China's northern neighbor Mongolia has
closed its border with the country to
cars and pedestrians in a bid to contain
the coronavirus more than 80 people have
died since the outbreak are started and
there are estimates that nearly 6,000
people have been infected around half of
those we believe have recovered let's
get the latest live with our
correspondent Robin Browns who joins me
now from Shanghai Robin welcome to you
just got this news a short time ago
about Mongolia closing its border with
China what more do we know it's what
we're seeing is foreign governments
doing two things those that neighbour
China certainly to the north are seeking
to stop completely any travel between
the countries and so we're seeing the
Mongolian government closing its border
that is a vast border that runs all the
way from the West shinjang all the way
over to the East far north of Beijing
North Korea which also borders China in
that part of the world it shut its
border several days ago other
governments are trying to extract some
of their people who are living and
working in Wuhan in the last hour or so
the Spanish government has said it will
do what it can to try and get 20 or so
people China Spanish nationals who are
in place they're out the British
government has a similar effort in place
the Americans as well have slightly more
advanced plans to remove two to three
hundred people as well so that's what
our foreign governments are doing to try
to prevent the spread or try to remove
their people from Wuhan which is the the
epicenter of this outbreak and what are
the latest figures as far as we
understand them from the authorities so
as of today I'll just look down at my
notebook here eighty people have died of
coronavirus
in mainland China 2744 confirmed cases
just over five and a half thousand
suspected and thirty thousand four
hundred or so are being monitored so
that's where the numbers are the death
toll continues to increase and we had
reports in Hainan which is an island
province right down in the south of
China today the latest victim there was
an 80 year old woman so that shows you
the spread of the virus almost
completely nationwide Robin as this
Isis deepens there seems to be
increasing speculation about how open
and honest the Chinese authorities
really are being with a number of people
in and outside of China saying look we
think the real numbers are much higher
what's your sense of how accurate they
probably really are well there is a fog
of war so to speak on this there's no
doubt when you look at some of the
reporting and speak to people were here
for the SARS outbreak back in 2002 so
that's nearly 18 years ago that it is
very different to that details of this
outbreak emerged in public pretty
quickly after the Chinese government at
a national level was told about them I
think the issue may have been what did
officials in Wuhan on a provincial and
citywide level know and when did they
know it because the big concern now even
though the Chinese government is
throwing its vast logistical weight
behind the medical effort the supply
effort is that frankly it may just be
too late because in the earlier weeks
when officials in Wuhan around who Bay
Province may have known of the
beginnings of this outbreak it may not
have been dealt with as seriously it may
not have been conveyed as seriously to
national government at that stage I kept
Robin brown in Shanghai thank you for
the update while Stephen McDonald is in
Henan province where the authorities are
trying to contain the corona virus and
brought us the latest so this is a train
station in Hunan where as you can see
they've got protective clothing on all
those people who went home to see their
families for the Lunar New Year break
well they are now returning to the big
cities hundreds of millions of them now
in Hubei Province where it broke out of
course they won't be coming back so
easily but everywhere else like in this
province hernán there are people who
have been sick with the virus they all
have to go back coming in to train
stations people are wearing face masks
using hand sanitizer and the like
clearly the officials here are being
very precautious they're checking
people's temperature when they come in
so here's a family about two
give them their tickets and be checked
on the way into the station when people
arrive back in cities like Beijing
though life won't automatically go back
to normal for example schools they're
delaying classes that's kindergarten
schools and universities all imposing a
bit of a sort of safety period while
they decide whether or not they can
resume classes again and officials here
in China have even extended the Lunar
New Year holiday to give them a bit more
breathing space to deal with this crisis
Stephen MacDonald at a train station in
Henan Province there