Death toll from Wuhan coronavirus tops 100 as infection rate accelerates
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A mother (L) of a child (R) held by his father (C) adjust his protective mask to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in Wuhan peaks through a plastic curtain at the Beijing railway station in Beijing on January 27, 2020. - China on January 27 extended its biggest national holiday to buy time in the fight against a viral epidemic and neighbouring Mongolia closed its border, after the death toll spiked to 81 despite unprecedented quarantine measures. (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)
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The virus has also spread globally to more than 17 countries. On Tuesday, experts from the German Robert-Koch-Institute said they believed that a man who tested positive for coronavirus in Germany is the first case of human-to-human infection in Europe.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong chief executive, told a news conference that the closure of crossings into the semi-autonomous Chinese city would be “temporary.” Lam added that the city was also slashing the number of tourist visas it issues to visitors from mainland China, and halving the number of inbound flights from the mainland.
Authorities in Hubei, the Chinese province at the center of the outbreak, earlier said an additional 1,300 cases had been confirmed, bringing the total in the region to over 2,700. The majority of those are still in hospital, with more than 125 in critical condition. Between Sunday and Monday, there was a 65% jump in the number of reported cases in mainland China, from around 2,700 to over 4,500.
Elsewhere in China, cases have been confirmed in every province and territory except for Tibet, which this week announced the indefinite closure of all tourist attractions and a mandatory two-week quarantine for all travelers entering the region.
The move to close off Hong Kong comes after intense pressure from lawmakers and medical unions, one of which had threatened to strike if the border was not shut.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a level 3 alert warning against “all nonessential travel to China” – its highest alert on a scale of 1 to 3.
“There is an ongoing outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus that can be spread from person to person,” the CDC said in a statement, warning “there is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas.”
Worldwide concern
More than a dozen countries around the world have confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus, as authorities struggle to stop its spread.
Across Asia, numerous countries have put in extra screening at airports and warned citizens to avoid travel to China. To China’s north, neighboring Mongolia has imposed stringent border checks on travelers coming into the country, while Hong Kong earlier banned all visitors from Wuhan.
Indonesia and the Philippines have both introduced extra restrictions on Chinese tourists, while Japan has upgraded its response, allowing authorities to “force the suspicious cases for hospitalization and testing.”
Three cases of Wuhan coronavirus were identified in France on Friday and on Tuesday German officials confirmed that a 33-year-old man who had not traveled to China tested positive for the virus.
Speaking at a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres Monday, China’s ambassador to the UN said the country has “full capability and confidence in winning the battle against the epidemic.”
“Putting the interests of the people first, China has taken rapid and strong measures, putting in place a nationwide prevention and control mechanism,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said.
“China has been working with the international community in the spirit of openness, transparency and scientific coordination. With a great sense of responsibility, China is sparing no effort in curbing the spread of disease and saving lives. Now is a crucial moment, and China has full capability and confidence in winning the battle against the epidemic.”
Some 60 million people have been placed under travel restrictions in Hubei, with almost all movement in and out of Wuhan itself stopped and much of the city on lockdown.
Officials have also cracked down on the trade of wild animals, after the Wuhan coronavirus was linked to a seafood market selling exotic live mammals, including bats and civet cats, which have previously been linked to the 2003 SARS outbreak.
Rapid spread
The first cases of the coronavirus were detected in Wuhan in mid-December. Since then the number of confirmed cases has increased a thousandfold, and infections have been reported worldwide.
Hospitals in Wuhan are already massively overstretched, and hundreds of emergency medical personnel have been dispatched to the city to help. Two new hospitals are also being built on the city’s outskirts, due to be operational by next week.
Wuhan and Hubei officials have faced criticism for apparently downplaying the danger of the virus in the early weeks of the outbreak. There was a marked shift in the handling of the crisis once the national government got involved on January 22.
Despite the colossal effort – and potential social and economic cost – of effectively quarantining Hubei, it appears that this has come too late to stop the virus’ spread. By the time Wuhan introduced even basic screening of travelers leaving the city, the virus had been reported in Japan, Thailand and South Korea, and spread to most of the rest of China.
Part of the problem is that the virus can apparently be spread before symptoms appear, according to China’s health minister, Ma Xiaowei.
“It means the infection is much more contagious than we originally thought,” William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN. “This is worse than we anticipated.”
While the current outbreak does not appear to be as deadly as SARS, which killed over 700 people worldwide, it may be spreading more rapidly. That could be due to being more contagious, or the increased interconnectedness of both China and the world than in 2003.
As of mid-March 2003, roughly a month after the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted to SARS by Chinese authorities, and three months after the first cases were detected in China, the number of confirmed cases worldwide stood at around 3,200, with 159 confirmed deaths.
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Medical staff wearing protective suits ride down an escalator at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on Wednesday, March 18.
