China to shut down travel in the city of Wuhan to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus.

A subway in China. BBC. 

China is shutting down travel in the city of Wuhan, which has 11 million people, to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus. BBC. The flu-like respiratory virus has spread in China infecting at least 500 people and kill 17 of them. The virus, 2019-nCoV, is related to both Sars virus and the common cold. China has shut down trains, planes, subways, buses and ferries. Events and attractions are being shut down and residents in Wuhan are being advised to not leave the city. However, the incident is happening during the Lunar New Year celebration, which is a week long holiday where many Chinese people travel. The Coronavirus outbreak has not yet warranted a emergency declaration. 

My Comment:

Something to keep an eye on. This new virus looks like it could cause some problems if it is allowed to spread. The fatality rate is around 4% as far as I can tell, which is much higher than the flu and other similar viruses but it also seems to spread as quickly as the cold or flu. That's a fairly dangerous virus, even if most of the people who died were also sick with other illnesses or in poor health. 

I was going to write this off as another medical scare like Sars or the Zika virus, the latter of which I didn't even bother covering. Though the virus is a bit more deadly than some of the other virus that have broken out in the past, I wasn't worried about the spread of the virus. 

However, the Chinese government appears to be taking this outbreak extremely seriously. You don't just shut down a city of 11 million people if you don't think the situation is a bad one. Especially during a holiday week where millions of people travel and stimulate the economy. 

It makes me wonder if this outbreak is worse than previously thought. China is far from truthful when it comes to things that are embarrassing and they have reasons to lie about this situation. They don't want to cause a panic and don't want the economic disruption a virus panic would cause. 

That being said, no matter the size of the outbreak, China appears to be doing the right thing. By cutting off Wuhan and making the people there don't get into close contact with each other, they can snuff out the virus before it spreads. It is unfortunate that the virus has spread before they took this action, but it should make the virus much more controllable. If they can keep the quarantine up the virus should quickly die out in a week or two.    

I think the virus could be a problem if it does spread. A virus that spreads as easy as the flu but has a fatality rate of 4% could kill quite a few people if it becomes widespread. It wouldn't be hugely bad compared to something like the Spanish Flu or even the West Africa Ebola outbreak, but it could cause a pretty big panic and do damage to the economy. It would sicken a lot of people and probably kill some people who were sick with other diseases, but the main damage would be psychological.