Tag Archives: East Asia

US bans WeChat, TikTok from app shops, threatens shutdowns

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Division stated Friday it would ban Chinese language-owned TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app shops on Sunday and can bar the apps from accessing important web providers within the U.S. — a transfer that would successfully wreck the operation of each Chinese language providers for U.S. customers.

TikTok will not face essentially the most drastic sanctions till after the Nov. three election, however WeChat customers might really feel the results as early as Sunday.

The order, which cited nationwide safety and information privateness issues, follows weeks of dealmaking over the video-sharing service TikTok. President Donald Trump has pressured the app’s Chinese language proprietor to promote TikTok’s U.S. operations to a home firm to fulfill U.S. issues over TikTok’s information assortment and associated points.

California tech large Oracle lately struck a take care of TikTok alongside these traces, though particulars stay foggy and the administration continues to be reviewing it. White Home press secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated on Fox Enterprise Community Friday stated the administration continues to be “negotiating and looking out on the proposal.”

The brand new order places strain on TikTok’s proprietor, ByteDance, to make additional concessions, stated James Lewis of the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research. Trump stated this week that he doesn’t like the concept of ByteDance maintaining majority management of TikTok.

TikTok expressed “disappointment” over the transfer and stated it might proceed to problem President Donald Trump’s “unjust govt order.” The Commerce Division is enacting an order introduced by President Donald Trump in August. TikTok sued to cease that ban.

WeChat proprietor Tencent stated in an emailed assertion that it’ll proceed to debate methods to deal with issues with the federal government and search for long-term options.

Google and Apple, the house owners of the foremost cell app shops, didn’t instantly reply to questions. Oracle additionally didn’t reply.

“On the President’s course, we’ve taken vital motion to fight China’s malicious assortment of Americans’ private information, whereas selling our nationwide values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. legal guidelines and rules,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross stated in a ready assertion.

The motion is the Trump administration’s newest try to counter the affect of China, a rising financial superpower. Since taking workplace in 2017, Trump has waged a commerce struggle with China, blocked mergers involving Chinese language firms and stifled the enterprise of Chinese language corporations like Huawei, a maker of telephones and telecom tools.

China-backed hackers, in the meantime, have been blamed for information breaches of U.S. federal databases and the credit score company Equifax, and the Chinese language authorities strictly limits what U.S. tech firms can do in China.

The order requires WeChat, which has thousands and thousands of U.S. customers who depend on the app to remain in contact and conduct enterprise with individuals and firms in China, to finish funds by way of its service as of Sunday and prohibits it from getting technical providers from distributors that would critically affect its features.

Comparable technical limitations for TikTok do not go into impact till Nov. 12, shortly after the U.S. election. Ross stated early Friday on Fox Enterprise Community that entry to that app could also be potential if sure safeguards are put into place. TikTok says it has 100 million U.S. customers and 700 million globally.

Nicholas Weaver, a pc science lecturer at UC Berkeley, stated the actions taking impact Sunday are short-sighted and recommend that “the U.S. is to not be trusted and never a pleasant place for enterprise.” Customers, in the meantime, face a safety “nightmare” as a result of they will not be capable of get app updates that repair bugs and safety vulnerabilities, he stated.

The technical measures are “enforceable, the query is whether or not they’re authorized,” stated the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research’ Lewis, likening them to a U.S. model of China’s “Nice Firewall,” which censors its home web. He stated there could possibly be a First Modification problem.

WeChat customers have sued to cease the ban, and a federal decide in California appeared sympathetic to WeChat customers in a listening to Thursday, however didn’t challenge an injunction towards the federal government. The Justice Division had stated in a submitting in that case that they’d not goal WeChat customers with prison or civil penalties for utilizing the app for messaging.

WeChat customers might bypass the Commerce Division’s technical provisions utilizing a digital non-public community, or VPN, stated Gregory Touhill, an adjunct college member at Carnegie Mellon and a former chief info safety officer of the U.S.

