China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as global fears deepened with more infections confirmed overseas including three Japanese evacuated from the outbreak’s epicentre.
Countries have for days been scrambling to try and get their citizens out of Wuhan safely, but have faced huge logistical, medical and bureaucratic hurdles. The Virus shows no signs of stopping and has delivered a massive blow to China’s tourism industry.
The World Health Organization, which initially downplayed a disease that has now killed 170 in China, was readying to meet Thursday to decide whether to declare it a global emergency.
But governments, companies and people around the world were already escalating efforts to contain the illness, which is believed to have emerged from an animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Deadliest day for China: coronavirus claims record number of victims in 24 hours as more countries confirm infections https://t.co/3lFbJqc0Ic pic.twitter.com/r5pYxRejl2
— Juank (@JCSura) January 30, 2020
Many governments have urged their citizens not to visit China, while some have banned entry for travellers from Wuhan.
At least 15 countries have confirmed infections, with India reporting its first case on Thursday. Airlines began cancelling flights servicing China on Wednesday, and more followed suit on Thursday.
Russia said it was closing its far estern border with China over the outbreak. Beijing has taken extraordinary steps to arrest the spread of the virus, including effectively quarantining more than 50 million people in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.
The government on Thursday reported 38 new deaths in the preceding 24 hours, the highest one-day total since the virus was detected late last year. All but one of the new deaths were in Hubei.
Origins of Coronavirus
Since the virus first popped up in Wuhan in people who had visited a local seafood and animal market, officials could only say it likely hopped from an animal to humans.
In a new study, however, researchers sequenced the genes of 2019-nCoV (as the virus is now called), and then they compared it with the genetic sequences of more than 200 coronaviruses that infect various animals around the world.
The results of the study, detailed in the Journal of Medical Virology, suggested that 2019-nCoV likely originated in snakes.
Read more: Corona Virus death toll reaches 100; foreigners prepare to flee China
The number of confirmed new cases also grew steadily to 7,711, the National Health Commission said. Another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.
The pathogen is believed to have emerged in a market that sold wild game, and spread by a Lunar New Year holiday season in which hundreds of millions of Chinese travel domestically or abroad.
Truly new situation
Thousands of foreigners have been trapped in Wuhan since it was sealed off last week.
Massive cities like Beijing and Shanghai were also eerily quiet as countless people followed advice to stay indoors, or at least wear masks when venturing out.
Japan and the United States on Wednesday became the first countries to organise airlifts from Wuhan for their citizens. A second US flight is planned in coming days.
WUHAN, China: China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as global fears deepened with more infections confirmed overseas including three Japanese evacuated from the outbreak’s epicenter. The World Health … https://t.co/1W3IRY64uG
— The Manila Times (@TheManilaTimes) January 30, 2020
Australia and New Zealand were among others organizing similar operations. Tokyo on Thursday reported that three people who were aboard the first evacuation flight had tested positive for the virus after landing back home.
Two of the three infected passengers showed no symptoms, according to Japanese authorities, underscoring the difficulty detecting the coronavirus.
Compounding fears, Japan was allowing the arrivals — more than 400 have been repatriated after a second flight on Thursday — to “self-quarantine”.
The government said it could not legally compel testing or quarantining, and two people on the first flight refused testing.
That is despite Japanese officials already confirming two cases in which patients tested positive without having visited China.
Read more: China: Death toll Rises despite massive lock-downs
In contrast, other countries organising evacuations said they were all planning to quarantine. “We are in a truly new situation,” Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament as his government faced criticism.
Take action
The WHO also has come under fire after it last week decided not to declare a global health emergency. A meeting Thursday will decide whether to reverse that decision, possibly leading to travel or trade barriers.
“The whole world needs to take action,” Michael Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, told reporters in Geneva.
The virus is similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which also began in China and eventually killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2002-03.
@WHO The #Coronavirus has become a global emergency and it is gravely irresponsible for you not to declare so!
What are you waiting for? #CoronavirusOutbreak #News #Media #globalhealth
Deadliest day for China in virus fight, as global fears mount https://t.co/0z247NbzgW— Stardust✨ (@Jeannie_Hartley) January 30, 2020
Major airlines that have suspended or reduced service to China include British Airways, German flag carrier Lufthansa, American Airlines, KLM, and United.
Chinese efforts to halt the virus have seen the suspension of classes nationwide and an extension of the Lunar New Year holiday.
All football matches across the country also would be postponed, the Chinese Football Association said, including the top-tier Chinese Super League.
Economic worries
Asian stock markets tumbled again Thursday on fears that trouble in the “world’s factory” would upset global supply chains and dent profits.
Toyota, IKEA, Starbucks, Tesla, McDonald’s and tech giant Foxconn were among corporate giants to temporarily freeze production or close large numbers of outlets in China.
Read more: US stocks steady as WHO says new China virus not an emergency
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the coronavirus posed a fresh risk to the world economy.
“There will clearly be implications at least in the near term for Chinese output and I would guess for some of their close neighbours,” he said.
Throughout China, signs of paranoia multiplied, with residents of some Beijing residential compounds erecting makeshirt barriers to their premises.
In one of many similar photos posted online, a man wearing a surgical mask and brandishing a traditional martial arts weapon squatted on a barricade outside a Chinese village, near a sign saying: “Outsiders forbidden from entering”.
Read more: China seals off more cities as virus toll climbs
The crisis has caused food prices to spike, and the central government on Thursday blamed this partly on overzealous preventive measures, issuing a directive banning any roadblocks or other hindrances to food shipments.
AFP with additional input from GVS News Desk