Tag: news

Via Off-Guardian.org,

Consent Factory have put together a wonderful collection of all the great work being done by our Beloved Governments to keep us all safe.

Always remember that these Measures are for your own good. Doubting The Measures is a possible sign of infection. Consult your treatment diary for the required dosage of BBC programming needed to remove Doubts.

Thank you for your cooperation.

*  *  *

As well as enforcing quarantine measures, the law also allows the authorities to force people to be vaccinated, even though there is currently no vaccination for the virus.”

Denmark rushes through emergency coronavirus law, (The Local, 13/3/20)

During the state of emergency, people will only be allowed out on to public streets for the following reasons: to buy food, basic or pharmaceutical items; to attend medical centres; to go to and from work …”

Spain orders nationwide lockdown to battle coronavirus (The Guardian, 14/3/20)

Police are patrolling the streets to ensure we only leave our homes for work and health-related reasons … we must fill and carry certificates stating our reasons. If caught out without a certificate, we will be fined and face up to three months in jail.”

LIFE UNDER ITALY’S CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN, (Newsweek, 13/3/20)

“We are going to take the powers to make sure that we can quarantine people if they are a risk to public health, yes, and that’s important.”

Police to arrest Brits with coronavirus who ignore quarantine (Metro, 15/3/20)

If you want to leave the house, you now have to print off a document to explain to police your timing, destination and motive.

Orderly, dour, cowed: how my beloved Italy is changed by coronavirus  (The Guardian, 15/3/20)

There are also plans for soldiers to protect quarantine zones with the police, if that ever came into force.

Coronavirus: Thousands of armed forces staff could be put on standby over COVID-19 spread, (Sky News, 16/3/20)

Israel has authorized the country’s internal security agency to tap into a vast and previously undisclosed trove of cellphone data to retrace the movements of people who have contracted the coronavirus and identify others who should be quarantined…”

To Track Coronavirus, Israel Moves to Tap Secret Trove of Cellphone Data, (NYT, 16/3/20)

“We are at war – a public health war, certainly but we are at war, against an invisible and elusive enemy,” Macron said, outlawing all journeys outside the home … anyone flouting the new regulations would be punished, he said.”

Coronavirus: France imposes lockdown as EU calls for 30-day travel ban, (The Guardian, 16/3/20)

“The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said 100,000 police officers would be deployed to enforce the lockdown … Macron said that if necessary, the government would legislate by decree …”

France ‘at war’: how Parisians are coping with life under lockdown, (The Guardian, 17/3/20)

We will intervene where necessary to make sure that people respect the confinement decree.”

Italy records its deadliest day of coronavirus outbreak with 475 deaths (The Guardian, 18/3/20)

The Ministry of Defence is to double the size of the military’s civil contingency unit to create a 20,000-strong Covid support force … the armed forces need to be prepared for the threat of a breakdown in civil order.

10,000 extra troops to join British army’s Covid support force (The Guardian, 18/3/20)

“The new force — made up of 10,000 military personnel who are regularly deployed to civilian activities, plus an extra 10,000 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic — has been placed at ‘high readiness’.”

UK armed forces prepare 20,000 troops to help in crisis (Financial Times)

We have the ability to do martial law … if we feel the necessity.”

Coronavirus: California prepared to enact martial law if its a ‘necessity’, governor says (Yahoo News)

Police and immigration officials would be able to place people in ‘appropriate isolation facilities’ under plans.”

Coronavirus: Sweeping emergency powers announced (BBC, 18/3/20)

Standby orders were issued more than three weeks ago to ready these plans, not just to protect Washington but also to prepare for the possibility of some form of martial law.”

Exclusive: Inside The Military’s Top Secret Plans If Coronavirus Cripples the Government (Newsweek, 18/3/20)

Twitter will remove tweets that run the risk of causing harm by spreading dangerous misinformation about Covid-19 … it will be applying a new broader definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources.”

Twitter to remove harmful fake news about coronavirus (The Guardian, 19/3/20)

“Some 100,000 police have fanned out across France to enforce the lockdown, with people allowed out of their homes only to buy groceries, go to work, exercise alone or seek medical help.”

Woman bundled to ground by police for breaking lockdown in Paris (Metro, 19/3/20)

He is in a specially cleaned area designated for those who should be self-isolating.” Minister Quayle said, “we cannot allow our critical health services to become overwhelmed and must have the means to prosecute those who choose to act irresponsibly.”

