Coronavirus updates

Source: NYT (1/24/20)
Coronavirus Live Updates: China’s Travel Limits Now Cover 35 Million People
Shanghai Disneyland and other tourist sites across the country plan to shut down, at an unknown cost to the economy. RIGHT NOW: Beijing’s propaganda machine strikes a positive note as online anger persists over the government’s response.

A deadly outbreak is growing. Here’s what you need to know.

• China restricts travel for 35 million people as the death toll rises.
• Anxiety hangs over residents on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
• China reports two deaths outside the center of the outbreak.
• Medical experts are preparing for an outbreak that could last for months.
• Overrun hospitals turn away residents, some displaying symptoms.
• Wuhan hospitals make urgent appeals for supplies and help.
• Britain and the U.S. warn citizens to avoid the outbreak zone.

China restricts travel for 35 million people as the death toll rises.

The authorities on Friday greatly expanded a travel lockdown in central China to include 12 cities near the center of the outbreak, effectively penning in 35 million residents — nearly the population of Canada — in an effort to contain the deadly virus.

The new limits — abruptly decreed ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, China’s busiest travel season — were an extraordinary step that underlined the governing Communist Party’s deepening fears about the outbreak of a little-understood coronavirus.

Just one day after China restricted travel in and from the center of the outbreak, Wuhan, a city of 11 million and the capital of Hubei Province, and four nearby towns, the government announced plans to suspend public transportation services covering more than half the population of the province.

The rapidly expanding outbreak has overwhelmed the province’s hospitals and fueled fears of a global pandemic. Chinese health officials reported on Friday that there had been 26 deaths from the outbreak and 830 cases of the coronavirus, a sharp increase.

On Thursday morning, the authorities imposed a travel lockdown in Wuhan, and airlines canceled hundreds of flights to the city, leaving thousands of people stranded.

Later in the day, officials said they would also halt public transportation in the nearby cities of Huanggang, Ezhou, Zhijiang and Chibi, which are together home to more than nine million residents. By Friday, restrictions had been announced in eight other cities.

The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in the traditional Chinese calendar, and celebrations start on the eve, which this year falls on Friday. Chinese were expected to travel home in time to help wrap dumplings or fry sticky rice cakes for all-important reunion dinners with their extended families. At midnight, families around the country usually set off firecrackers and fireworks.

But these celebrations are set to be far more muted this year, particularly in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei Province where the authorities have imposed travel restrictions.

In Wuhan, people waited anxiously on Friday outside Hankou Hospital, one of the medical facilities designated to test for the coronavirus, as their relatives sought treatment inside.

Several said the Lunar New Year would pass without the usual celebrations or vacation travel. They and other residents said that the city was now also confronting food supply problems because so many shops and markets had closed, adding to the hardships caused by the city shutdown.

“We won’t have a new year celebration tonight. There’s no feeling for it, and no food,” Wu Qiang, a resident in his 50s who was waiting outside the hospital entrance for word about his son, told a New York Times correspondent.

Mr. Wu said he understood the need to close off the city, but added that city authorities should ensure that enough shops and markets were selling fresh food. He said his son had been sneezing, setting off alarm at home.

“I think he’s O.K., but now even an ordinary sneeze makes you worry,” Mr. Wu said. “You start to think every cough or sneeze might be the virus.”

Chen Yanming, 47, who said her father might have contracted the coronavirus, said she was melancholic and anxious as the Lunar New Year came. She said her father had had a high fever for a few days and was being treated in the hospital.

“Today should be the Chinese people’s happiest day,” she said, “but this sickness has destroyed that feeling.”

The official death toll from the mysterious coronavirus increased by more than a half-dozen in 24 hours, to 26, while the number of confirmed cases jumped by more than 200.

The majority of the deaths have occurred in Hubei Province, in central China, but two deaths have been confirmed outside the center of the outbreak.

One patient died in Hebei Province, more than 600 miles north of Wuhan, the authorities announced on Thursday.

Another death was confirmed in Heilongjiang, a province near the border with Russia, more than 1,500 miles from Wuhan.

The disease has also been detected in Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States, in travelers who had visited China.

Maps: Where the Wuhan Coronavirus Has Spread

The virus has sickened more than 800 people in Asia and at least one person in the United States.

Medical experts are preparing for an outbreak that could last for months.

Dr. Gauden Galea, the representative of the World Health Organization in Beijing, said in an interview on Friday that while much was uncertain, health officials were preparing for an outbreak that could last for months. He said that eventually thousands of people would most likely be infected, citing models produced by public health experts.

“My own office is gearing up for a number of months,” Dr. Galea said. “We do not expect it to disappear in a number of days.”

He said much would depend on the patterns of infection over the holiday travel season. He said there was little precedent for the travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities but that public health experts were hopeful that they could help contain the virus, along with efforts to expand screening, promote the use of masks and isolate sick patients.

Still, he acknowledged, health officials were being forced to improvise. “Part is science and part is hope,” he said.

Dr. Galea, who visited Wuhan this week before the lockdown, defended how Chinese officials had handled the outbreak, saying they had been transparent in sharing data. He said the Chinese authorities faced a daunting challenge.

“With the number of cases,” he said, “one would expect health systems to be stretched.”

Overrun hospitals turn away residents, some displaying symptoms.

As Wuhan residents waited in long lines at hospitals to be checked for possible coronavirus infections, some residents complained they were not able to get the treatment they needed.

Xiao Shibing, 51, has had a fever for 15 days and finds it difficult to breathe. When he went to a hospital, he was not tested for the coronavirus, said his daughter, Xiao Hongxia. He was told he had a viral chest infection and was sent home.

Mr. Xiao’s family has continued to seek treatment, visiting other hospitals, but has been turned away by at least three because of a shortage of beds, his wife, Feng Xiu, said. “It is like kicking a ball from here to there,” she said.

Cai Pei, 41, said his wife began coughing and developed a fever three days ago. He wrote on Weibo that hospitals would not admit her, and he had difficulty finding masks and cold medicine in pharmacies.

They still do not know if she is infected with the coronavirus or some more common ailment.

“Sometimes I can only hide and cry, but I couldn’t tell her and had to reassure her that it is not the virus,” Mr. Cai said by phone. “It is very scary. If it’s real, we have a child and elderly parents at home. What if we all get sick?”

Wuhan hospitals make urgent appeals for supplies and help.

Hospitals and medical workers at the center of the outbreak in Wuhan made urgent appeals for supplies, as stocks of surgical masks and other equipment quickly flew off shelves.

“Shortage of medical supplies, request help!!!” the Wuhan Children’s Hospital said on Thursday in a post on Weibo, the Chinese social network.

The hospital asked for donations of surgical masks, disposable garments, protective goggles and gloves.

Several others, including Hubei General Hospital, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and the Central Hospital of Wuhan, posted similar notices.

The central government on Thursday acknowledged the severe strain on resources, and the Ministry of Finance announced an urgent allocation of one billion renminbi, about $144 million, for epidemic prevention and control work.

State news media also carried reports of people volunteering to help ease the strain on health workers. Young doctors at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University volunteered to take on additional shifts or to take over from colleagues with children, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A team of 30 volunteers in Wuhan mobilized to drive doctors to and from hospitals, while others have offered to help the local Red Cross answer phone calls and publicize requests for help from hospitals, according to a report by the China Business Journal.

Britain and the U.S. warn citizens to avoid the outbreak zone.

The American and British governments on Friday urged travelers to avoid the city of Wuhan and the surrounding area amid growing signs that the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus was worsening.

The American Embassy in Beijing advised travelers from the United States to avoid Hubei Province, where Wuhan is the capital. It said the State Department had already ordered nonemergency government personnel to leave the city. It further warned that the Chinese government might prevent travelers from arriving or leaving.

