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Even as Chinese officials tried to reassure their own public that shortages of medical supplies were being addressed, and that food prices were stable, the spillover effects of China’s isolation reverberated through the Chinese stock market, which had been closed since Jan. 23 for the Lunar New Year holiday. Investors confronting the prospect that the world’s No. 2 economy could suffer severe constraints sent stock prices tumbling by 8 percent.

In a note to clients, Tai Hui, J.P. Morgan’s chief market strategist in Asia, wrote that, “As the number of infections is still likely to rise in the weeks ahead, we would expect the Chinese onshore equity market to come under pressure.”

The anxiety also infected global energy markets, where the possibility of falling demand from a hobbled China — the world’s biggest importer of oil — sent prices to the lowest level in more than a year. Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as Russia, agreed to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday about possible production cuts.

In Wuhan, ailing residents have been begging for beds at local hospitals. Overwhelmed doctors have run out of medical supplies. In response, the Wuhan government announced that two new hospitals were to be built within weeks. The first hospital, with 1,000 beds, opened Monday after it was built in just eight days.