Like most social networks, TikTok collects person information and moderates customers’ posts. It grabs customers’ areas and messages and tracks what they watch to determine how finest to focus on adverts to them.

Comparable issues apply to U.S.-based social networks comparable to Fb and Twitter, however Chinese language possession provides an additional wrinkle as a result of the Chinese language authorities might demand cooperation from Chinese language firms. The administration, nonetheless, has offered no particular proof that TikTok has made U.S. customers’ information accessible to the Chinese language authorities. Some cybersecurity specialists query whether or not the administration’s efforts are extra political than rooted in legit issues about Chinese language threats to information safety.

“If there are direct nationwide safety threats, that info ought to be shared with the U.S. inhabitants,” stated David Kennedy, CEO of cybersecurity agency TrustedSec, earlier than the Commerce Division’s rules had been introduced. “We’re not taking about what must occur policy-wise, we’re attempting to hack this collectively to harm China.”

TikTok says it doesn’t retailer U.S. person information in China and that it might not give person information to the federal government, and doesn’t censor movies per dictates from China.

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US banning use of WeChat, TikTok for nationwide safety

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The Commerce Division stated President Trump’s proposed ban of the apps WeChat and TikTok will go into impact Sunday to “safeguard the nationwide safety of the US.”

September 18, 2020, 12:18 PM

1 min learn

WASHINGTON — The Commerce Division will roll out a ban of transactions within the U.S. utilizing TikTok and WeChat beginning Sunday.

The order Friday was put into place, in line with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to “fight China’s malicious assortment of Americans’ private knowledge.”

The federal government beforehand stated that utilizing and downloading the app to speak gained’t be a banned transaction, though messaging on the app “could possibly be straight or not directly impaired” by the ban, and individuals who use it for messaging gained’t be topic to penalties.

Some safety consultants have raised issues that ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese language firm that owns TikTok, would preserve entry to data on the 100 million TikTok customers in the US, making a safety threat.

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US govt: Upcoming WeChat ‘ban’ will not goal its customers

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A looming WeChat ban from the U.S. authorities gained’t goal individuals who use the Chinese language messaging app to speak, in response to a submitting in a court docket case Wednesday

By

TALI ARBEL AP Know-how Author

September 16, 2020, 11:45 PM

2 min learn

NEW YORK — A looming U.S. ban on the Chinese language app WeChat will not goal individuals who use the app to speak, in response to a authorities court docket submitting Wednesday.

President Donald Trump issued orders on Aug. 6 that focused WeChat and TikTok as purported national-security threats and imposed a Sept. 20 deadline for the Commerce Division to draft particular measures for blocking “transactions” with the Chinese language homeowners of the apps.

The nonprofit U.S. WeChat Customers Alliance and several other individuals who say they depend on the app for work, worship and staying in contact with kinfolk in China sued to cease the ban in federal court docket in California. The go well with says the ban violates its U.S. customers’ freedom of speech, free train of faith and different constitutional rights.

The WeChat customers, who say they don’t seem to be affiliated with WeChat or its mum or dad firm, Tencent, are looking for an injunction to in opposition to the order, and a listening to is scheduled for Thursday.

WeChat customers within the U.S. rely on the app to speak to buddies, household and colleagues in China, the place the messaging, funds and social media app is extensively used. It has a number of million customers within the U.S.

The Justice Division stated within the Wednesday submitting that the Commerce Division “doesn’t intend to take actions that will goal individuals or teams whose solely reference to WeChat is their use or downloading of the app to convey private or enterprise data between customers.” It added that such customers wouldn’t be uncovered to “felony or civil legal responsibility.”

The federal government submitting stated that utilizing and downloading the app to speak will not be a banned transaction, though messaging on the app may very well be “instantly or not directly impaired” by the ban.

