Coronavirus live updates: China’s reopened stock markets plunge as coronavirus outbreak threatens to become pandemic
● China’s National Health Commission reported Monday that there are 17,228 confirmed cases in China, including 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao. The self-governing island of Taiwan reported 10 cases. The World Health Organization reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China.
● China’s main share indexes plunged more than 8 percent, reopening after a 10-day break, as economists continue to revise growth forecasts downward.
● Hong Kong has closed nearly all its border crossings with mainland China. Concerns are also rising about possible outbreaks in Japan and South Korea after indications of tertiary transmissions of the virus there.
● China’s new “super-fast” hospital, built in just eight days, has opened in Wuhan. With 1,000 beds, it will relieve pressure on Wuhan’s overwhelmed medical facilities.
● The United States recorded its 11th case of the coronavirus, with a couple from central California falling ill after the husband’s trip to China’s Hubei province at the epicenter of the outbreak.
UAE suspends flights to and from China, except Beijing
DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates announced Monday that all flights to and from China will be suspended, except those from the capital Beijing. Travelers from Beijing will however have to undergo a six-to-eight hour comprehensive medical screening at the airport before being allowed to board.
The new policy came from the General Civil Aviation Authority and was made in light of the outbreak in China of the new coronavirus, according to the state news agency.
Despite the measures, the statement said that the authority still had “confidence in the Chinese government’s efforts to control and contain the situation.”
The UAE is home to Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest airports for international traffic in the world.
Almost a million Chinese tourists visit the UAE every year. Five cases of the virus have been reported in the country — all tourists from China.
The suspension will come into force on Wednesday. Flights to Wuhan were already canceled on Jan. 23.
Xi chairs top-level political meeting about coronavirus
WASHINGTON — Chinese leader Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of China’s Communist Party on Monday to discuss the norovirus outbreak, state news reported.
China’s standing committee is the most powerful political body in China’s political system. It previously held a meeting to discuss the outbreak on Jan. 25.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Xi used the meeting to express respect to those fighting the outbreak and to send the committee’s well-wishes to patients and their families.
The standing committee declared that the coronavirus outbreak was not just a health issue, but a problem for all parts of society. Xi urged everyone to avoid “the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake” in prevention work, Xinhua reported.
Dow signals rebound as Chinese markets plunge
WASHINGTON — Chinese markets dropped sharply Monday as coronavirus infections surged past 17,000 with no end in sight, extending a sell-off that wracked Wall Street last week. Dow futures, meanwhile, signaled a rebound after Friday’s 603-point rout.
The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 futures were pointing up Monday morning after a major sell-off last week. On Friday, the Dow plunged 603 points, or 2 percent, wiping out January’s gains. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite fell 1.77 and 1.59 percent, respectively.
The declines came as Delta Air Lines and American Airlines joined other major carriers in suspending all service to China, and the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency.
European indexes were in the black on Monday.
Analysts also are closely watching the outbreak’s toll outside China.
Over the weekend, “there were signs the outbreak is slower outside of Hubei, and there have not been any major international outbreaks,” analysts at Cowen wrote Monday. “However, new outbreaks often come in waves, and the numbers could also worsen going forward.”
Why the novel coronavirus is not being called a pandemic, yet
WASHINGTON — It’s an outbreak. It’s an epidemic. But the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, in December is not yet a pandemic, even though it has sickened more than 17,000 people in China and led to cases in 23 other countries.
According to World Health Organization, “a pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease.”
To meet the term’s criteria, a new disease generally needs to affect many people across international boundaries, either worldwide or throughout a very wide area.
That, so far, is not the case with the novel coronavirus. Although it has spread throughout China, the transmission of the disease outside the country has been limited so far. Countries are consequently taking steps to prevent further outbreaks, such as quarantining or banning travelers from Wuhan and elsewhere in China.
Public health officials are also frequently reassessing the situation to determine whether they need to adjust their definition — and as a result the recommendations and mechanisms at their disposal.
In contrast, the WHO defines an epidemic as “the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy. The number of cases indicating the presence of an epidemic varies according to the agent, size, and type of population exposed, previous experience or lack of exposure to the disease, and time and place of occurrence.”
