CORONAVIRUS

CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL HITS 170-

The deadly coronavirus has hit all provinces in China, including the remote region of Tibet, mostly due to travelers from Wuhan city, the ground zero of the epidemic, as the virus asserted 170 lives, infected 7,736 others and spread to 20 countries, including India. Chinese health officials on Thursday announced 38 more fatalities mainly from the worst-affected central Hubei province, taking the death toll to 170, Tibet, which tills now remained the only Chinese province untouched by the virus, reported its first case on Thursday. Russia said it was closing its border with China to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and would stop issuing electronic visas to Chinese nationals. Prime Minister told a government meeting that the order had been signed to take measures to close the border with China in the Far East. We have to do each thing to protect our people. The foreign ministry also advised Russians to refrain from traveling to China to get in touch with the Russian embassy. In Taiwan, annoyance has been growing over China's refusal this week to let Taiwan evacuate about 300 of its people from Wuhan, even as it has given the United States, Japan, and other countries authorization to do so. China's ruling Communist Party considers Taiwan, a democratically governed island, to be part of China, and the two sides have no official ties. Referring to the rebuffed evacuation request on Tuesday, Ma Xiaguang, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said in a statement that Taiwanese people in Hubei Province, which includes Wuhan were receiving appropriate care. Kolas Yotaka, a spokeswoman for Taiwan's government, said China was arranging politics over lives. Many of the Taiwanese seeking evacuations from Wuhan were tourists on business trips, while others were residents of the city who suffered from chronic diseases, Kolas said. We call on the Chinse government to signify basic humanity and agree to our request as soon as possible. Asian stocks and currencies fell, with fears growing that the hit to China's economy will ripple around the world. Markets will remain high evaporative as long as they feel that they only have an incomplete picture of what is going on, and what is going to happen next said by the global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit.