death from the corona virus outside the chinese mainland has been confirmed at this time in hong kong beijing.

beijing. (crowd cheering) hong kong's official fireworks are canceled. shrieking and explodg) (crowd gasps, cheers) >> vincent: (crowd cheering) (shouting and cheering)k (fireworexplodes, crowd cheers) ♪ >> narrator: after theiolence on china's national day, hong kong's authorities take newur me in an effort to stop the protests. p >>rotesters' violence has been escalati and has reached a very alarming level the past few days, causing numerous injuries and leading hong kong to a chaotic and panicked situation. the chief executive and council decided at a special meeting this morning to invoke the power under the emergency regulations ordinance. the objective of this regulatioa is to end violen restore order. >> narrator: face masks are banned. the government also goes on to make a concession, formally withdrawing the extradition bill that ignited the protests. but it's too late. hard-liners ramp up their battles with the police and take control a university campus. >> li: >> narrator: li is part of a university of hong kong.hi >> li: ri >> narrator: li i

hong kong facing recession. this is bloomberg. ♪ p.m. in hong kong , we start with the death toll of the coronavirus. it's exceeded 2,000 with beijingng another 136 deaths nationwide this brings the total to 2,004. 132 of those new deaths were in the province at the ep center of the virus. that was the lowest number of additional cases in a single day since they changed the method for counting cases last week. the u.s. poimezzed restrictions on five chinese state media outlets buzz they're not seen as independent. it includes china global television network and the publisher of the people's daily. they say president xi jinping and the communist party are imposing more control over the nation's media and stifling heir independence. in incumbent was re-elected afghan, the election took place in september but there were technical problems and misconduct counting ballots. the corruption trial of benjamin netanyahu begins march 17, two weeks after national leks. netanyahu is being charged with bribery and fraud, accused of accepting lavish gifts from wealthy friends and scheming with media moguls to trade regulatory favors for positive n

well i think certainly while the al-jazeera team here in hong kong and beijing have been establishing during the past week by looking at comments online is that people do not have a great deal of trust in their government they remain deeply skeptical about the figures and fearful that the real figure is indeed much higher and of course that lack of trust stems from the death of dr lee one leon exactly a week ago he was a doctor who 6 weeks ago 1st raised the alarm about this new virus for doing his job he was punished he was reprimanded by the police he then went back to his job of treating patients who had this far it's and then in a terrible irony got the virus himself so that has caused a lot of people to question the entire system under which they're living you can't underestimate just how serious a challenge as it is for president xi jinping right now and we got more worrying news on friday marty of the health authorities in china say that a total of $700.00 health workers have now become infected with the virus and that 6 medical workers have died this underscores the fact that

hong kong. selina wang and yvonne man joins us now from beijing and hong kong. selena, i will start with you.e continue to watch for signs that this unprecedented lockdown tactic has worked. selena: chaos and despair emerging day look from the province that has taken the brunt of the outbreak. 67% of all patients. climbed pastl has 560. the number of cases, over 28,000. you have seen the health care system become overwhelmed by this fire us with potentially means there were a significant number of underreported, undiagnosed patients. you have efforts to try to alleviate this problem with chinese medical technology group dgi saying it has opened a lab that can test 10,000 samples a day to help diagnose the coronavirus. chinese researchers are applying drug.national it has not been licensed reproved any worlds in the world. it is being rushed into trials in china based on early signs of being effective. trialsgo into clinical as early as next week. you are seeing bullishness from investors here. it does take years to research and develop a novel medicine for any disease and viral illnesses it p

and another story from china beijing has sacked its chief on hong kong and macau affairs being is the most senior official to be removed from his post since mass anti-government protests began in hong kong last june he'll be replaced by the deputy chairman of beijing's top political adviser embody the months long protests were against the controversial extradition law that has now been scrapped turkey has sent in more reinforcements to its observation post in northern syria president ed or one has warned that he'll strike back if syrian forces in italy province attack turkish troops. italy's former deputy prime minister could soon be put on trial over a ban he imposed on migrants the italian senate stripped her tail selvin his parliamentary immunity so he can be prosecuted for refusing to allow a rescue boat with migrants to dock last year lebanon's you cabinets due to hold its 1st session later on thursday despite a backdrop of widespread public anger prime minister her sandia government won the vote of confidence in parliament on tuesday it will now tackle a deepening economic crisi

