on Sunday 97 people in China died from
the corona virus that's the highest
number in a single day since this crisis
began
we know the death toll as a whole is now
over 900 across China more than 40,000
people are infected and over a hundred
and eighty thousand are under medical
observation the only better news is that
the number of newly infected people per
day has stabilized
well his President Xi in Beijing a
prevention and Control Center you can
see him having his temperature checked
like many people have done the president
says he's working to prevent large-scale
job losses because of this virus but
that looks harder to avoid as each day
goes by
let's bring in Kerry Alan Chinese
specialist with BBC monitoring and Kerry
thanks for joining is and tell us more
about President Xi's visit and what he's
been saying today this was really
striking footage just in general anyway
given that I mean we were talking about
this coronavirus story back in January
and and then during Spring Festival
there was it was very apparent that Xi
Jinping was very much not in the public
eye and very quickly he appointed Lika
Chiang his deputy to be the kind of the
face of of handling the corona virus and
he visited Wuhan visited various
hospitals but people haven't really seen
Xi Jinping I mean even on newspapers
like People's Daily the big official
newspaper you'd expect him to see him
every day on the front cover but very
much since this coronavirus story
started becoming the story he's not been
anywhere and there has been speculation
that he's not been in the public eye
because people have wanted to criticise
him so he's very much this footage today
of him appearing meeting people being
very friendly wishing people well
talking to locals about the food they're
selling it's it's the first time that
we've seen him being open and talking
about the coronavirus in public Carey
stay with us please a couple of other
things to ask you about now this virus
was first detected in the city of Wuhan
and Wu has been in lockdown for weeks
now we have this graph from the Chinese
authorities which show the number of
deaths every day in China and you can
see those figures have been going up
through the last few weeks we also have
this map which shows which parts of
I have the highest number of cases the
darker the red the higher the number and
you can see Wuhan and its province who
Bay with the darkest red of all and
while all of this has been playing out
Chinese workers are meant to be
celebrating their Lunar New Year as you
can see it's not really happening in
Beijing but we know the break for the
Lunar New Year supposed to go to the end
of January but it was then pushed beyond
that it's now finished but things are a
long long way from normal
he's robbing bread well here in Shanghai
the commercial capital usually home to
24 million people it was supposed to be
the first day back but I have to say it
was a trickle the banks remain closed
most of the shops remain closed there's
a small number of people out there but
there are clearly a lot of anxieties
amongst people living here in Shanghai
and the numbers of those coming back is
almost certainly going to be staggered
as well
well the BBC Steve McDonald has just
finished a two-week quarantine period
after reporting from Hubei and he's been
sharing these pictures of deserted
streets in Beijing and as Robin was
saying despite the encouragement for
people to go back to work many many
people are obviously not turning out we
know factories and offices remain closed
in a number of cases here are some
residents in Beijing our company has
adopted some special measures including
sanitizing everyday the building is in
isolation we are required to wear masks
the whole day while at work actually I
still think it's a normal life
it's fine as long as we pay a little
attention to it for example disinfection
and being careful not to have close
contact with people
let's bring in Carrie again from BBC
monitoring and Carrie to what extent are
employers allowing people just not to
come to work very much so I mean even
you know the government has been telling
people that even if people are going to
work they need to very much distance
themselves be at least a meter apart not
eat food together so and also one of the
things we have to factor in is that
schools haven't returned that children
haven't returned to school yet so a lot
of parents for example they physically
can't
she'd get to work because they need
childcare and and you know childcare
centers like nurseries are closed as
well so parents are very much companies
are being sympathetic and recognizing
their until this virus dies down it's
probably better that people stay at home
rather than businesses going back to
work and President Xi has been talking
about wanting to avoid job losses are we
already at a stage where we can say
those losses are beginning well I think
I think there's a bit of leeway because
of this virus I mean yes there aren't
yeah there are jobs that are people are
nervous and they're trying to get back
to work but at the same time there have
been people who if they're trying to
race back or they're trying to do things
like this and put others at risk they do
risk short prison sentences for about 10
to 15 days so so yeah as I say there is
some leeway on this but but yeah
basically people are just thinking you
