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 The deserted shopping malls and cinemas of Daegu, a city of 2.5
million people, became one of the most striking images outside China
of an outbreak that international authorities are trying to prevent
from spreading into a global pandemic.
New research suggesting the virus was more contagious than
previously thought added to the alarm. And in China, where the virus
has killed more than 2,100 people, officials changed their
methodology for reporting infections, creating new doubt about data
they have been citing as evidence of success in fighting its spread.
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Deagu Mayor Kwon Young-jin told residents to stay indoors after 90
people who worshipped at the Church of Jesus the Temple of the
Tabernacle of the Testimony showed symptoms of infection and dozens
of new cases were confirmed.
The church had been attended by a 61-year-old woman who tested
positive, known as "Patient 31". Korea's Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention described the outbreak there as a "super-spreading
event".
"We are in an unprecedented crisis," Kwon told reporters, adding
that all members of the church would be tested. "We've asked them to
stay at home isolated from their families."
Describing the abandoned streets, resident Kim Geun-woo, 28, told
Reuters by telephone: "It's like someone dropped a bomb in the
middle of the city. It looks like a zombie apocalypse."
South Korea now has 104 confirmed cases of the flu-like virus, and
reported its first death.
In China, officials have been pointing to evidence that new cases
were declining as proof they are succeeding in keeping the virus
largely contained to Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan, where the
virus initially emerged.
But revisions to their methodology have raised doubts about the
data. Under the latest methodology, which excludes chest X-rays,
China reported fewer than 400 new cases over the past day, less than
a quarter of the number it had been finding in recent days under the
previous method.
Only last week, another change in Chinese methodology created an
overnight spike of nearly 15,000 new cases, reversing a trend of
falling numbers that Chinese officials had previously touted as
evidence their disease-fighting strategy was working.
Scientists in China who studied nose and throat swabs from 18
patients infected with the virus said it behaves much more like
influenza than other closely related viruses, suggesting it may
spread even more easily than previously believed.
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In at least in one case, the virus was present even though the
patient had no symptoms, suggesting symptom-free patients could
spread the disease, they wrote in preliminary findings published in
the New England Journal of Medicine.
"If confirmed, this is very important," said Dr Gregory Poland, a
vaccine researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who
was not involved with the study.
China has imposed severe controls in Wuhan, a city of 11 million
people, to halt the spread of the virus, and has taken urgent steps
to keep the overall economy from crashing.
On Thursday, its central bank cut a borrowing rate, while the
authorities extended an order for businesses in Wuhan to shut down
until March 11. Schools in the city, which had been due to re-open
on Friday, will also stay shut.
TWO CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS DIE
Japan reported the deaths of two elderly passengers from the
quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship anchored off Yokohama. They
appear to be the first people to have died from the disease from
aboard the ship, the biggest cluster of infection outside mainland
China with more than 620 cases.
Japan has begun allowing passengers who test negative to disembark
from the ship. Hundreds departed on Wednesday and hundreds more were
set to leave on Thursday.
The ship was carrying about 3,700 people when quarantined on Feb. 3,
about half of them from Japan. Japanese passengers were permitted to
go home once cleared to leave; other countries are flying passengers
home and keeping them isolated on arrival.
Japan, which is due to host the summer Olympics in July, had faced
criticism over its strategy of quarantining people on board the
ship. Its National Institute of Infections Diseases published data
which it said supported its strategy, showing that the onset of
symptoms from confirmed cases had peaked on Feb. 7 and tailed off to
zero by Feb. 15.
The NIID report was "very reassuring," said Kentaro Iwata, an
infectious disease specialist from Kobe University Hospital who had
been one of the harshest critics of the quarantine.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin in Seoul and Ryan Woo in Beijing;
Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Chang-Ran Kim, Akiko Okamoto, Ju-min
Park and Daewong Kim in Tokyo, Sangmi Cha in Seoul, Babak
Dehghanpisheh and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Keith Zhai and Patpicha
Tanakasempipat in Vientiane; Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by
Angus MacSwan)
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