Tag: Wuhan

Xi Jinping says China faces ‘grave situation’ as virus death toll hits 42

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Xi Jinping said China was facing a “grave situation” as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped to 42, overshadowing Lunar New Year celebrations that began on Saturday.

China also announced further transport restrictions.

With more than 1,400 people infected worldwide, most of them in China, Hong Kong declared a virus emergency, scrapped celebrations and restricted links to mainland China.

Australia confirmed its first four cases and Canada its first on Saturday, after Malaysia confirmed four and France reported Europe’s first cases on Friday, as health authorities around the world scrambled to prevent a pandemic.

The United States is arranging a charter flight on Sunday to bring its citizens and diplomats back from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the epicentre of the outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In Hong Kong, with five confirmed cases, the city’s leader Carrie Lam said flights and high speed rail trips between the city and Wuhan will be halted. Schools in Hong Kong that are currently on Lunar New Year holidays will remain closed until Feb. 17.

Xi held a politburo meeting on Saturday on measures to fight the “accelerating” outbreak, state television reported.

As of 8 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) on Saturday, the death toll in China had risen to 42, authorities reported. Some 1,372 people in China have been infected with the virus – traced to a seafood market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife.

The virus has also been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal, and the United States.

In Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, officials appealed for masks and protective suits.

“We are steadily pushing forward the disease control and prevention … But right now we are facing an extremely severe public health crisis,” Hu Yinghai, deputy director-general of the Civil Affairs Department, told a news briefing.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because there are still many unknowns surrounding it, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing said it was halting inter-city services to and from Beijing from Sunday, while the capital will also stop running inter-province shuttle buses.

State broadcaster CCTV, citing an announcement from China‘s tourism industry association, said the country would halt all group tours, both at home and abroad, from Monday.

Wuhan said it would ban non-essential vehicles from its downtown starting Sunday, further paralysing a city of 11 million that has been on virtual lockdown since Thursday, with nearly all flights cancelled and checkpoints blocking the main roads leading out of town.

Authorities have since imposed transport restrictions on nearly all of Hubei province, which has a population of 59 million.

PROTECTIVE SUITS

Australia confirmed its first four cases in two different cities on Saturday, and the country’s chief health official said he expected more cases as Australia is a popular destination for Chinese tourists.

Canada on Saturday identified its first case in a Toronto resident who recently returned from Wuhan.

State-run China Global Television Network reported on Saturday that a doctor who had been treating patients in Wuhan, 62-year-old Liang Wudong, had died from the virus.

U.S. coffee chain Starbucks said it was closing all its Hubei outlets for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, following a similar move by McDonald’s in five Hubei cities.

Workers in white protective suits checked temperatures of passengers entering the subway at Beijing’s central railway station on Saturday, while some train services in the eastern Yangtze River Delta region were suspended, the local railway operator said.

‘GLOBAL HEALTH THREAT’

There are fears transmission could accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel during the holiday, although many have cancelled their plans.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of such screenings.

In an illustration of how such efforts could miss cases, doctors at a Paris hospital said two of the three Chinese nationals in France who have been diagnosed with the virus had arrived in the country without showing any symptoms.

The World Health Organisation this week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency.

A report by infectious disease specialists at Imperial College, London on Saturday said that despite this, the epidemic “represents a clear and ongoing global health threat,” adding: “It is uncertain at the current time whether it is possible to contain the continuing epidemic within China.”

While China has called for transparency in managing the crisis, after a cover-up of the 2002/2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spread, officials in Wuhan have been criticised for their handling of the current outbreak.

In rare public dissent, a senior journalist at a Hubei newspaper run by the ruling Communist Party wrote on Friday on the Twitter-like Weibo social media platform that there should be an “immediate” change of leadership in Wuhan. The post was later removed.

Hubei province, where authorities are rushing to build a 1,000-bed hospital in six days, announced on Saturday that there were 658 patients affected by the virus in treatment, 57 of whom were critically ill.