know for the greater good at the moment
companies employers as well as employees
stay at home and just type this out
Carey thank you very much indeed
well we've also heard from the World
Health Organization today it says the
fatality rate for this virus is about
two percent it's also expressed concern
about how it's spreading outside of
China here's it's director-general in
Geneva in recent days we have seen some
concerning instances of onward
transmission from people with no travel
history to China like the cases reported
in France yesterday and the United
Kingdom
today the detection of this small number
of cases could be the spark that becomes
a bigger fire but the UK government has
introduced new measures in England that
mean those in quarantine can be forcibly
sent into isolation if they pose a
threat and they also cannot leave
without permission the Press Association
is reporting that this steps been taken
after someone threatened to abscond from
one of the to quarantine centers
currently being operated we also know
there are cases of the virus in 24
countries now eight in the UK four of
which are connected to one businessman
we know he contracted the virus at a
conference in Singapore he then flew to
a ski
Resort in France there the virus spread
to five more people who remain in France
he then traveled to the UK initially to
Brighton on the south coast but now he's
being treated in isolation at a hospital
in London but a doctor's surgery in
Brighton is also saying one of its staff
has tested positive for the virus and
that story has led to the phrase super
spreader being used a lot in the news
today that's when one patient infects
significant numbers of people you can
find much more detail on how that works
in this article on the BBC News website
it's really important to stress though
it's not the patient's fault as people
who are showing no symptoms at all can
inadvertently spread the virus for
example we found this study from The
Lancet medical journal focusing on 2003
when a corona virus known as MERS was a
big issue that included a super
spreading event that led to more than 80
people being infected by one person well
for more on how this virus appears to be
spreading here's the BBC's Michelle
Roberts it appears that some people
might be able to pass the virus more
readily than others we don't know why so
experts so far had thought possibly
somebody who's infected might pass it to
two or three other people in this most
recent example it seems to be more than
that so hence the term super spreader
but it's not down to the individual is
just how the virus behaves in different
people so it is very much we're learning
how this virus you know it's different
for different people next we turn to
Hong Kong and Japan because passengers
on cruise ships have been in the eye of
the storm with this virus in Hong Kong
passengers leaving one ship and you can
see them here they were on board a
vessel called the world dream it's been
in isolation after some people on a
previous crews caught the virus well
they've now been allowed to disembark
and that was after the authorities in
Hong Kong carried out tests on 1,800
people on board and gave them the
all-clear it's a different story though
in Yokohama because there one cruise
ship has had to be kept isolated and
another 65 cases have been confirmed
among passengers the ship's being
quarantined since last week here you can
see it pictured it's called the diamond
princess
there are three thousand seven hundred
passengers on board and they've been
held in isolation for two they're going
to be held for at least two weeks and
that was after a passenger disembarked
at a previous stop and had tested
positive but unlike in Hong Kong where
everyone was tested that's not happened
in the case of this boat what sort of
the highlight this laboratory in Wuhan
because it's now specializing in testing
trying to under how this virus works and
how it's spreading the World Health
Organization says being able to diagnose
the disease effectively is crucial it's
being able to give people the all clear
once they have been tested is the w a
chose to write to general again wh o is
working to equip laboratories with the
capacity to rapidly diagnose cases
without vital diagnostic capacity
countries are in the dark as to how far
and wide the virus has spread well for
more on the difficulties of testing for
this virus on board a cruise ship here's
dr. Jennifer news o from Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health well I
think one of the challenges with these
cruise ships is you have everybody
captured at a moment in time and if it's
possible that they have been exposed and
are infected in by the virus then they
may show signs of that virus over the
next potentially up to two weeks and so
testing everyone at any moment in time
is going to be difficult to know truly
whether the person is infected or not
and I think this really speaks to one of
the challenges of trying to detain these
individuals and then decide whether or
not they're safe to go or not
particularly if they are on the ship and
then they're exposed to somebody who
then later develops an infection it sort
of begs the question whether they have
to start the clock over again for
another two weeks and whether that will
keep going in perpetuity depending on
how many people ultimately develop the
infection