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 Financial markets took heart from the outlook of the Chinese
official, epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, who said on Tuesday the
number of new cases was falling in some provinces, and forecast the
epidemic would peak this month, even as the death toll in China rose
to more than 1,100 people.
World stocks, which had seen rounds of sell-offs over the virus,
surged to record highs on hopes of a peak in cases. The Dow
industrials, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all hit new highs, and Asian shares
nudged higher on Wednesday.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the epidemic
poses a global threat akin to terrorism and one expert coordinating
its response said while the outbreak may be peaking at its epicentre
in China, it was likely to spread elsewhere in the world, where it
had just begun.
"It has spread to other places where it's the beginning of the
outbreak," the official, Dale Fisher, head of the Global Outbreak
Alert and Response Network coordinated by the WHO, said in an
interview in Singapore.
"In Singapore, we are at the beginning of the outbreak."
Singapore has reported 47 cases and worry about the spread is
growing. Its biggest bank, DBS <DBSM.SI>, evacuated 300 staff from
its head office on Wednesday after a confirmed coronavirus case in
the building.
Hundreds of cases have been reported in dozens of other countries
and territories around the world, but only two people have died
outside mainland China - one in Hong Kong and another in the
Philippines.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday the world had
to "wake up and consider this enemy virus as public enemy number
one" and the first vaccine was 18 months away.
In China, total infections have hit 44,653, health officials said,
including 2,015 new confirmed cases on Tuesday. That was the lowest
daily rise in new cases since Jan. 30.
The number of deaths on the mainland rose by 97 to 1,113 by the end
of Tuesday.
But doubts have been aired on social media about how reliable the
figures are, after the government last week amended guidelines on
the classification of cases.
For graphic comparing new coronavirus to SARS and MERS, click:
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For Reuters graphics on the new coronavirus, click: https://tmsnrt.rs/2GVwIyw
'STAY HOPEFUL'
The biggest cluster of cases outside China is aboard the Diamond
Princess cruise ship quarantined off Japan's port of Yokohama, with
about 3,700 people on board. Japanese officials on Wednesday said 39
more people had tested positive for the virus, taking the total to
175.
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One of the new cases was a quarantine officer.
Thailand said it was barring passengers from another cruise ship, MS
Westerdam, from disembarking, the latest country to turn it away
amid fears of the coronavirus, despite no confirmed infections on
board.
"We try to stay hopeful," American passenger Angela Jones told
Reuters in a video recording. "But each day, that becomes a little
bit more difficult, when country after country rejects us."
Echoing the comparison with the fight against terrorism, China's
state news agency Xinhua said late on Tuesday the epidemic was a
"battle that has no gunpowder smoke but must be won".
The epidemic was a big test of China's governance and capabilities
and some officials were still "dropping the ball" in places where it
was most severe, it said, adding: "This is a wake-up call."
The government of Hubei, the central province at the outbreak's
epicentre, dismissed the provincial health commission's Communist
Party boss, state media said on Tuesday, amid mounting public anger
over the crisis.
China's censors had allowed criticism of local officials but have
begun cracking down on reporting of the outbreak, issuing reprimands
to tech firms that gave free rein to online speech, Chinese
journalists said.
The pathogen has been named COVID-19 - CO for corona, VI for virus,
D for disease and 19 for the year it emerged. It is suspected to
have come from a market that illegally traded wildlife in Hubei's
capital of Wuhan in December.
The city of 11 million people remains under virtual lockdown as part
of China's unprecedented measures to seal infected regions and limit
transmission routes.
Travel restrictions that have paralysed the world's second-biggest
economy have left Wuhan and other Chinese cities resembling ghost
towns.
Even if the epidemic ends soon, it has taken a toll of China's
economy, with companies laying off workers and needing loans running
into billions of dollars to stay afloat. Supply chains for makers of
items from cars to smartphones have broken down.
ANZ Bank said China’s first-quarter growth would probably slow to
3.2% to 4.0%, down from a projection of 5.0%.
The likely slowdown in China could shave 0.1 to 0.2 percentage
points off both euro zone and British growth this year, credit
rating agency S&P Global estimated.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo, Huizhong Wu, Stella Qiu, Judy Hua, Kevin Yao,
Zhang Min and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Brenda Goh in Shanghai;
Keith Zhai in Singapore; Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge in Geneva;
David Lawder and Eric Beech in Washington; Writing by Stephen Coates
and Robert Birsel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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