Summary
As the crisis escalates, here’s a summary of today’s key events:
- The doctor who tried to raise the alarm about coronavirus in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan died after contracting the disease. Early reports of the death of Li Wenliang were retracted, only for the doctor to succumb later in the day
- More than 28,000 people have now contracted the virus. The vast majority of cases are in China. Chinese state television today reported the death toll to have risen by 69 to 618 people. All deaths from the virus have so far been in mainland China with the exception of one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.
- The number of cases in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, is now 22,112
- President Xi Jinping declared a “people’s war” against the virus as companies worldwide warned of the impact on business
- Two docked cruise ships with thousands of passengers and crew members remained under 14-day quarantines in Hong Kong and Japan. Japan reported 10 more infections among passengers aboard the luxury cruise liner Diamond Princess, which is quarantined outside Yokohama
- Hospitals in Wuhan said they were struggling to find enough beds for thousands of newly infected patients
- There were warnings that Hong Kong’s economy risked being plunged deeper into recession as the virus wrought havoc in the territory, with consumers panic-buying staple goods and airlines stopping flights
- China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, warned against “rumours and panic” and called on the UK government to support.
It is understood that police officers were used to seal off a section of the hospital in Derry tonight where a suspected case of coronavirus is being investigated. A mother and baby have been put into quarantine where they have been tested for symptoms of the virus. The hospital however remains open to all other patients with no one being discouraged to turn up to Altnagelvin.
An Italian citizen has tested positive for coronavirus. The 29-year-old man was among the 56 Italians repatriated from Wuhan on Monday and quarantined at a military facility near Rome. Italy’s higher health council confirmed that the man had tested positive for the virus and is being treated at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani institute for infectious diseases. This is the third confirmed coronavirus case in Italy. A Chinese couple, who arrived in Italy on 23 January, are also being treated at the Spallanzani hospital.
An investigation at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, Northern Ireland, is under way tonight over a suspected case of coronavirus involving a mother and baby. It is understood that the mother and child recently returned to the city from Hong Kong and reported to Derry’s main hospital A&E department earlier today. Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency said they “are not commenting on individual cases at the moment”. A spokesperson for the PHA said no cases had yet been diagnosed in Northern Ireland.
Updated
As millions of Brazilians prepare to take to the streets for their country’s annual carnival, Brazil’s health minister has said his country currently has no specific plans for a coronavirus awareness campaign.
But Luiz Henrique Mandetta has called on Brazilian revellers to exercise “respiratory etiquette” when the festivities kick off later this month. “What we are suggesting is respiratory etiquette,” he told reporters, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper, Brazil’s answer to the FT. “Wash your hands several times a day; if you sneeze, put your elbow out in front.”
So far there have been no confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil, but health authorities are preparing themselves for its arrival.
Updated
On what has been a day of fast-moving developments, here is a round-up of the key events from the Guardian’s Sarah Boseley, Denis Campbell and Simon Murphy.
Updated
My colleague Emma Graham-Harrison has written this profile of Li Wenliang and his role in raising the alarm about coronavirus.
Updated
Doctor who raised alarm dies
The whistleblowing Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak died in the early hours of Friday, a Communist party-controlled newspaper has now confirmed.
Li Wenliang, 34, was declared dead at 2.58am on Friday after “emergency treatment” at a hospital in Wuhan, the Global Times reported, following hours of confusion over the ill doctor’s fate.
Earlier reports of his death had triggered an outpouring of grief and anger in Chinese social media, with many hailing Li’s decision to speak out over the virus despite the risks of doing so in his authoritarian country.
The Global Times was among the heavily controlled state-run newspapers that stepped back from their initial reports of the ophthalmologist‘s death on Thursday.
“We profoundly regret and mourn this death,” the Wuhan City central hospital said in a brief statement on its official social media account.
Updated
Tom Phillips, our Latin America correspondent, reports that two Brazilian air force jets are on their way to China to rescue a group of about 34 Brazilian citizens from the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. Brazil’s state-run news agency, Agencia Brasil, says the planes are currently in Poland waiting for clearance from Chinese authorities to continue their flight to Wuhan. The delay is reportedly the result of the high number of international repatriation missions trying to fly into the Chinese city.
Once back in Brazil those being evacuated from Wuhan will be placed in quarantine for 18 days at a military base in the city of Anápolis, in Brazil’s midwest. According to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, Argentina has asked Brazil for help in evacuating 15 of its citizens.
My colleague Mario Koran in Oakland reports that four of the 167 passengers aboard a quarantine flight from Wuhan to a Marine Corps air station near San Diego were sent to local hospitals shortly after their plane touched down yesterday morning.
The San Diego Union-Tribune said that none of the American citizens returning to the US showed any symptoms when they boarded the flight, but medical screenings done after their arrival revealed that four people (three adults and one child) showed symptoms that may have been caused by the coronavirus that has caused 25,000 people worldwide to fall ill and killed nearly 500 in China.
So far there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus infection among the passengers; the most recent tally of confirmed cases includes six in California and 11 nationwide.
The San Diego air station is one of three military bases in California being used as a quarantine site. Three additional bases outside California are also designated quarantine locations.
While the common flu remains a more significant threat to public health in the United States, the novel nature of the coronavirus has fuelled global attention, writes the Union-Tribune.
Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that experts are warning the travel restrictions issued by the Trump administration and quarantine of roughly 200 people in California — the first mass quarantine in the US in more than 50 years — may backfire.
A quarantine can be counterproductive if it appears to be overly strict and broad and diminishes the public’s trust in authorities, one expert told Sam Levin, adding that the government should use the “least restrictive” options available and not “limit people’s rights and liberty to a greater extent than is necessary”.
“We should do the utmost to protect public health. But we have to make sure the measures we’re implementing aren’t worse than the virus itself,” Jennifer Nuzzo, the senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Levin.
Updated
Good evening all. Hannah Mays here signing on.
We have now updated our piece on Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm about coronavirus and later contracted the disease. State media said earlier today that he had died, before backtracking on those reports.
Travellers who have returned to the UK from a series of Asian countries in the last two weeks and are showing coronavirus symptoms should self-isolate and seek medical advice over the phone, the country’s chief medical officer has warned in updated advice.
People who have returned from locations including mainland China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Macau and are experiencing a cough, shortness of breath or fever are being advised to stay indoors and contact NHS 111.
The Government advice says: “The UK chief medical officers are advising anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and is experiencing cough or fever or shortness of breath, to stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild.
