ASIAN (E)

As the novel coronavirus sweeps Indonesia, fears are growing not only that it could overwhelm the health care system, but that it will cause widespread discrimination in a country that has long struggled with anti-Chinese sentiment.

“Social media is more scary than Covid-19,” said Endar, the owner of Ho Teh Tiam, a traditional Chinese tea shop in the city of Medan, North Sumatra, referring to the disease caused by the virus. Endar, who is ethnic Chinese, said the anti-Chinese sentiment he had…



Source link

In recent weeks, China has sent medical teams and tonnes of essential supplies to countries around the world as they battle the Covid-19 pandemic. The measures are in stark contrast to the way in which Beijing handled the Sars outbreak in 2003.At that time, Beijing paid a huge price – in human lives and global standing – to contain the pneumonia-like disease.Beijing’s mishandling of the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis – including initially covering it up and misleading the…



Source link

There may have been diarrhoea, high temperatures and a fair bit of apprehension, but 108 people from Wuhan can proudly say that this week they became the first in the country to be injected with a possible vaccine for the novel coronavirus.The trials got under way in the central China city on Thursday, just three days after CanSino Biologics – the pharmaceutical company that developed the product in cooperation with the Chinese military – was given the green light by Beijing.According to…



Source link

Covid-19 has spread to more than 140 countries, changing the everyday lives of people all around the world. Seven South China Morning Post journalists in seven cities across four continents share their experiences.Keegan Elmer, from Beijing to HelsinkiWhen my children and I left Beijing for Helsinki in early February, case numbers in the Chinese capital were rising by the dozen daily, while Finland only had one confirmed case.Beijing had closed the schools and my oldest daughter had just begun…



Source link

Airlines across the Asia-Pacific region are ramping up measures to boost confidence in travel by introducing in-flight social distancing, mandatory temperature checks and requiring passengers to wear masks as Covid-19 sweeps across the globe.Cathay Pacific Airways and Virgin Australia said they would offer passengers the option of sitting next to a vacant seat, while Air New Zealand (AirNZ) said it would force travellers to sit apart.In the toughest measures made by airlines yet, Taiwan’s China…



Source link

No, chewing garlic pills or drinking colloidal silver won’t help you stave off the coronavirus. Legitimate doctors won’t send emails in broken English claiming to have treated your sick relatives and demanding thousands of dollars in return. And no one, state and federal authorities say, should be charging as much as US$10 for a roll of toilet paper.But just as the spread of the coronavirus has sparked a collective wave of national anxiety, a litany of price-gougers, snake-oil salesmen, email…



Source link

French researcher Roland Marchal returned to Paris on Saturday after being imprisoned in Iran for over nine months, after France released an Iranian threatened with extradition to the US.“Roland has returned,” his support group announced in a short message.A supporter told AFP that the freed researcher had been taken to a military hospital near Paris to assess his condition.Earlier President Emmanuel Macron announced that Iran freed Marchal after France had allowed the Iranian to leave.Macron …



Source link

US President Donald Trump lashed out at China on Saturday, saying Beijing’s lack of transparency led to his administration’s late response to the coronavirus outbreak.“I wish China would have told us how bad the situation was before we had to read about it. Because they were having a big problem and they knew it,” Trump said at a news conference on Saturday at the White House.“China was very secretive and that’s unfortunate,” Trump said.Trump has pivoted this week to emphasising the outbreak’s…



Source link

North Korea on Saturday welcomed what it said was a letter from US President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying it was a sign of “the special and very firm personal relations” between the two leaders despite recent frictions.Since Trump held a third summit with Kim last June and briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarised zone with South Korea, no progress has been made on the US president’s bid to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programmes…



Source link

Chinese military aircraft recently conducted an anti-submarine drill over the South China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army said on Friday, amid a growing number of patrols and exercises by US warships in the region.The drill, which involved two aircraft, was conducted earlier this month, not long before the US naval and marine units took part in expeditionary strike force training in the disputed waters, the PLA Navy said in a report.While acknowledging the difficulties involved in such an…



Source link