The Justice Division’s submitting stated that these “assurances largely handle” considerations raised by the plaintiffs who referred to as for an injunction.

The lead lawyer for the WeChat customers, Michael Bien, stated in an interview that the plaintiffs might be submitting a response later Wednesday.

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Trump not able to OK TikTok deal, admits US will not get minimize

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President Donald Trump mentioned he expects to get a report Thursday about Oracle’s bid for the Chinese language-owned video app TikTok

By

DEB RIECHMANN Related Press

September 16, 2020, 11:23 PM

three min learn

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump mentioned he expects to get a report Thursday about Oracle’s bid for the Chinese language-owned video-sharing app TikTok and admitted there is no such thing as a authorized path to letting the U.S. Treasury get a minimize of the deal — a proposition specialists had criticized as unprecedented and probably unlawful.

“I’m not ready to log out on something. I’ve to see the deal,” Trump instructed White Home reporters Wednesday night about Oracle’s curiosity in TikTok.

Some within the U.S. have raised considerations concerning the deal, fearing that ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese language firm that owns TikTok, would keep entry to info on the 100 million TikTok customers in the USA.

“It needs to be 100% so far as nationwide safety is anxious,” Trump mentioned.

The president beforehand mentioned that he would ban TikTok if it wasn’t offered to an American firm. In an Aug. 6 order, Trump mentioned TikTok “reportedly censors content material that the Chinese language Communist Get together deems politically delicate,” is doubtlessly a supply for disinformation campaigns and “threatens to permit the Chinese language Communist Get together entry to Individuals’ private and proprietary info.”

TikTok maintains that it has not shared U.S. consumer information with the Chinese language authorities and wouldn’t achieve this, says it doesn’t censor movies on the request of Chinese language authorities and notes that moderators for U.S. operations are led by a U.S. crew.

Trump mentioned he was surprised to be taught that the Treasury couldn’t obtain any fee in change for the U.S. signing off on the deal.

“Amazingly, I discover that you just’re not allowed to do this,” Trump mentioned. “In the event that they’re keen to make large funds to the federal government they’re not allowed as a result of … there’s no authorized path to doing that. … How silly can we (the USA) be?”

TikTok, which says it has 100 million customers within the U.S. and 700 million globally, is understood for enjoyable, goofy movies of dancing, lip-syncing, pranks and jokes. It’s additionally dwelling to extra political materials, a few of which is essential of Trump.

The Oracle association, in accordance with an individual acquainted with the matter who isn’t approved to talk publicly, entrusts TikTok’s U.S. consumer information to Oracle, which might oversee technical operations for TikTok within the U.S. Oracle gained’t develop code for the app, however will evaluation it and updates to it.

Not all Republicans are on board with the Oracle deal. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a frequent critic of each China and the tech sector, referred to as for the federal government to reject the Oracle partnership and as a substitute pursue a full sale of TikTok within the U.S. or ban the app.

“An ongoing ‘partnership’ that enables for something aside from the complete emancipation of the TikTok software program from potential Chinese language Communist Get together management is totally unacceptable, and flatly inconsistent with the President’s Government Order of Aug. 6,” he wrote on Tuesday.

A bunch of six different Republican senators led by Marco Rubio of Florida on Wednesday despatched a letter to the president expressing reservations concerning the partnership settlement with Oracle, saying that it seems to have “important unresolved nationwide safety points” and {that a} deal “should be certain that TikTok’s U.S. operations, information and algorithms are completely outdoors the management of ByteDance or any Chinese language-state directed actors.”

A Trump govt order has set a Sept. 20 deadline, though it isn’t clear what’s going to occur on that day. TikTok has sued to cease the ban, which additionally impacts a individually owned Chinese language messaging app, WeChat, which is utilized by a number of million within the U.S.