“These countries have been identified because of the volume of air travel from affected areas, understanding of other travel routes and number of reported cases. This list will be kept under review.”
Updated
The circumstances of how or where the British national caught coronavirus in Singapore remain unknown.
However, it does follow concerns being raised about at least three Asian businessmen catching the disease after attending a meeting of more than 100 international delegates at a hotel in the country. Other attendees are also showing symptoms of the disease, according to Reuters.
First British national tests positive for coronavirus
The first British national has tested positive for coronavirus after travelling back to the UK from Singapore, according to government sources.
It emerged earlier that a third case of the disease had been confirmed in the UK but England’s chief medical officer refused to disclose the patient’s nationality or specify which country in Asia they caught the disease.
But the Guardian understands that the individual is British and contracted the coronavirus in Singapore. It comes after Downing Street indicated the patient was British, with a spokesman saying earlier they “believed they are, yes”.
It follows an unnamed Chinese student from York University and his mother being diagnosed with the disease this week. The pair are being treated in Newcastle.
Updated
There is now confusion surrounding earlier reports that Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak, had died.
A Communist party-controlled newspaper, the Global Times, reported that Li had died earlier today – prompting outrage among many Chinese citizens. But the state-run newspaper subsequently deleted the report from its official Twitter account and has now claimed Li is still alive.
“Li Wenliang is currently in critical condition,” the Global Times claimed in the early hours of Friday, local time.
“His heart reportedly stopped beating at around 21:30. He was then given treatment with ECMO [extracorporeal membrane oxygenation],” it added.
A post on the official Weibo account of the hospital where Li was reportedly being treated also said he was “currently in critical condition”.
Updated
The Department of Health and Social Care is yet to release its list of Asian countries where it is now advising people who have travelled to and developed symptoms on their return to the UK to immediately self-isolate and call NHS 111 for advice. Asked by the Guardian, the department says it is aiming to do so this evening.
The list could include Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Nepal and Sri Lanka, where cases of coronavirus have been confirmed.
According to the latest World Health Organzation figures, Japan, Thailand and Singapore all have the most number of cases in Asia outside China.
Updated
Asked by the Guardian earlier whether the third confirmed case of coronavirus in the UK related to a British national, England’s chief medical officer remained tight-lipped.
“Basically, we’re all doctors, we have a pretty strong view on this and we’re not going to do anything that’s in any way going to identify people ... once you start, you don’t stop,” Prof Chris Whitty said.
He was also challenged by another journalist who argued it was in the public interest to name the country in Asia where the patient had contracted the disease.
Whitty replied: “What’s in the public interest is obviously for us to release the list of countries where we think there is actually potentially slightly greater risk than the rest of the world. And that’s what we’ll be doing later today.”
Updated
It’s Simon Murphy here taking over the live blog after hot-footing it back from the Department of Health and Social Care’s press conference, at which England’s chief medical officer revealed that the third person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK caught the disease outside of China.
Prof Chris Whitty also said the government was now advising people who had travelled to a number of as yet unspecified Asian countries and had returned to the UK and developed symptoms to immediately self-isolate and call NHS 111 for advice. Anyone displaying symptoms will be tested for the disease. The advice previously only related to those returning from Wuhan.
Whitty said: “We knew this ratchet-up might well happen and this is the moment where we feel it’s prudent, getting ahead of the epidemiology, to make this shift.”
He added:
What we have got is a situation where very high risk remains in Wuhan and Hubei, a high risk in the rest of China, but much lower than in Wuhan and Hubei and then a much smaller risk in a number of countries, and unsurprisingly countries where the greatest risk is in terms of new cases are the ones which have the greatest international traffic with China, and that is exactly as you would expect.”
Updated
The WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Dr Mike Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies programme, answered some questions from the press.
When asked to comment on the doctors and nurses striking in Hong Kong to protest the government’s decision not to close its borders with mainland China, Ghebreyesus said: “This is a time of solidarity. There is a common enemy now. A very unknown virus. And I advise all of us to focus on the virus – the common enemy.
“I can understand the pressure on health workers and that’s why Mike said they’re the heroes. I fully agree and I want them to continue being like that.”
When asked if the world was nearing the peak of the outbreak, Ghebreyesus said: “It’s too early right now to make predictions on numbers, although we are pleased it is the first day in which the overall numbers of new confirmed cases reported in China have dropped.”
He added: “We are still in the middle of an intense outbreak and we need to be very careful on making any predictions.”
Updated
The WHO press conference on the coronavirus has ended. Here are some key takeaways:
- As of 0500 GMT today, there are 28,060 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in China and 564 deaths. Outside China, there are 225 cases in 24 countries and one death.
- WHO is asking for $675m to stop the outbreak.
- The organisation doesn’t know the source of the outbreak, doesn’t know what its natural reservoir is, nor does it properly understand its transmissibility or severity. There is also no vaccine to prevent infections nor antibiotics to treat patients.
- In the meantime, there are simple things everyone can do – such as washing hands regularly and covering your nose or your mouth with your elbow when you sneeze or cough – to help contain the outbreak.
- WHO called on countries to invest in prevention and research.
Updated
The World Health Organization is bringing together global scientists to tackle the coronavirus.
On 11 and 12 February the WHO is convening a global research and innovation forum to identify research priorities and coordinate an international effort into developing vaccines and medicines for the disease.
WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the event at a press conference on Thursday: “We’re shadow boxing, we need to bring this virus out into the light so we can attack it properly.”
He also announced that Japan has donated $10m USD to go towards tackling the outbreak.
Updated
Third UK coronavirus case caught disease outside China
The third person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK contracted the disease outside of China, it has emerged.
The patient, who it is understood was diagnosed in Brighton but is being transferred to a London hospital, did not contract the disease in the UK or mainland China but another country in Asia.
The details have been confirmed by England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, who refused to disclose whether the individual was a British national or which specific country they contracted the disease in.
Speaking about the new case, Whitty said:
The person who caught this did not catch it in China, they caught it elsewhere in Asia. That’s an important point from an epidemiological point of view because [...] there is now evidence of some limited transmission in a number of Asian countries.
NHS doctors are being advised to widen the pool of countries to look out for returning individuals who display symptoms.
Whitty explained: “If a doctor in the NHS sees a patient who has travelled from Asia, now they will start thinking about testing from a wider geographical area than would have been the case before. So we are shifting geography for NHS doctors to test.”
The countries will be confirmed later on Thursday.
