BEIJING, Feb 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from China’s coronavirus
epidemic soared to 304 on Sunday, as an increasing number of countries
imposed extraordinary Chinese travel bans to combat the spread of the
disease.
With Britain, Russia and Sweden among the countries confirming their first
infections, the virus has now spread to more than two dozen nations, sending
governments scurrying to limit their exposure.
The United States and Australia are leading a growing list of countries
that are putting temporary but sweeping travel restrictions on Chinese
nationals or those who have travelled to China within the last two weeks.
“Foreign nationals, other than immediate family of US citizens and
permanent residents… will be denied entry into the United States Health
Secretary Alex Azar had announced.
Australia said it was barring entry to non-citizens arriving from China,
while Australian citizens who had travelled there would be required to go
into “self-isolation” for two weeks.
Vietnam suspended all flights from mainland China effective Saturday, while
Russia announced it would halt visa-free tourism for Chinese nationals and
stop issuing them work visas.
Similar expansive restrictions have been announced by countries including
Italy, Singapore, and China’s northern neighbour Mongolia.
The United States, Japan, Britain, Germany and other nations had already
advised their citizens not to travel to China.
Thousands of Hong Kong medical workers voted to commence a four-day strike
from Monday to push the government to close its border with mainland China to
stop the virus, which has already spread to the financial hub.
Britain said Saturday it was temporarily withdrawing some diplomatic staff
and their families from across China, a day after the US State Department
ordered embassy employees to send home family members under the age of 21. –
‘Unkind’ –
Beijing insists it can contain the virus and called Washington’s advice
against travel to China “unkind”.
The US emergency declaration also requires Americans returning from Hubei
province to be placed in mandatory 14-day quarantine, and health screening
for American citizens coming from other parts of China.
The virus emerged in early December and has been traced to a market in
Hubei’s capital Wuhan that sold wild animals.
It spread globally on the wings of a Lunar New Year holiday rush that sees
hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel domestically and overseas.
The economic fallout continued as Apple announced that all its China stores
would be closed until February 9.
China’s central bank said it would offer financial support to businesses
hit by the public health emergency.
– Mea culpa –
With public anger mounting in China, Wuhan’s top official admitted late
Friday that authorities there had acted too slowly.
“If strict control measures had been taken earlier the result would have
been better than now,” said Ma Guoqiang, the Communist Party chief for Wuhan.
Wuhan officials have been criticised online for withholding information
about the outbreak until late December despite knowing of it weeks earlier.
China finally lurched into action last week, effectively quarantining whole
cities in Hubei and tens of millions of people.
Unprecedented safeguards imposed nationwide include postponing the return
to school, cutting bus and train routes, and tightening health screening on
travellers nationwide.
Authorities in Hubei have extended the new year holiday until February 13
and suspended marriage registrations from Monday to discourage public
gatherings.
The city of Huanggang, east of Wuhan, said only one member of each
household would be permitted to leave the house every two days to buy
necessities.
But the toll keeps mounting, with health authorities in Hubei on Sunday
reporting 45 more deaths in the preceding 24 hours.
The number of confirmed infections across China passed 14,300 on Sunday,
the National Health Commission announced — far higher than the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome outbreak of 2002-03.
SARS, which is caused by a pathogen similar to the new coronavirus and also
originated in China, killed 774 people worldwide — most of them in mainland
China and Hong Kong.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global
emergency on Thursday but later warned that closing borders was probably
ineffective in halting transmission and could accelerate the virus’s spread.
But authorities around the world pressed ahead with preventive measures.
– ‘Latent racism’ –
Thai health officials on Friday said a taxi driver became the kingdom’s
first case of human-to-human transmission.
Thailand joins China, Vietnam, Germany, Japan, France and the United States
with confirmed domestic infections.
The health crisis has dented China’s international image and put Chinese
nationals in difficult positions abroad, with complaints of racism.
China flew overseas Hubei residents back to the centre of the outbreak in
Wuhan on chartered planes from Thailand and Malaysia, citing “practical
difficulties” the passengers had encountered overseas.
Countries including Japan, Britain, France and the US have scrambled to
evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, with more governments planning airlifts.