Live updates: China’s reopened stock markets plunge as coronavirus outbreak spreads around the world

Security personnel wear masks in the financial district in central Beijing on Monday. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

By Simon Denyer, Derek Hawkins and Adam Taylor -Feb. 3, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. EST

Coronavirus cases continue to surge in China while new infections are being reported around the world. Stock markets in China, reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday, recorded their sharpest falls in more than four years Monday, reflecting increasing concern about the damage the outbreak is inflicting on the local economy. Here’s what we know:

● China’s National Health Commission reported Monday that there are 17,228 confirmed cases in China, including 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao. The self-governing island of Taiwan reported 10 cases. The World Health Organization reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China.

● China’s main share indexes plunged more than 8 percent, reopening after a 10-day break, as economists continue to revise growth forecasts downward.

● The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified Congress on Sunday that it might need to transfer as much as $136 million to help combat the epidemic.

● The United States recorded its 11th case of the coronavirus, with a couple from central California falling ill after the husband’s trip to China’s Hubei province at the epicenter of the outbreak.

5:30 p.m.

Pentagon says four military bases could house up to 1,000 people needing to be quarantined

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is offering four military bases to house as many as 1,000 passengers who may need to be quarantined after traveling overseas, as part of the administration’s efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

A Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Rath Hoffman, said Monday that travelers could be housed at the 168th Regiment, Regional Training Institute in Fort Carson, Colorado; Travis Air Force Base, California; Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.

Health and Human Services officials will oversee treatment and observation, according to Hoffman. “DOD personnel will not be in direct contact with these individuals,” he said, “nor will these individuals have direct access to the bases beyond the housing.”

The military is already housing 198 people at March Air Reserve Base in California.

As the virus spreads, federal and state officials are scrambling to find places to put quarantined travelers. The Trump administration on Friday announced mandatory quarantines for any Americans who have visited China’s Hubei province within 14 days of their arrival in the United States. The government is also requiring screening and self-quarantines for Americans who visited other parts of China.

Any non-U.S. citizens who have traveled to China within the past two weeks will not be allowed into the United States. All flights from China are being routed through 11 U.S. airports.

By Derek Hawkins

4:40 p.m.

How a coronavirus got its name — and how it works

WASHINGTON — In the 1960s, scientists first started to identify virus particles with a crown-like display of sugary proteins. They called the family of spiky virions coronavirus, as the Latin word for crown is corona.

These crowns, they learned, are how the virus binds to and infects a host cell to replicate itself. From outside the body, the virus may look like people with a respiratory illness coughing and sneezing, spreading it in microscopic droplets.

But inside the body, the virus looks like this, according to an illustration of the ultrastructural morphology by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 novel coronavirus, which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, on Jan. 29. (Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Via Reuters)

Scientists know a great deal about these viruses – but there remains even more that they don’t know such as exactly how coronaviruses mutate from animals to humans, and how to stop it.

Thanks to the fast work of scientists, experiments are underway to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus: The development of vaccines takes months to years, but they are off to a promising start after researchers were able to quickly determine the novel virus’s genetic sequence.

By Miriam Berger

4:06 p.m.

Coronavirus appears to be spreading exponentially in Wuhan, scientists say

BERLIN — The new cornovirus outbreak appears to be growing exponentially at its epicenter in Wuhan, China, according to scientists, who cautioned that only limited modeling is possible with current data.

The term “exponential” is subject to some debate. In colloquial speech, it is often used to describe fast growth, but its real definition is more specific. An outbreak that grows exponentially grows at a rate proportional to its size. In other words, it grows faster and faster as its size increases.

The growth profile is influenced by a number of factors. Among them are the mode of transmission and “the percentage of the population that is susceptible to the disease,” Gerardo Chowell, a Georgia State University School of Public Health professor, said in an email.

Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University, said that “the exponential increase is typical of the early growth of an epidemic with sustained human-to-human transmission.”

Chowell added, “For instance, for the case of pandemic flu, we can expect early exponential growth since it involves a novel pathogen spreading through the air and via close contact in a population where most of the population is susceptible.”

But once people begin to note the start of the flu season, their behavior changes: They may wash their hands more frequently or avoid exposure to potentially ill friends and colleagues.

“Research on past outbreaks indicates that the exponential growth trend is short-lived and tends to slow down within the first few generation cycles once the effects of control interventions and behavior changes kick in,” Chowell said.

By Rick Noack

3:36 p.m.

Taiwan is frustrated that WHO keeps treating it as part of China

The coronavirus outbreak has pushed the disputed status of the self-governing island of Taiwan to the global health forefront.

Taiwan says it’s a self-functioning, independent country. China insists it’s not. Beijing says that, like Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan’s 23 million people are part of China’s “one country, two systems” approach. It’s a long-standing dispute in which Washington has maintained a middle ground, neither recognizing Taiwan as independent nor as a part of China.

The World Health Organization, however, has in practice taken China’s side.

From 2009 to 2015, Taiwan was annually invited to be part of the WHO’s decision-making body under an observer status. Then in 2016, China blocked Taipei’s bid. The move was part of China’s overall strategy to keep Taiwan out of international organizations, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Taiwan’s interests are often ignored, and Taiwan is extremely isolated in the international community,” she said.

Flash forward to the coronavirus outbreak, and Taiwan, because it’s not part of the WHO, is not provided with the latest updates or invited to participate in meetings.

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