The State Department notice was a Level 4 advisory, the sternest warning the United States government issues regarding travel. Other Level 4 warnings issued by the State Department cover travel to Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela and Yemen, among other places.

The warning is a step up from Washington’s earlier cautions. Just a day before, the American government had been advising travelers to “exercise extreme caution” when traveling to the Wuhan area.

The British government, in a notice dated Thursday, similarly advised against all but essential travel to Wuhan. The warning came a day before the government’s Cobra committee was to meet in Downing Street to discuss the threat posed by coronavirus to Britain, according to local news reports.

Nine people in Britain were awaiting results on whether they have contracted the coronavirus; 14 people total have been tested for the disease, with five given the all clear.

Some British universities have also warned students considering traveling home to China that they could face quarantine on their return. The University of Chester had warned its Chinese students that if they return to their homeland, they would not be readmitted without a quarantine period, The Guardian reported.

In a statement on Friday, however, a spokeswoman for the university said in an email: “The University of Chester has a relatively small Chinese student cohort and they are being appropriately supported. All students have been advised they must not interrupt their studies to return to China at this point.”

Universities UK, which represents 136 universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, said in an emailed statement on Friday:

“U.K. universities have been monitoring the coronavirus situation as it unfolds and universities with students in affected areas are working to identify appropriate actions. Universities will continue to follow the latest FCO advice and to monitor the situation, which is evolving rapidly.”

Shanghai Disneyland and other major attractions will shut down.

Shanghai Disneyland, one of the biggest tourist attractions in China, will shut down on Saturday as the Chinese authorities and others look for ways to reduce crowds to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

In a notice on its website on Friday, Shanghai Disney Resort, the arm of the Walt Disney Company that runs Shanghai Disneyland, blamed the outbreak for the shutdown and said it would reopen at an unspecified date.

The shutdown adds to the tourist and cultural attractions closing across China at the beginning of the Lunar New Year holiday, when many families head out of the house to spend quality time together.

On Friday, the authorities operating the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China, a popular tourist destination north of Beijing, said it would temporarily close beginning on Saturday. Shanghai Huangpu River Cruise, the company that operates boat tours along Shanghai’s scenic Bund area, said the same. On Thursday, film companies said they would pull new releases planned for the peak film-going period.

A prolonged Shanghai Disneyland shutdown could add to the problems in the region for Disney, the American entertainment giant. Attendance at its Hong Kong Disneyland theme park has been battered by anti-Beijing protests that have swept through Hong Kong’s streets in recent months, frightening away many tourists from mainland China.

Disney owns a 43 percent stake in Shanghai Disney Resorts, while state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group holds a majority stake.

The closings at a peak spending time could come at a considerable cost to the Chinese economy, though it isn’t clear how big that toll might be.

The Economist Intelligence Unit projects that the coronavirus could reduce China’s growth by 0.5 percent to 1 percent, compared with its projected growth rate of 5.9 percent before the outbreak, if the disease worsens on the level of SARS, the outbreak that killed hundreds in 2003.

That hit would be smaller than the blow from SARS. On the other hand, China’s growth is already slowing, unlike during the SARS outbreak, adding to Beijing’s problems.

Masks may help, but experts say it’s more important to wash your hands.

Many infectious disease specialists say that cheap, disposable masks that cover the nose and mouth can help prevent the spread of infections if they are worn properly and used consistently.

But there isn’t much high-quality scientific evidence on their effectiveness outside health care settings, experts say.

Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, chairwoman of the public health committee for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said surgical masks are “the last line of defense.”

DO MASKS WORK?

Here’s what experts say about using face masks to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

The masks will, however, block most large respiratory droplets from other people’s sneezes and coughs from entering your mouth and nose, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Coronaviruses are primarily spread through droplets, he said.

Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious disease specialist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said a study during an outbreak of the SARS coronavirus found that any type of protection — whether a mask or a respirator — reduced the risk of infections in health care workers by about 85 percent.

“The most important message was that the risk was lower if they consistently used any mask,” he said.