China-travel becomes difficult as coronavirus epidemic expands
February 5, 2020 Category Health, Weekly
The number of cases and deaths in the corona virus epidemic in China kept on rising in the past week. The number of confirmed deaths from the outbreak has risen to 490 in mainland China, surpassing the dead toll of 349 during the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003. One death was reported in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. The number of cases has increased sharply to 24,324 in mainland China and a total of 24,552 worldwide. The rate of increase in both deaths and infections in mainland China is trending lower. In the EU cases have been confirmed in France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Two cases have also been confirmed in the UK. In Belgium, one person repatriated from Wuhan tested positive, but showed no symptoms of the disease. The figures indicate that the novel coronavirus is more infectious than SARS but less lethal. However, case numbers are tied to the availability of testing, if no tests are performed due to a lack of testing kits or overworked hospital personnel, no cases are reported, so the real number might be much higher.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the corona virus outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) after “deeply concerning” new cases emerged. A few days earlier it had still said it was too early to take this step. But since then at least six cases surfaced where the patient had not traveled to China and therefore acquired the infection locally through person-to-person transmission. The Administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has also declared a public health emergency. When meeting with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China has full confidence and the capability to win the battle against the virus. Ghebreyesus said China’s powerful system and the effective measures it has taken to prevent and control the contagion are rarely seen in the world. China set a record in identifying the pathogen in a short time following the outbreak, he said, adding that the WHO stands ready to provide all necessary assistance.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has asked the EU to facilitate China’s urgent procurement of medical supplies from member countries. He also called on experts to work on the development of a vaccine and effective pharmaceuticals to treat infected patients and reduce the mortality rate. “What China urgently needs at present are medical masks, protective suits, and safety goggles,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing held online on February 3. China’s factories can produce 20 million masks per day, but panic over the virus has prompted people in the country of 1.4 billion to stock up on surgical masks, while frontline medical personnel have reported equipment shortages. Following the holiday, factories were now operating at “between 60% and 70% capacity”. In addition to Hubei, several other provinces and cities across China have made it compulsory to wear masks in public as virus fears have grown.
China’s battle against the spreading coronavirus outbreak is likely to make marked progress by February 8, Zeng Guang, Chief Epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Global Times. Zeng said the odds of contracting the virus on the streets of Beijing without direct contact with a confirmed patient are like the rate of occurrence of car accidents. He recommended that people should avoid panic and overreaction. But leading infectious disease experts cannot agree on how long it will take to bring it under control. Zhong Nanshan, an expert who played a crucial role in the fight against SARS, expects the coronavirus epidemic to peak in early February. “SARS lasted for almost five or six months, but I don’t believe that the new coronavirus will be able to continue for that long,” said Zhong, who is now Director of the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease in China. Gabriel Leung, Dean of Hong Kong University’s Medical School, who is leading a team of experts using mathematical modeling to predict the spread of the virus, expects the outbreak to peak in April or May in five major Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the South China Morning Post reports.
Several airlines have suspended flights to destinations in China, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Australia’s Qantas and U.S. airlines Delta, United and American. Some suspensions could last till March 29. Several countries are taking ever more draconian measures to try to stop the spread of the virus. The U.S. advised its citizens: “Do not travel to China!”. Travelers who are not U.S. citizens or directly related to a U.S. citizen will be denied entry if they are traveling from China or have been there in the past 14 days. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that no-one traveling from mainland China would be allowed into Australia from February 1. Returning Australian citizens and residents would be quarantined for two weeks. Nearly 10,000 flights were canceled between the outbreak of the virus and January 31, according to Cirium, which provides data and research on the travel industry, but the WHO has so far said that such limits on trade and travel aren’t needed to control the spread of the virus
China’s Foreign Ministry lashed back at the U.S. for banning foreign arrivals from China. The Chinese government itself is however taking measures to limit the number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad. All group tours have been suspended, domestically as well as internationally, and Chinese authorities have suspended the issuance of travel permits for mainland Chinese citizens to visit Hong Kong and Macao. The Ministry of Education also suggested that students and academics postpone travel abroad.
Hundreds of non-essential medical workers went on strike in Hong Kong on February 3, demanding the city close its border with mainland China to reduce the spreading of the coronavirus. Frontline staff are still on the job but were threatening to join the strike in the coming days. Only two border checkpoints between Hong Kong and mainland China remain open. Hong Kong has 17 confirmed cases of the virus and one death.
China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) emphasized that with the exception of Wuhan Tianhe airport and Hankou river port, which are closed due to the lockdown, China’s land, sea and airports are functioning, and foreigners can enter or exit as usual. However, neighboring countries, including Russia and Vietnam, have closed their land border checkpoints.
Countries including the U.S., France and Australia have been evacuating their citizens from Wuhan, although many hundreds still remain blocked in the city. A French airplane evacuated French, Belgian and citizens from other countries from Wuhan. After a stop in Marseille, the plane landed at Brussels’ Melsbroek airport on Sunday evening. The Belgian citizens were taken to the military hospital at Neder-Over-Heembeek while the governments of other countries made arrangements to pick up their citizens. Meanwhile China has sent charter flights to several international destinations to repatriate Wuhan and Hubei residents who became stuck abroad. A Xiamen Airlines flight repatriated 73 Chinese passengers from Bangkok. China’s Foreign Ministry said that the country would bring Wuhan residents back from overseas “as soon as possible” due to “the practical difficulties that Chinese citizens from Hubei, especially Wuhan, have faced overseas”. Embassies have also been withdrawing non-essential staff from China.
The Pasteur Institute in Paris announced at the weekend that it had managed to isolate and grow a culture of the new coronavirus. That means the virus is available for research, which puts scientists on track to develop a vaccine. But that will take time. Christophe D’Enfert, Scientific Director at the Pasteur Institute, told reporters in Paris that the vaccine could be made available in 20 months if “all goes well.” Beijing’s China-Japan Friendship Hospital will lead a clinical trial on the treatment of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) with Remdesivir in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
Meanwhile, China has reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in Hunan province, which lies to the south of Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. “The outbreak occurred in a farm in Shaoyang city. The farm has 7,850 chickens, and 4,500 of the chickens have died from the contagion. Local authorities have culled 17,828 poultry after the outbreak, according to a statement by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. No human cases of the Hunan H5N1 virus have been reported. The risk of human-to-human transmission of this virus is very low.
The 1,000-bed Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan has begun receiving highly contagious pneumonia patients on February 4, less than 10 days after construction began. A second hospital will be put into service in the coming days.
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