China is currently battling an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, officially renamed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Covid-19. The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce expresses sincere condolences to all those who have lost loved ones and sympathy to those who are ill and suffering as a result of the virus outbreak. We wish those who are ill a speedy recovery.

Statistics

The latest statistics of cases and deaths can be consulted on Johns Hopkins University’s CSSE page: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html and the statistics widget of the South China Morning Post: https://multimedia.scmp.com/widgets/china/wuhanvirus/

Travel restrictions

Airlines of several countries – including the U.S. and Australia – have canceled flights to and from China. The prices of tickets on remaining flights – including those on Chinese airlines – have increased substantially. Several countries are prohibiting entry to foreigners arriving from China or having visited China in the past 14 days. Countries neighboring China have closed their borders. Passengers now traveling from China are practically obliged to fly to their country of citizenship, where they are likely to be quarantined for 14 days. This makes travel to and from China very cumbersome in the near future. List of countries imposing travel restrictions from IATA:
https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/international-travel-document-news/1580226297.htm

On February 15, the municipality of Beijing started implementing a 14-day quarantine policy. Travelers arriving in Beijing from abroad are obliged to self-quarantine at their residence or hotel if they are showing no symptoms of Covid-19 for “a duration as called for”. If they do, or have traveled in the presence of a confirmed case, they will be quarantined at a designated quarantine center for 14 days or – if necessary – be sent to hospital. Notice from the Beijing Municipal People’s Government (PDF):
https://www.beijing1980.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/200216-BJFA.pdf

Due to a lack of airfreight capacity between Brussels and China, Bpost is no longer accepting letters and parcels destined to China. Postal items arriving from China will still be delivered.

Scientific info

Scientific information about the virus is available on the 2019-nCoV Resource Center page of the famous medical publication The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus The World Health Organization (WHO) also has a special page on the virus: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

How to protect yourself

Advice to the public about how to protect oneself against the virus is also available from the WHO:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

The VUB has developed a Corona Virus Test: http://huis.vub.ac.be/corona/

In Belgium the reference lab to test for the coronavirus is at the KULeuven. There are two reference hospitals to treat patients: Sint-Pieters hospital in Brussels and the University Hospital Antwerp.

Advisory notices

Travel advice of the Belgian Foreign Ministry:
Mainland China: https://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Diensten/Op_reis_in_het_buitenland/reisadviezen/china
Hong Kong SAR:
https://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Diensten/Op_reis_in_het_buitenland/reisadviezen/hong_kong_sar
The info page of the Belgian federal authorities (in Dutch) is at www.info-coronavirus.be/nl

There is some encouraging news as the number of new Covid-19 cases in China outside Hubei province has been dropping for 14 consecutive days. In Hubei province the situation remains serious. The authorities have launched a three-day campaign to check on the health status of every inhabitant of the city of Wuhan to ensure that people showing symptoms of Covid-19 are tested and treated.

Worldwide, the number of cases has climbed to 73,335, 72,438 of them in mainland China. There are 1,873 deaths worldwide, 1,868 in mainland China and one each in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and France. The number of cases on the cruise ship Diamond Princess has skyrocketed to 454 cases. On February 13 the number of cases suddenly jumped in Hubei province as authorities changed their counting method by including more than 13,000 clinically diagnosed patients. The term “clinically diagnosed case” refers to cases with clinical symptoms as shown on a CT-scan but not yet confirmed by a nucleic acid test in the lab.

As migrant workers return from holiday to the big cities to resume work, Beijing municipality has imposed stringent quarantine measures. Travelers arriving in Beijing from abroad – including foreigners – will be put in quarantine – at home, at a hotel or in a designated quarantine center – “for a duration as called for”, according to a notice of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government. People arriving from other areas in China will face a mandatory quarantine of 14 days. About 120 million workers will return to the cities were they work between now and the end of February, with another 100 million expected to return next month.

The annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which were scheduled to start in the first week of March and last for about 10 days, will be postponed. The two meetings are the highlight of China’s political agenda every year and their postponement is unprecedented.

