now Hong Kong has recorded its first
death from the corona virus outbreak the
second fatality outside mainland China
and it comes as China's leadership
admits shortcomings and deficiencies in
its response to the outbreak while the
death toll in China itself has now risen
to 425 and the number of cases has
climbed to more than 20,000 asia-pacific
editor Celia Hatton has more the new
corona virus has claimed another life
this time in the Chinese territory of
Hong Kong hundreds of medical workers
there began a second day of strikes they
want to force the government to
completely close the city's borders with
mainland China those calls
amplified after a 39 year old man died
from the virus on Tuesday Hong Kong has
15 confirmed cases so far on the
neighboring island of Taiwan a rare case
of cooperation with the authorities in
Beijing some stranded from Taiwan were
evacuated from mainland China however
the Taiwanese authorities had strong
words for China we've seen the Chinese
government brutally and unreasonably
pressuring Taiwan on the international
stage they're putting political
considerations over people's health and
safety this basically is extremely
violators death in Hong Kong is the
second outside of mainland China a man
died in the Philippines last week after
visiting Wuhan the central Chinese city
at the epicenter of the outbreak hua
Shan Shan Hospital built from scratch in
just two weeks
received its first patients on Tuesday
though some say building work still
continues another temporary hospital is
planned to open in the coming days
experts say much is still unknown about
the pathogen the World Health
Organization confirmed that clinical
trials are underway to test if
antiretroviral drugs the type used to
treat HIV could be effective in tackling
the virus however that's unconfirmed
yesterday Chinese experts also warned
caution over details about how the virus
is transmitted although viral nucleic
acids were found in feces of impact
patience the virus has not been acquired
yet so we will keep observing to get
further details as hospitals open
production lines factories and shops are
closing hi own they announced it is to
suspend its South Korea production as
the virus hit their supply chain in
China
Macau announced it will temporarily
closed down all casinos cutting off the
lifeblood of the city's economy the
flu-like virus has now spread to
approximately two dozen nations sparking
fears for global economic growth and
rattling markets shanghai stock index
lost some four hundred billion dollars
in market value on Monday and as the
markets plunge the death toll continues
to rise
Celia Hatton BBC news well as the death
toll from the corona virus in China
Rises steadily campaigners are urging
the country to apply a permanent ban on
the wildlife trade markets selling live
animals are considered a potential
source of diseases that are new to
humans and the has been speculation that
it was such a market in Wuhan that could
have been a starting point for this
outbreak with me now it's a world
service environment correspondent have
been saying thanks very much for coming
in um first of all is it clear exactly
how this spread happened with this is
still being worked out so they talk
about what happened with SARS back then
so they have identified that it was from
bats from from bats it's jumped into
some other animals and then on to humans
now this time around they need a guess
and they're saying it has to be bad but
they're still working on it but the
thing is you know what scientists are
saying is they expose it to this wall
animals and the way they sell other
animals chicken pigs whatever exposed
you know side by side so you've got
snakes the chicken you've got you know
civet cats and you've got pigs so when
they're in close contact like that so
that's how or from bats for instance so
that's how the primary sources bats for
instance jumped into some other animal
and onto human but that's still being
worked out what exactly happened what
was this intermediary animal but by and
large they think that it has to be wild
animals and therefore this crackdown
and there's a permanent temporary ban
and international organizations
conservation organizers are asking that
this be turned into a permanent one that
will help wildlife conservation as well
yes so it's a mix so what happens in in
Chinese markets is although it's called
wildlife market so some of those species
are allowed which internationally they
have concerns they have been demanding
but then many of the species are also
illegal and that's what the Chinese
government has been trying to crack down
on but the thing is you know it's it's
easy to say back then in during the SARS
outbreak as well we saw this they
introduced a temporary ban but then
within you know few months after it was
gone and and the business was back but
this time around things are serious
because this industry has hijacked this
powerhouse that that supplies all the
goods to the world that has been
hijacked and as a result you're hearing
all this big decisions from the
Politburo Standing Committee chaired by
the President himself and these animals
in these markets is this for being
slaughtered fresh for consumption as
well as for medicinal products is that
all happen in the same place are they
all in separate well it depends some of
these animals for example Pangolin
scales you see like Pangolin scales they
use for medicinal traditional Chinese
medicine and China has almost lo lost
all of its pangalanes and therefore it's
being poached elsewhere remember
Pangolin is the most poached angle now
for that market so some of the species
for example rhino horns that medicinal
values whereas other animals are used
for meat and some are for both it's a
massive industry and you talked about
this meat thing the the issue here is
about warm meat they want warm meat that
the practice is they want warm the
demand for warm it is quite high started
and kept there and as I said you've got
snakes they're civet cats they're bats
they're one meat it's so so vulnerable
so vulnerable II how likely is it that
this is gonna be able to be stopped
well it's by challenging but then as I
said you know the whole powerhouse China
as an economy is being disturbed and
therefore this Politburo meeting has
taken that this season and so like like
one-child policy I'm told that the
government will have will try to
implement it
as much as possible no bids think of -
thank you very much did