US bans travel from China in attempt to contain epidemic
Hong Kong (CNN)The number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus is nearing 12,000, as the epidemic continues to spread worldwide, sparking travel bans and outbreaks of ugly anti-Chinese xenophobia.
According to Chinese health authorities, the number of confirmed cases grew by 2,102 on Friday, bringing the total to 11,791 nationwide. An additional 45 people died in Hubei — the province at the epicenter of the outbreak — and one person died in the megacity of Chongqing on Friday, as the number of fatalities reached 259.
The pronounced increase in cases and deaths show the virus is not slowing, even after over a week of much of Hubei being under partial quarantine and an extended Lunar New Year holiday. With most of China due to return to work on Monday, the concern will be how far the virus will now spread, and whether the country’s economy can bear the type of further quarantines and travel restrictions that may be necessary to rein it in.
Washington announced Friday that it will impose a 14-day travel ban on all visitors from China, regardless of their nationality. US citizens arriving from Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, will have to undergo 14-days mandatory quarantine on arrival, while those traveling any other part of China will face screening and monitoring.
The mandatory quarantine is the first time the US has issued such an order in 50 years. The move came as the seventh case of the virus was confirmed in the US, an adult male in California who recently traveled to Wuhan.
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China criticized the move, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying it went against World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations not to impose travel bans.
«A friend in need is a friend indeed. Many countries have offered China support in various means,» she said. «In sharp contrast, certain US officials’ words and actions are neither factual nor appropriate.»
It may be part of a growing trend, however. The US ban comes after Singapore banned all visitors from mainland China, saying anyone who had been in the country in the past 14 days will not be able to visit or transit through the city state. Taiwan has also suspended visa applications for Chinese nationals, and banned entry to any from Hubei province.
Other countries have seen a wave of ugly xenophobia and racism directed at Chinese travelers and those of Chinese heritage. In a statement last week, health authorities in Toronto warned concerns about the virus and misinformation were creating «unnecessary stigma against members of our community.»
Coronavirus declared a global health emergency02:56
How long will it go on?
China has allocated almost $4 billion to the fight against the virus, and sent thousands of doctors, nurses and military medics to Hubei to help out with relief in the epicenter of the outbreak.
Two purpose-built hospitals in Wuhan, constructed in under a week, are due to start accepting patients on Monday and Thursday respectively. They have 2,500 beds between them, and will be focused purely on dealing with confirmed and suspected cases of the coronavirus, providing some relief to Wuhan’s stretched health system.
On Friday, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said it was «confident in and capable of effectively containing the novel coronavirus epidemic, and eventually defeating it,» following the WHO’s classification of the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The Lunar New Year holiday will be extended in Hubei to an «appropriate extent,» the Communist Party group in charge of the virus response said Friday. People in Hubei who work elsewhere in the country were also «granted an extended holiday and were asked to stay put,» according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
It remains unclear, however, how long parts of the country can continue to remain under lockdown, both from the perspective of making sure they are supplied with food and other necessary items, and from an economic point — both the national finances and people’s personal pocketbooks will be taking a massive hit from next week.
Worst of all, this sacrifice could be for nothing, with cases now reported in every province and region of China.
Researchers in Hong Kong on Friday estimated there could be more than 75,000 people in Wuhan alone infected with the virus. They warned that their model suggested that «epidemics are already growing exponentially in multiple major cities of China with a lag time behind the Wuhan outbreak of about 1-2 weeks.»
Study author Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at University of Hong Kong, said in a statement that their predicted number could be much higher than confirmed cases because «not everyone who is infected with (the virus) would require or seek medical attention,» thus many may go uncounted. It may also be impacted by the delay between when someone gets infected, when they show symptoms, and when a lab is able to confirm.
Leung and his colleagues’ findings come as researchers in the US and Germany confirmed previous suspicions that the virus could be spread by people who are not showing symptoms.
«There’s no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring,» said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after the research was published Friday. «This study lays the question to rest.»
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Chinese children wear plastic bottles as makeshift homemade protection and protective masks while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport on Thursday, January 30 in Beijing, China.
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Passengers wear protective masks as they wait to board a train at Lo Wu Station near the mainland border in Hong Kong on January 30.
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South Koreans evacuated from Wuhan disembark from a chartered flight at Gimpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, January 31.
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A volunteer wearing protective clothing disinfects a street in Qingdao, China, on January 29.
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Residents of Nanning, China, line up to buy face masks from a medical appliance store on January 29.
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Lyu Jun, left, a member of a medical team leaving for Wuhan, says goodbye to a loved one at Xinjiang Medical University in Urumqi, China, on Tuesday, January 28.
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A charter flight from Wuhan arrives at an airport in Anchorage, Alaska, on January 28. The US government chartered the plane to bring home US citizens and diplomats from the American consulate in Wuhan.
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in wears a mask to inspect the National Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, on January 28.
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Students disinfect their hands with an alcohol solution before entering class in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on January 28.
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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, center, attends a news conference in Hong Kong on January 28. Lam said China will stop individual travelers to Hong Kong while closing some border checkpoints and restricting flights and train services from the mainland.
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Workers at an airport in Novosibirsk, Russia, check the temperatures of passengers who arrived from Beijing on January 28.
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Alex Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, speaks during a news conference about the American public-health response.
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Two residents walk in an empty park in Wuhan on Monday, January 27. The city remained on lockdown for a fourth day.
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People wearing masks walk past a portrait of Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn near the Grand Palace in Bangkok on January 27.
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Police officers stand in front of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on January 26.
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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 Saturday, 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 Friday, January 24.
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An employee sprays disinfectant on a train in Seoul, South Korea, on January 24.
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Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, speaks to reporters 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.
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Workers manufacture protective face masks at a factory in China’s Hebei Province on Thursday, January 23.
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Passengers wear protective masks at a Beijing railway station on January 23.
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Medical staff members transfer a patient in Wuhan 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 marks 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 Wednesday, 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 press conference in Beijing on January 22.
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Foreigners flee
With much of Hubei under effective quarantine for the foreseeable future, countries have begun airlifting their citizens from the stricken province. Two dozens countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and South Korea, have chartered planes to carry diplomats and citizens out of Wuhan.
Air traffic in the opposite direction is becoming increasingly sparse. More than 15 international carriers, including British Airways, Air Canada and American Airlines, have suspended some or all flights to and from mainland China.
Markets have dropped across the world on news of the virus’ spread, and the expected hit to China’s economy that it will result in.
The economic impact of the virus is still impossible to determine, but one state media outlet and some economists have said that China’s growth rate could drop two percentage points this quarter because of the outbreak, which has brought large parts of the country to a standstill. A decline on that scale could mean $62 billion in lost growth.
China can ill afford that kind of hit. Growth last year was already the country’s weakest in nearly three decades, as China contended with rising debt and the fallout from its trade war with the US.
Major banks have cut interest rates for small businesses and individuals in the worst-hit areas. And the Bank of China said it would allow people in Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province to delay their loan payments for several months if they lose their source of income because of the disruption.
Both tourism and China’s film industry are taking a major hit already, with box office receipts at almost nothing since the outbreak. The spread of the coronavirus also threatens to cause job losses and push consumer prices higher, compounding economic woes that already exist.
CNN’s David Culver, Yong Xiong, Natalie Thomas and Steven Jiang in Beijing; and Laura He, 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.
