Outbreak death toll rises sharply Japan screens 3,700 on board quarantined ship
1ST DEATH IN HONG KONG Number of people dead jumps to 427; over 20,000 infected with virus
HONG KONG/ BEIJING: Hong Kong reported its first death from the newly identified coronavirus on Tuesday, the second outside mainland China from an outbreak that has now killed more than 420 people, spread around the world and raised fears for global economic growth.
China’s markets steadied after anxiety erased some $400 billion in market value from Shanghai’s benchmark index the previous day, and global markets also staged a comeback after a sell-off last week, but the bad news kept coming.
Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub, said it had asked all casino operators to suspend operations for two weeks to help curb the spread of the virus.
In another announcement that will compound worries about the economic impact, Hyundai said it would gradually suspend production at its South Korean factories because of supply chain disruptions from the outbreak.
The Hong Kong death took to 427 the toll from the virus, including a man who died in the Philippines last week after visiting Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the epicentre of the outbreak.
Chinese authorities said the toll in mainland China rose by a record 64 from the previous day to 425, mostly in Hubei, the virtually locked-down province whose capital Wuhan is at the heart of the outbreak. New cases were reported in the US, including a patient in California infected through close contact with someone in the same household who had been infected in China.
It was the second instance of person-to-person spread in the US after a case reported last week in Illinois.
TOKYO/BEIJING: Health screening began on Tuesday for some 3,700 passengers and crew aboard a cruise liner held in quarantine at the Japanese port of Yokohama, after a Hong Kong passenger who sailed on the vessel last month tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus.
The 80-year-old man flew to Japan and boarded the ship, the Diamond Princess, run by Carnival Japan, in Yokohama on January 20 and disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25.
Photographs and video posted on Twitter by a passenger with the handle @daxa_tw showed masked health workers walking down empty corridors.
Carnival Japan, a unit of cruise operator Carnival Corp, confirmed that the turnaround of the ship had been delayed by 24 hours for authorities to review the health of all 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew on board.
A ‘PEOPLE’S WAR’ ON
THE STREETS OF CHINA President Xi Jinping, according to state media, told a top meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Monday that China has launched a “people’s war” on the coronavirus epidemic.
In India, one might associate “people’s war” with the far-left movement. But in China, “people’s” is pretty much mainstream. The central bank is the people’s, the currency is the people’s and even the armed forces’ is the people’s, to cite a few examples. On the streets of China, people have now taken up the fight against the pathogen.
The only pre-emptive weapon, of course, is precaution. Masks are ubiquitous among the few walking the deserted streets of Beijing and it’s the same in other cities. All shopkeepers, too, can be seen wearing masks.
Apartment administrations have geared up to contain the infection from spreading. Security guards conduct temperature checks on visitors at gates.
Beijing’s public transport corporation has taken measures such as cleaning and disinfecting buses, ventilating the air inside, measuring the temperatures of staff members and ensuring that staff members work with face masks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.