SHANGHAI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The death toll from the outbreak of a coronavirus in China rose to 81 on Monday, as the Government extended the Chinese New Year holidays and a greater number of large companies closed or told their staff to work from home, in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, as the government sought to show it was responding seriously to the situation.
However, Asian stocks slumped, with Japan's Nikkei index falling 2%, its biggest daily decline in five months, as investors grew increasingly nervous. At the same time, demand for safe assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury bonds soared.
The total number of confirmed cases in China increased around 30%, up to 2,744, about half in Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan.
As fear grew around the world, Hong Kong, which has confirmed eight cases, banned entry to people who have visited Hubei in the past 14 days, a move that does not affect its own residents.
Nearby Macau, a city known for gambling that has had at least one case of the flu-like virus, has imposed a similar ban on citizens coming from Hubei unless they can prove they are free of the virus.
The city of Haikou on Hainan island in southern China said tourists from Hubei would be quarantined for 14 days. "The people of Hubei are being discriminated against," a Wuhan resident complained on the social network Weibo.
The number of deaths caused by the virus in Hubei rose from 56 to 76, according to health officials, adding to five deaths elsewhere in China.
Although a small number of cases have been confirmed in more than 10 countries, linked to people who traveled from Wuhan, no deaths have been recorded elsewhere.
Li is the most senior leader to have visited Wuhan since the start of the outbreak. Dressed in a blue protective suit and a mask, he spoke with patients and medical staff, the government reported.
The Government decided to extend the Chinese New Year holiday by three days to February 2, in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.
Chinese New Year is usually a time of travel for millions of people, but many have had to cancel their plans due to restrictions.
QUARANTINE
Wuhan is already practically quarantined and in other Chinese cities there are severe movement restrictions.
The city of 11 million people took new measures on Monday, suspending visa and passport services for several days.
Images from Wuhan circulated on social media showing hospital corridors full of people seeking treatment, as well as complaints about the increase in prices of essential products such as vegetables.
Chinese leaders have urged transparency in the crisis, after public trust was eroded by the cover-up of the spread of SARS respiratory syndrome, a coronavirus that originated in the Asian giant and left nearly 800 dead worldwide. between 2002 and 2003.
Not much is known about the new coronavirus, the ease with which it spreads or its danger. It can cause pneumonia, which has been fatal in some cases.
National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said on Sunday that the incubation period could vary between one and 14 days, and that the virus was infectious during incubation, unlike SARS.
For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the incubation period is two to 10 days. "Understanding the time in which infected patients can transmit the virus to others is essential to efforts to control it," the entity said.
The virus is believed to have originated late last year at a Wuhan market that illegally sold wild animals. It has spread to other cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as more than 10 countries, including France, Japan and USA.
Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health experts have questioned the effectiveness of these measures.
Last week the WHO stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.
Some of China's largest companies have been affected, with restaurant chain Haidilao International Holding closing branches across the country from Sunday to Friday.
The video game giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. advised staff to work from home until February 7.
(Reporting by Winni Zhou, Wu Huizhong and Josh Horwitz; additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo, Lidia Kelly in Sydney, Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva. Writing by Stephen Coates and Robert Birsel; edited in Spanish by Laura Hijón, Tomás Cobos and Javier Leira)
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