In Beijing, residential compounds and villages in the outskirts are strictly monitoring the movement of people. To enter a compound residents have been issued a special pass and visitors are not allowed to enter. Tencent Holdings has introduced an electronic exit and entry system for residential compounds by using Tencent Haina. The service allows property management teams to keep precise track of people entering and leaving the neighborhood, including time, frequency and their health condition. In addition, residents can obtain an electronic permit that can be scanned by guards each time they leave and enter the area. Around 2,000 communities are so far using the system, involving up to 4 million users. A similar software was unveiled by Alipay.

In Hubei province, people must stay at home until further notice and are only allowed to leave their homes to buy foodstuffs and daily necessities. Only police vans, ambulances and other specially licensed vehicles are allowed on roads in Hubei. The province of 58 million accounts for over 80% of the confirmed cases and 96% of deaths in China. Hubei also suffered political repercussions. On February 13, the Communist Party Secretaries of Hubei province and Wuhan city were sacked. Former Mayor of Shanghai Ying Yong becomes Party Secretary of Hubei, and Wang Zhonglin, Party Secretary of Jinan, capital city of Shandong province, is taking up the same function in Wuhan. Previously, President Xi Jinping dispatched Chen Yixin to take charge of the fight against the epidemic in Wuhan and Hubei province. Chen had been Party Secretary of Wuhan and Deputy Party Secretary of Hubei province before being called to Beijing to become Secretary General of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party. He ordered local officials “to check and quarantine every suspected case, to send officials to the front line and to maintain stability”. National Health Commission Deputy Director Wang Hesheng has also been sent to Wuhan, joining the provincial Party Standing Committee, and taking over the responsibilities of Hubei Health Commission Party Secretary Zhang Jin and Director Liu Yingzi, who were sacked for dereliction of duty.

More information about Covid-19 is becoming available. “More than 80% of patients have mild disease and will recover, 14% have severe disease including pneumonia and shortness of breath, 5% have critical disease including respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure, and 2% of cases are fatal. The risk of death increases the older you are”, according to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus.

Three existing drugs that showed promise in inhibiting the novel coronavirus in vitro have entered human trials in China, and early results show noticeable improvement in some patients, Zhang Xinmin, head of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development said. The three drugs are anti-malaria drug chloroquine, anti-flu drug favipiravir, and remdesivir. Hisun Pharmaceutical in Zhejiang’s Taizhou has begun manufacturing faviparivir, which is no longer covered by a patent. Remdesivir is an experimental drug created by U.S. biotech company Gilead Sciences to combat Ebola. It is being tested in over 10 medical institutions in Wuhan. China is also testing several vaccines. A recombinant protein vaccine has entered animal trials. Chinese scientists have created a new diagnostic method using blood serum that can produce accurate results in 15 minutes and greatly reduce the exposure of medical workers to ill patients. The new test kit is called novel coronavirus IgM antibody.

This summary is based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times, South China Morning Post and The Guardian.

As the fights against the Covid-19 epidemic continues in China and the virus also affects the rest of the world, many businesses suffer the negative impacts of factory and restaurant closures, but some other companies succeed in taking advantage of a dire situation. Who are the winners and losers?

The stock markets seem not to be affected that much. In China there was a sudden drop when the markets reopened after the Chinese New Year holiday, but the losses were wiped out at the prospect of a vigorous economic recovery after the virus is defeated. Nevertheless, as Apple announced on February 17 that iPhone supplies could drop, world stock markets reacted. Many migrant workers who assemble Apple products in the gigantic factories of Foxconn, have either not yet returned or are facing a 14-day mandatory quarantine. Foxconn has also started producing face masks in an effort to try to avoid its workers getting infected and possibly forcing factory closures.

As people are cocooned at home and avoiding contacts as much as possible, the biggest losers are hotels, restaurants, tourist businesses and the airline companies. In some cities in China, including in Guangzhou, eating out in restaurants is prohibited. Many have closed outright, while some are focussing on preparing meals for home delivery. Restaurants in Hong Kong are separating groups of customers with physical barriers in an attempt to minimize the risk of infection and boost consumer confidence. Roll-up separators and acrylic panels have been installed between tables – and even between people eating out together. Dr Joseph Tsang, an infectious diseases specialist in Hong Kong, said that if people choose to eat together they should keep their distance, not sit facing each other, and even avoid talking.