Coronavirus: No prosecution for man who ‘failed to self-isolate’, (BBC, 20/3/20)

Dane County, Wisconsin residents now have a method to report violations of the governor’s ban on gatherings of 10 or more people.”

Dane County sets up website to report gatherings of 10 or more people, (WKOW, 19/3/20)

Germany’s 83 million citizens have been told they risk being confined to their homes from Monday unless they behave responsibly this weekend.”

Coronavirus: Italy and Spain record highest single-day death tolls, (The Guardian, 20/3/20)

These [social restrictions] would need to be in place for at least most of a year. Under such as policy, at least half of the year would be spent under the stricter social distancing measures.”

Social distancing may need to go on for almost 12 months (Independent, 20/3/20)

The government has now agreed that the military can be used to help enforce the lockdown.”

Italy calls in military to enforce coronavirus lockdown, (CNN, 20/3/20)

As of Wednesday, the camps have been locked down from 7pm to 7am. In the daytime, only one person is allowed out per family, and the police control their movements.”

Fears of catastrophe as Greece puts migrant camps into lockdown, (The Guardian, 21/3/20)

The National Guard is expecting a rapid increase in unit activations over the next few weeks, leaders said at the Pentagon Thursday, filling roles like coronavirus testing and potentially law enforcement.”

Guard activations expected to rapidly increase, could be used for law enforcement, (Military Times, 19/3/20)

[T]he U.S. military is preparing forces to assume a larger role in the coronavirus response, including the controversial mission of quelling ‘civil disturbances’ …”

INSIDE THE U.S. MILITARY’S PLANS TO STOP ‘CIVIL DISTURBANCES’ AMID CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, (Newsweek, 20/3/20)

These provisions will be enforced … the violation of any provision of [the] order constitutes an imminent threat and creates an immediate menace to public health.”

Here’s what a ‘stay home’ order means for New York, (The Guardian, 21/3/20)

‘When MK Yoav Kish (Likud) sought to clarify whether she meant a total lockdown or curfew, Sadetsky replied … “A lockdown and personal monitoring of people, and a total halt to personal freedoms.”’

‘Total Suspension of Individual Freedom’: Inside Israel’s Secret Coronavirus Debate (Haaretz, 19/3/20)

“A final option: ‘Permanent changes in our behavior that allow us to keep transmission rates low’ … that could include strict policies of testing and quarantine for anyone who comes down with COVID-19 — or even long-term bans on large gatherings.”

Coronavirus ‘exit strategy’ could be months — or years — away, (New York Post, 21/3/20)

The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States.”

DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic, (Politico, 21/3/20)

Germany has issued a “contact ban, limiting interactions of more than 2 people … there will be fines of up to €25,000 for those not keeping a 2 meter distance between people. The measures will be enforced by police and stay in place until April 19.”

Coronavirus latest: Angela Merkel to quarantine after meeting infected doctor, (DW, 21/3/20)

The Justice Department is using the COVID-19 outbreak to press for sweeping new powers that include being able to detain Americans indefinitely without a trial.”

Justice Department Reportedly Asks Congress for Indefinite Detention Powers To Fight Coronavirus, (Reason, 21/3/20)

Quebec City police have arrested a woman, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, for being out in the city’s Limoilou neighbourhood despite being under a quarantine order.”

Quebec City police arrest COVID-19 patient for defying quarantine, (CBC, 20/3/20)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he’s considering his most drastic move yet … moving certain people at risk to isolation shelters.

DeSantis considers new strategy in Florida coronavirus fight: isolation shelters, (Miamia Herald, 21/3/20)

From a technological perspective, the coronavirus pandemic is one massive testbed for surveillance capitalism … governments are rolling out surveillance measures, all in the effort to ensure that policies of mass behaviour modification are successful.”

Coronavirus Could Infect Privacy And Civil Liberties Forever, (Forbes, 23/3/20)

Counter-terrorism troops have been redeployed across Italy to beef up police … patrol cars are circulating in every major city with a voice warning citizens over a loudspeaker not to leave their residences … “Go back into your homes,” the voice warns.

Lock the F*ck Down or End Up Like Italy, (Daily Beast, 22/3/20)

Some police departments in California plan on using drones to enforce a coronavirus lockdown and to, in part, monitor the homeless population.”

