Nintendo joins the list of companies whose business has been disrupted by the crisis.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Death toll in China rises to 563 as lockdown enters third week.
- Wuhan told to round up infected residents for new mass quarantine camps.
- Xi orders crackdown on people who undermine efforts to fight virus.
- In the quiet streets of Wuhan, the party tries to be heard.
- Day two of a cruise ship quarantine: permission to breathe.
- Nintendo, Qualcomm and Yum China join list of companies hit by coronavirus.
- Online rumors send Hong Kong on a hunt for toilet paper.
Read Updates in Chinese
新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总
The death toll and number of infections continued to soar in China, officials said Thursday.
It has been two weeks since the authorities in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, declared that the city would be locked down as they tried to contain the virus’s spread. The cordon that was first imposed around the city of 11 million quickly expanded to encircle roughly 50 million people in the province of Hubei.
The lockdown is unprecedented in scale and experts have questioned its effectiveness. Wuhan and the province of Hubei have borne the brunt of the epidemic as the sudden shutdown of transportation links into and around it slowed down the transportation of vital medical supplies. The fatality rate in Wuhan is 4.1 percent and 2.8 percent in Hubei, compared to just 0.17 percent elsewhere in mainland China.
The Chinese government says the quarantine has prevented a broader outbreak in the rest of the country, but its impact on residents in Wuhan and Hubei have raised ethical concerns.
“This is almost a humanitarian disaster” for the central Chinese region, said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Center for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who cited insufficient supplies of medical equipment, food and other necessities. “The Wuhan people seem to be left high and dry by themselves.”
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