(Reuters) – A coronavirus outbreak that began in Wuhan, the capital of China’s central province of Hubei, has spread to more than 9,800 people globally, surpassing the total from the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic. The new virus has killed 213 people.
Here is what we know:
** There are 131 confirmed cases in 23 countries and regions outside mainland China, including Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and the United States.
** No deaths have been reported outside China.
** The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday.
** The United States reported its first case of person-to-person transmission. Germany, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea have also recorded similar transmissions, which suggest greater potential for the virus to spread.
** Several Chinese cities have levied strict travel curbs.
** The U.S. State Department told Americans not to travel to China.
** Japan advised its citizens to put off non-urgent travel to China and brought forward special measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
** Global airlines have suspended or scaled back direct flights to China’s major cities.
** Countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United States are working to evacuate citizens from Wuhan or have already started.
** A charter flight carrying 368 South Koreans from Wuhan landed in Seoul. The evacuees were taken to quarantine centers.
** A plane carrying 83 British and 27 other foreign nationals left Wuhan, the British government said.
** Authorities in Myanmar turned back a China Southern flight from Guangzhou with almost everyone on board after one of the passengers was found with flu symptoms similar to the coronavirus, a government spokesman said.
** Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam rejected calls from a medical union to close the border with mainland China to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
** China’s aviation authority sent two flights to bring back its tourists stranded in Thailand and Malaysia.
** China will release winter and spring vegetable reserves in major northern cities to ease supply shortages amid the new coronavirus outbreak, state news agency Xinhua reported.
** The Chinese Football Association said it would postpone domestic games in 2020.
** The World Athletics Indoor Championships scheduled in the Chinese city of Nanjing in March have been postponed until 2021.
** The coronavirus should have little impact on the U.S. economy, President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser said.
** China’s capital Beijing said that companies in the province will postpone reopening until Feb. 10 in order to help prevent the spread of a new coronavirus, government newspaper Beijing Daily reported.
** Some experts believe the virus is not as dangerous as the 2002-03 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that killed nearly 800 people, or the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has killed more than 700 people since 2012.