Virus batters economies

TOKYO: Amid fears about where the next outbreak of a fast-spreading new virus would appear, infections and deaths continued to rise across the globe on Sunday, emptying streets of tourists and workers, shaking economies and rewriting the realities of daily life.

There is growing evidence of the vast cost and economic turmoil of the disease that emerged in central China in December. A new report shows a sharp decline in Chinese manufacturing in February after efforts to contain the coronavirus shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy. The survey comes as global stock markets fall sharply on fears that the virus will spread abroad.