COVID-19 virus, Hubei reports more deaths

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All times below are in Beijing time.

China’s National Health Commission said there were 2,015 confirmed new cases on the mainland and 97 additional deaths related to the new, deadly strain of coronavirus, most of them occurring in Hubei province. (see 7:05 a.m. update) As of Tuesday night, the Chinese government said a total of 44,653 cases have been confirmed and 1,113 people have died in the country.

The NHC did not disclose if any confirmed cases were removed from the tally as of midnight Feb. 11.  On Feb. 7, the Chinese government made a policy announcement that implied patients who did not exhibit symptoms of the virus would no longer be considered confirmed cases. — Cheng

Rakuten’s mobile communications business, Rakuten Mobile, said Wednesday it will no longer participate in the Mobile World Congress Barcelona from Feb. 24 to Feb. 27 due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.

A number of prominent tech names have pulled out of the international telecommunication conference in recent days including Facebook, Amazon, Sony, Intel, and Nvidia. Organizer GSMA will have a board meeting on Friday to discuss the possibility of canceling the event, Reuters reported, citing an industry source.

As of 9:28 a.m., China’s National Health Commission had not yet released the national-level infection and death numbers. In previous instances, those numbers had been released just before 8 a.m. Beijing time. Numbers published Tuesday showed the death toll in the country from the coronavirus outbreak topped 1,000.

The outbreak could help speed up the so-called “decoupling” between the United States and China, more so than the trade war did, Milken Institute Asia fellow Curtis Chin told CNBC. The ongoing crisis, which has killed more than a thousand people mostly on the Chinese mainland, will underscore to companies the importance of diversifying supply chains away from China. — Tan

The disease outbreak in China looks like it could have an impact on Beijing’s commitments to buying U.S. agricultural produce this year, White House national security advisor Robert O’Brien said at an Atlantic Council event.

U.S. agricultural purchases by China are part of a phase one trade deal both countries signed last month to ease trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. “We expect the phase one deal will allow China to import more food and open those markets to American farmers,” O’Brien said. “As we watch this coronavirus outbreak unfold in China it could have an impact on how big, at least in this current year, the purchases are.”

He also said that the United States has offered China the “opportunity” to have American doctors and health experts on the ground to help contain the virus’ spread. “That offer has not been accepted at this point, but that’s an outstanding offer,” he said.

Another 39 people tested positive for the coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship currently quarantined at sea off the coast of Japan, ship operator Princess Cruises said Tuesday evening stateside. The company added it is following guidance from Japan’s health ministry on plans for disembarkation protocols to provide medical care for the newly reported cases.

The Ministry of Health in Japan also said on its website one of the quarantine officers was infected with the virus.

Princess Cruises on Monday had confirmed 66 additional cases, which brought the total number of infections to 136. The ship, carrying more than 3,700 passengers and crew, had been quarantined since early February after a previous guest tested positive for the disease six days after disembarking.

Singapore said on Tuesday that together with Malaysia, it will establish a joint working group to strengthen cooperation on preventing the spread of the infectious disease, which the World Health Organization recently named COVID-19. Senior health officials from both countries would work together over the next few days to determine the composition and terms of references of the group, Singapore’s health ministry said.

As of Tuesday noon, Singapore reported 47 confirmed cases — 25 of which were locally transmitted. Neighbor Malaysia reported 18 cases of infection.

China’s Hubei province reported an additional 94 deaths and 1,638 newly diagnosed, confirmed cases related to the deadly pneumonia-like coronavirus as of the end of Tuesday.

According to the Hubei Provincial Health Committee, 1,068 people have died in the province from the disease and there have been a total of 33,366 confirmed cases thus far. Most of those cases and deaths occurred in the city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected.

All times below are in Eastern time.

The 195 Americans who were first evacuated from Wuhan last month were released from their 14-day quarantine on March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California earlier today. None of the evacuees tested positive for the new coronavirus, Riverside County public health officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said at a news briefing, warning against discrimination. “They don’t need additional tests, they don’t need to be shunned, they don’t have novel coronavirus,” he said. One of the evacuees, Jarred Evans, told CNBC after the news briefing that he was on a bus to the airport. — Feuer

The company announced publicly last year that it “expects to become a publicly-traded company during 2020.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Airbnb likely won’t go public until the third quarter of this year. That timing could be affected by the coronavirus outbreak that has swept across China, one person cited in the report said. China is a key growth area for Airbnb. The company’s co-founder, Nathan Blecharczyk, currently serves as chairman of Airbnb China. — Feuer

Read CNBC’s coverage from the U.S. overnight: Germany confirms two new cases, virus likely came from bats

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng, Weizhen Tan and William Feuer contributed to this report.