Senior scientific figures have played down the significance of the confirmation that a case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the UK’s largest population centre. Dr Michael Tildesley, associate professor in mathematical epidemiology at the University of Warwick, has said:

It has been confirmed this is a case where an individual has travelled from China and has been detected whilst in London. So we don’t have enough evidence at this stage to say that it is spreading in London - we have had an introduction of the virus to London from an individual that has travelled from China but as yet, no reported human-to-human transmission as a result of this new case.

There always remains the risk of introduction of cases into the UK from international travellers and it is difficult to predict where future introductions may occur. So it’s not surprising that there is a case in London since it is the main UK hub for international travellers.

What needs to be done at this stage is to carry out contact tracing, in a similar way that has been done for other cases, in order to detect any contacts as rapidly as possible and if they show symptoms of the disease, follow the necessary protocols to minimise the risk of them causing further infections.

It is important of course that people remain vigilant and minimise their own risk of being infected but at this stage it is too early to say the extent of the risk of onward transmission as a result of this new case.”

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, has said:

If confirmed, it is not surprising that London has seen its first case of the coronavirus. It’s a city of over 10 million people with several major international airports. Both London and the rest of the UK can expect to see more cases, though hopefully these will continue to be isolated cases and seen in small numbers.

It should also be noted that, of the 1,750 tests carried out so far in the UK, more than 99% of those tested have been negative for the coronavirus. Thus, risks to Londoners and UK residents remain low though people should continue to keep an eye on guidance for the general public.

Today marked the first cancellation of MWC in its 33-year history. Due to take place on the week of 24 February in Barcelona, the gathering of 100,000 of the world’s mobile industry is the largest and most important of its kind, where deals are hammered out and new products from smartphones to telecommunications equipment are shown off.

A mental health centre in Hove is going through a deep clean after a patient with flu-like symptoms had to be treated.

It’s understood the female patient had recently returned from Hong Kong, which Public Health England say is on the coronavirus warning list. The woman was treated at the unit, the Haven Annexe at Mill View hospital, and is believed to have since left the centre.

Referring to the diagnosis in London that emerged less than an hour ago, the chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has said:

One further patient in England has tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of cases in the UK to nine. This virus was passed on in China and the patient has now been transferred to a specialist NHS centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ in London.

Dr Tedros has defended the reaction of the Chinese authorities to the outbreak.

We were in this board room for a board meeting and almost all members states were praising China for what it did. And they had a reason ... China took action massively at the epicentre, at the source of the outbreak, in shutting down Wuhan city. And that helped prevent cases from being exported to other provinces in China and the rest of the world. And I remember a board member from the UK saying, verbatim, ‘this is heroic’. Because when you shut down a city like that it has consequences – economic and so on – serious consequences.

The WHO officials are asked why the numbers of diagnoses is stabilising but the death rate is going up. Dr Ryan says that this is because the length of the illness is comparatively long, so we are now seeing the “end of life moments” of those who were diagnosed weeks ago.

Ryan says that fewer than a quarter of the cases outside China were transmitted outside China. In only eight cases globally have they failed to find a plausible explanation for the transmission.

Asked about reports that the Chinese authorities silenced those warning of the virus at the end of last year, Dr Michael Ryan says that the country’s government notified WHO as soon as there was evidence of the outbreak.

He said that given the country’s huge population and the fact that the symptoms are so similar to influenza, the speed of the identification of the outbreak was impressive. “Now is not the time for recrimination, now is not the time for forensics, now is the time to fight this virus,” he said.

Asked about reports that the coronavirus epidemic could be over by April, Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, says he would love to be able to predict the future, “but we need to be cautious”.

He says that evidence of the stabilisation of cases is very reassuring. “We expect to see the virus come under control but we’re not going to talk about numbers or dates ... It’s way too early to predict the beginning, the middle or the end of this epidemic.”

Prof Robert Steffen from the Ebola emergency committee says there is no room for complacency when it comes to tackling the Ebola outbreak. He says the “global solidarity” mentioned by Dr Tedros is lacking in the case of Ebola and that more international help is needed.

The WHO is doing further investigations about the origins of the new coronavirus and how the transmission of conditions from animals to humans can be prevented, says Dr Tedros.

