Travelers from countries with severe
coronavirus outbreaks who arrive in some parts of China will have to undergo a
14-day quarantine, state media announce.
People coming from the virus hotspots of South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy
arriving in Beijing will have to be isolated, an official has said.
Shanghai and Guangdong announced similar restrictions earlier.
Authorities are worried the virus might be imported back into China.
Although most coronavirus deaths have been in China, on March 2 there were nine
times more new infections outside China than in.
Shanghai said it would require new arrivals from countries with
“relatively serious virus conditions” to be isolated, without naming
the countries.
Authorities are also asking overseas Chinese to reconsider travel plans.
Officials in one southern Chinese province said: “For the sake of your family’s health and safety, please
strengthen your precautions, carefully decide on your travel plans and minimize
mobility.”
On March 3, China reported 125 new virus cases – the lowest number of new
daily infections in six weeks. There were also 31 more deaths – all in Hubei
province, where the virus emerged.
There are now almost 90,000 cases worldwide in about 70 countries, although
the vast majority – just under 90% – remain in China, and most of those are in
Hubei province where the virus originated late last year.
Of the nearly 8,800 cases outside China, 81% are in four countries – Iran,
South Korea, Italy and Japan.
One of the countries worst affected outside China – Italy – said on March 2
that the death toll there had risen by 18 to 52. There are 1,835 confirmed
cases, most of them in the Lombardy and Veneto areas of the north. Nearly 150
people are said to have recovered.
However, Italy is seeing a slowdown in new cases. On March 2, the authorities said there were 258 new cases of the virus – a 16% increase on the previous day – after new cases spiked by 50% on March 1.
According to Japanese health authorities, at
least 10 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in the port of
Yokohama have tested positive for coronavirus.
Almost 300 of the 3,700 people on the cruise ship have been tested so far.
The number of infected could rise.
The checks began after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who had been on the ship
last month fell ill with the virus.
Some 3,600 people on a second cruise ship docked in Hong Kong are also being
tested.
Chinese health authorities are stepping up efforts to control the spread of
the virus, with approximately 18 million people in the east of the country now
required to stay at home.
In Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, 11 large public venues including
sports arenas are being turned into makeshift hospitals to provide an
additional 10,000 beds for the sick. Two new hospitals have already been built
there since the outbreak started.
President Xi Jinping said China’s preventive measures were “achieving a
positive effect”, state media reported. He said China was confident and
capable of winning the war against the virus, after authorities were criticized
for their initial handling of the outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global health emergency
over the outbreak but said it did not yet constitute a “pandemic”, or
the worldwide spread of a new disease.
However, the number of cases in
China jumped by nearly 4,000 on February 4 alone to more than 24,300, with
another 65 deaths bringing the total to 490.
The new coronavirus causes severe
acute respiratory infection and symptoms usually start with a fever, followed
by a dry cough. Most people infected are likely to fully recover – just as they
would from a flu.
There is a much smaller number of
cases in countries around the globe other than China – two people outside of
mainland China have died of the disease.
The Hong Kong man believed to be the
source boarded the cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan, on January 20, and
disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25. He was only later found to have tested
positive for the virus.
Officials on the cruise ship began
screening guests on February 3, and the vessel was placed under quarantine on
February 4.
Passengers and crew on the ship will
now be under quarantine for 14 days. The incubation period of the virus is
believed to be around two weeks.
All 10 cases are in those over the
age of 50 and one is in their 80s, Japanese broadcaster NHK said.
Two of them are said to be Japanese, and none are in “serious condition”, it added.
A public health emergency has been declared in
the US over the spread of the coronavirus and said it would deny entry to any
foreign nationals who have visited China in the past two weeks.
According to authorities, US citizens returning from Hubei province, where
the outbreak started, will be quarantined for two weeks.
Nearly 10,000 cases of the new virus have been confirmed, most of them in
China, since it emerged in December.
More than 100 cases have been reported outside China, in 22 countries.
On January 31, Beijing said the death toll had risen by 45 to 258 – all of
them in China and 249 in Hubei.
Earlier, it emerged that the number of new coronavirus cases worldwide had
overtaken that of the SARS epidemic, which spread to more than two dozen
countries in 2003.
There were around 8,100 cases of SARS – severe acute respiratory syndrome –
during the eight-month outbreak. In total, 774 people were killed by SARS.
On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health
emergency over the new outbreak.
WHO spokesman Chris Lindmeier warned that closing borders could in fact accelerate
its spread, with travelers entering countries unofficially.
“As we know from other scenarios,
be it Ebola or other cases, whenever people want to travel, they will. And if
the official paths are not opened, they will find unofficial paths,”
he said.
He said the best way to track the virus was at official border crossings.
In a public statement on January 31, Health Secretary Alex Azar said US
citizens returning from Hubei province would face 14 days of quarantine while
those returning from other parts of China would be allowed to monitor their own
condition for a similar period.
