UK and Russia report first virus cases

UK and Russia report first virus cases

List of travel curbs grows, China may extend holidays further

The Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside in northwestern England is is believed to be where citizens returning from Wuhan will be quarantined, according to media reports. (AFP Photo)
The Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside in northwestern England is is believed to be where citizens returning from Wuhan will be quarantined, according to media reports. (AFP Photo)

The United Kingdom and Russia confirmed their first cases of the Chinese coronavirus on Friday, while the US and Japan advised citizens to avoid travelling to China.

Two patients in England, who are members of the same family, tested positive for virus, the government said. The patients are receiving specialist care in Newcastle.

“We are already working rapidly to identify any contacts the patients had, to prevent further spread,” chief medical officer Chris Whitty said.

Meanwhile, all passengers who boarded a flight from Wuhan are well, the UK government said. Travellers from China with symptoms are being asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

In Russia, two Chinese nationals are being kept in isolation, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said. The Kremlin will weigh temporary curbs on work visas, and the country has closed the Mongolia-Russia border to Chinese nationals. Russia also said it was halting many flights with China.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore has suspended visas of Chinese citizens with immediate effect. This includes those already issued, according to government officials. Vietnam has also ordered a suspension of visas for Chinese tourists.

Pakistan has stopped all direct flights to and from China until Sunday and plans to delay opening its northern border with China.

In China, Premier Li Keqiang said regions with a rapid spread of new confirmed cases can lengthen their holidays. He also called for staggered travel for people returning from the Lunar new Year holiday.

Companies in Beijing will postpone reopening until Feb 10 in order to help prevent the spread of the virus, the government newspaper Beijing Daily reported on Friday.

Hong Kong is extending school holidays until March 2, depending on the virus situation, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. The government will step up scrutiny of tourists from Hubei province, including sending them into quarantine.

But Lam again dismissed calls to close Hong Kong’s borders with China, and asked the city’s medical staff to reconsider any plans to strike.

In Italy, the cabinet declared a state of emergency, freeing up state resources to combat the virus. Two Chinese nationals are being treated in isolation in Rome, after 18 tourists from the country were taken to a hospital.

About 7,000 passengers who had been kept on a cruise ship near Rome over fears of a virus outbreak on board were allowed to disembark on Friday morning.

Passengers on Carnival ship had been held in the port of Civitavecchia since Thursday morning, after one of them came down with fever and respiratory symptoms. Subsequent examinations showed the illness was not the new coronavirus.

Japan, meanwhile, moved to strengthen its travel warning for China and to bar patients infected with the coronavirus from entering the country, after criticism that its initial response to the deadly outbreak was too lax.

The government is set to advise that non-urgent trips to China should be cancelled. It also plans to bring forward an order allowing compulsory hospital admission to Saturday, earlier than Feb 7 as originally planned, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament. Patients will be barred from entering the country from the same date, he added.

Tensions are rising across Asia Pacific as governments bring their citizens home from the outbreak epicentre in China, risking greater exposure among domestic populations.

Australia plans to isolate its evacuees from Wuhan on Christmas Island, better known for its grim history as a detention centre for would-be asylum seekers, while the US flew its citizens from the virus-stricken Chinese city to an isolated military base in California.

The US State Department on Thursday night warned Americans not to travel to China because of the spreading coronavirus outbreak. “Those currently in China should consider departing using commercial means”, the department said in the advisory, which was Level 4, the most severe travel warning category.

The advisory puts China among several nations that the US warns its citizens to avoid, including North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Iran and Somalia.

The global cost of the coronavirus could be three or four times that of the 2003 Sars outbreak, which sapped the world’s economy by $40 billion, according to the economist who calculated that figure.

The sheer growth in the Chinese economy over the last 17 years means the global health emergency triggered by the coronavirus outbreak has far greater potential to gouge global growth, according to Warwick McKibbin, a professor of economics at the Australian National University in Canberra.

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