Dr Tedros says that Cambodia has agreed to accept the Westerdam cruise ship that has been stranded at sea for several days.

He said that outbreaks can bring out the “best and the worst in people”. Stigmatising people and nations does nothing but harm the response, he said.

The World Health Organization is holding a press conference about the outbreak of Ebola in the DRC and the coronavirus outbreak. The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says that just as the Ebola outbreak appears to die down, we are having to fight another fire on a different front.

All 83 people who were being held in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital, in the Wirral, have been told their test results for coronavirus came back negative.

The BBC reported that they all expect be free to leave the accommodation – which they had been staying in for the past fortnight – tomorrow morning.

Coronavirus tests for two prisoners in Oxfordshire have come back negative.

The men, who are inmates at HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester, had been kept in isolation. Access had been restricted to the wing where the affected prisoners were.

One of the prisoners has been named as Mark Rumble, who had recently been transferred from a jail in Thailand.

Patcham care home on the outskirts of Brighton has confirmed it has reopened after it was closed following the discovery that a care worker diagnosed with the virus had visited it.

A spokesman said: “We are pleased that the home is now reopened to visitors. Thanks must go to Public Health England for its support and advice over the last few days, to all the families and visitors who have been patient and understanding, to our staff who have been superb, and last, but not least, to our residents who have been good-natured and uncomplaining throughout.”

Pupils and staff at at least nine schools in Brighton, Hove and Eastbourne are self-isolating as a precaution after recent cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in the area.

Parents in Sussex have been told by Public Health England (PHE) that either a staff member or student has been advised to stay home from the schools for 14 days, PA Media has reported.

In a letter sent to parents on Tuesday evening, Varndean School in Brighton said a “person from our school community” had been advised to self-quarantine after coming into contact with a potential case of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Headteacher William Deighan said the school remained open, adding: “However, I realise that during this worrying time that you may want to make your own decisions about school attendance.

“I can confirm that absences you inform us of will be authorised at this time.

“The local authority has confirmed to us that Public Health England and the office of the Chief Medical Officer are clear in their advice that schools do not need to close.”

Nearly 200 people in the US state of Georgia have been placed in isolation amid fears about the spread of coronavirus.

The residents, who have recently travelled to China, have been told to self-monitor for symptoms while staying at home for two weeks. So far, no one in the state has tested positive for the virus.

The Atlanta-based airline Delta Air Lines has suspended all flights between the US and China until 30 April due to concerns about coronavirus.

A paper in the Lancet medical journal, published online, should dispel some of the worries around reports of some babies born to women who have fallen ill with what is now being called COVID-19 also being diagnosed with the infection.

The authors say preliminary evidence suggests the new coronavirus cannot be passed to the baby in the womb.

It’s a small study of just nine pregnant women who fell sick in the third trimester of pregnancy in Wuhan and gave birth by caesarean section, but reassuring all the same.

None of the women or their babies died. Samples of amniotic fluid from mothers, plus cord blood and throat swabs from six of the newborns, showed no trace of the virus.

The study follows news that a newborn tested positive for the coronavirus within 36 hours of birth to a mother who was sick.

The authors say they cannot be sure on the basis of nine cases that transmission in the womb is never possible – and they also cannot rule out transmission of the virus during birth.

“There is limited information about the virus in pregnant women. This is important to study because pregnant women can be particularly susceptible to respiratory pathogens and severe pneumonia, because they are immunocompromised and because of pregnancy-related physiological changes which could leave them at higher risk of poor outcomes,” said Prof Huixia Yang from the Peking University First Hospital in China, a co-author of the paper with Wuhan-based doctors.

“Although in our study no patients developed severe pneumonia or died of their infection, we need to continue to study the virus to understand the effects in a larger group of pregnant women.”

The women were treated with oxygen support and antibiotics and six were given an antiviral treatment, the paper says.

Dr Jie Qiao, from the Peking University Third Hospital, who was not involved in the study, writes in a comment in the journal that the effect of the new coronavirus on pregnant women appears to be less damaging than Sars, which caused numerous miscarriages and complications for the babies after birth.

Hi, Amy Walker here taking over the blog from my colleague Simon Murphy.

Patients who were treated by the two Brighton GPs who have been diagnosed with coronavirus have been traced by health officials, the BBC has reported.

