56 MILLION CHINESE ON LOCKDOWN AS VIRUS SPREADS TO AUSTRALIA, CANADA AND MALAYSIA

Summary

• First nCoV death reported in Shanghai
• Toronto health officials to announce first ‘presumptive case’ of coronavirus in Canada
• 1975 Cases Worldwide; 56 deaths (still about a 3% mortality rate)
• 18 Chinese cities – 56 million people – quarantined
• President Xi said China faces a ‘grave situation’ as the spread is ‘accelerating’
• US and Russia planning evacuation of citizens from Wuhan
• Australia and Malaysia join the list of global nations with nCoV cases, in addition to France, Pakistan, Singapore, the US and Nepal
• Chinese President Xi Jinping empowered local governments and said teams from Beijing will be sent to severely impacted areas to strengthen front-line prevention and containment
• The US and France chartered planes to evacuate diplomats and nationals in containment zones
• The director of the CDC says she expects cases of human-to-human transmission in the US
• China banned all domestic tour groups immediately and overseas group tours from Jan 27
• Starbucks and China said they were closing some stores in China
• Wuhan is building a second emergency hospital, this one with 1300 beds
• 3 doctors in Beijing who visited Wuhan are confirmed to have the virus

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Update (1934): Let the scapegoating begin.

Whispers about the top brass in Beijing and their displeasure with the local authorities on the ground in Wuhan have been circulating for at least a day. Now, the South China Morning Post has confirmed that President Xi is planning to throw local health officials under the bus.

In order for it to look like China’s leaders were simply caving to the public’s demands, doctors and the state-controlled press have lined up to criticize Wuhan’s top brass for not foreseeing and moving to prevent the severe shortages of supplies, workers and space that is now prompting China to build two massive hospitals in the span of 10 days. Doctors and journalists on the scene in Wuhan are calling for the local leaders – who were not named in the SCMP story – to “immediately step down”.

It’s early Sunday morning in Beijing, and with the new day comes a new batch of disheartening reports: Hubei province reported 13 new deaths, and the first death was reported in Henan province, bringing the total number of virus-linked deaths outside Wuhan to three.

More alarmingly, Chinese state media has reported a death from the virus in Shanghai. The reports have since been corroborated by the Western press

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