China’s National Popular Assembly (ANP) Tuesday announced that its annual plenary meeting, at which 3,000 representatives from across the country attend, has been suspended until further notice.
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Considered to be the Chinese most important political meeting, the plenary of the National Assembly usually begins in early March to address the discussion on public budgets.
Nevertheless, according to the ANP spokesperson Zang Tiewei, postponing the March meeting will allow the government to focus on controlling the epidemic generated by the coronavirus.
The Covid-19 disease has caused at least 1,868 deaths and 72,436 infections so far. China's National Health Commission reported that 12,552 people have already successfully overcome the disease; however, 11,741 patients are still in serious condition.
"Hospital director dies of coronavirus in Wuhan. He is the seventh health worker to die from the disease. The hospital was designed to treat only infected patients."
Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a leading epidemiologist and pulmonologist who discovered the SARS virus in 2003, reiterated that the virus incubation period is from 2 to 7 days. He said that 1 out of 1,099 cases diagnosed had a 24-day incubation period.
On Tuesday it was reported that Dr. Liu Zhiming, director of the Wuchang Hospital in the city of Wuhan, died after the Covid-19. It is also known that there are 2,000 infected health workers in China.
Besides affecting previously planned political and cultural activities, the coronavirus is causing economic damage in the Asian country, for labor activities are not being carried out as normal.
For instance, Apple expressed that its 2020 production and marketing goals might not be achieved due to the interruption of the sale of such products as iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers.
"The scarcity of iPhone supplies will temporarily affect inflows worldwide," Apple said in a statement.