BEIJING, China – The Philippines became Sunday in the first country to report a death outside of China related to a new coronavirus, deepening fears about an epidemic that has already claimed more than 300 lives and has left more than 14,000 people infected.
According to preliminary information, This is a 44-year-old man, of Chinese nationality and natural of the city of Wuhan, who apparently had arrived in the Philippines already contaminated with the coronavirus 2019-nCoV.
“It is the first report of a death outside of China” for this cause, Rabindra Abeyasinghe, a WHO representative in the Philippines, told reporters.
This first death outside the Chinese territory occurs at a time when a growing number of countries announce severe border restrictions for people from China.
On Sunday, the Public Health Commission of the Chinese province of Hubei reported 45 new fatalities in the last 24 hours, and with it the total number of people killed in the country by the epidemic already amounts to 304.
Meanwhile, national authorities reported that the number of confirmed cases of contamination has already reached 14,380.
In addition, China itself now enters a particularly delicate period, as its inhabitants are preparing to resume travel before the end of the extended holiday for the Lunar New Year.
Those vacations will end on Friday, although the authorities have extended it until the following Monday, in an attempt to gain time to manage the crisis.
Global chain reaction
Faced with the seemingly unstoppable spread of this new coronavirus, many countries closed their borders to the entry of travelers from China in a desperate attempt to limit their exposure to the epidemic.
The virus has already reached more than twenty countries, including Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Sweden, while Africa and Latin America seemed at the moment exempt from the epidemic.
In Latin America, the governments of Guatemala and El Salvador have already suspended entry to their territory to people from China.
Some 150 cases have already been registered in about twenty countries.
Given the seriousness of the situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided on Thursday to declare the epidemic “public health emergency of international scope”.
Several countries also chose to close their borders and impose severe traffic restrictions.
The United States ordered exceptional measures to close its borders or to impose quarantine on travelers from China, especially from the epicenter of the epidemic, the city of Wuhan (center) and the province of Hubei, whether American or not.
Australia announced on Saturday that it prohibited any non-resident from China to enter its territory, a measure similar to those announced by other countries such as Italy, Singapore and Mongolia, and that caused discomfort in Beijing.
Russia joined, with the imposition of visas for Chinese tourists and the suspension of work visas for the citizens of that country from midnight on Saturday. Even Chinese tourists must now apply for a visa.
Chinese upset
China, for its part, criticized the reaction of countries that adopted restrictions, claiming that it was necessary to avoid “unnecessary panic” with the implementation of “excessive measures.”
For its part, WHO warned that traffic restrictions could be counterproductive during a health emergency, due to the risk of disrupting the distribution of aid and ballasting the economy of the affected countries.
Many countries such as Spain, France, India, Germany, Poland, Canada, Colombia and Italy chartered planes to China to repatriate their citizens or plan to do so soon.
Giant quarantine
Apparently, the epidemic appeared in December in a market in Wuhan, a metropolis that, de facto, has been in quarantine since January 23.
Both the city and its region, where some 56 million people live, They are practically isolated from the outside world.
On Sunday, the authorities announced the almost total isolation of the city of Wenzhou, located in Zhejiang Province (east of the country) and a megalopolis of more than nine million inhabitants.
In Wenzhou, 256 confirmed cases of contamination have already been recorded. Now, the inhabitants have the obligation to remain in their houses, and almost all public transport was suspended.
In other parts of the country, fear of contagion seized the inhabitants, suspicious of leaving their homes and, when they leave, they do it with a mask.
Huanggang City, on the outskirts of Wuhan, declared that as of now Only one member of each household would be allowed to leave their home once every two days to purchase necessities.
By Helen Roxburgh and Beiyi Seow
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