Shanghai Disneyland was closed from Saturday. Beijing’s Lama Temple, where people make offerings for the New Year, has also closed, as have some other temples.

Britain advised against all travel to Hubei and told its citizens in the province to leave.

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China says virus’s ability to spread getting stronger

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The ability of the coronavirus to spread is getting stronger and infections could continue to rise, China’s National Health Commission said on Sunday, with more than 2,000 people globally infected and 56 in China killed by the disease.

National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei, speaking at a press briefing, said knowledge of the virus was limited.

Ma said the incubation period for the coronavirus can range from one to 14 days, and that the virus is infectious during incubation, which was not the case with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.

Containment efforts, which have thus far included transportation and travel curbs and the cancellation of big events, will be intensified, Ma told a crowded news briefing on the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The virus, believed to have originated late last year in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife, has spread to Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France and Canada.

President Xi Jinping said during a politburo meeting on Saturday that China was facing a “grave situation”, as health authorities around the world scrambled to prevent a pandemic.

On Sunday, China announced a nationwide ban on the sale of wildlife in markets, restaurants, and e-commerce platforms. Wild and often poached animals packed together in Chinese markets are blamed as incubators for viruses to evolve and jump the species barrier to humans.

Snakes, peacocks, crocodiles and other species can also be found for sale via Taobao, an e-commerce website run by Alibaba.

The U.S. State Department said it will relocate personnel at its Wuhan consulate to the United States and will offer a limited number of seats to private U.S. citizens on a Jan. 28 flight to San Francisco.

The World Health Organisation this week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can continue to contain the epidemic.

On Sunday, China confirmed 1,975 cases of patients infected with the new coronavirus as of Jan. 25, while the death toll from the virus has risen to 56, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The outbreak has prompted widening curbs on movements within China, with Wuhan, a city of 11 million, on virtual lockdown, with transports links all-but severed except for emergency vehicles.

Health authorities in Beijing urged people not to shake hands but instead salute using a traditional cupped-hand gesture. The advice was sent in a text message that went out to mobile phone users in the city on Sunday morning.

CANCELLATIONS AND MISTRUST

China has called for transparency in managing the crisis, after a cover-up of the spread of the deadly SARS virus eroded public trust, but officials in Wuhan have been criticised for their handling of the current outbreak.

“People in my hometown all suspect the real infected patients number given by authorities,” said Violet Li, who lives in the Wuhan district where the seafood market is located.

“I go out with a mask twice a day to walk the dog – that’s the only outdoor activity,” she told Reuters by text message.

The outbreak has overshadowed the start of the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel at home and abroad to be with families, with public events cancelled and many tourist sites shut.

Many cinemas across China are also closed with major film premieres postponed, slashing revenues. Theatres in the country took in just 1.81 million yuan ($262,167) from tickets on Saturday, a tiny fraction of the 1.46 billion yuan on the Lunar New Year Day in 2019, according to data from movie-ticketing company Maoyan.

Cruise operators including Royal Caribbean Cruises, Costa Cruises, MSC Cruises and Astro Ocean Cruises said that they cancelled a combined 12 cruises that had been scheduled to embark from Chinese ports before February 2.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because there are still many unknowns surrounding it, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

VIRUS SPREADING OUTSIDE CHINA

On Saturday, Hong Kong declared a virus emergency, scrapped celebrations and restricted links to mainland China.

Hong Kong Disneyland and the city’s Ocean Park theme park were closed on Sunday. Shanghai Disneyland, which expected 100,000 visitors daily through the Lunar New Year holidays, has already closed.

In Hong Kong, with five confirmed cases, the city’s leader Carrie Lam said on Saturday that flights and high-speed rail trips between the city and Wuhan will be halted. Schools in Hong Kong that are currently on Lunar New Year holidays will remain closed until February 17.

On Saturday, Canada declared the first “presumptive” confirmed case of the virus in a resident who had returned from Wuhan. Australia confirmed its first four cases on Saturday, Malaysia confirmed four and France reported Europe’s first cases on Friday.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of such screenings.