Police in California city consider new ways to use drones during coronavirus outbreak, (Fox News, 23/3/20)

A woman in Spain was arrested after she was caught visiting the home of a man she had met on a dating app, breaking mandatory home confinement rules put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

WOMAN IN SPAIN ARRESTED FOR BREAKING CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN TO VISIT MAN SHE MET ON DATING APP, (Newsweek, 23/3/20)

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe gave a national address to give details of the new rules … [French citizens] must have their ‘justification’ paper – signed, dated and with the time they have left home – to show if stopped by the police or gendarmes.”

Global confirmed Covid-19 cases top 400,000 – as it happened. (The Guardian, 25/3/20)

“The UK government has sent a mass text message to as many phones as possible, urging citizens to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown: “CORONAVIRUS ALERT. New rules in force now: you must stay at home. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.”

GOVERNMENT SENDS MASS TEXT MESSAGE URGING PEOPLE TO STAY AT HOME, (Independent, 24/3/20)

The Government is set to publish its coronavirus bill in Parliament this week. It gives officers from the police and immigration powers to detain people in appropriate isolation centres if they are a risk to public health.”

Coronavirus: New powers to detain those refusing to isolate, (The Argus, 19/3/20)

Police in Texas are searching for an 18-year-old girl who claimed to have tested positive for and to be ‘willfully spreading’ the coronavirus … the teenager faces a charge of making a terroristic threat.”

Texas teen faces terrorism charge for threatening to spread coronavirus, police say, NBC, 7/4/20)

America’s top coronavirus expert has warned Covid-19 is the new normal – and that the killer virus might never go away.”

Top coronavirus expert warns killer virus may be ‘new normal’ and never go away , (Metro, 7/4/20)

“Security officers in several African countries have been beating, harassing and, in some cases, killing people as they enforce measures aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19.”

Coronavirus in Africa: Emergency laws v individual rights, (BBC, 9/4/20)

“World Health Organization executive director Dr. Michael Ryan said surveillance is part of what’s required for life to return to normal in a world without a vaccine.”

After coronavirus, AI could be central to our new normal, (Venture Beat, 8/4/20)

“White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system …”

Kushner’s team seeks national coronavirus surveillance system, (Politico, 7/4/20)

East Asian countries have demonstrated that a robust regime of surveillance is essential to fighting a pandemic. Western democracies must rise to meet the need for ‘democratic surveillance’ to protect their own populations.”

Coronavirus and the Future of Surveillance, (Foreign Affairs, 6/4/20)

It’s an extraordinary moment that might call for extraordinary surveillance methods.”

PRIVACY EXPERTS SAY RESPONSIBLE CORONAVIRUS SURVEILLANCE IS POSSIBLE, (The Intercept, 2/4/20)

Australia will deploy helicopters, set up police checkpoints and hand out hefty fines to deter people from breaking an Easter travel ban … Police said they will block roads and use number plate recognition technology to catch those infringing the bans.”

Confirmed worldwide Covid-19 death toll passes 100,000 (The Guardian, 11/4/20)

Officers say they responded to a synagogue in Monsey after receiving complaints. They found 30-50 men praying together. Eight were arrested for disorderly conduct. Police say they will arrest more people if the gatherings continue.”

8 Arrested In Monsey For Violating Social Distancing Emergency Orders, (CBS, 9/4/20)

‘These drones will be around the City with an automated message from the Mayor telling you to STOP gathering, disperse and go home,’ the police department said.”

Coronavirus Surveillance Is Entering Dystopian Territory, (Vanity Fair, 9/4/20)

Our law-enforcement agencies, politicians and corporate overlords are working hard, night and day, to protect us from this terrible disease. Consider sparing a thought for our brave boys in black this evening during your allotted compulsory appreciation window.

REPORT ALL NON-APPRECIATORS TO YOUR NEAREST SURVEILLANCE DRONE. Those guilty of virus denial or other forms of sedition weaken our morale and can cause outbreaks.

Remember, good citizenship will earn you a higher place on the vaccination schedule.

It should now make sense why China was so adamant in cremating bodies as the fast-spreading virus terrorized Wuhan earlier this year. That is because, a new report published on April 11 says a medical examiner recently passed away after contracting COVID-19 from a corpse. 

The incident took place in Bangkok, Thailand, at an unknown date, when a medical worker was infected with the virus after conducting tests on a COVID-19 corpse, the study said, which was recently published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

The death of the medical examiner “is the first report on COVID-19 infection and death among medical personnel in a Forensic Medicine unit,” according to the authors.

Authors Won Sriwijitalai and Viroj Wiwanitkit wrote in the journal that forensic medical professionals must wear a “protective suit, gloves, goggles, a cap, and a mask” while operating on COVID-19 corpses. 

“There is a low chance of forensic medicine professionals coming into contact with infected patients, but they can have contact with biological samples and corpses,” they explained. 

The authors also suggested that the same disinfection protocols used in operating rooms must be applied to forensic units. 

In the US, the dead are piling up at hospitals across the country. By Wednesday morning (April 14), total COVID-19 deaths have topped nearly 26,000 – leaving morgue storage capacity at many hospitals overflowing with bodies. Refrigerated trailers have been called in to increase storage at some facilities, specifically in New York City and Detroit. 

And maybe there are some uncanny parallels of today’s COVID-19 pandemic and with the 2013 movie “World War Z”…  

Authored by Nick Corbishley via WolfStreet.com,

Part of the problem is cultural: big banks in the UK don’t like lending to small businesses, especially not at 1.5%…

Thanks to its Brexit planning, the UK should have been better positioned to help its small businesses through the coronavirus crisis than most of its European peers. In early 2019, the UK treasury, together with the business department and the state-owned British Business Bank, laid the groundwork for a loan guarantee system for small businesses in the event of a chaotic Brexit. This meant that when the Covid-19 lockdown began, all the government needed to do was dust off those plans and put them into action. It should have been smooth sailing. Instead, it’s been an unmitigated disaster.

On March 19, the day the economy went into lockdown, the government unveiled £330 billion of emergency measures to help shuttered businesses weather the storm. Those measures included the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which the Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak said would be made available to “any good business in financial difficulty who needs access to cash to pay their rent, the salaries of their employees, pay suppliers, or purchase stock”. Yet almost four weeks later, just 4,000 of the 300,000 companies that have applied for the funds have actually received them.

“Something has gone wrong,” warned former Bank of England governor Mervyn King on Sunday. Due to a combination of voluminous government red tape, complex eligibility criteria, massive roadblocks erected by the participating banks and the temporary closure of a large number of bank branches, the amount of money so far lent out by UK lenders to small or mid-sized businesses is just £800 million pounds. That’s less than 0.25% of the total £330 billion pledged in loans for businesses, small and large.

In Switzerland, with a population roughly one eighth the size as the UK’s, 76,000 small businesses had received emergency loans worth more than CHF15 billion ($15 billion) as of April 6. Since then, the Swiss government has doubled the facility from CHF20 billion ($20.8 billion) to CHF40 billion ($41.6 billion). The much-lauded loan scheme’s success appears to rest on two basic pillars:

One, simplicity and speed. To qualify for a loan of up half a million francs, small business owners merely have to fill in a one-page form containing six basic questions, which they must answer honestly. Once the form is sent to the bank, the application is approved or rejected within no more than 24 hours. If approved, the loan is interest free, does not include penalties and is repayable in five years.

Two, zero risks for banks. All loans of up to CHF500,000 are 100% guaranteed by the state, meaning the banks have nothing to lose and are therefore less worried about the risk of providing financial lifelines to businesses whose future is far from certain, even with the loans.

In the UK, by contrast, 80% of each loan is guaranteed by the state, which means banks must assume 20% of the risk of non-payment. Even before this crisis began, large UK banks were already reticent about lending to small businesses. Worse still, many of the small firms they have lent to ended up being lumbered with dodgy financial products such as payment protection insurance (PPI) or interest rate swaps, which had an annoying tendency to harm or destroy the business’ financial health while making the bank bucket loads of money,

A large part of the problem is cultural: most big banks in the UK just don’t like lending to small businesses anymore, especially if the interest rate they stand to earn on the loan is as low as 1.5%. Yet in other European countries where emergency business loans are not fully backed by government and the interest on loans is also pretty low, large amounts of funding are already flowing to businesses.