An outbreak, according to the WHO, is “the occurrence of disease cases in excess of normal expectancy.”
Czech Republic bans flights to and from China
BERLIN — The Czech Republic became the latest country to schedule a ban on flights to and from China, joining a growing list of nations with flight restrictions, including Italy, Vietnam and Israel. The Czech suspension is set to take effect Feb. 9.
A wide range of carriers worldwide have similarly suspended flights to and from mainland China. Air France, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, British Airways, Qantas and Qatar Airways are among the biggest carriers to have taken such steps so far.
Pakistan, however, resumed flights to and from China on Monday, according to Reuters news agency. Flightradar24, a flight-tracking site, showed a plane from Beijing heading toward Islamabad International Airport on Monday evening local time.
World Health Organization chief cautions against ‘panic and fear’
DUBAI — The head of the World Health Organization warned Monday about succumbing to fear and panic over the coronavirus outbreak and lauded China’s efforts to contain it.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus told the executive board of the WHO that there were still very few cases outside China and “panic and fear” were the real challenges.
“So the 146 [cases] means that it is very small; there is nothing to be scared of,” he said. “If we are going to take this in the right perspective, it should be used as a signal to prepare.”
While more than 17,000 cases of the virus have been found inside China, the WHO has confirmed only 146 in the rest of the world — albeit in 23 countries. More will likely appear once the symptoms begin to manifest.
Tedros, however, said that China was using the right strategy of focusing its efforts on the hardest-hit places and slowing the spread, which he described as “small.” China is “protecting the Chinese people and protecting the rest of the world,” he said.
“It’s no reason to really panic now,” Tedros said. “The chances of getting this going to anywhere outside China is very low, and even in China, when you go to other provinces, it’s very low.”
Japan’s Abe vows to work with WHO to ensure virus does not disrupt Olympics
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Monday to work with the World Health Organization to ensure that Tokyo’s Olympic Games are not disrupted by the outbreak of coronavirus.
Japan has found 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus, mostly but not all in people who have recently been in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and fears are mounting that the virus could disrupt this year’s Games.
“We will closely work with the World Health Organization and others to make sure that preparations for the Olympics and Paralympics will steadily proceed without impact,” Abe told a parliamentary committee.
From some of those 20 cases, Japanese scientists have already isolated the virus and are beginning work on developing treatment, drugs and test kits. Abe said that the aim was to make test kits available as soon as possible.
Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto said the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee will meet with municipal governments soon to discuss ways to respond to the virus.
Medical experts say coronaviruses are typically less virulent during hot weather, offering some reason for optimism, given the sweltering heat of the Tokyo summer. However, they caution that the new virus is spreading so fast that it may prove impossible to control, and that as this is a new virus, no one knows how it will respond to warmer temperatures.
Japan imposed extraordinary restrictions on travel from China last week, barring foreigners from entering the country if they had been in the virus-hit city of Wuhan in the previous 14 days, as well as any Chinese nationals whose passports were issued by the province of Hubei. Eight foreigners were denied entry over the weekend, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, according to Kyodo news.
Health Minister Katsunobo Kato told the same parliamentary committee that the government would consider tightening those restrictions if the contagion spreads further, possibly to include regions beyond Hubei.
China, Japan, Thailand work on virus drugs; Wuhan tries traditional medicine
TOKYO — As the number of infected people with coronavirus shoots up, doctors around Asia are racing against time and with each other to come up with effective treatments.
China is kick-starting a clinical trial of a drug to treat coronavirus in the city of Wuhan, but it is also reported to be telling hospitals to treat patients with traditional Chinese medicine as it seeks quick answers to contain the health crisis there.
A medical team from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital will test Remdesivir, a new antiviral drug by Gilead Sciences aimed at infectious diseases such Ebola and SARS, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Researchers aim to recruit 270 patients with mild and moderate pneumonia caused by the virus in a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled study, Chinese news outlet the Paper reported Sunday.
At the same time, a document issued by Wuhan’s health authorities and posted online showed hospitals have been instructed to administer traditional Chinese medicine to all patients in the city, starting Monday — presumably alongside other treatments being offered — and to report back on their conditions every day.
On Friday, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said it succeeded in cultivating and isolating the new virus from patients who had sought treatment in the country. It will start work to develop a vaccine and a drug for the coronavirus, as well as a test kit capable of quick diagnosis, the Jiji Press news agency reported.
