Author: BlackMask Financial

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China reported on Wednesday its smallest number of new coronavirus cases since January, lending weight to a prediction by its top medical adviser for the outbreak to end by April, but a global diseases expert warned of the spread elsewhere.

Financial markets took heart from the outlook of the Chinese official, epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, who said on Tuesday the number of new cases was falling in some provinces, and forecast the epidemic would peak this month, even as the death toll in China rose to more than 1,100 people.

World stocks, which had seen rounds of sell-offs over the virus, surged to record highs on hopes of a peak in cases. The Dow industrials, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all hit new highs, and Asian shares nudged higher on Wednesday But the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the epidemic poses a global threat akin to terrorism and one expert coordinating its response said while the outbreak may be peaking at its epicentre in China, it was likely to spread elsewhere in the world, where it had just begun. “It has spread to other places where it’s the beginning of the outbreak,” the official, Dale Fisher, head of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network coordinated by the WHO, said in an interview in Singapore. “In Singapore, we are at the beginning of the outbreak.” Singapore has reported 47 cases and worry about the spread is growing. Its biggest bank, DBS (DBSM.SI), evacuated 300 staff from its head office on Wednesday after a confirmed coronavirus case in the building. Hundreds of cases have been reported in dozens of other countries and territories around the world, but only two people have died outside mainland China – one in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday the world had to “wake up and consider this enemy virus as public enemy number one” and the first vaccine was 18 months away.

In China, total infections have hit 44,653, health officials said, including 2,015 new confirmed cases on Tuesday. That was the lowest daily rise in new cases since Jan. 30. The number of deaths on the mainland rose by 97 to 1,113 by the end of Tuesday. But doubts have been aired on social media about how reliable the figures are, after the government last week amended guidelines on the classification of cases. The biggest cluster of cases outside China is aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined off Japan’s port of Yokohama, with about 3,700 people on board. Japanese officials on Wednesday said 39 more people had tested positive for the virus, taking the total to 175. One of the new cases was a quarantine officer. Thailand said it was barring passengers from another cruise ship, MS Westerdam, from disembarking, the latest country to turn it away amid fears of the coronavirus, despite no confirmed infections on board. Travel restrictions that have paralysed the world’s second-biggest economy have left Wuhan and other Chinese cities resembling ghost towns. Even if the epidemic ends soon, it has taken a toll of China’s economy, with companies laying off workers and needing loans running into billions of dollars to stay afloat. Supply chains for makers of items from cars to smartphones have broken down.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The first vaccine targeting China’s coronavirus could be available in 18 months, “so we have to do everything today using available weapons”, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Tuesday. He said the virus had been named COVID-19, explaining that it was important to avoid stigma and that other names could be inaccurate. Nick Note: Help me with the math here. Lets say a proven vaccine that is safe comes along in 18 months. How long do you think it will take to make and distribute 100 million dose  Six months. OK… and who do you think is going to get this life saving jabs… Well protocol calls for first responders, front line medical personnel and of course the big wigs and politicians. That meas at best your punk ass will wait at least 3 years… in other words is their will be no vaccine in time.. so you better protect yourself!

GENEVA (Reuters) – China’s coronavirus outbreak poses a “very grave threat for the rest of the world”, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday in an appeal for sharing virus samples and speeding up research into drugs and vaccines. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was addressing the start of a two-day meeting aimed at accelerating development of drugs, diagnostics and vaccines against the flu-like virus amid growing concerns about its ability to spread.To date China has reported 42,708 confirmed cases, including 1,017 deaths, Tedros said. “With 99% of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” he told more than 400 researchers and national authorities, including some taking part by video conference from mainland China and Taiwan. Tedros, speaking to reporters on Monday, referred to “some concerning instances of onward transmission from people with no travel history to China”, citing cases this week in France and Britain. Five British nationals were diagnosed with the coronavirus in France, after staying in the same ski chalet with a person who had been in Singapore. “The detection of this small number of cases could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire. But for now it’s only a spark. Our objective remains containment,” he said.

Hong Kong residents evacuated from a residential building where a man and woman confirmed with coronavirus live tested negative for the virus, health authorities said on Tuesday, easing concerns of a cluster of the outbreak in the Chinese-ruled city. Many questions remain about the origin of the virus, which emerged at a wildlife market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December, and is spread by people in droplets from coughing or sneezing. “We hope that one of the outcomes of this meeting will be an agreed roadmap for research around which researchers and donors will align,” Tedros told the closed-door meeting, according to remarks made available by the U.N. agency. “The bottom line is solidarity, solidarity, solidarity. That is especially true in relation to sharing of samples and sequences,” Tedros said. “To defeat this outbreak, we need open and equitable sharing, according to the principles of fairness and equity.” Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies experts, told reporters on Monday: “This is an amazing initiative to centralise our knowledge.” The aim was to identify gaps and generate scientific information for urgently needed medical interventions, he said. “This is not just simply scientific discourse, there are big issues to do with how that whole process is governed,” Ryan said, citing the need to “ensure equitable access” to any products derived from research and approved by regulators. “Bringing everybody together I think will give us a leap-frog moment in terms of coherence, priority-setting,” he said. A week ago, only two laboratories in Africa could diagnose the novel coronavirus but as of Sunday, the WHO expected every nation in Africa to be able to diagnose the disease. Nick Note: The genie will be out of the bottle when this virus reaches the poor nations of Africa and Latin America…..

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Huanggang city, one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, is still facing a severe virus situation and a lack of medical supplies, its Communist Party boss said on Tuesday. Huanggang is located in the central province of Hubei near to Wuhan, believed to be the epicentre of the outbreak. Huanggang has recorded the second highest number of deaths from the virus after Wuhan. Speaking at a news conference carried live on state television, Liu Xuerong said they also face a serious challenge in preventing the spread of the virus in rural areas. “At present, the epidemic situation in our city is still very severe,” Liu said. “We will seize the key window period, strengthen our proactiveness in work, and resolutely win the fight against the epidemic.” Huanggang has recorded 2,332 confirmed cases and 52 deaths as of midnight on Feb 10, he added..

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin met Igor Sechin, his “energy tsar”, on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, but it gave no indication on whether Moscow is willing to accept an OPEC+ proposal to further curb oil production. Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia was still studying proposed deeper oil output cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC nations, known as OPEC+, floated as oil prices were hit by concerns about demand following the coronavirus outbreak in China. Russia’s delay in responding to the proposal has frustrated some OPEC members. OPEC+ producers are scheduled to meet in Vienna on March 5-6 to consider policy. Their current cuts expire in March. There has been some discussion about bringing that meeting forward depending on how the coronavirus outbreak affects oil prices. Sechin, chief executive of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft (ROSN.MM), has openly criticised the existing deal, saying it helps the United States increase its dominance of the global oil market while countries taking part lose out. According to transcripts published on the Kremlin website, Sechin told Putin that the existing OPEC+ production cuts restrained the company’s hydrocarbon production, which remained flat in 2019. No other details from the meeting were disclosed. “Rosneft is the biggest oil company so we can’t rule out that the two people would discuss this,” a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said before the meeting when asked whether Putin and Sechin would discuss the OPEC+ proposal. Rosneft declined to comment on what was discussed and Peskov did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the meeting. A technical panel that advises the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies led by Russia have proposed a further output cut of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), three sources told Reuters last week.