In an illustration of how such efforts could miss cases, doctors at a Paris hospital said two of the three Chinese nationals in France who have been diagnosed with the virus had arrived in the country without showing any symptoms.

A report by infectious disease specialists at Imperial College, London on Saturday said the epidemic “represents a clear and ongoing global health threat,” adding: “It is uncertain at the current time whether it is possible to contain the continuing epidemic within China.”

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Deadly Coronavirus wreak havoc in China, claims 41 lives, nearly 1,300 confirmed cases, 237 critical

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The deadly Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in China and abroad as the death toll due to it in this Far East country rose to 41 with 1,287 confirmed cases, China’s National Health Commission announced on Saturday.

Of the 1,287 confirmed cases as of Friday night, the condition of the 237 is stated to be critical, the Commission announced. The confirmed cases have crossed the 1,000-mark for the first time with many Chinese cities struggling to fight the afflictions.

The pneumonia situation had resulted in 41 deaths, including 39 in central China’s Hubei province and one in northeastern province Heilongjiang, it said.
Additionally, a total of 1,965 suspected cases have also been reported, it said.

The virus has spread to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Nepal, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States as of Thursday. Japan on Friday reported a second confirmed case.

It has triggered a cause of concern for India too as many of the 700 odd Indian students studying in universities of Wuhan and Hubei provinces are still stuck up there. The Indian Embassy has established hotlines to keep close contact with them.

Battling the fast-spreading Coronavirus, China has begun building a 1,000-bed hospital in Wuhan which is expected to be completed in less than ten days.

It also began deploying military medics to step up the treatment facilities in Wuhan and 12 other cities in Hubei province which are under total lock-down with the suspension of all public transport.

The fast-spreading virus dampened the celebrations of China’s Lunar New Year which began today. On Friday Chinese bid goodbye to “the year of the pig” to welcome “the year of the rat” on Saturday.

In Chinese lunar calendar, years are grouped into 12-year cycles, with each year assigned an animal symbol: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

In view of the virus scare, several cities, including Beijing, have cancelled special events. The festival is also known as the Spring Festival. Large cultural activities during the spring festival in Beijing such as temple fairs were cancelled to prevent the spread of the virus.

China’s biggest city Shanghai raised the emergency response to public health safety to level 1, the highest, following Beijing, and Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Anhui and Guangdong provinces as more cases were reported. Beijing so far has reported 34 confirmed cases of Coronavirus infection, official media reported.

The Chinese disease prevention authority on Friday released pictures and information of the first Wuhan Coronavirus that Chinese experts had discovered. The Wuhan government is rushing to build a 1,000-bedded hospital in the outskirts of Wuhan to treat Coronavirus patients.

Dozens of excavators were feverishly working at the site where the hospital is being built on a 25,000-sq metre plot in just about 10 days. It will be ready by February 3, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Workers are being paid 1,200 Yuan ($173) per day, three times their usual wage, to accelerate the construction.

The hospital will be modelled on the one built in Beijing for the treatment and control of SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that spread rapidly on the Chinese mainland in 2003, killing over 800 people. Beijing then had built the Xiaotangshan Hospital, a temporary medical centre in the northern suburb of the city.

Amid the unknown virus wreaking havoc, Chinese and American researchers are working together to develop a vaccine against the deadly new strain of Coronavirus.

At present, there is no cure for the virus which has pneumonia-like symptoms and is contagious among humans. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday stopped short of declaring the virus a global public health emergency, despite China’s climbing death toll.

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Air India, IndiGo waive cancellation fee on China flights till February 24

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Air India and IndiGo have waived charges for any change or cancellation on tickets booked to or from China for travel till February 24 in the light of concerns following the outbreak of coronavirus.

The airlines have clarified that the waiver will it be on penalty charges and any fare difference will be additional.

“#FlyAI : In view of #coronovirusoutbreak Reissue/ No-Show/Cancellation and Refund charges for all International tickets for Travel to/from China effective 24.01.2020 to 24.02.2020 is waived off. Waiver is ONLY on the penalty charges. Any fare difference will be additional,” Air India said in a tweet.