The 12 individuals were seen across four different buildings in East and West Sussex – at a nursing home, an A&E department and two medical practices.

Both doctors had stayed in the same French ski chalet as Steve Walsh, the British man who has been linked to 11 cases of the virus. They are now in isolation, while the GP practices where they worked have reopened following a deep clean.

Their recent patients have been traced and advised by Public Health England, and Patcham nursing home in Brighton has closed to visitors as a precaution.

The cruise operator Carnival has warned its shareholders that the coronavirus outbreak will have a “material impact” on its financial results this year.

The firm owns MS Westerdam luxury cruise ship which is finally being allowed to dock in Cambodia after being turned away by five countries despite having no sick passengers.

In a statement to the City, Carnival explained that it has already scrapped sailings from China. This is now having a knock-on impact, forcing voyages in other parts of Asia to be cancelled, hitting revenues and profits.

Understandably, Carnival still doesn’t know the full impact of the crisis. But IF it were forced to cancel all operations in Asia until the end of April (which isn’t currently planned), it would lose up to $0.65 per share in profits.

Carnival had been expecting to make $4.30 to $4.60 per share this year, so this would be quite a dent to earnings. Such wide-ranging cancellations are still hypothetical at this stage, but it’s a sign of the financial damage which coronavirus could cause.

More than 100 people have been tested for coronavirus so far in Scotland – but no one has yet been diagnosed with the disease.

There have been 106 negative tests north of the border, according to figures released by the Scottish government. It represents an increase of 24 from yesterday and 49 more than Monday.

By last night, a total of 1,358 people had been tested for coronavirus in the UK, eight of whom had so far tested positive, the UK Department of Health said.

Steve Walsh, the British businessman linked to several cases of coronavirus, has spoken of his happiness at returning home after recovering from the disease.

In a statement, Walsh said: “I’m happy to be home and feeling well. I want to give a big thank you to the NHS who have been great throughout and my thoughts are with everyone around the world who continues to be affected by the virus. It’s good to be back with my family …”

BT has joined Nokia on a growing list of tech firms that have pulled out of a major mobile phone conference in Spain over coronavirus fears.

The Mobile World Congress, which normally attracts more than 100,000 visitors, is due to take place at the end of the month in Barcelona.

BT said today that withdrawing from the event was the “most responsible decision” it could make. Earlier, Nokia said it would be “prudent” for the company to withdraw from the trade show to ensure the safety of its staff.

Amazon, LG, Sony, Intel and Facebook have already withdrawn from the event.

More news from Russia, where it has emerged that one patient jumped out of a hospital window in a bid to escape quarantine and another broke out by disabling an electronic lock.

Two Russian women kept in isolation over fears they had coronavirus say they fled claiming that doctors were uncooperative and poor conditions, AP reports. The two women had both recently returned from Hainan, a tropical region of China popular with Russian tourists.

The county, which has only had two confirmed reported cases of the disease to date, has hospitalised hundreds of people who have returned from China as a precaution to stop the disease spreading.

But many of those quarantined have complained of dire conditions in hospital isolation rooms and lack of cooperation from doctors, who they say are uncertain about quarantine protocols.

Chinese academics have launched an online petition challenging Beijing on freedom of speech in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the South China Morning Post reports.

They are calling for the day whistleblowing doctor Li Wenliang died to become a national day for freedom of speech, and want the government to protect freedom of speech.

The death of Li, who was threatened by security forces after he tried to warn other doctors about the virus that killed him, prompted an outpouring of grief and anger, and a rare debate about censorship.

Controls on the press and social media are a highly sensitive topic in China, where a vast official censorship system closely controls the online conversation, and the ruling Communist party has been tightening its grip on all aspects of citizens’ lives.

The petition is addressed to the National People’s Congress, a largely rubber-stamp legislature that normally meets in March although the gathering this year may be delayed by the coronavirus crisis.

Among the high-profile signatories are the dissident academic Xu Zhangrun, a law professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University, who has published a rare public essay attacking President Xi Jinping over China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

His colleague, the sociologist Guo Yuhua, told the SCMP the petition might be “another gesture that might not go very far before it’s stifled, but it’s important to take a stand … These days, one must speak up regardless of practicality.”

