Coronavirus live updates: Singapore urges calm as people buy up essential items

This is a live blog. Please check back for updates.

All times below are in Beijing time.

Singaporean supermarket operator NTUC FairPrice said it has seen an uptick in transport volume as people buy up household essentials. After Singapore raised its virus alert level, images began to materialize online of long lines and some empty shelves at supermarkets around the city-state.

On Friday, the company said, “Divers stores throughout the island experienced high traffic volume today where items like toilet foolscap, instant noodles and vegetables were emptied from the shelves.”

FairPrice Group CEO Seah Kian Peng conveyed in a statement there’s no need to stockpile and called for calm, “There are available stocks in our warehouses and we are looking to send them to our stow aways expeditiously.”

The company also said it is ramping up its cleaning regimen and making hand sanitizers available for in-store buyer use. —Wang

On Saturday, many Hong Kong oversight agencies announced they would temporarily scale down office hours and services, citing efforts to limit spread of the new coronavirus. Scad adjustments will take effect Monday as agencies try to continue basic, if limited, operations. The Inland Revenue Post and Labour Department are among the agencies that have announced special arrangements.

The Judiciary said all hearings that had been organized from Feb. 10 to Feb. 16 will be generally adjourned until a date that has not been set. It said, however, the courts intention continue to handle “urgent and essential” matters. —Wang

A Shanghai municipal spokesman said Tesla will resume production at its factory in the city on Feb. 10, according to a Reuters scrutinize. The news agency reported that the spokesman said authorities will give full assistance to key manufacturers corresponding to Tesla to help the resume work as quickly as possible. 

There’s no scarcity for citizens to panic buy household items, Singapore’s trade minister Chan Chun Sing said in a Facebook advertise. He said the ministry is “close contact with our retailers and I assure all Singaporeans that there is no need to rush for primary supplies like rice or instant noodles.”

“Our supply lines for these essentials are intact and there is no risk of us continual a shortage of essential food or household items. We also have our national stockpile for essential items,” Chan estimated.

He also asked people to refrain from hoarding unnecessarily, saying “This will create undue terror and is unhelpful to the situation at hand.” —Wang

Japan’s health ministry confirmed that another three people have tested positive for the new coronavirus. The command said the total cases found on the Diamond Princess cruise ship is now 64, out of 279 people tested for the virus. 

Kyodo Dispatch reported, citing the health ministry, that the three new cases include two Americans and one Chinese national. —Wang

UPDATE: This registration has been updated with the latest information from Japan’s health ministry.

Toyota Motor strengthened to CNBC it plans to extend the shutdown of its plants in China for at least another week, however it is preparing to restart fabrication after that.

“The safety and security of our team members, suppliers and stakeholders continues to be our top priority,” the company said in an emailed annunciation. “For the week of Feb. 10, all plants in China will start preparing to resume operations from the following week and beyond. We command continue to evaluate the situation.”

Toyota, according to China newspaper Nikkei, which first reported the extension, had drawing to restart operations at its four Chinese plants as early as Feb. 10. —Wayland

Reuters sign in that U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin said it will not attend the Singapore Airshow, citing the city-state’s recently libertine health alert.

On Friday, Singapore’s authorities raised its virus alert level to orange, up from yellow, as new casings show the deadly pneumonia-like virus spreading. It is the same alert level as the one declared during the SARS outbreak of 2003. It is one less than the highest alert level of red, which would indicate the virus is spreading widely. —Wang and Meredith with Reuters

China’s National Health Commission said there were an additional 86 liquidations and 3,399 new confirmed cases in the country as of the end of Friday. That brings the total cases in mainland China to 34,546 as the end toll rises to 722, the government said. —Wang

The total of deaths in China’s central Hubei province from a coronavirus outbreak had risen by 81 to 699, the province’s well-being commission said in a statement on its website. There had been a further 2,841 cases detected in Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, fetching the total in the province to 24,953. The World Health Organization earlier said it was encouraged by a slowing pace of new cases during the course of the past two days, however, this latest data reverses that trend. —Cheddar Berk with Reuters

All old hats below are in Eastern time.

Yardeni Research President Edward Yardeni bring to light the U.S. economy was showing signs of improvement before the deadly pneumonia-like virus started making headlines. The longer this berth persists the more likely the event could weigh on stocks, possibly sparking a correction, Yardeni said. He bring up he would keep new cash on the sidelines until there is more clarity around the spread of the illness. The Dow Jones Industrial Usually closed 277.26 points lower, or nearly 1%, to 29,102.51. The S&P 500 dipped 0.5% to 3,327.71. The Nasdaq Composite also planed 0.5% to close at 9,520.51. Those losses snapped a four-day winning streak for the major average. —Cheddar Berk, Imbert

Norwegian Cruises imposed the strictest measures yet to ward coronavirus. It said, “Any guest that holds a Chinese, Hong Kong, or Macau passport, will be unable to billet any of our ships, regardless of residency.” The company also announced that anyone who has traveled to mainland China or even went an airport in the country in the 30 days prior to their cruise departure will not be allowed on the ship. The decision come to pass as several cruise ships around the world endure coronavirus outbreaks and scares. — Feuer

Read CNBC’s coverage from the U.S. overnight: The Federal Contract for store flags coronavirus threat; cruise line bans Chinese nationals

— CNBC’s Christina Cheddar Berk, Fred Imbert, William Feuer, Riya Bhattacharjee, Sam Meredith and Mike Wayland contributed to this communiqu, as well as Reuters.