First coronavirus death reported outside China,
44-year-old Wuhan resident dies in Philippines • Plane repatriating 250 Europeans lands in France
BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) – China ramped up measures to contain the coronavirus epidemic and shore up an economy hit by travel curbs and business shut-downs on Sunday as the first death from the illness was reported outside the country.
A 44-year-old Chinese man from the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, traveled to the Philippines and died there on Saturday, the Philippines Department of Health said.
The virus outbreak is still “severe and complicated,” Hubei vice governor, Xiao Juhua, told a news conference.
A total of 304 people have died in China, the country’s National Health Commission said on Sunday. Infections in China jumped to 14,380 as of Saturday, after their biggest daily rise, the commission added.
At least another 171 cases have been reported in more than two dozen other countries and regions, including the United States, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Britain.
Beijing is facing mounting isolation, as countries introduce travel restrictions, airlines suspend flights and governments evacuate their citizens, risking worsening a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
China’s central bank said it would inject a hefty 1.2 trillion yuan ($173.8 billion) worth of liquidity into the markets via reverse repo operations on Monday as the country prepares to reopen its stock markets after an extended Lunar New Year holiday.
The government also said it will help firms that produce vital goods resume work as soon as possible, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing a meeting chaired by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
In Beijing, some malls stayed open during the extended holiday, but staff wearing surgical masks stood outside shops, offering to take customers’ temperatures. Many other stores and cafes in the capital and other cities chose to close. “We can’t work and have no income. I would rather work than stay at home and do nothing,” said 32-year-old restaurant worker Wu Caixia in Beijing.
According to residents and social media postings, some meal deliveries in Shanghai and
Beijing have started to arrive with a note showing the temperatures of the workers that prepared, packaged and delivered the food – to reassure customers they are not sick.
China Evergrande Group, the nation’s third-largest property developer, said in an internal note it would extend its Lunar New Year holiday to February 16, and suspend construction work at all of its 1,246 sites until February 20.
OPEC and non-OPEC’s Joint Technical Committee (JTC) has scheduled a meeting over February 4-5 in Vienna, to assess the impact of the virus on oil demand, OPEC+ sources told Reuters.
Travel bans, evacuations
A plane repatriating 250 French and European nationals from Wuhan landed at a military airbase in Istres, southern France, on Sunday.
Many countries are working with China to repatriate citizens from Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.
About 65 French nationals will be quarantined either at a holiday resort at Carry-Le-Rouet, in the south of France, or at a firefighters’ training center near Aix-en-Provence, Secretary of State for Child Protection Adrien Taquet told reporters.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the French plane was carrying nationals of 30 countries, and that most non-French would travel on to their home countries
Authorities have effectively quarantined Wuhan, sealing off roads and shutting down public transport.
The city, where the virus is thought to have emerged late last year in a market illegally trading wildlife, was about to open two new hospitals for patients of the virus, state broadcaster CCTV and Xinhua news agency reported. They added that one of the facilities was built in eight days.
The virus has disrupted a string of sporting events across China. Organizers of the electric car Formula E series said on Sunday they had abandoned plans for a race in the city of Sanya next month.
The Chinese data on the numbers of infections and deaths suggests the new coronavirus is less deadly than the 200203 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people of the some 8,000 it infected, although such numbers can evolve rapidly.
The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, but said global trade and travel restrictions are not needed. However, a string of countries have ramped up border controls. Singapore and the United States announced measures on Friday, to ban foreign nationals who have recently been to China from entering their territories, and Australia followed suit on Saturday.
Russia introduced visa restrictions and will start evacuating Russian citizens on Monday and Tuesday, Interfax and TASS news agencies reported.
The Philippines expanded its travel ban to include all foreigners coming from China, widening an earlier restriction that covered only those from Hubei province. Indonesia also barred visitors who have been in China for 14 days.