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South Korea pastor tests positive amid virus spike at church

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A conservative South Korean pastor who has been a bitter critic of the country’s president has tested positive for the coronavirus

By

KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press

August 17, 2020, 8:58 AM

5 min read

SEOUL, South Korea —
A conservative South Korean pastor who has been a bitter critic of the country’s president has tested positive for the coronavirus, health authorities said Monday, two days after he participated in an anti-government protest in Seoul that drew thousands.

More than 300 virus cases have been linked to the Rev. Jun Kwang-hun’s huge church in northern Seoul, which has emerged as a major cluster of infections amid growing fears of a massive outbreak in the greater capital region.

Officials are concerned that the virus’s spread could worsen after thousands of demonstrators, including Jun and members of his Sarang Jeil Church, marched in downtown Seoul on Saturday despite pleas from officials to stay home.

Jang Shi-hwa, a disease control expert in Seoul’s southern Gwangak district, said Jun was tested Monday morning at an area hospital, which reported to her office that he had tested positive but did not exhibit any symptoms. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Jun was being transferred to a hospital for isolated treatment.

South Korea reported 197 new cases of the virus on Monday, the fourth straight day of triple-digit increases. Most of the new cases in the past few days have come from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s 51 million people.

Churches have been a constant source of infections, with many failing to require worshipers to wear masks, or allowing them to sing in choirs or eat together.

Health workers have so far linked 319 infections to Jun’s church after completing tests on about 2,000 of its 4,000 members. Police are pursuing some 700 church members who remain out of contact.

Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip urged anyone who participated in the weekend protest to come forward for testing if they experience fever or other symptoms. Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there’s concern that the outbreak at the church could spread nationwide through its members’ activities.

“We believe we are in the early stage of a major outbreak,” she said.

President Moon Jae-in’s government has strengthened social distancing restrictions in the Seoul metropolitan area — a move it had resisted for months out of economic concerns — and urged residents to avoid visiting other parts of the country for two weeks.

Jun’s church has become South Korea’s second-biggest virus cluster, behind a branch of the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu that was tied to more than 5,000 cases following a surge of infections in the region in late February and March.

The country managed to stabilize the outbreak in the Daegu area by April after bringing medical resources and personnel to the region from other parts of the country. Health workers were able to quickly ramp up testing and aggressively trace contacts by extensively using cellphone location data and credit-card records.

But the resurgence of the virus in the greater capital area — which has 10 times more people than Daegu — has been a rude awakening for a country that had been eager to tout its gains against the virus.

While health workers were able to contain the outbreak in Daegu, where infections were mostly tied to the Shincheonji church, they’re now struggling to track transmissions and predict infection routes in the Seoul region, where clusters have been popping up from churches, restaurants, schools and other places.

Moon’s government is pressing charges against Jun for allegedly disrupting disease-control efforts by ignoring orders to self-isolate, discouraging worshipers from getting tested and under-reporting the church’s membership to avoid broader quarantines.

Jun’s lawyer, Kang Yeon-jae, denied the accusations during a news conference Monday, insisting that he only received self-isolation orders after returning home from Saturday’s rally.

During Saturday’s protest, Jun, who is known for provocative speeches that are often filled with bizarre claims, said the outbreak at his church was a result of an attack, accusing an unspecified opponent of “pouring” the virus onto the church.

Prosecutors pushed for Jun’s arrest, asking a Seoul court to revoke his bail.

Jun was indicted in March on charges of violating election laws ahead of April’s parliamentary elections by allegedly asking participants at his rallies to vote against Moon’s party, which would be illegal because the official campaigning period hadn’t yet started. Jun’s bail was granted on condition that he doesn’t take part in rallies that could be related to his pending case.

Shincheonji’s 88-year-old chairman, Lee Man-hee, was arrested earlier this month over charges that the church hid some members and under-reported gatherings. Lee and his church have steadfastly denied the accusations, saying they’re cooperating with health authorities.