Many hotels in China have closed due to a lack of customers. The hotel closure rate nationwide is more than 80%, and the occupancy rates of most open hotels are just over 10%, an industry insider said. David Ding, General Manager of Crowne Plaza Beijing Sun Palace under the InterContinental Hotels Group, told the Global Times that the occupancy rate is about 7%, which is typical for international hotels at present. “Now the Beijing government doesn’t allow more than three people to eat together, so we shut down the hotel restaurant,” he added. About 150 Hilton-operated hotels in the greater China region are currently not accepting new guests, though existing guests will not be affected.

The coronavirus outbreak could cost the global tourism industry about USD80 billion in lost revenue, and the sector is unlikely to recover for at least one year, as millions of Chinese are canceling travel arrangements and postponing holiday travel. Online travel companies like Expedia and Tripadvisor are forecasting a drop in revenues.

Airline companies are also hard hit. On February 10, for some employees the first working day after the extended holiday, 11,485 domestic flights were canceled out of about 15,000 planned flights operated by Chinese mainland airlines, according to VariFlight. On February 5, 70% of domestic flights were canceled. On February 8, domestic flights transported 270,000 people, down 84.6% year-on-year. During the SARS epidemic, the aviation sector in China lost CNY2.8 billion for the whole year, as about one-fifth of aircraft stopped flying daily on average. This time, the loss will be even greater, because the epidemic affected the top Spring Festival travel period. China now operates more than 3,800 aircraft, five times more than in 2003. Many small- and medium-sized airlines are struggling to survive amid a cash crunch. Singapore Airlines has followed Cathay Pacific in reducing the number of flights across its network.

Recruitment site Zhaopin said last week that around 10% of firms they surveyed were “on the verge of death”, with around 30% planning job cuts and another 30% saying they could not pay their employees on time.

Winners include – predictably – producers of medical supplies, protective clothing and antiviral drugs. Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, China’s largest hospital devices maker, could see a doubling in revenue from Hubei province this quarter from a year earlier, analysts at Huatai Securities estimated. Despite ramping up production, manufacturers of face masks cannot keep up with demand. New regulations include the requirement that people in China showing up in public must wear a face mask. Access to public transport such as busses and metros is prohibited to those without a face mask. Medical workers – who must change their mask and protective clothing several times a day – are still coping with a shortage.

Chinese mask makers are currently operating at about 76% capacity, which puts daily production at 15.2 million masks based on the industry’s capacity to produce 20 million pieces a day. Daily demand, however, is estimated to be between 50 and 60 million units during the outbreak, according to Chinese media reports citing mainland mask manufacturers. China has also only been able to make 200,000 N95 respirators per day because they require more sophisticated technology and materials to produce.

App developers are busy providing digital tools to cope with the epidemic. Little Red Book and Small Kitchen help to find recipes to cook at home. Data from app tracker Analysys Qianfan showed that during the Spring Festival holiday, daily active users (DAU) of Little Kitchen surged 27.3% from 2.09 million to 2.66 million. Similar platforms such as Douguo and Xiangha also saw their DAUs increase during the same period. Online fitness platforms also witnessed spikes in user volume. DAUs of Keep, an internet-based workout provider, increased during the enforced holiday, when many didn’t even dare to venture outside for a walk. Ring Fit Adventure, which assists in workouts, developed by Japan’s Nintendo, sold surprisingly well. The small gadget, priced between CNY1,300 and CNY3,798 on Alibaba’s online shopping platform Taobao, saw average monthly sales of over 2,000 units on the platform. On February 6, the Japanese company apologized for delayed shipments, amid huge demand from Chinese consumers.

Xiaomi Founder Lei Jun, born in Hubei province and having attended university in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, became the first to launch a new product using a live-streamed video conference. He presented Xiaomi’s new smartphone, the Mi 10 5G. Sales forecasts for mobile phones have been cut due to the closure of factories and shops. Canalys and Strategy Analytics expect global shipments to drop 50% in the first quarter from a year ago, while IDC sees a 30% slide. The proportion of online sales is expected to rise sharply in the first quarter. IDC forecasts that China’s smartphone market will contract 4% in 2020.

The semiconductor industry is trying to carry on. Wuhan is an important center of the semiconductor industry, with more than 100 chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing companies. Production lines at Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (XMC) have been kept running 24 hours a day during the extended Chinese New Year holiday. The ultra-clean environment required for semiconductor production makes transmission of the virus less likely. However, chip makers are not completely immune from the disruptions. The shortage of manpower and raw materials, the evacuation of foreign engineers from Wuhan, and transport restrictions are all challenges facing semiconductor companies in the city. The suspension of U.S.-China flights by major US airlines could seriously impact deliveries of finished chip products to U.S. customers.

This summary is based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times, South China Morning Post and The Guardian.

This week is crucial in China’s fight against the Covid-19 virus as many Chinese return to work after an extended Chinese New Year holiday. There is a slight reduction in the daily increase of cases, but it is still not sure that the peak of the epidemic has been reached. The number of new confirmed cases reported daily in provinces outside Hubei dropped for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday, February 9, indicating that preventative measures and quarantines were having some effect. Worldwide, there are now 45,188 cases, most of them (more than 33,000) in China’s Hubei province. The death toll in China is 1,016, which is more than the worldwide number of deaths in the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic.

The virus has been officially renamed Covid-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the Chinese English-language press, the virus is now called “novel coronavirus pneumonia” (NCP), but they might start using the official name soon.

Work resumed partially on February 10 but there were still less passengers on public transport in the big cities as many migrant workers have not yet returned from their hometowns. Factories and offices are taking strict measures to prevent infections. Passengers taking the subway are obliged to put on a face mask. Beijing subway reported that there were still only 50% of the number of passengers compared to a normal working day.

International transport has been further affected as an increasing number of airlines reduce or cancel flights to and from China. Some countries, including the U.S., Australia and Italy, also refuse entry to foreigners who have been in China in the past 14 days. The British government advised its citizens to leave China “if they can”. The Chinese government expressed its dissatisfaction with those measures. It emphasized that they were taken against the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “We hope relevant countries will bear in mind overall relations and people’s interests and resume normal operation of flights to guarantee normal people-to-people exchanges and cooperation”. The current medical consensus, promoted by the WHO is that travel bans, at best slow an epidemic by a very short time and make no difference to the outcome.

All foreign pilots working for China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, and a host of smaller mainland Chinese carriers have been placed on indefinite unpaid leave. With the coronavirus crisis forcing airlines to slash flights, several hundred foreign pilots have seemingly become surplus overnight. They were told they could get back to work “when the situation gets better”. For the January 23-February 3 period, China Southern eliminated more than 7,900 flights, Xiamen Air scrapped 3,287, while Hainan Airlines coped with 2,967 fewer services within the mainland. Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon have canceled more than half their flights in February and March. The airlines together will cut 783 flights per week in February and 835 per week in March, reducing their services by 52% and 57% respectively.

In Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, the fight against the virus has been stepped up with the screening of nearly the total population of the city for signs of disease. Confirmed patients are being treated in dedicated hospitals such as two newly built hospitals. Suspected patients and persons showing symptoms of the disease or having been into contact with confirmed patients are being put into quarantine in warehouses, conference centers, gymnasiums and schools turned into makeshift hospitals. The Global Times reports that since January 24, Wuhan airport has received 124 flights carrying 17,000 medics and 115 flights of materials weighing 2,205 tons. In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, measures are being taken to partially close off communities and tighten entry restrictions, such as refusing entry to visitors. The country’s railways delivered 1.27 million passenger trips last Saturday, a plunge of 85.4% year-on-year, according to the China State Railway Group Co. The number was estimated to be 2 million on Sunday, down 82.2%. Of the 10 million people that left Beijing for the Spring Festival holidays, 8 million have not returned.

Several Chinese and foreign institutes and companies are working on vaccines and medicines. A team headed by Prof. Peter Hotez at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, is cooperating with researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai. Hotez’s team has already developed and manufactured a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). A vaccine against coronavirus, developed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Medical School of Shanghai Tongji University and Shanghai-based biotechnology company Stemirna Therapeutics, has already been tested on mice but trials on humans will only commence in April. U.S.-based GeoVax Labs and Inovio Pharmaceuticals and China-based BravoVax and Adcaccine Biopharmaceuticals are also working on vaccines. The China Association for Vaccines said that as of February 6, 17 Chinese institutions and companies were developing vaccines. Chinese researchers said the pangolin, an endangered mammal illegally trafficked for its scales and meat, is a potential intermediate host between bats and humans for the coronavirus. The pangolin is considered the most trafficked animal in the world and an estimated one million were smuggled from 2000-2013.

