CORONA VIRUS CLAIMS FIRST CASUALTY OUTSIDE CHINA

Photo credit: AFP / Ted ALJIBEThe  AFP reports that a first foreign fatality from the new coronavirus has occured in the Philippines

The Philippines reported the first death on Sunday outside of China from a new coronavirus, deepening global fears about an epidemic that has claimed more than 300 lives.

The first foreign fatality came as an increasing number of governments around the world closed their borders to people from China in a bid to stop it spreading.

Since emerging from the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, the coronavirus has infected 14,000 people across China and spread to 24 countries.

China has locked down Wuhan and surrounding cities in a bid to contain the virus, but it has continued to spread, prompting a hard-hit eastern city far from the epicentre to impose similar draconian measures on Sunday.

The country was also on the last day of an extended Lunar New Year holiday, meaning people are starting to return home on planes and trains, though many businesses will remain closed for at least another week.

AFP /Spread of the new coronavirus

The World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday declared the situation a global health emergency, and nations have taken extraordinary measures to build virtual fortresses against the disease.

The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Israel banned foreign nationals from visiting if they had been in China recently, and warned their own citizens from travelling there.

The person who died in the Philippines was a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan, the WHO said.

The news of the man's death was released shortly after Manila announced it would immediately halt the arrivals of any foreign travellers from China.

"This is the first reported death outside China," Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, told reporters in Manila.

Britain, Russia and Sweden also this weekend confirmed their first infections.

- New lockdown, fatalities -

The death toll in China soared to 304 on Sunday, with authorities reporting 45 new deaths from the previous day.

There were 2,590 new confirmed cases in China, bringing the total to nearly 14,500.

The number of confirmed infections in China is 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.

China has imposed unprecedented measures to curb people travelling -- with the respiratory virus believed to be able to jump from person to person via droplets.

Wuhan, a city of 11 million people and the capital of Hubei province, has been under quarantine since January 23.

Similar measures have been in place across all of Hubei, effectively sealing off more than 50 million people.

The emergence of the virus came at the worst time for China, coinciding with the Lunar New Year Holiday when hundreds of millions travel across the country in planes, trains and buses for family reunions.

The holiday was scheduled to end on Friday, but it was extended to Monday to give authorities more time to try and deal with the crisis.

Custom authorities have ordered temperature checks at all exit-entry points in Beijing, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

All passengers are also required to fill in health declaration cards.

Is Nigeria adequately prepared to deal with this outbreak? The current administration's new visa on arrival policy has a lot of citizens bothered about the Country's preparedness for the possibility of a corona virus outbreak as the WHO has listed Nigeria amongst the high risk countries.


Culled from AFP