in many parts of China this is the new
normal
very few people on the streets and the
usually crowded public transport system
Albert empty like here in Shanghai every
passenger has stopped and every
passenger screened for signs of the
coronavirus it's fine our temperature
was taken both getting on and off the
train everyone has a mask on I feel
relieved it may look like a country
grinding to a halt but this is China's
response to a mass public health
emergency one week after these drastic
measures were introduced the numbers of
infected still keep climbing up people
are anxious they prefer to stay at home
and not to go out on the streets or wear
a mask when they go out on the streets
this here is a major tourist destination
usually this area is quite busy with
people walking around having snacks
sightseeing now people prefer staying at
home nobody really knows whether the
measures the government has taken will
be able to contain the virus so people
are taking their own measures of
precaution and that means minimizing
social contact as much as they can
elsewhere a lack of basic necessities
and information are eroding confidence
in the authorities in Hong Kong people
have been queuing since 2:00 a.m.
hoping to buy face masks the Hong Kong
government should do like Macau's and
say every resident can only buy ten
pieces that way every single Hong Kong
person could have a face mask to wear
right as the second plane load of
repatriated Japanese nationals touched
down in Tokyo it caused some to wonder
what this type of outbreak could look
like if it happened during the Olympics
here in July
I take it as a wake-up call for us to
take precautions against an outbreak
like this especially towards the
Olympics
yes Japan is naive I think Japan should
step up measures in South Korea the
government is building a containment
facility for those infected people here
fear for their safety the governor and
Minister should come here and try to
find a point of compromise what are they
doing bringing troops here are we in a
battle this is such nonsense they're
really creating a mood of fear in South
Korea as in many other countries some
residents feel the government's response
to the crisis has lacked the apparent
intensity and clarity of China's all
right let's get some analysis on this
story now we can speak to virologist Ian
Jones from the University of Reading in
England hi Ian good to have you here on
DW I would ask you about the raft of
measures that we've seen countries take
to try to contain this outbreak multiple
countries evacuating their citizens from
affected areas we've seen China shutting
down or locking down entire cities is
this the right approach to stop this
from spreading it's the right approach
at the current time time will tell
whether or not it's been effective in
either stopping or slowing the progress
of the virus I think as the numbers
continue to rise it looks increasingly
likely likely that this will become a
pandemic and will eventually spread
around the world we've seen as you said
this is spreading and we see in first
cases reported in the Philippines in
India these are densely populated
countries in how worrying is that you if
we look at the efforts now to try to
contain the spread yes it is worrying
for two distinct reasons one is as you
say these are very dense populations so
the opportunity for transmission among
people is much higher than it would be
in a low population density country but
in addition to that these are areas of
the world which
also have quite a hide burden of
respiratory disease particularly things
like TB and until the virus gets there
we really don't know what to expect in
terms of the severity of the infection
in those target populations and you said
this could become a pandemic how
dangerous is this virus in comparison to
other diseases other outbreaks we've
seen like SARS in 2003 for example it
certainly lost much less in serious than
SARS the case fatality rate for SARS was
around about 10 percent currently this
is running around 2 percent that is
still pretty high it would at that
number it would be almost like the
Spanish influenza at the early part of
last century however if it's true that
there are many more infected people than
the confirmed cases then the actual
fatality rate is somewhat lower than
that and more like a seasonal influenza
which perhaps could be coped with more
easily by the existing health resources
the World Health Organization is set to
decide today whether they should declare
this a global health emergency should
they do so I mean what would that change
or whether they should do so or not
depends on them and the data that they
have at hand which I don't have I would
guess perhaps that on this occasion they
didn't on the last occasion but on this
occasion they will consider it a global
health emergency there's been sufficient
spread internationally I think and what
that would do was just mobilize more
resources with alerts barriers up
country boundaries and maybe alert
healthcare systems that they need to put
mitigation processes in place all right
Ian Jones speaking to us from the
University of Reading in England thank
you for your insight