February 3 coronavirus news

Employees of many companies that have suspended operations in China should be receiving their paychecks as usual.

Following the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday because of the outbreak of coronavirus, China’s government has reinforced labor laws that require employees to be compensated while on vacation.

Local governments have also formulated their own announcements based on the law, according to Matthew Margulies, vice president of China operations at the US-China Business Council.

Employees who have been infected by the virus will still receive compensation, added Margulies. Additionally, employees that were required to work over the extended holiday will be paid extra.

Initially set to run to January 30, the Chinese government extended the holiday nationwide to February 2. While business has now resumed in certain areas like Beijing, others like Shanghai and Hubei province are still in lockdown for at least another week.

Starbucks and McDonald’s have closed all their Hubei stores indefinitely while Honda and Renault have extended the shutdown period in their Wuhan plants until February 13.

Other large companies, such as Peugeot and Toyota, have halted operations at their Chinese plants. 

Webasto, an auto part company which confirmed last week that four of its employees based at its headquarters near Munich were affected by the virus, has closed its operation in Wuhan until February 14.

A spokesperson for the German company confirmed that workers would be fully paid during the closure. 

Over the weekend, two special Air India aircrafts brought home more than 650 Indian passengers from Wuhan.

The passengers have been quarantined in two separate camps in and around the country’s capital, New Delhi.  

One returnee told CNN that he was worried about being placed in close quarters with others on the flights: "There are around 20 of us in a room which is a bit scary," said Mohahammad Haseeb, a PhD student at Wuhan University’s Economics department.

"We sit together for our meals," he added, saying they will be quarantined until February 15, when test results come back.

The head of Sudan's Sovereign Council gave a directive on Monday to launch an "urgent air bridge" to evacuate Sudanese nationals in Wuhan to Khartoum directly, Sudan's state news agency SUNA reports. 

Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of the country's Sovereign Council called on Sudan's Ministry of Health to carry out all arrangements and take the necessary precautions. 

He also stressed the importance of implementing the operation "as quickly as possible" in coordination between all the concerned authorities, SUNA reports. 

The US State Department has recommended that Americans who remain in China take precautionary measures like avoiding large groups and stocking up on food, it said in an updated security alert Monday.

“In the event that the situation deteriorates further, the ability of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates to provide assistance to U.S. nationals within China may be limited,” it says.

Japanese public health authorities are checking the passengers and crew onboard a cruise ship that docked in Yokohama, after a former passenger of the Diamond Princess ship tested positive for the virus, Princess Cruises confirmed Monday.

There are  2,666 guests and 1,045 crew aboard the Diamond Princess.

In a statement, the cruise company said the turnaround of the ship has been delayed for approximately 24 hours.

The passenger, a guest from Hong Kong, got on the ship on January 20 in Yokohama and disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25.

He visited a Hong Kong hospital six days after leaving the ship and tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus on February 1, according to the statement.

 “While on the ship he did not visit the ship’s medical centre to report any symptoms or illness. The hospital reports that he is in stable condition and the family members traveling with him remain symptom-free,” the statement continued. 

Princess Cruises is owned by the Carnival Corporation.

The Canadian government is still waiting on permission, as well as flight manifest and document approval, from the Chinese government in order to repatriate Canadians in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, according to the Global Affairs Canada Minister.

In a Monday press conference, François-Philippe Champagne formally thanked the Chinese and Vietnamese authorities for their cooperation, adding “it is a multistep process given the complexity of this evolving situation.”

He explained that a charter plane is headed to Hanoi to wait for final approvals and said that Wuhan's airspace is closed, which is why special permission is needed for a plane to land there.

He later rebuffed questions about whether the slow speed of approvals was linked to Canada's strained diplomatic tensions with China, calling the topic "inappropriate" and describing Chinese authorities as cooperative.

The number of Canadians seeking repatriation has only recently jumped from two people to hundreds, he added.

Members of a standing rapid deployment team are already on the ground in Hanoi and Wuhan to help coordinate, he added. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it is poised to assist China with containing its coronavirus outbreak, but is still waiting on an official invitation. 

“What I can say is that we have folks ready to go to China as soon as that offer is finalized,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a call with reporters on Monday. 

“As soon as we are allowed to go, we will be there,” Messonnier said. “Our presence on the ground in China will be a help."

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently working to provide diagnostic testing for the virus to health departments across the United States.

Currently, tests are only carried out in Atlanta. But the “emergency use authorization” for tests have been expedited for local testing capabilities, according to CDC officials.

“The process is extremely expedited and our colleagues at [the US Food and Drug Administration] have been working with us closely ever since we made the plan that we were going to do this in this way,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a call with reporters on Monday. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services declared the Wuhan coronavirus to be a public health emergency in the US on Friday.

On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

Hong Kong's hospital authority (HA) urged healthcare workers to return to work after they began a strike Monday in response to the government's handling of the Wuhan coronavirus.

In a statement released Monday, the HA called "all healthcare workers participating in industrial action to return to work as soon as possible to avoid further affecting public hospital services and patient treatment."

Hong Kong's main public hospital medical workers union began a strike Monday with at least 2,400 people participating in the first day, according to Hospital Authority Employee Alliance union's Facebook page.

The union previously asked the government to meet demands including stopping all travelers from entering Hong Kong from mainland China, implementing measures to ensure the supply of face masks, providing isolation wards and sufficient support for staff working in them, and investigating reports of patients escaping hospitals.