Updated
Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about coronavirus dies, state media says
The Chinese doctor who tried to warn other medics about the coronavirus has been reported dead after contracting the infection in Wuhan.
According to local media, Dr Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, died from the virus on Thursday.
#Breaking: Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of the eight whistleblowers who tried to warn other medics of the #coronavirus outbreak but were reprimanded by local police, dies of coronavirus on Thursday in Wuhan, the Global Times has learned. pic.twitter.com/jzM6DF0CWE
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 6, 2020
Li was summoned by police when he tried to warn others about the virus in December.
He sent a message to fellow medics in a group chat on 30 December, and days later was summoned to the Public Security Bureau to sign a letter in which he was accused of making “false comments”.
Li was one of eight people being investigated by police for “rumour-mongering”.
Updated
A virus expert has said it is “not surprising” that a third case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the UK, as the infection has spread across China and could infect more people returning from the country.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said:
It isn’t surprising that a third case has been identified. Whilst most infections are focused in Wuhan and the Hubei province, the virus has spread to all regions of China and therefore the likelihood of someone returning or visiting the UK with an infection has been real.
He said the overall number of infections in the UK was still low and crucially therehad not been any significant human-to-human transmission. He added:
We are at a key juncture in this outbreak and it is difficult to tell if the control efforts in China will be enough to bring this outbreak to an end. If not, we can expect to see the virus cropping up in many parts of the world, including here.
Meanwhile, Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, said:
The important thing is that it did not arise within the country. It didn’t come from the two cases that are already here but came from outside. It has been identified quickly, it has been isolated, and in all probability, it will not lead to any further cases generally.
Updated
Two more coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Singapore, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 30.
One of the new patients is a close contact of one of those previously confirmed to have the virus, while the other has no recent travel history to mainland China and does not appear to be linked with previous cases, the Straits Times reports.
The previously confirmed cases were all either Chinese nationals from Hubei, or individuals with links to travellers who are Chinese nationals.
Updated
All UK hospitals have been told to prepare secure coronavirus zones to “avoid a surge” in emergency departments, a leaked NHS letter has shown.
The letter, dated 31 January, tells hospitals to set up “coronavirus priority assessment pods”, which can be decontaminated after each use.
All chief executives and medical directors are instructed to have the pods up and running by Friday 7 February.
Prof Keith Willett, who is leading the NHS’s response to coronavirus, told NHS bosses in the letter: “Plans have been developed to avoid a surge in emergency departments due to coronavirus.
Although the risk level in this country remains moderate, and so far there have been only two confirmed cases, the NHS is putting in place appropriate measures to ensure business as usual services remain unaffected by any further cases or tests of coronavirus.
Trusts are being asked to organise a coronavirus priority assessment pod, which will mean people with symptoms indicative of infection will get quick assessment, while other patients also continue to get appropriate care.”
Since the letter was written a third coronavirus case has been confirmed in the UK.
Updated
Third coronavirus case in the UK confirmed
A third person in the UK has tested positive for the coronavirus, it has been confirmed.
The patient was diagnosed in Brighton, the Guardian understands, and is being transferred to an infectious diseases unit in a London hospital.
Prof Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said:
A further patient has tested positive for coronavirus bringing the total number of cases in the UK to three. The individual did not acquire this in the UK.
The patient is being transferred to a specialist NHS centre, and we are using robust infection control measures to prevent any possible further spread of the virus. The NHS is well prepared to manage these cases and we are now working quickly to identify any contacts the patient has had.
There have been two other confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK - an unnamed Chinese student from York University and his mother, who are being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
The University of York has said the student confirmed to have contracted the virus did not come into contact with other students.
Updated
China is not prepared for the scale of the coronavirus outbreak it is facing, but has mobilised the entire country to tackle the epidemic, Beijing’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, has said.
Answering questions from the media this morning, Liu said:
I can’t say China is prepared for this outbreak, we don’t have enough beds or hospitals. That’s why we have built two emergency hospitals in just ten days.
He added that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, had held a meeting yesterday in which he had instructed medical personnel to work “around the clock” to treat patients.
Liu said he could understand the complaints of some residents in locked-down Wuhan, but said it would take some time for them to understand the urgency of the situation. He offered reassurances that all residents’ basic necessities were being provided for.
He stressed the rest of China was not in the same locked-down state as the Hubei province, but said some local authorities might have overreacted in their responses to the outbreak.
Finally, he said that communication between Xi and Boris Johnson was good, contrary to reports this morning which suggested there were concerns the prime minister had not sent a personal message of support over the coronavirus outbreak.
Updated
China ambassador criticises 'rumour and panic' over coronavirus
The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, warned against “rumours and panic” and called on the UK government to support to support China in its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
It is of hope that governments of all countries, including the UK, should understand and support China’s efforts, avoid overreaction, avoid creating panic, and ensure normal cooperation and exchanges between countries.
Some [media] reports are biased and even maintain malicious slander and disinformation. Rumours and panic are more frightening than the virus itself.
He defended China’s handling of the outbreak, saying the country had been “open, transparent and responsible with its cooperation with the world”.
He emphasised that any impact on China’s economy would be temporary and said the country disapproved of some travel and trade restrictions that had been imposed by other nations.
Finally he condemned “insulting and discriminatory behaviour targeting the overseas Chinese community” fed by panic over the virus.
Updated
Virgin Atlantic extends suspension of Shanghai flights
Virgin Atlantic has extended the suspension of its flights between Heathrow and Shanghai due to the coronavirus until 28 March.
A spokesman for the airline said:
We continue to monitor the coronavirus situation very carefully, including the latest guidance from the World Health Organization and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which on Tuesday issued new guidance to UK citizens to leave China if they are able to do so.
Given this new FCO advice, the increasing entry restrictions on recent visitors to mainland China, and our rigorous focus on safety, Virgin Atlantic has opted to extend the suspension of Heathrow-Shanghai operations until 28 March 2020.
They said all passengers booked to travel would receive the option of a refund. They should contact the customer care team via their SMS messaging system on +44 (0)7481 339184.
Countries across the globe, including the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, continue to impose travel restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Saudi Arabia has announced it is banning its citizens from visiting China, and said expatriates will not be allowed to return to the country if they violate the travel restriction.
The kingdom’s General Directorate of Passports also said regulatory provisions on travel documents would be applied to citizens who travel to the coronavirus-hit country.
The US is temporarily barring entry to foreign nationals who have travelled to China within the last 14 days, while Japan is refusing entry to foreign nationals who have been to Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak, within the past fortnight.