Even in Spain, which is not exactly famed for the speed of its bureaucracy and where the government is also guaranteeing up to 80% of emergency loans and loan renewals, some €30 billion has been disbursed by the banks in the past month, many of them to SMEs. Just one lender, Caixabank, says it has so far granted €8 billion to businesses — ten times more than the whole of the UK banking sector. It’s not all wines and roses, of course. Some banks are breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of Spain’s emergency loan legislation by green-lighting loans only if a borrower agrees to take out another financial product such as life insurance.

Other countries have also had their share of problems. In Germany the emergency loans system got so overloaded at its launch that it bogged down, while in France many companies are buried under mountains of paperwork.

But nowhere has the approach been so poorly designed and implemented than in the UK. The system has already been through one major overhaul in which banks were banned from demanding personal guarantees from borrowers of loans of less than £250,000. The banks were also prevented from requiring small firms to apply for a commercial product before being considered for an emergency loan. Despite these changes, the system is still failing to get anywhere near enough money to the millions of businesses that need it.

Many business owners have said that without an emergency loan they will not be able to pay staff at the end of this month. A network of accountants serving more than 12,000 SMEs called the Corporate Finance Network recently warned that as many as a fifth of small businesses in the UK will go out of business in the next three weeks if they don’t receive the emergency cash.

“The economy will recover quickly only if we can keep the businesses that existed at the beginning of it still functioning and still able to pick up the reins when the epidemic is over,” Mervyn King said in his interview with Sky on Sunday. For that to happen, both the UK government and UK banks will have to get their act together and their priorities straight pretty quickly.

*  *  *

Enjoy reading WOLF STREET and want to support it? Using ad blockers – I totally get why – but want to support the site? You can donate. I appreciate it immensely.

Back on April 1, we predicted that with European banks suspending dividends across the board, “if shareholders are impacted, why not also the biggest source of bank cash: banker bonuses.” Today, we got partial confirmation of this when the FT reported that companies given equity injections by EU member states as a result of the coronavirus will not be allowed to pay out dividends, buy back shares or provide bonuses or similar remuneration.

The terms and conditions of corporate bailouts emerged after the FT reported last week that the European Commission was exploring a further relaxation of the bloc’s rules on state aid to help ailing companies as a result of the pandemic.

Similar to the US, although in even stricter terms, bailed-out European businesses are also forbidden to take “excessive risks” or even engage in “aggressive commercial expansion”, said a document setting out amendments to the recent relaxation of state aid rules. They will not be able to buy up rivals or other operators in the same sector while still repaying the state.

The constraints are aimed at preventing “undue distortions of competition” and mirror similar restraints imposed on the banking sector at the height of the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Additionally, European businesses that receive an equity injection of more than 20% from a member state will also be obliged to set up a clear exit strategy from that support in the aftermath of the pandemic, although it does not appear that European taxpayers will be granted a stake and instead the only limitation will be on what management should not do, which in light of the current recession where everyone is scrambling to conserve cash, is likely redundant.

The EU is also setting out clear timelines to give companies an incentive to pay back the aid. If by 31 December 2024 the state’s shareholding has not been reduced to below 15 per cent, companies will be obliged to present a restructuring plan to the commission for approval.

“This is more flexible/lenient than the financial crisis principles where the requirement was generally to submit a restructuring plan within 6 months of the recapitalisation,” the document states.

Contrary to the terms established during the financial crisis, Brussels is also encouraging incentives for companies to exit the schemes as soon as possible. It calls for member states to be paid back as close as possible to “market terms” in order to avoid “potential competition distortion caused by the state intervention”.

“The member state shall put a mechanism in place to incentivise redemption before 1 January 2023,” the document adds.

The commission is also proposing that EU countries consider the potential sale of business units for those companies in receipt of large amounts of aid and with considerable market share in a certain sector.

“The commission is expected to ask member states to attach conditions to recapitalisations in order to preserve competition,” explains Natura Gracia, a partner in law firm Linklaters in London. “It shows that the EU has learnt from past crises.”

The constraints on bailed-out companies emerged as regulators rushed to implement a so-called temporary framework that has seen state aid rules relaxed to help companies through the pandemic. This week, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager encouraged European countries to build stakes in companies that might be vulnerable to unfair takeover by state-backed foreign entities.

It wasn’t immediately clear if this means that banks, all of which are implicitly receiving a bailout courtesy of the ECB’s various QE programs, will see an indefinite pause in bonus payouts or if the banks are exempt and the only targets of this regulation are ordinary corporations and the continent’s small and medium businesses.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A German medical lawyer who criticized the coronavirus lockdown law was arrested and taken to a psychiatric ward, where she says she was violently abused by authorities.

