11:05: A first case of coronavirus was detected in Brussels on one of the passengers of the flight who repatriated on Sunday some 250 people mainly European from the Chinese city of Wuhan, announced Tuesday the Belgian Ministry of Health.
There were aboard this aircraft, having stopped in the south of France and then in Brussels, around thirty nationalities represented. “All other countries” have been warned, Belgian Minister Maggie De Block said at a press conference. The person tested positive “is asymptomatic and feels good,” she added.
10:43: South Korea’s leading automaker Hyundai has announced that it will cut all production in the country this week due to a shortage of parts linked to the new coronavirus that has appeared in China. Supply chains operate on a just-in-time basis in the automotive industry.
“Hyundai Motor has decided to halt production on all assembly lines at all of its factories in Korea,” the automaker said in a statement. The date on which production will cease will vary, however all production will have been stopped by the end of the week, the source said.
Hyundai has 13 plants worldwide, including seven in South Korea, and sold a total of 4.4 million vehicles last year. Its South Korean production amounts to around 1.8 million vehicles, or around 35,000 per week.
The emergence of viral pneumonia in China has disrupted the supply of wiring components, which are mainly produced in Hyundai assembly lines in China. An automaker official quoted by Yonhap news agency said production could resume next week, however.
The city of Wuhan, where the epidemic began, is a major center of the Chinese automotive industry, where the French PSA and Renault have established most of their factories in the country.
9:30 am: Update on the situation this morning
The toll of the coronavirus epidemic in China has risen to 425 dead after 64 new deaths announced on Tuesday by the government, which admitted “shortcomings” in its response to the health crisis.
Chinese authorities have reported an urgent need for protective masks and medical equipment to deal with the epidemic, the death toll of which is now far beyond that of SARS, which killed 349 people in 2002-2003. .
The number of people infected has exceeded 20,400 in the country, after the emergence of 3,235 new confirmed cases, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.
For their part, the health ministers of the G7 countries agreed on Monday to coordinate “as much as possible in travel advice and preventive measures” against the coronavirus.
For its part, the World Bank on the same day called on all countries to “strengthen their health surveillance and the responses given” to the epidemic, and said it was examining the financial and technical resources that could be mobilized quickly.
Ten days after the start of the crisis, marked by the confinement of the metropolis of Wuhan (center) and its province, Hubei, the Chinese stock markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen plunged by around 8% after an interruption of ten quotation days. The biggest drop in Chinese indices since the stock market crash of 2015.
In the context of China’s paralysis by fear of the virus, Beijing on Monday recognized “shortcomings” in its reaction and also admitted to relying on the rest of the world to respond to the crisis.
The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party has asked for an improvement in the emergency response system following “shortcomings and difficulties which have appeared in the response to the epidemic,” the official agency said. new China press.
7:36 am: The number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in China has risen to 425, after authorities in Hubei Province announced on Tuesday 64 new deaths. In its daily update, the provincial health commission also reported a sharp increase in the number of people infected, with 2,345 new cases confirmed in Hubei, province of central China which is the home of the new epidemic. In total, the number of people infected with the coronavirus epidemic in China has exceeded 20,400 after the appearance of 3,235 new confirmed cases across the country.
7:01: 241 Australians are quarantined for two weeks on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, west of Perth. Prime Minister Scott Morrison reported on Twitter that all passengers had been “transferred” to this chosen island. due to the presence of a former detention center for asylum seekers, closed in 2018 – and that they are cared for there. A pregnant woman and her companion, however, were isolated in the city of Perth and were not placed on the island. The conservative thanked the Chinese government for its “cooperative” approach in organizing this evacuation operation.
6:12 am: The first South Korean automaker interrupted production on one of its assembly lines on Tuesday due to a lack of parts linked to the new coronavirus in China and considering broader measures, the company announced on Tuesday. Supply chains are just-in-time in the auto industry. In 2011, the earthquake and tsunami of Fukushima in Japan destroyed a factory of Renesas Electronics, the Japanese specialist in various chips for cars and electronic devices. The onset of viral pneumonia in China has disrupted the supply of wiring components, a spokeswoman for Hyundai said. “For the moment, the production line for the Genesis sedans at the number 5 plant in Ulsan has been temporarily suspended,” she said.
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