Microsoft Bing team launches covid-19 portal for global tracking of cases

An interactive map allows site visitors to click on the country to see the specific number of cases and related articles from a variety of publishers.

While Google is still working on a coronavirus screening and tracking website, Microsoft Bing team has already launched a web portal for tracking COVID-19 infections worldwide.

The website, accessible at bing.com/covid, provides up-to-date infection statistics for each country.

The COVID-19 Tracker currently lists 168,835 as total confirmed cases, 84,558 active cases, 77,761 recovered cases and 6,516 deaths.

There are at least 3,244 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the US and at least 61 deaths.

"Lots of Bing folks worked (from home) this past week to create a mapping and authoritative news resource for COVID19 info," Michael Schechter, General Manager for Bing Growth and Distribution at Microsoft, was quoted as saying in a ZDNet report on Sunday.

An interactive map allows site visitors to click on the country to see the specific number of cases and related articles from a variety of publishers.

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Data is being aggregated from sources like the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Microsoft announced the website two days after US President Donald Trump said Google has begun working on COVID-19-related portal for US citizens.

Coronavirus: Facebook cancels conference, Microsoft withdraws from another

Microsoft now has plans to hold a digital-only event from March 16-18. Facebook has earlier pulled out of the Game Developers Conference set to be held in San Francisco.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Thursday it would cancel its annual developer conference due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak and Microsoft Corp followed suit by withdrawing from a gaming conference scheduled for next month.

"In place of the in-person F8 event, we're planning other ways for our community to get together through a combo of locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content," said Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook's director of platform partnership.

The conference, which attracted 5,000 people from around the world last year, was scheduled to be held on May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California.

Microsoft now has plans to hold a digital-only event from March 16-18. Facebook has earlier pulled out of the Game Developers Conference set to be held in San Francisco.

In California, a person was detected with coronavirus infection on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the United States to 15, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency has warned of the possibility of a community spread of the coronavirus in the country.

Earlier this month, The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the annual telecoms industry gathering, was called off after a mass exodus by exhibitors due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak.

AT&T Inc , Verizon Communications Inc and International Business Machines Corp had earlier withdrawn from the RSA cyber security conference, set for Feb. 24 to 28 in San Francisco, due to coronavirus-related concerns.

Alphabet Inc's Google said its developer conference is still planned for May 12 to 14 as it monitors coronavirus developments.

Global recession likely if COVID-19 becomes pandemic: Moody's Analytics

COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan in China in December and has since affected thousands of people across the globe.

A global recession is likely if coronavirus becomes a pandemic, and the odds of that are uncomfortably high and rising with infections surging in Italy and Korea, Moody's Analytics said on Wednesday.

"The coronavirus has been a body blow to the Chinese economy, which now threatens to take out the entire global economy," Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics Mark Zandi said.

The outbreak of the virus, officially called COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan in China in December and has since affected thousands of people across the globe.

"COVID-19 is battering the global economy in numerous ways. Chinese business travel and tourism has all but stopped; global airlines are not going to China and cruise lines are cancelling most Asia-Pacific itineraries. This is a huge problem for major travel destinations, including in the US, where some 3 million Chinese tourists visit each year," Moody's Analytics said.

Chinese tourists to the US are among the biggest spenders of any foreign tourists. Travel in Europe is also sure to be severely impacted as Milan, Italy, the centre of the new infections in that country, is a major travel hub for the Continent.

Shuttered Chinese factories are also a problem for countries and companies fastened into China's manufacturing supply chain. Apple, Nike and General Motors are some prominent American examples.

Shortages of some goods will likely result this spring, meaning higher prices for things we buy at Walmart and on Amazon, it said.

13 US citizens at 'high risk' of coronavirus being treated in Nebraska

A total of 338 Americans were flown home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan's Yokohama.

Thirteen US citizens deemed "high risk" for the deadly new coronavirus are being treated at a federally designated facility in the University of Nebraska following their evacuation from a cruise ship in Japan, officials said.

A total of 338 Americans were flown home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan's Yokohama, touching down first at Travis Air Force Base in California shortly before midnight Sunday.

The second flight arrived early Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.

