China broadens lockdown to curb virus
Order covers 36 million people; nation hustles to erect 1,000-bed hospital
BEIJING — China’s most festive holiday began in the shadow of a worrying new virus today as the death toll surpassed 40, an unprecedented lockdown kept 36 million people from traveling and authorities canceled a host of Lunar New Year events.
The National Health Commission reported a jump in the number of people infected with the virus to 1,287, with 41 deaths. The latest tally comes from 29 provinces across China, including 237 patients in serious condition. All 41 deaths have been in China, including 39 in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, one in Hebei and one in Heilongjiang.
Meanwhile, Australia announced its first case today, a Chinese man in his 50s who last week returned from China. France said three people had fallen ill with the virus — the disease’s first appearance in Europe. And the United States reported its second case, involving a Chicago woman in her 60s who was hospitalized in isolation after returning from China.
On Wall Street, stocks slumped over fears of the widening crisis, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 170 points and the S&P 500 posting its worst day in three months.
Transportation was shut down in Wuhan, the city of 11 million people at the epicenter of the outbreak, and in at least 12 other cities in Hubei province, encompassing a population bigger than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province.
Authorities in Beijing and other cities canceled many public celebrations and events marking the Lunar New Year, which were set for today.
Hospitals in Wuhan grappled with a flood of patients and a lack of supplies. Videos circulating online showed throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations, and some complained that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.
Authorities in Wuhan and elsewhere put out calls for medicine, disinfection equipment, masks, goggles, gowns and other protective gear.
Wuhan officials said they are rapidly constructing a new 1,000-bed hospital to deal with the crisis, to be completed Feb. 3. It will be modeled on a SARS hospital that was built in Beijing in just six days during the 2003 SARS outbreak.
The seriousness of the crisis was still an open question.
It is not clear just how lethal the virus is, or even whether it is as dangerous as ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone. Scientists say it is also not clear if it spreads as easily as SARS, its genetic cousin, which also originated in China and killed about 800 people in 2002-03.
The rapid increase in reported deaths and illnesses does not necessarily mean the crisis is getting worse. It could instead reflect better monitoring and reporting of the newly discovered virus, whose symptoms can initially resemble those of the cold and flu, including cough, fever and shortness of breath, but can worsen to pneumonia.
“It’s still too early to draw conclusions about how severe the virus is, because at the beginning of any outbreak you would focus more on the severe cases,” said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva.
With authorities afraid that public gatherings will hasten the spread of the virus, temples locked their doors, Beijing’s Forbidden City, Shanghai Disneyland and other major tourist destinations closed, and people canceled restaurant reservations ahead of Lunar New Year, normally a time of family reunions, sightseeing trips, fireworks displays and other festivities in the country of 1.4 billion people.
Wuhan’s usually bustling streets, malls and other public spaces were unnervingly quiet on the second day of its lockdown, and masks were mandatory in public. Shoppers emptied store shelves, stocking up for what could be an extended period of isolation. Karaoke bars, movie theaters and internet cafes around the region were shut down.
While most of the deaths have been older patients, a 36-year-old man in Hubei died Thursday.
The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan or involved people who visited the city or had personal connections to those infected. About two dozen cases in all have been confirmed outside mainland China, nearly all of them in Asia: Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Nepal.
Many countries are screening travelers from China and isolating anyone with symptoms.
Chinese officials have not said how long the shutdowns of the cities will last.