Here’s what you need to know:
- As deaths near 500, there is no sign of a slowdown in China.
- Looking for the basics? Start here.
- Hong Kong imposes 14-day quarantines on people arriving from China.
- What to eat in a lockdown.
- Trump pledges to work with China on the outbreak.
- Drugs to fight H.I.V. and the flu show promise in treatment, China says.
- Cruise ships in Japan and Hong Kong are scrutinized after infections.
As deaths near 500, there is no sign of a slowdown in China.
The death toll from the monthlong coronavirus outbreak has continued to climb in China, rising to 490. New cases have surged by double-digit percentages in the past 11 days, with no sign of a slowdown.
More people have now died in this epidemic than in the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak of 2002-3 in mainland China. During that outbreak, 349 people died in the mainland.
The new figures from China’s Health Commission on Wednesday showed that 65 people died on Tuesday and that 3,887 more people had been infected. So far, 24,324 people are known to have been infected.
Health experts say the death toll is likely to rise because of the large number of infections. The mortality rate of the coronavirus, about 2 percent so far, appears to be far lower than SARS, which has a mortality rate of about 10 percent.
Experts warn they still lack enough data to say definitively how lethal the new coronavirus is. Many residents in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak and the capital of Hubei Province, believe the death toll is much higher than the official tally because people with flulike symptoms are being turned away by overstretched hospitals. The health care system in Wuhan is so overwhelmed that many cases have not been diagnosed because of a shortage of testing kits.
Still, the number of people in China recovering from the virus is rising, suggesting that the treatment plan may be working. On Tuesday, 262 people left hospitals nationwide. The number of suspected cases has dropped for two days in a row. Officials said they were tracking 3,971 suspected cases, compared with 5,173 cases the day before.
On Tuesday, health officials released details of the deaths so far, saying that two-thirds of them were men. More than 80 percent were over 60 years old, and they typically had pre-existing health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.
Hubei Province has been hardest hit by the virus, and is home to the bulk of deaths (479) and infections (16,678). Wuhan in particular has borne the brunt of the deaths and infections.
The government said it has put 252,154 people under surveillance.
Looking for the basics? Start here.
What is a coronavirus, and how dangerous is it? Read up on the basics, including its symptoms and how it is transmitted.
How bad could the outbreak be? Here are the six key factors that will determine whether it can be contained.
Where has the virus spread? You can track its movement with this map.
How is the United States being affected? There were 11 confirmed cases as of Tuesday. American citizens and permanent residents who fly to the United States from China are now subject to a two-week quarantine.
What if I’m traveling? Several countries, including the United States, have discouraged travel to China, and several airlines have canceled flights. Many travelers have been left in limbo while looking to change or cancel bookings.
How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands is the most important thing you can do.
Hong Kong imposes 14-day quarantines on people arriving from China.
Hong Kong said that it will begin requiring people who arrive from mainland China to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine, as it tries to reduce the potential for imported cases of the coronavirus.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s top official, has resisted demands from some lawmakers and medical workers to completely close off the border, calling it discriminatory and not in line with World Health Organization guidelines.
But she has enacted a series of measures, including closing all but three border crossings, which have resulted in a sharp drop in entries from the mainland.
Mrs. Lam said that Hong Kong now had 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including three that were transmitted locally.
The government will also allocate $1.3 billion to help fight the outbreak, she said.
One of the confirmed cases involved someone working at the Kowloon Commerce Center, a hub of multinational firms, according to an internal note sent to employees at the Bank of America, which has an office in one of the towers.
The building’s management office did not respond to a request for comment, and Bank of America declined to comment.
Separately, Taiwan said that beginning on Thursday it would temporarily suspend entry by Chinese citizens who live on the mainland. It previously announced that foreigners who had been to mainland China over the previous 14 days would not be allowed to enter Taiwan.
What to eat in a lockdown.
From Amy Qin, a China correspondent, and Elsie Chen, a researcher, on the ground in Wuhan:
We came prepared, bringing with us two bags full of masks, hand sanitizer, goggles and disinfectant wipes to protect us as we went around reporting in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak.
But after arriving last Friday, my colleague Elsie Chen and I quickly realized we had overlooked an important question: What do you eat when covering the coronavirus outbreak?
Since the government imposed a lockdown in this city of 11 million two weeks ago, most of the restaurants have been shut. Grocery stores are still open, and many residents have stockpiled food to cook at home. But back at our hotel, we didn’t even have a microwave, let alone a stovetop.
Exhausted from a long day of travel, we realized there was only one answer: instant noodles.
Two days and four bowls of sodium-packed instant noodles later, my stomach felt as if it had deteriorated into a churning sack of MSG, salt and dehydrated beef cubes.
Knowing it could be days or weeks before we were able to leave Wuhan, Elsie and I made an executive decision: It was time for an upgrade.
We went to one of the large supermarkets and bought a small electric cooktop, groceries and some basic utensils. Stir-fried tomato and egg, the most basic of Chinese dishes, has never tasted so good.
Of course, we couldn’t leave out the chili oil goddess, savior to Chinese students around the world when they’re missing a taste of home: Lao Gan Ma, or Old Godmother.
Trump pledges to work with China on the outbreak.
In a reflection of the mounting international concern over the coronavirus epidemic, President Trump said the United States was coordinating with China on the response to the outbreak — though he also offered a trade-related barb as well.
“Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases,” Mr. Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night. “We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”
He did not elaborate.
Eleven cases have been confirmed in the United States. To stem the problem, the United States government said last week it would bar entry into the country by any foreign national who has traveled to China in the past 14 days. It also told Americans not to travel to China.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines all said last week that they were temporarily suspending all service to mainland China as concerns about the coronavirus spread internationally.
Mr. Trump, who made China a rhetorical punching bag during his 2016 presidential campaign, still took time to criticize Beijing’s trade practices. Last month, the two countries signed an interim trade pact that cooled but did not end an economic conflict between them.
“For decades, China has taken advantage of the United States,” he said. “Now we have changed that, but, at the same time, we have perhaps the best relationship we’ve ever had with China, including with President Xi.”
Drugs to fight H.I.V. and the flu show promise in treatment, China says.
Chinese scientists are reporting preliminary success with a new approach for treating the coronavirus: an antiviral drug used for treating influenza and an anti-H.I.V. drug.
The researchers found that Arbidol, an antiviral drug used in Russia and China for treating influenza, could be combined with Darunavir, the anti-H.I.V. drug, for treating patients with the coronavirus, according to ChangJiang News, a state-backed newspaper in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The researchers did not say how many patients they had treated with the combination therapy. It could be too soon to assess its effectiveness. The findings have not been reviewed by outside experts.
With no proven cure in sight, the race is on to find a treatment for the coronavirus.
Li Lanjuan, the lead researcher on the team who belongs to an expert group linked to China’s Health Commission, said she would propose the combination of Arbidol and Darunavir for the sixth version of the government’s treatment plan.
The authorities have tried other treatments. Dr. Li said the anti-H.I.V. drug Kaletra, which was prescribed in the current treatment plan, had toxic side effects.
The Chinese authorities have turned to other types of treatments as well. In its treatment plan for the coronavirus released last week, the National Health Commission of China listed traditional Chinese medicine remedies to be used in conjunction with antiviral H.I.V. drugs.
Cruise ships in Japan and Hong Kong are scrutinized after infections.
Nine passengers and one crew member on a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, have tested positive for the coronavirus, the cruise line, Princess Cruises, said on Wednesday.
The ship, carrying 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members, arrived in Yokohama on Tuesday, but the authorities did not allow anyone off. An 80-year-old Hong Kong resident who had disembarked earlier in his home city was found to be infected.
In all, 273 passengers were tested for the virus after everyone on board underwent an initial health screening. Twenty-one people were cleared, and officials were awaiting the other results.
Princess Cruises said the infected passengers were from Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States, in addition to one crew member from the Philippines.
The passengers who tested positive were being transported by a Japanese Coast Guard ship to a hospital. The other passengers are to remain quarantined on board the ship, the Diamond Princess, for two weeks.
