"Over Half Of China Shut Down In Bid To Halt Spread Of Coronavirus; U.S. Readies For 'Pandemic'"

From Bloomberg, "China Is About to Find Out Whether Its Mass Quarantine Worked": In the last two weeks, China locked down some 50 million people in more than a dozen cities to try and stop the new coronavirus that has sickened thousands in the province of Hubei. It may take as long as 14 days for the flu-like symptoms of the virus, dubbed 2019-nCov, to appear. Soon, China will find out if the largest mass quarantine in history has worked, or if undiscovered cases have quietly dispersed and seeded a far wider epidemic. The travel restrictions in Hubei’s 11-million-person capital of Wuhan began on Jan. 23—eventually halting air and rail travel, buses, subways and car services... The virus crisis is testing China’s ability to feed its 1.4 billion people, one of the Communist Party’s proudest achievements. Cooped up at home and fearful that the epidemic could last weeks or even months, families across China are hoarding provisions, making it harder for shops and supermarkets to keep fresh food in stock. Many places have closed off roads to passing traffic, slowing truck shipments and raising freight costs. [...] Officials are on alert for signs of strained supplies throughout the rest of the country. Retail prices for fresh food have crept up in many places. The Shouguang vegetable price index, a widely watched daily gauge, rocketed to a multiyear high last week. Poultry farmers are warning that supplies of chicken feed are running low because of transport restrictions and millions of birds could die as a result. As if one dangerous disease was not enough for China right now, the national government over the weekend reported a “highly pathogenic” outbreak of bird flu at a chicken farm in Hunan Province. Some 4,500 chickens had died, and 17,000 were culled preemptively... Their newly completed hospital (presumably this is the one in Huoshenshan that was built in just 10 days) looks a lot like a prison... Just a couple of weeks ago, scientists held out hope the new coronavirus could be largely contained within China. Now they know its spread can be minimized at best, and governments are planning for the worst. "It is not a matter of if—it is a matter of when," said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "There is not a doubt this is going to end up in most countries eventually." The U.S., with 11 diagnosed cases so far, plans to quarantine at military bases potentially more than 1,000 Americans evacuated from China's Hubei province. State health departments are activating emergency programs to isolate the potentially infected—a piecemeal approach that could range from specialized facilities to hotels. Some hospitals have tents in stock to use as emergency isolation wards. Adalja told CNBC on Tuesday the U.S. has to assume containment will fail but he believes it's likely to be a "mild pandemic" in America.