Social media in China erupted after doctor Li Wenliang died on February 7 in a Wuhan hospital. He was one of the first to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus capability to spread from human to human, but was reprimanded by the local public security bureau for “spreading lies”. He was confirmed to be infected by the virus on February 1 and at 34-years-old became one of the youngest patients to die. To calm public anger, the National Supervision Commission sent a team to Wuhan to examine the circumstances of the case.

In Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam appealed to the people to stay at home as much as possible. The Hong Kong government had earlier said it would quarantine all people – including Hong Kong residents – arriving from mainland China for 14 days. The authorities were searching for vacant sites to build quarantine centers. When the decision was taken to quarantine all visitors crossing the border from China there were only three quarantine centers in operation, providing 90 units in total. Trucks drivers would probably be exempted from quarantine to guarantee the food supply. At Yokohama harbor in Japan, 135 of the 3,700 passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship have been tested positive for the coronavirus.

Companies around the world are beginning to feel the repercussions of the outbreak. Hyundai has suspended operations at its giant Ulsan complex in South Korea, the most productive car factory in the world, due to a lack of parts from China. Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley also told the Financial Times his firm could be forced to halt one of its European factories over supply shortages. Macao decided to close its casino’s for two weeks. Macao, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, derives a significant portion of its revenue from gamblers from the mainland, but Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said the territory could afford to bear the economic losses. The China Import and Export Fair, better known as the Canton Fair, has decided to suspend all exhibits, saying it is for epidemic prevention and control. The Bureau of Commerce of Guangzhou suspended other large-scale exhibitions, leading to the delay of at least nine such events that were originally scheduled in February. SMEs outside China are also suffering as Chinese suppliers close down for an extended period. Retailers selling Chinese products receive less customers and many Chinatowns in the world are deserted. As larger firms like Apple and Dell also suffer the effects of the outbreak, smaller enterprises that sell them products and services also bear the consequences.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that regarding the worldwide spread of the virus, “we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg” as there have been some concerning instances of onward spread from people with no travel history to China.

This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times, South China Morning Post and The Guardian.

The number of cases and deaths in the corona virus epidemic in China kept on rising in the past week. The number of confirmed deaths from the outbreak has risen to 490 in mainland China, surpassing the dead toll of 349 during the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003. One death was reported in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. The number of cases has increased sharply to 24,324 in mainland China and a total of 24,552 worldwide. The rate of increase in both deaths and infections in mainland China is trending lower. In the EU cases have been confirmed in France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Two cases have also been confirmed in the UK. In Belgium, one person repatriated from Wuhan tested positive, but showed no symptoms of the disease. The figures indicate that the novel coronavirus is more infectious than SARS but less lethal. However, case numbers are tied to the availability of testing, if no tests are performed due to a lack of testing kits or overworked hospital personnel, no cases are reported, so the real number might be much higher.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the corona virus outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) after “deeply concerning” new cases emerged. A few days earlier it had still said it was too early to take this step. But since then at least six cases surfaced where the patient had not traveled to China and therefore acquired the infection locally through person-to-person transmission. The Administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has also declared a public health emergency. When meeting with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China has full confidence and the capability to win the battle against the virus. Ghebreyesus said China’s powerful system and the effective measures it has taken to prevent and control the contagion are rarely seen in the world. China set a record in identifying the pathogen in a short time following the outbreak, he said, adding that the WHO stands ready to provide all necessary assistance.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has asked the EU to facilitate China’s urgent procurement of medical supplies from member countries. He also called on experts to work on the development of a vaccine and effective pharmaceuticals to treat infected patients and reduce the mortality rate. “What China urgently needs at present are medical masks, protective suits, and safety goggles,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing held online on February 3. China’s factories can produce 20 million masks per day, but panic over the virus has prompted people in the country of 1.4 billion to stock up on surgical masks, while frontline medical personnel have reported equipment shortages. Following the holiday, factories were now operating at “between 60% and 70% capacity”. In addition to Hubei, several other provinces and cities across China have made it compulsory to wear masks in public as virus fears have grown.