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Business group: Virus outbreak may price airways $113B

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The Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation says the virus outbreak that started in China may price airways as a lot as $113 billion in misplaced revenues as a result of collapse of air journey

By

SYAWALLUDIN ZAIN Related Press

March 5, 2020, 10:49 AM

2 min learn

SINGAPORE —
The Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation says the virus outbreak that started in China may price airways as a lot as $113 billion in misplaced income as a result of collapse of air journey.

Representatives of the airline business group mentioned Thursday after a working assembly in Singapore that the business urgently wants assist from governments in waiving some necessities and charges to alleviate the burden on struggling carriers.

An earlier estimate simply two weeks in the past put the potential price of the downturn in journey at lower than $30 billion.

The group’s estimate displays a situation involving a 19% loss in revenues with intensive unfold of the virus in markets that now have 10 or extra confirmed instances. That displays nations accounting for 80% of airline revenues. The most important losses could be within the Asia-Pacific area, together with China, which has by far probably the most instances of the virus.

“This can be a very severe money circulation shock,” mentioned Brian Pearce, the IATA’s chief economist. “We’re seeing this severe decline in bookings and revenues exterior the Asia-Pacific now that it (the virus) has unfold extra extensively.”

The IATA officers mentioned the consensus of specialists was that air journey stays comparatively protected and that there are not any recognized instances of passengers spreading the virus whereas on plane.

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Italy’s virus cases more than quadruple as cluster emerges

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CODOGNO, Italy —
The number of people in Italy infected with the new virus from China more than quadrupled Friday due to an emerging cluster of cases in the country’s north that prompted officials to order schools, restaurants and businesses to close.

Many of the 14 new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and brought the country’s total to 17. The cluster was located in a handful of tiny towns southeast of Milan in the Lombardy region, said Lombardy regional health chief Giulio Gallera.

“This was foreseeable even if we hoped it wouldn’t have happened,” Gallera said.

The first to fall ill was a 38-year-old Italian who met with someone who had returned from China on Jan. 21 without presenting any symptoms of the new virus, health authorities said. That person was being kept in isolation and appears to present antibodies to the virus.

The 38-year-old is now hospitalized in critical condition. His wife and a friend of his, who was a member of his running club, also tested positive for the virus. Three patients at the hospital in Codogno where he went with flu-like symptoms on Feb. 18 also have infections, as do five nurses and doctors.

In addition, another three elderly people, who frequented the same cafe as the runner’s father, also tested positive Friday, Gallera said.

Tests were under way, meanwhile, on the 38-year-old’s doctor, who made a house call on him, as well as on 120 people he worked with in the research and development branch of Unilever in Casalpusterlengo, Gallera said.

Word of the contagion sparked fears throughout the region, particularly given the closure of the emergency room at the Codogno hospital.

“We are old and we are very concerned,” said 76-year-old Codogno resident Carmelo Falcone. “I live on my own. I really don’t know what to do.”

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Italy is now seeing the same sort of “cluster” of cases that Germany and France have seen. He signed an ordinance with Lombardy’s regional president outlining measures to contain the cluster to the 10 towns so far affected: Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Maleo, Fombio, Bertonico, Castelgerundo, Terranova dei Passerini, Somaglia and San Fiorano.

The towns, which have between 1,000-15,000 residents each, are located around 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Milan, Lombardy’s capital and Italy’s business center.

The ordinance suspends public gatherings, commercial and business activity, sport, education, and other recreational activities throughout the region, Speranza, the health minister, said.

He defended the precautionary measures Italy took previously, noting that Italy remains the lone European country to have barred flights to and from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

“We had the highest measures in Europe,” he said.

The health ministry ordered anyone who came into direct contact with the victims to be quarantined for 14 days. And it recommended others in the region stay home. Italy’s civil protection agency, meanwhile, was working to identify military buildings, hotels or other structures that could serve as isolation wards if necessary.

“In other parts of the world, and also in China, it has been demonstrated that this system (of self-isolation) helps in a substantial way to block the spread,” Lombardy regional president Attilio Fontana said. “But we must not let ourselves be overcome by panic.”