Updated
More than 140 Russians have been evacuated from Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, to a medical facility in Siberia guarded by members of Russia’s National Guard.
Inside, many have taken to Instagram to blog their time in quarantine, snapping photos of their dinner and exercise routines.
Pavel Lichman, a model who was evacuated from Wuhan, told the Guardian:
The quarantine is pretty hands-off and easy. The only thing is that we’re not allowed to come into contact with the people who are in the neighbouring rooms. We don’t leave our rooms. They bring us food. Doctors come in to test us: check our temperatures, inspect our throats, and measure the amount of oxygen in our blood.
If the evacuees leave their rooms, doctors warned, the two-week countdown starts again.
In the other rooms, Russians took stock of the bizarre turn of events and planned out their time in lockdown. “Plans for the next two weeks,” one young woman wrote, while firing up a Netflix documentary about the rapper Travis Scott.
Another modelled her striped pyjamas on a balcony overlooking a snowy forest of birch.
Student Marina Zaitseva was visiting Wuhan when the outbreak occurred. In an interview with the Fontanka.ru website, she described a difficult evacuation from China aboard a military plane with little idea of where they were headed.
When they arrived at the medical facility, they were told to give up their clothing for disinfecting. She said:
In the hall we were met by people not just in masks, but in full bodysuits. They met us as though we were radiating this virus.
Updated
The US is continuing to fly hundreds of its citizens out of Wuhan, the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, in what it anticipates to be the last of its chartered flights.
On Wednesday, two planes flew 350 citizens back to an air force base in California, and two more flights will arrive from Wuhan this week. The US does not anticipate any further chartered flights after this.
Inside a US evacuation flight from #Wuhan: hazmat suits, Ghostbusters masks, megaphones, forms & a heads up for Americans it’ll ‘get really weird’ when they land. Final US airlifts tonight as #coronavirus cases rise to 28k+ in #China; 563 have died. @NBCNews (video Jacob Wilson) pic.twitter.com/CJZ5i6ALQg
— Janis Mackey Frayer (@janisfrayer) February 6, 2020
Other countries are also airlifting their nationals from the area, including Singapore, which is arranging a second evacuation flight for later this week.
The Britons who were evacuated from Wuhan last week have been told they can leave the quarantine facility in the Wirral next Thursday.
Matt Raw, who was one of 83 British nationals airlifted out of Wuhan on the first evacuation flight, received the news last night:
We have just been advised that we are permitted to leave here on Thursday 13 February. We’ve basically done half our time and as long as the status quo remains and nobody gets sick, then we should be able to leave in a week’s time from now.
It’s excellent news to have an end date in sight.
Another 11 Britons were evacuated on a French-chartered flight on Sunday, after many failed to make it to the airport in time for the first flight.
They are being kept in quarantine separately from those on the first.
Updated
Chinese officials are reportedly “concerned” that Boris Johnson has not yet sent a personal message of support to the country over the coronavirus outbreak.
Stanley Johnson, the prime minister’s father, met the Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming on Tuesday, and reported back to UK officials – and accidentally copied in the BBC.
The email, to the environment minister Zac Goldsmith and other UK officials, said:
Re the outbreak of coronavirus, Mr Liu obviously was concerned that there had not yet – so he asserted – been direct contact between the PM and Chinese head of state or government in terms of a personal message or telephone call.
A government spokesman said the UK had been in close contact with the Chinese authorities since the outbreak.
Updated
A former special adviser to the World Health Organization has said he thinks researchers are “weeks away” from testing a coronavirus vaccine on animals, but it could be months before human trials.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, David Harper said: “The researchers around the world are working very hard.
“We feel that we’re within a matter of weeks of the animal tests that are necessary before we go into the trials of the vaccine in humans, which could take some months of course, but still very much shorter than we would normally expect for a vaccine of this type.”
Former special adviser to the @WHO says it "makes sense" for the NHS to advise hospitals to create 'priority assessment pods' for those suspected of having #coronavirus.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 6, 2020
David Harper also said the vaccine for the virus is "working very well."#KayBurley: https://t.co/cMHO7fsDYJ pic.twitter.com/HGVHLDzbtb
A former World Health Organization official who helped lead the response to SARS has said “the full potential” of the coronavirus is not yet known.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, David Heyman, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene, said:
The full potential of this virus is not yet known. Will this virus become a virus which is endemic in humans and continue to transmit in the coming years?
We don’t understand the spectrum of the disease. We don’t know how many infections are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms like cold, so it is impossible to identify all cases.
He said the disease is spread via droplets, when people are in a close enough area that they can cough on each other, and there is no evidence to suggest it is transmissible over longer distances.
Updated
A British man who is among 3,700 people under a coronavirus quarantine on a cruise ship in Japan has voiced concerns over ongoing monitoring for the disease on board.
David Abel, from Northamptonshire, has praised Princess Cruises for its handling of the situation so far, but said fears remain about efforts to fight the disease on the ship.
“What health checks have we had in the last three or four days, or since the health check when the quarantine officers came on board? None whatsoever,” Abel said in a Facebook video post.
There has been no health check, so we do not know whether there are people on board still who have got symptoms that may have the virus. We do not know.
So I am now getting a fraction concerned about the health checks that I believe should be taking place, because if there are more infected people on board they should be taken off. We want a virus-free ship.
Health workers in the port city of Yokohama said on Thursday that 10 more people on the Diamond Princess had tested positive to the disease, in addition to 10 others on Wednesday when the ship was first isolated.
Those 20 people are receiving treatment at nearby hospitals while the remaining passengers are confined to their cabins.
Abel, who along with his wife are believed to be the only two Britons on board, added: “And what happens when we finally get back to the UK? Are we going to be put in quarantine yet again for another 14 days?”
It is thought the Foreign Office has offered support, but is letting cruise ship staff manage the situation.
Updated
China has announced it will halve tariffs on $75bn worth of US goods, as the country’s economy comes under additional pressure amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Tariffs on some goods will be cut from to from 10% to 5%, and from 5% to 2.5% on others.
The announcement is part of a partial resolution of the long-running trade war between the US and China agreed last month, and the US will also roll back some tariffs as part of the agreement.
The cuts will take effect on 14 February, but tariffs will remain on $35bn worth of US goods.
China’s economy has suffered as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with factories across the country closed and its manufacturing sector seeing a drop in production.
This is Jessica Murray taking over from Alison to track the latest developments with the coronavirus outbreak throughout the day.
Global health experts have warned that “hidden” coronavirus cases mean that we could just be seeing the “tip of the iceberg”.
Tom Frieden, a former director at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there could be “vastly more cases” than previously thought.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that containment is very unlikely,” Frieden said. “It probably isn’t worth giving up, but trying to contain Wuhan coronavirus like Sars and Mers is very unlikely, just because of the number of cases and the number of [Chinese] provinces and the ease with which it is ease spreading in families.”
He added:
It’s a fog of war reality, which is what makes me suspect that what are seeing is the tip of the iceberg.
Summary
Here’s a summary of what we know so far today about the spread of the coronavirus.
- China’s death toll grew to 563, with 28,018 confirmed cases
- Ten more people have been diagnosed with the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, moored at Yokohama in Japan
- Canada has told its citizens to leave China by commercial means if their presence in the country is “not essential”
- Taiwan has banned all international cruise ships from docking
- Adidas has closed China stores over virus outbreak
- Virgin Australia has announced it will cease flying to Hong Kong
- Shares have risen strongly again on Asian markets
Here’s the latest tracker image from Johns Hopkins University on the spread of the coronavirus. If you want to check in on the tracker, you can find it here.
A 28-year-old doctor in Hunan province has died after working for 10 days on the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese state media is reporting.
A 28-year-old doctor, serving in the coronavirus frontline in Hunan Province, died after suffering cardiac arrest Monday midnight. He had been working for 10 days without proper rest and overwork is believed to be the primary cause of his sudden demise. Rest in peace, hero! pic.twitter.com/RheyNM0UtK
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 6, 2020
As we have reported today, the death doll in China for the coronavirus has passed 560. You can find our latest full report on the story here.
For a further exploration of why stock markets are surging ahead despite the prospect of a marked slowdown in China (see this blog post), look no further than this piece by our economics editor Larry Elliott.
But he asks whether the outbreak is the kind of freakish, unforeseen event that could yet spark a global economic crisis – a “black swan” event in the market parlance.
Hong Kong faces deepening economic crisis
Hong Kong’s economy faces a deepening recession as a result of the virus outbreak. Businesses in the territory have already been hit hard by months of sometimes violent street protests that have forced shops to close and transport to shut down.
The economy shrank 1.2% last year and economists at Fitch Solutions reckon it will contract by 2.6% this year with the vital retail sector brought ot its knees as the lucrative flow of Chinese tourists dries up thanks to the government’s new quarantine rules and airlines suspend flights in and out.
The sense of crisis has been heightened by panic buying in shops and supermarkets.
Read my full report here:
China launches trial of coronavirus treatment drug
China’s People’s Daily is reporting the drug Remdesivir is “officially” in clinical trial stage on coronavirus patients in Wuhan’s Jinyintan hospital.
“The trial will include 453 critically ill patients and 308 with less severe symptoms, a medical expert said,” the China Daily reported.
The antiviral drug Remdesivir is officially in clinical trial stage in Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital as experts are testing its use in treating #coronavirus patients. The trial will include 453 critically ill patients and 308 with less severe symptoms, a medical expert said Wed pic.twitter.com/sGitdpGeVc
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) February 6, 2020
Updated
Canada tells citizens in China to leave by commercial means if presence in country is 'not essential'
A couple of Canadian readers in China have got in touch with me to say the Canadian consular service in Beijing is advising Canadians to leave China at their own cost if their presence is not essential.
“Please note that the Travel Advice and Advisory for China has recently been updated to indicate: If your presence in China isn’t essential, you should consider leaving by commercial means,” the advisory says, dated 6 February.
The government previously chartered a flight from Wuhan to Canada for Canadian citizens looking to return to Canada.
Updated
International sports events being cancelled or postponed
The coronavirus is having a significant impact on sports events. Last week the Chinese Football Association cancelled all domestic games at all levels. Many other events are also being affected:
Athletics:
- The World Athletics Indoor Championships, which had been scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed until next year
- The Asian Athletics Association cancelled its 12-13 February indoor championships in Hangzhou.
Football:
- Asian Champions League matches involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG have been postponed.
- Guangzhou and the Shanghai clubs will join the competition in April, with their group matches due to be played in May.
- Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG were due to play away at Perth Glory and Sydney FC but Australian officials sought to reschedule matches after their government imposed a travel ban on foreign nationals arriving from China.
- A four-team women’s Olympic qualifying tournament involving China, Australia, Taiwan and Thailand was moved from Wuhan and rearranged to be held in Australia by the AFC.
- Vietnam’s government said it would not allow the country to host sporting events in February, meaning home AFC Cup group stage matches for Ho Chi Minh City and Than Quang Ninh will have to be switched to away fixtures.
- Ho Chi Minh City will now face Yangon United in Myanmar on 11 February while Than Quang Ninh meet Ceres Negros on 25 February in the Philippines.
Car racing:
- The all-electric Formula E motor racing series abandoned plans for a race in Sanya on 21 March.
- The move puts Formula One in the spotlight, with Shanghai due to host the Chinese Grand Prix on 19 April, now looking in doubt.
Badminton:
- The China Masters tournament in Hainan due to take place 25 February-1 March, was postponed after several players withdrew. The BWF said it hoped the flagship Badminton Asia Championships could still go ahead in Wuhan from 21-26 April.
Boxing
- The International Olympic Committee announced Jordan as hosts of the boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania after an event in Wuhan was cancelled. It will now take place in Amman, 3-11 March.
Basketball
- The International Basketball Federation moved the 6-9 February Tokyo Olympics qualifiers to be held in Foshan to Belgrade.
- The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 qualifying match between China and Malaysia, to be held in Foshan on 24 February, will be rescheduled.
Golf
- The elite women’s LPGA golf tour cancelled the 5-8 March Blue Bay tournament to be held on Hainan.
- The PGA Tour Series-China moved its 25-28 February global qualifying tournament to Lagoi, Indonesia, from Haikou.
Updated
Stock markets continue to shrug off the deepening crisis with the Nikkei up a whopping 2.6% with less than an hour of trading to go while Seoul had also gained a healthy 2.55%. Hong Kong was even better, up 2.71%, and Shanghai was up 1.3%.
In Sydney, the Australian bourse rallying to its second highest close of all time. The ASX200 was paused at 7,047 points, a rise of 1% on the day and only 43 points off the record high set back in January.
