Trade, study, and tourism have ground to a halt between the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk and the Chinese city of Heihe since Russia closed the border amid coronavirus fears
While reports from places where coronavirus has spread show images of people wearing surgical masks, health experts say they are not the most effective protection against the spread of the illness
Tanzania is said to be one of the countries in Africa most at high risk of importing the coronavirus because of its high trade volume with China. At Tanzania’s biggest market, traders are feeling the crunch as the availability of Chinese-made goods is shrinking. Meanwhile, authorities are preparing to prevent further transmission with intensified surveillance at the country’s ports of entry
Over the past two weeks, there have been more than 5,000 cases of coronavirus in South Korea. More than half of those infections have been linked to a single fringe religious group — one of many offshoots of Christianity in the country. Its members say their group was only unlucky. But many South Koreans disagree, saying the sect is secretive and hasn’t fully cooperated with authorities
Chinese Ambassador Zhang on 2 March told reporters in New York that “this coming of spring, we are not far from the coming of the victory, of the final defeat of COVID-19.”
South Korea has experienced a massive spike in confirmed coronavirus infections over the past week. One of the reasons the numbers have jumped so quickly: South Korea is making it very easy for people to get coronavirus tests. As of Friday, the country had tested about 80,000 people. Many are getting tested at specially created drive-thru clinics
According to Chinese official statics, as of midnight Feb. 21, the day Yang Yuanyun’s body was discovered, there were 53,284 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,345 deaths nationwide
The virus has now officially reached sub-Saharan Africa, as Nigeria reported its first case. The patient is an Italian traveler who recently arrived in Lagos, Africa’s largest city – home to 20 million people. Isolated cases of the virus were confirmed in Egypt and Algeria in north Africa in recent days, but there is growing concern that cases around Africa are going unreported. When the World Health Organization declared this virus a global health emergency last month, it was precisely because of worry that it could hit countries with weak health systems. And that’s increasingly what’s happening, from Africa to Afghanistan and beyond
Russia is directly affected by the sudden slump in demand from the world’s leading oil buyer. China has been Russia’s largest trading partner with an estimated U.S. $110 billion (773 billion yuan) in bilateral business last year
At Korean American churches, worshippers are praying hard as they begin this year’s Lenten season for their friends and family in South Korea, which is fighting the world’s 2nd worst coronavirus outbreak