Coronavirus live updates: White House sees little impact on economy, WHO says new cases in China are slowing

CNBC ^ | Fri, Feb 7 20208:18 AM ESTUpdated 7 min ago | Berkeley Lovelace Jr. AND William Feuer

[Red Badger]

Total cases: More than 31,000 as of Friday morning. Total deaths: At least 636 worldwide as of Friday morning 10:56 am: VP Pence praises China’s ‘unprecedented level of transparency’ in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak

Vice President Mike Pence said Beijing has demonstrated “an unprecedented level of transparency” with world health officials amid the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak. “It’s heartbreaking but we stand ready with China to provide them any and all support,” he told CNBC’s Wilfred Frost on “Squawk on the Street.” Pence referenced Thursday’s phone call between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, after which Trump tweeted that China will “be successful” in getting control over the deadly coronavirus. “Trump made it clear that the United States is ready, willing and able to deploy resources,” Pence added. —Bursztynsky 10:29 am: White House sees a minimal impact on U.S. economic growth from outbreak

The White House’s economic adviser said that President Donald Trump’s administration does not expect the coronavirus in China will have a major effect on the U.S. economy. “There’s a lot of variables involved and things we don’t know. Internally we have looked at a drop in GDP of perhaps two-tenths of 1% — that’s all we found so far. Again, based on the past and based on what we’re seeing ” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters. —Reuters 10:16 am: CDC removes four from Royal Caribbean cruise for testing in New Jersey

The Centers for Disease Control said a family of four have been removed from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship at the Bayonne Port in New Jersey. “The family has a travel history to mainland China, but not a history of travel to Hubei Province,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said. New Jersey Department of Health will facilitate the specimen collection, and the samples will be sent to CDC for testing.” Health officials screened about two dozen for the virus, Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis tweeted. —Feuer 10:14 am: WHO holds press conference on outbreak

World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference to update the public on the new coronavirus outbreak. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the group’s director-general, said the number of new cases is slowing. However, he expressed concern about supplies of items such as masks to protect against the virus, saying the prices of some of these items are skyrocketing. —Cheddar Berk 9:48 am: The number of cases on Carnival cruise ship near Japan jumps by 41

The Japanese Health Ministry confirmed 41 new cases of the virus on a quarantined cruise ship off the coast of Japan. The Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is operated by Carnival’s Princess Cruises, is carrying about 3,700 passengers and crew at the port of Yokohama. The new cases bring the total to 61 cases out of 273 people who were suspected to be exposed to the virus and tested for it. Among the newly infected people, there is one from Argentina, five from Australia, five from Canada, 21 from Japan, one from the U.K. and eight from the U.S. —Feuer 9:20 am: Van’s parent says 60% of its stores in China are closed for now

Shares of VF Corp., the parent of Vans, were down slightly after the company revealed it has been forced to close about 60% of its owned and licensed stores in China due to the outbreak. Stores in mainland China had accounted for about 6% of its fiscal 2019 revenue. In addition, the company sources about 16% of its total cost of goods sold from China, and about 7% of that gets shipped to the U.S. market. VF said it’s “not possible” to gauge the impact of its supply chain at this time. —Cheddar Berk 8:39 am: Canada Goose says travel restrictions are hurting sales

Canada Goose Holdings said its profits have been hit by fallout from the virus. The outerwear maker’s stock dipped 4% after it announced that reduced consumer traffic and travel restrictions have hurt sales. The company cut its forecast for annual revenue growth from 20% to 13.8% to 15%, which could mean a loss of up to $51.6 million Canadian. —Miller 8:15 am: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says outbreak is not hitting the business

7:49 am: Burberry closes a third of its China stores, revises guidance

Burberry warned of a hit to demand, withdrew its financial guidance for 2020 and said it had closed more than a third of its stores in mainland China. It said spending by Chinese tourists in Europe and elsewhere had not been hurt as much, but given widening travel restrictions, it forecast this would worsen in the coming weeks. — Reuters 7:20 am: Ericsson withdraws from major Barcelona conference over coronavirus concerns

