Coronavirus

China Reports Over 1,280 Virus Cases, Death Toll at 41

At least 41 people have died in the outbreak, all in China

NBCUniversal, Inc. As new cases of the coronavirus are reported around the world, a doctor explains where the 2019 Novel Coronavirus comes from and what you can do to protect yourself from the outbreak.

What to Know

  • The cities are Wuhan, where the illness has been concentrated, and nine of its neighbors in central China's Hubei province.
  • The new virus has killed dozens in China
  • Initial symptoms of the virus can mirror those of the cold and flu, including cough, fever, chest tightening and shortness of breath, but can worsen to pneumonia.

China's National Health Commission has reported the number of people infected with a new virus has risen to 1,287 with 41 deaths.

The commission said Saturday the latest tally comes from 29 provinces across China, including 237 patients in serious condition.

All 41 deaths have been in China, including 39 in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, one in Hebei and one in Heilongjiang.

Meanwhile, France announced that three people had fallen ill with the virus — the disease's first appearance in Europe. And the United States reported its second case, involving a Chicago woman in her 60s who was hospitalized in isolation after returning from China.

A new pneumonia-like illness has health authorities on the alert as new cases are discovered in more countries, including the United States. Health experts say the coronavirus is not as deadly as SARS, but is still highly contagious.

On Wall Street, stocks slumped amid fears over the widening crisis, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 170 points and the S&P 500 posting its worst day in three months. Health care companies suffered losses, along with financial institutions, airlines and other tourism and travel industry businesses.

Transportation was shut down in Wuhan, the city of 11 million at the epicenter of the outbreak, and in at least 12 other cities in central China's Hubei province, encompassing a population bigger than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined.

And authorities in Beijing and other cities canceled many public celebrations and other events marking Lunar New Year, which falls on Saturday.

Multiple Cities in China Sealed Off as Coronavirus Outbreak Spreads

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A disinfection worker wearing protective gears spray anti-septic solution in an train amid rising public concerns over the spread of China’s Wuhan Coronavirus at SRT train station on Jan. 24, 2020, in Seoul, South Korea.
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Workers excavate a construction site for a new hospital, Jan. 24, 2020, in Wuhan, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city.
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Masked people shop for festive items in Fuyang in central China’s Anhui province, Jan. 24, 2020. Eight provinces and municipalities have declared a top-level public health emergency in China amid efforts to contain the 2019-nCoV spread.
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A researcher in an organic synthesis lab in the Centre for Pharmaceutical and Chemical Technologies at the Ural Federal University (UrFU) where the antiviral medicine Triazavirin is made. UrFU researchers have proposed using Triazavirin against the new strain of coronavirus in China given the fact that Triazavirin is effective against RNA viruses, to which the new virus belongs.
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Chinese tourists in protective masks in the center of St. Petersburg. In China, hundreds of people have been infected with the virus. Several Chinese cities are closed for exit.
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Travelers wearing face mask wait at the departure hall of West Kowloon Station on Jan. 23, 2020, in Hong Kong. Hong Kong reported its first two cases of Wuhan coronavirus infections as the number of those who have died from the virus.
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People wearing mask with luggage are seen crossing a road in Mong Kok District on Jan. 24, 2020, in Hong Kong. The new SARS-like virus, coronavirus, originated from Wuhan infected hundreds in China and cause 25 dead, with cases reported in other parts of Asia including in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, Hong Kong reported its first case of coronavirus on January 22.
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Virologist Sandro Halbe observes cell culture dishes in a research laboratory of the Institute of Virology at the Philipps University of Marburg. Coronavirus, which has made hundreds of people sick in China, also employs scientists from Hessen.
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Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology at the Charité in Berlin, look at samples at the Institute of Virology at the Charité Berlin Mitte, where research on the coronavirus is underway. The Chinese government has practically sealed off the metropolis of Wuhan, which is particularly hard hit by the new lung disease caused by the coronavirus.
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Passengers, almost all wearing protective masks, arrive to board trains at before the annual Spring Festival at a Beijing railway station on Jan. 23, 2020, in Beijing, China. The number of cases of a deadly new coronavirus rose in mainland China Wednesday as health officials locked down the city of Wuhan in an effort to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease.

Hospitals in Wuhan grappled with a flood of patients and a lack of supplies. Videos circulating online showed throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations, and some complained that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.

Authorities in Wuhan and elsewhere put out calls for medicine, disinfection equipment, masks, goggles, gowns and other protective gear.

Wuhan authorities said they are rapidly constructing a new hospital to deal with the crisis, to be completed Feb. 3. It will be modeled on a SARS hospital that was built in Beijing in just six days during the SARS outbreak.

The seriousness of the crisis was still an open question.

It was not clear just how lethal the virus is, or even whether it is as dangerous as ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone. Scientists say it is also not clear if it spreads as easily as SARS, its genetic cousin, which also originated in China and killed about 800 people in 2002-03.

The rapid increase in reported deaths and illnesses does not necessarily mean the crisis is getting worse. It could instead reflect better monitoring and reporting of the newly discovered virus, whose symptoms can initially resemble those of the cold and flu, including cough, fever and shortness of breath, but can worsen to pneumonia.

"It's still too early to draw conclusions about how severe the virus is because at the beginning of any outbreak you would focus more on the severe cases," said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva. “And then maybe we are missing some mild cases because people will just be a little bit sick and will not have it tested. And they will recover.”

With authorities afraid that public gatherings will hasten the spread of the virus, temples locked their doors, Beijing's Forbidden City, Shanghai Disneyland and other major tourist destinations closed, and people canceled restaurant reservations ahead of Lunar New Year, normally a time of family reunions, sightseeing trips, fireworks displays and other festivities in the country of 1.4 billion people.

Wuhan's usually bustling streets, malls and other public spaces were unnervingly quiet on Day Two of its lockdown, and masks were mandatory in public. Shoppers emptied store shelves, stocking up for what could be an extended period of isolation. Karaoke bars, movie theaters and internet cafes around the region were shut down.

While most of the deaths have been older patients, a 36-year-old man in Hubei died on Thursday.

The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan or involved people who visited the city or had personal connections to those infected. About two dozen cases in all have been confirmed outside mainland China, nearly all of them in Asia: Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Nepal.

Many countries are screening travelers from China and isolating anyone with symptoms.

As new cases of the coronavirus are reported around the world, a doctor explains where the 2019 Novel Coronavirus comes from and what you can do to protect yourself from the outbreak.

Chinese officials have not said how long the shutdowns of the cities will last.

Recalling the government's initial cover-up of SARS, many Chinese are suspicious of the case numbers reported by officials. Authorities have promised transparency.

China's cabinet, the State Council, announced it will be collecting information on government departments that have failed in their response to the outbreak, including “delays, concealment and under-reporting of the epidemic.”

The state broadcaster CCTV's annual Spring Festival Gala program, which attracted more than 1 billion viewers last year, paid tribute to the medical workers fighting the outbreak.

“Please believe in China,” the hosts said. “With the most transparent public information ... on the battlefront of the epidemic, we will definitely win."



Associated Press researcher Henry Hou and video journalist Dake Kang contributed to this report.

Copyright The Associated Press
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