let's bring in yvonne man, who's in hong kong, and selena wang in beijing.ake us through this latest development. when you look at what economists is looking at, what the who saying, they say it could be the tip of the iceberg and everyone is watching transmissions and infections outside of china now. yvonne: right, and you mentioned the death toll now at 910, at least 40,000 cases reported around the world, and both of those numbers now have surpassed what we saw back in 2003 during the sars epidemic. we saw fresh cases in the likes of singapore, japan, and europe. there's a case of a super spreader after we saw cases in france, spain, and the u.k. britishces back to a man who attended a conference in singapore and came into contact at a.p. -- with people at a french ski resort. this shows the challenges to contain this virus once it carries outside the globe. very similar pattern to what we saw during the sars epidemic when one epidemic -- infected dr. infected multiple people at one time. there goes the challenge there. he also talk about signs of stabili

there was a poll came out on the 25th saying that trust in the government both in hong kong and beijinghe lowest level since 1992. the lowest before the handover in britain. people still free have opportunity to voice dissent don't believe the government and i personally interviewed people who say we don't want the deal the chinese people have. you can't buy us off. we're not selling our freedom. >> thank you very much. jillian. >> thank you. >> certainly the epicenter of so many things. appreciate it. >> it is, thank you. charles: as panic sets in, there is a run on face masks. how amazon is fighting price gouging. vice president pence is about to lead his first coronavirus task force meeting after being appointed by president trump. details how the white house is battling the spread of the coronavirus. >> we have the the greatest exps riley in the world right here. we're ready to adapt and do whatever we have to. ♪. we made usaa insurance for members like kate. a former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when h

death from the corona virus outside the chinese mainland has been confirmed in hong kong the 1st was in the philippines beijing says 425 people on the mainland have now died from the virus and the number of confirmed infections had surged above 20000 in hong kong which was hit hard by the sars virus 18 years ago this new coronavirus is fuelling alarm and anger. comes health workers angry they want the border with mainland china shot to halt the spread of the corona virus that has infiltrated hong kong and now killed a man. i. think i have the government listens to and demands quickly closes the borders and brings this epidemic under control so. the consent is not only here many countries are taking drastic measures in that effort to contain the spread of the virus. japan has quarantined this cruise ship after a passenger who disembarked in hong kong tested positive for the virus there almost full 1000 people still on board a medical team has boarded the ship to conduct extensive health checks. the world health organization has declared the virus a global emergency but not a pending. make in other words it migh

the pboc cuts rates again and hong kong and singapore join beijing in pledging extra stimulus. ng. live in hong when you are traveling to work, tune into bloomberg radio, live on your mobile device were dab digital in the london area. this is bloomberg. ♪ matt: welcome back to "bloomberg market: the european open." right now, we are about 40 minutes from the start of cash equities trading across europe. an important reminder that a viewer gave me earlier. it is president's day in the u.s., so u.s. cash equities and bonds will not be trading today, although we do see futures markets pointing higher with european futures. let's bring an update on the coronavirus situation. china sea 300 has recouped all losses since trading resumed after the lunar new year. that as the country's central bank lowers its key interest rates. over the weekend, france reported the first coronavirus death in europe, and in china, the total number of cases topped 70,000. . let's get an update from hong kong on the coronavirus. stephen engle is our bloomberg chief asian north of -- north asia corresponden

hong kong. live in beijing with the latest katrina tell us i mean the numbers are not going on in the right direction. that's right richelle we have now more than 37000 cases with an 800 state teletubbies and as these numbers rise with the krona virus rossa seem rising tides of criticism of as we've just heard against the chinese government's handling of this just this weekend we've seen the circulation on social media of a letter signed by 10 academics in the city of. criticizing the government and pointing out their response in terms of the punishment of this doctor dr lee when the hour now he was one of 8 doctors who sounded the alarm about the severity of this virus and early january and he was detained and punished for spreading rumors so this letter signed by these 10 academics in demanding that he made be made a national model and also they're demanding more freedom of speech so these kind of posts being of course censored here in china the government censorship apparatus is doing all it can to really downplay any discontent any criticism of the way the way the chinese government has handled i