Sweden’s Ericsson has announced it will not attend Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, later this month, saying it cannot ensure the safety of employees and customers amid concerns over the coronavirus. “The health and safety of our employees, customers and other stakeholders are our highest priority. This is not a decision we have taken lightly,” CEO and President Borje Ekholm said in a statement. “We were looking forward to showcasing our latest innovations at MWC in Barcelona. It is very unfortunate, but we strongly believe the most responsible business decision is to withdraw our participation from this year’s event.” — Meredith

[grey_whiskers]

WHO (HU)'s on first?

Who is giving The Donald bad advice?

...Swamp Creatures?

[ifinnegan]

New cases are slowing.

It’s still increasing everyday but the number of increase is less than the day before - not by a huge amount but it’s good that the new cases per day is decreasing.

[null and void]

"VP Pence praises China’s ‘unprecedented level of transparency’ in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak..."

Only by comparison to their usual inscrutable opacity...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[BBQToadRibs]

I would hope WHO is not relying on self reported number from Chana to assess that it’s slowing down. But I’m sure they are.

[Cowboy Bob]

I've decided not to go to any more Chinese Buffets until the virus is eliminated.

[BBQToadRibs]

China. Although I’ve love to visit Chana sometime, I hear it’s wonderful.

[Red Badger]

That’s all they got!..................

[BobL]

I’ll keep watching what’s going on, on the ground, before I declare everything over.

[Red Badger]

I’ve decided not to go to any LESS Chinese Buffets until the virus is eliminated!

If I gotta go, at least I won’t go hungry!.............

[DownInFlames]

The stock market doesn’t agree. Down 200.

[Red Badger]

Profit takers from the last three days..................

[Nuke From Orbit]

“I would hope WHO is not relying on self reported number from Chana to assess that it’s slowing down. But I’m sure they are.”

I can say that any news coming out of China will be highly modified and definitely not one shred of truth in the statement.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

No one would challenge the accuracy of a statement from the WHO, would they?

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/who-director-overseeing-coronavirus-response-covered-up-cholera-epidemics-in-2013/

They are run by such an honest hack. Er, quack. Er, pillar of modern medicine. Yeah, that’s it,pillar of modern medicine.

[datura]

yeah, if you believe the Chinese Communist Party numbers.....

[hardspunned]

One good thing about caronavirus is the experience the world and the US in particular is getting. Caronavirus is bad and will cause many thousands of deaths but compared to an air borne Ebola or something similar caronavirus is very tame. Its good to see that we are developing ways to quarantine and to deal with potential mass numbers of infected people. I assume the president’s task force now has much more aggressive measures developed and ready for implementation if needed. Of course a democrat administration would F up the best laid plans if such a contagion appears on their watch.

[ifinnegan]

“yeah, if you believe the Chinese Communist Party numbers.....”

Via WHO.

It’s true, if the numbers are fake it’s meaningless and we have no idea what’s going on.

[Zhang Fei]

If the fairly low numbers provided (compared to the common flu, as it were) are accurate, Xi Jinping is staging this massive government effort (i.e. shutting down factories, closing schools, etc) as an elaborate charade, a means of extracting concessions from trade partners and providing an excuse for China’s slowing economy. The idea might be to give his Party rivals pause, if they’re sharpening their knives in preparation for their individual bids at the throne.

[LilFarmer]

The WHO = CCP

Whoever is in charge of the CDC needs to be making their own decisions based on what on the ground intelligence and their lying eyes are telling them, NOT base on WHO.

That’s like taking the UN’s advice before taking out a terrorist.

President Trump, please get some real epidemiologists and virologists on this, not the politicians, please!

[JonPreston]

With all data coming from communist China, I don’t trust a thing being reported.