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 Beijing's pledge to slay the "devil" coronavirus has won the trust
of the World Health Organization (WHO) but confirmation of another
1,459 cases - taking the total to 5,974 in China - only fueled
public alarm around the world.
Deaths from the flu-like virus also rose by 26 to 132.
Almost all have been in the central province of Hubei, the capital
of which is Wuhan, where the virus emerged last month in a live wild
animal market.
The situation remained "grim and complex", Chinese President Xi
Jinping acknowledged.
In many Chinese cities, streets were largely deserted with the few
who ventured out wearing masks. Starbucks stores in Beijing required
people to have temperatures taken and posted notices saying it was a
state requirement to wear masks inside.
"It's my first time here in Asia, I feel very unlucky," said
Brazilian tourist Amanda Lee, 23, reluctantly cutting short a trip.
"I couldn't even see the places I wanted, like the Great Wall."
There was relief, however, among those evacuated from Hubei
province, home to about 60 million people and under virtual
lockdown. "I was extremely worried that I was stuck there," said
Takeo Aoyama, who arrived in Tokyo on a chartered plane carrying 206
Japanese out of Wuhan, with more flights planned.
Two of the Japanese evacuated had symptoms of pneumonia but
coronavirus had not been confirmed, medics said.
The virus is weighing heavily on the world's second-biggest economy.
Companies are curbing travel to China, and airlines are cutting
flights, with British Airways one of the biggest names in aviation
to do so.
The gambling hub of Macau was virtually a ghost town, while malls
and shopping centers in Asian capitals were bare.
Sectors from mining to luxury goods have been shaken. nL4N29X1RH]
Hong Kong stocks took a beating on the first day of trading after
the Lunar New Year break. Casino and financial stocks led the Hang
Seng index 2.5% lower to a seven-month trough.
Regional markets, however, arrested their slide, with stocks in
Japan, Australia, South Korea and India steady or firmer and
currencies mostly stable.
Chinese markets resume trade on Feb. 3.
"In our view, the worst is yet to come," securities firm Nomura
said, warning of a severe, near-term blow to China's economy.
BREAKTHROUGH IN AUSTRALIA?
But in what could be a major step towards taming the disease,
scientists in Australia said they had developed a lab-grown version
of the coronavirus, the first to be recreated outside China.
[to top of second column] |
A U.S. government official told Reuters a U.S. charter plane had
left Wuhan. It had 220 people aboard, a U.S. diplomatic source
added, with 50 diplomats and contractors among them.
Australia said it would help some citizens leave and then quarantine
them on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, best known for housing
asylum seekers.
U.S. officials said the White House was weighing whether to suspend
flights to China. It was holding daily meetings on the outbreak and
monitoring China-U.S. flights as a likely source of infection,
sources briefed on the matter said, though it had decided against
suspending air traffic for the time being.
The number of cases in China now exceeds its tally of 5,327 infected
with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus that
killed about 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.
While some experts believe the new strain, known as "2019-nCoV", is
not as deadly as SARS, alarm has grown over its rapid spread and
many unknown attributes, such as how lethal it is.
Like other respiratory infections, it is spread by droplets from
coughs and sneezes, with an incubation time between one and 14 days.
There are signs it may spread before symptoms show.
Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, is racing to build two
dedicated hospitals with 2,600 beds for victims, the official
People’s Daily said.
About 60 cases, but no deaths, have been reported in 15 other
countries, including the United States, France and Singapore.
Airports around the world are screening passengers from China.
In the first known cases in the Middle East, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) diagnosed four members of a Chinese family who
arrived from Wuhan with the coronavirus.
(Reporting by Lusha Zhang, Gabriel Crossley, Tony Munroe, Huizhong
Wu, Cheng Leng, Judy Hua, Nanlin Fang and Joyce Zhou in Beijing;
Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations,
Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Matthias Blamont in Paris, Akira
Tomoshige in Tokyo; Writing by Robert Birsel and Andrew Cawthorne;
Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie)
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