Global cases surpass SARS; WHO declares emergency: Virus update

The death toll in China from the coronavirus rose to 213, as the World Health Organization declared a health emergency for a disease that now has more global cases than were officially reported during the SARS epidemic.

The WHO’s decision comes amid signs that the spread of the sometimes deadly pathogen shows no signs of abating. Confirmed cases in China jumped to 9,692, the National Health Commission reported Friday, up from about 7,700 a day earlier.

In the U.S., health officials reported the first case of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus, in a woman who traveled to China and then infected her husband. India documented its first case on Thursday, while Russia closed its land border with China to travelers.

Key Developments:

• LATEST: Death toll at 213, with 9,692 confirmed China cases
• Stocks advance after the WHO’s emergency declaration
• BA Halts China Flights Until March as U.S. Carriers Cut Back (3)
• Recap Bloomberg’s live blog of the WHO press conference here
• Read a Bloomberg Q&A with health experts
• Bloomberg is tracking the outlook here | Click here to view on terminal

Global Virus Cases Now Top Official SARS Count (7:58 a.m. HK)

The total number of coronavirus cases around the world has reached more than 9,800. That tops the count from the SARS epidemic, which in 2003 saw 8,096 officially reported cases, according to the WHO.

The latest tally shows the speed with which the new virus has spread in a short period of time, from the first case in December. It’s reached the same level that the SARS epidemic did during its span of about eight months.

An overwhelming number of the cases, as with SARS, are in China. The country currently has 9,692 confirmed cases, while there are about 100 cases outside Greater China across 18 nations.

The numbers come with a footnote, however. SARS cases were widely considered to be under-reported, as possibly thousands went undocumented in the first few months. At the same time, the official count for the current virus is likely to be below the actual number of cases, as health officials scramble to widen testing.

Economist Sees Far Bigger Impact Than During SARS (7:35 a.m. HK)

The global cost of the coronavirus could be three or four times that of the 2003 SARS outbreak that sapped the world’s economy by $40 billion, according to the economist who calculated that figure.

The sheer growth in the Chinese economy over the last 17 years means the global health emergency triggered by the coronavirus outbreak has far greater potential to gouge global growth, according to Warwick McKibbin, professor of economics at the Australian National University in Canberra.

WHO Calls Coronavirus International Emergency (3:06 p.m. NY)

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak centered in China a public health emergency of international concern, a step that will let public health authorities aid countries with less-robust health systems to stop the spread of the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China‘s efforts to contain the outbreak, saying he had never seen a nation respond so aggressively to a disease, including building a new hospital in just 10 days.

“Let me be clear: This declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China,” Tedros said. “On the contrary the WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”

It’s a contrast to the criticism China faced for a lack to transparency during the SARS pandemic 17 years ago, which killed almost 800 people.

Tedros says there’s no need at this time for measures that interfere with travel and trade, even though many governments, airlines and businesses have already taken such steps. He also urged people to be careful of rumors and rushing to judgment.

“This is the time for facts not fear,” Tedros said. “This is the time for science not rumors. This is the time for solidarity not stigma.”

In the past, the WHO has come under fire for raising the alert too soon as well as too late. The last respiratory illness to trigger a health emergency was the flu pandemic of 2009, which caused widespread alarm but ended up being relatively mild. The WHO’s emergency committee, a group of infectious-disease experts, last week delayed a decision on whether to make the emergency declaration.

U.S. Has First Human-to-Human Transmission (12:43 p.m. NY)

A woman in Chicago who had been diagnosed last week with the coronavirus infected her husband, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, the first case of human-to-human transmission to occur in the U.S.

Both patients are in their 60s and are doing well while being kept in isolation, CDC officials said on the call.The agency said the virus is not spreading widely and that the risk to the U.S. public remains low.

Disease experts are still trying to understand exactly how the virus spreads, and at what point after a person has become infected they become contagious. It’s also not clear, said CDC officials, how long a person has to be sick for before they will test positive. Both factors can present a challenge for public health workers who are keeping close tabs on contacts of people considered at risk.

The man and the woman had been in close contact, said the CDC, which appears to raise the risk of people becoming infected.

European Airlines Halt China Flights (12:09 p.m. NY)

European carriers led by British Airways said they’re temporarily quitting China as the deadly coronavirus spreads, following decisions by U.S. carriers to limit flights to the country.

BA took the most dramatic step, saying Thursday it will cease flights to Beijing and Shanghai until March 1 after acting on U.K. Foreign Office advice. Iberia, its Spanish sister carrier at IAG SA, is also suspending operations, while Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France and SAS AB said they’ll exit China until Feb. 9.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the decision on canceling flights would be left to U.S. airlines, for now. Almost 11% of flights scheduled to or from China were scrapped between Jan. 23 and Jan. 28, based on research from Cirium, which analyzes air travel.