China's Neighbors Sealing Off Borders; 100+ Confirmed Cases Outside Mainland China; Wuhan's Streets Virtually Empty After Lockdown; Australia Evacuating Citizens to Christmas Island
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Right now, 6,000 passengers on lockdown in a cruise ship. Fears that two of those passengers could have the coronavirus. Then --</s>ALAN DERSHOWITZ, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: His election is in the public interest.</s>ANDERSON: No limits when you are trying to win an election, at least that is what President Trump's lawyer argues. And -</s>NIGEL FARAGE, BREXIT PARTY LEADER: You may loathe populism, but I'll tell you a funny thing, it's becoming very popular.</s>ANDERSON: Mr. Brexit's last words to the EU before they cut his mic. Well it's 11:00 p.m. in Wuhan. It is 10:00 in the morning in D.C. It is 7:00 in the evening here in Abu Dhabi. Plus, it's almost time for Brexit. Hello and welcome to what is our expanded edition of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson for you. Well our big story this hour, the world's most populous country, China, sealed off. Russia shutting down its massive eastern border. Hong Kong also clamping down on some of its border crossings. In all-out measures to contain this Wuhan coronavirus. And right now, China reporting some 170 deaths from the outbreak with nearly 8,000 people sick within its borders. But this is not just a one country story. It is now truly global. The virus spreading its tentacles further and further every day in what has become a global supply chain of disease. In the coming hours, leaders of the World Health Organization, that's the W.H.O., of course, getting together to look at declaring a global emergency. We've been asking them on this show why they haven't yet done that. That's been over the last couple of days. Their message, well, we're watching closely. Meantime, the health body urging everyone to take action.</s>DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DIRECTOR-GENERAL: The continued increase in cases and the evidence of human to human transmission outside of China and of course was deeply concerning. Also, the numbers outside China are still relatively small. They hold the potential for a much larger outbreak.</s>ANDERSON: Look at this. On board this ship, some 6,000 passengers on lockdown at an Italian port. Now a husband and wife from Hong Kong are now being kept in isolation. The woman reportedly suffering from a fever. The two being tested for the Wuhan virus strain. We'll connect this all together. Let's bring in CNN's David Culver in Beijing who has been following every step of this story since the start. And standing by for us in Hong Kong, Will Ripley. David, let's start with you. Wuhan, geographically, ten times the size of New York City, yet now a ghost town.</s>DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Becky. And it's bizarre to see some of these images coming out of Wuhan. We are connected with folks after our trip down there who continue to describe just an eerie situation there. But it goes beyond that, too. Because you've got a balance of folks who are within this lockdown lifestyle and yet at the same time, trying to find some sense of normalcy. And what we're also learning tonight is that this goes beyond those in lockdown. This is an attempt now for folks in major cities like Shanghai and here in Beijing who simply want to get out of mainland China.</s>CULVER (voice-over): A normally traffic jammed highway in the city of Wuhan, China, near empty, only a few passing vehicles. Public transportation shut down. City buses sit untouched. Only a few residents spotted outside. Eerie for a city 11 million people call home. Major food chains closing to customers from Starbucks to KFC to McDonald's -- lights off inside. This Walmart open and crowded. Shoppers wearing face masks inside and quickly buying up what's left. Leaving bare produce stands behind. Outside the lockdown zone, similar scenes across mainland China.</s>JENNA DAVIDSON, AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT: There's 24 million people in shanghai and I'm walking in the middle of the street.</s>CULVER: This American college student, Jenna Davidson, arrived in Shanghai a few weeks ago for the spring semester.</s>DAVIDSON: You know, we got here before the outbreak and it went south really quick.</s>CULVER: She says finding food in the massive city has gotten increasingly difficult.</s>DAVIDSON: They shut down our campus. We almost felt as though they didn't realize that we're still living on it. Because we didn't even have like hot water for a few days and the cafeterias on campus are closed. So we started realizing, well, we need food, and most stores within walking distance have been shut down or it's like Zombieland in there. Folks fighting for what's left on the shelves.</s>CULVER: Jenna initially tried to keep positive.</s>DAVIDSON: This is the guy who takes my temperature nine times a day.</s>CULVER: She even sent this photo to her dad trying to reassure him.</s>DAVIDSON: For a while, I wasn't telling my dad everything. But he was finding out on the news just how bad it was so --</s>CULVER (on camera): Yes.</s>DAVIDSON: And it's been hard on him.</s>CULVER (voice-over): She and her fellow classmates now booked on flights to get out. Destination, anywhere but here.</s>CULVER (on camera): Where are you going?</s>DAVIDSON: Africa.</s>CULVER: Who do you know in Africa?