Coronavirus brings China’s surveillance state out of the shadows

When the man from Hangzhou returned home from a business trip, the local police got in touch. They had tracked his car by his license plate in nearby Wenzhou, which has had a spate of coronavirus cases despite being far from the epicenter of the outbreak. Stay indoors for two weeks, they requested.

After around 12 days, he was bored and went out early. This time, not only did the police contact him, so did his boss. He had been spotted near Hangzhou’s West Lake by a camera with facial recognition technology, and the authorities had alerted his company as a warning.
“I was a bit shocked by the ability and efficiency of the mass surveillance network. They can basically trace our movements with the AI technology and big data at any time and any place,” said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.
Chinese have long been aware that they are tracked by the world’s most sophisticated system of electronic surveillance. The coronavirus emergency has brought some of that technology out of the shadows, providing the authorities with a justification for sweeping methods of high tech social control.
Artificial intelligence and security camera companies boast that their systems can scan the streets for people with even low-grade fevers, recognize their faces even if they are wearing masks and report them to the authorities.
If a coronavirus patient boards a train, the railway’s “real name” system can provide a list of people sitting nearby.
Mobile phone apps can tell users if they have been on a flight or a train with a known coronavirus carrier, and maps can show them locations of buildings where infected patients live.
Although there has been some anonymous grumbling on social media, for now Chinese citizens seem to be accepting the extra intrusion, or even embracing it, as a means to combat the health emergency.
“In the circumstances, individuals are likely to consider this to be reasonable even if they are not specifically informed about it,” said Carolyn Bigg, partner at law firm DLA Piper in Hong Kong.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Telecoms companies have long quietly tracked the movements of their users. China Mobile promoted this as a service this week, sending text messages to Beijing residents telling them they can check where they have been over the past 30 days. It did not explain why users might need this, but it could be useful if they are questioned by the authorities or their employers about their travel.
“In the era of big data and internet, the flow of each person can be clearly seen. So we are different from the SARS time now,” epidemiologist Li Lanjuan said in an interview with China’s state broadcaster CCTV last week, comparing the outbreak to a virus that killed 800 people in 2003.
“With such new technologies, we should make full use of them to find the source of infection and contain the source of infection.”
The industry ministry sent a notice to China’s AI companies and research institutes this week calling on them to help fight the outbreak. Companies have responded with a flurry of announcements touting the capabilities of their technology.
Facial recognition firm Megvii said on Tuesday it had developed a new way to spot and identify people with fevers, with support from the industry and science ministries. Its new “AI temperature measurement system”, which detects temperature with thermal cameras and uses body and facial data to identify individuals, is already being tested in a Beijing district.
SenseTime, another leading AI firm, said it has built a similar system to be used at building entrances, which can identify people wearing masks, overcoming a weakness of earlier technology. Surveillance camera firm Zhejiang Dahua says it can detect fevers with infrared cameras to an accuracy within 0.3ºC.

In an interview with state news agency Xinhua, Zhu Jiansheng of the China Academy of Railway Sciences explained how technology can help the authorities find people who might be exposed to a confirmed or suspected coronavirus case on a train.
“We will retrieve relevant information about the passenger, including the train number, carriage number and information on passengers who were close to the person, such as people sitting three rows of seats before and after the person,” he said.
“We will extract the information and then provide it to relevant epidemic prevention departments.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-surveillance/coronavirus-brings-chinas-surveillance-state-out-of-the-shadows-idUSKBN2011HO

China calls for work to resume on road, waterway projects by February 20

China Ministry of Transport said on Saturday that road and waterway projects in the country, except those in coronavirus stricken province of Hubei and other severely affected areas, should aim to resume construction by Feb. 20.
Key projects should start as soon as possible, the ministry added in a statement on its website.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-transport-road/china-calls-for-work-to-resume-on-road-waterway-projects-by-february-20-idUSKBN2020BI

Singapore lifts virus alert to SARS level, sparking panic buying

Singapore on Friday raised its coronavirus alert level and reported more cases not linked to previous infections or travel to China, a move that sparked panic-buying of essentials in some shops across the island.

As Singapore’s infected tally hit 33, the alert level was raised to orange – a level reached during the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak and the 2009 H1N1 influenza which indicates the virus is severe and passes easily between persons.
With the disease reviving memories of SARS which killed more than 30 people in Singapore and hundreds worldwide, shoppers started clearing shelves of toilet paper, noodles and rice, and formed long queues in supermarkets across the island on Friday evening, videos posted on social media showed.

“I understand that people are concerned after the announcement this afternoon. However, we must…not hoard items unnecessarily. This will create undue panic and is unhelpful to the situation at hand,” trade minister Chan Chun Sing said in a Facebook post about the panic buying.
Singapore’s highest alert level is red, which indicates the virus is spreading widely and can result in major disruption such as closing schools.
“As there are now a few local cases without any links to previous cases or travel history to China, we have stepped up our risk assessment,” the health ministry said announcing the new orange alert level on Friday.

