Chinatown in New York is usually a busy center filled with locals and tourists. The city is always busy with hundreds of shops selling everything from specialty foods to mobile phones.

But a few weeks ago, the streets of Chinatown in downtown Manhattan fell silent. Fewer and fewer tourists visit the area. Most of them succumbed to panic and fear over the possibility of contracting the novel coronavirus. The same attitude was taken by the majority of New Yorkers, who traded their favorite restaurants in Chinatown for “safer” alternatives in other parts of the city.

Even though Wuhan is nearly 12,000 km from New York and there have been no confirmed cases of the disease, business owners in China lost a large part of their sales due to fears of the infection. “We have laid off around 40 percent of our employees to keep our business running. The profits we make are much less than before,” said David Ching, owner of a rice noodle shop in New York.

Other workers from businesses in New York’s Chinatown also complained that sales were currently much lower than usual. “In short, it’s terrible,” said one of them, who did not want to be named.

Yin Ji Chang Fen restaurant manager Steve Ip had to start cutting employee working hours. Instead of operating normally, it then started providing delivery services, which until now they have not been able to do due to being constantly busy. “There used to be so many guests that customers would queue until a table was available. “And now we will deliver the food to them,” added Ip.

Although Chinatowns in metropolitan cities around the world are famous for their specialty food, shops that focus on, for example, souvenirs or gift items now make more money. The owner of a similar business, Gina Ma, confirmed this information. At the same time, he noted that people coming into stores often wear masks. “People think I come straight from China. I live here in America, but they are still afraid.”

The decline in sales in Chinatown coincides with a rise in xenophobic attacks against people of Asian descent around the world. According to experts from the Guardian, this happens because people are afraid of infection. And because the epicenter of this epidemic is mainland China, the group to fear is people of Asian descent.

In an effort to end the stigmatization of Chinatown, New York City officials launched a campaign called “Show Chinatown Some Love.” Therefore, they are trying to attract back local people and tourists.

In some areas of the United States, officials have even begun visiting local Chinatowns at lunchtime. They are trying to show local residents that their fears are unfounded. “Chinatown is safe. America is safe. We all need to relax,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney advised residents.

But Chinatown is also experiencing problems elsewhere. “Almost every restaurant in the area has seen sales drop by 50 to 75 percent, depending on the day,” said Shabu House co-owner Debbie Chen of Houston. “It’s quite challenging for everyone,” he added. According to him, there is also a lot of fake news circulating on social media. “One of the local grocery stores got word that the virus had been found there – and their sales immediately dropped almost 80 percent.”

He attributes similar reactions to fear of the unknown and, in some cases, perhaps prejudice. “When you listen to the different reports, it’s not surprising that people are worried. Maybe there’s a little bit of xenophobia in it, but at the same time I think that for some people it’s just ignorance and fear.”

Companies from Chinatown in Sydney, Australia, Toronto in Canada or San Francisco also complained about falling profits. There are even signs in front of some restaurants that say “Restaurant disinfected.”

According to several experts, the low attendance was also caused by the large number of people from China who returned home to celebrate New Year. However, because of the quarantine, they can no longer return to the country where they live and work.

According to current information, a total of more than 81,000 infections have been confirmed. More than 2,700 of them died from this disease, and most of them were in mainland China.