China

17 Mar 2020; MEMO: China has called for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran amidst its fight against the novel coronavirus, Xinhua reported yesterday.

BEIJING, March 17. /TASS/: People with blood type A (II) are the most susceptible to the COVID-19 coronavirus infection, while people with blood type O (I) are the least susceptible, says research by a group of Chinese scientists, published at medRxiv website.

The scientists have reviewed data on 2,200 patients from three Wuhan and Shenzhen hospitals, including more than 200 lethal cases.

BEIJING, March 17. /TASS/: China has developed eight types of vaccines against the novel coronavirus. Some of them have already proven to be effective on animals, head of the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Qin Chuan informed during a briefing on Tuesday.

"Currently, the Academy of Medical Sciences is estimating the effectiveness of eight vaccines. The effectiveness of some of them has been proven successfully," she said.

Beijing, Mar 16 (PTI) The coronavirus death toll in China rose to 3,213 with 14 new fatalities, while the imported cases climbed to 123 after 12 new infections were reported, prompting Beijing to make 14-day quarantine in special facilities compulsory for foreigners returning to the country.

As of Sunday, 14 new deaths were reported, taking the death toll due to the deadly virus to 3,213, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets and U.S. futures fell Monday after the Federal Reserve slashed its key interest rate to shore up economic growth in the face of mounting global anti-virus controls that are shutting down business and travel.

Sydney’s benchmark plunged 7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2%. Shanghai was down 0.5% and Tokyo was flat. Brent crude, the international oil standard, fell 3% while gold gained.

On Wall Street, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index fell 5% on Sunday night and triggered a halt in trading.

BEIJING, Mar 15 (APP): To help Pakistan improve its ability for independent development, China has been assisting Pakistan in cultivating local talents and technical force, building infrastructure, and utilizing its own resources, Cheng Xizhong, a Chinese scholar said on Sunday.

“In my opinion, to achieve domestic production, three basic conditions need to be created,” he said in his article published by China Economic Net.

BEIJING, March 15 (NNN-Xinhua) — A total of 1,370 patients of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were discharged from the hospital Saturday on the Chinese mainland, according to the National Health
Commission.

Altogether 66,911 patients had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Saturday, the commission said in its daily report.

As of Saturday, a total of 80,844 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 had been reported on the mainland, and 3,199 people had died of the disease.

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's iron and steel sector saw overall stable growth in 2019, as the continued effort in cutting overcapacity filtered through, data showed.

The output of crude steel saw an 8.3-percent growth to stand at 996 million tonnes in 2019, marking a new all-time high, while pig iron output went up 5.3 percent from one year earlier to 809 million tonnes, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed.

BEIJING, Mar 13 (APP): The COVID-19 pandemic could be brought under control in June if all impacted countries take the virus seriously and implement strong national-level measures to control it, said Zhong Nanshan, a well-known Chinese respiratory expert and head of its top-level panel of scientists against the new coronavirus outbreak.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong democracy activist Chan Kin-man walked free from prison on Saturday saying he had no regrets for his leading role in the 2014 “Umbrella” civil disobedience movement and that sacrifice was needed to achieve universal suffrage.

“Life in prison was difficult, but I have no regret at all... as this is a necessary price to pay for fighting for democracy,” Chan said, chanting “I want universal suffrage” with dozens of supporters.