It also said firms should be prepared for “widespread community transmission” and advised that non-essential large-scale events should be deferred or cancelled.
The Singapore Airshow will go ahead next week although organisers may limit public visitors, it added.
Of the new cases reported on Friday, one was a teacher and authorities said all students and staff who had come into contact with her would have to spend two weeks at home.
A British man has also contracted the coronavirus after travelling to a business meeting in Singapore which has also been linked to cases in the city-state, Malaysia and South Korea, health ministry official Kenneth Mak said. [nL4N2A61BT]
Mak said authorities had not yet identified the source of infection at the meeting of more than 100 employees from an as-yet-unnamed firm at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in mid-January.
With evidence of local transmissions in Singapore mounting, people appeared to be taking no chances.
“People are not sure what the raised virus alert means and are stocking up food items and other essentials. There is somewhat of a mass hysteria,” said a 45-year-old tech executive who said he spent over an hour lining up at outside his neighborhood grocery store.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-singapore/singapore-lifts-virus-alert-to-sars-level-sparking-panic-buying-idUSKBN20111X

Biotech company Novacyt seeks emergency approval for coronavirus test

Biotechnology company Novacyt has applied for emergency approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as it races to roll out a product that tests for the coronavirus, the company said on Friday.
Novacyt, which is listed in Paris and London, also said it was in talks with public sector hospitals in Britain.
Its Paris-listed shares jumped by around 20 percent by 0830 GMT.
“As one of the first companies to develop and launch a test to detect the 2019 strain of nCoV (coronavirus), we have received unprecedented interest,” Novacyt CEO Graham Mullis said.
“We continue to support our new and existing customers and are working with the various regulatory authorities to try to make our nCoV test available to as many countries and laboratories as possible,” he added.
The death toll from the fast-spreading coronavirus in mainland China has reached 636, with 73 more deaths recorded as of Thursday, China’s National Health Commission said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-novacyt/biotech-company-novacyt-seeks-emergency-approval-for-coronavirus-test-idUSKBN2010Q8

China’s virus epicenter Hubei speeds testing after complaints

China’s Hubei province, the coronavirus outbreak epicentre, has started using a faster and more convenient method of testing in order to isolate patients more quickly, the official People’s Daily reported on Friday.
Reuters reported last month that a lack of RNA test kits in Hubei capital Wuhan may have delayed patients from being properly diagnosed and treated, contributing to the spread of the virus in the early days of the outbreak.
Hubei will start recognising computerized tomography (CT) scan results as confirmation of suspected infections of the coronavirus, which has killed over 600 people in China, the newspaper said on its official Weibo account, citing a document published by the National Health Commission on Feb. 5.
The move could significantly shorten testing time and allow more prompt treatment in the province, doctors and epidemiologists said. Previously, China’s health authorities had a stricter rule for identifying such cases, and patients were often denied access to be treated full-time without RNA tests that could take days to process.
“The biggest advantage of CT scans is ‘fast’ – we can see the results immediately,” Qi Xiaolong, Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, said in an email to Reuters.
“As we’re facing the shortage of virus test-kits in Wuhan and other virus-stricken areas near it (or the shortage of professional testing staff), current case-confirming procedures cannot meet the requirement of diagnosis and treatment,” he said, adding the quality of reagents and proficiency in sample retention could also affect the accuracy of the test results.
In contrast, CT scan results have proven highly reliable and can yield results in just minutes, Cheng Zhenshun, Director of the department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, said earlier this week.
“We’ve finally seen this change happen,” a Wuhan Weibo user surnamed Zhang wrote in a post commenting on the news. “This will give patients a lot more confidence.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-testing/chinas-virus-epicentre-hubei-speeds-testing-after-complaints-idUSKBN2011QV

Scientists question work suggesting pangolin coronavirus link

Independent scientists questioned research on Friday that suggested that the outbreak of coronavirus disease spreading from China might have passed from bats to humans through the illegal traffic of pangolins.

South China Agricultural University, which said it had led the research, said on its website that the “discovery will be of great significance for the prevention and control of the origin (of the new virus)”.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus strain separated from pangolins in the study was 99% identical to that from infected people. It said the research had found pangolins – the world’s only scaly mammals – to be “the most likely intermediate host.”
But James Wood, head of the veterinary medicine department at Britain’s University of Cambridge, said the research was far from robust.
“The evidence for the potential involvement of pangolins in the outbreak has not been published, other than by a university press release. This is not scientific evidence,” he said.
“Simply reporting detection of viral RNA with sequence similarity of more than 99% is not sufficient. Could these results have been caused by contamination from a highly infected environment?”
Pangolins are one of Asia’s most trafficked mammals, despite laws banning the trade, because their meat is considered a delicacy in countries such as China and their scales are used in traditional medicine.
The outbreak of disease caused by the new coronavirus, which has killed 636 people in mainland China, is believed to have started in a market in the city of Wuhan that also sold live wild animals.
Virus experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain’s University of Nottingham, said that while the South China Agricultural University research was an interesting development, it was still unclear “whether or not the endangered pangolin really is the reservoir”.
“We would need to see all of the genetic data to get a feel for how related the human and pangolin viruses are, and also gain an understanding of how prevalent this virus is in pangolins and whether or not these were being sold in the Wuhan wet markets,” he said.
Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of veterinary medicine at Hong Kong’s City University, also said the research was a long way from establishing a link between pangolins and the new coronavirus outbreak in humans.
“You can only draw more definitive conclusions if you compare prevalence (of the coronavirus) between different species based on representative samples, which these almost certainly are not,” he said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pangolins/scientists-question-work-suggesting-pangolin-coronavirus-link-idUSKBN2010XA

American dies of coronavirus in China; infections spread to French ski resort

A 60-year-old American has died of the new coronavirus, the first confirmed non-Chinese death of the illness, U.S. officials said, as millions of Chinese began returning home after a Lunar New Year break that was extended to try to contain the outbreak.

While the vast majority of cases have been in China, the virus has spread to some two dozen countries abroad, with the latest such cases including five British nationals infected in a French ski resort.
The American man died on Thursday in Wuhan, epicenter of the virus outbreak in the central Chinese province of Hubei, a U.S. embassy spokesman said in Beijing on Saturday.

“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” he told Reuters. “Out of the respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.”
A Japanese man in his sixties and hospitalized with pneumonia in Wuhan also died after suffering symptoms consistent with the new coronavirus, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
The death toll in mainland China rose to 722 on Saturday, according to authorities, and is poised to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Most of the deaths in China have occurred in and around Wuhan. Across mainland China, the number of cases stood at 31,774 as of Saturday.
The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people. Two deaths have been reported outside of mainland China – in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both victims were Chinese nationals.
The latest patients include five British nationals staying in the same chalet at a ski resort in Haute-Savoie in southeastern France, health officials said, raising fears of further infections as British families head for the Alps during the school half-term holidays.
The five had stayed in the same ski chalet with a person who had been in Singapore. They were not in a serious condition, the officials said.

The Chinese economy will sputter towards normal on Monday, as millions return from the provinces to the big cities after the biggest holiday of the year. The holiday was extended, but many workplaces will remain closed and many white-collar workers will continue to work from home.
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla’s (TSLA.O) factory in Shanghai will resume production on Monday, a government official said on Saturday.
Apple Inc APPL.O said it was working to reopen its China corporate offices and call centers and was making preparations to reopen retail stores there.
But Chinese authorities have blocked a plan by Apple supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) to resume production from Feb. 10 over concerns about the spread of the virus, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

The virus has been a blow to China’s already-slowing economy, with Goldman Sachs cutting its first-quarter GDP growth target to 4% from 5.6% previously and saying a deeper hit is possible.
“It’s certainly not going to be a return to normal next week,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.
“The longer this disruption continues the higher the risk it affects employment and the higher the risk of a much bigger hit on the economy,” he said.

‘HARD TO SAY HOW LETHAL’

Health officials are still uncertain how deadly the illness is.
“It is hard to say how lethal this novel coronavirus infection is,” Professor Allen Cheng, an infectious diseases expert at Monash University in Melbourne, told Reuters.
“While the crude mortality appears to be around 2%, there are likely to be many people who have been infected that haven’t been tested … We probably won’t know the true case fatality for some time yet.”
News of the death on Friday of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was reprimanded by police for raising the alarm about the new coronavirus, sparked outrage on Chinese social media and rekindled memories of how Beijing was slow to tell the world about the SARS outbreak.
Beijing’s communist leadership has sealed off cities, canceled flights and closed factories to contain the epidemic, a response that has had ripple effects globally for financial markets and businesses dependent on the world’s second-biggest economy.
Chinese-ruled Hong Kong introduced a two-week quarantine on Saturday for all people arriving from the mainland, or who have been there during the previous 14 days.
While China is bearing the brunt of the virus, anxiety is increasing across Asia, with Japan alarmed by the rising number of cases aboard a quarantined cruise ship, major foreign companies pulling out of an international air show in Singapore, and Thailand losing money as Chinese tourists stay home.
Another three people on the cruise liner off Japan tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases from the ship to 64, Japan’s health ministry said.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL.N) on Friday banned “any guests holding Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports, regardless of when they were there last” from boarding the company’s ships.
The World Health Organization warned on Friday warned against the “unnecessary, unhelpful profiling of individuals based on ethnicity”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health/american-dies-of-coronavirus-in-china-infections-spread-to-french-ski-resort-idUSKBN20003J?il=0