China’s battle against the spreading coronavirus outbreak is likely to make marked progress by February 8, Zeng Guang, Chief Epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Global Times. Zeng said the odds of contracting the virus on the streets of Beijing without direct contact with a confirmed patient are like the rate of occurrence of car accidents. He recommended that people should avoid panic and overreaction. But leading infectious disease experts cannot agree on how long it will take to bring it under control. Zhong Nanshan, an expert who played a crucial role in the fight against SARS, expects the coronavirus epidemic to peak in early February. “SARS lasted for almost five or six months, but I don’t believe that the new coronavirus will be able to continue for that long,” said Zhong, who is now Director of the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease in China. Gabriel Leung, Dean of Hong Kong University’s Medical School, who is leading a team of experts using mathematical modeling to predict the spread of the virus, expects the outbreak to peak in April or May in five major Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the South China Morning Post reports.

Several airlines have suspended flights to destinations in China, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Australia’s Qantas and U.S. airlines Delta, United and American. Some suspensions could last till March 29. Several countries are taking ever more draconian measures to try to stop the spread of the virus. The U.S. advised its citizens: “Do not travel to China!”. Travelers who are not U.S. citizens or directly related to a U.S. citizen will be denied entry if they are traveling from China or have been there in the past 14 days. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that no-one traveling from mainland China would be allowed into Australia from February 1. Returning Australian citizens and residents would be quarantined for two weeks. Nearly 10,000 flights were canceled between the outbreak of the virus and January 31, according to Cirium, which provides data and research on the travel industry, but the WHO has so far said that such limits on trade and travel aren’t needed to control the spread of the virus

China’s Foreign Ministry lashed back at the U.S. for banning foreign arrivals from China. The Chinese government itself is however taking measures to limit the number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad. All group tours have been suspended, domestically as well as internationally, and Chinese authorities have suspended the issuance of travel permits for mainland Chinese citizens to visit Hong Kong and Macao. The Ministry of Education also suggested that students and academics postpone travel abroad.

Hundreds of non-essential medical workers went on strike in Hong Kong on February 3, demanding the city close its border with mainland China to reduce the spreading of the coronavirus. Frontline staff are still on the job but were threatening to join the strike in the coming days. Only two border checkpoints between Hong Kong and mainland China remain open. Hong Kong has 17 confirmed cases of the virus and one death.

China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) emphasized that with the exception of Wuhan Tianhe airport and Hankou river port, which are closed due to the lockdown, China’s land, sea and airports are functioning, and foreigners can enter or exit as usual. However, neighboring countries, including Russia and Vietnam, have closed their land border checkpoints.

Countries including the U.S., France and Australia have been evacuating their citizens from Wuhan, although many hundreds still remain blocked in the city. A French airplane evacuated French, Belgian and citizens from other countries from Wuhan. After a stop in Marseille, the plane landed at Brussels’ Melsbroek airport on Sunday evening. The Belgian citizens were taken to the military hospital at Neder-Over-Heembeek while the governments of other countries made arrangements to pick up their citizens. Meanwhile China has sent charter flights to several international destinations to repatriate Wuhan and Hubei residents who became stuck abroad. A Xiamen Airlines flight repatriated 73 Chinese passengers from Bangkok. China’s Foreign Ministry said that the country would bring Wuhan residents back from overseas “as soon as possible” due to “the practical difficulties that Chinese citizens from Hubei, especially Wuhan, have faced overseas”. Embassies have also been withdrawing non-essential staff from China.

The Pasteur Institute in Paris announced at the weekend that it had managed to isolate and grow a culture of the new coronavirus. That means the virus is available for research, which puts scientists on track to develop a vaccine. But that will take time. Christophe D’Enfert, Scientific Director at the Pasteur Institute, told reporters in Paris that the vaccine could be made available in 20 months if “all goes well.” Beijing’s China-Japan Friendship Hospital will lead a clinical trial on the treatment of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) with Remdesivir in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Meanwhile, China has reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in Hunan province, which lies to the south of Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. “The outbreak occurred in a farm in Shaoyang city. The farm has 7,850 chickens, and 4,500 of the chickens have died from the contagion. Local authorities have culled 17,828 poultry after the outbreak, according to a statement by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. No human cases of the Hunan H5N1 virus have been reported. The risk of human-to-human transmission of this virus is very low.

The 1,000-bed Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan has begun receiving highly contagious pneumonia patients on February 4, less than 10 days after construction began. A second hospital will be put into service in the coming days.