On 31st December 2019, China alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, however the cause was unknown at this stage. By 7th January 2020, Chinese authorities announced that they had identified a new virus—a novel virus from the coronavirus family, which includes SARS. Shortly afterwards the first death caused by the virus was reported in China and the first case was established outside of China. By 23rd January, it was clear that it was beginning to spread rapidly. In an attempt to contain the virus, the Chinese authorities declared a lock-down in Wuhan, with all air and rail departures suspended. In the weeks that followed, a number of measures were implemented by China and other countries in an effort to contain the virus, including:
– closing national landmarks and attractions in China;
– locking-down more than 10 additional cities within China;
– extending the Lunar New Year holiday period;
– issuing a moratorium on all international business group travel and package (hotel and flight) travel;
– Russia closed its border with China;
– many airlines cancelling routes to China; and
– a number of countries shutting down all travel from China
However, the virus has continued to spread, with the WHO declaring coronavirus a global emergency on 30th January. As of 6th February, the coronavirus has been confirmed in just under 30,000 cases and has caused more than 560 deaths. Almost all cases are in China, but the virus has also spread to at least 20 other countries—albeit on a comparatively limited basis.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has sparked fears of a possible pandemic, similar to SARS in 2003, which claimed more than 700 lives in Asia. For now, the mortality rate of coronavirus (2%) remains below that of SARS (10%) and, to date, it remains largely concentrated in China. However, the scale and impact of the outbreak does have the potential to be worse than in the case of SARS—given that it is hitting a larger part of China’s population and that we do not know what impact the actions taken to prevent the spread of this virus will have on the economy.
