Sydney, Australia, Feb 20 (EFE).- Australian airline Qantas announced Thursday the temporary reduction of its flights to Asia due to the fall in demand caused by the novel coronavirus, which has caused more than 2,000 deaths, most of them in China.

The measure was announced along with results of the semi-annual benefits of the airline group, which predicts that the impact of COVID-19 could cost this fiscal year up to about 150 million Australian dollars ($100 million).

"Coronavirus resulted in the suspension of our flights to mainland China and we're now seeing some secondary impacts with weaker demand on Hong Kong, Singapore and to a lesser extent Japan," Qantas group executive director Alan Joyce said in Thursday a statement.

Qantas said it would cut flights to Asia by 16 percent through May, with the suspension of all flights to Shanghai and the reduction of flights to Hong Kong and Singapore.

It also said it would reduce links between Australia and New Zealand by 5 percent.

The group's low-cost airline Jetstar will also reduce flights to Asia by 14 percent until the end of May, affecting routes to Japan, Thailand and flights between different parts of the continent.

Routes to the United States and the United Kingdom have not been affected.

"What's important is that we have flexibility in how we respond to Coronavirus and how we maintain our strategic position more broadly," Joyce said. "We can extend how long the cuts are in place, we can deepen them or we can add seats back in if the demand is there. This is an evolving situation that we're monitoring closely."

The underlying benefit of Qantas was 771 million Australian dollars ($516 million), 0.5 percent less than the previous corresponding period.

The symptoms of the new disease are in many cases similar to those of a cold, but may be accompanied by fever and fatigue, dry cough and dyspnea (shortness of breath).

The World Health Organization last week officially named the disease COVID-19, while the virus which causes it has been called SARS-CoV-2 (changed from its provisional name 2019-nCoV) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

The organization said "CO" stands for "corona," "VI" for "virus, "D" for "disease" and "-19" for "2019" - as the outbreak was first detected Dec. 31. EFE

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