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The death toll from the coronavirus climbed above 1,000, as the Chinese province at the epicenter of the outbreak reported its highest number of fatalities yet.
Hubei province removed two health officials from their posts, according to state television, as criticism has mounted over China’s transparency and speed in handling the epidemic. Beijing said it’s “very urgent” for companies to ramp up industrial production after plants have sat idle for weeks.
President Donald Trump said he believes warm weather will curb the spread of the disease, as the U.S. reported a 13th infection.
Key Developments
China death toll at 1,016, an increase of 108; confirmed cases at 42,638As Asia Panics, One Country Wins Praise for Approach to VirusWhen Coronavirus Hits a Ship It’s Too Late to Batten HatchesChina’s Virus-Hit Cities Remain World’s Biggest Ghost Towns
Bloomberg is tracking the outbreak on the terminal and online
China Pushes Big Companies to Meet Output Targets (4:15 p.m. HK)
China is urging the nation’s biggest companies to meet production targets despite the challenges presented by the coronavirus epidemic, as firms begin to restart plants that have been idled for weeks.
Regions that are less hit should accelerate the resumption of production, according to a nationally televised conference held by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The ministry said it was “very urgent” to resume industrial production and stabilize expectations.
The impact to China’s economy from the coronavirus will be short-term and won’t derail its longer term improvement, CCTV reported Monday, citing President Xi Jinping. China will strengthen controls on economic operations and monitor employment to avoid large-scale layoffs, it said.
Xi told local officials during a Feb. 3 meeting of the Politburo’s Standing Committee that efforts to contain the virus had gone too far and threatened its economy, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing unidentified people familiar with the meeting.
Dalio Says Market Impact Is ‘Exaggerated’ (3:57 p.m. HK)
Ray Dalio says the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on markets has been exaggerated and is likely to be short lived.
Investor concerns over the pandemic “probably had a bit of an exaggerated effect on the pricing of assets because of the temporary nature of that, so I would expect more of a rebound,” Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. “It most likely will be something that in another year or two will be well beyond what everyone will be talking about.”
Global equities have been in turmoil amid fears about the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Stocks climbed on Tuesday as investors looked for clues on whether the rate of contagion is stabilizing.
Virus Likely Cost China’s Retail and Food Sectors Billions (3:54 p.m. HK)
The outbreak of coronavirus may have cost China’s retail and food service sectors billions of dollars in sales during the Lunar New Year week, according to a leading food and agricultural bank.
Revenue lost in both retail and food services during the Lunar New Year week could range from 20% to 80%, representing a fall of $31 billion to $124 billion, as major chains shuttered stores across the country, Rabobank said in a report.
Chipmakers Skip Premier Mobile Show on Virus Fears (3:27 p.m. HK)
Intel Corp. and MediaTek Inc. have pulled out of Mobile World Congress, joining a list of marquee names skipping the wireless industry’s biggest annual showcase because of concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Fellow tech giants Ericsson AB, Sony Corp. and LG Electronics Inc. have already withdrawn from the conference scheduled to kick off in Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via on Feb. 24. The growing number of cancellations has called into question an event at which smartphone and networking companies from Huawei Technologies Co. to Samsung Electronics Co. show off their wares and launch new products.
The GSMA, which organizes the gathering, said it’s going ahead irrespective of the cancellations, though it’s requiring attendees to prove they’ve not set foot in mainland China in the two weeks prior to showing up.
China Stats Bureau to Survey Economic Impact (3:23 p.m. HK)
China’s National Bureau of Statistics will conduct a special survey on the economy amid the coronavirus epidemic and analyze the outbreak’s impact, according to a statement. The bureau will use data from the survey to advise the government on the resumption of production as well as the success of coronavirus control efforts.
South Korea Advises Avoiding Japan, Singapore (2:48 p.m. HK)
South Korea’s health ministry advised citizens to minimize travel to countries with confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, including Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan, according to a ministry statement. South Korea will strengthen quarantine screening on entrants from Hong Kong and Macau.
