Coronavirus extends Chinese New Year holidays as government seeks to curb the spread

In the midst of the rising death tolls in China due to the coronavirus the government on Monday extended the Lunar New Year holiday. The regular office-goers have been asked to work from home in an effort to curb the spread. The total number of confirmed cases in China rose about 30% to 2,744 about half of them in Hubei province whose capital is Wuhan. As worries grew around the world, Chinese ruled Hong-Kong which has had eight confirmed cases  banned entry to people who had visited Hubei in the past 14 days. Meanwhile, the number of deaths from the virus has climbed from 56 to 76 with 5 deaths reported in China.

On the other hand, a small number of cases have been confirmed in more than 10 countries linked to people who traveled from Wuhan, no deaths have been reported elsewhere. The government is extending the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb 2.  The Lunar New Year is usually a time for milions of people to travel, but many have cancel their plans because of travel curbs over the virus. Moreover, the visa and passport services have been stopped until January 30.  Images from Wuhan showing hospital corridors packed with people seeking treatment have been going viral on social media.