With over 4.92 million internet users and a penetration rate of 84 per cent in 2019, it is no surprise that Singaporeans are active social media users. Facebook ranks third in the list of top websites visited in Singapore, according to data gathered from Alexa. There is one influential individual, however, who might have a different opinion on the matter.
It all started when English actor Sacha Baron Cohen tweeted some insightful comments on Facebook regulations.
“We don’t let 1 person control the water for 2.5 billion people. We don’t let 1 person control the electricity for 2.5 billion people. Why do we let 1 person control the information seen by 2.5 billion people? Facebook needs to be regulated by governments, not ruled by an emperor!” said the tweet.
Photo: Twitter screengrab
What followed was a response by engineer and business magnate Elon Musk who said that Facebook is “lame” and used the #DeleteFacebook in the tweet. With over 60,000 likes and 8,000 retweets, many replied to both Baron Cohen and Musk’s tweets.
Photo: Twitter screengrab
“It’s also liberating. Facebook is a bane on society that keeps people from seeking newer and better things in life,” said one Alabaster Jones. “#DeleteFacebook and be free!” added the Twitter user.
Photo: Twitter screengrab
Another Twitter user shared how a friend seemed to be the happiest person because of the lack of Facebook in her life.
Photo: Twitter screengrab
It isn’t the first time that Musk threw shade on Facebook or its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. In 2018, he took down Tesla and SpaceX’s Facebook page after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which revealed that the personal information of more than 87 million Facebook users was harvested without their knowledge or consent.
In Singapore alone, it was reported that over 65,000 Facebook users could have been affected by the data breach.
Musk then went to Twitter to air his thoughts. “What’s Facebook?” he asked.
Although Musk, and his companies Tesla and SpaceX, have Instagram accounts, he perceived those to be “ok” as long as Instagram stays “fairly independent” from its parent company, Facebook, reported CNN.
Musk and Zuckerberg also have conflicting ideas when it comes to artificial intelligence, with the former seeing it as humanity’s “greatest existential threat” and the latter as a way to heighten safety and efficiency in the automobile and healthcare industries.
In the end, the decision to keep or delete Facebook rests solely on the hands of the user.
Singapore – “The Wuhan coronavirus, it’s everywhere, and it’s making my mom scared,” said Nuseir Yassin on his latest video featured on his platform Nas Daily.
The video began with Nas on the phone with his mom, who was expressing her concern for her son. He noted that of the 40 people infected with the Covid-19, one was living right next to his house.
“This video is for my parents and probably for your parents because for the first time ever I want to show you how Singapore is fighting Coronavirus,” said Nas.
Nas went on to explain how Singapore responded to the outbreak. “They immediately closed the country to the virus,” he said. Anyone with a fever doesn’t get through by land, air or sea. Singapore has made it “very, very hard for the coronavirus to travel to this country.”
He added that inside Singapore, intense cleaning is happening, from bus poles, playgrounds, schools and food courts, to the lift buttons.
“And then they did something crazy,” said Nas. “They hired the army to pack masks in the millions for every single household in the country, and they gave them out FOR FREE.”
The country also made it illegal for supermarkets to increase the price for the other masks, he added.
The vlogger commented that “It’s game on,” should someone still get the virus after all the preventive measures being implemented. The patient is sent to the hospital in a matter of hours, and everyone that contacted the patient is immediately checked to make sure they weren’t infected.
“And if the current data is right, this person has a 98% chance of recovery,” Nas noted.
He highlighted the fact that there are people who have recovered from Covid-19 because “Corona, at the end of the day, can be healed,” said Nas.
The video also featured a couple of healthcare staff at the frontlines of the outbreak reassuring everyone that “together, we will get through this.”
“Despite the panic, the coronavirus is an amazing opportunity to see acts of kindness from good people who volunteered their time to the infinite amounts of health workers who are working non-stop to fight it,” said Nas.
The vlogger mentioned that panic is more contagious than Covid-19, and it is “the last thing we need.”
This is an urgent extra video I decided to do for my mom. She's getting worried because I live in Asia – and Coronavirus is spreading here. I don't think she needs to worry. Here is why. Thank you to the millions of people working everyday to contain this virus. We just make the videos – you all save our lives.
