Shanghai dining spots marooned on Valentine's Day amid coronavirus outbreak

Shanghai dining spots are unusually free as Valentine's Day nears on February 14 amid coronavirus outbreak, according to the reports. A Shanghai restaurant owner Bill Hu finds himself free as the lights are out at seul&SEUL, his French dining restaurant in an upscale mall in China's commercial hub. Hu expressed his concerns that the virus epidemic came all of a sudden and added that his restaurant had about 170 customers the previous Valentine’s Day. As per the reports, many customers who had made reservations had to cancel ahead of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

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1,369 died, 60,374 infected

Many businesses are reeling under adverse impact of coronavirus outbreak that triggered harsh travel bans across China, with authorities urging people to stay indoors leaving large cities deserted. The chef at Heritage by Madison, Austin Hu said that the past few weeks had been “brutal”. He added that he has just one booking in this Valentine's Day so far. The death toll due to the coronavirus outbreak in China has reached at least 1,369 as the number of fatalities in Hubei — the Chinese province at the centre of the epidemic — more than doubled to 242. The province also reported 14,840 new cases as it revised the method for counting infections. This brings the total number of cases in China to 60,374. 

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China restricts entry of foreigners

Hubei province said it carried out a review of past suspected cases, and revised its data to include “clinically diagnosed" cases in its daily disclosure. Of the 16,067 new cases, 13,332 are from the new category, while of the 242 new deaths, 135 are from the new category. Wednesday's report marked the highest infection and death count in a single day since the outbreak began.
The outbreak first took place in Wuhan in January after which multiple countries started evacuating their citizens from the country, and have decided to restrict the entry of foreigners returning from China.

The virus was officially also named 'COVID-19' at a conference in Geneva held by the World Health Organisation, where the body's chief said that countries had a chance of stopping its global spread. Earlier this month, WHO also declared Coronavirus as a 'global public health emergency'. 

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