The veteran journalist Chen Min said he felt morally bound to add his name to the petition, even though it could trigger a crackdown from authorities. Two citizen journalists who were reporting on the ground in Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, have gone missing and are feared to have been detained by authorities.

“It is inexcusable for an intellectual not to step up in the face of a national crisis like this,” he said. “If anyone has to pay a price for [signing this petition] on such a rational set of demands, then it really shows all sanity has been lost.”

News that the MS Westerdam, which has been turned away from five countries over coronavirus fears despite having no sick passengers, will finally be allowed to dock in Cambodia will come as a relief to those onboard.

Here’s a video diary made by one passenger, Angela Smith, before it emerged that the ship would be able to dock in Sihanoukville, on the country’s south-west coast, on Thursday.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Smith, a business consultant from Georgia in the US. “We’ve been floating around for about two weeks now…”

Confirmation is in: the Chinese Grand Prix has been postponed due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The sport’s governing body, FIA and F1, issued a statement this morning over the event, which was due to take place on 19 April, saying:

As a result of continued health concerns and with the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus as a global health emergency, the FIA and Formula One have taken these measures in order to ensure the health and safety of the travelling staff, championship participants and fans, which remains of primary concern.”

Outside Worthing hospital on Wednesday morning, patient Charlotte Hewitt said “nobody’s panicking” over the confirmation that a healthcare worker there has tested positive for coronavirus.

The 18 year-old was originally admitted as a day patient but kept in with an unrelated illness, told the Guardian: “There is one room inside boxed off but aside from that everyone is calm inside. I don’t even see anyone visiting or any of the patients wearing masks. All you are being asked to do is constantly wipe your hands with gel if you out and when you come back in again. I am not worried about being treated inside the hospital because everything seems to be under control.”

Nearly seven in 10 people in the UK support travel bans to coronavirus-infected countries and stopping flights to and from China, according to a poll that demonstrates the country is in favour of strong containment measures.

Eighty-seven per cent of people in the UK back mandatory screening for those travelling from infected countries and 84% support quarantine for those infected.

Meanwhile, 68% of approximately 1,000 people surveyed by Ipsos Mori last week are in favour of stopping flights to and from China and imposing travel bans to countries where people have been infected.

The poll, which also surveyed the views of people across seven other major economies, found that more than one in two people in Japan (66%) and more than half of those in Australia (61%) and the US (55%) are concerned about the threat of the outbreak.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are among a slew of airliners to suspend flights to China.

Concern is lower in Germany (47%), the UK (43%) and Canada and Russia (both 42%). The CEO of Ipsos Mori, Ben Page, said:

This new survey shows there is significant concern about Coronavirus across the world and most people in the eight countries we surveyed do not feel that the virus has been contained. The majority of Britons support strong measures like banning flights, imposing quarantine for those infected and locking down transport systems to prevent the spread.

This virus is likely to have a widespread impact upon the globe – on people’s health, but also, potentially, on the global economy, as supply chains are so much more interlinked than they were at the time of the Sars outbreak.”

The Ipsos survey was conducted online from 7-9 February among 8,001 adults aged 16-74 in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US.

A British honeymooner who caught coronavirus on a cruise ship says he has since tested negative for the disease.

Alan Steele was moved to a hospital last Friday from the Diamond Princess cruise ship stationed off the coast of Japan after he was diagnosed with coronavirus.

But on Wednesday he announced he has since tested negative for the disease and hopes to be released from quarantine pending a second test.

“Just received great news … my test showed negative to virus and have now been swabbed for 2nd test if that comes back negative I get released,” Steele posted on Facebook. His wife, Wendy, is still onboard the ship.

Bad news for F1 fans as the Chinese Grand Prix, which was due to be held in Shanghai on 19 April, is expected to be postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The spreading virus also threatens the feasibility of the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix set to take place on 5 April, my colleague Giles Richards reports.

Shanghai is 500 miles from Wuhan, where the outbreak started. F1 management insisted last night that no decision on the race had been taken, and there has been no statement from the sport’s governing body, FIA, but an announcement is expected this week.

Worthing hospital, where an A&E worker is among eight confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, is warning patients displaying flu-like symptoms who have returned from China in the past two weeks to “let the receptionist know immediately”.