The latest updates on the Wuhan coronavirus. Infographic: The Independent SG (*The total death count now stands at 1,115)
As of 9am, Feb 12, 2020:
WORLD COUNT: There are 45,957 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the world. A total of 28 countries and territories have been affected so far. The number of deaths has risen to 1,115. Across the world, a total of 8,242 are in critical condition, while 4,601 previously infected persons have recovered.
CHINA: There are44,540 confirmed cases of infection in China. The country’s death count now stands at 1,113 people. Monday (Feb 10) was the first time more than 100 people—108 exactly—died of the coronavirus in one day in mainland China. The death count per day in mainland China has been climbing daily.
China is facing challenges as it tries to get back to business amidst the outbreak. According to the Chinese authorities, different factors like employee shortages, transport disruption, a lack of medical supplies and overly strict local officials are contributing to the struggle. Chinese officials studying the Wuhan coronavirus say most of the cluster cases they have observed from a study are within families.
Hong Kong confirms seven additional cases of the virus, bringing the country total to 49, with one confirmed death. Activist Joshua Wong announced on Twitter that his pro-democracy group Demosisto has imported 100,000 masks from the United States to Hong Kong. Officials in the country are looking into a case of two residents who live on different floors of the same high-rise building. They both may have contracted the infection from faecal matter due to a possible design flaw in the building’s piping system. Macao has not reported any new cases of the virus, with the country’s total at 10.
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MOH) in Singapore has confirmed two new cases of the virus, bringing the total to 47. Both patients have no recent travel history to mainland China. One case is a 46-year-old man who lives in Singapore and the other is a 39-year-old Bangladesh national who works in Singapore. Both are currently in isolation, and contact tracing of the confirmed cases are ongoing.
ASEAN: Thailand has confirmed another case of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country up to 33. Vietnam announced that two new patients—one is only three months old—have tested positive for the virus, raising the countrywide total to 15. No other countries in the region have reported any new cases of the virus.
ASIA: Taiwan, which currently has 18 cases of the coronavirus, has announced new travel warnings for several regions in Asia: Hong Kong and Macao—do not travel to unless “necessary”, Singapore—take “protective measures” if travelling there, and Thailand—all those travelling to Thailand must “adhere to local preventive measures”. Japan reported 41 new confirmed cases, bringing the total up to 202. Two Japanese citizens who had initially tested negative for coronavirus have now been diagnosed with the disease. The men were screened again after developing fevers. South Korea, which announced one new case, has a country total of 28. The nation is sending a third plane to Wuhan to evacuate its citizens and their families on Wednesday (Feb 12). It also updated its “contaminated zone” list to include Hong Kong and Macao. This will go into effect on Wednesday (Feb 12) at midnight. Travellers entering South Korea from the two cities will be required to fill out a health questionnaire and be checked for fever. The Health Ministry also warned its citizens against traveling to Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. No other countries in the region have reported any new cases of the virus.
EUROPE: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it has named the disease “COVID-19”, short for “coronavirus disease 2019”. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that COVID-19 is a “very grave threat” and “very much an emergency”. Ghebreyesus also said that he believes there is a “realistic chance” of stopping the virus. Dr. Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the WHO, said that “one clinical trial is already on the way” in China, in terms of finding a cure for the virus.
Ryan added that the WHO is working with Chinese authorities on further clinical trials. In the United Kingdom, which now has eight cases of the virus, two prisoners are being tested for COVID-19. Germany reported two new cases of the virus and brought its case numbers up to 16. No other countries in the region have reported any new cases of the virus.
The latest updates on the Wuhan coronavirus. Infographic: The Independent SG (*The total death count now stands at 1,115)
AMERICA: The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a hospital in San Diego made a mistake and sent a woman with the coronavirus back to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar instead of the isolation ward at the hospital because of mixed-up health results. The country declared one new case of the virus, bringing the country total up to 13. A second plane carrying 185 passengers evacuated from Wuhan arrived in Canada on Tuesday (Feb 11). That was the last group of Canadians who had asked to be repatriated from the Chinese city. Repatriated Canadians and their family members are being quarantined at Canadian Forces Base Trenton for 14 days for health testing and observation. No other countries in the region have reported any new cases of the virus.
AUSTRALIA:Australia’s confirmed cases are at 15 in total, and New Zealand still has no cases of the virus in the country.
AFRICA: As of yet, no confirmed cases of the coronavirus have been reported in the region.
Many things are still unknown about viruses, especially the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that has been spreading around the world from early this year, when it began in Wuhan, a city in central China.