Separately, a cruise ship that left Hong Kong on Sunday was turned around by the authorities in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Wednesday, after three passengers on a previous trip were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus.
The World Dream left the mainland Chinese city of Guangzhou on Jan. 19, returning from Vietnam five days later. Three passengers on that journey were confirmed on Monday to have the new coronavirus, the company, Star Cruises, said in a statement.
Hong Kong’s Department of Health has begun checking temperatures and taking health declaration forms from 1,800 passengers and 1,800 crew members now on the ship. Passengers will not be allowed to disembark without approval from the department.
At least 30 crew members reported having symptoms of illness, Dr. Leung Yiu-hong, the chief port health officer of the Department of Health, said on Wednesday. They were all being tested for the coronavirus, and three who previously had fevers were under isolation, he said.
Of the passengers, 90 percent are Hong Kong residents and the rest foreign nationals, none of whom are from mainland China. Dr. Leung said the passengers now on the ship had not come into contact with those who took the January cruise.
A second evacuation of Americans from Wuhan has begun.
The United States has begun its second airlift of American citizens out of China.
“Two planes have departed Wuhan en route to the United States,” the State Department said in a statement Tuesday night.
Little information was immediately available on the planes’ destination.
But it was believed that like the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the passengers will be taken to a military base and directed to remain there pending medical tests.
The first evacuees were flown from Wuhan on Jan. 29, and their plane stopped in Anchorage to refuel and for the passengers to be given initial screenings. The Boeing 747 then continued on to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif.
Cathay Pacific asks its workers to take unpaid leave.
Cathay Pacific is asking its 27,000 employees to take three weeks of unpaid leave in an emergency move as Hong Kong’s flagship carrier struggles with a financial blow from the coronavirus outbreak in China.
In recent days, the airline has cut nearly all flights to and from mainland China and has said it will pare back flights across its network as it faces its biggest emergency since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.
“The situation now is just as grave,” Augustus Tang Kin-wing, the chief executive of the airline, said in a taped video recording.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has decimated large parts of the global travel network. Health experts have warned that the fast-moving virus could become a pandemic, and multinational companies have banned nonessential travel to China. The authorities have announced widespread bans on travel for Chinese citizens.
Cathay was already fighting for survival before the outbreak, besieged by the political turmoil that has gripped Hong Kong. Last summer, it found itself caught between Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters and the Chinese government as China demanded loyalty from businesses that depend on it for business. Cathay fired some employees for being openly supportive of the protesters.
After traveling to China, some Americans are staying indoors.
As United States officials impose new restrictions on travelers from China, many people who have returned to the country in recent days have hunkered down in their homes to make sure they were not carrying or spreading the disease.
Some were checking in regularly with local public health departments, taking their temperatures at regular intervals and receiving deliveries of food and water. Others were not conferring with the authorities, but choosing on their own to stay indoors, away from work, away from friends and, in some cases, away from everyone.
All were counting down the days since they left China, waiting anxiously to see if symptoms develop — and whether they can get their lives back to normal.
“It’s pretty scary,” said a woman in Massachusetts whose husband and 18-month-old son have been holed up in the family’s basement since returning from China last week.
The woman, a medical researcher who asked not to be named, said her family’s self-imposed quarantine was a necessary step to protect others, especially since she feared her family had traveled on the same flight as a man who was later diagnosed with coronavirus.
“If people are responsible people,” she said, “they are willing to do this.”
Reporting was contributed by Daniel Victor, Sui-Lee Wee, Yiwei Wang, Ben Dooley, Elaine Yu, Austin Ramzy, Alexandra Stevenson, Ezra Cheung, Jack Ewing, Neal E. Boudette, Geneva Abdul, Mitch Smith, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Farah Stockman and Vanessa Swales.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiRGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMjAvMDIvMDUvd29ybGQvYXNpYS9jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1jaGluYS5odG1s0gFIaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyMC8wMi8wNS93b3JsZC9hc2lhL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNoaW5hLmFtcC5odG1s?oc=5
2020-02-05 11:51:00Z
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