A sign on the hospital’s A&E door reads: “If you have travelled to China in the last 2 weeks or have been in contact with anyone from the Wuhan Hubei Province in China and have any of the following symptoms please let the receptionist know immediately. Shortness of breath. Cough. Sore throat.”

Many people exiting the building are, not unusually, rubbing their hands with disinfectant gel but there are no masks and no sign of panic. It just looks like just an ordinary day at a small regional hospital.

More on the challenging conditions onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is in quarantine in the port of Yokohama, Japan.

A British couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on the vessel disclosed passengers were kept awake one night due to a woman crying in her cabin. David and Sally Abel have been kept onboard the ship, which has 169 confirmed cases of coronavirus, since last Wednesday and say conditions are getting tougher.

“They are looking after us very well but obviously we are confined to our cabin and it’s getting harder,” Sally told Sky News. “We are now into the second week, it seems an eternity to go.” David added:

It is more challenging, as each day progresses we are having additional people testing positive. Passengers are now getting tested, that’s why we are seeing the results now on a daily basis, so it is getting people’s moods down.

One of the passengers in the night was keeping other passengers awake, an old lady who was crying for a couple of hours in her cabin. Life isn’t as easy as it was last week – it’s a bit more challenging.”

If they test negative for the disease, the couple say they could be off the ship within days. David explained: “We still have not been updated on 19 February – that’s the disembarkation date.

But it’s being brought forward, we understand, for people who have not got the symptoms, who have gone through the testing with all the doctors who are onboard, and we are seeing people leave the ship – it has been happening all day long.

I think we will have a quicker disembarkation, if we are cleared the correct medical way it could be brought forward as soon as another couple of days.”

A British prisoner suspected to have contracted coronavirus after being extradited from a Thai jail is an alleged drug dealer, it has emerged.

Mark Rumble, 31, reportedly flew back to the UK on 27 January to face charges of conspiracy to supply class A drugs after his arrest by Thai police last year.

The prisoner is understood to have collapsed in his cell at HMP Bullingdon, a category B prison in Oxfordshire, and rushed to hospital. At least two prisoners at the jail, which is on lockdown, have been tested for the disease.

The Sun reports that Rumble, of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, was arrested in Pattaya, Thailand, last November on suspicion of drugs offences. On 20 February, he is due to enter a plea at Oxford crown court. The paper reports he is thought to deny the offences.

A sliver of good news on the coronavirus outbreak, as two Chinese nationals hospitalised in Russia last month with the disease have recovered.

A tourist taken to hospital in eastern Siberia has been discharged with tests showing he is no longer infected and poses no danger, local health officials told AP.

A female student in western Siberia was released from hospital on Tuesday. Both patients had a mild form of the disease, according to officials.

Russia, which reported two confirmed cases on 31 January, has halted most of its air traffic to China since the start of the outbreak. Trains connecting the country to China and North Korea have also been suspended. Meanwhile, Moscow has temporarily halted issuing work visas to Chinese citizens. Students who returned to their homes on holiday for lunar new year have been asked not to return to Russian universities until the end of March.

Passengers held in quarantine on a cruise ship in Japan are taking it in turns to spend an hour on deck at a time to get fresh air, a traveller onboard has revealed.

It is a sign of the increasingly desperate measures being imposed on the Diamond Princess, which has been quarantined in Yokohama since last Wednesday.

One hundred and 75 people onboard the vessel – which has more than 3,000 passengers and crew – have so far tested positive for coronavirus. The ship was put on lockdown after a man was diagnosed with the virus after disembarking in Hong Kong.

Matthew Smith, a lawyer from Sacramento, California, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he and his wife had been confined to their cabin as they have a balcony and can make use of the fresh air. However, other passengers are not as fortunate. He said:

We have one of the larger cabins and we have a large balcony and they are allowing some passengers out but they’ve focused on the passengers that have interior cabin or … [cabins] that do not have access to fresh air. They’re rotating groups to get them on the decks as frequently as possible for an hour at a time. Since we have access to fresh air all the time we’re not included in that which leaves us isolated in the cabin 24 hours.”

However, Smith insisted the experience has not put him off cruises – this is his ninth voyage.

Simon Murphy here taking over the live blog this morning to keep you up-to-date with the latest on the coronavirus outbreak.

