Chinese city takes strict action after 17 die from virus

BEIJING — The Chinese metropolis at the center of the outbreak of a deadly new virus will impose tough restrictions on the movement of its residents out of the city starting Thursday in a bid to halt the spread of infections, state media reported.

China’s People’s Daily said that as of 10 a.m. local time, train stations and the airport in Wuhan will “shut down” and that longdistance bus, metro and ferry services out of the city of 11 million people will be suspended.

The measures were announced hours after the number of deaths linked to the pneumonia-like virus nearly doubled to 17 in a 24hour period, according to officials in China’s Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. The number of confirmed cases surpassed 500 on Wednesday.

There are fears that the number of infected could spiral in the days ahead, when hundreds of thousands are expected to travel from major cities like Wuhan to family homesteads for the Lunar New Year celebration that starts Saturday.

Wuhan authorities this week installed infrared thermometers at airports, railway and bus stations and said public transport vehicles were being disinfected daily.

As concerns about the virus grow, experts at the World Health Organization in Geneva met to determine whether the outbreak constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern.”

After an hourslong discussion Wednesday, the WHO’s Emergency Committee said it saw no reason for such a declaration yet but still wants to meet Thursday.

The chair of the committee, Didier Houssin, called it a “rapidly evolving situation” at a news conference.

Declaring such an emergency would amount to a call for global vigilance, cooperation and funding to stem the virus.

The virus was discovered in the metropolis of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, in late December.

Incidents of the disease have also been reported in Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States, as well as in the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, an EU agency, said Wednesday it believes there is a “moderate likelihood” of a case occurring in Europe.

Several countries increased border health checks to guard against the disease’s spread.

North Korea has temporarily closed its border to all foreign tourists in response to the outbreak, according to a travel agency that operates tours to the country.

Russia announced it had increased health controls at all its border checkpoints, not only with China, due to fears over the virus.

Britain said also that it was increasing monitoring for all direct flights from China, similar to measures now in place in the United States.

The new coronavirus belongs to the same family of viruses that caused Severe

Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, a disease that killed 800 people globally in a 2002-03 pandemic that also started in China.

Scientists in China said the new coronavirus may have been transmitted during the illegal trade of wild animals.

Gao Fu, the director of China’s Disease Control and Prevention Center and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told journalists the virus is believed to have originated at a market in Wuhan, from where it mutated and became transmissible from person to person.

“From what we know, the source was the wild animals sold at the seafood market,” Gao said. “The virus of this wild animal is gradually mutating.”

The SARS coronavirus is believed to have been transmitted by civet cats, a type of wild animal that is considered a delicacy in parts of China.

Authorities did not say what animal they suspected the new coronavirus came from.