Coronavirus outbreak: IMPACT ON CHINA

Coronavirus: Mood in China is not all doom and gloom

Residents monitoring the entrance to a residential compound in Beijing yesterday. Most Chinese are living in fear and staying home, but there is no widespread chaos or mass exodus - a sign that the Communist Party's credibility is pretty much intact.
Residents monitoring the entrance to a residential compound in Beijing yesterday. Most Chinese are living in fear and staying home, but there is no widespread chaos or mass exodus - a sign that the Communist Party's credibility is pretty much intact. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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Consternation, commendation, condemnation, contemplation, compassion and confidence - all these sum up the mood in China amid an outbreak of the lethal coronavirus in Wuhan.

The epidemic has spread from this provincial capital of Hubei in central China to all 31 Chinese provinces and municipalities as well as more than two dozen countries and regions. It has infected over 28,000 and killed more than 550 as of yesterday, sowing fear but not panic.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 07, 2020, with the headline Coronavirus: Mood in China is not all doom and gloom. Subscribe