The Codogno hospital closed its emergency room, and staff were seen wearing masks as movers brought in new beds and furniture as the quarantine got under way.

Rome’s infectious disease hospital is currently caring for three other people who were infected weeks ago, including a Chinese couple from hard-hit Wuhan and an Italian who is now testing “persistently negative” for the virus after two weeks of anti-viral treatment.

Despite the calls for safeguards, Italians were having a hard time finding protective face masks. A sampling of Milan pharmacies reported selling out out weeks ago, as did a pharmacist in Codogno who said Italy had been sending masks to China for weeks.

———

Winfield reported from Rome.

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Weather and protests hamper Ukraine quarantine efforts

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Ukraine’s effort to evacuate more than 70 people from China due to the outbreak of a new virus has faced obstacles

February 20, 2020, 11:45 AM

3 min read

MOSCOW —
Ukraine’s effort to evacuate more than 70 people from China over the outbreak of a new virus faced setbacks Thursday as weather conditions delayed the return of the evacuees and protests broke out near a hospital where they are to be quarantined.

Dozens of local residents protested Thursday morning seeking to prevent the evacuees from being quarantined there because they fear being infected. People put up road blocks and burned tires, while Ukrainian media reported that there were clashes with police.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy weighed in saying that those demonstration show “not the best side of our character” and sought to assure people that the quarantined evacuees wouldn’t pose any danger to local residents.

In a statement published on his Facebook page, Zelenskiy said the people evacuated from China are healthy and will live in a closed medical center run by the National Guard in the village of Novi Sanzhary as a precaution.

“In the next two weeks it will probably be the most guarded facility in the country,” Zelenskiy said.

In the early hours of Thursday, a plan with plane with 45 Ukrainians and 27 other foreign nationals took off from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak that has infected more than 75,000 people worldwid e and killed over 2,100.

The plane stopped off in Kazakhstan to drop off two Kazakh passengers. Later, it sought to land in Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, but could not due to bad weather conditions.

Instead it flew to Kyiv to refuel, and eventually arrived inKharkiv.

Also Thursday, the Russian Embassy in Japan said that two more Russians aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan have been diagnosed with the virus, the Russian Embassy in Japan said. That raises to three the number of Russians on the ship confirmed to have the virus.

The two will be transferred to a hospital in Japan for treatment, according to the embassy.

The Diamond Princess has been docked in the Yokohama port near Tokyo since Feb. 4, when 10 people on board tested positive for the virus. So far 621 cases of the virus, which has been named COVID-19, have been confirmed among the the Diamond Princess’s original 3,711 people on board.

Russia so far has reported only two cases of the disease on its soil. Two Chinese nationals diagnosed with the virus and hospitalized in two different regions of Siberia in late January have recovered and have been released from hospitals.

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See more AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak

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New virus has infected more than 75,000 people globally

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A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 75,000 people globally

February 19, 2020, 3:52 AM

2 min read

A viral outbreak that began in China has infectedmore than 75,000 people globally. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it.

The latest figures reported by each government’s health authority as ofWednesday in Beijing:

— Mainland China:2,004 deaths among 74,185 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei

— Hong Kong: 58 cases, 1 death

— Macao: 10

— Japan: 614 cases, including 542 from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, 1 death

— Singapore: 81 cases

— Thailand: 35

—South Korea: 46

— Malaysia: 22

— Taiwan: 22 cases, 1 death

— Vietnam: 16 cases

— Germany: 16

— United States: 15 cases; separately, 1 U.S. citizen died in China

— Australia: 14 cases

— France: 12 cases, 1 death

— United Kingdom: 9 cases

— United Arab Emirates: 9

— Canada: 8

— Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death

— India: 3 cases

— Italy: 3

— Russia: 2

— Spain: 2

— Belgium: 1

— Nepal: 1

— Sri Lanka: 1

— Sweden: 1

— Cambodia: 1

— Finland: 1

— Egypt: 1

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American cruise passengers quarantined at US military bases