A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher in Rome on March 17.
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People gather to collect free face masks in New Delhi on March 17.
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Dermot Hickey, left, and Phillip Vega ask a pedestrian in New York to take their picture on a thinly trafficked Fifth Avenue on March 17. Many streets across the world are much more bare as people distance themselves from others. In the United States, the White House has advised people not to gather in groups of more than 10.
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Students at the Attarkiah Islamic School wear face masks during a ceremony in Thailand's southern province of Narathiwat on March 17.
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A member of Spain's Military Emergencies Unit carries out a general disinfection at the Malaga airport on Monday, March 16.
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French President Emmanuel Macron is seen on a screen in Paris as he announces new coronavirus containment measures on March 16. France has been put on lockdown, and all nonessential outings are outlawed and can draw a fine of up to €135 ($148). Macron also promised to support French businesses by guaranteeing €300 billion worth of loans and suspending rent and utility bills owed by small companies.
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A police officer checks the temperatures of bus passengers at a checkpoint in Manila, Philippines, on March 16.
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This aerial photo shows the Leishenshan Hospital that is being built in Wuhan to handle coronavirus patients.
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A person wears a protective mask, goggles and coat as he stands in a nearly empty street in Beijing on January 26.
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Medical staff members bring a patient to the Wuhan Red Cross hospital on January 25.
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People wear protective masks as they walk under Lunar New Year decorations in Beijing on January 25.
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Construction workers in Wuhan begin to work on a special hospital to deal with the outbreak on January 24.
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Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, speaks to reporters on January 24 about a patient in Chicago who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The patient was the second in the United States to be diagnosed with the illness.
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A couple kisses goodbye as they travel for the Lunar New Year holiday in Beijing on January 24.
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Workers manufacture protective face masks at a factory in China's Hubei Province on January 23.
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Shoppers wear masks in a Wuhan market on January 23.
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Passengers are checked by a thermography device at an airport in Osaka, Japan, on January 23.
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People wear masks while shopping for vegetables in Wuhan on January 23.
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A militia member checks the body temperature of a driver in Wuhan on January 23.
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Passengers wear masks as they arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines, on January 23.
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A customer holds boxes of particulate respirators at a pharmacy in Hong Kong on January 23.
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Passengers wear masks at the high-speed train station in Hong Kong on January 23.
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A woman rides an electric bicycle in Wuhan on January 22.
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People in Guangzhou, China, wear protective masks on January 22.
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People go through a checkpoint in Guangzhou on January 22.
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Medical staff of Wuhan's Union Hospital attend a gathering on January 22.
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Health officials hold a news conference in Beijing on January 22.
Growing fears in Hong Kong
Fears of the virus’ spread have led to calls for increased action in multiple countries and territories, not least in Hong Kong, where memories of SARS still run deep.
Effective midnight on Thursday until further notice, Lam said Hong Kong’s measures also include decreasing the number of inbound buses from the mainland, and the suspension of cross-border coach services at the Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau Bridge. All cross-border ferry services will also be suspended.
Operations at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Train Station – which operates high speed rail services to the mainland – will shut. Passenger services will also be temporarily suspended at the border crossings of Hung Hom, Sha Tau Kok, and Man Kam To.
In addition to the closing many of its borders with China, the city’s government announced that government workers would be encouraged to work from home when the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Wednesday. The directive, which excluded emergency service workers and people who work for essential public services, urged the private sector to enforce similar arrangements.
The sweeping moves follow calls from one of the city’s leading health experts for “substantial draconian measures” to limit population mobility in order to rein in the virus. Speaking at a news conference Monday, Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at the University of Hong Kong, warned that the number of cases could potentially double every six days in the absence of decisive government action.
“This epidemic is growing at quite a fast rate and it’s accelerating,” said Leung, who is also the founding director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Infection Disease Epidemiology and Control in Hong Kong. He predicted the actual number of cases – including those who are incubating the virus but not yet showing symptoms – could be 10 times what has been reported.
Leung’s team modeled two scenarios – one with a population quarantine as has been seen in Wuhan and one without – but found more or less identical results, because the virus has already spread to other major population centers in China, which could soon see their own self-sustaining epidemics.
Leung said the findings had concerned the team enough that it felt the need to alert the authorities and the public, predicting a peak of cases between April and May.
He added people need to prepare for a potential global pandemic – though “not a certainty by any stretch of the imagination … we must prepare better for it,” he said.
CNN’s David Culver, Yong Xiong, Natalie Thomas and Steven Jiang in Beijing; and Helen Regan, Pauline Lockwood, Carly Walsh, Eric Cheung, Yuli Yang, Chermaine Lee, Alexandra Lin, Isaac Yee, Angus Watson and Sophie Jeong in Hong Kong contributed reporting.