On Sunday, doctors in Thailand reported success in treating severe cases of virus with a combination of medications for flu and HIV, Reuters reported.
The doctors from Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok said a mixture of anti-HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir, in combination with flu drug oseltamivir in large doses, had led to significant improvements in several patients in their care, including one 70-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan.
But experts say even though the genome of the virus has been identified, it will take months if not longer to find and test a vaccine.
Facing hospital strike, Hong Kong further restricts border crossings but avoids total closure
HONG KONG — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Monday she would close more border crossings with mainland China, leaving only three open, but she stopped short of fully shutting down arrivals from the virus-hit country.
Her announcement came as thousands of medical workers in the city started the first wave of a strike designed to pressure the government to close Hong Kong’s borders. Medical workers are also demanding sufficient protective supplies such as masks, which are in short supply in the city. They are backed in their strike by a large swath of Hong Kong society.
Hong Kong closed six of its 14 border checkpoints with mainland China last Thursday, but Lam said there was a need to take further steps Monday “because of the latest developments in the outbreak.”
She said she hoped the closure would make it inconvenient for people to travel to mainland China and discourage people from crossing between the two territories. Hong Kong has its own immigration system, but Beijing has ultimate sovereignty over the territory.
The decision, Lam said, has “absolutely nothing to do” with the five-day strike launched by health-care workers on Monday.
“If anyone thinks that by resorting to such extreme measures, the government will be made to do something that is not rational or will harm the public good, they will not get anywhere,” she said.
The striking medical workers who include doctors and nurses, are from a union — the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance — that was formed in the wake of anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong last year.
The pro-democracy union has some 18,000 members, and they say they will expand their strike to include more of their members if the government does not respond to their demands.
China shares close nearly 8 percent lower as virus weakens the economy
TOKYO — China’s main share index closed down nearly 8 percent on Monday, reflecting a buildup in negative sentiment during the long Lunar New Year holiday.
The CSI composite index of 300 leading shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen ended 7.9 percent lower, its biggest daily fall since an equity bubble burst in 2015. The Chinese yuan fell below 7 to a dollar, while commodity prices traded in Shanghai also fell sharply.
The fall reflected 10 days of unrelenting bad news since the Chinese markets were last open on Jan. 23, when the index also fell 3 percent. Many Chinese cities have postponed the reopening of nonessential businesses and offices, while a drop-off in Chinese tourists is also impacting the economies of nearby countries in Asia.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed 0.2 percent higher after falling 5.9 percent last week, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.0 percent after falling 2.6 percent last week, and South Korea’s Kospi index was flat after falling 5.7 percent last week.
In Europe, London’s FTSE-100 index and Germany’s DAX opened slightly higher.
Coronavirus got you stressed? Chinese therapists recommend a good cry — or hitting something
TOKYO — If the relentless negative news about coronavirus is all getting too much, or if you’re trapped at home in China feeling bored and fidgety, or starting to panic, Chinese psychologists have some suggestions.
Calligraphy and esports, reading, singing, exercise and meditation were just some of the ideas proposed at a news conference organized by China’s National Health Commission on Monday.
“Companionship from family and friends is important social support,” said Chen Xuefeng, vice director of Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Science.
“Think about what valuable life experience you can get from this chapter of experience.”
But for overworked medical professionals and community workers on the front line of the battle against the virus, more radical measures might be needed.
“They should master some methods and solutions to get the negative feelings off their chests,” said Yang Fude, the Communist Party chief of Beijing’s Huilongguan Hospital. “For instance, if you feel depressed, you can find a place with no one around and cry out loud for a few minutes,” he said. “You’ll really feel relaxed after crying. It’s like how a downpour of rain can clear a cloudy sky.”
Yang said work shifts need to be arranged so everyone can get a reasonable amount of rest.
“Also if conditions allow, you can put a sandbag or a punch bag in the workplace, and take some minutes to do some boxing, which will return you to a relaxed state right away.”
South Korea’s Moon calls for more intense measures to halt virus spread
SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in called Monday for “exhaustive” monitoring to prevent the spread of coronavirus, with hundreds of schools closing and evidence emerging of the tertiary spread of infections in the East Asian nation.
