China’s coronavirus crisis deepened on Thursday with the death toll soaring to 563, as thousands of people trapped on quarantined cruise ships added to the global panic about the epidemic.
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More than 28,000 people have now been infected across China as authorities struggle to contain the outbreak despite compelling millions to stay indoors in a growing number of cities.
Two dozen countries have confirmed cases of the respiratory disease which emerged from a market selling exotic animals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. There, a newborn was among the new cases Wednesday, suggesting the baby was infected by the mother during pregnancy or immediately after.
Thousands of people on cruise ships in Hong Kong and Japan now face an agonizing wait to find out if more among them have been infected.
At least 20 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive so far, while some 3,700 passengers and crew from over 50 countries have been confined to quarters aboard the cruise ship off Yokohama since Monday night.
In Hong Kong, 3,600 people spent the night confined aboard the cruise ship World Dream as authorities conducted health checks after three former passengers tested positive for the virus.
Hong Kong has been particularly nervous as the disease has revived memories of another coronavirus, the one that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 300 people in the city and another 349 in the Chinese mainland in 2002-2003.
Panic buyers in the semi-autonomous city left shelves of toilet paper empty at supermarkets following false online claims of shortages, prompting authorities to appeal for calm.
One person has died after contracting the virus in Hong Kong so far.
While the death toll continues to rise in China, health experts have stressed that at 2 percent, 2019-nCoV is far less deadly than the SARS pathogen, which killed around 10 percent of the people it infected 17 years ago.
But the outbreak has been declared a global health emergency, prompting several governments to warn against travel to China and ban new arrivals from the country, while airlines have halted flights.
China has enacted unprecedented measures in a desperate bid to contain the virus, which spread far and wide as millions of people criss-crossed the country during the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.
But deaths and new infections continue to rise, especially at the epicenter of the epidemic in Hubei province, where 18 cities housing 56 million people have been under virtual lockdown since late last month.
With medical facilities in Hubei’s capital Wuhan overwhelmed with patients, authorities were due to open a second field hospital, offering 1,600 beds.
The first hospital, with 1,000 beds, opened earlier this week, and authorities said they were converting public buildings into temporary medical facilities to deal with the influx of sick people.
The city of 11 million is facing a “severe” lack of beds, said Hu Lishan, a senior official in Wuhan, noting that there were 8,182 patients admitted to 28 hospitals that have a total of 8,254 beds.
There is also a shortage of equipment and materials, Hu said.
The central government has announced measures intended to ensure the supply of vital medical resources, with tax breaks for manufacturers of equipment needed to fight the epidemic.
“We must make all-out efforts across the country to meet the need for essential medical supplies and medical professionals in Hubei Province,” Premier Li Keqiang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
BGI Group, a genome sequencing company based in southern China, said it opened on Wednesday a lab in Wuhan able to test up to 10,000 people per day for the virus.
More cities are ordering people to stay indoors.
They include residents of Hangzhou, a city just 175 kilometers from Shanghai, where fences block streets and loudspeakers tell people: “Don’t go out!”
In some cities, even in the far north of the country, inhabitants are being offered cash rewards to inform on people who come from Hubei.
In Beijing—where streets remain eerily quiet and businesses are shuttered—restaurants have been barred from accepting reservations for parties.
And in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province which borders Hubei, pharmacists must send reports to the authorities on anyone buying fever or cough medicine.
The city has also limited the number of outings per family.
The outbreak has also hit major businesses.
Workers making iPhones at tech giant Foxconn’s plant in Henan province, which borders Hubei, will be quarantined for up to two weeks, the company said.
Chinese state media reported that a baby in Wuhan city was diagnosed with the novel corona virus just 30 hours after being born, making the infant the youngest person recorded as being infected by the virus.
CCTV quoted experts as saying it may be a case of “vertical transmission,” referring to infections passed from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or immediately after.
The mother had tested positive for the virus before she gave birth.
China’s national health commission said on Tuesday that the oldest person diagnosed with the virus is a 90-year-old, and that 80 percent of reported deaths have been of patients 60 years of age and older.
Thousands of people were stranded aboard two cruise ships in Asia on Thursday, quarantined by officials desperate to stem the spread of a deadly virus that has killed hundreds in China and spread panic worldwide.
At least 20 people on board one ocean liner off the Japanese coast—including a Filipino seaman—have tested positive for the new coronavirus, with thousands more staring at a two-week sea-borne isolation.
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The outbreak on the Diamond Princess, whose 3,700 passengers and crew hail from over 50 countries, is the latest development in a snowballing global health emergency that has left more than 560 people dead, most of them in China. More than 500 of the crew on the ship, which have been held off the port city of Yokohama, are Filipino.
Authorities decided to quarantine the ship and test hundreds on board after a former passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong last month tested positive for the virus.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament on Thursday that results for 102 people had now come in, with 20 testing positive for the new strain.
In all, 273 people on board were tested, including those who had close contact with the former passenger and others displaying potential symptoms.
The first 10 people diagnosed with the new virus have already been removed from the ship, which on Thursday docked in Yokohama to resupply for a quarantine that could last until Feb. 19.
Ambulances arrived at the port, where officials could be seen dressed in white full-body protective suits, complete with face masks and helmets, to remove the additional 10 people who have tested positive.
An extendable white-tented passageway was wheeled to a door on the side of the massive cruise ship, apparently to protect the identity of people being evacuated from the boat.
“We are confined here full time,” British passenger David Abel said in a Facebook Live video.
“The meals have completely changed. We are definitely not on a luxury cruise!… It’s going to be like a floating prison.”
In Hong Kong, 3,600 passengers and crew spent the night marooned on board the cruise ship World Dream as authorities conducted health checks after three former passengers tested positive for the virus.
City health officials said passengers would only be allowed off after tests were completed, with crew checked first and passengers to be screened on Thursday.
Two dozen countries now have confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
Two fatalities have been reported outside mainland China, in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
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