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A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 15 February 2020
Virus cases rise as experts question China's numbers

By KEN MORITSUGU order to do that we need to
Associated Press have confidence in what
BEIJING (AP) — Infections is going on and we're not
and deaths from the new there yet," Schaffner said.
virus in China ballooned for China has come under in-
a second straight day Fri- tense criticism within the
day, on paper at least, as country for its response to
officials near the epicenter the crisis and has been the
of the outbreak struggled target of complaints from
to keep up with a backlog elsewhere too. But WHO's
of patients' lab work. chief of emergencies, Dr.
The acceleration in cases Michael Ryan, defended
was not necessarily an in- China's handling of the out-
dicator of a surge in the break and its cooperation
illness known as COVID-19 with others.
because the hardest-hit "From our perspective, we
province of Hubei and its have a government that's
capital of Wuhan changed cooperating with us, that's
the way it counted cases. inviting in international
But public health experts experts, that's shared se-
wrestled with what exactly quences with the world,
could be deduced from that continues to engage
the numbers given the shift with the outside commu-
in approach. In this Feb. 13, 2020 photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, nurses in protective suits nity," he said.
"If you change the way you treat a patient in the intensive care unit at Ditan Hospital in Beijing, one of the hospitals in China's The vast majority of cases
capital that are receiving COVID-19 patients.
count cases, that obvious- Associated Press are in China but reverber-
ly confounds our capac- ations from the outbreak
ity to draw firm conclusions the way cases were count- hanom Ghebreyesus. to front-line health workers were felt around the world,
about the effectiveness of ed before Hubei's shift. Meantime, the vulnerabil- can signal problems in in- with hundreds of infections
the quarantine," said Dr. WHO pressed for more de- ity of health workers re- fection control policies and reported elsewhere.
William Schaffner, an in- tails Friday on the change sponding to the epidemic signal that a disease is be- More than 580 cases have
fectious disease expert at in tabulating cases. Doc- was crystalized with other coming more easily trans- been confirmed outside
Vanderbilt University in the tors in Hubei are now mak- data emerging from Chi- missible. mainland China, includ-
United States. "We have to ing diagnoses based on na. More than 1,700 medi- Schaffner said he was op- ing the first infection on
interpret the numbers with symptoms, patient history cal workers in China have timistic that China's un- the African continent, re-
great caution." and chest X-rays instead of contracted COVID-19 and precedented quarantines ported Friday in Egypt. Ex-
Confirmed cases of the virus waiting for laboratory con- six have died, according — putting 60 million people perts and African leaders
rose to 63,851 in mainland firmation. to the health commission, in its hardest-hit cities under have expressed concern
China, an increase of 5,090 "We're seeking further clar- which said it was "highly lockdown — would help that should the virus spread
from a day earlier, accord- ity on how clinical diagno- concerned" by the infec- reduce transmissions. But there, it might wreak hav-
ing to the National Health ses are being made to en- tions. WHO echoed that, without consistent num- oc among less developed
Commission. The death toll sure other respiratory illness- with Tedros saying more in- bers, he said, it was hard to countries with fewer health
stood at 1,380, up 121. Still, es including influenza are formation was needed on draw any such conclusion. resources.
the World Health Organi- not getting mixed into the when the workers were in- "China and the world com- There have been three fa-
zation continued to report COVID-19 data," said WHO fected and under what cir- munity would like to restore talities, in the Philippines,
lower numbers, standing by director general Tedros Ad- cumstances. Transmissions a sense of normalcy but in Hong Kong and Japan.q

Jewish leaders seek better policing of online hate speech

By DAVID RISING society is causing chaos,” with legal protections for
Associated Press he said, citing attacks in free speech, it was hard
MUNICH (AP) — Jewish New Zealand, Germany for governments to police
leaders called Friday for and the United States. hate speech effectively,
better policing of hate “Last year, 2019, there but that private compa-
speech on social media were quite a few attacks nies had more flexibility.
platforms over concerns against houses of worship “A private company that
prompted by recent at- — mosques, synagogues gives a platform, whether
tacks that people on the and churches.” it’s a theater or a Face-
margins of society are be- The event, sponsored by book page, definitely has
ing incited online to vio- Goldschmidt’s organiza- the ability and the right to
lence. tion and the World Jewish limit speech,” he said.
Rabbi Pinchas Gold- Congress, came on the Michel Friedman, a promi-
schmidt, president of the sidelines of the Munich Se- nent German Jewish lead-
Conference of European curity Conference, which er, said, however, that
Rabbis and chief rabbi German police officers stand in front of the Bayerischer Hot ho- was being attended by governments could do
of Moscow, said online tel on the first day of the Munich Security Conference in Mu- Facebook founder Mark more if they made the is-
radicalization was giving nich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. Zuckerberg, though he sue a priority, saying that
rise not only to more anti- Associated Press was not present for the dis- authorities have been ef-
Semitic incidents, but also Muslims and others. given by social media to cussion. fectively combating online
hate crimes directed at “The strength and power people on the margins of Goldschmidt said that financial crimes.q