Skip to main content

New story in Health from Time: BTS Cancels Seoul Concert Series as South Korea Grapples With Coronavirus Outbreak



(SEOUL, South Korea) — K-pop superstars BTS canceled an upcoming concert series in South Korea’s capital as the country that exports entertainment worldwide tries to contain a soaring virus outbreak.

It follows a near-shutdown of entertainment in hard-hit parts of China, the world’s second-biggest economy and second-biggest box-office market.

BTS, which performed at the Grammys and at New York’s Grand Central Terminal for “The Tonight Show” in recent weeks, is seen as an emblem of South Korea’s cultural and economic power. Local media said the canceled concerts were the inaugural leg of the band’s new world tour.

“We regret to announce that the BTS MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR … has been cancelled,” the band’s agency Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement.

The management agency said the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea, which has more than 2,000 cases so far, made it impossible to predict the scale of the outbreak by April.

The seven-member boy band was scheduled to perform April 11-12 and April 18-19 at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. The agency said it had to consider the health and safety of the artists, the production crews and the more than 200,000 concertgoers expected.

The South Korean government and others affected by the epidemic have pushed to restrict massive public events to try to avoid situations where the virus might spread.

Disney said Friday its parks in Tokyo would close for two weeks, adding to closures of its parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Cinemas in China already were shuttered, which affected the Chinese release of “Sonic the Hedgehog” and the Beijing premiere and a promotional tour of the James Bond film “No Time to Die” among other impacts.

The Walt Disney Co.’s anticipated live-action “Mulan” remake is due to open in China on March 27.

The U.S.’s National Symphony Orchestra canceled performances in Japan, after earlier canceling concerts in Beijing and Shanghai. That followed cancellations by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

South Korean agencies have been canceling K-pop events at home and abroad in response to requests from fans about artists’ safety.

Artists such as Taeyeon and boy bands WINNER and NCT Dream had previously canceled shows in Singapore and Macao, and GOT7 postponed concerts in Bangkok and Singapore.

U.S. band Green Day postponed upcoming Asia shows as well, citing health and travel concerns in its announcement on Twitter.

BTS has a large international following and was the first K-pop act to debut atop the Billboard Album chart in 2018 with “Love Yourself: Tear.”

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

New story in Health from Time: Here’s How Quickly Coronavirus Is Spreading in Your State

The novel coronavirus pandemic is a global crisis, a national emergency and a local nightmare. But while a great deal of the focus in the U.S. has been on the federal government’s response, widely criticized as slow and halting , the picture on the ground remains very different in different parts of the country. A TIME analysis of the per capita spread of the epidemic in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. found considerable range in the rate of contagion, and, in some parts of the country, a significant disparity compared to the national figure. The U.S., unlike nations such as South Korea and now Italy , has yet to show signs of bringing the runaway spread of the virus under control. However, while no single state is yet showing strong signs of bending the curve , some are faring much worse than others. The following graphic plots the rise in the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents in each state, plotted by the day that each state reported its first case.
Read more

New story in Health from Time: We Need to Take Care of the Growing Number of Long-term COVID-19 Patients

On July 7, 2020, the Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez tested positive for the new coronavirus. He was scheduled to start Opening Day for the Sox, but the virus had other plans— damaging Rodriguez’s heart and causing a condition called myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). Now the previously fit 27-year old ace left-hander must sit out the 2020 season to recover. Rodriguez is not alone in having heart damage from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In a new study done in Germany, researchers studied the hearts of 100 patients who had recently recovered from COVID-19. The findings were alarming: 78 patients had heart abnormalities, as shown by a special kind of imaging test that shows the heart’s structure (a cardiac MRI), and 60 had myocarditis. These patients were mostly young and previously healthy . Several had just returned from ski trips. While other studies have shown a lower rate of heart problems—for example, a study of 416 patients hosp
Read more

New story in Health from Time: U.S. Inmates ‘Mistakenly’ Received COVID-19 Stimulus Checks. Now, the IRS Wants That Money Back

(BOISE, Idaho) — Hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief payments have been sent to people incarcerated across the United States, and now the IRS is asking state officials to help claw back the cash that the federal tax agency says was mistakenly sent. The legislation authorizing the payments during the pandemic doesn’t specifically exclude jail or prison inmates, and the IRS has refused to say exactly what legal authority it has to retrieve the money. On its website, it points to the unrelated Social Security Act, which bars incarcerated people from receiving some types of old-age and survivor insurance benefit payments. “I can’t give you the legal basis. All I can tell you is this is the language the Treasury and ourselves have been using,” IRS spokesman Eric Smith said. “It’s just the same list as in the Social Security Act.” Read more: ‘A Double Whammy.’ Those Who Most Need The $1,200 Stimulus Checks May Wait the Longest To Get Them Tax attorney Kell
Read more