Coronavirus: Cathay Pacific staff set for 21 days leave as spread continues
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific airline has asked all of its 27,000 staff to take three weeks of unpaid leave in the coming months as demand crashed thanks to the coronavirus outbreak.
The disease has now killed 490 people, with China’s National Health Commission confirming 65 more deaths yesterday, suggesting that the virus is spreading faster.
Yesterday the airline said it would cut 90 per cent of its flights to mainland China over the next two months, which it said would reduce capacity by 30 per cent.
More than two dozen airlines have now suspended flights to China, with several countries also banning the entry of those who have been there in the past two weeks.
Airbus has become the latest carrier to say it has been affected by the outbreak on the back of World Health Organization travel advice.
Today foreign secretary Dominic Raab said that the UK would charter an additional flight to bring British nationals back from Wuhan on Sunday.
About 165 Britons are said to still be in Hubei province.
Two cruise ships carrying around 3,700 passengers are also in quarantine off the coast of Japan after 10 people were reported to have tested positive for the illness.
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An additional 1,800 are confined to their vessel in Hong Kong after the vessel docked in the city, with three confirmed cases.
Hong Kong has now confirmed 21 cases of the virus, including at least four local transmissions. The city-state reported its first death from the illness on Thursday. In total, 230 cases have been reported in 27 countries outside of China.
The semi-autonomous region’s chief executive Carrie Lam said that the government would introduce new regulation meaning that anyone coming from mainland China must be quarantined for two weeks.
From Thursday Taiwan will ban the entry of people who live on the mainland.
Despite the continuing spread of the virus, Asian markets rallied this morning, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index up 0.4 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index advancing by 1 per cent.
Beijing has pumped billions of dollars into its financial system this week in a bid to limit the economic fallout from the virus.
China’s central bank is likely to cut key interest rates on 20 February and lower banks’ reserve requirements in the coming weeks, releasing more cash into the economy, sources told Reuters.