China opens virus hospital, market plunges as toll grows

China sent medical workers and equipment to a new hospital built in 10 days, infused cash into tumbling financial markets and further restricted people's movement in sweeping new steps on Feb. 3 to contain a rapidly spreading virus and its escalating impact.

Health authorities released updated figures of 361 deaths and 17,205 confirmed cases, an increase of 2,829 over a 24-hour period, as other countries continued evacuating citizens from hardest-hit Hubei province and restricted the entry of Chinese or people who recently traveled in the country. The World Health Organization said the number of cases will keep growing because tests are pending on thousands of suspected cases.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, presiding over a special meeting of the country's top Communist Party body for the second time since the crisis started, said "we have launched a people's war of prevention of the epidemic."

He told the Politburo standing committee that the country must race against time to curb the spread of the epidemic and that those who neglect their duties will be punished. His speech was read by an anchor on the major evening news program of state broadcaster CCTV.

Reopening of schools was also delayed to keep the virus from spreading further in Hubei, where the 1,000-bed hospital in the provincial capital Wuhan was completed in just 10 days. A second hospital with 1,500 beds will open within days. Restrictions were tightened still further in one city by allowing only one family member to venture out to buy supplies every other day.

Medical teams from the People's Liberation Army were arriving in Wuhan to relieve overwhelmed health workers and to work at the new hospital, located in the countryside far from the city center. Its...

Continue reading on: