Coronavirus Cases See Biggest Jump Since Statistics Began; A Look Inside A Locked-Down Country

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Live Updates: 24,000 Infected In China
The numbers of infected people in mainland China once again rose sharply, with 65 new deaths and 3,887 cases reported on Tuesday alone, authorities said Wednesday morning. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in China to 24,324, with more than 3,000 in critical condition. The increase once again represented the biggest jump since the National Health Commission began releasing statistics and continues the trend of larger increases in cases confirmed every day of the outbreak. China has reported 490 deaths, and two others have succumbed from the illness, one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. (Mahtani, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cases Rise Above 24,000 As Hong Kong Reports First Death
The Chinese special territory had previously restricted only entry to the casinos by people who had been to China’s Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. In China, a member of the National Health Commission’s group to study the virus acknowledged in an interview with state broadcaster China Central television that resources in Wuhan weren’t adequate to handle the high number of cases there. Jiang Rongmen said that was part of the reason there is a higher death rate in the city. The death rate from the virus is 4.9% in the city but 2.1% nationwide, according to the health commission. (Yang, 2/4)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus: In China’s Yangtze River Heartland, Fear And Loathing On The Road To Wuhan
One hand clutching her furry bunny purse and another propping up her disabled grandmother, Shi Zhiyu hobbled down the empty highway on a one-way journey across the Yangtze River. Home never seemed so far from here. “You won’t be able to come back,” a police officer warned at the last checkpoint before the bridge rose and then disappeared toward Hubei — the locked-down heart of the coronavirus outbreak. (Shih, 2/5)

The New York Times: Giving The Gift Of Mobility In A City Locked Down By Coronavirus
His days are long, 12 hours crisscrossing the city and ferrying local residents to buy groceries, get medicine and go to the hospital. And the roads he travels are mostly empty since the city was sealed off, public transportation was shut down, and private vehicles were mostly banned in an effort to contain the coronavirus. In his blue and white car, Zhang Lei is the rare sight on the streets of Wuhan. (Qin, 2/4)

The Wall Street Journal: China Marshals Its Surveillance Powers Against Coronavirus
In January, a person infected with the dangerous new Wuhan coronavirus used public transportation to crisscross the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, potentially exposing those along the way to the highly contagious pathogen. Using the country’s pervasive digital-surveillance apparatus, authorities were able to track—down to the minute—the sick person’s exact journey through the city’s subway system. (Lin, 2/4)

Bloomberg: Will China’s Coronavirus Quarantine Halt The Virus?
In the last two weeks, China locked down some 50 million people in more than a dozen cities to try and stop the new coronavirus that has sickened thousands in the province of Hubei. It may take as long as 14 days for the flu-like symptoms of the virus, dubbed 2019-nCov, to appear. Soon, China will find out if the largest mass quarantine in history has worked, or if undiscovered cases have quietly dispersed and seeded a far wider epidemic. (Armstrong, 2/4)

CNN: Coronavirus Global Death Toll Soars To Nearly 500
The coronavirus outbreak has killed 492 people worldwide, the majority of which are in China, and infected more than 24,500 people across 25 countries. Close to 60 million people remain under lockdown in China, with three cities reporting over a thousand confirmed cases. Around 3,700 people are being held on a ship in Japan, including 400 Americans, after a passenger who had departed the vessel tested positive for the virus. (Yeung and Renton, 2/5)

CNN: Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak Is Not Yet A Pandemic, WHO Says
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is not a pandemic, World Health Organization officials said Tuesday, adding that they’re hopeful transmission of the virus can be contained. The agency acknowledges that it is challenging to contain the virus because of global mass movement. “We are not in a pandemic,” Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of the World Health Organization’s Infectious Hazards Management Department said in a press conference on Tuesday, explaining that the virus is currently considered to be an epidemic with multiple locations. (Senthilingam, 2/4)

WBUR: In Quarantined Wuhan, Hospital Beds For Coronavirus Patients Are Scarce
Scientists and public health authorities in China and around the world have mobilized quickly to identify and treat a global outbreak of this new strain of the coronavirus. But in Wuhan, which has fully a third of the more than 24,000 confirmed cases of the illness as of Wednesday, overwhelmed hospitals are struggling to screen all potential cases and to treat the ever-growing number of patients. (Feng, 2/5)

Miami Herald: Coronavirus Leads To Travel Bans By U.S., Caribbean Nations
The Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, have not made any official announcements about travel restrictions, but over the weekend both countries prevented Chinese visitors on a private jet from getting off the plane. Authorities in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia also prevented Miami-based Carnival Corporation’s AIDA cruise ship AIDAPerla from docking at its port of Castries after it was reported that 14 passengers were being treated for upper respiratory issues. (Charles, 2/4)

Bloomberg: Hong Kong to Quarantine Travelers; Almost 500 Dead: Virus Update
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak climbed toward 500 as confirmed cases worldwide reached almost 25,000. Hong Kong announced plans to quarantine travelers coming from the mainland, while thousands remained stuck on cruise ships. Japan said 10 people on a cruise liner tested positive for the disease. In Hong Kong, 3,600 passengers and crew from another ship were quarantined after three travelers were found to have the virus.Meanwhile, European stocks and U.S. futures rebounded following reports on possible vaccines and treatments. (Bloomberg News, 2/4)