Beate Bahner published a press release on April 3rd decrying the German lockdown laws as “flagrantly unconstitutional, infringing to an unprecedented extent many of the fundamental rights of citizens.”

“These measures are not justified by the Infection Prevention Act, hurriedly amended just a few days ago,” she asserted.

“Long-term restrictions on leaving home and meeting others, based on high-death-rate modelled scenarios, which fail to take account of actual critical expert opinions, and the complete shutdown of businesses and shops with no proof that they pose any risk of infection, are thoroughly unlawful.”

Bahner called for a nationwide protest on Easter Sunday to “end the tyranny at once,” before Heidelberg Police announced that they would seek to prosecute her for inciting Germans to break the law.

On April 13th, Bahner called her sister from Heidelberg’s Klinik fur Allgemeine Psychiatrie describing what happened to her.

After claiming she was “suspiciously” followed by a car, Bahner says she asked another motorist to call the police only for the police to show up, handcuff her and push her to the ground “with massive force.”

Actually, Ms Bahner only called for legal protests against the German Government’s extra-legal violation of the German constitution.

It is the Govt breaking State laws, not the lawyer exposing them. pic.twitter.com/dSefGkAQ7j

— Phil Greaves (@PhilGreaves01) April 15, 2020

After being driven to the psychiatric facility, Bahner says she was treated like a terrorist.

“I asked to be allowed to sit down and was shown to a bench. Then I asked to have the handcuffs taken off, since it was actually I who had requested police protection,” she recounted.

“But instead, I was thrown to the floor again, having my head hurled onto the stone floor from a meter height, which nobody reacted to.Then I was forced to spend the night lying on the floor in some high-security Guantanamo psychiatric clinic…there was no toilet, no sink, though they did allow me water, and there was a bell I could ring, though they ignored it after the third time I pressed it.”

The lawyer was charged for incitement yesterday, with her attorney sounding the alarm bell over her treatment.

“I shouldn’t have to add Bahner’s claims of very grave abuse have untoward connotations of the darkest chapters of German history,” he said.

“The mere fact she claimed to have been so badly abused was what prompted me to write to you. Bahner is in the company of over 50 well-known experts in criticising the nationwide lockdown; I would be glad to furnish you with a list of their names. If it really is the case lawyers critical of government measures can now be intimidated using the state legal apparatus or psychiatry, and can be professionally and socially destroyed, then it is five minutes to midnight in this country.”

Bahner has won three cases in the Federal Constitutional Court and written five books on German medical law.

*  *  *

My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me. Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

Approximately 11,000 people across ten provinces and cities in China, including Wuhan, will be randomly selected to give blood samples and throat swabs so that researchers can learn more about asymptomatic coronavirus cases, as well as immunity in people with coronavirus infections, according to the Hubei Daily.

The epidemiological survey will include 100 neighborhoods in 13 districts, and will include people who were in Wuhan for at least 14 days between January and March.

On Wednesday, China published data revealing that most coronavirus patients remain symptom-free throughout the infection.

Among 6,764 people who tested positive for infection without showing symptoms, only one fifth of them — 1,297 — have so far developed symptoms and been re-classified as confirmed cases, China’s National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a briefing in Beijing Wednesday. –Bloomberg

If true, approximately 80% who contract the hyper-virulent coronavirus become silent spreaders, while the 20% who draw the short straw experience a spectrum of symptoms which can last for more than a month – ranging from mild (80% of confirmed cases), to moderate, to critical – up to and including death.

Meanwhile, China is likely facing a second wave of coronavirus cases in November according to Caixin, citing one of the country’s highest-profile medical experts.

As we noted on Tuesday, while countries may be able to bring the deadly pandemic under adequate control by autumn, Zhang Wenhong, who heads Shanghai’s Covid-19 clinical expert team and directs the infectious disease department at one of the city’s top hospitals, said during an online livestream broadcast that this coming winter may include a “second wave” of infections in China and elsewhere.

Zhang’s comments come as Chinese officials gradually ease quarantine restrictions as part of efforts to revive the country’s economy. The East Asian nation, where the previously unknown virus was first detected last year, has seen numbers of daily new cases fall in recent weeks after recording thousands of Covid-19-related deaths and rolling out unprecedented lockdowns.