were fired over “poor performance” in handling the outbreak, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It cited the mayor as saying the city’s “capabilities to treat the patients remained inadequate and there is a severe shortage in medical supplies such as protective suits and medical masks.”

The trading and manufacturing center of Wenzhou, with nearly 10 million people in coastal Zhejiang province, confined people to their homes, allowing only one family member to venture out every other day to buy necessary supplies. Huanggang, home to 7 million people, imposed similar measures on Saturday.

With no end in sight to the outbreak, authorities in Hubei and elsewhere have extended the Lunar New Year holiday break, due to end this week, well into February to try to keep people at home and reduce the spread of the virus. All Hubei schools are postponing the start of the new semester until further notice.

The crisis is the latest to confront Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has been beset by months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the re-election of Taiwan’s pro-independence president and criticism over human rights violations in the traditionally Muslim territory of Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the domestic economy continues to slow, weighed down by slowing demand and the trade war with Washington.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus scare: Gujarat students stuck in China returning, says CM Rupani

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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At least 100 students from Gujarat staying in China had expressed their desire to return home due to the outbreak of novel Coronavirus in Wuhan and some of them are coming back from Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday, chief minister Vijay Rupani has said.

Rupani has instructed state chief secretary Anil Mukim to collect all the information about the students stranded in China and provide them necessary assistance if they want to return, an official release stated on Tuesday.

“Around 100 students from Gujarat had expressed their desire to come back from China. Some of them are coming back from Beijing today while remaining students would return tomorrow. We are working in coordination with Indian as well as Chinese government over the issue,” the CM told reporters in Gandhinagar.

He said the students will be screened upon their arrival in Gujarat.

The work to collect information on the students from Gujarat stuck in China will be carried out at the district level by the State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) and state Relief Commissioner’s office.

The CM directed the state administration to remain in touch with the Central government and the Ministry of External Affairs to extend help to the students willing to return from China, the release stated.

In a precautionary measure, Vadodara’s Sir Sayajirao General Hospital has created a special isolation ward to admit any person showing symptoms of the novel Coronavirus.

However, no such case has been reported in Gujarat till now.

“We have alerted all the major government hospitals and medical colleges in the state. We have enough stock of medicines for patients and that of high quality masks and protective dresses for doctors and staff. We urge people to remain alert but desist from creating any unnecessary panic,” Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary in the state Health and Family Welfare Department, told reporters.

Novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the current deadly strain of virus was not seen before.

It has emerged from a seafood and animal market in China’s Wuhan, and is suspected to have spread to as far as the United States.

According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Suspected case of coronavirus reported in Rajasthan

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A suspected case of coronavirus has been reported in Rajasthan, following which the patient has been kept in isolation, state health minister Raghu Sharma said on Sunday.

He said a doctor, who returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China, was kept in isolation at the SMS Hospital here on the suspicion of being affected by coronavirus.

Directions were given to conduct a screening of all the family members of the patient, he added.

In an official statement, the minister said a blood sample of the patient was sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune.

He added that a total of 18 people from four districts of the state had returned to the country from China and the respective district chiefs and medical officers were directed to keep them under surveillance for 28 days.

Sharma also urged the Union health minister to make the screening facility available at the international terminals of various airports in the country.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China virus: Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park to be closed from Sunday

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Hong Kong’s popular amusement parks Disneyland and Ocean Park are closed from Jan. 26 to help prevent the spread of a deadly coronavirus that broke out in the Chinese city Wuhan, state media CCTV reported on Sunday.

Business is going on as usual at the hotels inside Hong Kong Disneyland, however, CCTV reported.

The Shanghai government said on Friday that Shanghai Disneyland will be closed from Saturday.

China is on a seven-day Lunar New Year holiday that started on Friday, a period when the amusement parks would be usually packed with tourists.

China has confirmed 1,975 cases of patients infected with the new coronavirus as of January 25, while the death toll from the virus has risen to 56.

The virus originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei late last year and has spread to Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as to the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France and Canada.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow