State Department Advises Against All International Travel; Trump to Partially Close U.S.-Mexico Border

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By Washington Examiner. The U.S. State Department advised the public to avoid travel to other countries as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep around the globe.

The department placed all international travel under a Level 4 advisory. In an alert, the department wrote, “In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period.”

Last week, the department placed international travel at a Level 3 restriction, advising all passengers to “reconsider international travel.” (Read more from “State Department Advises Against All International Travel” HERE)

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Trump to Partially Close U.S.-Mexico Border

By Politico. President Donald Trump announced Friday that the U.S. and Mexico have agreed to temporarily close the border to nonessential travel to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

U.S. and Mexican officials have been in talks this week over how to work together in responding to the global pandemic while ensuring that bilateral trade and essential travel are not disrupted at the border. It’s a similar move to the U.S. and Canada’s decision on Wednesday to impose travel restrictions at the northern U.S. border.

“Both countries know the importance of working together to limit the spread of the virus and ensure the commerce that supports our economy continues to keep flowing,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a White House press conference. “The United States is glad to have a friend that is working side-by-side with us in the fight.”

The U.S.’ agreement with Mexico and Canada to restrict nonessential travel will go into effect on Saturday. (Read more from “Trump to Partially Close U.S.-Mexico Border” HERE)

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Iran Repeatedly Attacks U.S. Troops as Coronavirus Outbreak Distracts Public Attention; U.S. Slaps New Sanctions on Iran

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By Washington Examiner. Iran-controlled forces are launching rockets at U.S. troops in Iraq while Western leaders focus on a coronavirus pandemic that threatens to overwhelm hospital networks around the world.

“It feels like part of the American public may have forgotten that two Americans died in Iraq,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an expert on the Iranian regime at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner.

American forces targeted five weapons depots controlled by Kataib Hezbollah, a Shia militia that the United States blamed for the attack that killed two Americans and one British service member last week. Yet the militias remain undeterred, as a Tuesday morning barrage marked the third attack on bases housing U.S.n troops in the last week, even as Tehran struggles to manage one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world.

“They view this as a kind of continuing campaign to push Americans out of Iraq,” retired Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr, who directs the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, told the Washington Examiner. “They’ve lost a lot of citizens to corona, but for those kinds of regimes, it’s really kind of inconsequential to them. They don’t place as high a premium on life as we do.” . . .

Some analysts believe that Iran has renewed attacks on U.S. forces in order to distract from the coronavirus outbreak. “Iranians are fiercely nationalistic,” American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin, who specializes in Iran and the Middle East, told the Washington Examiner. “And so, basically, it’s a no-brainer on the part of the Iranian regime to try to distract people from their own incompetence. And, even though — yeah, I’m a neocon, I’m a hawk, and so forth — I think the worst possible thing would be for Trump to hit Iran.” (Read more from “Iran Repeatedly Attacks U.S. Troops as Coronavirus Outbreak Distracts Public Attention” HERE)

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U.S. Slaps New Sanctions on Iran Amid Renewed Rocket Attacks in Iraq

The State Department on Wednesday announced it is slapping new sanctions on Iran as renewed rocket attacks have been launched at U.S. forces in Iraq by what are believed to be Tehran-backed militias.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the sanctions will target nine entities and three individuals “who have engaged in activity that could enable the Iranian regime’s violent behavior.”

“The actions of these individuals and entities provide revenue to the regime that it may use to fund terror and other destabilizing activities, such as the recent rocket attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces located at Camp Taji in Iraq,” he said.

The sanctions mainly target Iran’s petrochemical industry and are intended to “further Iran’s economic and diplomatic isolation.” (Read more from “U.S. Slaps New Sanctions on Iran Amid Renewed Rocket Attacks in Iraq” HERE)

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If China Had Acted 3 Weeks Earlier Than They Did, Cases Would’ve Been Reduced 95%

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By Axios. Axios has compiled a timeline of the earliest weeks of the coronavirus outbreak in China, highlighting when the cover-up started and ended — and showing how, during that time, the virus already started spreading around the world, including to the United States.

Why it matters: A study published in March indicated that if Chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier than they did, the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95% and its geographic spread limited.

This timeline, compiled from information reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the South China Morning Post and other sources, shows that China’s cover-up and the delay in serious measures to contain the virus lasted about three weeks. (Read more from “If China Had Acted 3 Weeks Earlier Than They Did, Cases Would’ve Been Reduced 95%” HERE)

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Early and Combined Interventions Crucial in Tackling COVID-19 Spread in China

By University of South Hampton. A study by the University of Southampton examining non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in response to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in China shows that a range of early, coordinated and targeted measures are needed to help significantly reduce its spread.

Researchers in the population mapping group WorldPop ran complex modelling, using anonymised data on both human movement and illness onset, to help simulate different outbreak scenarios for cities in mainland China. This allowed them to understand how variations in the timing, level and combinations of interventions affect speed and transmission of the disease. . .

The study estimates that by the end of February 2020 there was a total of 114, 325 COVID-19 cases in China. It shows that without non-pharmaceutical interventions – such as early detection, isolation of cases, travel restrictions and cordon sanitaire – the number of infected people would have been 67 times larger than that which actually occurred.

The research also found that if interventions in the country could have been conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks earlier, cases could have been reduced by 66 percent, 86 percent and 95 percent respectively – significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease. However, if NPIs were conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks later than they were, the number of cases may have shown a 3-fold, 7-fold, or 18-fold increase, respectively.

Study author Dr Shengjie Lai, of the University of Southampton, comments: “Our study demonstrates how important it is for countries which are facing an imminent outbreak to proactively plan a coordinated response which swiftly tackles the spread of the disease on a number of fronts. We also show that China’s comprehensive response, in a relatively short period, greatly reduced the potential health impact of the outbreak.” (Read more from “Early and Combined Interventions Crucial in Tackling COVID-19 Spread in China” HERE)

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China Complains Its Image Is ‘Seriously Tarnished’ by American Journalists and Is Retaliating Against Them; Why China Is Blaming the U.S. for Coronavirus Outbreak

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By Business Insider. China announced it would take “reciprocal countermeasures” against American journalists working in the country in yet another escalation of tensions between the two countries amid the coronavirus pandemic.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday released a statement ordering American journalists working for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post to return their media credentials — effectively disallowing them from reporting the news in China and Hong Kong.

The ministry claimed its decision to further regulate US journalists was predicated on the US’s actions against its own journalists, which included “slashing the staff size of Chinese media outlets in the US, which is expulsion in all but name.”

“In recent years, the US government has placed unwarranted restrictions on Chinese media agencies and personnel in the US, purposely made things difficult for their normal reporting assignments, and subjected them to growing discrimination and politically-motivated oppression,” the ministry said in its statement.

Chinese media companies, which are heavily regulated and censored by the government, have several bureaus working in the US. In February, the Trump administration designated five of those state-run organizations as “foreign embassies,” which requires them to register their assets with the US State Department. (Read more from “China Complains Its Image Is ‘Seriously Tarnished’ by American Journalists and Is Retaliating Against Them” HERE)

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China Announces Expulsion of U.S. Journalists

By TIME. The Chinese government moved Tuesday to strip credentials from American reporters working for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, in a tit-for-tat exchange with the U.S. that has escalated in recent weeks. Beijing also demanded those outlets, as well as TIME and Voice of America, hand over details about personnel and operations.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed Americans working for the three U.S. newspapers whose credentials expire at the end of the year to turn in their press passes within 10 days. Those reporters would then be barred from reporting inside China, as well as in China’s semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The ministry also demanded information “in written form” about staff, operations, finances and real estate of the five American news organizations, including TIME, in China, Hong Kong and Macau.

The Chinese government said that the move to send reporters out of the country was taken in response to the U.S. not allowing more Chinese nationals working for state-run media to work in the U.S. On March 2, the Trump administration put a cap on the number of Chinese nationals allowed to be employed by five Chinese state-run news outlets operating inside the U.S. That action by the U.S. followed China’s decision to expel three reporters from the Wall Street Journal following the publication of an opinion article critical of the Chinese government. China’s “measures are entirely necessary and reciprocal countermeasures that China is compelled to take in response to the unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the U.S.,” the ministry wrote in a statement. (Read more from “China Announces Expulsion of U.S. Journalists” HERE)

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Why China Is Blaming the U.S. for Coronavirus Outbreak

By WIO News. Coronavirus has imposed a worldwide curfew, the most popular sites lie deserted. There are more than 1,80,000 confirmed cases and over 7000 have died. . .

They’re sparing no effort to deflect blame for the outbreak. China wants the world to believe that the coronavirus did not originate there.

Chinese diplomats are aggressively pushing conspiracy theories to spread that coronavirus originated in the United States of America (USA). They claim there’s evidence that the virus was not made in China. And they are doing so mainly to shrug off scrutiny. . .

However, the truth is China tried to hide the outbreak. There is no doubt that the Chinese people were the worst sufferers of this outbreak, but the Chinese state deserves no sympathy, let alone praise.

China’s new narrative on the coronavirus is designed for both the domestic and the international audience. It makes the communist party look strong at home. Ideally, China should help smaller countries, ramp-up efforts to contain the disease. (Read more from “Why China Is Blaming the U.S. for Coronavirus Outbreak” HERE)

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Early U.S. Coronavirus Patients Have Fully Recovered; France Says Coronavirus Situation ‘Deteriorating Very Fast’

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By The Epoch Times. Patients across the United States who earlier tested positive for COVID-19 have fully recovered.

Maryland’s first three patients have fully recovered after becoming infected while on a cruise on the Nile River.

“I’m happy to report that the first three cases reported last Thursday have all been cleared to return back to their normal daily schedules,” Montgomery County Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles said in a video update on March 13.

The trio included a couple in their 70s and another unrelated person in her 50s.

Health officials across the country have reported patients fully recovering. About 4 out of 5 patients don’t require hospitalization, according to data that’s been widely cited by U.S. health officials. (Read more from “Early U.S. Coronavirus Patients Have Fully Recovered” HERE)

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France Says Coronavirus Situation ‘Deteriorating Very Fast’

By Times of Israel. The coronavirus outbreak in France is “very worrying” and “deteriorating very fast,” the head of the country’s health service says.

“The number of cases doubles every three days,” Jerome Salomon says on France Inter.

“I want our citizens to realize that there are people who are sick, who are in intensive care and that (their number) runs into hundreds,” he says.

According to the latest official figures published on Sunday, France has had 127 coronavirus deaths and 5,423 confirmed cases. (Read more from “France Says Coronavirus Situation ‘Deteriorating Very Fast’” HERE)

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Have They Found a Cure for the Coronavirus? Australian Researchers Claim Two Existing Drugs Could ‘Cure’ COVID-19; First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine in Seattle

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By Daily Mail. Drugs used to treat HIV and malaria could be used to tackle the coronavirus, according to scientists in Australia.

A team of infectious disease experts at the University of Queensland in Brisbane say they have seen two existing medications manage to wipe out COVID-19 infections.

Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, and HIV-suppressing combination lopinavir/ritonavir have both reportedly shown promising results in human tests and made the virus ‘disappear’ in infected patients.

The drugs are being tested as researchers and doctors around the world scramble to try and find a vaccine, cure or treatment for the deadly virus. . .

Professor Paterson said it wouldn’t be wrong to consider the drugs a possible ‘treatment or cure’ for the deadly respiratory infection. (Read more from “Have They Found a Cure for the Coronavirus? Australian Researchers Claim Two Existing Drugs Could ‘Cure’ COVID-19” HERE)

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First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine in Seattle

By Forbes. A new phase 1 clinical trial of a potential vaccine for the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus began on Monday in Seattle, as the first person to enroll in the trial received the vaccine.

The vaccine, mRNA-1273, was developed by biotechnology company Moderna in combination with researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The trial is being conducted at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

The phase 1 study aims to test three different doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine ad hopes to recruit 45 healthy adults for the initial trial. Participants will receive two shots of the vaccine, 28 days apart and will be monitored to evaluate both the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine. The latter involves seeing how well the vaccine stimulates an immune response to a protein on the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus surface.

The first person to get the vaccine was 43-year old Jennifer Haller from Seattle who said; “I hope that we get to a working vaccine quickly and that we can save lives and people can go back to life as soon as possible,” in an interview with TIME.

“This study is the first step in the clinical development of an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, and we expect it to provide important information about safety and immunogenicity,” said Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer at Moderna in a press release. He added that Moderna is already working with the FDA and other organizations to prepare for a phase 2 trial, which would involve larger numbers of patients. (Read more from “First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine in Seattle” HERE)

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Spanish Nurse Details Horrific Conditions at Country’s Hospitals; Europe Hunkers Down for War Against Coronavirus

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By The Blaze. A Spanish nurse says that going to work on a daily basis and fighting COVID-19 is like going to war.

According to Business Insider, nurse Coral Merino said that COVID-19 patients are dying lonely deaths alone and away from their families. Health authorities said Saturday, according to a CNBC report, that coronavirus infections have reached 5,753 people, half of them in Madrid, since the first case was detected in Spain in late January. . .

Merino, an ER nurse at Principe de Asturias University Hospital in Alcala de Henares, added that health care providers are also at risk, because there isn’t enough personal protection wear to go around.

“These are hard times for all professionals, but especially for us,” she admitted. “We’re constantly in close contact with patients. … There simply aren’t enough masks to change them each time we go to see an isolated patient. There are no proper gowns. We just have to make do with porous ones and put plastic aprons over them.” . . .

Merino, who has been a nurse since 2011, added, “We’re reusing the goggles other colleagues have used, washing and disinfecting them ourselves.” (Read more from “Spanish Nurse Details Horrific Conditions at Country’s Hospitals” HERE)

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Europe Hunkers Down for War Against Coronavirus

By Politico. . .EU leaders on Monday imposed a new wave of drastic measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus that has infected more than 180,000 people worldwide, killed more than 7,000 and is now threatening to overwhelm health systems in the richest, most-advanced countries on Earth.

“We are at war,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a televised speech to his nation, in which he announced a 15-day lockdown that would permit only the most essential movements, beginning at noon on Tuesday.

“It is of course a sanitary war,” Macron said. “We are not fighting against an army, or another nation. But the enemy is here. It is invisible, elusive and it is progressing. And this requires our general mobilization.”

Macron’s speech was just one of many remarkable public appearances on Monday by world leaders who rolled out unprecedented measures to fight the microscopic enemy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, appearing at a news conference in Berlin, said Germany would take “radical” steps including a ban on all travel “domestically or abroad” except for urgent work trips. She said bars, theaters, museums, cinemas and non-essential shops would be closed. (Read more from “Europe Hunkers Down for War Against Coronavirus” HERE)

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Newt Gingrich: I Am in Italy Amid the Coronavirus Crisis. America Must Act Now—and Act Big; Italy Reports 3,590 More Coronavirus Cases, Its Biggest One-Day Increase; Austria Announces Major Restrictions on Movement

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By Newsweek. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic poses two threats: public health and economic. . .

I have watched first-hand as the Italian government has worked hard to contain the coronavirus by imposing strong public health measures to try to get the epidemic under control. These measures will lead to significant economic challenges. . .

These steps are not an overreaction. The coronavirus is out of control of in Northern Italy. As of 6 p.m. local/1 p.m. EST on March 10, there were 15,113 total cases in Italy, with 12,839 active cases, 1,016 deaths and 1,258 recoveries. And there were 162 total cases here in Rome.

The hardest-hit region around Milan has had to improvise as its health system has been deeply stressed by the sheer number of patients. In Milan and Brescia, field hospitals have been set up in the fairgrounds as the local hospitals have been drowned in patients.

Because the demand for respirators and intensive care has been beyond any previous planning, doctors have been forced into the kind of triage thinking developed for intense battlefield casualty situations. There are reports that emergency room doctors are allotting respirators to those with higher life expectancy due to the limited equipment in the hardest hit areas of the province. If you are older or have other illnesses, you may simply not be eligible for treatment. (Read more from “Newt Gingrich: I Am in Italy Amid the Coronavirus Crisis. America Must Act Now—and Act Big” HERE)

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Italy Reports 3,590 More Coronavirus Cases, Its Biggest One-Day Increase

By The Hill. Italy on Sunday reported its biggest one-day increase in cases and deaths during the coronavirus outbreak.

Italy recorded 3,590 cases and 398 deaths in a 24-hour period, Italy’s Civil Protection chief, Angelo Borrelli, announced Sunday, The Associated Press reported. In total, the country has confirmed more than 24,700 cases and more than 1,800 deaths.

The country, which has been on lockdown since last week, reports that almost 2,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus in the nation.

Italy’s previous record number of deaths in a 24-hour period was 250, which was announced Friday.

Italy’s national health institute chief, Silvio Brusaferro, said it is unclear if Italy is reaching its peak number of cases, meaning it could soon decline, according to the AP. (Read more from “Italy Reports 3,590 More Coronavirus Cases, Its Biggest One-Day Increase” HERE)

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Austria Announces Major Restrictions on Movement Over Coronavirus

By Reuters. Austria’s chancellor announced major restrictions on movement in public places on Sunday, banning gatherings of more than five persons and urging Austrians to self-isolate, as well as putting further limits on who can enter the country.

The restrictions on public movement and gatherings will come into force on Monday, while restaurants are ordered closed from Tuesday, when new restrictions on entering the country will also take effect, a government spokesman said.

“Austrians are being summoned to isolate themselves,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s office said in a statement. “That means only making social contact with the people with whom they live.”

People should only leave the house for work that could not be postponed, to buy necessary food supplies and to help others, it said.

The western region of Tyrol, home to popular ski resorts where Austria’s first cases were reported and where 245 cases had been confirmed as of Sunday morning, announced a total lockdown on Sunday, with its governor saying the region found itself in “the most difficult situation we’ve ever faced in the post-war years”. (Read more from “Austria Announces Major Restrictions on Movement Over Coronavirus” HERE)

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GOP Lawmaker Introduces Bill to End Dependency on China’s Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

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In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and supply chain disruptions, one Republican lawmaker is seeking to decrease America’s dependence on China.

Appearing on “Fox and Friends” Sunday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) explained that she has introduced legislation to increase America’s pharmaceutical production to decrease dependency on China.

“It is the SAM-C Bill, Securing America’s Medicine Cabinet,” Blackburn said. “Many of the pharmaceuticals that are necessary for creating some of these viruses — and certainly the coronavirus family is one of those — they’re made only in China.”

“We are depended upon them for these. They’re called APIs: active pharmaceutical ingredients,” she continued. “My legislation would incentivize bringing that production back on U.S. shores.” (Read more from “GOP Lawmaker Introduces Bill to End Dependency on China’s Pharmaceutical Manufacturing” HERE)

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Wuhan Doctors Say Colleagues Died in Vain Amid Official Cover-Up; Chinese Official Attempts to Blame U.S. Military for Coronavirus (VIDEO)

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By The Straits Time. The hospital where coronavirus whistle-blower Li Wenliang worked and died has been hit harder than any other by Covid-19 due in part to throttling of information by officials, a Caixin investigation has found.

The Central Hospital of Wuhan, where Dr Li died, has seen over 230 of its 4,000 medical staff diagnosed with Covid-19, the highest rate of infection at any hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, according to data Caixin has obtained.

On Monday, ophthalmologist Zhu Heping was the fourth doctor at the hospital to succumb to the disease, following the deaths of doctors Li Wenliang, Jiang Xueqing and Mei Zhongming on Feb 7, March 1 and March 3, respectively. . .

A Central Hospital department head blamed authorities for endangering lives by spreading false information.

“The false information released by the relevant departments – claiming the disease was controllable and would not spread from human-to-human – left hundreds of doctors and nurses in the dark, doing all they could to treat patients without knowing about the epidemic,” the department head told Caixin. (Read more from “Wuhan Doctors Say Colleagues Died in Vain Amid Official Cover-Up” HERE)

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Chinese Official Attempts to Blame U.S. Military for Coronavirus

By NBC News. Chinese officials have sidestepped questions about whether Beijing blames Washington for the coronavirus outbreak after a foreign ministry spokesman suggested it could have been planted by the U.S. Army.

“When did patient zero begin in U.S.? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be U.S. army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” Zhao Lijian tweeted in both Chinese and English on Thursday. “Be transparent! Make public your data! U.S. owe us an explanation!”

His post was accompanied by a video of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying that some Americans who had seemingly died from influenza later tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Zhao, who was based at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan before moving to the foreign ministry in February, is a prolific social media user; a hashtag referring to his posts was trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Friday with more than 89,000 mentions. He is known for being outspoken and for his sometimes outrageous comments.

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