Â鶹ŮÓÅ

The authorities drastically expanded a travel lockdown in central China on Thursday, essentially penning in more than 22 million residents to contain a deadly virus that is overwhelming hospitals and fueling fears of a pandemic. The new limits — abruptly decreed ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, China’s busiest travel season — were an extraordinary step that underscored the ruling Communist Party’s deepening fears about the outbreak of a little understood coronavirus. It has killed at least 26 people and sickened more than 800 in China and at least six other countries, including the United States, according to statistics from health officials. (Buckley and Hernandez, 1/23)

The authorities are scrambling to contain a rapidly spreading outbreak, restricting travel in 13 cities including Wuhan, the center of the mysterious outbreak. The new virus has sickened more than 800 people in China. (1/24)

The tally of deaths and infections from the spread of China’s new coronavirus mounted, further stretching hospital resources, leading to canceled events and more locked-down cities near the center of the outbreak. China’s National Health Commission confirmed 830 cases of infection on Friday morning, logging more than 250 new cases since an official count was released a day earlier. And the official death count rose to 26, according to the commission and state media. (Yang, 1/24)

While China’s state-run media has urged calm and praised the official response to the coronavirus outbreak, a different story is playing out across the country’s tightly controlled social media networks. In the digital world, China’s citizens are expressing panic and frustration. They are overcoming a lack of reporting in the official media by sharing their own videos and information — sometimes inaccurately. (Victor, 1/24)

A young, healthy man from Wuhan and a person living 1,500 miles from the epicenter of the coronavirus are among the latest victims of the outbreak, which has incited fear and anger across China as the important Spring Festival gets underway. Reports of eight new deaths from the pneumonia-like virus, taking the total to 26, came as authorities enforced a lockdown across large parts of the province of Hubei, population 59 million. But they also came as the medical system clearly struggled to cope with the outbreak, with reports of crowded hospitals, stressed doctors and dwindling supplies. (Fifield, 1/24)

The Chinese city of Wuhan, epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak, will build a dedicated hospital to treat patients, which it aims to complete in six days, state media outlet Beijing News reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed source at the construction company that will build it. (1/23)

Cutting off access to entire cities with millions of residents to stop a new virus outbreak is a step few countries other than China would consider, but it is made possible by the ruling Communist Party’s extensive social controls and experience fighting the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS. (1/24)

On Sunday, more than 10,000 families gathered in Wuhan for a banquet, sharing dishes including spicy duck necks and braised prawns, in a tradition the government had held for years to mark the Lunar New Year. Days later, Beijing made the unprecedented decision to lock down the city of 11 million people, shutting public transportation, movie theaters, internet cafes and other cultural centers, in an effort to contain the spread of a virus that has killed at least 18 people. (Wei and Deng, 1/24)

As the sun rose Thursday morning, Wuhan’s streets filled with people making their way to one of the main train stations, trying to escape being trapped in the city with a virus that had already killed 17 people. Thousands of travelers packed the station’s waiting hall after Chinese authorities announced plans to block travel out of the city, the latest measure to stop the spread of a deadly new strain of coronavirus believed to have emerged from an animal market in Wuhan. Some sat calmly, eating and chatting, while others, late to hear about the lockdown, rushed through in a panic. (Li, 1/23)

The pressure is rising on China as it tries to come to grips with a disease that some fear could rival SARS, which 17 years ago claimed almost 800 lives. While global experts have mostly praised efforts to contain the virus, Chinese citizens are increasingly critical and anxious as travel restrictions grow to encompass a population bigger than Australia. (Bloomberg News, 1/23)

The arrival of a new, sometimes deadly strain of coronavirus to just outside Canada's borders has health officials determined not to repeat the country's stumbling response to the SARS epidemic 17 years ago. SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, killed 44 people in Canada, the only country outside Asia to report deaths from that virus in 2002-2003. Government health officials say Canada is better prepared this time. (1/23)