Another angle: The Federal Reserve on Tuesday approved its biggest one-time rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis. But our economics correspondent Peter Goodman says the move was the equivalent of “handing coupons to shoppers and sending them to a store that is closed.” Here are the latest market updates.

A closer look at the virus

We spoke with Donald McNeil, a Times health reporter, about what it’s like to contract the coronavirus, based on what we’ve learned from China.

What does this illness look like? Some people compare it to the flu.

No, it’s different from the flu. It’s a lung disease. Ninety percent of people get a fever, 80 percent get a dry cough and then it drops down to 30 percent get shortness of breath and malaise — you know, being tired.

A runny nose shows up in only 4 percent, and that may be people who also happen to have a cold or a flu.

We’ve been told that 80 percent of cases are “mild.” But you said that could include pneumonia?

Yes. Chinese health officials define “mild” as a positive test — that’s fever, shortness of breath and possibly pneumonia, but not so bad that you need to be hospitalized. Once you need oxygen, you go into the severe category.

What are we learning about asymptomatic cases?

The good news is that a large study from China suggests that less than 1 percent of cases are asymptomatic. Almost all people get sick.