the new strain of corona virus continues
to spread from China the United States
has announced that foreign citizens
who've been in China in the past 14 days
will be temporarily barred from entering
the US Australia says it will also
refuse entry to all non-citizens
arriving from China so far 259 people
have died from the disease all of them
in China and there have now been
confirmed cases of the disease in more
than 20 countries across the world
forcing the World Health Organization to
declare a global health emergency I've
been speaking to our correspondent Steve
McDonald in Beijing and Mariko Oh in
Hong Kong about the situation in who by
province they've announced an extension
of the Lunar New Year holiday I mean I
guess they've got to do that what are
people gonna do 60 million people on
lockdown they can't go to work if their
workplace is outside their province and
they don't want people to be gathering
inside of who Bay the province where the
virus outbreak started many more
companies have told their employees not
to return to work for at least another
week and that's right across China and
that doesn't matter where they've been
they don't have to have been in her Bay
province or even in central China at all
Tianjin is the latest City to announce
strict restrictions on business and the
like saying that all companies not
involved in like essential services
including providing food water
electricity and the like should not open
not for another week they're saying
until further notice and tangen as one
as a huge industrial city a big port
very important for the Chinese economy
also important for the university school
sector et cetera schools their
universities have announced they won't
be opening again until further notice
Mariko just briefly from you you know
the Hong Kong economy has already been
having quite a tough year are there any
measures in place do you think that the
authorities will use to try to keep that
that that ekend the economy in check
well as you say there are definitely
concerns that while people here want to
stop the spread of the virus this
outbreak could have even further impact
on the economy as you said after months
of those pro-democracy protests the
tourism industry has been here the
retail sector has been hit in those
industries will be affected the hardest
by this Karuna virus outbreak and
therefore there will be some kind of an
impact on the economy and we can't
probably expect some kind of measures
from the authorities eventually to
cushion the blow but of course the
economy's already in a technical
recession and there could be as the
longer this carries on for the bigger
the impact will be on the economy as
well