KEY POINTS
• China’s National Health Commission reported an additional 150 deaths and 409 new confirmed cases as of Feb. 23.
• China’s largest province by exports, Guangdong, and the coal-producing province of Shanxi have lowered their emergency response level to two.
• South Korea’s government raised the coronavirus alert to its highest level after a recent implosion of confirmed infection cases, which took the country’s tally from 31 on Feb. 18 to 763 on Monday morning.
• Seven people have died in South Korea from the virus, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has warned citizens against traveling to the U.S., saying Chinese tourists had repeatedly been treated “unfairly” stateside, CNBC reports.
In an online statement published Monday, the ministry urged citizens to raise their awareness due to the U.S. security situation and “excessive” prevention measures.
China had urged its citizens against traveling to the U.S. in June 2019, at a time of heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Also, the Wuhan Municipal government took its first step Monday towards loosening a city-wide lockdown that started on Jan. 23. A few hours later, however, city authorities canceled the policy change and said it was issued by a traffic control group and did not receive the approval of unnamed “primary leaders.”
As a result, travel restrictions remain as Wuhan works to implement Chinese President Xi Jinping’s directive for limiting the coronavirus from spreading through the movement of people, the latest announcement said.
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province and accounts for the majority of deaths and confirmed cases of the coronavirus outbreak that began to emerge in December.
China’s National Health Commission reported an additional 150 deaths and 409 new confirmed cases as of Feb. 23. Of the 409 new cases, 398 came from Hubei province, whereas only 11 were reported in the rest of mainland China. That brought the nationwide tally of total infections to 77,150 confirmed cases and 2,592 deaths.
The Hubei Provincial Health Committee reported 149 additional deaths in the province, including 131 in Wuhan, where the pneumonia-like virus was first detected. As of Feb. 23, Hubei province has reported a total of 64,287 confirmed cases, 2,495 deaths. The commission said 16,738 people have been discharged from the hospital.
The coronavirus outbreak is a major public health emergency that has spread rapidly and become difficult to contain, President Xi Jinping said at a meeting in Beijing on Sunday, state media Xinhua reported.
“This is both a crisis and a big test for us,” Xi said, per Xinhua’s translations of his remarks, adding that efforts are being made to cure people of the infection, reduce fatality rates, safeguard social stability, and strengthen China’s emergency medical supplies and daily necessities.
The epidemic’s impact on China’s economic and social development is temporary and generally manageable, but it will deal a relatively big blow in the short term, Xi said, according to Xinhua. The president also stressed the importance of an orderly resumption of work and production.
The coronavirus outbreak that began in China and has since spread to more than 25 countries could put global economic recovery at risk, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement following a G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Saudi Arabia.
“This is a human tragedy, but it also has negative economic impact,” Georgieva said. “I reported to the G20 that even in the case of rapid containment of the virus, growth in China and the rest of the world would be impacted. Of course, we all hope for a V-shaped, rapid recovery — but given the uncertainty, it would be prudent to prepare for more adverse scenarios.”