By Dave Sebastian, Heather Haddon and Alison Sider
U.S. businesses with operations in China are taking precautions
amid China's coronavirus outbreak, closing restaurants in affected
areas and offering free changes or refunds at resort
destinations.
Walt Disney Co. said it would temporarily close its Disneyland
and Disneytown parks in Shanghai starting Saturday, as the death
toll from China's spreading coronavirus rose.
"We will continue to carefully monitor the situation and be in
close contact with the local government," Shanghai Disney Resort,
which operates the parks, said in a statement Friday.
McDonald's Corp. said it has closed stores in Wuhan, the central
China city where the virus originated, and other surrounding cities
that have suspended local public transportation due to the
outbreak. McDonald's restaurants in Hubei province operated
normally where transportation was available, a company spokesman
said. He didn't say how many restaurants were shut.
"We will maintain close communication with local health and
other relevant authorities," the spokesman said.
The outbreak comes amid the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday,
which is typically a busy travel period. The official death count
related to the coronavirus is 26, with the number of infections
rising to at least 881 confirmed cases.
The McDonald's spokesman said the company was providing hand
sanitizer in restaurants, increasing disinfection of areas with
frequent customer contact, requiring delivery drivers to wear masks
and measuring temperatures of store crews upon arriving to work to
monitor for fevers.
McDonald's had 2,902 stores in China during its last quarter,
making it one of the company's largest foreign markets.
Disney said it would work to refund tickets bought to
Disneyland, resort hotel rooms reserved, and tickets for Beauty and
the Beast Mandarin production booked through Disney's official
ticket-purchasing platform.
Delta Air Lines Inc. is allowing passengers to and from Beijing
and Shanghai to change fights with no fee due to concerns about the
coronavirus in China. Passengers traveling between Jan. 24 and Jan.
31 will be allowed to change their flights without penalty or
cancel their trips and apply the value to a new ticket within a
year.
American Airlines Group Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc.
are offering refunds for canceled trips only for people traveling
to, from or through the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak
began.
No U.S. carriers offer direct service to Wuhan but they offer
connecting flights on partner airlines. Flights from the city have
been halted.
Cruise lines such as Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises
Ltd. said they aren't allowing anyone who lives in or recently
passed through Wuhan to board their cruises.
Carnival's medical team is in touch with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization about
recommended screenings for passengers, monitoring and ship
protocols, the spokesman said. Those measures could include
temperature and questionnaire screening for travelers entering
cruises from China and other areas, as well as an illness and
disease reporting protocol, he said.
Royal Caribbean will work with its guests on itinerary
modifications, a spokesman said.
Marriott International Inc. and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
said they are waiving cancellation fees through Feb. 8 for
reservations at its hotels in China, and for guests from China
traveling to those hotels in other countries.
"Our hotels are following the guidelines of local authorities
and reinforcing recommended measures on appropriate hygiene
standards," Marriott said in a statement.
Hyatt Hotels Corp. said it is letting guests who reserved rooms
through Hyatt's official booking platforms between Jan. 23 and Feb.
10 in its hotels in the Greater China region to cancel without
charge, a company spokesman said. The waiver also applies to guests
from Greater China who have booked stays at Hyatt's properties in
the Asia-Pacific region, including South Korea, Japan and several
Southeast Asian countries, he said.
Marriott, with more than 350 properties across mainland China,
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and Hilton with 225 properties in the
region said it is tracking updates from the CDC, WHO and local
health departments.
The Wuhan virus has spread to several other countries, including
South Korea, Japan and the U.S. For some companies, the outbreak is
having an immediate effect on business.
Honeywell International Inc. said it is seeing a surge in demand
for protective face masks in China, as well as in Europe and the
U.S. Honeywell said it is increasing production at multiple
facilities around the world.
DuPont de Nemours Inc., which makes medical body suits and other
protective gear, said it would donate equipment to agencies in
China that are handling medical cases and would work to boost
supply of its products to meet customer demand. DuPont said it is
handing out protective masks to its employees in affected areas in
China.
3M Co. said it would boost production of respirator masks as a
result of the outbreak. The St. Paul, Minn., company said it has
seen increased demand in China for its respiratory protection
products.
In Macau, Wynn Resorts Ltd., MGM Resorts International and Las
Vegas Sands Corp. have ordered their casino-resort workers to wear
protective masks. The companies are monitoring body temperatures of
customers and staff, and have implemented increased hygiene and
cleaning measures, according to the companies and analysts.
The Las Vegas-based casino giants derive as much as 70% of their
revenue from Macau, the special administrative region of China near
Hong Kong. Two people in Macau were found infected with the virus
as of Friday, and both were in stable condition at a hospital,
according to the Macau government. Ten people had close contact
with those patients, but none have shown any symptoms of the virus,
the government said.
The Macau government called off a New Year parade and other
public events. Hotel cancellations are likely, though no widespread
cancellations were apparent as of Friday, analysts said. More than
13 million protective face masks were delivered in the region.
"We are closely monitoring the viral pneumonia situation," said
MGM spokesman Brian Ahern on Thursday. "We will proactively
cooperate with the guidelines announced by the government and carry
out respective measures to protect our guests and team
members."
The Wuhan virus can be spread by coughing, kissing or making
contact with saliva. Often, coronaviruses simply cause common
colds, although this latest outbreak is far more serious.
In the U.S., the CDC said it has been investigating whether 63
patients from 22 states have been infected with the virus. Only two
have tested positive so far, while 11 have tested negative.
Authorities in Singapore, a popular destination for Chinese
tourists, have identified 28 suspected cases of the coronavirus;
all but two of them had recently traveled to China. Thailand,
another destination for Chinese tourists, has three confirmed
cases.
--Austen Hufford contributed to this article.
Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com, Heather
Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com and Alison Sider at
alison.sider@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 24, 2020 14:48 ET (19:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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