BEIJING, Feb 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from the new
coronavirus outbreak rose again on Tuesday but Chinese and international
health officials sought to calm global nerves, citing a study showing most
cases are mild and warning against excessive measures to contain the
epidemic.
Nearly 1,900 people have now died and more than 72,000 people have been
infected by the virus in China, with hundreds more cases in some 25
countries.
The epidemic has triggered panic-buying in Singapore and Hong Kong,
concerns about cruise-ship travel and the postponement of trade fairs, sports
competitions and cultural events in China and abroad.
The outbreak is threatening to put a dent in the global economy, with
China paralysed by vast quarantine measures and major firms such as iPhone
maker Apple and mining giant BHP warning it could damage bottom lines.
Several countries have banned travellers from China and major airlines
have suspended flights.
The World Health Organization, which has previously said travel
restrictions were unnecessary, rejected the suggestion that all cruises
should be halted after hundreds of passengers were infected on one vessel off
Japan.
“Measures should be taken proportional to the situation. Blanket
measures may not help,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters
in Geneva.
The WHO has praised China for taking drastic measures to contain the
virus.
Authorities have placed about 56 million people in hard-hit central
Hubei under an unprecedented lockdown.
Other cities far from the epicentre have restricted the movements of
residents, while Beijing ordered people arriving in the capital to undergo a
14-day self-quarantine.
– WHO urges calm –
The official death toll in China hit 1,868 Tuesday after another 98
people died, most in Hubei and its capital Wuhan, where the virus emerged in
December.
There were nearly 1,900 new cases — a drop from the previous day.
Reported new infections have been falling in the rest of the country for the
past two weeks.
Tedros warned that it was too early to tell if the decline would
continue.
The situation remains dire at the epicentre, with the director of a
Wuhan hospital dying on Tuesday — the seventh medical worker to succumb to
the COVID-19 illness.
But a study among 72,000 confirmed, suspected and clinically diagnosed
cases showed that 81 percent of patients had only mild infections.
Those most at risk were the elderly, and people with underlying medical
conditions.
The study released by China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
also showed that the death rate stood at 2.3 percent, falling below one
percent for people in their 30s and 40s.
Zhong Nanshan, a prominent expert with China’s National Health
Commission, told reporters that 85 percent of patients can improve “if they
have good life support, treatment conditions, and nutrients”.
The research was cited by WHO officials, who said the COVID-19 illness
was “less deadly” than its cousins, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
“This is a very serious outbreak and it has the potential to grow, but
we need to balance that in terms of the number of people infected,” said
Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies programme.
“Outside Hubei this epidemic is affecting a very, very tiny, tiny
proportion of people.”
There have been some 900 cases around the world, with only five deaths
outside the mainland — in France, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong
Kong.
– Cruise concerns –
Another 88 people tested positive for the virus on the quarantined
Diamond Prince cruise ship off Yokohama in Japan, raising the number of
infections to 542,
Since the US repatriated more than 300 American passengers on Monday,
Britain became the latest country to offer its citizens a way off the boat,
after similar plans by Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Attention was also turning to the Westerdam, a cruise ship in Cambodia,
where many of the 2,200 people aboard passengers were allowed to disembark
after all initially received a clean bill of health.
They were met by Cambodia’s premier, taken on a bus tour of the
country’s capital, and allowed to fly around the world.
But an 83-year-old American woman was later diagnosed with the virus
after arriving in Malaysia.
– Economic fears –
Despite the WHO’s reassurances, global concerns persist, with an
international inventions show in Geneva postponed, a mixed martial arts event
in Singapore closing to the public, and Chinese wrestlers barred from the
Asian Championships in India.
Supply chains of global firms such as Apple supplier Foxconn have been
disrupted as factories in China were temporarily closed.
Apple said it did not expect to meet its revenue guidance for the March
quarter, as worldwide iPhone supply would be “temporarily constrained” and
demand in China was affected.
BHP, the world’s biggest miner, warned that demand for resources could
be hit, with oil, copper and steel use all set to decline if the disease
continues to spread.