China’s Coronavirus Scare: More Deaths, Airport Passenger Screenings, Human-To-Human Transmission, Stock Reactions, And More

The New York Times: China Confirms New Coronavirus Spreads From Humans To Humans
The mysterious coronavirus that has killed at least four people and sickened more than 200 in China is capable of spreading from person to person, a prominent Chinese scientist said on Monday, adding to fears of a broader epidemic. The disclosure increased pressure on the Chinese government to contain a growing public health crisis, just as China enters its busiest travel season of the year. On Tuesday, the authorities confirmed a fourth death from the illness in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. (Hernandez and Ramzy, 1/20)

The Washington Post: China Virus: Coronavirus Cases Surge Ahead Of Spring Festival Travel
“The outbreak is at a critical stage, and we estimate an increasing number of infections during the 40 days of Spring Festival travel rush,” said Zhong Nanshan, the leader of a group of experts at China’s National Health Commission and the respiratory disease specialist who discovered the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, during an outbreak in China in 2003. (Fifield, 1/20)

Bloomberg: China Virus Spreads To Health Workers; Six Patients Dead
Fifteen medical professionals have been affected, with one critically ill, according to a report from China’s state news agency Xinhua. The transmission of the virus to medical workers is considered particularly worrisome because of the heavy precautions that were taken in Wuhan to try to minimize infections among health-care staff. Several doctors and nurses across Asia died in the SARS outbreak. (Gross and Lyu, 1/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Spreads Across China As Confirmed Cases Triple
Zhong Nanshan, one of China’s most highly regarded epidemiology experts who is leading an expert committee on the outbreak for China’s cabinet-level National Health Commission, urged heightened vigilance in a live interview on state broadcaster China Central Television Monday, citing the risk of human-to-human transmission. “Right now is the time when we should increase alert,” said Dr. Zhong, who rose to national prominence nearly two decades ago as an authoritative voice during China’s fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. In that outbreak, a similar coronavirus killed 774 people after its emergence in southern China beginning in late 2002. (Deng and Cheng, 1/20)

Reuters: China Coronavirus Claims Sixth Victim As Holiday Travel Heightens Infection Risks
The scare brought back bad memories of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus that broke out in China in 2002/2003, resulting in the death of nearly 800 people in global pandemic. Health authorities around the world have begun to step up screening of travellers arriving from China. Two cases have already been identified in Thailand, one in Japan and one in South Korea, while the Philippines reported on Tuesday its first suspected case. (Lee and Zhang, 1/21)

Stat: China Reports Sharp Rise In Cases Of Novel Virus Amid Growing Concerns Of Person-To-Person Transmission
Neil Ferguson, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Imperial College London, agreed. “The latest press release from Wuhan is quite non-specific about how these people were exposed,” Ferguson said. “But one would think that if they have clear sources of exposure to markets in all of those cases, they would have said so.” (Branswell, 1/19)

CNN: Coronavirus: 6 People Dead As China Confirms Wuhan Virus Can Be Spread By Humans
There are now fears, however, that efforts to contain it are coming too late, hampered by a slow-moving Chinese bureaucracy which failed to put sufficient measures in place in time. (Griffiths and Gan, 1/21)

The New York Times: Three U.S. Airports To Check Passengers For A Deadly Chinese Coronavirus
Airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, for infection with a mysterious respiratory virus that has killed two people and sickened at least 45 overseas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday. Most people with the infection are believed to have contracted it through exposure to animals at a market that sells seafood and meat in Wuhan. It is not certain that the virus spreads from person to person. (Grady, 1/17)

Stat: U.S. To Begin Screenings At Three Airports For Cases Of Novel Chinese Virus
Passengers will be asked about their health and checked for symptoms. People who show symptoms will undergo a secondary screening to determine whether they might have some other respiratory infection — a strong possibility during cold and flu season — or need to be tested for the coronavirus. Officials said that verifying a case of the novel coronavirus right now could take a day because patient samples need to be shipped to the CDC in Atlanta for testing. But they said they are working to expand their diagnostic capabilities so confirmation can happen faster. (Joseph 1/17)