“#6ETravelAdvisory: Due to #CoronavirusOutbreak, we’re offering change/cancellation fee waiver to passengers travelling to/from #China, effective 24th Jan to 24th Feb, 2020, fare difference if any will be applicable. For assistance contact us on Twitter/Facebook,” IndiGo said in a tweet.

Several countries across the world have increased screening of passengers arriving from China to detect patients suffering from this virus. In India, passengers arriving from China are being screened before they go towards the immigration area. The virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

This week, the government expanded screening of passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong to seven airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Cochin on account of threat of a new respiratory coronavirus. The screening was earlier being done at the airports of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

In order to facilitate early detection of patients suffering from this virus in the flights coming from China and Hong Kong, the civil aviation ministry has asked airlines to make in-flight announcements requesting passengers who have travelled to Wuhan City in the last 14 days and who are suffering from fever and cough to self-declare at port of arrival or to State Health Authorities.

Airlines have been asked to guide the passengers to fill up self-reporting forms before disembarking the aircraft so that the information can be assessed by concerned officials on arrival.

Travellers who start suffering from fever, cough and shortness of breath within 28 days of arrival in India should also visit the nearest hospital and report to health authorities, the government has said.

The outbreak of the virus comes when millions of Chinese travel to their hometowns and overseas to celebrate Lunar New Year, which is also called by many as the world’s biggest annual mass migration.

Indian carriers like Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet connect India and Hong Kong among other global airlines. As far as China is concerned, IndiGo and Air India are the two Indian carriers, other than China Southern, Air China and other airlines.

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Coronavirus: ‘This is an emergency in China’ says WHO, as virus death toll rises to 18

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The World Health Organization (WHO) called a new coronavirus that has killed 18 people in China and infected around 650 globally “an emergency in China” on Thursday but stopped short of declaring the epidemic of international concern.

Chinese state television said 634 cases had been confirmed so far. China’s National Health Commission said there had been 17 deaths as a result of the virus in Hubei, the province at the centre of the outbreak, and health authorities confirmed the first Chinese death outside Hubei.

Non-fatal cases have been found in at least seven other countries.

Health officials fear the transmission rate could accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel at home and abroad during week-long holidays for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Saturday.

Nonetheless, it was a “bit too early” to consider the outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” WHO Emergency Committee panel chair Didier Houssin said after the body met in Geneva. Such a designation would have required countries to step up the international response.

“Make no mistake, though, this is an emergency in China,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“It has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one,” he said.

Scrambling to contain the outbreak, the local government in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in Hubei province, suspended most transport on Thursday, including outgoing flights, and people were told not to leave. Hours later, neighbouring Huanggang, a city of about 7 million people, announced similar measures.

“The lockdown of 11 million people is unprecedented in public health history,” said Gauden Galea, the WHO’s representative in Beijing.

The organisation said, however, that it was not yet recommending any broader restrictions on travel or trade.

The previously unknown virus strain is believed to have emerged late last year from illegally traded wildlife at an animal market in Wuhan.

It has created alarm because there are a number of unknowns surrounding it. It is too early to know just how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people.

There is no vaccine for the virus, which can spread through respiratory transmission. Symptoms include fever, difficulty breathing and coughing.

Michael Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said data from China suggested almost three-quarters of the cases were in people aged over 40, with some 40% having underlying health conditions.

“At the moment, we haven’t seen many mild cases,” he said, cautioning that it was difficult at the start of an epidemic to estimate the severity or true fatality rate.

There had been human-to-human transmission of the virus in China, limited to family groups and health workers, said Tedros.

Three research teams working on a vaccine, a global coalition set up to fight diseases said. It is aiming to have a shot developed and approved within a year.

The committee of 16 independent experts had been divided in its conclusion not to declare a global emergency, said Tedros, adding that the decision “should not be taken as a sign that the WHO does not think the situation is serious.”

