NCoV deaths jump; infection spreads
WHO urges calm
BEIJING – China’s death toll from a new viral disease that is causing mounting global concern rose by 25 to at least 106 yesterday as the US and other governments prepared to fly their citizens out of the lockeddown city at the center of the outbreak.
The total includes the first death in Beijing, the Chinese capital, and 24 more fatalities in Hubei province, where the first illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus occurred in December.
Asian stock markets tumbled for a second day, dragged down by worries about the virus’s global economic impact.
The US consulate in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where authorities cut off most access last Jan. 22 in an effort to contain the disease, officially known as 2019-nCoV, was pre- paring to fly its diplomats and some other Americans out of the city today.
Japan and South Korea said they would send planes to Wuhan this week to evacuate their citizens. France, Mongolia and other governments also planned evacuations.
But the Xinhua state news agency reported World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as expressing confidence in China’s ability to contain the new coronavirus and calling for calm, saying he did not think foreigners should be evacuated.
Although cases of the flulike virus have appeared in more countries, with Sri Lanka and Cambodia the latest, none of the 106 deaths has been outside China, and all but six have been in Wuhan, where the virus emerged last month.
The WHO chief, in a meeting with State Councilor Wang Yi in Beijing, said he approved of the government’s measures to curb the outbreak, Xinhua said. Ghebreyesus was not available for comment but his agency said his aim was to strengthen the partnership with China, in particular on the response.
A WHO panel of 16 independent experts twice last week declined to declare an international emergency over the outbreak.
China’s increasingly drastic containment efforts began with the suspension of plane, train and bus links to Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. That lockdown has expanded to 17 cities with more than 50 million people in the most far-reaching disease-control measures ever imposed.
China extended the Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Sunday to reduce the risk of infection by keeping offices and factories nationwide closed and the public at home. Authorities in Shanghai, a global business center and home to 25 million people, extended the holiday in that city by an additional week to Feb. 9.
US health officials have also expanded their recommendation for people to avoid nonessential travel to any part of China, rather than just Wuhan and other areas most affected by the outbreak.
Mongolia closed its vast border with China and North Korea said it was strengthening quarantine measures. Hong Kong and Malaysia are barring visitors from Hubei. Chinese travel agencies were ordered to cancel group tours nationwide.
There were 1,771 new cases confirmed in China on Monday, raising the national total to 4,515, according to the National Health Commission. It said 976 people were in serious condition.
The government has sent 6,000 extra medical workers to Wuhan from across China, including 1,800 who were due to arrive yesterday, said commission official Jiao Yahui at a news conference.
A baby boy was delivered by surgery in Wuhan after his 27-year-old mother was hospitalized as a “highly suspected” virus case, state TV reported. The mother, who has fever and cough, was 37 weeks pregnant or two weeks less than a standard full term.
Doctors wore protective masks and clothing for the delivery last Friday at Union Hospital.
“It was unlikely for her to be able to give natural birth,” said the hospital’s deputy director of obstetrics, Zhao Yin. “After the baby was born, the mother would suffer less pressure in her lungs and she could get better treatment.”
Tests canceled, markets closed
Also yesterday, the Education Ministry canceled English proficiency and other tests for students to apply to foreign universities. The ministry said the new semester for public schools and universities following the Lunar New Year was postponed until further notice.
The Hong Kong government announced some government offices would remain closed until at least Monday and non-essential public employees were allowed to work from home.
Chinese financial markets were closed for the holiday, but stock indexes in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney all declined.
Beijing’s official response has “vastly improved” since the 2002-03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which also originated in China, but “fears of a global contagion are not put to bed,” said Vishnu Varathan at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.
Airlines, resorts and other companies that rely on travel and tourism suffered steep losses. Prices of gold and bonds rose as traders moved money into safe haven holdings. The Shanghai Stock
Exchange, one of the world’s busiest, announced it was postponing the resumption of trading after the holiday by three days to Monday.
Scientists are concerned about the new virus because it is closely related to other diseases including SARS, which killed nearly 800 people.
So far, the new coronavirus doesn’t seem to spread as easily among people as SARS or influenza. Most of the cases that spread between people were of family members and health workers who had contact with patients. That suggests the new virus isn’t well adapted to infect people.
China has reported eight cases in Hong Kong and five in Macau, and more than 45 cases have been confirmed elsewhere in the world. Almost all involve mainland Chinese tourists or people who visited Wuhan.
On Tuesday, Taiwan said two 70-year-old tourists from Wuhan had been confirmed to have the disease, raising its total to seven cases. Thailand reported six members of a family from Hubei were new cases, raising its total to 14.
Germany confirmed its first case late Monday. Infections also have been confirmed in the US, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Canada, Australia and Sri Lanka.
The five American cases – two in southern California and one each in Washington state, Chicago and Arizona – are people who had recently arrived from central China. Health officials said they had no evidence the virus was spreading in the
US and they believe the risk to Americans remains low.
During the SARS outbreak, Chinese authorities were criticized for reacting slowly and failing to disclose information. The government has responded more aggressively to the latest outbreak.
Wuhan is building two hospitals, one with 1,500 beds and another with 1,000, for the growing number of patients. The first is scheduled to be finished next week.
The coronavirus family includes the common cold but also more severe illnesses such as SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The new virus causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever and, in more severe cases, shortness of breath and pneumonia.
The virus is thought to have spread to people from wild animals sold at a Wuhan market. China on Sunday banned trade in wild animals and urged people to stop eating meat from them.
While more cases have been emerging outside China in people who have traveled from there recently, the WHO said only one of the overseas cases involved human-to-human transmission.
“That’s still one case too many. But we’re encouraged that so far we have not seen more humanto-human transmission outside China,” the WHO said on Twitter. “We’re monitoring the outbreak constantly.”
Yesterday’s toll of 106 dead was up from 81 the day before. The number of total confirmed cases in China surged to 4,515 as of Monday, from 2,835 the previous day, the National Health Commission said.
Scientific coordination
Authorities in Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, have been the focus of public outrage on China’s heavily censored social media over what many see as a bungled initial response to the virus.
In rare public self-criticism, Mayor Zhou Xianwang said Wuhan’s management of the crisis was “not good enough” and indicated he was willing to resign.
China’s ambassador to the United Nations, following a meeting with UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres, said his government put “paramount importance” on the epidemic and was working with the international community in a spirit of “openness, transparency and scientific coordination.”
Communist Party-ruled China has been eager to seem open in its handling of the epidemic, after it was heavily criticized for efforts to cover up the SARS epidemic that killed about 800 people globally in 2002-2003.
SARS, which was also believed to have originated in a wildlife market, led to a 45 percent plunge in air passenger demand in Asia. The travel industry is more reliant on Chinese travelers now, and China’s share of the global economy has quadrupled.
Echoing concern from South Korea about the economic consequences, Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura warned that corporate profits and factory production might take a hit.