The Washington Post: Travelers At 3 U.S. Airports To Be Screened For New, Potentially Deadly Chinese Virus
The announcement comes as millions of people in China are already traveling across the country and overseas for Lunar New Year, which officially starts Jan. 25. There are direct flights several times a week from Wuhan to San Francisco and JFK airports, including one scheduled to arrive Friday in New York at 10 p.m. (Sun, 1/17)

CNN: China Is Trying To Stop The Spread Of New Coronavirus At Worst Possible Time Of Year
During the Lunar holiday, people from across the country will cram themselves into homebound trains, buses and planes for family reunions. Others will take advantage of the time off to holiday overseas. Last year, close to 7 million Chinese tourists traveled abroad for Lunar New Year, according to state media. The holiday -- the most important in the Chinese calendar -- comes at the worst possible time for health authorities racing to contain the outbreak which has put the rest of Asia on alert. (Gan, 1/21)

ABC News: 3 US Airports Will Screen Passengers From Chinese City For New Virus
While there haven't been reports about a "sustained spread" of emerging virus, according to the CDC, health officials haven't ruled out that possibility. "There are indications," the agency said Friday, "that some limited person-to-person spread may have occurred." (Schumaker, 1/17)

Reuters: China Virus Sends Shiver Through Markets As Risks Mount
Global shares took a beating on Tuesday, wiping out all gains made at the start of the week as mounting concerns about a new strain of coronavirus in China sent a ripple of risk aversion through markets. Authorities in China confirmed that a new virus could be spread through human contact, reporting 15 medical staff had been infected and a fourth person had died. (1/21)

Bloomberg: China Seeks To Stop Virus Scare From Becoming Political Crisis
After three weeks of revelations about a mysterious strain of coronavirus first detected in central China, President Xi Jinping stepped in personally Monday to order “all-out prevention and control efforts.” The government convened a series of task force meetings while a social media account affiliated with the Communist Party’s top law enforcement body warned that officials who withheld information would be “nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.” (Bloomberg News, 1/21)

Stat: WHO Calls For Emergency Meeting On New China Virus, As Cases Spread
The World Health Organization announced Monday that it would convene an expert panel to determine whether a fast-developing outbreak caused by a new virus in China should be declared a global health emergency. The news came as China reported confirmed cases in Beijing and in Guangdong province, 14 cases in health care workers — a first — and a confirmed incident involving human-to-human spread of the new virus, known provisionally as 2019-nCoV. It is a coronavirus, from the same family as the viruses that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, which sickened more than 8,000 people globally, killing nearly 800. (Branswell, 1/20)

CNN: Vaccine For New Chinese Coronavirus In The Works
The National Institutes of Health is working on a vaccine against the new virus that has infected hundreds and killed four in Asia. "The NIH is in the process of taking the first steps towards the development of a vaccine," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci said it would take a few months until the first phase of the clinical trials get underway and more than a year until a vaccine might be available. (Cohen, 1/20)

CBS News: Coronavirus In China: What Is The Mystery Illness Sweeping Through The Country?
The city of Wuhan, China, is racing to contain the potential spread of a deadly new strain of virus that has infected more than 200 people. Over the weekend, the number of cases of the "2019 novel coronavirus" or "2019-nCoV" quadrupled — and on Monday, a Chinese scientist confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of the illness. There have been no confirmed cases of the virus outside Asia, but officials have been screening airport passengers to prevent the virus from spreading to the U.S. (Albert, 1/20)

ABC News: 201 Cases Of SARS-Like Virus Reported Throughout China, Officials Say
More than 200 cases of the new coronavirus, a SARS-like illness, have been reported throughout China. In Wuhan, where the virus began to spread, 198 cases have been reported, according to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. Two people have tested positive in Beijing, according to reports on Weibo, citing the Beijing Daxing Health Commission, and one person has tested positive in Shenzhen, according to the Guangdong Province Health Commission. (Theodorou and Jacobo, 1/19)