On Sunday, South Korea joined the growing list of countries to impose restrictions on travelers from China, with Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announcing a ban on foreigners who have traveled to Hubei Province in the past 14 days, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine on South Koreans returning from Hubei.
Opposition lawmakers called for a total ban on all travelers from mainland China, but Moon resisted those calls.
“China is our biggest partner in human exchange and trade,” Moon told a meeting with aides in Seoul. “China’s hardship is directly connected to our own hardship.”
The number of infected people in South Korea rose to 15 over the weekend. One was among 701 South Koreans evacuated from Wuhan by charter flight, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), while nine others were South Korean and Chinese citizens who had recently been there.
But others contracted the disease through more indirect routes.
A 54-year-old South Korean man tested positive for the virus on Thursday, eight days after he had dined in Seoul with an infected person who had returned from Wuhan. On Friday, two members of his family were also diagnosed with the virus.
South Korea’s Education Ministry has recommended schools close to stop the spread of the virus and announced Monday that 336 had done so.
The U.S. military in South Korea has also instituted a 14-day self-quarantine for service members returning from mainland China.
Russia can now deport those infected with coronavirus
MOSCOW — A new Russian plan to prevent the spread of coronavirus allows for the deportation of foreign citizens who test positive for the disease, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a government meeting Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.
The new coronavirus, which has infected thousands of people in China, has been added to the country’s list of dangerous diseases, he said.
“That will allow us to deport foreign citizens who test positive for the virus and to impose special restrictive measures, such as isolation and quarantine,” he added.
Russia announced its first two cases of coronavirus on Friday — both Chinese citizens. Anna Popova, head of the country’s consumer safety watchdog, said that “there’s no threat of the situation’s spreading further” because the patients are in isolation rooms, according to Interfax.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced that Russia will send aircraft to the locked-down Chinese city of Wuhan on Monday to evacuate Russian citizens there.,She estimated that more than 130 Russians are in Wuhan.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it would allot five planes with military doctors and virology specialists to the evacuation effort.
China accuses the United States of ‘overreaction’ to coronavirus outbreak
BEIJING — China accused the United States Monday of creating mass hysteria with its “overreaction” to the coronavirus outbreak, part of a broader effort to portray Washington as using the health crisis for political gain.
“The U.S. government hasn’t provided any substantial assistance to us,” Hua Chunying, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters during the daily briefing, which was carried out on the WeChat messaging app rather than the usual in-person news conference to avoid potential transmission of the virus.
“But it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers. All it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a bad example,” she continued, according to translated remarks supplied by the Foreign Ministry.
“The U.S. is turning from overconfidence to fear and overreaction,” she said, taking aim at the Trump administration’s decision to ban travelers from China — despite the fact that a host of other countries, from Australia and the Philippines to Iraq and Indonesia have done the same.
She noted that the coronavirus outbreak was far less deadly that influenza in the United States, quoting a Center for Diseases Control and Prevention report that said 19 million people were infected and at least 10,000 died of the flu in the United States in 2019 and the first part of 2020.
“We hope countries will make reasonable, calm and science-based judgments and responses,” she said.
Hua also noted that the World Health Organization, the United Nations agency, “continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”
“There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” she said.
Hua had previously slammed the “certain U.S. officials” for inappropriate remarks, an apparent reference to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who last week said the coronavirus could “help” to bring jobs to the United States as companies moved operations away from China.
Chinese authorities authorize evacuation of Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan
HONG KONG — For weeks, Taiwanese authorities have been badgering counterparts in mainland China to allow them to repatriate the 500 or so Taiwanese stranded in Hubei province. On Monday, the first batch of Taiwanese people were finally allowed to evacuate, slated to fly back home in the evening.
Those stranded in Wuhan include business executives, some of whom were on short-term trips in the city, students and tourists. The Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Office had no immediate details on who were among the first batch of 200 allowed to leave. At least one of the Taiwanese people in Wuhan has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and will have to stay behind for treatment.
China has a tense relationship with the self-governing island of Taiwan, which it claims under the “one China” policy. Taiwan under the leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen has pushed back against that interpretation of the island’s sovereignty.
