The death toll rose to 170 in the new virus outbreak in China on Thursday as foreign evacuees from the worst-hit region begin returning home under close observation and world health officials expressed great concern that the disease is starting to spread between people outside of China. Thursday’s figures cover the previous 24 hours and represent an increase of 38 deaths and 1,737 cases for a total of 7,711. Of the new deaths, 37 were in the epicentre of the outbreak in Hubei province and one in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The news comes as the 195 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the Hubei province city of 11 million where the outbreak originated, are undergoing three days of testing and monitoring at a Southern California military base to make sure they do not show signs of the virus.
A group of 210 Japanese evacuees from Wuhan landed on Thursday at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on a second government chartered flight, according to the foreign ministry.
Reports said nine of those aboard the flight showed signs of cough and fever.“Three of the 206 Japanese who returned on Wednesday tested positive for the new coronavirus,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a parliamentary session. Two of them showed no symptoms of the disease.
France, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and other countries are also pulling out their citizens or making plans to do so.
“Amid reports of shortages in food and daily necessities in hotspot areas, the authorities are stepping up efforts to ensure continuous supply and stable prices,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
It cited ministry of commerce data showing current reserves in Wuhan can ensure a secure supply of rice and cooking oil for more than 15 days, pork and eggs for more than 10 days and vegetables for about five days.
The government has offered no estimates as to when it can contain the outbreak, although some specialists have speculated that the spread of the disease will reach its peak in about two weeks.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) emergencies chief said the few cases of human-to-human spread of the virus outside China in Japan, Germany, Canada and Vietnam were of great concern and were part of the reason the UN health agency’s director general was reconvening a committee of experts on Thursday to assess whether the outbreak should be declared a global emergency.
The new virus has now infected more people in China than were sickened there during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.
Dr Michael Ryan spoke at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday after returning from a trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior government leaders.
He said China was taking extraordinary measures in the face of an “extraordinary challenge” posed by the outbreak.
To date, about 99 per cent of the cases are in China. Ryan estimated the death rate of the new virus at 2pc, but said the figure was very preliminary.
With fluctuating numbers of cases and deaths, scientists are only able to produce a rough estimate of the fatality rate and its likely many milder cases of the virus are being missed.
In comparison, the SARS virus killed about 10pc of people who caught it. The new virus is from the coronavirus family, which includes those that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.
Scientists say there are many questions to be answered about the new virus, including just how easily it spreads and how severe it is.
In a report published on Wednesday, Chinese researchers suggested that person-to-person spread among close contacts occurred as early as mid December.
Considerable efforts will be needed to control the spread if this ratio holds up elsewhere, researchers wrote in the report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
More than half of the cases in which symptoms began before Jan 1 were tied to a seafood market, but only 8pc of cases after that have been, researchers found.
They reported the average incubation period was five days. Source: dawn.com/news/
Air Canada suspends all flights to Beijing and Shanghai amid coronavirus outbreak
Airlines around the world have started to cancel more flights to China as coronavirus fears have dragged down demand for air travel in the area. Air Canada normally runs 33 flights a week to China out of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal but on Wednesday the airline announced it would halt all flights to Beijing and Shanghai until the end of February at least. “Air Canada’s last flights departing Canada will operate today and the return flights will operate from Beijing and Shanghai tomorrow, January 30, 2020,” the airline said. “Affected customers will be notified and offered options, including travel on other carriers where available, or a full refund. Air Canada regrets this situation and apologizes for the serious disruption to our customers’ travel plans,” the airline said in a statement. It isn’t the only airline scaling back. British Airways on Wednesday suspended all direct flights to and from mainland China through to the end of February, although it will maintain limited service to Hong Kong. “We apologize to customers for the inconvenience, but the safety of our customers and crew is always our priority,” the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. “Customers due to travel to or from China in the coming days can find more information on BA.com.” Even though Canada has secured a plane, there are still many challenges in figuring out how to get Canadians out of Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak. American Airlines said Wednesday it will suspend flights between Los Angeles and both Shanghai and Beijing from Feb. 9 through Mar. 27. The airline cited “the significant decline in demand for travel to and from China.” Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said Tuesday it has reduced its overall seat capacity on Chinese routes by half, through to the end of March. Under normal circumstances, Cathay has 240 flights per week that take off or land in China. Air Seoul, a budget airline, became the first South Korean airline to suspend its fights to mainland Chinese destinations apart from Wuhan, stopping its flights to the cities of Zhangjiajie and Linyi. Indonesia’s Lion Air said it has cancelled more than 50 flights to China well into February. The flights are from five international airports in Manado, Surabaya, Jakarta, Batam and from Denpasar, in Bali, to 15 airports in China. The suspension will be phased in gradually and continue until further notice.
Kazakhstan, which shares a long border with far western China, announced Wednesday that it plans to suspend all flights, as well as train and bus traffic, and to halt issuing visas to Chinese nationals. Before Wednesday’s suspension, there were 24 flights a week from Kazakhstan to China, including a daily flight to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Japan’s JAL said it had not changed its flight plans, while German carrier Lufthansa said it was monitoring the situation “very closely” and would if necessary make changes in consultation with the authorities.Canadian companies feeling the pinch as coronavirus takes toll on their business prospects. Courtesy : Source: CBC news