China Home Sales Plunge Due to Virus (1:29 p.m. HK)
Home sales in China have been dealt a huge blow by the spreading coronavirus, with figures showing transactions plunged in the first week of February. New apartment sales dropped 90% from the same period of 2019, according to preliminary data on 36 cities compiled by China Merchants Securities Co. Sales of existing homes plummeted 91% in eight cities where data is available.
CDC Confirms 13th Case in the U.S. (11:38 a.m. HK)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed another case of coronavirus in California, bringing the number in the U.S. to 13.
The latest patient is in San Diego, and was among citizens evacuated from Wuhan to the U.S. and under quarantine. The CDC said it is conducting an investigation to determine the patient’s contacts and assess if they had high risk exposure.
Trump Sees Warm Weather Curbing Outbreak (11:31 a.m. HK)
The U.S. has about a dozen people suffering from the coronavirus but all are expected to recover, U.S. President Donald Trump said.
Trump, speaking to Fox Business Network on Monday, said he believes warm weather will curb the spread of the disease beginning in April, and that Chinese authorities have the outbreak under control.
“I really believe that they’re going to have it under control fairly soon,” he said.
Hong Kong Won’t Enact Mask Laws (11:12 a.m. HK)
Hong Kong authorities have no plans to enact laws regulating the city’s supply of surgical masks, Chief Executive Carrie Lam told reporters at a weekly briefing.
Lam has faced criticism from the public in recent days as a mask shortage sent people scrambling to form long lines at pharmacies, while residents distrustful of her administration after months of pro-democracy protests staged a run on toilet paper. She urged Hong Kongers to reduce their number of social interactions as the city works to ward off a wider outbreak.
“We are making an appeal to people of Hong Kong to stay at home as much as possible,” she said. “This means they should avoid some social interactions, participation in social activities and family reunion and friends meeting.”
She said the government wasn’t calling for compusory closures, “because Hong Kong is a free society” and business operators were already taking strong precautionary measures.
Singapore Sees Up to 30% Drop in Tourism (10:32 a.m. HK)
Singapore could see a 25% to 30% decline in tourist arrivals and spending this year because of the coronavirus outbreak, as the industry braces for a worse impact than the 2003 SARS pandemic, the city’s tourism chief said.
The city-state is losing about 18,000 to 20,000 tourists a day, and the figures could plummet further if the situation persists for longer, Keith Tan, chief executive of Singapore Tourism Board, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
China accounts for about 20% of Singapore’s tourism intake, the biggest source of visitors ahead of Indonesia and India. China’s ban on outbound tour groups and Singapore’s move to bar Chinese nationals from entering has led to an “evaporation” of a key source of revenue, Tan said.
China’s Hubei Province Removes Top Health Officials (9:04 a.m. HK)
China’s Hubei province at the center of the virus outbreak has removed health commission head Liu Yingzi and party chief Zhang Jin from their posts, state-run CCTV reported.
Criticism has mounted over China’s transparency and speed in handling the epidemic. The government’s struggle to stem the outbreak has fueled concerns about President Xi Jinping’s efforts to centralize power since taking office, with officials pointing fingers over who’s to blame for the spread of the illness.
The death last week of a 34-year-old doctor, Li Wenliang, who was sanctioned by local authorities after warning about the disease, unleashed a torrent of grief and anger on social media.
Thailand Says Ship Won’t Be Allowed to Disembark (8:56 a.m. HK)
Passengers from a ship that has been blocked from other ports due to virus concerns won’t be given permission to disembark in Thailand, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a Facebook posting.
The Westerdam cruise ship, operated by Carnival Corp.’s Holland America, has been refused entry by a number of nations over fears that passengers may be carrying the coronavirus.
The ship departed Hong Kong on Feb. 1 with 1,455 passengers and 802 crew. It is set to arrive at a port near Bangkok on Thursday, and checks with health authorities indicate there is “no reason to believe there are any cases of coronavirus on board the ship,” Holland America said in a statement Monday.
Hong Kong Public Housing Residents Evacuated (8:30 a.m. HK)
More than 100 people at a public housing estate in Hong Kong were evacuated in the early hours of Tuesday after two people in the tower were confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus, South China Morning Post reported.
The move was precautionary after a 62-year-old woman, who lives several floors directly below a man who had earlier confirmed with the virus infection, became the 42nd cases in Hong Kong, according to the report.
China Death Toll at 1,016 (8:17 a.m. HK)
The death toll in China from the coronavirus rose to 1,016, with the addition of 108 fatalities for Feb. 10, according to the National Health Commission. Hubei, the province at the center of the outbreak, reported 103 more deaths, its highest daily count so far.
While the total confirmed cases in mainland China climbed to 42,638, Hubei reported 2,097 new infections, the smallest daily increase since Feb. 1.
Two additional deaths have occurred outside of mainland China: one in Hong Kong and the other in the Philippines.
New Estimate Puts Virus Death Rate at 1% (10:37 a.m. NY)
The mortality rate from the coronavirus is an estimated 1%, researchers at the Imperial College London said in a new report that attempts to account for mild cases as well as more severe ones at the center of the outbreak in China.
Researchers have been trying to estimate how severe the virus is, and to calculate how fast it spreads as well as how many people get severe illnesses or die. In China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak began, the fatality rate may be 18% for patients with severe symptoms, the researchers calculated.
“The impact of the unfolding epidemic may be comparable to the major influenza pandemics of the twentieth century,” Neil Ferguson, an infectious disease researcher at Imperial College London, said in a statement.
The researchers said the 1% mortality rate was an estimate of what will happen once all cases are counted, and after previously undiagnosed ones drive the rate down.
Any estimates “should be viewed cautiously” given the numerous uncertainties involved, the researchers warned in in their report. Mortality rates tend to shift in the middle of an outbreak as new and milder cases are found.
The U.K. researchers estimated that the typical time between onset of symptoms and death has been about 22 days, meaning that there may be a multiweek time lag between reporting of cases and when deaths from those cases become apparent.
Overall, the Imperial College London researchers estimated that 1.3% of Wuhan residents were infected with the virus as of Jan. 31, but only 1 in 19 of them were being tested for the virus – suggesting that the actual number of cases could be far higher than the official numbers indicate.
Toymaker: Closing May Hurt Holiday Sales (10:15 a.m. NY)
The CEO of one the world’s largest toymakers said many of its largest Chinese suppliers remain shuttered because of the coronavirus outbreak, with some pushing reopening dates back to the end of next month.
“It’s bad,” said Isaac Larian, who also founded closely held MGA Entertainment Inc. “People don’t realize. This won’t just affect the toy business; it’s going to have a major economic effect worldwide.”
While the idled factories haven’t had a major impact on MGA so far, prolonged closings could delay orders for the holiday-shopping season, according to Larian. China is by far the biggest maker of toys, with the industry’s hub in Shenzhen, and February and March is when factories do the bulk of production for Christmas goods that hit shelves beginning in late October.
China’s Xi Makes Public Appearance (6:20 a.m. NY)
Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first public appearance after the death of a doctor who became a hero for speaking out about the deadly coronavirus sparked public anger.
Xi visited the Chaoyang district in Beijing Monday afternoon “to learn about the situation of epidemic prevision and control at the grassroots level,” according to state-run media Xinhua. The agency published photos of Xi wearing a mask and having his temperature taken.
It was the first time Xi interacted with the public since a trip to Yunnan province from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21, part of a tradition the country’s leaders have of touring smaller towns and cities ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday.
–With assistance from Isabel Reynolds, Dominic Lau, Simon Lee, Cecilia Yap, Josh Wingrove, Karen Leigh, Nicolas Parasie, Ainslie Chandler and Ian King.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at [email protected];Robert Langreth in New York at [email protected];Li Liu in Beijing at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rachel Chang at [email protected], Jeff Sutherland
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