In China a number of cities (at least 10, affecting 35 million people) have been "quarantined" to some extent. No flights in and out. This is the period of the White Spring Festival otherwise known as Chinese New Years (1 week leading up to New Years Day and 1 week following New Years Day). Many overseas Chinese went back to China to celebrate the season with family and friends.

But people are beginning to panic. I don't know what panic means in China - what are people doing? Are they shutting themselves inside, avoiding contact, limiting their shopping, trying to get away from others? I just don't know. Even with the authorities controlling access to information, the amount of information that does get disseminated or rather the misinformation that gets disseminated has got to scare people.

Then what happens after the Festival - people are going to try to come back to their other country: US, Canada, Euro, Australia, etc. That's when the true fallout and contamination will occur. It may not be an international situation now according to the WHO standard but give it a couple of weeks and it could get ugly.

This virus is something we all need to keep informed about; not scared but careful. Hopefully it won't mutate and become more easily transmitted. Or perhaps it will mutate and become less of an issue.