Topline: Chinese authorities have advised people to avoid travel to
Wuhan as the death toll from the outbreak of coronavirus rose to 17 on
Wednesday, while more than 500 cases have been confirmed.
·
Officials in China are
warning residents of the central Chinese city, which is home to around 11
million people, to avoid public gatherings, while pharmacies have restricted
the number of face masks that can be sold to individuals.
·
Around 544 people in
China have been infected with the pneumonia-like virus which was first detected
in Wuhan and has now spread to several other Chinese cities. Thailand, Japan,
South Korea and the U.S. have also recorde cases.
·
Li Bin,
vice-commissioner of China’s National health Commission, said
on Wednesday: "Basically, do not go to Wuhan. And those in
Wuhan please do not leave the city.”
·
The travel warning
comes just days ahead of the Lunar New Year in China when tens of million of
people will travel home to spend the holidays with family.
·
Taiwanese
manufacturing giant Foxconn has asked workers at its Wuhan plant to stay home
over the annual holiday period because of the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported.
·
Airports in the UK,
U.S, Australia, and several other nations confirmed plans to screen passengers
who have traveled to Wuhan, or have an unusually high temperature.
·
The World Health
Organisation has summoned an expert panel for an emergency meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland, to establish whether to designate the illness a global health
emergency and recommend travel restrictions.
·
Symptoms of the
illness include coughing, fever and breathing difficulties, and it can cause
pneumonia, kidney failure and death.
Key background: Chinese health officials believe the
current outbreak originated in a Wuhan food market and was transmitted from an
animal to a human but the exact source of the virus has not been confirmed.
Officials are concerned that the virus is mutating and that this could make the
outbreak more dangerous, AP reported. On Monday it was
confirmed that the illness can be spread between humans. The number of reported
cases is rising rapidly, and on Wednesday stood at more than 500. China’s
government and public health officials around the world are working to limit
the spread of the outbreak to avoid a repeat of SARS, a coronavirus epidemic
that ultimately claimed the lives of 800 people and infected 8,000 people in
2002-2003.
Tangent: The coronavirus outbreak is having a knock on effect on
qualifying matches for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, across Asia and Oceania.
Qualifying boxing matches in Wuhan next month have been cancelled, while the
Australian women’s soccer team qualifier, also slated for Wuhan next month,
might still go ahead, according to Reuters.
Travel operators and airlines have also said
they will ease restrictions on refunds. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific says it
will waive fees on refunds and rerouting,
while Trip.com, China’s biggest online travel agency, has waived cancellation
fees for trips to Wuhan.
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