February 28 coronavirus news

The Americans who allegedly took care of Wuhan evacuees without proper protective gear were "admonished" and "accused of not being team players" when they raised safety concerns, according to a whistleblower complaint about the incident.

US members of Congress have asked for more information on the complaint, which claimed American workers who helped Wuhan evacuees lacked proper training or protective gear. 

The House Ways and Means Committee has sent letters to US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the department's deputy inspector general, and the comptroller's office requesting more information about the complaint.

The letter to Azar includes a quote from the whistleblower complaint, which has been obtained by the Washington Post but not independently verified by CNN. 

Here's one of the sections of the letter that quotes the whistleblower:

A longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and infectious disease expert said the lack of novel coronavirus test kits has been a “bottleneck.”

A flaw in the CDC-issued test kits delayed testing abilities in nearly all state and local public health labs.

The CDC has issued new testing protocols that should allow as many as 40 labs to begin testing soon. And despite the newest US case — a California patient with an infection with an unknown origin — Schaffner was confident about the US response.

“We’re still in very good shape here in the United States. We’ve had very few cases. They’ve been well identified, well cared for, and public health is working hard, having identified all the contacts,” he said. “Now, this California case changes the equation, of course. Where did that person get their infection? That investigation is currently very much under way. And we’re all watching that very, very carefully. So far, so good, but we expect more introductions of the virus. That’s inevitable.”  

The all-House briefing on coronavirus briefing was off to a bit of a chaotic start this morning, with a room that was far too small.

The room only had 50 chairs set up in it — and a few Republican members complained as they left that Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s opening remarks were political in nature.

Members have now moved en-masse to a larger room down the hall.

Health officials in Singapore have confirmed two more cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing total number of cases to 98.

The Ministry of Health said that neither case had any recent travel to China, Daegu or Cheongdo, according to a news release. Both cases are close contacts of previously confirmed cases in the country. 

According to the Ministry of Health, of the 98 confirmed cases in the city...

Italian soccer team Inter Milan may have booked its place in the next round of the Europa League yesterday — but none of its fans were in the San Siro stadium to witness it.

As the country struggles to control coronavirus outbreaks in the northern regions, sports events are either being cancelled or played without audiences.

The eerie Inter Milan match against Bulgarian side Ludogorets was ordered to be played behind closed doors.

The Ludogorets team arrived in Milan wearing medical face masks, as more than 650 cases of the virus have been confirmed in the country and entire towns are locked down.

Five Serie A matches will also be contested in front of an empty stadium this weekend. 

Sporting events around the world are being canceled on fears of contagion. The remaining stages of the UAE cycling tour have been canceled after two team members tested positive to the coronavirus. Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome says “public health must come first” and is still awaiting testing.

There are fears Tokyo 2020 may be impacted but organizers insist preparations are going ahead as planned.

Read more: How the coronavirus is impacting sport

A woman in her 70s is the fifth passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship to die from the novel coronavirus, Japan’s Health Ministry said Friday.

A top Japanese government adviser told CNN this week that the quarantine measures enacted on the Diamond Princess, which was docked off Yokohama for two weeks, may have allowed additional infections to spread among the ship's crew and passengers.

The American-owned cruise ship was put under quarantine by Japan after a coronavirus outbreak was detected on board.

At least 705 people contracted the virus during the quarantine. For a time, the ship had the largest concentration of cases outside of mainland China, where the virus is thought to have originated.

Japan has now confirmed 10 deaths from the coronavirus.

Spain has reported 18 new cases of the coronavirus overnight, bringing its total number to 32, according to the health ministry.

Twenty-nine of those cases have a direct link to known risk zones in other countries, the ministry's emergencies coordinator, Fernando Simon, told reporters Friday.

But where the three other patients contracted the virus is unknown, he said, as they hadn’t recently travelled to affected areas.

Meanwhile, 130 guests at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife will be allowed to leave today after several days on lockdown, Simon said. Those guests had no contact with four people who have tested positive at the hotel.

“Apart from that group there is a group of 500 people who might have had casual contact with the infected patients -- not a close contact -- who have no symptoms. They need to be monitored but they don’t have to be isolated. We need to make a decision regarding those. They are mostly foreigners and we need to work with their governments to arrange their exit, this is not as easy”, Simon said.

The coronavirus is continuing to spread as authorities around the world struggle to contain outbreaks. Clusters in northern Italy and Iran’s Qom province are proving particularly difficult to control. 

In South Korea, more than 500 new infections were reported for a second consecutive day, with more than 2,300 confirmed cases, making it the most-affected nation outside mainland China, in terms of reported case numbers. 

Here's what you should know:

Global markets are on track for their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis, as coronavirus fears have pushed stocks down for a seventh consecutive day.

South Korean authorities are scrambling to find almost 3,000 members of a religious group, at the heart of the country’s biggest outbreak.

Sub-Saharan Africa reported its first case in Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday, as an Italian man who works in the country tested positive. More countries are reporting first cases as well, including Lithuania, Belarus and New Zealand.

The full picture of Iran's outbreak is still unclear. It has the highest death toll outside of mainland China, with 34 reported, but only 388 cases. The viral death rate has been at around 1-2% elsewhere, suggesting that thousands of people may be carrying the virus undetected.

The Geneva Motor Show, one of the world’s biggest car shows, has been canceled because of coronavirus fears, The show is the latest in a string of international events scrapped because of the virus, including the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that was scheduled for this month.

A plan is in the works to evacuate quarantined foreign diplomats from North Korea, a source inside the country tells CNN. The date of the evacuation flight has not been confirmed, but the source says it will likely fly from Pyongyang to Vladivostok, Russia.

The death toll is rising, with 2,867 deaths now reported in mainland China, and 79 outside.

Here's where they've happened:

Iran: 34

Italy: 17 

South Korea: 13 

Japan: 9

HK: 2

France: 2  

Philippines: 1 

Taiwan: 1

South Korean authorities are trying to track down almost 3,000 members of a religious group at the heart of the country's coronavirus outbreak.

South Korea has more than 2,300 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 13 deaths, making it the most-affected country outside mainland China.

The governor of Gyeonggi province, Lee Jae-myung, has requested that police track down 2,995 members of the group, which practises an offshoot of Christianity.

Health surveys were conducted on 30,814 Shincheonji members and found 740 people suffering from symptoms of the coronavirus. The surveys were conducted by 210 Shincheonji members who performed the task on behalf of government workers because group leaders say members won’t answer calls from people outside the group.

Lee says investigators tried for three hours to convince the group’s leadership to handover a list of members in the province. Shincheonji’s members handed over a list of 33,582 members based in the province, but Lee said thousands more people were linked to the group.

Read more:

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How novel coronavirus spread through the Shincheonji religious group in South Korea