In Brighton and Hove, nearly half a dozen schools have warned parents that some pupils or staff have entered isolation after a so-called ‘super-spreader’ scout leader tested positive for coronavirus in the city.

Father-of-two Stephen Walsh, who unknowingly contracted the disease on a business trip in Singapore before going on a ski trip where he is thought to have infected others, is now being held in an isolation unit at St Thomas’ hospital in London. Walsh was reportedly in the Alps with two doctors who have also since tested positive for coronavirus in Brighton.

Now five schools in the city have issued warnings to parents, including one of the area’s biggest secondaries. Varndean School’s head wrote to the parents of its 1,300 pupils, the Argus reported.

“We have been informed that a person from our school community has been advised by Public Health England to self-isolate for 14 days after coming into contact with a potential coronavirus case,” he wrote.

I appreciate it may be concerning that someone has been told to ‘self-isolate’, however, this is a purely precautionary measure to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading.

As part of self-isolation the person is not in school. Those who have been told to “self-isolate” are being asked to avoid other people and stay at home and not go to work or school.”

Meanwhile, the head of Cottesmore St Mary Catholic Primary School – which has more than 400 pupils – said yesterday that two people from the school are in self-isolation after coming into contact with a person who has coronavirus.

Head teacher Rachel Breen told parents:

I appreciate it may be concerning that people have been told to ‘self-isolate’, however, this is a purely precautionary measure to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading. As part of self-isolation neither person is in school. Those who have been told to ‘self-isolate’ are being asked to avoid other people and stay at home and not go to work or school.”

The Singapore bank DBS has evacuated 300 staff from its head office over concerns about a coronavirus infection. People have been told to work from home, the South China Morning Post reports.

Indonesia has rejected claims that it is allowing Covid-19 to go undetected. Scientists have expressed widespread disbelief at how the country has managed to go without not recording a single case despite its huge 260 million population and close ties to China.

A study by Harvard University public health researchers this week said Indonesia should have reported a coronavirus outbreak.

But the Indonesian health minister, Terawan Agus Putranto, called the report “insulting” and said the country had proper testing equipment. “Hopefully there won’t be any cases and we will keep praying, but we’re being vigilant at the highest level,” he said.

The Australian stock market has closed within a whisker of an all-time high, the ASX200 climbing 0.47% to 7,088.2 points, just shy of the record close of 7,090.5 set last month.

This is all despite predictions of a recession in Australia in the first quarter thanks to Covid-19. UBS reckons GDP will slump 0.1% as Chinese tourists are unable to visit Australia. And they say it could be even worse, possibly as low as -0.5%. See the post below.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei has gained 0.57%, Seoul is up 0.54% and in China the Shanghai Composite has lifted 0.59% and the Hang Seng is 0.99% to the good.

Elsewhere, the US dollar slipped, reflecting more confidence around the markets, and Brent crude rose 1.74% to $54.95 per barrel.

General Motors will suspend production at its factory in South Korea because of supply problems due to the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The company told Agence France-Presse that one of the two assembly lines at GM Korea’s Bupyeong complex, west of Seoul, which can make over 400,000 vehicles annually, will be closed next Monday and Tuesday due to shortages of parts.

GM Korea heavily relies on China for the wiring harnesses that connect vehicles’ complex electronics.

Hyundai said last week that it had suspended operations at its huge manufacturing complex in the coastal city of Ulsan while in Japan Nissan said it was suspending operations at its Kyushu plant from 14-17 February because of supply shortages from China.

A Brazilian model has been talking about how she had to abandon a budding modelling career in Wuhan when the virus struck.

Adrielly Eger, 18, is in quarantine at the Anapolis airbase in the Brazilian state of Goias along with 33 other people repatriated from China on Sunday.

“We’re all relaxed now,” she told Associated Press. “For many, the repatriation came as a major relief. It was a risky situation there and we were very exposed. We didn’t know if it was safe to go out in the streets,” she recalls.

Eger was in Wuhan for a three-month contract that ended when the city went into lockdown last month.

A Chinese marathon runner has completed a 50km run around his living room in order to relieve the boredom of coronavirus lockdown, writes Naaman Zhou.

Pan Shancu, from the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, completed 6,250 laps of track consisting of two large tables set up inside his apartment.

