#14,716
Beijing become the latest big city in China to announce the cancellation of Lunar New Year's major events do to their novel coronavirus epidemic, according to the following item published in the Beijing Daily.
Beijing announces cancellation of major events including temple fairs
Time: 23 January 2020 Source: Beijing Daily
In the afternoon of January 23, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism issued a message to do a good job in preventing and controlling the epidemic, putting the people's lives and health in the first place, reducing the concentration of people and ensuring a stable life for the people Peaceful Spring Festival.
According to the overall deployment of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government's Leading Group on Prevention and Control, Beijing will cancel large-scale events including temple fairs starting today. Citizens are requested to strengthen prevention and support. As the epidemic situation changes, we will report on the holding of related events in the city at any time. After the large-scale event is cancelled, the event organizer will actively do the related aftercare. Finally, I wish the citizens a happy Chinese New Year.
There are also reports that China has canceled the opening of 7 movies this week, in what is usually the biggest movie going time of the year (see Reuters report Chinese movies scrap Lunar New Year premieres due to virus outbreak).
It is not clear whether movie theatres will be actually closed, however.Last night the stock markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan were all down substantially. Add in the losses due to the cancellation of festivities, and the costs involved in trying to contain this virus, and already the economic toll is sizable.