hong kong. this is why beijing didn't exactly want the who to declare this as a global emergency.e might have been some pressure on the united nations organisation not to declare it as such because countries can then restrict notjust travel, but also trade with china. but as you said, since the declaration of global emergency, we heard from a number of countries restricting travel, some countries are now seeing all mainland chinese passport holders being barred from entering their countries, and this comes as the death toll continues to rise, as you mentioned. as of this morning, according to the chinese authorities, 259 people have died and just under 12,000 confirmed cases just in china, and of course the virus continues to spread outside. now there are confirmed cases of infection in more than 20 countries. mariko, where you are in hong kong, obviously, a place very badly hit by the sars virus. so, very careful there to make sure the same doesn't happen again. what have the hong kong authorities been doing? the hong kong government has closed some of the borders with mainland c

beijing. thanks for joining us. let's move on to hong kong now, where passengers released from a cruise ship quarantined off japan ra expected -- are expected to start arriving in the next coming hours. kongersabout 102 hong will be coming home, on that diamond princess. we just learned the flight was delayed because more people wanted to get on this charter flight from the original 45 after changing their minds. once they land, they will go straight from the tarmac to a public housing unit, where they will go through a 14 day mandatory quarantine. as for those still on board, unclear of their arrangement. another charter flight has been arranged to tokyo later this evening. the hong kong government expressed frustration of how japan responded to the health crisis on board, given that with 352 hong kong people on board the ship, they were some of the biggest roots of people on board, yet they said health officials were screening based on age and not nationality. 53 hong kong people infected by this disease on board out of the total 621. we he

hong kong. it comes amid reports beijing is mulling a cut to its gdp target. stocks regain ground as pboc support continues. ' results in the iowa caucuses have not come through yet. live from des moines across the hour. miss.et results manus: warm welcome to "daybreak europe." it was supposed to be the curtain raiser for the white house. between the likes of bernie and candidates ine iowa. chaos is the headline. democrats created an app for everyone to post their votes in this caucus. now you are looking at 1600 venues of participation, officials discovered inconsistencies. making post caucus statements and yet we do not know who has won. biden's counsel has put in a request demanding full explanations and relevant information about the quality control and the effort before any results are released. this is a moment of chaos in the decision-making process in iowa. >> for wall street, what they are eyeing is those hints of how deep support for sanders runs and how that could catalyze a big reaction in markets. speaking of markets, still a lot of focus on earni

hong kong. the chinese new year holiday break it's come to an end and this is why beijing is clear china is put in place is pointing restrictions all those people the residents returning to beijing must go into this 14 day a self isolation or quarantine time for at least 14 days of also sets of designated areas in beijing to cater for the huge numbers of people returning after this annual a chinese here holiday break which is of course was extended after the crime the virus was 1st reported and then we also mentioned the drop the number of the drop in infection rates with the entire china think it figures if accurate it's clearly a very good sign. the taliban and american negotiators have agreed to a proposal for a reduction of violence in afghanistan it's a deal that could last a week but u.s. officials say if it's a success it could lead to the withdrawal of troops from the country a senior u.s. official says if this deal holds it could be followed by a more permanent accord rebels in northern syria say they shot down a military helicopter on friday killing everyone on board damascus is tryin

in hong kong plus one in beijing but with some moving in with the breeze here which is still cold enough i look at mons 12 to bring snow to this publicly from the north korea and significant snow that the showers in indonesia are pretty well so widespread now the movie up through malays here into the southern part of thailand as well not a huge number but some and you know it is the best problem point singapore and now in that fairly regularly repeated shower regime it's not right yet but it's still occasionally showery in india it's a dry picture in sri lanka however we do get a few passing showers not many but want to. the. big stories generated thousands of headlines maybe angles been distorted are too numerous for comfort with different angles from different perspectives of things never really being believed the prey muddying the water even separate the spin from the facts the misinformation from the journalism is so clear and a chance to. hear us think with the listening post on al-jazeera. the if. you're watching al-jazeera live from doha a reminder of our top stories the chinese g