</s>DAVIDSON: I don't know anyone in Africa. And what's most stressful is even though we're leaving, I still don't feel like we're in the clear yet. Because it's, I mean, what if we catch it in the taxi or at the airport on the way home, on the plane. We still need to be very careful. It's not over yet.</s>CULVER (voice-over): Back in Wuhan, social media shows how some residents keep moving inside their own homes, finding normalcy within the lockdown. But a look outside and you're reminded life here is anything but normal.</s>CULVER: A neighborhood security guard there walking around head to toe in that hazmat suit. Becky, it was interesting talking to Jenna. Because she also says that her friends were likewise desperate to get out of China. I asked them where they were going. They said Hawaii, one of them, London the other, which brings up the question of quarantine once they get to these places. Jenna fully anticipates that when she gets to South Africa, she will find herself in quarantine for up to two weeks. But this also explains why the World Health Organization's designation of a potential global emergency could also help in kind of setting the standards for this quarantine. And also the international scientists that are coming together here in Beijing, including members from the CDC would like to understand a little bit better the transmission of this virus and what an effective quarantine time frame might be -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Yes, and you make a very good point. Because the way that W.H.O. designates these things gives an opportunity or not for a kind of wider sort of involvement by the international community which oftentimes and one would assume particularly on this occasion, will be extremely important in containing this. David, thank you. Will, I have got some, quite frankly, images which are, I guess you could say pretty much pictures of the day. People in Hong Kong wearing mask, lining up to buy more of them. What's the mood on the ground there?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a city, Becky, that remembers 17 years ago when the SARS outbreak hit Hong Kong the hardest of all, nearly 300 people died here. And people who lived through that, through that nightmare say they'll do anything to prevent that kind of fear. So even though face masks aren't the most effective way to actually prevent the spread of this. Doctors say, they say you need to wash your hands with soap and water all the time. And if you sneeze, you wash your hands again. But people say wearing those masks, and you turn a corner, everybody's got them. They say it gives them some sort of feeling of protection in these very uncertain, difficult times.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): In Hong Kong, a city full of empty stores, this one has a line around the block. A three-hour wait for surgical face masks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They give only one pack for one person. Yes.</s>RIPLEY (on camera): Are you coming back tomorrow?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe, Yes, maybe. We need more masks.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): Demand is high. Supplies are low. Stores are quickly running out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They seem not to have anticipated the seriousness of problem and that it came so quickly.</s>RIPLEY: The same Hong Kong leaders who tried to ban protesters from wearing masks to hide their faces now cover their own. The government is taking emergency measures to prevent a public health catastrophe. Severely restricting travel from mainland China, the epicenter of the outbreak. (on camera): Normally there would be a steady stream of people from mainland China coming through these now locked doors. High-speed rail service is suspended until further notice. And that's really having a knock-on effect because this adjacent mall, just like malls all over Hong Kong, pretty much deserted. (voice-over): Hong Kong has about 300 reasons not to take any chances. That's how many people died in the SARS outbreak 17 years ago in 2003. This neighborhood, Amoy Gardens, was ground zero. (on camera): Are people living here scared that that could all happen again?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think all Hong Kong people were scared. Something like SARS would happen again in Hong Kong. All people.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): Those who lived through Hong Kong's darkest days describe psychological terror akin to 9/11, only stretched out for months. That fear of an invisible enemy has many heeding the government's advice. Stay inside, avoid crowds, if possible, work from home. (on camera): It's almost easy to forget that we're in the middle of the lunar new year here. This is supposed to be one of Hong Kong's busiest tourism weeks of the year. But all we have are these decorations, all the public events have been canceled. The people are gone. (voice-over): More than seven months of protests emptied out hotels, stores and restaurants. Now it's even worse. (on camera): Have you ever seen a Chinese New Year like this so slow?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, never.</s>RIPLEY: Never in your life?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since for 50 years, 50 years I haven't seen for that.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): Sales are down 70 percent, he says. And this was supposed to be a good week. Hong Kong's economy was already on life support. Now an even bigger worry for some. Staying alive.</s>RIPLEY: And, Becky, I think one thing that people here in Hong Kong understand better than most around the world is just how quickly this can happen. How one day you might have one case. The next day you have 100. And given the fact there are still people coming back and forth from the mainland, even though there are these travel restrictions in place, all it takes is for one patient to slip through the cracks and all of these measures people are taking could still not be enough to prevent a catastrophic situation. Not only here in Hong Kong but major cities and countries all over the world.</s>ANDERSON: Yes. You make a very good point, Will. Just coming into CNN, folks, the White House has just announced a coronavirus task force. David, the U.S. President has been tweeting about this virus. And at an event on Wednesday he suggested he spoke with China's President over growing concerns of what is going on. But a White House official tells CNN the two world leaders actually haven't been in contact since December. Look, the U.S. and China locked in trade negotiations, phase two of which are of course, yet to get off the ground. This virus outbreak clearly having an impact on the Chinese economy. There's no doubt that growth will take a significant hit. Whether or not Donald Trump really has been in official contact with President Xi. Might a perceived supportive stance by the U.S. at this point, at this juncture, when China is struggling so much actually be of benefit to these negotiations going forward, do you think?</s>CULVER: As of now it's something that I think that is so far removed from President Xi Jinping's mind as he's in the midst of trying to stabilize the social concern here, right. Because as this outbreak is expanding, part of the concern and the proceedings on social media is the idea who is responsible? There's concern that it perhaps was the local government that wasn't doing enough, under reported even. That's the allegation that's surfaced. And so now you have President Xi himself coming forward to say that he's going to take control of the coordination and deployment efforts. And the reason I say that, Becky, is because he hasn't really put much focus outside the domestic concerns right now. He's made no reference to the President of the United States in all of this. His only meetings that were public were with the head of the World Health Organization this week. And that was to say they'd likely allow in international scientists, including from the U.S. It's possible that members from the CDC would be part of that. Will that benefit things, relationship wise, going forward? Possibly. However, you also have to look at the movement that's coming out of the U.S. Congress in particular. And they are moving forward with bills that seem to be very critical of China with regards to human rights and that's something that came out even just in the past few weeks. So those are continuing to surface and it's tough to see if China will be able to sift through and look at one versus the other. Congress versus the President.</s>ANDERSON: Yes, David Culver is in Beijing. Your work has been terrific. David, thank you for that. And, Will, always a pleasure. Thank you. Well every country handling this country in its own way, we want to take a look at Australia for you, though, as its response is pretty unique. Get this -- some of its citizens saying they would prefer to stay in Wuhan at the epicenter of the virus rather than be evacuated. On the face it that doesn't quite make sense. Does it? So what gives? Well, their chartered flight out of China would not actually go straight to Australia itself but rather, it would land thousands of kilometers away on Christmas Island. Up to 600 evacuees would be quarantined for two weeks at an immigration detention center there, reopened -- let me tell you -- by the government early last year. The detention center only houses one family right now. And as the "Guardian" newspaper reports, the head of the Australian Medical Association now warning that the facilities medically inadequate if someone falls seriously ill. This is how Australian officials are defending their stance on this. The reality is people need to be accommodated somewhere for up to 14 days. I can't clear out a hospital in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane. I don't have a facility otherwise that we can quickly accommodate for what might be many hundreds of people. And Christmas Island is purpose built for exactly these scenarios. Well, that, despite the fact that Australia is already quarantining a Chinese football team at a hotel in Brisbane. Drop even more salt into the wound. Australian media reporting evacuees have been asked to pay almost $700 for a seat on that evacuation flight which is actually higher than some commercial flights. It's one of those wrap your head around that one, isn't it? Well, before we leave this here for now, I want to ask, where did all of this begin? Biologically speaking that is or perhaps what are known as biological supervillains. Bats might be the answer. They can harbor many, many viruses that can spread to humans. We've heard that before. We've got a lot more on that. It is at CNN.com. Donald Trump's defense team lays out a stunning argument. But is it a shrewd defense play or an act of desperation? Let's take a look at that up next. Then --</s>FARAGE: I know you're going to miss us. I know you want to ban our national flags, but we're going to wave you good-bye. And we'll look forward in the future to working with you as sovereign.</s>ANDERSON: Well do not adjust your TV sets. Yes, they cut his mic and we talk to the woman who actually did that. Cut off Nigel Farage. That is later in the show.