“I have not been outside for many days, today I cannot bear sitting down any more!” he posted last week. “One lap is about 8m – I ran 50km, did it in 4:48:44, sweated all over, feels great!”

Check out the full story here:

China Daily is reporting that officials from Wuhan have been reprimanded for failing to ensure people with Covid-19 received proper hospital treatment.

In an interesting snapshot of what is happening on the ground in Wuhan, it says that Gao Yu, a Beijing official who has been parachuted into Wuhan to supervise the fight against the virus, delivered the dressing down on Monday to Chen Xiexin, vice-mayor of Wuhan, and Lin Wenshu, head of the city’s Hongshan district.

It follows an incident “in which some severely ill patients in Wuchang were scheduled to be transferred to a hospital on Sunday night to receive better medical treatment, but the district authorities failed to organize the transfer properly and provided insufficient transport. That resulted in the patients waiting for a very long time and some of them finally lost their temper”, China Daily says.

“On this matter, the central government work group believes that the district government and the community should apologize to every single patient. Those who bear responsibility should be held accountable according to party discipline,” Gao said.

A popular posting on Twitter is these pics of health workers bearing the imprint of face masks after a day’s work.

One more line from Australia for now. Health minister Greg Hunt was pushed by reporters about whether the government would consider changing its travel restrictions to allow students from China to come to Australia to start courses as the academic year begins. Thousands of Chinese students study in Australia.

But he said the government could not “change expectations”.

At the moment, the position is very clear - there’s a travel ban. There’s no change in that travel ban. And it’s the medical advice which will guide what we do.

He acknowledged there was an economic price to pay but it was a case of safety first:

We are very aware, like, deeply aware, of the economic consequences. But the consequences of contagion within Australia at an economic, let alone more significantly a human level, would be extraordinary. And so that’s why we have that clear set of strategic priorities that guide the NSC.

Still with that Australian government press conference where the foreign minister Marise Payne was asked about the hundreds of Australians stuck on the Diamond Princess, and those 11 Australians who have tested positive for the virus and who are now being treated in hospitals in Japan.

She it was a “very stressful” situation for those on the ship but she said the quarantine process was needed to stop the spread of the coronavirus on the vessel. It was being managed by the Japanese authorities and Australia would not be trying to bring its citizens home yet.

We are working cooperatively with them. No country has indicated it intends to carry out an assisted departure of citizens from Japan,and Australia most certainly doesnot intend to do that. We realise that the situation on the ship is very stressful for those who are there. The Japanese authorities are doingan extraordinary job, both with thepatients, but also those who are in quarantine on the ship, and it is a difficult situation... And we really feel for thosepeople who are in that situation.

The Australian foreign minister also fielded questions about further evacuations, in particular about Chloe Luo, the toddler who we have reported about exclusively today.

But she said that Australia was not currently considering any more rescue flights from Wuhan, having already removed 538 Australians from the city. She implied that the problem was that Chloe had to be accompanied by an Australian citizen or resident and the problem is that her relatives in China do not fit the bill.

We have worked very hard, including taking over 10,000 calls, to deal with these issues to support those families. Our effort has been to try to keep families together where possible. And so, what we’ve been able to do is to assist those Australians to leave Wuhan who are cleared for departure by Chinese travel authorities.

Now, that does not include family members of Australian children who are Chinese nationals and who are not Australian permanent residents. In that case, it makes it very complex, where a child is unaccompanied for an entire journey to Australia, potentially for a period of quarantine, and our strong advice is that children in this situation are best to remain in the care of their families, in Wuhan or in Hubei province, while China’s travel restrictions are in place.

Naaman Zhou, one of our reporters in Sydney, has been writing about the moving case of the 18-month-old Australian girl who is trapped in Hubei.

Chloe Luo’s parents sent her to China in January to stay with her grandmother in order to escape the bushfires then sweeping the Australian capital Canberra where the family lives. After her grandmother fell sick with a cold, not related to coronavirus, Chloe is being looked after by her great aunt in Suizhou, near Wuhan.

Chloe’s parents, Yufei Luo and Yi Zhao, who live in the Canberra suburb of Ngunnawal, say they were willing to fly into Suizhou but the Australian government is not organising any more rescue flights after already laying on two missions to evacuate Australians from the stricken province. They have pleaded to be able to bring their child home.

Yufei told Guardian Australia: “We thought to send her back just for a couple of weeks, just a month, until the smoke was gone,” he told Guardian Australia. “We tried to give her better conditions. Then everything happened in Wuhan.”

And talking of that propaganda push, here are some examples from social media, including this fascinating one about “another busy day” in the fight against the virus in Wuhan No 4 hospital. CGTN news talks to a nurse, Xu Xinchen, as he goes about his night shift at the hospital, describing problems such as a shortage of protective suits for staff and the difficulties of taking blood from people while wearing large protective goggles.

And this one about about to look after your pets.

And robots helping out...

And Wuhan locals pitching in to help medical staff get to work ...

A wave of positive propaganda about the slowdown in infections has swamped the media in China, according to the seasoned China expert, Bill Bishop.

Bishop, an American who publishes a regular newsletter about China, Sinocism, wrote on Tuesday that the official media “is in full positive energy mode trying to spread that word that while the battle is still raging victory is within reach”.

Today’s figures – as mentioned in the blog below – would appear to bear that out and come closely on the heels of comments by China’s China’s senior medical adviser, Zhong Nanshan, suggesting the coronavirus outbreak may be over by April.

Bishop notes, however, that an end to the lockdown still affecting millions of people in China, and especially in Hubei, may tell a greater part of the story. He writes:

Let’s all hope that we are near the peak, but relaxations of quarantine and other restrictive policies may be a better tell than the official data ... Then again, the central government is clearly very concerned about the economic impact and appears to be pushing local governments to get business back up and running as fast as possible. There is the risk if that people go back to work too quickly there could be a second wave of cases D

Stock markets across Asia Pacific have risen this morning as the financial world continues to shrug off any concerns that Covid-19 could derail the global economy.

The ASX200 is up 0.4% in Sydney while the Nikkei is 0.3% to the good. Seoul is flat. Chinese markets open in about 40 minutes.

The strong showing follows a surge in markets across Europe and the US on Tuesday. MSCI’s all-world stock index gained 0.44% to hit a record high, as did the STOXX 600 index in Europe, the blue-chip DAX in Germany and the S&P/TSX Composite in Canada.

Oil prices have also recovered some ground today on hopes that the outbreak is easing. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 74 cents to close at $54.01 a barrel.

We have to careful with the figures, but it looks like good news today with a discernible fall in the rate of deaths and the spread of the disease in China.

• There were 95 deaths reported overnight according to health officials and Chinese news sites. That’s down from 108 reported for Monday - a drop of almost 20%.
• New cases reported for the Chinese mainland on Tuesday is 1,696. That is down from a peak of over 3,000 new cases on 4 February and the lowest number of new infections since 1,347 were reported on 31 January.

• However, we have to treat the new cases with a dose of scepticism as Chinese authorities appeared yesterday to change the way these were counted. Previously anyone diagnosed with the virus was included as a new case, but from now on only people with symptoms of the infewction are included in the number. (See yesterday’s blog here)
• The global death toll is now 1,113 once you include one in Hong Kong and one in Philippines.
• The number of cases around the world is now 44,815

Welcome to our rolling coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

• The death toll in China rose by 95 on Tuesday, according to news sites in the country, making a total of 1,111 on the mainland. But a smaller increase than yesterday.
• Confirmed new cases in China rose by 1,696, also a smaller increase in what appears to be a slowing of the contagion.
• The World Health Organization says the virus is “public enemy number one” and poses a greater threat than terrorism.
  
• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a meeting of experts in Geneva that a vaccine for the virus, now named Covid-19, could be 18 months away
• 39 more cases have been confirmed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship anchored off Yokohama in Japan, the Japanese health ministry says
• A hospital emergency unit worker has been confirmed as one of the eight people with the virus in the UK.
• The world’s annual tech industry fest, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, will go ahead despite Intel and Vivo pulling out.
• A global index of leading stocks hit a record high on Tuesday, helped by China’s senior medical adviser suggesting the coronavirus may be over by April.
• The parents of an Australian toddler stuck in the stricken Chinese province of Hubei have pleaded with the Canberra government to evacuate her.
• US national security adviser says the virus could impact the US-China trade deal