Passengers are seen onboard the Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, as it sits docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia following a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus, in Civitavecchia, Italy, on Thursday.
SHANGHAI/BEIJING--The U.S. government warned Americans not to travel to China as the death toll from a new coronavirus reached 213 on Friday and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency.
A new State Department travel advisory raised the warning for China to the same level as Iraq and Afghanistan. In a notice posted on its website, the department said: "Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China."
The death toll in Hubei, the Chinese province at the centre of the epidemic, had risen to 204 and there were 9,692 cases of infection nationally as of Thursday, Chinese health authorities said. A total of 129 cases have been reported in 22 other countries and regions, with no deaths outside China.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said all air traffic between Italy and China would stop, a more drastic measure than most countries have undertaken, after Italy announced its first confirmed cases in two Chinese tourists.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said the organization "doesn't recommend - and actually opposes" restrictions on travel or trade with China.
International alarm over the new coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, in December, is driven by its rapid spread and the fact that infectious disease experts cannot yet know how deadly or contagious it is. An increasing number of airlines have stopped flying to mainland China, including Air France KLM SA, British Airways, Germany's Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, while others have reduced flights.
American Airlines' pilots have filed a lawsuit seeking an immediate halt to China flights. A U.S. flight attendant who recently landed from one major Chinese city said a big concern was spreading the virus to families or being quarantined while on a layover.
"I didn't understand the gravity of the situation until I went there," said the attendant, describing general paranoia on the return flight, with every passenger wearing a mask.
"Now I feel like I'm on a 14-day countdown," said the attendant, referring to the 14-day incubation period for the virus, during which time Chinese health authorities say a person can be infectious.
Australia's powerful Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) on Friday called for the immediate suspension all flights from China. "Suspending flights originating from China may appear to be a drastic measure. But the consequence of inaction could be even more drastic. We need national leadership now," TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said in a statement.
Foreign governments continued evacuating their citizens from Hubei and holding them in quarantine. The first of four planned flights carrying South Koreans landed at the Gimpo International Airport.
Around 700 South Koreans have signed up for evacuation. South Korea will quarantine all evacuees for 14 days, even if they show no symptoms.
Stocks around the world tumbled on Thursday as the rising death toll fuelled fears of the economic fallout in the world's second-biggest economy, but steadied slightly on Friday after the WHO praised China's efforts to contain the virus
In a news conference in Geneva on Thursday evening, Tedros said the WHO was declaring a global health emergency because it was concerned about the virus spreading to countries that did not have the resources to deal with it. "The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China but because of what is happening in other countries. Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," he said.
The WHO move will trigger tighter containment and information-sharing guidelines to all countries, but may disappoint Beijing, which had expressed confidence it can beat the "devil" virus. China's U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, said Beijing was assessing the declaration.
"We are still at a very critical stage in fighting the coronavirus. International solidarity is extremely important and for that purpose all countries should behave in a ... responsible manner," Zhang said.