Taiwan has also been excluded from major international organizations over protests from China, which believes it should represent Taiwan in any international forums. Tsai and other Taiwanese leaders have repeatedly balked at this arrangement, particularly as the coronavirus outbreak spreads, and says it must be included and can contribute to the global fight against the disease.
The charter flight carrying the first batch of Taiwanese evacuated from Wuhan is due to arrive in Taiwan on Monday night.
China’s ‘super-fast’ hospital opens for patients in Wuhan
TOKYO — It’s a race between the power of the Chinese construction industry and the fast-spreading coronavirus.
A new Chinese hospital opened in the virus-hit city of Wuhan on Monday, after taking just eight days to build, news agencies reported.
Ten ambulances were at the ready on Monday morning to take the first batch of patients to the Huoshenshan (“fire-god mountain”) Hospital, state China Central Television reported.
The hospital is designed to have 1,000 beds for patients with confirmed coronavirus infections and was handed over to military medics on Sunday. It will be staffed by 1,400 medical personnel from the People’s Liberation Army.
China Daily called it the “super-fast hospital.”
Its construction was modeled on a similar hospital build in Beijing in 2003 during the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and involved 7,500 construction workers.
But no sooner had worked begun on the hospital on Jan. 25, than it became apparent it would not be large enough to relieve the massive shortage of beds in Wuhan as the virus spreads.
Another hospital, Leishenshan (“thunder-god mountain”), is scheduled to be completed on Feb. 5 with a further 1,600 beds. Similar hospitals are also being built in Beijing and other Chinese cities.
According to official figures, there are more than 11,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the central province of Hubei, but medical experts believe the actual number is many times higher. Many residents of Wuhan are staying home even if they fall sick, because there are few testing kits and no beds at hospitals in the city, and they fear catching the virus there.
War on mah-jongg! Chinese police smash up tables to prevent public gatherings
TOKYO — China’s Communist Party seems to be launching an unofficial war on the popular Chinese game of mah-jongg, as police intensify efforts to prevent public gatherings that might spread coronavirus.
Videos circulating on Chinese social media and the Internet show police swinging hammers and axes to smash mah-jongg tables, not only the province of Hubei at the epicenter of the virus, but also in neighboring Anhui and in faraway provinces such as Yunnan in the southwest, and Gansu in the northwest.
Sichuan province in the southwest issued a ban on mah-jongg parlors on Jan. 28, and police in the capital Chengdu asked young people to report locations where their parents were playing mah-jongg, as many elderly people were apparently refusing to follow official advice to stay home. In Heilongjiang, in the far northeast, the owner of one parlor was among those arrested for defying a ban and keeping his parlors open, while players were “severely criticized and educated,” Heilongjiang Daily reported.
China’s provincial and municipal governments granted themselves far-reaching emergency powers last week to stem the spread of the virus, including enforcing blockades, closing business and schools and banning mass gatherings.
Mah-jongg, a strategic four-player game using small tiles, is one of the most popular pastimes in China, especially among the elderly, but it’s not the first time it has been in the Communist Party’s crosshairs.
Last October, police in several parts of China shut down unlicensed mah-jongg parlors, or those that they considered encouraged gambling, the BBC reported.
The latest videos drew a mixed reaction on China’s heavily censored social media platforms, with some people arguing people should wait to play until the virus had subsided, but others asking why the tables could not have been confiscated rather than smashed up.
India reports third coronavirus case from Kerala, suspends visas from China
NEW DELHI — India on Monday confirmed a third case of coronavirus from the southern state of Kerala. The condition of the patient, a student, is stable. All three reported cases had recently returned from China, two of them from Wuhan, where the epidemic originated.
The cases have been reported from three different cities in Kerala, said Rajan Khobragade, a senior health department official in the state. As a precaution, he said, authorities have put nearly 2,000 people with a history of travel from Wuhan under house isolation.
India has asked its nationals to refrain from traveling to China. An updated advisory from the Health Ministry said that anyone coming from China post Jan. 15 could be quarantined. The Indian Embassy in Beijing temporarily suspended e-visas for Chinese passport holders and foreign nationals in China. Existing visas have been canceled. Over 58,000 incoming passengers from China have been screened at airports across the country.
