The death toll in China from the new coronavirus has hit 81. The thousands of those now confirmed infected include a 9-month-old baby. The virus has kept spreading despite extraordinary efforts to contain it, including Hong Kong banning visitors from Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, Reuters reported. On Monday morning, Beijing announced that the official end of the Lunar New Year holiday would be pushed back to Thursday from Sunday to “reduce mass gatherings” and “block the spread of the epidemic,” a statement from its cabinet states. Financial regulators said they were shutting down stock trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen as part of the extended holiday, a move last seen during the 2003 SARS epidemic. According to The New York Times, officials announced 15 more deaths Sunday, including an 88-year-old man in Shanghai, which the newspaper noted would stoke fears that government efforts to contain the virus are not working. More than 2,700 people in China are afflicted. In the United States, there have been five confirmed cases.