Peter Piot, a professor of global health and director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the outbreak was at a critical phase.

“Regardless of the decision not to declare this a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, intensified international collaboration and more resources will be crucial to stopping this outbreak in its tracks,” he said. “There cannot be any complacency as to the need for global action.”

The biggest tumble in Chinese stocks in more than eight months led global equity markets lower on Thursday as concern mounted about the outbreak.

TRAVEL WARNINGS

In Wuhan, the Hankou railway station was nearly deserted on Thursday, state broadcasts showed. State media reported highway toll booths around Wuhan were closing, effectively cutting off road exits, and all ride-hailing services would be cancelled from Friday. Guards were patrolling highways, one resident said.

As the city slipped into isolation, residents thronged hospitals for medical checks and rushed to buy supplies, clearing out supermarket shelves and queuing for petrol.

Other cities were also taking steps to contain the virus.

Nearby Ezhou shut train stations. Beijing cancelled large gatherings, including two Lunar New Year temple fairs, and closed the Forbidden City, the capital’s most famous tourist attraction, to visitors until further notice.

The U.S. State Department warned travellers to exercise increased caution in China as airports worldwide stepped up the screening of passengers arriving from the country.

Cases have already been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

Five people were being tested in Scotland for the virus as a precaution, the BBC reported on Thursday. All had respiratory symptoms and had recently been in Wuhan, it said.

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has two confirmed cases, is turning two holiday camps into quarantine stations as a precaution.

Taiwan has banned anyone from Wuhan from going to the island.

Chinese people had their own ways of protecting themselves.

“I go straight to where I need to go, and then I go home,” said 79-year-old Li Meihua, from behind a mask, on the streets of Shanghai.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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Indian Embassy in Beijing opens hotline for Indians in wake of Coronavirus outbreak

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As China stepped up measures to control the spread of coronavirus, locking down Wuhan and Huanggang cities in the Hubei province where several Indians live, the Indian Embassy in Beijing has set up hotlines for their assistance.

Chinese officials assured all assistance, including food supply, to the Indians who stayed put in the province, the Indian Embassy said in a press release on Thursday.

Wuhan and its surrounding area became the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak as the confirmed cases climbed to over 600 mostly from the city and the province with 17 deaths so far.

China has virtually sealed Wuhan and Huanggang cities, halting all public transport, including flight services, and advised people to stay at home and follow the precautions. The two cities put together have a population of over 17 million people.

Chinese officials said the measures have been taken to prevent the spread of the virus to other cities and the world.

Concerns arose for India too as about 700 Indian students, mostly studying medicine in different Chinese universities, resided in Wuhan and its neighbouring areas.

While many of them were believed to have left home for the Chinese New Year holidays, others remained in the city to complete their academic work. However, the exact number is not yet known.

“The Embassy of India has been receiving queries from Indians in Hubei province as well as their relatives in India in connection with the evolving situation of coronavirus infection in China,” the embassy press release said.

The embassy is in touch with relevant Chinese authorities in Beijing and Wuhan as well as Indians in Hubei Province, especially in Wuhan, it said.

“We are closely monitoring the evolving situation in China, including the advisories issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” the embassy said.

According to the embassy, Chinese authorities have assured all assistance to residents of Wuhan, including food supply.

“At present, it is reported that supermarkets (particularly those that are government-run) and e-commerce services, including food delivery, continue to remain operational in Wuhan,” it said.

The embassy has started two hotlines for those who wish to get in touch with the Mission in this regard in the following phone numbers: +8618612083629 and +8618612083617.

“All are advised to also keep track of the embassy’s social media accounts (Twitter:@EoIBeijing; Facebook: India in China) for updates on this evolving situation,” the release said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry said all assistance would be provided to consular officials of the foreign missions to ensure the safety of the foreigners in the country.

Asked whether China would consider any request from the respective countries to move their citizens out of Wuhan, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, “We always help foreign consular officials in China in their official jobs, we offer them all the assistance and convenience necessary and we work to guarantee foreign citizens’ legitimate rights and interest in China.”

