A6| Monday, February 24, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
warnings as dozens of trips
out of China are canceled.
A U.S. freeze on visitors
from China is a blow to hotels
and retailers that rely on their
spending. Asian economies
that have grown dependent on
Chinese visitors and commerce
are reeling. Singapore last
week cut its annual GDP fore-
cast to around 0.5%, down
from 1.5%. Thailand estimatestourist arrivals could drop by
13% this year as Chinese are
grounded. In Vietnam, a small
economy highly dependent on
Chinese supply chains, exports
in January fell 17.4% year-to-
year to their second-lowest
level since the U.S.-China
trade war began, official data
showed. Imports were down
13.7%, led by a 16% plunge in
those from China.From steel to furniture,
Vietnam built much of its
economy on importing semi-
finished material from China,
then exporting the finished
products to developed econo-
mies such as the U.S. Now,
over 50% of manufacturers are
experiencing difficulty sourc-
ing supplies because of disrup-
tions from the virus, the Amer-
ican Chamber of Commerce inshave 0.1 percentage point of
global output, the fund said as
it updated its forecasts,
though the Chinese economy
would likely recover in the
second quarter.
“This is a human tragedy,
but it also has negative eco-
nomic impact,” IMF Managing
Director Kristalina Georgieva
said at the summit.
Hyundai Motor Co., af-
ter shutting some of its Chinese
factories this month, sus-
pended one of its main assem-
bly lines in Ulsan, a big South
Korean city, because it couldn’t
get parts from China. Asiana
Airlines Inc., South Korea’s sec-
ond-largest airline, put its
10,500 employees on staggered
shifts of 10 days’ unpaid leave
from Wednesday.
Major electronics producers
that depend on Chinese parts
have suspended output be-
cause of the outbreak. Others
are weighing reloca-
tion. Japan’s exports to China
are expected to drop 7% this
ContinuedfromPageOne
Korea’s military base is on a
virtual lockdown.
Shincheonji’s eight-story
church building remained
closed after services were can-
celed there, as well as at more
than 70 other locations across
the country. Yellow-vested city
officials sprayed disinfectant
on the exterior of the church
building. Shincheonji—which
means “new heaven and earth”
in Korean—on Sunday said it
had shut its facilities and is do-
ing everything in its power to
reach its members.
Normally, around 8,000 toThe mobilization comes as
South Korea reported its sev-
enth death linked to the virus.
More than half of South Ko-
rea’s infections have been linked
to a Daegu location of a secret-
ive megachurch, which the gov-
ernment recently referred to as
a cult. Other recent cases in-
cluded an employee at a Sam-
sung Electronics Co. smart-
phone facility near Daegu,
which was closed through Mon-
day morning.
The U.S. State Department
raised its travel advisory for
South Korea—placing it at the
second of four levels—and
warned travelers to “exercise
increased caution.” On Satur-
day, Israel blocked the entry of
hundreds of South Korean
tourists, drawing a protest
from the Foreign Ministry in
Seoul.
Since the start of the local
outbreak traced back to the
Shincheonji Church of Jesus in
Daegu, this southeastern city
of 2.4 million people has
ground to a halt. The mayor
has told people to stay indoors
and avoid large gatherings.
U.S. soldiers stationed in
Daegu aren’t allowed to visit
off-base establishments. South9,000 people attend Sunday
services at the Daegu church,
former members said. They
said worshipers typically kneel
close together at services and
don’t wear face masks, attend-
ing even when showing symp-
toms of illness.
As the church’s role in the
outbreak became public, South
Korean officials struggled to
contact Shincheonji members
after the distribution of a
member’s text message implor-
ing others to stay quiet. Shin-
cheonji has said the message
had been sent without the
church’s approval.
“Our church members are
citizens of South Korea and the
greatest victims of the virus,” a
Shincheonji spokesman said.
The group has also called the
coronavirus epidemic the work
of Satan.
The link between church
members and the outbreak in
Daegu has angered some resi-
dents. “They could still be
walking around the streets of
Daegu, and officials haven’t
been able to track all of them
down,” said Kwon Oh-young, a
70-year-old taxi driver who has
lived in the city for four de-
cades.Codogno and nine other nearby
towns in Lombardy were put
under quarantine on Saturday.
Italian Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte didn’t say how
long the quarantine would last.
A town in Veneto, a region
that borders Lombardy, where
there is a much smaller cluster
of cases, is also quarantined.
Authorities in the Austrian
province of Tyrol temporarily
stopped all train traffic com-
ing from Italy on Sunday,
holding two trains with
around 500 passengers at the
Brenner Pass on the Italian
side of the border. They were
acting on fears that a train
had two people on board who
may have been infected withthe Covid-19 virus. The two
passengers subsequently
tested negative and their train
was set to continue its trip,
Austrian Interior Minister Karl
Nehammer said.
The government has or-
dered police to ensure people
in the quarantined towns don’t
try to leave, Mr. Conte said. He
said that while he is confident
people will respect the quar-
antine, he is ready to call in
the armed forces to help the
police if necessary.
Mr. Conte said a family in a
car had broken the quarantine
before police were in place,
but had been tracked down.
None of the family tested posi-
tive for the virus.In Milan, five hospitals re-
mained on high alert, ready to
accept people with respiratory
problems. Authorities canceled
all large public gatherings in
Lombardy, including scheduled
soccer matches in Milan and
the nearby city of Bergamo.
Another match was canceled
in Verona, which is in Veneto.
“We need to do everything
possible to interrupt the ad-
vance of this virus,” Attilio Fon-
tana, the regional president of
Lombardy, said in an interview
on Sky News. “We don’t want to
shut down Milan and Lombardy,
but we have to take certain pre-
cautions. Life must go on.”
In early February, Italy can-
celed all flights to and fromWORLD NEWS
China, but that didn’t stop the
arrival of the virus as people
weren’t restricted from con-
necting to Italy with stopovers
in other countries.
Mr. Conte pointed to the
travel ban as an indication of
Italy’s attempt to avoid just
the sort of outbreak that has
engulfed the country.
Mr. Fontana said Italy should
increase controls at its borders.
The outbreak came in the
midst of Milan’s women’s fash-
ion week. Armani said it would
hold its fashion show behind
closed doors on Sunday after-
noon. A large trade show for
the eyewear industry sched-
uled to begin at the end of the
coming week was canceled.MILAN—Part of Italy’s eco-
nomic heartland woke up un-
der a quarantine on Sunday
with more than 50,000 people
not allowed to leave their
towns, as the country began to
grapple with the worst coro-
navirus outbreak outside Asia.
The first effects hit Milan,
the engine of Italy’s economy,
which is just 40 miles from
the outbreak’s epicenter. Trade
shows, soccer matches and
other public events were can-
celed. The mayor of Milan, It-
aly’s second-largest city with
about 1.4 million residents,
said the city’s schools would
be closed for a week.
As of Sunday evening, more
than 150 people in Italy had
tested positive for the virus,
with about 115 of them in
Lombardy, the region where
Milan is the capital. Three
people have died, including
two in Lombardy. The number
of infected rose throughout
the day on Sunday.
Health officials struggled to
explain how in just a few days
Italy went from having three
cases, two of them Chinese
tourists, to becoming by far
the site of Europe’s biggest
outbreak. Authorities are try-
ing to reconstruct how the out-
break started, a step needed to
track down all people who
might be infected without yet
showing symptoms.
One focus is an emergency
room in a hospital in Codogno,
the town south of Milan at the
center of the outbreak.
BYERICSYLVERS
Italy Locks Down as Virus Spreads
Quarantine is imposed
on Milan amid worst
incidence outside Asia;
public events halted
A police officer wore a protective face mask on Sunday in Venice, where the annual Carnival was cut short amid virus fears.ANDREA MEROLA/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCKHONG KONG—New cases of
coronavirus flared outside
China, adding to global health
officials’ worries about the
spread of the disease in dan-
gerous new pockets of infec-
tion.
Iran’s health ministry on
Sunday confirmed the eighth
coronavirus-related death in
the country, out of a total of
43 confirmed cases. The min-
istry said at least 785 people
with coronavirus-like symp-
toms were being examined.
Pakistani officials said Sun-
day the country had sealed its
land border with Iran as a re-
sult of the outbreak there,
though Islamabad made no of-
ficial announcement.
Pakistan is estimated to
have the world’s second biggest
Shiite population and about
500 people per day cross the
border to Shiite-majority Iran.
Travelers are being turned
back by Pakistani authorities
on the road as they approach
the border, officials said.
“This really is a new virus
and we’re learning as we go
along,” said Margaret Harris, a
spokeswoman for the World
Health Organization. “We’re
seeing some cases that don’t
have a clear epidemiological
link,” she said.
Infections that are now
emerging in people who ha-
ven’t traveled to China or
come into contact with con-
firmed cases show “it’s not
clear how the virus is spread-
ing,” she said.
Authorities in South Korea
said Sunday the country has
recorded 602 cases, up sharply
from 30 last week. That makes
it the most virus-hit nation
outside China.
In Italy, more than 150 peo-
ple have tested positive as of
Sunday—up from just three
cases a few days ago—prompt-
ing the government to quaran-
tine 11 towns in the northern
part of the country.
The emergence of clusters
of infection in new countries
in recent days is “quite con-
cerning,” said Malik Peiris,
chief of virology at the Univer-
sity of Hong Kong, who has
studied how the virus spreads.
He said those infected with
the coronavirus could be
transmitting it from just be-
fore they develop symptoms in
addition to after they are
symptomatic, complicating ef-
forts to contain the disease.
“All it takes is for someone to
slip through the net,” he said.
As of Saturday, there were
more than 75,000 confirmed
cases and more than 2,
deaths globally, most of them
in China, according to the lat-
est WHO data. New cases in
recent days have been re-
ported in Lebanon and Israel,
bringing the total number of
countries hit to 28.
—Saeed Shah in Islamabad
and Aresu Eqbali in Tehran
contributed to this article.BYNEWLEYPURNELLOutbreaks
Proliferate
Outside
China
Daegu’s largest marketplace,
the Seomun Market, which is
filled with fresh-fish merchants
and clothing stores, was tem-
porarily shut on Sunday for
disinfection. After the market
reopens, it will be short of gov-
ernment-provided protective
supplies, having received just
1,780 masks and 1,950 contain-
ers of hand sanitizer, said Kim
Young-oh, president of the
Daegu Merchant Association.
That is insufficient for a mar-
ket with 20,000 merchants, he
added. On Sunday, the mayor
of Daegu said the city would
purchase one million masks
from the Ministry of Food and
Drug Safety to deal with supply
problems.
“The city has been annihi-
lated because of Shincheonji
Church,” Mr. Kim said.
Elsewhere in Daegu, corona-
virus fears have disrupted ev-
eryday life.
The busiest shopping street
in Daegu, called Dongseongno,
was desolate, as residents
heeded the mayor’s order to
stay home. Many shops were
temporarily shut because of
the virus. Signs at convenience
stores along the street read:
“Masks sold out.”DAEGU, South Korea—Cafes
here demanded orders must be
takeout or delivery. A typically
bustling market hollowed out.
The rare flicker of activity oc-
curred at stores selling face
masks, though most had run
out.
These are the scenes of ee-
rie silence unfolding in Daegu,
South Korea’s fourth-largest
city and an epicenter for a cor-
onavirus outbreak that sky-
rocketed to 763 cases on Mon-
day morning—a roughly 25-
fold rise in just five days. In
response, President Moon Jae-
in raised the country’s virus-
alert system to the highest of
four levels, calling it a severe
situation that requires “unprec-
edented, powerful” measures.
South Korea, confronted with
the highest coronavirus count
outside China, is granted
broader authority by going to
the maximum red level. The
government can implement con-
tainment policies that restrict
domestic travel and block public
activities. It also pushed back
the start of the school year by a
week, to March 9.
BYDASLYOON
ANDTIMOTHYW.MARTIN
Fear Grips South Korea Amid Mounting Cases
Source: Korea Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention6000100200300400500Jan. 20 Feb. 1 10 23Cumulative
coronavirus
cases reported
in South Koreaquarter from the prior one, NLI
Research Institute economist
Taro Saito said. Videogame gi-
ant Nintendo Co. said this
month that some shipments of
its flagship Switch gaming con-
sole are delayed as it can’t get
parts from Chinese factories.
Piling onto two years of
China-U.S. trade tensions, the
impact of the new coronavirus,
which has killed more than
2,000 people in China, could be
severe. Countries most reliant
on China could see more than
half a percentage point wiped
off their gross domestic product
this year, some economists say.
China now accounts for
nearly a third of world GDP
growth, up from around 3% in- Between 2000 and 2017,
the world’s economic exposure
to China tripled, according to
estimates by the McKinsey
Global Institute.
That rising dependence
weighs most heavily on Asia.
In 2000, China accounted for
just 1.2% of global trade, said
the World Bank. Its share was
one-third in 2018. In Asia, that
measure went from 16% to 41%
during the period.
The impact is felt every-
where. Apple Inc. said it won’t
meet revenue projections for
the first quarter as the epi-
demic shuts its China plants.
In Europe, container-ship op-
erators are preparing profit
Vietnam said last week.
Australia, with an economy
six times as large as Viet-
nam’s, is also feeling the ef-
fects. Two decades ago, China
was a relatively peripheral
trading partner, trailing the
U.S., Japan and Korea as ex-
port destinations. But as Bei-
jing massively invested in in-
dustry, China’s enormous
hunger sucked up ever larger
shipments of iron ore and coal
from the continent. Last year,
China accounted for nearly
40% of Australia’s exports.
Australia’s BHP Billiton
Ltd., the world’s largest miner,
said it expects to revise its ex-
pectations for commodity-de-
mand growth downward if the
epidemic isn’t contained by
the end of March.
The downturn has spilled
over to ancillary industries.
Sydney-based WiseTech Global
Ltd., which provides cloud-
based software to track prod-
ucts, downgraded its 2020
earnings forecast on Wednes-
day, saying China’s shutdown
had forced a delay of new
product features it had hoped
would lift revenue.
“This is a once-in-a-genera-
tion event,” Chief Executive
Richard White said.
—Timothy W. Martin,
Stuart Condie, Megumi
Fujikawa and Rory Jones
contributed to this article.Epidemic
Takes Toll
On Growth
People at a Shanghai Apple store wore masks on Friday as they waited to get their temperatures taken.ALY SONG/REUTERS