Hundreds infected in Chinese prisons

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* Virus cases surge in some Chinese jails * Politburo says no turning point yet in virus fight * Spike in South Korean infections linked to church * China says first vaccine ready for trial in April * IMF says too early to assess global economic impact

BEIJING/SEOUL, February 21

The new coronavirus has infected hundreds of people in Chinese prisons, authorities said on Friday, contributing to a jump in reported cases beyond the epidemic’s epicentre in Hubei province, including 100 more in South Korea. The 234 infections among prisoners outside Hubei ended 16 straight days of declines in new mainland cases excluding that province, where the virus first emerged in December in its now locked-down capital, Wuhan. State television quoted Communist Party rulers as saying the turning point in combating the outbreak had not yet been reached, and more than 30 cases in a hospital in Beijing highlighted a sharp jump in the tally there.

Total cases in the capital of the coronavirus – known as COVID-19 – were at 396 with four deaths, out of an official mainland toll of 75,400 cases and 2,236 deaths.

Vice Science and Technology Minister Xu Nanping said China’s earliest vaccine would be submitted for clinical trials around late April. That timetable is in line with research in other countries, and a World Health Organization estimate of a vaccine reaching the market in about 18 months.

As international authorities seek to stop the virus from becoming a global pandemic, public health officials are hoping for signs that the arrival of warmer weather in the northern hemisphere might slow its spread.

With finance leaders from the Group of 20 major economies set to discuss risks to the world economy in Saudi Arabia at the weekend, the International Monetary Fund said it was too early to tell what impact the virus would have on global growth.

However, Asian shares dipped as fears over the creeping spread of the disease sent funds fleeing to the sheltered shores of U.S. assets, lifting the dollar to three-year highs.

“COVID-19 anxiety has risen to a new level amid concerns of virus outbreaks in Beijing and outside of China,” said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB.

PUBLIC GATHERINGS

The spike in cases in two jails outside Hubei — in the northern province of Shandong and Zhejiang in the east — made up most of the 258 newly confirmed Chinese infections outside the epicentre province on Friday. Authorities said officials deemed responsible for the outbreaks had been fired and the government had sent a team to investigate the Shandong episode, media reported. Hubei also reported 271 cases in its prisons. Provincial officials did not say when they had been diagnosed. — Reuters