Once again, a testing kit has been released and deployed in wuhan. The testing capacity is 4000 daily. We should expect cases to rise quickly until everyone who already has it is identified.
It might come in to play now with the us natnial health emergency meaning that people can only enter after a 14 day cooling period before thay can enter
Hopefully China can revive from this crisis
Here’s how FIRST has reacted to the outbreak: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/2020-the-coronavirus.
I could see the RECF giving qualified Chinese teams a slot to VEX Worlds 2021, and barring them from 2020. If the outbreak continues to be an issue leading up to the event then I believe teams should take action to ensure the safety of their students. Now, speculating on other Asian countries… I’m not too sure. We had to register to the Canada Regional instead of Taiwan due to parent concerns.
It’s sad to see a drop in diversity. One of my favorite parts of going to international events is cooperating with people of different origins.
I think that the most competetive teams will win regardless of the nationalities involved.
I think their could be some teams missing. Me and my team were wondering the same question about the U.S Open in Counsel Bluffs. I do think that a total ban from worlds/U.S Open is not very probable, that being said however it could happen.
@Recharged we were just talking about this today as well. Would there be as many people at worlds if the virus is spread through human contact? My couch says he wouldn’t think so but it just seems like logically there wouldn’t be.
The problem is that VEX was already in season before the breakout. In fact, we were more than halfway through the season, while FIRST reacted before any official FRC competition took place. That really complicates things…
Well… As far as I know, the Taiwan government is taking care of the virus very well… It is often a misconception that Taiwan’s situation is as bad as China’s. It’s not.
I doubt that there will be a worlds, at least one with china teams(Sadly). Studies are now showing that it is airborne, even when people who are infected aren’t present. I think it will eventually spread to the US. Hopefully we find a vaccine soon, but there is a good chance that there is no worlds or a US only worlds.
They arent going to completely cancel worlds lol
just imagine the amount of money from registration alone that would be lost not including already set in place contracts.
VRC 1080 spots x $975 Registration = $1,053,000
VIQC 1160 spots x $975 Registration = $1,131,000
VEX U 92 spots x $975 Registration = $89,700
RAD 60 spots x $975 Registration = $58,500
That is $2,332,200 if the fill the event and I am sure there are more then enough US/ Other region teams to fill that event. They have not released the 2019 annual report yet, but that compared to the 2018 total revenue and support would be 21.2% of the companies earnings.
I am pretty sure worlds will still go on.
It went on even during H1N1 pandemic. And the H1N1 outbreak started off in Mexico and spread swiftly north to Texas. And worlds that year was in Texas.
Looking at the hard facts, while it is highly contagious, it doesn’t seem to be that deadly. The mortality rate outside China is only about 0.2%, which is slightly higher than the normal flu. In fact, it was reported that 82% of the patients suffered very mild symptoms.
But I am concern about the travel restrictions placed by the various governments on schools, eg. in Singapore, we are not allowed any overseas travels at least till the end of March (before up for review by the ministry).
It is now posing a great headache for our planning.
Edit: we are crossing all our fingers (and even went on with the registration), but there is a possibility that there won’t be any Singapore teams at this year worlds 
I’ve been coding for about a week without testing because our robot isn’t together, and I’m going insane xD. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling lol.
I really think it’s time that there’s an official announcement on this. Reading through the questions here, I don’t think people understand how serious it is in China. The country is in lock down. My wife is Chinese, and her home town (which is a LONG way from Wuhan) has been put into enforced confinement. People are literally confined to their apartment buildings, with food being delivered to them. As I said, I think it’s time for there to be some official position taken on this, because there’s a serious possibility that Chinese teams simply won’t be permitted into the country. What happens then?
Honestly, I am not expecting to see any China teams in worlds.
https://www.businessinsider.sg/coronavirus-us-foreigners-travel-ban-china-2020-1/?r=US&IR=T
thought the ban has already been implemented?
So unless there is a removal of this restrictions, I can’t see how China teams can make it for worlds.
Yes, there’s a ban now … but it could (in theory) get lifted before the Worlds … but even the optimists are saying that the outbreak won’t be over until April… and that means it’s very unlikely they’ll lift it in time.
The one main issue with this statement is that Chinese teams and foreign teams for that matter need time to get visas, travel plans and have a lot more red tape to get through. So if RECF says your spots will be held for next year or gives an answer to allow teams to potentially plan it would help those 51 VRC teams, you still have VEX U and VIQC you forgot about.
If you think just barring the teams from the competition is an acceptable response is a good approach you are wrong.
Our school has been closed for 2 weeks now due to the outbreak even though we are not in China and only have around 15 cases in our country. A lot of teams have lost a lot of preparation time this last month and I hope teams are still able to travel to worlds. We’ve been using this time to do what we like to call sad and CAD.
Stay healthy out there!
Yeah, I agree. I think there should be an official statement on this, even if its just that they are looking at the situation and travel bans, and give a date on when they think they will know more. This not only affects Chinese teams and their travel, but with the level of hype this has in media, it could affect travel plans for teams from across the world, whether they would want to take the risk, health or financial, to come to worlds. I mean, its gotta be on everyones minds.
I want to shed some light on this topic. I am currently living in Taiwan, and I can say the alert level has definitely increased in the past few weeks. Masks, and alcohol have all been sold out and there are government issued rationing on those supplies. This is mostly due to the SARS outbreak back in the 2000s as we were under prepare which led to our nation being one of the infected regions.
In FRC, Chinese regionals have been postponed until after worlds. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same will happen for VEX. Assuming China travel ban will be lifted by then.
Assuming the information is accurate from China, it is not a high alert situation as of now if you are not situated in China. Most infections and deaths are all in China, with the majority centred in Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak. There are currently only 2 deaths reported outside of China, one in Hong Kong SAR, and the other in the Philippines.
The virus is spreading across the world, however this is due to the fact China did not take appropriate actions at the start. Wuhan is a major manufacturing city in China, people travel in and out of there all the time. There were suspicions in December, and confirmed cases of pneumonia infections, yet there were no measures taken. In fact it was only in early to mid January when China decided to take actions. At this point it is already too late, people have already travelled in and out of Wuhan as they prepare to celebrate the upcoming Chinese new year.
There may be an alarming rate of deaths, and possibly even more as there are debates whether China’s info is accurate. However most of the deaths are the elderly with weakened immune system and diagnosed at a late stage, along with a health care system that is currently overfilled.
If you can answer yes to the following questions, then your chances of survival are incredibly high if you happen to contract the virus and is diagnosed early:
Are you above the age of 4?
Are you below the age of 55?
To lower your chances of getting the corona virus, wash your hands at regular intervals and avoid public gatherings if possible.
Also please do not be that person and hoard masks. You most likely do need need one at all times. There are shortages worldwide and medical facilities are running low in them when the require the most out of everyone else.
Stay safe everyone.
PS: I am not a doctor, please take this with a grain of salt. This is the information that has been reported by our government.