Nguyen Trinh, senior economist for emerging Asia at the investment bank Natixis in Hong Kong, said investors were obviously expecting that the disruption seen across China would be temporary and that the policy response by China and Asian central banks would be enough to inject into markets much-needed liquidity.
However, she noted that commodities had seen a more turbulent few weeks with oil, for example, down more than 10% for the year.
She said:
The commodity market is much more aggressive in pricing in a reduction of activity with iron ore, copper, oil, soy beans all dropping more than double digits.
Canada prepares for evacuated citizens from Wuhan
Reuters is reporting that a small town in central Canada is preparing to for the arrival of some 200 evacuees from Wuhan.
Canada plans to fly the evacuees to the base in Trenton, Ontario, the country’s main military hub for air transport, and hold them in quarantine for two weeks.
The evacuees, who are expected to arrive from China on Friday, will be separated from each other and from others on the base, although family units will be kept together, the government has said. They will all stay at Yukon Lodge, a new facility on the base which resembles a small chain hotel.
Individuals will only be moved to a hospital if they require acute care, said the local health authority, but local hospitals were prepared, with 21 negative-pressure rooms at four of them.
“I was in the military, I know how it works,” said resident Joyce Aucoin, 81. “There’s going to be people upset about it but once they’re here and once they’re settled and they see what’s going on, I think it will all pass.”
Lynn Cao, 60, who owns a tobacco shop in the town, had been concerned about the plane arriving until she received reassuring emails from friends on the base.
Cao said she was more anxious about her mother and sister, who live near the Chinese capital Beijing, and had sent them a large number of face masks to limit their chances of infection.
The Chinese CGTN network has reported the criteria for patients being admitted to Wuhan’s three new temporary hospitals, including at the city’s international convention centre.
They include:
- People infected with #coronavirus
- Clinical manifestation that is mild
- Patients aged 18-65 who are able to take care of themselves
- Patients with no respiratory diseases, no cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and no psychosis
- Influenza-virus tested negative
Who will be admitted to Wuhan's module hospitals? The criteria issued by local authorities are as follows (1/2):
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) February 6, 2020
☑️ People infected with #coronavirus
☑️ Clinical manifestation takes light and common type
☑️ Patients have ability to take care of themselves; aged 18-65 pic.twitter.com/J7cvRmr4I1
The Chinese state tabloid Global Times has published a video showing police monitoring people who are not wearing face masks and telling them to go home and get their masks.
Walking around without a protective face mask? Well, you can't avoid these sharp-tongued drones! Many village and cities in China are using drones equipped with speakers to patrol during the #coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/ILbLmlkL9R
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 31, 2020
The outlet is also reporting that a new laboratory has been built in five days that will have the capacity to carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests per day.
Huo-Yan laboratory, with a total area of 2,000 square meters, completed the main laboratory construction in only five days. It will induce a capacity of 10,000 tests daily, using scientific diagnosis to confirm novel #coronavirus cases. pic.twitter.com/ggciYlhVbl
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 6, 2020
Updated
In case you missed it yesterday, schools in China’s financial hub of Shanghai have been ordered to stay shut until at least the end of February.
All schools in #Shanghai are forbidden to open before the end of February as an effort to contain the novel #coronavirus outbreak, Shanghai authority announced Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/sNpGSTUlut
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 5, 2020
#Shanghai #train station stands empty amid #coronavirus #outbreak #China pic.twitter.com/pbI2voI6D9
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) February 5, 2020
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Taiwan bans all international cruise ships from docking
Taiwan’s health authority banned all international cruise ships from docking at the island from Thursday amid increasing threat of the coronavirus outbreak, after 10 more people were tested positive for the virus on a quarantined cruise liner in Japan, Reuters is reporting.
Taiwan has also said it will suspend entry for all Chinese citizens who live in mainland China from Thursday.
Updated
Shanghai authorities recommend suspending all sports event in city, putting F1 GP in doubt
Reuters has reported that the Shanghai sports authorities have recommended the suspension of all sporting events in the city due to the coronavirus outbreak, casting further doubt on whether the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix will take place.
The fourth grand prix of the season is scheduled for 19 April. The race was expected to be on the agenda at a Formula One Strategy Group meeting on Wednesday amid increasing speculation that it could join the growing list of sports events already postponed or cancelled.
The Shanghai Sports General Association called on sports organisers to “strictly abide by the requirement of the Shanghai Sports Bureau to stop organising sports events during the epidemic.”
It said, in a statement translated by Reuters, that all sports events should be suspended “until the epidemic is over.”
Some Formula One insiders hold out little hope of the race happening.
I’ve done a number of posts about the cruise ship in Japan, but passengers on the World Dream, quarantined in Hong Kong’s Kai Tak terminal, with 3,600 people aboard, are also being screened for the virus after three passengers on a previous voyage were diagnosed with the virus.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, has announced that the Ocean and Kai Tak cruise liner terminals, will be closed.
Lam has also ordered that anyone arriving from mainland China from Saturday, will be forced to face “compulsory quarantine” for 14 days in Hong Kong.
Global coronavirus infections
Associated Press have just published a list of global infections from the virus.
- Macau: 10
- Taiwan: 11
- Hong Kong: 21
- Japan: 45
- Singapore: 28
- Thailand: 25
- South Korea: 23
- Australia: 14
- Germany: 12
- United States: 11
- Malaysia: 10
- Vietnam: 10
- France: 6
- United Arab Emirates: 5
- Canada: 4
- India: 3
- Philippines: 3 cases, including 1 death
- Russia: 2
- Italy: 2
- Britain: 2
- Belgium: 1
- Nepal: 1
- Sri Lanka: 1
- Sweden: 1
- Spain: 1
- Cambodia: 1
- Finland: 1
Updated
Number of quarantine citizens in US approaches 400
In the United States, another 350 American evacuees from Wuhan have been placed under quarantine at two military bases in California, Reuters reports.
It brings to nearly 400 the number of people subject to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first public health quarantine in 50 years.
“We are in a critical time period in the international spread of the virus, and this action is necessary to try to prevent the spread here,” said Dr Christopher Braden, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
There were long queues in supermarket across Hong Kong last night, with people panic buying toilet rolls and tissues, largely due to a rumour spreading online saying China will stop manufacturing toilet paper for the next two weeks. There was also a run on vitamins, rice and packet noodles, leaving supermarket shelves empty.