, but to push hong kong leader carrie lam to shut the border with mainland china, to stop the coronavirus from spreading further. although hong kong is officially part of china, and beijing has tried to strengthen its hold on that territory, doctors say now is no time for politics. >> we archer to solve this situation by coming out to talk to us. harbor,: in hong kong this ship. 1800 passengers are stranded, isolated, inc. tested after crew members reported fever. this other ship, diamond princess, is japanese. 10 of its p passengers s have bn infected and evacuated to hospital. 3700 others are still waiting to be in n the clear.r. there are so many unknown facts about the virus -- how it spreads, and how to detect the virus early enough. they make operations even more complicated. >> the aim is to stop transmission. that is why countries are implementing early case detection, early isolation and treatment of patients. newli: to avert transmissions, many businesses are shut, even places far from the virus epicenter, a care in macau, where casinos are now closed. it sometimes draws criticism from residents worried about losing their income. genie: the epicenter, of course

police entered the home ofjimmy lai, one of the few amongst hong kong's elite to be openly critical of beijingce station. the newspaper he founded, apple daily, is critical of hong kong and chinese leadership and his arrest is seen as another blow to hong kong's independent media. the 71—year—old is facing two charges, the first, illegal assembly, relates to a banned anti—government march last august. mr lai is accused of attending, along with thousands of others who flouted the band. two other pro—democracy figures, both politicians, were arrested over the same protest. the maximum penalty is five years jail. translation: what happened on that day is in violation of the law. that is the reason they have been arrested today. it was not an authorised assembly. mr lai has also been charged with intimidation over a clash with a journalist from a rival newspaper at an event in 2017. he has been arrested before. in 201a, he refused to leave a key pro—democracy protest. he was a vocal supporter of the so—called umbrella revolution. we have to be in touch with these young kids. they are human beings.

hong kong and singapore join beijing in pledging extra stimulus. the imf urges coordination.: the bank of japan says the virus is its biggest uncertainty as the nation's growth rate takes a hit from the sales tax. gdp contracts the most in over five years. nejra: awaiting the overall hall as hsbc prepares for restructuring. hasleading candidate brought himself out of the top job. stimulus from china, giving a boost to equities in today's session. japanese stocks retreat after the gdp data. the cash market is closed for president's day in the u.s. but futures in the europe and the u.s. look strong. manus: grappling with what the pboc has done in terms of liquidity and rate cuts and how that plays out. for the equity story. we have juliette solly in singapore and dani burger in london. we've got a nice rebound in china stocks. we pretty much made up everything we have lost its the lunar new year kicked in. how does it look? juliette: at least on the csi 300, that rebound actually happened in early trade on the back of all these efforts by authorities to mitigate the fallout fro

beijing. hong kong's chief executive meanwhile has rejected calls by a medical union to close the border with mainland china to try to halt the spread of coronavirus there's been cases now confirmed in hong kong when he is there for us the authorities in mainland china are struggling to get on top of this given that those statistics that are announced daily from the national health commission certainly worse than the previous day 46 deaths confirmed on friday in those latest numbers that were announced on saturday morning by the national health commission most of the infections and the fatalities are being recorded in who bay province still that is where it is thought that this outbreak began and certainly there the medical staff are struggling to deal with the sheer number of cases thousands of extra doctors and nurses have been sent to the area from other parts of china but there is still a shortage of medical equipment there in particular the protective suits that those medical personnel need to wear when dealing with the patients and also test kits and that is partly why many experts outs

japan which is where it will be on sunday leaving dry weather behind for a time 18 in hong kong plus one in beijing but with some moving in with the breeze here which is still cold enough i look at mons 12 to bring snow to this publicly from the north korea and significant snow that the showers in indonesia are pretty well so widespread now the movie up through malays here into the southern part of thailand as well not a huge number but some and you know this is the best problem for in singapore and now in that fairly regularly repeated shower regime it's not wet yet but it's still occasionally showery in india it's a dry picture in sri lanka however we do get a few passing showers not many but want to. around the world council entities are working to manipulate and influence us trolls has bought the 6 taking used algorithms that athena developed and designed to push content that says click me every click we may decide you just sold off the one and in the throes of a 5 part series i did raise in mexico examining how propaganda and proper shape content all through the algorithm on a just 0. hello ag

the games in beijing and hong kong were both postponed because of the coronavirus.lders up through to the semifinals of the french cup. they won 3—0 to seal their place in the last four. despite big investment and a promise to make them title contenders, jurgen klinsmann has stepped down as hertha berlin's interim head coach afterjust 10 weeks in charge. the former germany and usa coach was named manager until the end of the season — back in november. but won just 3 of his 9 league matches in charge, they're currently 14th in the bundesliga. klinsmann's managerial career began back in 2004, when he took charge of the german national team. he led them to third place at the 2006 world cup. from there he spent a season as head coach of bayern munich — but lasted only 43 matches in charge. he nextjob was head coach of the usa — where he won the concacaf gold cup with them in 2013. and then came hertha berlin where klinsmann made a surprise return to management in november. he'll return to his previous role on the club's supervisory board. originally, klinsman was part o

prevention but it's of rallying cry that rings hollow for many in hong kong which has reported its 1st death from the coronavirus trust in beijing is already low after months of pro-democracy protests and many residents. by memories of the sars epidemic 2 decades ago where hong kong recorded merely the same number of deaths as on the chinese mainland and now health care workers have gone on strike. to demand a complete border closure with the mainland the strikers say that's the only way to stop the koran of virus from spreading. close the border save hong kong that's the demand of thousands of the city's health workers on strike for a 2nd day for those battling on the virus's front line the current precautions simply aren't enough. thing i hope the government listens to our demands quickly closes all the borders and bring this epidemic and to control. so many this latest epidemic serves as a painful reminder of the deadly sars outbreak nearly 2 decades ago and few have forgotten china's initial attempts to cover up that outbreak severity which killed nearly $300.00 in the city state now as then people in hong kong are critical

hong kong leader kerry left 3 remaining checkpoints open. or more now let's cross over to correspondent mathias berlinger who's standing by for us in beijing mathias this coronavirus fatality in hong kong must be making people even more nervous there how are authorities in hong kong dealing with it you know authorities have been hesitant to react a few issues in hong kong one is the closure of the border posts. the government has hesitated to do so it has now announced to close several border posts but to teach some others open and a lot of people are unhappy about that many demand a complete closure of the border as long as these crises last other issues are that they are struggling to find places where they can set up isolation stations or. to bring in the. the sick. current team stations and many people living in the neighborhood when the plans show up when the plans become clear that the government is planning to do something trying to block these so it is a big issue for the hong kong government to deal with these countries so we've got a death in hong kong another in the philippines 20000 people infected now what's the reaction from mainland

man in hong kong and tom mackenzie in beijing.oughout the day with more updates. let's get first word news with su keenan. reporter: thank you. we start with the bank of japan that says it is well prepared to act if need be to address the impact of the coronavirus. speaking at the g20 meeting in riyadh, governor kuroda said he's monitoring the outbreak on inflation and financial markets closely. the yen retreated to a 10 month low against the dollar last week figurespan's latest gdp showed the greatest contraction in 2014. australian meanwhile says the economy is proving resilient despite the effects of the coronavirus as the impact it's having on the biggest trading partner in china. speaking to bloomberg at the g20 sunday, the treasurer said the impact on the tourism and watch.on sectors will be a ban on people entering australia from mainland china has meant a big impact on education, around 100,000 students have been unable to begin university classes. >> we are really having an impact on the australian economy in terms of int

it comes as apple is getting more public scrutiny about how it handles requests from beijing in the wake of hong kongrst time investors have voted on the way the company handles human rights and freedom of expression, but it's the first time it seems to be gaining traction with shareholders. it wasn't the only thing on investors‘ minds, shareholders. it wasn‘t the only thing on investors‘ minds, apple boss tim cook said the company would open its first physical stores in india in 2021. india is the second—largest mobile phone market in the world and it is seen as a big for apple, which lags behind huawei and samsung in global sales. they also said a friends reunion wouldn‘t appear on their tv, and they said it wa nted appear on their tv, and they said it wanted to focus on originals and not spin—offs. climate change now, and a new report warns about rising sea levels threatening asia‘s biggest manufacturing hub. china‘s pearl river delta, home to many factories, is most vulnerable to the rising tides and it has an economy worth $1.5 trillion, almost as big as south korea‘s. in particular, guangzhou a

now we're going back to china and we learned that beijing has sacked its chief of hong kong and macau affairs jang these are missing is the most senior official to be removed from his post since mass and government protests began in hong kong last june he's to be replaced by the deputy chairman of beijing's top political advisory body the protests that started over an hour scrapped extradition laws have turned into a movement for greater autonomy. that turkey has sent in more reinforcements to its observation posts in northern syria president has warned that he'll strike back if syrian forces in italy a province attack turkish troops syria's ally russia accuses ankara of making the situation even worse in this the last rebel held region by having its military on the ground. and there's been confrontation between american troops and government supporters in the north east of syria. has more on that. a russian patrol in north east syria near a missionary after u.s. troops in the area opened fire killing one civilian. the u.s. issued a statement saying they came under attack and had to o

yvonne man in hong kong and selina wang in beijing, thank you so much for that. let's get more on the impact on asian currencies. good to have you with us. the reaction has been pretty measured compared to the reaction in the stock market and bond market. what would it take for it to tilt either way? >> the currency market is more concentrated. the euro-dollar is falling slightly dollar-yen is very resilient. what will really drive the next move is if there is a bit more of widespread fear. the next move will be in asia. we know the currencies that are typically vulnerable would be the thai baht and the sing down her. the pboc wants a stable yuan. what level are you looking at? >> interesting that you should mention. pboc hasn't released its level. want to haveesn't a second complication. i think in the grand scheme of things, if you look at how the virus is playing into the chinahina trade tensions, -- just announced last week [indiscernible] let's say the virus gets a bit worse. [indiscernible] you see the offshore yuan going through seven again, and if it did,

beijing unveils measures for consumption and hong kong heads for its first back-to-back angle recession. live at the symposium in riyadh. and i'm with the cycle, turkey had stored it six straight rate cut amid rising inflation and the slumping live rep. the focus on wall street will turn to the release of january fed minutes. ♪ nejra: welcome to "daybreak: europe." we've got numbers taking the tape from deutsche telekom. adjusted ebitda is rising, that's what we're getting from deutsche telekom looking through some of the details for you. we might come back to these later as they come through on the tape but at the moment we just got a couple of lines coming through, the mainland that it sees 2020 adjusted ebitda rising to 25 billion euros. that warning on revenue from apple, the curve flattening, futures in the u.s. pointing to a positive open today on a lot of the asian equities. towarday we saw it head the record august low. the 10 year yield steady, switching up the board, a bit of a retreat in the yen, the euros steady after dropping below 108th for the first time since 2017 yester

factory in shenzhen, but airlines continuing to suspend china, to hong kong and american airlines suspending u.s. flights to shanghai and beijingangeles to hong kong until april 24, so a month longer than planned. the airline said it was due to decline in demand. dallas to hong kong will also resume around that same time, but that is two months longer than expected on that route. when it comes to the mobile world congress, that is hanging by a thread now after a list of tech companies are dropping out. the event was set to kick off board to any fort ash february 24 -- february 24, the likes of intel, sony, at&t all canceling plans now. organizers tell us there will be a video call friday to assess contingency plans and whether the event can go on. markets anchor yvonne man in hong kong. thanks so much for joining us. in the face off with coronavirus, china is redoubling efforts to shore up growth. on tuesday the finance ministry set out new quotas for fundraising. david ingles has details. david, how much are we talking about, and is it going to help? the new quota is 120 2 billion u.s. dollars. we understand that first they ar

hong kong, shanghai, and shenzhen. "china open" is next. ♪ >>>> 9:00 in beijing. 8:00 in new york. na open. >> we are counting down to the open of trade and in hong kong, these are top stories today. china struggles to contain the coronavirus as deaths rise. u.s. foray ask the flexibility. the outbreak putting pressure on macau. casino operators were already facing a slowdown. >> democratic

beijing. now hong kong's chief executive has defended her government's handling of the coronavirus but health workers don't think she's doing enough they're on strike demanding that kerry line close all the territories borders with mainland china adrian brown reports. as hong kong confirmed its 1st death from the virus a quarter of its doctors and nurses went on strike seriously affecting emergency services several 100 demonstrated outside the offices of their employer hong kong's health authority they say the complete closure of hong kong's border with the mainland would help prevent the disease spreading then members of the new union born out of the protest movement politics have now entered this growing public health emergency hotline thing i hope the government quickly listens to our demands quickly closes all the borders and brings this epidemic under control by choose day 10 of the 13 border crossing points with the mainland were closed but the bridge to china remains open now one of the few ways into or out of hong kong when this bridge opened almost 3 years ago it stood as a symbol of

al-jazeera beijing adrian brown joins us live now from hong kong so at the world health organization they are sending a team to beijing today what is the aim and why now it's been going on for quite some time well that's right if you recall the head of the world health organization met president xi jinping just over 2 weeks ago and it was during those talks at the outlined his hope that the world health organization be allowed to send a team to china but it's taken 2 weeks for that to happen the job of that team will be to investigate and also critically to provide on the ground independent analysis at the moment with depending on what the chinese authorities are telling us now this team is being led by a man who is in charge of the body's response to the outbreak he is very experienced we're told in these sorts of emergencies the w.h.o. is also warning and is worried about the fact that people outside of china are becoming infected people who haven't stepped foot in china are becoming infected and the the boss of the organization says we may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg so t

annual parliamentary session which draws officials from around the country to beijing sarah clarke has the latest from hong kong. millions of chinese are returning to work some companies have reopened their factories as they try to get back to business as usual after being shot for weeks i mean solicitor you 50 percent of our employees have returned to work bringing our production capacity to 50 percent we predict all of our workers will be back on their post by the end of february and a production capacity will return to normal. employees arriving for work a getting additional checks to make sure they're healthy and the government's offering companies tax incentives to limit the economic damage of the outbreak the government's also rolled out some measures to help enterprises and ensure their normal operation so we're encouraged and feel confident government statistics on monday showed a continuing rise in the infection right in china but the fatality right has fallen the national health commission says the situation is improving outside here by the province at the center of the crisis to. try and ward places

media stories we're covering this week we're pointing our lens at china hong kong and taiwan starting with the coronavirus and beijing's efforts to keep the outbreak and the coverage contain. the talking heads who gave up their ankle chairs to serenade chinese audiences about the violence plus contraband books a forced confession and a life in exile the bookseller who fled hong kong for taipei and the death of kobe bryant the tweet the washington post found institutionally damaging about a week and a half ago on january 23rd the chinese authorities shut down the city of one hot population 11000000 and ground 0 for the outbreak of the corona virus in short order 17 more cities were quarantined the total number of people affected nearly 60000000 the orders issued by beijing were significant but late in coming because the 1st official case of this virus was confirmed almost 2 months ago on the 8th of december 2019 it took that long before china's state controlled news media stopped downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak and started providing the kind of information that can save lives by that stage however millions o

john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. 0ur correspondence in hong kong, nick beake, has more on the cases.eah, i think everyone is trying to figure out what the latest figures are from china. we heard injohn‘s report there is some confusion about the way officials in beijing have been putting things together and sending the message out to the world. and, as you say, the world health organization is seeking more clarity on the methodology and the calculations that the chinese are using. here in hong kong people have been aware of the latest figures released for hubei province, specifically. oh course, that's the epicentre, that's where the outbreak began. the latest is there were 116 to recorded yesterday and 4,800 new cases. this now encapsulates, encompasses, how many people have been affected. and in layman's terms it means they're notjust relying on lab tests, but also if a doctor somewhere has seen a patient, maybe done a ct scan and looked at someone's chest and said i think you have got coronavirus, they are now being included in the official tally. and nick, a lot of focus on these