"A select number of high risk patients were transported onward from both locations using those same aircraft to Omaha, Nebraska for care at the University of Nebraska," Health and Human Services official Robert Kadlec told reporters.

State Department official William Walters added these included six passengers from the base in California and seven from the base in Texas.

Some of these included spouses and it was not clear how many had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Shortly before the flights left Japan, US officials were informed that 14 of the passengers, tested days earlier, had received positive results.

Some patients were also being treated at hospitals near the California.

The medical staff in Nebraska are re-testing the cases for themselves, after those patients were placed in isolated areas of the two planes for the journey home.

"Until we're done with testing they'll be self-isolated to their room," Shelly Schwedhelm, an official at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in a separate briefing.

She added that 12 of the patients were in a quarantine unit while one was in a bio-containment facility -- one of three selected in the country to care for US citizens evacuated from Africa with the Ebola virus.

Forty other US citizens who had been on the ship and had previously tested positive were being treated in Japanese hospitals and were not allowed to fly.

WHO warns overseas coronavirus spread may be 'tip of the iceberg'

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus epidemic jumped to 908 and the number of confirmed cases has risen over 40,000.

The head of the World Health Organization said on Monday there have been "concerning instances" of coronavirus among people with no travel history to China, warning that it could be the "tip of the iceberg", as he urged all countries to prepare for the possible arrival of the novel virus that has killed over 900 people.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauded the doctors, nurses and health workers for doing "their utmost" at personal risk to contain the epidemic, terming them "true heroes" of the outbreak that first surfaced in December in Wuhan city in China's central Hubei province where millions of people are under lockdown in a bid to stop it from spreading.

"There've been some concerning instances of onward 2019nCoV spread from people with no travel history to China. The detection of a small number of cases may indicate more widespread transmission in other countries; in short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg," tweeted Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.

"In an evolving public health emergency, all countries must step up efforts to prepare for #2019nCoV's possible arrival and do their utmost to contain it should it arrive. This means lab capacity for rapid diagnosis, contact tracing and other tools in the public health arsenal," he said.

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus epidemic jumped to 908 and the number of confirmed cases has risen over 40,000, Chinese health officials said on Monday.

Ghebreyesus said the spread of coronavirus outside China appeared to be slowing, but could accelerate, warning that any breach in solidarity is a victory for the virus.

"Containment remains our objective, but all countries must use the window of opportunity created by the containment strategy to prepare for the virus's possible arrival," he said.

"In the spirit of financial solidarity, donors have been stepping up, but we have not reached our goal of US$675 million for @WHO and vulnerable countries," Ghebreyesus said.

"Containment remains our objective, but all countries must use the window of opportunity created by the containment strategy to prepare for the virus's possible arrival," he said.

WHO declares international emergency over novel coronavirus outbreak

Top airlines including Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa have suspended or cut back services to China.

International News : The UN health agency on Thursday declared an international emergency over the deadly novel coronavirus from China -- a rarely used designation that could lead to improved international co-ordination in tackling the disease.

"Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as he declared a "public health emergency of international concern".

"This is not a vote of no confidence in China," he said, emphasising repeatedly that the measure was intended to help other countries less able to cope and praising the Chinese government for taking swift action to tackle the outbreak.

"We must all act together now to limit further spread.... We can only stop it together," said Tedros, who travelled to China this week and met with President Xi Jinping.

Tedros also said there was "no reason" for any of the international travel or trade restrictions announced in recent days, such as flight suspensions, border closures and quarantine for apparently healthy travellers.

Top airlines including Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa have suspended or cut back services to China.

The WHO's Emergency Committee, an advisory body of international experts, said in a statement that evidence had shown that restricting movement of people and goods during public health emergencies "may be ineffective and may divert resources from other interventions".

"Further, restrictions may interrupt needed aid and technical support, may disrupt businesses, and may have negative effects on the economies of countries affected by the emergencies," the committee said.

But it added that "in certain specific circumstances, measures that restrict the movement of people may prove temporarily useful" -- a possible reference to lockdowns within China that have affected millions of people.

WHO stopped short of declaring an emergency last week because its emergency committee was divided over the issue.

More than 7,700 people have been infected with the virus -- almost all of them in China -- and 170 have died.