China

BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday refuted several United States intelligence officials' accusations that China concealed the extent of the coronavirus epidemic and under-reported the number of the COVID-19 cases and deaths, and noted that such remarks were "shameless and immoral."

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the comments at a news briefing when answering a relevant question.

WUHAN, China (AP) — After two months in locked-down Wuhan, Wei Lei was eager to get back to work on a railway construction site. Instead, the 22-year-old found himself stranded at an expressway toll plaza where police decided who was allowed in and out of the city where the coronavirus pandemic started.

The authorities wanted a letter from his bosses saying he was needed, but Wei said he didn’t have one because employees who would prepare it had yet to return to work.

“It was boring staying at home and I was embarrassed to be fed by my parents,” Wei said Thursday.

BEIJING, Apr 2 (APP): Recent hyping of anti-China sentiment on India’s social media networks may risk sabotaging potential cooperation between the two neighbors in the global pandemic fight.

Last week, senior Indian politician Manish Tewari tweeted that the coronavirus “should be called China Virus” and COVID-19 “is a misnomer.” Tewari is among those who repeatedly use the terms “China virus” or “Wuhan virus,” and alleged that China should take the blame for the global spread of the coronavirus, according to an article published by Global Times here on Thursday.

(TASS): China's Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, partly lifted the lockdown allowing people to enter the city after more than two months. Chinese authorities eased the quarantine measures as cases of COVID-19 disease across China have plummeted, according to Chinese government figures. 

2 April 2020; AFP: China has approved the use of bear bile to treat coronavirus patients, angering activists and raising fears it could undermine efforts to stop the illegal animal trade which is blamed for the emergence of the new disease sweeping the globe.

The move comes just weeks after China banned the sale of wild animals for food, citing the risk of diseases spreading from animals to humans.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks were meandering Thursday after a White House warning that as many as 240,000 Americans might die of the coronavirus sent Wall Street tumbling and signs of the outbreak’s global economic cost increased.

Benchmarks in Tokyo and Hong Kong opened lower but were trading higher by midday, and losses in early trading were smaller than Wall Street’s 4.4% overnight fall. Shanghai opened down but gained 0.3% at mid-morning while Seoul advanced 1.9%.

U.S. futures were higher.

HONG KONG /XIANGGANG/, March 30. /TASS/: The novel coronavirus is most active at temperatures around four degrees above zero Celsius and gets much weaker at high temperatures, Hong Kong University scientists have found.

The virus is very stable at four degrees, but is sensitive to heat, as follows from their report uploaded to the medical research portal medrxiv.org. At four degrees the infection lasts for more than two weeks, while at 70 degrees it dies within five minutes.

1 April 2020; AFP: Beijing 2022 organisers said they face "a special situation" after the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics means less than six months between the Summer and Winter Games.

The Tokyo Olympics are now scheduled to run from July 23 to August 8, 2021 after they were put back a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, with the Beijing Winter Games beginning on February 4, 2022 there is the unusual challenge of almost back-to-back Olympics.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Apple more than doubled its donation to China’s efforts to fight COVID-19 to over 50 million yuan ($7 million), CEO Tim Cook posted on Weibo on Wednesday, weeks after the iPhone maker said it had opened all its 42 stores in one of its largest markets.

Cook said in a post on Twitter last week that Apple donated 10 million masks for health professionals in the United States and Europe, which it sourced through its supply networks.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China reported on Wednesday a fall in new confirmed coronavirus cases, with almost all cases imported from overseas.

China had 36 new cases on Tuesday, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday, down from 48 a day earlier.

All but one of the cases were imported, bringing the total number of imported cases to 806.

Another 130 asymptomatic cases were reported, with a total of 1,367 such cases under observation as of March 31.

There was one reported new case of a local infection, in Guangdong province.