An anxious China heads back to work amid virus outbreak

A staff member wearing a face mask checking the temperature of customers entering a JD.com's 7Fresh chainin Yizhuang town, Beijing, China on Feb 8, 2020. - Reuters

SHANGHAI (Agencies): China raised the death toll from the coronavirus epidemic to 811 on Sunday (Feb 9), passing the number killed globally by the SARS epidemic in 2002/2003 and raising anxiety among people preparing to return to work after an extended Chinese New Year break.

Struggling to contain the spread of the disease, authorities had told businesses to tack up to 10 extra days onto holidays that had been due to finish at the end of January as the rising numbers of dead and infected cast a pall over the country.