He said while specific detailed would be provided by local officials, China in principle, has always handled issues according to domestic laws, international laws and bilateral consular agreements.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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China closes off large city to stop spread of deadly virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China closed off a city of more than 11 million people Thursday in an unprecedented effort to try to contain a deadly new viral illness that has sickened hundreds and spread to other cities and countries in the Lunar New Year travel rush.

Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in Wuhan were eerily quiet. Social media users posted that movie theaters were canceling showings and complained that food vendors were exploiting the situation with huge price increases on fresh produce.

Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded the city’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances at 10 am sharp. Only travelers holding tickets for the last trains were allowed to enter, with those booked for later trains being turned away. Virtually everyone at the scene was wearing masks, news website The Paper’s live broadcast showed.

“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science,” Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization’s representative in China, told The Associated Press in an interview at the WHO’s Beijing office. “It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work.”

Local authorities have demanded all residents wear masks in public places and urged government staff to wear them at work and for shopkeepers to post signs for their visitors, Xinhua news agency quoted a government notice as saying.

Train stations, the airport, subways, ferries and long-distance shuttle buses were stopped in the city, an industrial and transportation hub in central China’s Hubei province. Xinhua cited the city’s anti-virus task force as saying the measures were taken in an attempt to “effectively cut off the virus spread, resolutely curb the outbreak and guarantee the people’s health and safety.”

Cake Liu left Wuhan last Friday after visiting her boyfriend there. She said everything was normal then, before human-to-human transmission of the virus was confirmed. But things have changed rapidly.

“(My boyfriend) didn’t sleep much yesterday. He disinfected his house and stocked up on instant noodles,” Liu said. “He’s not really going out. If he does he wears a mask.”

The illnesses from a newly identified coronavirus first appeared last month in Wuhan, and the vast majority of mainland China’s 571 cases have been in the city. Other cases have been reported in the Thailand, the United States, Japan and South Korea. One case was confirmed Thursday in Hong Kong after one was earlier confirmed in Macao. Most cases outside China were people from Wuhan or who had recently traveled there.

A total of 17 people have died, all of them in and around Wuhan. Their average age was 73, with the oldest 89 and the youngest 48.

The significant increase in illnesses reported just this week come as millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year, one of the world’s largest annual migrations of people. Analysts have predicted the reported cases will continue to multiply.

“Even if (the number of cases) are in the thousands, this would not surprise us,” Galea said, adding, however, that the number of cases is not an indicator of the outbreak’s severity, so long as the mortality rate remains low.

The coronavirus family includes the common cold as well as viruses that cause more serious illnesses, such as the SARS outbreak that spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002-2003 and killed about 800 people, and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, which developed from camels.

China is keen to avoid repeating mistakes with its handling of SARS. For months, even after the illness had spread around the world, China parked patients in hotels and drove them around in ambulances to conceal the true number of cases and avoid WHO experts.

In the current outbreak, China has been credited with sharing information rapidly, and President Xi Jinping has emphasized that as a priority.

“Party committees, governments and relevant departments at all levels must put people’s lives and health first,” he said Monday. “It is necessary to release epidemic information in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation.”

The first cases in the Wuhan outbreak were connected to people who worked at or visited a seafood market, which has since been closed for an investigation. Experts suspect the virus was first transmitted from wild animals but the virus also may be mutating. Mutations can make it deadlier or more contagious.

WHO plans another meeting of scientific experts Thursday on whether to declare the outbreak a global health emergency, which it defines as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

Many countries are screening travelers from China for illness, especially those arriving from Wuhan. North Korea has banned foreign tourists, a step it also took during the SARS outbreak and in recent years due to Ebola. Most foreigners going to North Korea are Chinese or travel there through neighboring China.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Taiwan’s China Airlines suspends flights to Wuhan as coronavirus fears mount

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Taiwan’s China Airlines on Thursday said it would suspend flights to the central Chinese city of Wuhan from January 23 to February 29, after the city shut its airport as part of moves to tackle a new flu-like virus.

