The United States has announced that foreign citizens who've been in China in the past 14 days will be temporarily barred from entering the U.

S.

Australia says it will also refuse and treat all non citizens arriving from China.

So far, 259 people have died from the disease, all of them in China, and there have now been confirmed cases of the disease in more than 20 countries across the world, forcing the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency.

I've been speaking to our correspondent Steve MacDonald in Beijing and Mariko Oi in Hong Kong about the situation in who, by province they announced an extension off the Lunar New Year holiday.

I mean, I guess they've got to do that.

What are people gonna do?

60 million people on lock down.

They I can't go to work if their workplaces outside that province and they don't want people to be gathering inside of Hu Bai, the province where the virus outbreak started.

Many more companies have told their employees not to return to work for it, least another week and that's right across China, and that doesn't matter where they've bean.

They don't have to have been in her by province or even in central China at all.

10 Gin is the latest city to announce strict restrictions on business and the like, saying that all companies not involved in like a central service is including providing food, water, electricity and the like should not open.

Not for another week, they're saying, until further notice.

And 10 gin is one is a huge industrial city, a big port very important for the Chinese economy.

Also important for the university school sector, et cetera.

Schools their universities have announced their won't be opening again until further notice.

Marieke Oh, just briefly from you.

You know, the Hong Kong economy has already been having quite a tough year.

Are there any measures in place?

Do you think that the authorities will use to try to keep that the economy and check well, as you say, there are definitely concerns that while people here want to stop the spread of the virus, this outbreak could have even further impact on the economy.

As you said after months of those pro democracy protests, the tourism industry has been hit, the retail sector has been hit and those industries, it will be affected the hardest by this Corona virus outbreak and therefore there will be some kind of an impact on the economy on and we can probably expect some kind of measures from the authorities eventually to cushion the blow.

But of course the economy is already in a technical recession and there could be asked that the longer this scary zone for, the bigger the impact will be on the economy as well.