For example, it’s possible that certain individuals can spread the disease to more people than others do, as is the case with so-called “super-spreaders,” someone who ends up infecting a disproportionately large number of individuals.
A UK national who contracted the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) at a conference in Singapore has gone on infect at least eleven others in three different countries, leading experts to surmise that this person, a middle-aged businessman from East Sussex, is an example of a “super-spreader.”
On January 24, the British businessman went on a skiing trip to Mont Blanc, France, together with a group. After the businessman had gone back to the UK on January 28, five other members of the group fell ill with 2019-nCoV. They were hospitalised while still in France.
The businessman submitted himself for testing for the virus upon his return to England, after he had been informed by the organisers of the conference in Singapore that some of the attendees had gotten infected with the virus. His tests came back positive.
Meanwhile, four other people from the group had fallen ill with 2019-nCoV.
And then, another member of the group that had gone on the skiing holiday, a British man who was based in Spain, tested positive for the virus when he was already back in Mallorca.
The Guardian quotes infectious disease specialist at Cardiff University, Dr Andrew Freedman, as saying “This is not particularly surprising but it does appear that the index case has passed on the infection to an unusually large number of contacts. As such, he could be termed a super-spreader.”
At the moment, health authorities in the UK are looking for those who shared flights the man as he returned from France to England after the ski trip.
What makes a super-spreader?
What defines a “super-spreader” is dependent on the disease. For MERS CoV, infecting six individuals made someone a “super-spreader”, for SARS, it was eight.
There is also a danger in publicly labeling someone as a “super-spreader”, as this could cause to them being stigmatized.According to Dr Sylvie Briand, the director of pandemic and epidemic diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO),”We need to talk about super spreading events and not people. [It is] the circumstances and the situation that makes transmission exist, not the person itself.”
Several factors can contribute to one becoming a “super-spreader,” such as whether or not the person has travelled a lot, their hygiene, their level of contact with other people, etc.
There can also be certain biological factors at play, whether a person has a particularly high viral load can determine if they become a “super-spreader.”
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said, “In most outbreaks you’ll find super spreaders but we don’t really understand the mechanism. What we often think is these people are producing lots of virus, and that generally translates to lots of transmission potential. But why do certain people produce lots of virus? We’re unsure.”
In Wuhan, ground zero for 2019-nCoV, one patient was said to have infected as many as 10 health workers.
And here’s another thing—so-called “super-spreaders” are not necessarily those who are very sick, even if they show a high viral load or are contagious for a longer period of time.
Case in point is the British businessman who had gotten infected in Singapore, who was, after all, well enough to have gone on a skiing trip after he had come from Singapore, and then gone to a pub for drinks after he had returned to England from France.
According to Professor Ball, “We often think of super spreaders as producing lots of virus, which translates to a lot of transmission potential and suggests they are showing symptoms. But it sounds like this guy was not super ill in France, so it’s going to be important moving forward to know if he had overt symptoms or not.” -/TISG
Singapore — When the risk assessment of the coronavirus infection was raised last Friday (Feb 7), it set off the panic-buying of food and other essential supplies.
Long queues formed at supermarkets and people were seen buying trolley-loads of stuff. This happened when the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) was raised from Yellow to Orange.
DORSCON Orange, the status just below DORSCON Red, means that the outbreak is deemed to have moderate to high public health impact. While there will be mild disruptions to daily life, like increased temperature screenings outside venues and stronger quarantine measures, the situation is not dire enough for a strict lockdown.
However, it led to panic-buying from Friday to Sunday. Calm returned somewhat on Monday after Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing, on Friday and Sunday, called for calm and gave the assurance that there were enough supplies of food and other essentials.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in a statement on television on Saturday (Feb 8), also said that there was no need to panic. He warned that fear and panic could do more than than the coronavirus.
During the panic-buying, videos were circulated online showing shoppers and their purchases. One video showed a man unloading bags of rice from a trolley. The family’s domestic helper then carried the 50-kilogram bags into the flat.
As the video panned through the kitchen, it could be seen that the family had a total of eight 50-kg bags or a total of 400 kg of rice.
Meanwhile, photos circulating online showed refrigerators filled with vegetables and groceries.
The long queues and the long wait to make payment had an unfortunate result. Many shoppers abandoned baskets and even trolleys full of groceries near the cashier counters and self-checkout stations.
Supermarket staff were unsure if the shoppers would return so they did not empty the trolleys and baskets, leaving perishables to possible rot and wastage.
Photo: FB/Willy TanPhoto: FB/Willy Tan
As of Sunday (Feb 9), all NTUC FairPrice outlets began limiting each shopper to four packs of paper products, two bags of rice and four bundle packs of instant noodles. The S$50 limit for vegetables per customer also remained in place. /TISG
My friend shop in CCK. Business better than Chinese New Year???
Singapore— Former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng has weighed in yet again on the current situation brought about by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) via a Facebook post on February 10 (Monday).
According to Mr Cheng, the virus, which he calls an “epidemic,” has brought to light two types of people of completely opposing character and behavior, both of whom are “equally bad.”
The first type of person that the situation has revealed is the type that has a deep distrust for the Government… “so much, they think the Government must be lying, even if what is being said are scientific facts.”
According to Mr Cheng, the second type are quite the opposite, those who trust only the Government, to the point of only believing advisories from it.
“These are the kind of people that will not evacuate a burning building until some authority tells them to do so,” writes the former NMP.
He ends his post by saying that “Both types of people are more dangerous than the virus,” whom therefore must be avoided.
While some people said that they appreciated Mr Cheng’s post, others left comments that seemed to point back at him.
A number of netizens proposed a third kind of citizen.
An individual named Eddy Sim, wrote, “Let me add a third kind: Those who think that they are smarter than WHO and the medical experts, and think that all the governments in the world are overreacting. This third kind is more dangerous than the above 2.”
As for Simon Teo, he commented, “The third type of people are those that believe anything that any prominent person would say, without thinking through it themselves. This is equally bad.”
Although he wrote at the end of his comment, “But… I do agree with your points in your post. We need to be critical thinkers, not blind followers.”
Netizen Vicknesh Rajamohan answered Mr Cheng mockingly, “Waaa. So cute la. People choose to wait for official confirmation also you not happy. Who didn believe you Calvin? Don’t worry. I believe you. Occasionally. When your posts are not waxing lyrical about China and its wonderful world-changing policies. ???
But don’t worry too much about people not believing you or anything that isn’t confirmed by official sources.
Better to wait for official confirmation rather than taking any Tom, Dick or Harry’s word for it.
I’m sure you will agree.
Like unless I see a fire or smell the smoke, or hear the fire alarm go off I’d probably do a double confirmation before exiting a building. Sekali go out for nothing, waste time sia.”
One netizen said that there is actually a fourth kind of person. Kai Cheong wrote, “There’s also a fourth kind that uses it as an opportunity for bad marketing.”
Another person’s post seemed to indicate that he was genuinely confused as to what Mr Cheng was trying to get at: “What’s ur purpose of this post,” asked El Desireel.
An ambulance drives away from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with around 3,600 people quarantined onboard due to fears of the new coronavirus, at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama port on February 11, 2020, ahead of the ship's departure from port for a day to dump waste water and generate potable water. - The death toll from a new coronavirus outbreak surged past 1,000 on February 11 as the World Health Organization warned infected people who have not travelled to China could be the spark for a "bigger fire". (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)
Two Japanese citizens evacuated from the epicentre of a novel coronavirus outbreak have been diagnosed with the infection after initially testing negative, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
One of the two, a man in his 50s who returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan on the first Japanese evacuation flight on January 29, previously twice tested negative for the virus.
However, a third test 12 days later found the man — who has been isolated in his hotel room since his return — was infected.
According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus incubation period “could be up to 14 days”.
The second evacuee, a Japanese man in his 40s, returned from Wuhan on January 30 and initially tested negative for the virus, but was diagnosed after a second test on Monday.
The new cases bring the number of infections inside Japan to 28, excluding dozens diagnosed aboard a cruise ship moored off the coast.
So far, 135 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive for the virus since it arrived off Japan on Monday. Authorities on Tuesday were removing from the ship the most recently diagnosed 65 crew and passengers.
The ship was carrying 3,711 people when it arrived off Japan on the evening of February 3, and was officially placed into quarantine two days later. Only those diagnosed with the virus or suffering other serious health conditions have been allowed off the boat, which is expected to remain in quarantine until at least February 19.
People on board the ship on Tuesday tweeted that medicines were being delivered to passengers, and that the ship’s captain had announced the vessel would head out to sea overnight to produce fresh water and other operations.
Japan has evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Wuhan since the outbreak began. They have been asked to self-quarantine, with most staying in government-appointed hotels for a period of 14 days.
Evacuees from the first flight, which landed January 29, are expected to be released from self-quarantine this week after undergoing an additional test for the virus, officials said.
Japan is planning to send a fifth evacuation flight to Wuhan later this week.
A Chinese Flag floating in Hong Kong - Picture Credit: YouTube grab
Beijing said Tuesday it “never engages” in cybertheft, following US indictments of four Chinese army members for alleged involvement in the massive 2017 hacking of credit rating agency Equifax.
The US Justice Department on Monday accused the hackers of stealing the sensitive personal information of some 145 million Americans, in one of the world’s largest-ever data breaches.
Four members of the Chinese army’s 54th Research Institute were charged with multiple counts of hacking, computer fraud, economic espionage and wire fraud.
US officials said it took well over a year to track them through the 34 servers in 20 countries they allegedly used to hide their tracks.
“This was an organised and remarkably brazen criminal heist of sensitive information of nearly half of all Americans, as well as the hard work and intellectual property of an American company, by a unit of the Chinese military,” Attorney General Bill Barr said.
Beijing firmly rejected the claims Tuesday, saying it is a “staunch defender of cybersecurity”.
“The Chinese government and army… never engage in or participate in activities of trade theft through the internet,” said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a regular press briefing.
– Intelligence gathering – The hack stunned US intelligence officials, following a similar intrusion on the civil service database of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), also blamed on the Chinese.
Since then, as well, hotels giant Marriott lost data on some 500 million global customers to hackers believed to be Chinese.
US officials believe the Chinese military and security service are collecting personal data on Americans for strictly intelligence purposes.
After the OPM hack there were worries that Beijing could use the information to identify US spies working under the cover of non-intelligence jobs.
FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said there was no evidence yet of the Equifax data having been used, for example to hijack a person’s bank account or credit card.
But he added: “If you get the personal identifying information of people, you can do a lot with that.”
Atlanta-based Equifax is one of three giant, little-regulated credit-raters who sweep up financial data on all Americans — their credit cards and banking activity especially — that necessarily comes with identifying data like their addresses and social security numbers.
The hackers allegedly took advantage of a vulnerability in the Apache Struts web-application software that Equifax had on its systems.
While Apache notified clients of the problem in March 2017, Equifax did not fix it for months, allowing the hackers to enter their systems with relative ease.
They infected Equifax’s computers with “web shells” that gave them the ability to remotely manipulate the systems and to steal identities that expanded their access.
Investigators said the Chinese, using encrypted channels, ran some 9,000 queries through Equifax’s computing systems to obtain, divide, compress and exfiltrate the data, bit by bit.
The US believes the suspects — Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei — are currently in China.
– Cutting corners –
In a statement Equifax thanked the Justice Department for its help and pledged to better protect consumer data.
“Cybercrime is one of the greatest threats facing our nation today, and it is an ongoing battle that every company will continue to face as attackers grow more sophisticated,” it said.
But Senator Ron Wyden said one solution was to implement stronger privacy laws to force better corporate behaviour.
“When companies like Equifax amass vast stores of sensitive personal information and then cut corners on security, they become irresistible targets for unfriendly regimes like China,” he said.
Besides the data on Americans, the hackers scored personal information on nearly one million Britons and Canadians in the breach.
Barr said that while many countries gather intelligence for national security reasons, only China has swept up massive data on civilians.
“For years, we have witnessed China’s voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans,” he said.
“This data has economic value, and these thefts can feed China’s development of artificial intelligence tools as well as the creation of intelligence targeting packages.”
Visitors take photos with their smartphone as the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force's Bayi Aerobatic Team fly J-10 fighter jets to perform an aerial display during the Singapore Airshow in Singapore on February 11, 2020. (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
by Sam Reeves
Asia’s biggest air show opened in Singapore Tuesday under the shadow of a deadly coronavirus outbreak that has forced companies to withdraw, kept visitors away and is battering the aviation industry.
The biennial Singapore Airshow attracts hundreds of global aerospace firms and airlines to the financial hub, where they negotiate multi-million-dollar deals and watch spectacular aerial displays by fighter jets.
But the virus — which has killed more than 1,000 in China and spread to more than two dozen other countries — is overshadowing this year’s event.
Singapore has so far reported 45 cases, and the city-state last week raised its health alert level to the same as during the deadly 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.
Over 70 exhibitors decided to skip the air show and withdrawals include US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, which makes warplanes and defence equipment, Canada’s Bombardier and plane maker De Havilland.
At least 10 Chinese companies have also pulled out after Singapore imposed a ban on people travelling from China in a bid to stem the spread of the virus.
Organisers decided to push ahead but with precautions in place, such as limiting public tickets, screening participants with thermal scanners to detect fevers and asking them to greet one another by waving from a distance or bowing, instead of shaking hands.
The enormous exhibition centre hosting the show, filled with a dizzying array of equipment from mock-ups of plane interiors to tanks and machine guns, looked emptier than at previous editions and few major deals are expected this year.
– ‘Worse than SARS’ –
Some 930 exhibiting companies are attending and around 40,000 trade attendees from more than 45 countries are expected during the four-day event, down from the previous edition of the show in 2018 when over 54,000 trade participants and more than 1,000 companies took part.
Nevertheless, major players, such as Boeing — seeking to recover from a crisis sparked by fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX model –- and Airbus, were still in attendance and some deals were signed.
They included one by Franco-Italian plane maker ATR, which announced Papua New Guinea airline PNG Air would be a new plane’s launch customer with an order for three.
Despite Chinese exhibitors pulling out, China’s air force sent an aerobatics team to take part in the aerial displays that are a highlight of the show.
The Chinese fighter jets put on their display just ahead of US warplanes, a rare instance of the rivals’ military aircraft in the same airspace.
While Beijing and Washington have long been jostling for influence in Asia, Singapore maintains good ties with both.
The mood is expected to remain subdued in Singapore this week as airlines reel from the impact of many nations barring Chinese travellers over the coronavirus outbreak.
Aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium said in an analysis this week there was a reduction in flights from and within mainland China by roughly 25 percent, and predicted the impact on the industry could be worse than during the SARS outbreak.
“China is a larger part of the global economy and global airline traffic than in 2003,” said Joanna Lu, the group’s head of consultancy for Asia.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, like the current coronavirus, began in China before spreading to many countries, and killed hundreds.
The International Air Transport Association said it was too early to assess the full damage, but noted that during the SARS outbreak, Asia-Pacific airlines lost an estimated $6 billion in revenues.
The tourism industry as a whole will suffer “a massive negative blow” due to bans on arrivals from China, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit.
For eight days, an AFP team lived and worked at the centre of a global health emergency, witnessing how life in the Chinese city of Wuhan was turned upside down as it was cut off from the world.
The city of 11 million was placed under an unprecedented quarantine to try and stop the spread of a deadly new coronavirus.
The virus, which has since gone on to kill more than 1,000 people across China, is believed to have crossed into humans from an animal market in Wuhan.
The AFP team arrived in Wuhan the day the city was placed under lockdown, and over the next week captured remarkable images of shock and resignation, despair and bravery.
AFP on Wednesday re-publishes some of the team’s most compelling images, along with this new multimedia account of the harrowing events:
Day One: The LockdownIn the early hours of January 23, China announces that all air, road and train links out of Wuhan will be suspended.
The virus has killed 17 people and infected more than 500, authorities say, just as millions of people are criss-crossing the country to reunite with friends and family for the Lunar New Year holiday.
The news comes as a shock, and most don’t even try to flee Wuhan before the order comes into force at 10am.
But the few locals out on the streets do seem to be obeying the new rules that masks must be worn in public.
The railway station prepares to close later that day, with police chasing the last travellers out of the building.
The usually bustling airport is deserted. Even the officials tasked a few hours ago with testing passengers for signs of fever have gone.
A handful of travellers are stuck, and an airport employee says she does not know when her shift will finish in the confusion.
The expressway into town is empty, as are the rest of the roads in the metropolis.
Wuhan has just been cut off from the world and its people, terrified of being infected, are confining themselves to their homes.
Day 2: New Year’s EveHours before the Lunar New Year, shops are closed and there is a ghostly silence hanging over the city.
The police and security services — usually so prominent on Chinese city streets — are conspicuous by their absence.
The Qiaokou district and its famous Jinghan avenue look like they had been abandoned. All of the boutique shops inside an imposing business complex are shuttered by metal gates.