Pictures of people panic buying in Hong Kong, including for toilet paper, are circulating on social media. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/FTI2fF5G84
— Alison Rourke (@AlisonRourke) February 6, 2020
Around 10,000 Hongkongers, many of whom camped overnight, queued up to buy masks amid a lack of supply and fears of coronavirus infection https://t.co/GKzzRnL7jv pic.twitter.com/VEHxRgOI59
— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) February 6, 2020
Updated
Adidas closes China stores over virus outbreak
Adidas has announced it is closing a “significant” number of its stores in China over the deadly new coronavirus, and warned it expects further impacts on its operations in the country.
It follows a similar move by its US rival Nike, Agence France Presse reports.
Adidas has around 500 of its own stores in China and some 11,500 outlets in franchise stores. The German sports wear giant said many of its franchise stores were also closing.
“We can confirm that we are currently experiencing a negative impact on our operations in China,” the statement added.
“However, at this point in time it is too early to assess the magnitude of this impact.”
Nike on Tuesday also said it expected the worsening outbreak of the virus to have “a material impact” on its Chinese business.
Updated
Here are some of the pictures emerging from the operation to hospitalise infected passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
Updated
The Chinese city of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, will strictly monitor the entry and exit of residents from villages and residential compounds as it steps up its efforts to control the spread of a coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.
The city, which has a population of 5 million people, said on its official Weibo social media account that each family should assign one member to go out once every two days, and that people running fevers must go to a medical facility.
Jiangxi province is separated from the virus epicentre of Hubei by the Yangtze river. It had reported 600 infections of the coronavirus by the end of Wednesday, with no fatalities.
Updated
We are getting confirmation of the nationalities of the 10 new cases of coronavirus on the stricken cruise ship on Japan. The Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent, Justin McCurry, says there are four Japanese, two each from the US and Canada, and one each from New Zealand and Taiwan.
#BREAKING 2 Canadians on quarantined cruise ship test positive for coronavirus https://t.co/0OGHt1iHAZ
— Natasha Fatah (@NatashaFatah) February 6, 2020
Updated
Virgin Australia ends all flights to Hong Kong
Virgin Australia has announced it will cease flights from Australia to Hong Kong because the route was “no longer a commercially viable”
Sydney-Hong Kong flights will stop on 2 March. In November, the airline announced the Melbourne-Hong Kong route would stop on 11 February.
The airline said growing uncertainty over the coronavirus outbreak and the decline due to civil unrest associated with the pro-democracy protests had prompted the move.
Virgin Australia Group chief commercial officer, John MacLeod said: “Hong Kong has continued to be a challenging market. With a decline in demand following ongoing civil unrest, and growing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak in the wider region, we have made the decision to withdraw services.
“While the decision to withdraw from the Hong Kong market has been a difficult one, it demonstrates our strong focus on driving greater financial discipline through our network.
“Current circumstances demonstrate that Hong Kong is no longer a commercially viable route for Virgin Australia to continue operating, however international tourism remains an important part of our strategy through our other international routes and partner airlines,” MacLeod said.
Updated
Still in Australia, and the prime minister, Scott Morrison has said a further 36 citizens and residents who left Wuhan on the Air New Zealand flight have now been transferred to Christmas Island, where other Australian evacuees from Wuhan are being held in quarantine for 14 days.
A further 36 Australian citizens and residents who were on the Air New Zealand flight out of Wuhan have now arrived safely on Christmas Island. Thank you to all those who were involved in this operation.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) February 6, 2020
You can read our full report on evacuees on Christmas Island below.
Updated
Australia’s universities are going to come under financial pressure in coming weeks when classes start but Chinese students are unable to attend due to the coronavirus crisis, ratings agency S&P says.
Students from mainland China are about 38% of tertiary enrolments, S&P says.
International students are worth $11.3bn a year in fees, so that puts as much as $4.3bn in revenue at risk.
S&P says universities can’t easily cut costs, such as staff wages and building maintenance, to offset the potential revenue plunge.
“The health crisis underscores the risks that stem from the sector’s growing dependence on the lucrative international market, which has flourished against a backdrop of stagnant government funding and heavy investment in the pursuit of higher rankings,” the agency said.
S&P also says German carmaker Volkswagen stands to take the biggest hit from factory shutdowns in Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, because it makes almost 40% of its cars and components in China.
“While the Chinese market maintains its long-term attraction for most global auto manufacturers and suppliers, recent developments may contribute to turning 2020 into an ever more challenging year for global automakers and suppliers than we originally expected,” analyst Vittoria Ferraris said.
One Guardian reader in Shandong province, who is a teacher, has got in touch with me to say there’s confusion among UK citizens there about the British foreign office’s advice to leave China if they can.
“My main hesitation with leaving China is I feel I would be more likely to contract the virus whilst in transit to the UK than if I stay in my apartment and wait for things to calm down here.
“My school is closed until at least the 17th of February (our classes have moved online) and I leave the apartment only for supplies and some exercise / fresh air. Whereas travelling to the UK would mean having to go on a train, tube and through at least two airports,” she says.
Japan confirms 10 new passengers diagnosed on ship
The 10 newly diagnosed Diamond Princess passengers include four Japanese nationals, the health ministry said on Thursday morning. The nationalities of the other six were not immediately available. The 10 patients comprise five people in their 70s, four in their 60s and one in his or her 50s, the ministry said.
Shares have risen strongly again on Asian markets where there appears to be more confidence – helped by another strong day on Wall Street – that the economic impact of the new coronavirus will not be too damaging.
The ASX200 is up 0.55% in Sydney, the Nikkei has surged 1.6% in Tokyo and Seoul has gained 1.27%. Brent crude rose $1.32 yesterday to $55.28 a barrel.
On the other side of the ledger, there is more evidence of how companies are being affected by the spread of the virus.
-
Cathay Pacific has asked its entire workforce of 27,000 to take up to three weeks of unpaid leave. It said on Tuesday that it was cutting 30% of its capacity in the coming weeks.
- Adidas has announced that it is shutting a “significant” number of its 500 stores in China.
- Foxconn, which manufactures the Apple iPhone, said it had applied to the Chinese authorities to restart operations at factories in China next week but it could take one to two weeks from then to resume full production due to the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported, quoting a source with knowledge of the matter. However, a full resumption was not possible until late February due to various travel restrictions imposed to curb the virus.
Updated
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has just interviewed an Australian passenger on the stranded Diamond Princess cruise liner in Yokohama, where 10 more people were diagnosed with coronavirus on the ship (in addition to 10 diagnosed on Wednesday).
Vera Koslova said frustration amongst passengers was rising: “There’s been no announcements made as yet by the captain to let us know that there has been more cases.”
“I’m quite patient and have a very positive attitude and know that the Australian government is trying to do everything possible as well as Japan. But, um, just getting a just a little bit more nervous now,” she said.
Updated
Qantas says it’s suspended a union delegate for telling employees it’s not safe to work on flights from China amid the coronavirus outbreak, Australian Associated Press reports (below).
Qantas says an employee has been stood down for spreading misinformation about the safety of working on flights from China amid the coronavirus outbreak, but the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) says the man was simply providing advice to colleagues on their rights.
The airline on Saturday announced it would suspend its two direct services to mainland China from 9 February due to travel restrictions imposed by other countries in the wake of the health crisis.
A Qantas employee – who is also a delegate of the TWU – was on Sunday stood down pending an investigation.
A source has told AAP the worker told other employees it was not safe to work on flights arriving from China – going against the advice of health authorities.
Employees have been provided with additional safety equipment.
Qantas Medical’s Dr Russell Brown said the airline would never ask employees to work in unsafe conditions.
“The TWU knows full well that the risk of aviation workers contracting coronavirus as a result of working on an aircraft originating from China is very low,” Dr Brown said in a statement on Thursday.
Just back to the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship moored off Yokohama ... the Guardian’s Justin McCurry in Tokyo says health officials now have the results of 102 tests conducted on 273 passengers. A total of twenty were positive. He says the second group of patients found to have been infected will be taken to hospitals in Kanagawa prefecture, where Yokohama is located, according to the health ministry.
Updated
Just while we are on Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific announced on Wednesday that all 27,000 employees would be asked to take three weeks of unpaid leave over the coming months. The CEO, Augustus Tang, said the airline was facing a crisis in the wake of the virus outbreak.
“I am hoping all of you will participate, from our frontline employees to our senior leaders, and share in our current challenges,” Tang said in a video message posted online.
Months of pro-democracy protests, including sit-ins at Hong Kong’s international airport, had already taken a toll on the airline.
In his video message to employees, Tang warned Cathay was experiencing “one of the most difficult Chinese New Year holidays we have ever had” because of the virus.
“And we don’t know how long it will last,” he added. “With such an uncertain outlook, preserving our cash is now the key to protecting our business.”
He also warned that further steps may need to be taken. The airline has already reduced its flights to the Chinese mainland by 90%.
This week United Airlines announced it was suspending all flights to Hong Kong from 8-20 February, days after it cut its flights to mainland China. American airlines also announced it was suspending its flights to Hong Kong form Dallas/Fort Worth and and Los Angeles until 20 February.
Given the speed at which this story is moving, keeping track of global figures for the virus is quite a challenge.
The Hong Kong government has set up a tracker of cases there – you can find it here, and I have put a snapshot below, which shows 1 death, 21 confirmed cases, 154 cases hospitalised under investigation and 868 cases ruled out.
Interestingly the tracker also gives a geographic location for all cases.
Australian evacuees from Wuhan have arrived on Christmas Island where they will be quarantined before being allowed to return to their homes.
Photograph: Richard Wainwright/EPA
One of our reporters, Ben Doherty, is on Christmas Island and he has filed this on the arrival of the evacuees.
The national health commissions figures for China with regards to the virus have now been released and the headline figures are that as of midnight Wednesday into Thursday, there were 28,018 confirmed cases and 563 deaths in China.
It says there are 24,702 suspected cases.
A total of 282,813 close contacts have been traced, and 186,354 close contacts are still in medical observation.
Of the deaths in the past 24 hours, of the 73 new deaths recorded, 70 were in Hubei Province, and one each in Tianjin, Heilongjiang, and Guizhou.
The vast majority of new infections were also in (Hubei 2,987 out of 3,694).
Updated
The Japanese broadcaster NHK is citing the health ministry saying there are 10 new cases of coronavirus on the Diamond Princess, moored off Yokohama.
If the new infections are confirmed, that would bring the total number of coronavirus patients in Japan to 45, Reuters says.
The ship was caught up in the global coronavirus epidemic after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man tested positive for the virus after disembarking the ship late last month.
Passengers and their relatives took to social media to detail their predicament and conditions on the cruise ship. One passenger has tweeted a number of photos below.
I’d like to share what it’s like on board the Diamond Princess cruise. Please use this page to exchange info. #DiamondPrincess #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/wRLdy63suj
— だぁ(On board the Diamond Princess / 乗船中) (@daxa_tw) February 5, 2020
朝ごはん届きました。breakfast 07:46 #ダイヤモンドプリンセス #diamondprincess pic.twitter.com/xACedZCJdR
— だぁ(On board the Diamond Princess / 乗船中) (@daxa_tw) February 5, 2020
Ten more people diagnosed on cruise ship in Japan – reports
We’re getting reports that another 10 people have tested positive for coronavirus onboard the cruise ship that is currently moored off Japan.
On Wednesday, it was confirmed that 10 people on board the Diamond Princess had tested positive, prompting authorities to instruct all passengers to remain inside their cabins. Thousands of people on the Diamond Princess face spending the next fortnight stuck off the Japanese port of Yokohama, as officials attempt to prevent further infection.
I’ll bring you more details on this as soon as they come in.
Updated
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus outbreak, with me Alison Rourke.
New death toll figures are beginning to emerge from Hubei on the latest death toll from the coronavirus. The province has reported 70 new deaths, taking fatalities there to 549. It also reported 2,987 new confirmed cases taking cases in Hubei to 19,665.
These figures will be updated again when the national total is announced, but for the moment that brings the the death toll in China to 563. Total numbers of confirmed infections in China are over 28,000.
Here’s summary of the other key points so far:
- Chinese authorities say they face a “severe” shortage of hospital beds
- Global cases have been reported in 20 countries
- Tokyo’s Olympics chief executive said organisers were “extremely worried about how the virus could affect this year’s games
- All arrivals to Hong Kong from mainland China will face “compulsory quarantine”
You can get up to date with all our latest coverage here and guide to how to protect yourself from the virus here.
You can also read our diary of a coronavirus evacuee, and comment pieces on the virus, including:
- China’s response to coronavirus exposes a dangerous obsession with secrecy
- Chinese people are enduring coronavirus like everyone else. Don’t traumatise us further
- The coronavirus lays bare the limits of WHO’s health diplomacy with China
If you want to get in touch, you can contact me via alison.rourke@theguardian.com
Updated
