BEIJING: Infections from China’s coronavirus spread to more than 8,100 people globally yesterday, surpassing the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic’s total in a fast-spreading health crisis forecast to pummel the world’s second-largest economy.
The vast majority of patients are in China where the virus originated in an illegal wildlife market in Wuhan city and has also claimed 170 lives, latest official data showed.
But more than 100 cases have emerged in other countries, from Japan to the US, spurring anti-China sentiment and a wave of mask-buying.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said it was declaring the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency, as cases spread to 18 countries.
The declaration could further spook markets, already shuddering at the ripple effects of damage to China’s economy.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome also came from China, killing about 800 people and costing the global economy an estimated $33 billion.
Economists fear the impact could be bigger this time as China now accounts for a larger share of the world economy.
One government analyst has forecast the crisis would lop a percentage point off China’s first-quarter growth.
Global stocks tumbled yesterday, while the yuan hit its lowest this year.
Almost all the deaths have been in Hubei province – of which Wuhan is the capital – where 60 million people are living under virtual lockdown.
Australia, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Indonesia were quarantining evacuees for at least two weeks, though the US and Japan planned shorter, voluntary isolation.
Three Japanese, from 206 evacuated on Wednesday, were infected, and worryingly two of them had not shown symptoms, Tokyo said.
India was the latest nation to report a case, a student of Wuhan University. And South Koreans protested at facilities earmarked as quarantine centres, throwing eggs at a minister.
“The weapons that will protect us from the new coronavirus are not fear and aversion, but trust and co-operation,” said South Korean President Moon Jae-in as Seoul prepared to evacuate the first of about 700 citizens from Wuhan.
The impact of the crisis even reached an Italian cruise ship, whose 6,000 passengers were kept on board while tests were held on two Chinese travellers.
Airlines to suspend flights to mainland China include Lufthansa, Air Canada, American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Air France cabin crew unions were demanding the same, sources said, though the company has already allowed pilots and crew to opt out of China flights.
Fuelling concern over damage to China’s productivity, thousands of factory workers on Lunar New Year holidays may struggle to get back to work next week due to travel restrictions.
Policymakers are anxious, with China dominating US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference. “When China’s economy slows down we do feel that,” he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also voiced concern yesterday, saying he was closely watching the impact on Japan’s economy, including declining tourism from abroad.
Zhang Ming, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think tank, projected the outbreak would cut China’s first-quarter growth by one percentage point to 5pc or lower. Economists at Citibank and elsewhere have forecast a similar slowdown.
China has imposed travel restrictions and shut businesses to contain the outbreak, but that has not quelled rising concern among companies and governments across the world.
“Apart from the risk to human lives, it is likely to hit travel and consumption activities. In a scenario of widespread infection, it could materially weaken economic growth and fiscal positions of governments in Asia,” S&P said in a note to clients yesterday.
The International Monetary Fund said yesterday it was too soon to quantify the potential economic effects of the virus, noting that the direct impact on consumer and business demand had been most severe in Hubei Province, the outbreak’s epicentre. Any wider impact would depend on how quickly the virus subsides.
“There is a risk that these spillovers could be larger and reach further, we just don’t know at this point,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said.