China Airlines’ flights from Taipei leave from the city’s main Taoyuan international airport. Its sister carrier Mandarin Airlines is also cancelling flights from Taipei’s smaller Songshan airport to Wuhan.

The airline said it would assist passengers who want to return to Wuhan to opt for other nearby destinations

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Airline, hotel stocks fall on fear about new virus in China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Airline and hotel shares fell Tuesday as fear grew about a virus that authorities say has killed six people and sickened 300 more, including at least one person in the US

The outbreak of the new type of coronavirus is believed to have started in Wuhan in central China. No US airlines fly to Wuhan, but their Chinese partner airlines do, and some passengers transfer from Chinese carriers to American ones.

Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of public affairs at the US Travel Association, a trade group, said travelers should follow any guidance offered by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, she said, that advice is very specific to travelers coming to and from Wuhan.

Investors worried that the virus could spread beyond Asia, like the SARS outbreak in 2002, which killed more than 700 people and hurt travel between the US and Asia.

Shares of Hawaiian Airlines’ parent fell 5.5 percent Tuesday. United Airlines shares dropped 4.4 percent , American Airlines lost 4.2 percent , and Delta Air Lines declined 2.7 percent .

Other stocks in the travel sector also took a hit Tuesday, including hotel chains like Marriott, which fell 4 percent , and Hilton, which was down 3 percent. Royal Caribbean Cruises slid 4 percent .

“We’re obviously watching it carefully, it’s still way too early to talk about,” Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson told CNBC Tuesday. “I think the Chinese authorities have got to make sure they understand what’s going on and we’ll have to watch and see what we learn from it.”

Royal Caribbean said in a statement, “In China, guests and crew are receiving enhanced health screening before boarding. The health and safety of our guests and crew is our top priority. We are monitoring the situation closely together with health authorities, and our ships are prepared to take additional preventive measures as circumstances indicate.”

The United States reported its first case Tuesday, a Washington state resident who returned last week from China and was hospitalized in good condition.

Fear about the virus increased just as millions of Chinese prepared to travel for the lunar New Year holiday, which starts Saturday. Cases have also been confirmed in Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

Last week, US health officials began screening passengers from Wuhan at New York’s Kennedy airport, Los Angeles International and the San Francisco airport. Officials say they will expand the screening to Chicago’s O’Hare and the Atlanta’s airport, and require all US-bound travelers who begin their trips in Wuhan to go to one of those five airports.

Doug Yakel, a spokesman for San Francisco International Airport, said passengers coming in from Wuhan are filling out a questionnaire that is turned in to on-site officials from the US Centers for Disease Control. Those passengers are diverted to a separate area, where they are interviewed and evaluated by the CDC.

“There is a legitimate threat to travel,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst in San Francisco. “It’s small now, but with the potential to become much larger with just some innocuous event such as an undetected passenger getting through (health) screening at an arrival airport like San Francisco International, Kennedy or LAX.”

Harteveldt said the situation also could become worse for airlines if companies start to restrict travel to China.

But some analysts cautioned that it was too early to predict the impact.

“Delta being down 5% seems to be an overreaction,” said Joseph DeNardi, an airline analyst for Stifel Nicolaus. “I don’t think Delta’s business is worth 5 percent less knowing what we know now.”

J.P. Morgan analyst Jamie Baker said 25 percent of Hawaiian’s revenue is tied to Asia, followed by 12  percent at United, 6 percent at Delta and 4% at American.

In 2002 and 2003, while US airlines were still reeling from the 9/11 terror attacks, the SARS outbreak hurt their international business. Harteveldt recalled a trip he made back then to Tokyo.

“Health workers in hazmat suits came on board and took people’s temperatures before they could disembark,” he said. “It was quite frightening.”

Chinese authorities confirmed that the coronavirus can spread from one person to another, not just from animals to humans. So far, however, the virus appears to be less dangerous and infectious than SARS, which also began in China.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow