Summary:

• Confirmed cases rise to just shy of 35K in China and 24 other countries, deaths surge by 86 to 722, set to surpass SARS total in hours; total number of people under observation jumps to an all time high of 189,660.
  
  
  
  • Suspected cases rose to 27,657 from 26,359 the day before, with 6,107 people in in serious/critical condition. Patients who have recovered jumped to 2,050,
  
  
  
  


• 6,107 people are in serious/critical condition


• Reporter says 'real' death toll could be closer to 20k


• German scientists say coronavirus can survive for 9 days on surfaces


• Chinese quarantine expanded to Guangzhou; 400 million now on lockdown


• Singapore raises response level to Orange


• Hong Kong confirms case No. 25


• Death of Dr. Li stokes demands for more free speech in China

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Update (2000 ET): After two days of declines in the number of "new cases" reported by China's National Health Commission, and the latest number of total infected in China coming in below JPMorgan's daily estimate - no really, to JPM the number of daily new infections is just like the jobs report: it either beats or it misses...

... Saturday, Feb 8 saw an unexpected reversal in the downward slope in new cases, and as the NHC reported moments ago, as of Feb 7, China reported a total of 34,546 cases, (higher than JPMorgan's base case forecast of 34,224, shown below)...

... an increase of 3,385 overnight, and the first rise in new cases in three days, suggesting any hopes that the pandemic had already peaked were just crushed.

Adding the 365 international cases, means that as of Saturday, there were a total of 34,911 global cases, resulting in 724 deaths - an increase of 86 on the day, the biggest one day rises since the pandemic started - and a mortality rate of 2.1%, which is where it has been stuck for the past ten days. At this rate of increase in officially reported (which is vastly different from the actual true number) cases, the coronavirus pandemic will claim more lives than SARS in under 24 hours.

Here one surprising observation: in the past two weeks what was initially an exponential curve in the number of new cases, has quietly shifted into a quadratic one, where the number of new cases is largely unchanged day after day, almost as if China wants to represent a higher number to preserve some credibility, but nowhere near as high as what it really is if the disease followed the traditional exponential progression.

Some other observations: the number of suspected cases rose to 27,657 from 26,359 the day before, with 6,107 people in in serious/critical condition. And while a record 722 have died - just 50 shy of the SARS record in 2003 - the number of those who have recovered from the diseases is now 2,050, with 25 total countries reporting cases.

And speaking of reversals, there was another notable one in the number of people receiving medical attention in China, because after sliding dramatically and even shrinking today, on Saturday the number of people under observation once again jumped, rising to 3,615 after a drop of 309 the day before.

One final point about all of the above: China is notorious about manipulating all of its economic data, why on earth would it publish accurate pandemic data, especially when it has repeatedly refused the presence of foreign observes in its fight to contain the deadly virus. As such, readers can simply ignore all of the above Chinese "goalseeks" and even Bloomberg notes that "total deaths may be far higher, given reports of an overwhelmed health system in Hubei, central China."

Looking ahead, JPMorgan predicts that the epidemic will peak in 1.5 months, i.e., by mid-March, at which point the total infected people will grow to 85K.

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Update: (1500ET): When the dust has settled and the novel coronavirus has finally died out, we can't imagine how the World Health Organization will manage to revive its reputation.

After repeatedly defending China as a beacon of "transparency" and model for other emerging economies, the death of Dr. Li stands as a rebuke to WHO head Dr. Tedros, who has kowtowed to China at every turn.

Reuters reports that a cruise line has banned Chinese travelers. And Apple said it's hoping to open its offices in China on Feb. 10, while it has extended the closure of its retail stores to Feb. 13.

With markets closing in the red, Larry Kudlow took to Fox News to remind traders that the coronavirus outbreak is really China's problem, saying that the outbreak will likely hurt China's economy - bad.

The outpouring of rage of Dr. Li's death continued into the early hours of Saturday on the mainland, with the SCMP now reporting that it's fueling demands for free speech. For many, his death symbolized Beijing's missteps and repressive tendencies when dealing with the outbreak, as he was punished for being one of the first to warn about the outbreak.

"It is a very big crisis. China’s public opinion was divided, but this time a consensus has been formed. The public share the same attitude and harbour the sentiments of sympathy, suppression and grieving anger," Wuhan University law professor Qin Qianhong said.

"I am worried that the situation could explode, or become like when [former Communist Party general secretary] Hu Yaobang died or even more serious."

The death toll hasn't budged all day:

Amnesty International weighed in on Dr. Li's death, calling it a "tragic reminder" of how Beijing's "preoccupation with stability" inspired it to suppress vital information.

As Beijing cracks down on dissident speech, cities appear to be ramping up stuff like this - spraying disinfectant on every public surface.

We're clearly being lied to, wtf is going on in China #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/iorXQDe8Cw

— Thomas Sutherland (@Tssomas) February 7, 2020

Over the last two days, Beijing has made a big show of opening two new hospitals in Wuhan that were built in under two weeks. We've already reported how the hospitals look more like prisons with medical equipment. But come to find out that most of the hospitals are actually being run by their patients. Dr. Feigl-Ding, the Harvard epidemiologist who is one of many academics slammed as an alarmist for telling the truth, tweeted that nearly one-third of the patients in one hospital in Wuhan are also medical staff. There's a common trope to describe this: something about a lunatic and an asylum.

29% — that’s the % of the 138 #coronavirus infected patients who are actually infected medical staff in one Wuhan hospital. Almost 1 in 3 patients being hospital healthcare workers is just insane. New case series report in JAMA: https://t.co/j7HPV8j8dp pic.twitter.com/3Hmu3MaE7m

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 7, 2020

2) In addition to 29% medical staff, 12% of patients had gotten #coronavirus as hospital-acquired