In a small apartment in a 20-storey building in the south of the city, Wang Yanhong, 53, welcomes a team of foreign journalists for the eve of the Lunar New Year.
Her husband Pen Lixin prepares a variety of dishes and a bottle of local red wine sits on the table.
But the atmosphere is not one of celebration: the quarantining of Wuhan has meant that their son Andy, 25, was unable to make it home.
“This is the first time he hasn’t come home to celebrate New Year with us,” says Wang sadly.
Day 3: New Year’s Day… at the pharmacyThe Guiyan temple, normally packed with hundreds of thousands of people welcoming in the New Year, is closed.
“No-one is allowed inside in order to prevent the virus spreading,” a uniformed man — who is not wearing the compulsory mask — tells AFP.
About town, the usual New Year visits are limited to a worried dash to the pharmacy, where customers are greeted by staff wearing full-body protective suits and double masks.
Anti-fever tablets are limited to two boxes per person.
The radio broadcasts on this first day of the Year of the Rat are hardly any more festive.
Messages on virus prevention, calls for the wearing of masks and a song set to a rap beat tells Wuhan’s people that they are “strong enough to defeat the virus”.
Day 4: Hospitals overwhelmedIn the hospitals visited by AFP, people queue up in long lines to see a doctor.
The wait is so long that some have brought their own chairs.
One feverish man in his 30s prepares to queue all night in order to see a doctor the next day.
“I’ve been going from hospital to hospital to hospital for two days,” he says.
“I haven’t slept.”
People approach foreign journalists unprompted — a rare sight in China — to describe grim scenes in other hospitals.
“Like a horror film,” says one witness, who tells AFP bodies were left unattended for hours.
About 20 kilometres from the city centre, where police man roadblocks, nurses are allowed into the city to help exhausted colleagues in the hospitals.
Day 5: ‘Let’s go Wuhan!’All non-essential traffic has been banned since midnight. Taxis have been requisitioned.
On the outskirts, hundreds of workers who arrive just days earlier are building two new hospitals from scratch.
Across a vast stretch of muddy ground, cranes and excavators dance a ballet, as they race to finnish a 1,000-bed medical facility within days.
“We’ve got to go fast so we can beat the virus,” says one man, who has been working nine hours a day and sleeps near the construction site.
People have been instructed to say in their homes, but some ignore the risk of infection and venture out to help.
A man named Zhang Lin and other volunteers ferry sick people to and from hospital in their cars.
“We need to take the initiative and help out,” he says as he waits outside a clinic to take a patient home.
That evening on the edge of the Yangtze river, four Chinese characters are lit up in pink: “Let’s go Wuhan”.
The slogan will become a rallying cry for the city.
Day 6: Stay or go?As the city passes five days under lockdown, foreign countries begin planning to evacuate their citizens in Wuhan.
But that doesn’t appeal to Remy, a Frenchman who has been living in Wuhan for eight years.
“For the moment, it’s fine here,” says the 33-year old, wearing a blue face mask.
He’s not been leaving his apartment though, just like students from the Dominican Republic, who were waiting desperately for news from their embassy.
Another Frenchman, Dr Philippe Klein is also staying put.
“It’s not an act of heroism,” he says. “It’s been well thought out, it’s my job,” he says of his decision.
Day 7: The Ghost HotelCompulsory masks, temperature checks and no restaurant: welcome to the Marco Polo Hotel, one of the few in Wuhan that has not closed it doors.
You know something is wrong as soon as you enter. There’s no-one at reception, and there is a heavy silence, which jars with the festive decorations all around.
The terrified staff serve the few customers their meals in their rooms.
A guard takes the temperature of customers every time they go out or come back.
“Below 37.3 C (Fahrenheit) it’s fine; above, and we take the necessary measures,” says a thermometer-wielding Xiao Fan.
Day 8: Death in the streetThe body of a man in his 60s lies stiff on his back in front of a closed furniture store, near a hospital. He’s still wearing a facemask.
Officials in hazard suits take every precaution as they approach the body.
A team of forensic experts who examined him are immediately sprayed with disinfectant by colleagues after removing their hazardous material suits.
The body is placed in a yellow surgical bag and taken away in a van as distraught residents looks on. The area is disinfected.
“It’s terrible,” says one. “So many people have died in recent days.”
