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Wuhan urges people to stay away in bid to contain China virus
BEIJING, Jan 22, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The Chinese city at the centre of a
SARS-like virus outbreak has urged people to stay away, cancelling a major
Lunar New Year event, as it strives to contain a disease that has spread
across the country.
The death toll from the virus, which first emerged in the central city of
Wuhan, has reached nine while more than 400 people have now been infected in
13 provinces and municipalities.
The disease is spreading just as hundreds of millions of people are
travelling in packed trains, planes and buses across China to gather with
friends and family for the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on Friday.
Wuhan’s mayor Zhou Xianwang urged residents to not leave the city and
visitors to avoid it so that the possibility of transmission can be reduced.
“If it’s not necessary we suggest that people don’t come to Wuhan,” Zhou
told state broadcaster CCTV.
Fever scanners have been set up at the city’s train station and airport and
officials check the temperatures of drivers at highway checkpoints, while
outbound tour groups have been banned from leaving the city of 11 million
people.
The National Health Commission announced measures on Wednesday to curb the
spread, including disinfection and ventilation at airports and bus stations
as well as inside planes and trains.
The vast majority of cases have been found in Wuhan, where a seafood market
that illegally sold wild animals is the primary suspect for the outbreak.
The virus, which can be transmitted between humans and could mutate, has
also infected people in other countries including the US, Thailand, Japan and
South Korea.
The Wuhan government said in a notice Tuesday that it will cancel
activities during China’s Lunar New Year holiday, the most important event in
the Chinese calendar.
Wuhan has cancelled the annual prayer-giving at the city’s Guiyuan Temple
and has closed the temple — which attracted 700,000 tourists during last
year’s holiday.
This year, city authorities said 30,000 tourists had already booked tickets
to new year celebrations and 200,000 free event coupons had been distributed.
The Wuhan New Coronavirus Infected Pneumonia Prevention and Control
Headquarters said it would cancel public events that were not “necessary.”
All local artistic and theatre performances have been cancelled, it said,
and the museum is closed. It has also pulled plans to send opera troupes
around rural areas during the holiday.
Tour groups leaving the city have also been cancelled.
Police are conducting spot checks for live poultry or wild animals in
vehicles exiting and entering the city.
“We already know that the disease originated from a market which conducted
illegal transaction of wild animals,” Gao Fu, director of the Chinese centre
for disease control and prevention, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“This might be the cause, so the disease could be on an animal, and then
passed on from this animal to a human.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1102 hrs