Beijing - Flights to China have been grounded and stores and
factories shuttered as the death toll associated with the country's
coronavirus outbreak reached 132 on Wednesday, according to the China
National Health Commission.
A total of 840 new infections were confirmed on Tuesday in central
China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak and where
several cities, including hard-hit Wuhan, are under an effective
quarantine.
This brings the total number of cases to 3,554 within the province
and more than 6,000 nationwide, representing a 60 per cent increase
overnight.
Starbucks said it was closing half of its some 4,000 outlets
nationwide, while Japanese automaker Toyota announced it would halt
operations in its Chinese plants until at least February 9.
Facebook has suspended non-essential staff travel to mainland China
and British banking giant HSBC banned employee trips to Hong Kong for
two weeks, and to mainland China until further notice. Hong Kong's
benchmark Hang Seng stock market index dropped 3 percent when it
re-opened on Wednesday after the Lunar New Year holiday.
British Airways and Indonesia's Lion Air became the first major
airlines to suspend all direct flights in and out of all airports in
mainland China. Air Canada, United Airlines, and Jetstar Asia all
said they were cancelling selected China routes.
Hong Kong announced it would cut rail links with mainland China and
close some border crossings.
Meanwhile, several countries were repatriating their citizens from
Wuhan and other areas in Hubei province.
Japan brought back 206 of its citizens from Wuhan on Wednesday.
Before boarding the plane in Wuhan, they went through medical
checkups and none of them was infected with the coronavirus, Kyodo
News reported, citing foreign ministry officials.
They were scheduled to undergo another checkups at the National
Centre for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, Kyodo said.
As there are still about 450 Japanese in Wuhan who wish to return
home, the government will send another chartered flight to Wuhan
later in the day.
The Australian government said it would set up a quarantine area on
Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean to house and treat everyone
evacuated for up to 14 days.
According to the government, about 400 Australians have already
registered for evacuation from Wuhan and surrounding areas.
The United States said it is relocating around 210 citizens from
Wuhan back to the US. In a statement, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) said it was working with the government to
"facilitate the safe return of these Americans while protecting the
public's health."
The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said it had "two
private chartered planes on standby to fly to Hubei to bring our
people home upon clearance by Chinese authorities."
It said on Wednesday that 50 of the 300 Filipinos in Hubei province
had expressed desire to leave.
While the vast majority of infections are in China, the virus has
been confirmed in small numbers in about a dozen countries, from Asia
to Europe and the United States.
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates confirmed its first cases,
saying that several members of a family that had travelled to Wuhan
have tested positive.
As a precaution, Alpine ski World Cup races in Yanqing, China, next
month were cancelled on Wednesday.
Over the past days, Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifying tournaments in
women's football, basketball and boxing have been moved outside
China.
Despite the disruptions, for some it was mostly business as usual.
Finnish flag carrier Finnair said on Wednesday it will continue to
operate its daily flights to Beijing Capital Airport and to Shanghai,
as well as its twice daily flights to Hong Kong and its two weekly
flights to Guangzhou.
Due to China's recent decision to suspend group travel from China the
carrier said earlier it would suspend five other weekly flights from
early February until the end of March, including between Helsinki and
Beijing Daxing International Airport and Nanjing.
Scandinavian carrier SAS said it was operating its flights as normal.