The Sunday Mail
China has expanded an unprecedented lockdown during the country’s most important holiday to 13 cities and at least 36 million people, as efforts to contain the deadly new coronavirus were stepped up around the world and the first cases were reported in Europe.
Restrictions on movement were widened on Friday in China in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Late on Friday, authorities confirmed a further 15 deaths and 180 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of fatalities to 41 people and more than 1 000 affected.
Cases have been reported across South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Thailand and Vietnam.
On Friday, the first cases were reported in Europe with France saying it had identified three cases.
The French health minister, Agnès Buzyn, said it was likely there would be other cases.
Buzyn added that the cases involved people who had travelled to China and two of them were from the same family.
Chinese officials shut part of the Great Wall and suspended public transport in the affected cities, stranding millions of people at the start of the lunar new year holiday amid growing anger about the government’s handling of the crisis. Beijing’s famous temple fairs, a tradition during lunar new year celebrations, will not go ahead, while Shanghai Disneyland announced it would also close indefinitely.
McDonald’s announced that it has also suspended its businesses in five affected cities.
Some have questioned if the closures of airports and train stations in Wuhan on Thursday morning were introduced too late, since many residents will already have set off for the holiday.
On Friday, the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist party’s main newspaper, called for people who have recently been to Wuhan to isolate themselves at home, even if they do not have symptoms.
Beijing is to take stricter and more targeted measures in the coming days, state television reported, without giving further details.
“The spread of the virus has not been cut off . . . Local authorities should take more responsibility and have a stronger sense of urgency,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
The World Health Organisation stopped short of declaring the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, but called on the global community to work together to fight the virus.
Other cities, including Ezhou, Huanggang, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang, Jingmen and Xiantao have introduced similar measures.
In Zhijiang city, all public venues have been shut down except hospitals, supermarkets, farmers’ markets, gas stations and drug stores.
Indoor entertainment venues in Enshi city have also been shut down.
The developments came as:
The virus claimed its first victims outside Hubei as well as its youngest victim, a 36-year-old man who was admitted to hospital in the central province earlier this month, but died following a sudden cardiac arrest on Thursday.
Authorities in China were racing against the clock to build a new 1 000-bed hospital dedicated to the disease within days.
The US, South Korea and Japan detected their second cases, and Singapore reported two more, for a total of three.
In the UK, tests for the virus on 14 people were reported to have come back negative as the government sought to calm public concern.
With tests still in process on several other possible cases,the health secretary, Matt Hancock, chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee to ensure appropriate measures were in place should the virus reach the UK.
Leaving Whitehall after the meeting, he told reporters that the risk remained low.
However, chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty cautioned that it was “highly likely” that cases would be seen in the UK. But he stressed that contingency plans were ready for that eventuality.
British universities meanwhile began taking measures to stop the spread of the virus, warning students considering travelling home to China that they risk being quarantined on their return.
Medical experts also remained at every UK airport with information on the virus being given to passengers returning from China.
Elsewhere, private schools were also gearing with contingency plans for overseas pupils who were unable or unwilling to return home for upcoming holidays.
China sends more pupils to UK fee-paying schools than any other country.
In Wuhan, the city in Hubei that is the epicentre of the disease, hospitals were struggling with an overflow of patients and a lack of supplies.
At least eight hospitals in the city made pleas for donations of masks, goggles, gowns and other protective medical gear. Administrators at Wuhan University People’s hospital set up a group chat on the popular WeChat messaging app to co-ordinate donations.
It is feared that the lunar new year holiday, when hundreds of millions of people travel across the country and abroad, could fuel the spread of the virus.
A growing number of airports are introducing screening for passengers who arrive from China.
China says the virus, which is from the same family of viruses as Sars, is mutating and can be transmitted through human contact.
Some residents have set up volunteer groups to escort medical staff to and from hospitals, she said.
All public transport has been suspended and taxi drivers are often reluctant to drive people to medical facilities, fearing they might be infected.
In the US, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said it had 63 patients under investigation, with the second confirmed case diagnosed in a 60-year-old woman from Chicago who had travelled to Wuhan in December. — Guardian.
