You Can Fly From Hong Kong to New York for Just $193 (if You Layover in Coronavirus Epicenter Wuhan)

News By TooFab Staff |
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More than 200 people have already died.

There are super cheap bargain airfares between the US and Asia right now... but there's a little catch.

China Southern Airlines are offering flights from Hong Kong to New York's JFK for as little as $193, if travelers are willing to spend a 6 hour 35 minute layover in Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

The deal for May 20 was spotted by Bloomberg on travel booking site Kayak.com; other direct flights that same day cost $670 upwards.

The entire city is on lockdown since the outbreak of the deadly virus, which has already claimed the lives of more than 200 people.

On Friday, Delta and American Airline suspended all flights to the country, one day after the World Health Organization finally declared the new coronavirus threat a global health emergency.

Thursday also marked the first person-to-person case in the US, after a Chicago man tested positive for the virus he contracted from his wife, who had returned from a trip to Wuhan.

So far, more than 9,800 cases of the virus have been confirmed in China, and the 20 other countries it has already spread to, including the UK, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, Finland, and France.

Most of the fatalities have been older people suffering from existing chronic conditions, although one 62-year-old doctor treating patients reportedly succumbed. There have been no reported deaths yet outside China.

While coronaviruses are common — some cause mild respiratory issues like a runny nose or cough — the latest outbreak is a completely new strain known as novel coronavirus (nCoV) that has never been detected in humans before.

Symptoms include fever followed by a dry cough and shortness of breath; in severe cases it can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.

Researchers are racing to create a vaccine from scratch, but human trials will not be ready until June at the earliest.

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