their flights to mainland china have tons of says it will continue flying to hong kong scott hyper reports now from beijing on how china is working to treat the thousands that. 1400 army medics are now in ruhani ready to work in a newly built hospital for coronavirus patients completed in just 9 days the images of supplies on the way and more medical help on hand the chinese government wants its people and the world to see china has criticized the united states for no substantive help with the outbreak and accuse the u.s. government of spreading fear and panic the new facility is modeled after a similar hospital built outside beijing during the sars crisis 17 years ago the number of dead from the corona virus now exceeds that of sars a 2nd hospital is expected to be finished by the end of the week together they will have 2500 beds for those infected with the virus there is frustration and anger on social media over conditions for the infected and doctors in ruhani china's central government the 1st day back for essential workers after the prolonged holiday focused on easing concern over the supply of neede

hong kong. has more from beijing on the new testing method and how it compares to the previous system of identifying corona barrus. we know that doctors relied on one type of testing kit in order to confirm that people did have the corona virus but there were number a number of problems with this testing kit 1st of all people had problems accessing it they simply weren't enough to go around secondly this testing kit takes about 2 days for people to get results so you'd have people for example going from villages to to towns and cities lining up to get tested and they would be told they have to wait or that if they if they did get tested they'd have to wait around for 2 days but potentially without accommodation which led to many people going home and this is put a lot of people off being tested and then thirdly there were problems with the validity of the tests doctors have actually been saying that these tests were only about 30 to 40 percent accurate so what's happened now is that they're giving doctors on the ground more flexibility in want to scratch and as to how they confirm that a patient doe

now another story that's come out of china is that beijing has scientists chief on hong kong and macau affairs main is the most senior official to be removed from his fall since mass anti-government protests began in hong kong last june here be replaced by the deputy chairman of beijing's top political advisor a body the protest that started over are now scrapped extradition all have turned into a movement for greater autonomy. they spread to more head on this news hour including a purge of freeform ace in iran more than 80 members of parliament are barred from running for reelection passed away for justice in malawi police are accused of failing to investigate a series of rape allegations against officers and in sport one of the best drivers in formula one takes his new car for a spin ahead of the new season. turkey has sent in more reinforcements to its observation posts in northern syria present russia typewriter one is warning he will strike back if syrian forces in every province attack turkish syria's ally russia has accused turkey of making the situation worse in the last rebel

hong kong. tell me about beijing. we have been focusing on the pacific rim and wuhan. tom m.: in terms of infections, the numbers in beijing are fewer province. or hubei are happening in the province of hubei, so beijing is relatively sheltered. in terms of the anxiety and concern, you only need to step out of the front door. the roads remain very quiet even though it is the end of the lunar new year. most people are still working from home, so it is eerily quiet in the capital. people are stocking up on food and water, even though there has not been a rush. in terms of traffic and activity, things are very dead, arehe number of cases relatively limited in the city. hospitals remain well-placed to deal with infections should they spike. francine: do you think we are over the worst, or is the situation still very fluid? tom m.: very fluid indeed, and it comes down to what impact the quarantine and lockdown, how effective that has proven to be. we have this incubation period of 14 days. the numbers of infections continue to rise globally. there has been progress in terms

let's bring in our china correspondent in beijing and our markets anger -- anchor and hong kong. let's start with you. we know a sharp decline in numbers. tell us more. the province at the epicenter of the virus reporting 349 additional cases, significantly lower than the previous day, almost 1700. a key reason is change in methodology. it has changes -- change the way a town the number of infections. one is suspected and one is confirmed. again, the change goes to show the criticism china has faced overseas and the way they have handled the virus on what many would say the lack of transparency and confusion, but there are a couple of trends from the last week set of data. one, the level of infections falling and the other is increasing. in total, you are talking about 2100 deaths or so in china. we will be seeing officials here in china at least. rates remain steady . minutes, theye are reporting two passengers and they reported at least two people in their 80's, as the number of cases continue to go up, at least 621 people that tested positive for this disease process in heavy