The total number of confirmed coronavirus infections stood at 2,887, with 2,827 of them in China, as the Guardian’s live coverage wrapped up on January 27, 2020. The reported death toll was 82.
Outside China the count was small but widening. Australia had 4 confirmed cases, Cambodia 1, France 3, Hong Kong 5, Japan 3, Macao 2, Malaysia 3, Nepal 1, Singapore 4, Taiwan 3, Thailand 5, Vietnam 2, South Korea 2, Sri Lanka 1 and the United States 5. Cambodia and Sri Lanka reported their first cases that day.
Governments tell citizens to stay away
Turkey urged its citizens not to travel to China unless necessary. Its foreign ministry said those who do go “should stay away from the regions where the cases are seen, especially in Hubei province.” Ukraine advised against all but essential travel to Hubei, the epicentre, and told people heading to China to avoid contact with anyone showing signs of respiratory disease. Hong Kong barred Hubei residents from entering.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a calmer line. It said “the immediate health risk from [coronavirus] in the U.S. is currently considered low,” and described illness among the infected as ranging from little or no symptoms to severe disease and death.
Evacuations and contact tracing
France expected to bring back up to a few hundred of the 800 French citizens living around Wuhan, with each evacuee spending 14 days in quarantine. Japan planned charter flights from Wuhan for citizens who wanted to leave, as early as Tuesday. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said about 430 Japanese nationals were confirmed to be in Hubei.
In Britain, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that “all possible means” were being used to reach the 1,460 people who had travelled to the UK from Wuhan before the lockdown. Officials were working with Border Force, airlines, universities, schools and cultural organisations. The Guardian’s headline noted that 73 people tested in the UK had come back negative.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth asked whether the NHS had enough specialist beds, pointing to ECMO equipment that might be needed to treat the virus and was already in high demand. Hancock said four centres were stood up and ready, at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and the Royal Free in London, in Liverpool and in Newcastle.
Vaccine work and the WHO
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations announced it would “begin three programmes” aimed at a vaccine, working with the World Health Organization and other partners. WHO chiefs met in Beijing on Monday. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had urged China the week before to keep lockdown measures “short in duration.”
One claim drew doubt. China Daily released images it said showed the first wing of a specialist hospital built in Wuhan in 16 hours. Twitter users pointed out that the modular building in the photo appears elsewhere on the internet.
