Briefs

The crowd outside Wuhan’s Tianhe International Airport on the morning of April 8 pushed forward as anxiety grew over catching their flights out of town – the first to depart since Jan 23.

Many were people who had come to the central Chinese city for a Lunar New Year vacation in January and found themselves stuck in a protracted, nightmarish stay as the coronavirus outbreak spread and Hubei province was sealed off to curb it. After 11 weeks, the lockdown was lifted and people surged out of the city by train, car and plane.

The lifting of Wuhan’s lockdown will be a crucial test for China, which is driving a narrative of triumph over the pandemic amid accusations that it manipulated virus data and concern that the highly contagious illness is not fully stamped out. Still, Wuhan’s emergence from an outbreak that overwhelmed its hospital system and left over 2,500 dead provides a blueprint — and a sense of hope — for other cities currently under lockdown and grappling with still-peaking infection rates.

Individuals are allowed to leave Wuhan only if they have a “green code” processed via apps run by internet giants Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings based on the users’ travel history, basic health information and close contacts.

The green code is a precious thing that grants freedom of movement in China’s post-virus reality, and it can be easily lost. Just visiting a shopping mall where a virus case is later confirmed can turn one’s code yellow, meaning another two weeks of isolation at home.

As airport security guards conferred with those whose green codes were not showing up smoothly, people in the line pushed forward, anxious not to miss their flights. Those that made it through the airport entrance flashed smiles of relief.

At other border checkpoints around the city, people were leaving as fast as they could. Around 55,000 people have train tickets for April 8 while cars lined up at expressway toll-gates after 75 road checkpoints were removed, reported Chinese state media. — Bloomberg LP

Pandemic grips Britain as Johnson remains in intensive care

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in intensive care, while his deputy tried to reassure Britain that the battle against coronavirus was under control even as the daily death toll rose to a record.

The UK is headed into its peak of the outbreak and the government is contending with criticism over its handling of the crisis, with hospitals short of protective equipment and testing lagging behind other countries.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, pushed into the spotlight as Johnson fights the disease in the hospital, told the nation on April 7 evening that he was confident his boss would pull through.

“If there’s one thing I know about this prime minister, he’s a fighter,” Raab said.

Johnson remained in a stable condition in intensive care on April 8 morning. “He’s comfortable, stable and in good spirits, and while he’s had oxygen he’s not been on a ventilator,” Health Minister Edward Argar told the BBC.

With signs of the pandemic turning the corner in Spain and Italy, Europe’s hardest-hit countries, Britain is moving into its most critical phase.

The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said there were signs for optimism in the numbers for new infections, which were stable. There would need more data, though, before the authorities could make any decision to end a lockdown that is crippling the economy.

“It’s possible we’re beginning to see the start of a change where we see the numbers flattening off,” Vallance, standing alongside Raab at the daily virus press conference, said.

“We won’t be sure of that for a week or so.” The month started with Johnson, 55, insisting he was still shaking hands with everyone he met, including coronavirus patients.

At that stage, the government expected the disease to spread widely, but did not see the need for restrictions on movement. But within two weeks, schools were closed and then Johnson told citizens to stay indoors.

On April 7, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty suggested that the UK’s lack of emphasis on testing had been a mistake, when commenting on why Germany appeared to have a lower fatality rate.

“We all know that Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus and there’s a lot to learn from that,” he said.

“And we’ve been trying to learn the lessons from that.” — Bloomberg LP

WeWork directors sue SoftBank over decision to abandon deal

Two independent WeWork directors sued SoftBank Group Corp, its biggest shareholder, after the Japanese investor scrapped a US$3 billion ($4.3 billion) deal to buy stock from ex-CEO Adam Neumann and other shareholders to bail out the struggling workplace provider.

SoftBank reneged on promises to “use its reasonable best efforts to consummate” the stock-purchase agreement because of “buyer’s remorse”, the directors, which make up a special committee of WeWork’s board, said in the Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit.

“Instead of abiding by its contractual obligations, SoftBank, under increasing pressure from activist investors, has engaged in a purposeful campaign to avoid completion of the tender offer,” said Bruce Dunlevie and Lew Frankfort, who make up the committee.

The pair regret “the fact SoftBank continues to put its own interests ahead of those of WeWork’s minority stockholders”, according to an emailed statement.

A spokesperson for SoftBank said it would vigorously defend the lawsuit. “Nothing in the special committee’s filing today credibly refutes SoftBank’s decision to terminate the tender offer,” the spokesperson said on April 7 in a statement. Softbank said several conditions for completing the tender were not met and called the special committee’s filing a “desperate and misguided attempt” to revise history.

“The Special Committee will not prevail in this mistaken attempt to force SoftBank to purchase their shares when it is not legally obligated to do so,” the spokesperson said.

SoftBank agreed to buy shares from Neumann, Benchmark Capital and others as part of a bailout package last year, but notified stockholders in mid-March that some of the deal’s conditions had not been met. After the deal’s closing deadline passed last week, SoftBank confirmed it was pulling the offer.

In a message to shareholders last month, Softbank cited nearly a half-dozen conditions that WeWork officials had not met as the basis for pulling out of the purchase, including its failure to renegotiate some leases in the wake of the economic havoc caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the tender offer, US$450 million is currently allocated to current and former employees, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The directors pointed to efforts by SoftBank executives to “thwart” a consolidation of WeWork’s Chinese joint venture as evidence that they had second thoughts about the deal. Softbank cited the failure to complete the “roll-up” of the China unit as one of the conditions that had not been met, while WeWork executives accused their erstwhile partner of creating a pretext for pulling out of the agreement. — Bloomberg LP

Cybersecurity concerns spike as more work from home amid pandemic

Cyber criminals are preying on public concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic and unprecedented changes to workplace practices to ramp up their attacks, according to a survey by cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies.

The survey of 411 IT and security experts from organisations with more than 500 employees found that 71% of respondents reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the outbreak of the virus.

More than half of respondents reported an increase in phishing attempts, while 32% found an increase in disinformation from malicious websites and 28% saw an increase in malware.

These findings follow an earlier study by the firm, which found that Covid-19-related websites are 50% more likely to be malicious than other domains registered since the beginning of this year.

The number of new domains registered online has exploded 10-fold since the end of February 2020, with 19% of these domains found to be suspicious in nature.

In particular, the firm discovered hackers targeting unsuspecting users by offering them fake “once-in-a-lifetime” Covid-19 deals for premium goods concealing malware within.

Hackers have even taken to the dark web to provide special offers on hacking equipment and services using “Covid-19” or “coronavirus” as a discount code, thus increasing the likelihood of cyberattacks occurring.

“The coronavirus pandemic has created a perfect storm of a global news event together with dramatic changes in working practices and the technologies used by organisations.

This has meant a significant increase in the attack surface of many organisations, which is compromising their security postures,” said Rafi Kretchmer, head of product marketing at Check Point. — Ng Qi Siang