Over the weekend, India evacuated over 600 nationals from Wuhan and are now quarantined for 14 days at an army-run camp, 55 miles outside of New Delhi.
‘Handful’ more flights planned to evacuate Americans in Hubei
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that there will be a “handful more flights” to bring Americans stranded in China’s Hubei province back to the United States, according to Reuters news agency.
Pompeo spoke during the Uzbekistan leg of his Central Asia Trip. He said the flights would also bring medical supplies to China and could bring back other nationalities as well.
Hubei Province has been largely cut off from the rest of the country in a bid to stem the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak centered in the regional capital of Wuhan. Thousands of foreigners have been trapped in the city and surrounding province, prompting several countries to send evacuation flights.
China backtracks on Holocaust comparison over Israel border closure
JERUSALEM — A Chinese diplomat compared Israel’s closure of its borders to visitors from China over coronavirus fears to the Holocaust, beseeching the country not to bar Chinese travelers as Jewish refugees were barred by many countries in the World War II era, according to Israeli media reports.
Acting Chinese Ambassador Dai Yuming made the comments Sunday at a Tel Aviv news conference after Israel joined a growing list of nations trying to insulate themselves from the pathogen’s spread. The government has halted flights from China and barred noncitizens who had traveled to China recently from entering Israel. The Health Ministry advised Israelis returning from China to quarantine themselves at home for two weeks.
“I feel bad and sad,” Dai said, according to the Times of Israel. “Because it actually recalled [for] me, the old days, the old stories, that happened in World War II, the Holocaust. Many Jewish [people] were refused when they tried to seek assistance. Only very, very few countries opened their doors. One of them is China. I hope Israel will never close their door to the Chinese.”
Thousands of European Jews traveled to Shanghai after Nazis rose to power, at time when many countries closed their doors to the growing flood of Jewish seeking safe havens. Historians here acknowledged China’s role, but many pointed out that the Chinese government actually had little control over Shanghai entry ports at the time.
The Chinese embassy backtracked after the comparison was criticized.
“Regarding the news conference held today by the Chinese Embassy in Israel, we would like to clarify that there was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens,” the embassy said in a statement conveyed by Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “We would like to apologize if someone understood our message the wrong way.”
Japan girds for coronavirus outbreak as transmission fears grow
TOKYO — Japan needs to brace for a major outbreak in coronavirus, a leading expert said on Monday, with evidence mounting that even people with mild or no symptoms can infect others, and a high probability that a transmission chain has already established itself in the country.
“My assessment is that the spread of this virus is inevitable in Japan,” said Hitoshi Oshitani, a virology professor at Tohoko University Graduate School of Medicine and an adviser to the World Health Organization during the 2002-3 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS.
“People have the ability to infect others even if they don’t have any symptoms or have very mild symptoms, so it’s not possible to find the whole transmission chain — an invisible transmission chain might already have been established in Japan.”
Japan has confirmed 20 cases of coronavirus. Eight of that number were Japanese citizens among more than 500 evacuated from Wuhan, and nine were Chinese tourists from Wuhan or people who had recently visited that city.
But the other three had never been to Wuhan. A tour bus driver and tour guide fell ill after taking around a group of Chinese tourists from Wuhan, and another tour guide fell ill after working with the bus driver, taking around a different group of Chinese tourists from the northern city of Dalian.
Oshitani said Japan’s decision on Friday to bar foreigners who had visited China’s Hubei province probably came too late.
“Suddenly we may see a large number of cases somewhere in Japan,” he said. “It’s impossible to contain this virus.”
Oshitani believes there could be as many as 100,000 people infected with the virus in Wuhan, but says the mortality rate is “definitely” much lower than SARS, which killed nearly one in 10 of those infected. Still, the fact that the virus is so easily transmitted means a large number of cases “and more deaths unfortunately.”
China markets, reopening after extended break, plunge on coronavirus concerns
TOKYO — China’s main stock indexes were down more than 8 percent on Monday, reflecting a buildup in negative sentiment during the long Lunar New Year holiday.
The CSI composite index of 300 leading shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen was 8.2 percent lower in early afternoon trade, marking the biggest one-day fall since an equity bubble burst in 2015, according to Bloomberg, and approaching the 10 percent limit which triggers a suspension in trade.
