Trial which begins tomorrow, on tuesday. Chinas battling with a new and rapidly spreading respiratory virus. The number of people infected has tripled to more than 200. President xi jinping says it needs to be resolutely contained. The virus first appeared in wuhan in december the authorities says it passed to humans from infected animals at this food market in the city. There are now confirmed cases in beijing, shenzen and shanghai. Also, south korea and japan have now confirmed one case each. And there are two confirmed cases in thailand. Three people have died from pneumonia which has been caused by the virus. Earlier we got this update Chinas National Health Commission confirming the virus has been passed from person to person and has infected some medical staff. And this spokesman for Chinas Foreign Ministry today called the outbreak an epidemic. This virus is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus. Heres expert tohelp us understand that. Coronaviruses come in different forms, they can be as mild asjust causing a common cold, but sars is a coronavirus and those of us who work in Public Health have a reflex fear when we see that coronavirus is when we see that coronavirus is emerging. Also today, the World Health Organisation has said its director general will convene an Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus. The committee will meet on wednesday, 22 january. The who isnt recommending restrictions on travel or trade but it does have advice if youre in affected areas. For example wash your hands. And avoid unprotected contact with live wild or farm animals. Now, i also wanted to show you this for the last week china has been using infrared thermometers at airports, railway stations and coach stations in wuhan. Passengers with fevers were being registered, given masks and taken to medicalfacilities. But theres a challenge. Heres another expert on why its much easier to identify people who may have the virus when theyre on the move than when theyre in their home towns. If you study neshlt travellers it is easier to see the cases because its a small number of people, you can test them, screen them. Actually, on the ground, the priority is to give good information, accurate information, so agreeing a Case Definition and testing all those many suspect cases is far more difficult. Thank you forjoining us today. Is china prepared . Think of all the countries out there, china is very prepare. They have had the deal with sa rs prepare. They have had the deal with sars in the past, bird flu we have seenin sars in the past, bird flu we have seen in recent years so they have very good strong measures in place such as in the hospitals,er trying to identify patients who are sick. And do you think it could have done more when those first cases were discovered in wuhan . We have to remember this is challenging, so one of the first things that china had to do was develop a test to be able to do was develop a test to be able to say this is a novel strain, they had to be able to say it wasnt flew, it wasnt sars, so first the doctors had to notice there was an increase of pneumonia in patients and recognise they needed to improve test, so i think china has done very well, to develop those test, to share them with the International Community of how they have done that so community of how they have done that so other countries can be better prepared. They have been working with the World Health Organization to understand the guidance they give to understand the guidance they give to the nurses and to the doctors and to the nurses and to the doctors and to the nurses and to the doctors and to the public, i think they are prepared but i think we should now consider it has spread, so other countries need to get to that level of preparedness. Am going to leave it there because the sound is not as clear as i would like it to be. There is a crackle on the line and not entirely want to carry on with that. Thank thank you very much. Next, lets hear from dr william schaffner, an Infectious Disease specialist on another challenge this new virus is posing ssource new virus is posing. We dont know yet whether people infected with this virus who have only mild illnesses can spread it. At the moment we have a story of a so called superspreader, a person who is in the hospital, who spread it to as i understand it 14 health ca re it to as i understand it 14 health care workers, whether that is common oi uncommon care workers, whether that is common or uncommon is still not known, so exactly how contagious this virus is, person to person is still a mystery. This is mung wunjo shes the chief Financial Officer of the chinese tech giant huawei. And a Court Hearing has started in canada that will decide whether if shell be extradited to the us. The whole saga will have implications for relations between the us, canada, and china. Not least because shes the daughter of caro huaweis founder ren jung faye. And chinas Foreign AffairsSpokesman Says the case is a serious political matter. The hearing is in vancouver. But its to do with iran. The us alleges mung lied about huaweis relationship with an iran based affiliate something that would violate us sanctions against iran. She was arrested in canada in late 2018 at the request of the us. First here is zoe thomas outside the court in vancouver on what is happening in the hearing today. There have been several court case, she had a bail trial, there are arguments about how the extradition hearing would go on but this is the start of the first day of the judge hearing why or why not she should be extradited to the us, and her lawyers are arguing pretty much that these laws that she is accused of violating, they are not crimes in canada, canada does not have sanctions on iran and whether or not it is true that she lied to us banks does not matter, because those are not crimes in canada, therefore she cannot be sent there. Jason proctor is a reporter for cbc vancouver. Heres the image he tweeted. Look at that raft of photographers. David molko from ctv vancouver sent this from the courtroom. These two men know about that. Michael spavor is a businessman and Michael Kovrig is a former diplomat. Theyre both canadian nationals and were detained shortly after mung wunjos arrest and accused of espionage. Theyre still behing held now in what is widely seen as a tactic to put pressure on canada. Here is zoe again. The Prime Minister even said that canadian politicians will not overrule the courts decision, they will allow thejudge to courts decision, they will allow the judge to make courts decision, they will allow thejudge to make her own ruling, based on the arguments the lawyers make here today but in some ways it is clear this trial is about anything but the charges that mung wunjoi anything but the charges that mung wun jo i accused anything but the charges that mung wunjo i accused of. When she was arrested over a year ago it was the height of tensions between the us and china regarding trade. Those have sort of eased but it put canada in the middle of that, some canadian citizens were arrested. Canadas ambassador to china was let go based on comments he isa is a. Going on rather it ather mung wunjofiffifeeftflfiif a mung wunjofiffieefflfii are to make i about they trying nake i about they trying na gen seem i they trying na gen seem i ti is a trying na gen seem i the. A political prisoner, it is about the political relationship between china and the us. How are the chinese attempting to apply pressure on the canadians in terms of trade, are they using this issue as a way of highlighting how much they bring to canadas economy . They are indeed. Several trade, several of the trade goods that canada sends to china have been blocked, china is not accepting them in and they have put a lot of pressure on the canadian government, to get involved here. The us simultaneously has put pressure on the canadian government to stay out of it, to simply say send her our way and we will deal with it. But for canada it is really caught between a rock and hard place, these are two of its biggest trading partners and it cant afford to offend either one of them. One important thing that has happened is huawei, they are building 5g networks across the world and whether north it will be involved in canadas 5g network, that decision has been put on hold, because there is too much politics involved, everybody thought it was better to wait until a decision was made by the courts before they decide whether or not huawei can be involved in ca nadas whether or not huawei can be involved in canadas 5g network. We will talk about emmanuel macron, he tweeted he struck a deal with donald trump on frances digital tax which would have affected a number of big american firms. We will have more on that in ten minutes. Lord hall has said he will stand down in the summer, he will go to a job as chair of the National Gallery in london. People thought he was going to stick round until 2022, when he would mark the centenary of the bbc, but and a lot of his friends were surprised he was leaving the bbc, but the fact that he is going to the National Gallery means this must have been in the works for some time. It was a surprise he is leaving the bbc but for tony hall it has been some time in the works. He came in crisis, you remember the saville revelation, the treatment of lord mcalpine, one of the bbcs biggest mistakes in a long time andi the bbcs biggest mistakes in a long time and i think he stabilised the ship. He steadied the ship for that time and got the bbc out of headlines for the wrong reasons, but the seven years he has been in post