4th and 5th Cases of Chinese Coronavirus Confirmed in US, Officials Say

Officials Remove Sick Passenger from Southwest Airlines Flight Over Coronavirus Concerns

A passenger who recently traveled to China and was exhibiting flu-like symptoms was escorted off a Southwest Airlines plane heading from the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshal Airport amid the coronavirus scare that has left thousands sickened and dozens dead in China. Medical officers removed the passenger off a Southwest flight from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Maryland “out of an abundance of caution,” the Maryland Department of Health said, according to NBC4. Video footage posted by the news outlet showed passengers on the plane wearing masks over their mouths as a health official told them: “Because of this heightened time, we are just using an abundance of caution.” The sick passenger “was referred to a medical facility for evaluation to determine whether additional follow-up is necessary,” the agency said, adding that…

Five U.S. cases of Wuhan coronavirus were announced Sunday—with a one being confirmed by health officials in Los Angeles County and the latest case being confirmed by Maricopa County, Arizona, officials.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Sunday that the sickened person “presented themselves for care once they noticed that they were not feeling well,” adding that the person had recently traveled to the United States from Wuhan, China, where hundreds of people have been infected by the contagious virus.

A statement released on Sunday by the Arizona Department of Health Services said the fifth U.S. patient as “a member of the Arizona State University community who does not live in university housing.”

Chinese officials have said that more than 76 people have died since the outbreak was first reported in late December.

Three other U.S. coronavirus cases have been confirmed—in Washington state, Illinois, and Orange County, California. The Orange County patient—confirmed by health officials on Jan. 25—is in good condition and in isolation at the hospital. That person had also traveled recently to Wuhan and tested positive.

“There is no immediate threat to the general public, no special precautions are required, and people should not be excluded from activities based on their race, country of origin, or recent travel if they do not have symptoms of respiratory illness,” L.A. County Public Health stated.

The agency said it’s now working to identify anyone who might have come into close contact with the infected person and is monitoring for possible coronavirus symptoms.

“Health is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal, state and local agencies to monitor this novel coronavirus that has emerged from Wuhan, China, over the past few weeks. This is a rapidly evolving situation and information will be updated as it becomes available,” the department stated.

The new strain of coronavirus, known officially as 2019-nCoV, can cause pneumonia and respiratory illnesses. Officials originally suspected it had been spreading from animals to people in a market in Wuhan, but there have been indications that it’s spreading from person to person.

In the Washington state and Illinois cases, both patients had recently traveled to China. They were identified in previous reports as a man in his 30s and a woman in her 60s.

The CDC expects more U.S. cases of coronavirus to emerge in the coming days. Its assessment was based on prior outbreaks of infectious viruses such as SARS and MERS.

“It’s likely that person-to-person spread will continue to occur,” the health agency said on its website last week.

But in China, the situation appears far direr, with the mayor of Wuhan, Zhou Xianwang, telling reporters Jan. 26 that he expects 1,000 new cases of coronavirus in the coming days. More specialized hospitals will be constructed to deal with the patients, he said.

The Chinese health emergency has prompted the U.S. Department of State to issue an alert to its American staff and private citizens in Wuhan.

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China Writes Its Own Bible and Quran

Commentary In November last year, China made the official decision to rewrite both the Bible and the Quran in order to “reflect socialist values.” Naturally, this is a political tool that is needed as part of the crackdown on the Muslim Uyghur minority that has been such a thorn in the side of the Chinese socialist regime. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) declared that the revision will make sure that the content of the Bible and Quran do not contradict socialism. One of the founding fathers of modern-day socialism, Karl Marx, wrote that “Religion is the opium of the people.” While this is often discussed, it’s not the full quote from the original German text. The full quote is commonly translated as: “Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature,…