The fall reflected 10 days of unrelenting bad news since the Chinese markets were last open on Jan. 23, when the index also fell 3 percent. Many Chinese cities have postponed the reopening of nonessential businesses and offices, while many people are simply staying home.
Lian Weiliang, vice director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the key state economic planning agency, said the virus had its biggest impact on transportation, tourism, hotels and catering.
“It needs to be emphasized that the influence is interim and temporary, and it will not change the long-term good prospects of Chinese economy,” he told a news conference.
Other markets around Asia were calmer on Monday, but have all suffered from the fallout of the deadly virus.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.1 percent after falling 5.9 percent last week, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 percent after falling 2.6 percent last week, while South Korea’s Kospi index was flat after falling 5.7 percent last week.
In a research note, Oxford Economics said it was revising down its China growth prediction by two percentage points for the first quarter, and to 5.4 percent from 6 percent for the year as a whole, but warned “a more serious and long-lasting impact cannot be ruled out.”
China virus cases jump to 17,205, with 361 fatalities
BEIJING — The National Health Commission in China reported Sunday that there have been 17,205 confirmed cases of illness caused by the coronavirus, plus 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao. The WHO reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday confirmed an additional case in California, involving a patient who had recently returned to the United States from Wuhan. That brings the U.S. case number to nine, with no deaths.
Scientists suspect the true number of infections may be many times higher than the official count. So far, 361 people have died, all but one in China.
The most serious illnesses appear to be in the elderly and people with preexisting medical problems, and it is highly contagious. Unless contained soon, it could become a pandemic — a disease that travels almost everywhere on the planet in the same manner as influenza.
Officials add four additional airports to those already screening for the coronavirus
On Sunday evening, just as new restrictions on passengers arriving in the United States took effect, the Department of Homeland Security added four additional airports to the seven where passengers arriving from China would be funneled for screening.
In additional to airports in New York, Atlanta, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, passengers will also be funneled to airports in Dallas, Detroit, Newark and Washington’s Dulles International, where they will be screened for the coronavirus.
Under new protocols announced Friday, U.S. citizens who have been in Hubei province within 14 days of their return will be subject to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they receive proper medical care. Those citizens who have been in other areas of mainland China within 14 days of their return will been screened when they enter the U.S. and may be subject to up to 14 das of self-quarantine to ensure they haven’t contracted the virus. Under the policy, non-U.S. citizens who have traveled in China within 14 days of their arrival will not be allowed to enter the U.S.
According to U.S. Department of Transportation data analyzed by Airlines for America, an industry trade group, there were an average of about 49 daily passenger flights between the U.S. and China for the 12-month period that ended in July. That number includes flights on both U.S. and foreign carriers.
However, the number of flights between the United States and China has dropped dramatically since the outbreak of the virus after Chinese officials closed the airport in Wuhan and began restricting travel in the country. Several U.S. carriers also canceled some flights. The U.S. Department of State also raised its China travel advisory to Level 4, its highest level of caution and said Americans should not travel to the region.
Last week, three major U.S. carriers — American, Delta and United, announced they would stop flying to and from China. American began halting flights on Friday, but Delta and United said they would continue operating some flights until this week to give customers and its own employees the ability to leave China.
Delta officials said their last China-bound flight will leave the United States on Monday. Its last flight from China is set to depart Wednesday. United said it will suspend all operations between its hub cities in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai beginning Thursday.
What you need to know about coronavirus
Follow our updates: The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency and the State Department heightened its travel advisory for China to Level 4: Do Not Travel due to the virus outbreak.
Federal health officials confirmed there are 11 U.S. cases of the coronavirus, with a couple from central California falling ill after the husband’s trip to China’s Hubei province.
Are you in isolation or quarantine because of coronavirus? We want to hear your story.
Mapping the spread of the new coronavirus: The United States, Germany, Sri Lanka, France, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Vietnam, Macao and South Korea have all confirmed cases of the infection.
Travel bans were extended in central China to put more than 50 million people effectively on local lockdowns. Despite unprecedented measures, experts can’t yet say whether these efforts will contain the infection.
What is coronavirus and how does it spread? Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses whose effects range from causing the common cold to triggering much more serious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Here’s what we know so far.