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More than 300 American cruise ship passengers, including 14 who tested positive for coronavirus, are being quarantined at military bases in California and Texas after arriving from Japan on charter flights overnight

By

The Associated Press Associated Press

February 17, 2020, 6:18 PM

5 min read

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. —
More than 300 American cruise ship passengers, including 14 who tested positive for coronavirus, were being quarantined at military bases in California and Texas on Monday after arriving from Japan on charter flights overnight.

One plane carrying cruise passengers touched down at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California just before midnight Sunday, while another arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas early Monday. The passengers will remain at the bases for two weeks.

Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono tweeted earlier that Japanese troops helped transport 340 U.S. passengers on 14 buses from Yokohama port to Tokyo’s Haneda airport. About 380 Americans were on the cruise ship.

The U.S. said it arranged for the evacuation because people on the Diamond Princess were at a high risk of exposure to the new virus that’s been spreading in Asia. For the departing Americans, the evacuation cuts short a 14-day quarantine that began aboard the cruise ship Feb. 5.

The State Department announced later that 14 of the evacuees received confirmation they had the virus but were allowed to board the flight because they had no symptoms. They were being kept isolated from other passengers on the flight, the U.S. State and Health and Human Services said in a joint statement.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that an infected person who shows minimal symptoms could still pass the virus to someone else.

It’s unclear which base the 14 who tested positive for the virus went to.

Officials said the evacuees who arrived at Travis Air Force Base will be housed at a different location from the more than 200 other Americans who were already being quarantined on the base, in a hotel. Those people have been at the base since early February, when they arrived on flights from China.

No Travis airmen will have contact with the passengers, officials said.

Now that they’re in the U.S., the cruise ship passengers must go through another 14 days of quarantine at the military facilities — meaning they will have been under quarantine for a total of nearly four weeks.

Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Italy were planning similar flights of passengers. Other governments, including Canada and Hong Kong, also will require the passengers to undergo a second 14-day quarantine.

Japan on Monday announced another 99 infections on the Diamond Princess, raising the ship’s total number of cases to 454. Overall, Japan has 419 confirmed cases of the virus, including one death. The United States has confirmed 15 cases within the country. Separately, one U.S. citizen died in China.

Americans Cheryl and Paul Molesky, a couple from Syracuse, New York, opted to trade one coronavirus quarantine for another, leaving the cruise ship to fly back to the U.S. Cheryl Molesky said the rising number of patients on the ship factored into the decision.

“We are glad to be going home,” Cheryl Molesky earlier told NHK TV in Japan. “It’s just a little bit disappointing that we’ll have to go through quarantine again, and we will probably not be as comfortable as the Diamond Princess, possibly.”

She sent The Associated Press a video of her and her husband boarding the plane with other Americans.

“Well, we’re exhausted, but we’re on the plane and that’s a good feeling. Pretty miserable wearing these masks though, and everybody had to go to the bathroom on the bus,” she said.

Some American passengers said they would pass up the opportunity to fly to the United States because of the additional quarantine. There also was worry about being on a long flight with other passengers who may be infected or in an incubation period.

One of the Americans, Matthew Smith, said in a tweet Sunday that he saw a passenger with no face mask talking at close quarters with another passenger. He said he and his wife scurried away.

“If there are secondary infections on board, this is why,” he said. “And you wanted me to get on a bus with her?”

He said the American health officials who visited their room was apparently surprised that the couple had decided to stay, and wished them luck.

“Thanks, but we’re fine,” Smith said he told them.

———

This story has been corrected to show the first flight landed in California at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, not 2:30 a.m. Monday.

———

Associated Press journalists Mari Yamaguchi, Yuri Kageyama and Emily Wang in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Read more about the coronavirus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak

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