He told reporters: “Following the
World Health Organization decision, I have today declared that the coronavirus
represents a public health emergency in the United States.”
Citing the need to relieve pressure
on authorities, Alex Azar said that foreign nationals who had travelled in
China in the past two weeks would be denied entry to the US.
He added: “The risk of infection for Americans remains low and with these,
and our previous, actions we are working to keep the risk low.”
Another confirmed case in the US on
January 31 – in California – brought the number there to seven. Robert
Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
said 191 people were under observation for the disease.
The US announcement came as other
countries around the world scrambled to contain the spread of the new virus,
2019-nCov.
On January 31, the UK confirmed its first two cases.
Estimates by the University of Hong Kong suggest the true total number of
cases could be far higher than official figures suggest. Based on mathematical
models of the outbreak, experts there say more than 75,000 people may have been
infected in the city of Wuhan alone, where the virus first emerged.
Most cases outside China involve people who have been to Wuhan. Germany,
Japan, Vietnam, the US, Thailand and South Korea have reported person-to-person
cases – patients being infected by people who had travelled to China.
Meanwhile in Wuhan, voluntary evacuations of hundreds of foreign nationals
are under way.
Australia, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and the UK are expected to quarantine all evacuees for two weeks to monitor them for symptoms and avoid contagion.
The spread of the deadly coronavirus is
accelerating, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned, after holding a special
government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday.
China is facing a “grave situation” President Xi told senior
officials.
The new virus has killed at least 56 people and infected almost 2,000 since
its discovery in the city of Wuhan.
Meanwhile, the US has announced that staff at the Wuhan consulate will be
evacuated on a special flight on January 28.
According to the State Department, private Americans most at risk will also
be able to board the flight to San Francisco.
Meanwhile, UK-based researchers have warned of a real possibility that China
will not be able to contain the virus.
Travel restrictions have come in place in several affected cities. From
January 26, private vehicles will be banned from central districts of Wuhan,
the source of the outbreak.
According to Chinese state newspaper the People’s
Daily, a second emergency hospital is to be built there within weeks to
handle 1,300 new patients, and will be finished in half a month. It is the
second such rapid construction project: work on another 1,000-bed hospital has
already begun.
Specialist military medical teams have also been flown into Hubei province,
where Wuhan is located.
The urgency reflects concern both within China and elsewhere about the virus
which first appeared in December.
Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the rat, which began on January
25, have been canceled in many Chinese cities.
Across mainland China, travelers are having their temperatures checked for
signs of fever, and train stations have been shut in several cities.
Hong Kong has declared the highest level of emergency and school holidays
were extended.
Several other nations are each dealing with a handful of cases, with
patients being treated in isolation.
A coronavirus is a family of viruses which include the common cold.
However, this virus has never been seen before. It is called 2019-nCov, for
“novel coronavirus”.
New viruses can become common in humans after jumping across the species
barrier from animals.
The SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] outbreak of 2003 started in
bats and transferred to the civet cat which passed it on to humans.
This new Chinese virus also causes severe acute respiratory infection.
Symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough and then, after a week, lead to shortness of breath and some patients needing hospital treatment.
There is no specific cure or vaccine.
Based on early information, it is believed that only a quarter of infected
cases are “severe”, and the dead are mostly – though not exclusively
– older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions.
The Chinese authorities suspect a seafood market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals” was the source of the outbreak.
The new virus discovered in China, known also as 2019-nCoV, is understood to
be a new strain of coronavirus that has not previously been identified in
humans.
Coronaviruses are a broad family of viruses, but only six (the new one would
make it seven) are known to infect people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised people to avoid
“unprotected” contact with live animals, thoroughly cook meat and
eggs, and avoid close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms.
Signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath
and breathing difficulties.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging
from the common cold to more severe disease. It’s not yet clear how bad this
new coronavirus is.
If a patient has recovered from the infection, they should not pose a
significant risk to others and can be sent home from hospital provided they are
well enough.
The first human cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in
December 2019.
There have not been any other suspected human cases reported prior to this.
Given the type of virus, the incubation period (how long it takes for
symptoms to appear after catching the infection) is days, rather than weeks.
It is not yet known how or when the virus became infectious to people.
Experts believe the first cases were transmitted by an animal.
At the moment, there is no vaccine that can protect people against this type
of coronavirus, but researchers are looking to develop one.
It is a new strain that hasn’t been seen in humans before, which means
doctors still have lots to learn about it.
Based on currently available information, the WHO has not recommended any
restrictions on travel or trade.
You should re-check the latest travel advice before you depart.
Extra airport checks such as temperature scans have been put in place to screen
some travelers in some countries/states.
Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo have been screening air
passengers from Wuhan and US authorities last week announced similar measures
at three major airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.
It is not yet known how the virus
was transmitted. Other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, came from cats and
camels respectively.
Experts are working to find the
source.
Standard recommendations to prevent
infection apply. These include:
regular hand washing
covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing
thoroughly cooking meat and eggs
Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
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