PH has 1st 2019-nCoV case
Published Jan 30, 2020 12:00 am
By Analou de Vera and Bloomberg
A female Chinese national is the first confirmed case of the 2019 novel coronavirus in the Philippines, the Department of Health revealed on Thursday as the death toll on the deadly virus rose to 170.
(AP photo/DOH/MANILA BULLETIN)
The DOH had initially placed under strict monitoring and investigation 27 foreign nationals for the 2019-nCoV. But four of them, including a man who was later diagnosed to be infected with HIV and later died of pneumonia, were later cleared of 2019-nCoV.
However, the remaining 23 foreigners will continue to be monitored until completely cleared.
READ MORE: DOH confirms 1st case of 2019-nCoV in PH
‘Great Wall’ vs PH visitors
With the alarming situation, Philippine Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Thursday urged the government to tighten its border control against Chinese visitors to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Recto said it is time that the Philippines puts up a temporary “Great Wall” while the world is dealing with the coronavirus crisis.
“Let us explain to them that we are not permanently closing our doors. This is not a permanent Great Wall. This is only during the duration of the coronavirus crisis,” Recto said.
“There is no hint of racism or xenophobia in this policy. This is an assertion of the national well-being and an acceptance of the fact that our defenses and capacity to respond to a health emergency is not that strong,” he pointed out.
READ MORE: Senators urge gov’t to impose travel ban on travelers from China
WHO eyes global alarm
The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, called a meeting of its Emergency Committee Thursday to consider issuing a global alarm.
“The whole world needs to be on alert now,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the UN agency’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference in Geneva. “The whole world needs to take action and be ready for any cases that come” in China or beyond.
China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as confirmation that three Japanese evacuated from the outbreak's epicentre were infected deepened fears about a global contagion.
The WHO, which initially downplayed the severity of a disease that has now killed 170 nationwide, warned all governments to be ''on alert'' as it weighed whether to declare a global health emergency.
As foreign countries evacuated their citizens from Wuhan, the locked-down city where the virus was first detected, concern over the economic impact has steadily intensified.
Airlines have suspended services to China and companies from Starbucks to Tesla have shuttered stores and production lines.
Chinese authorities have taken extraordinary steps to arrest the virus's spread, including effectively locking down more than 50 million people in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.
But that was yet to pay dividends, with the government reporting 38 new deaths in the 24 hours to Thursday, the highest one-day total. All but one were in Hubei.
The number of confirmed new cases also grew steadily to 7,711, the National Health Commission said. Another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.
The pathogen is believed to have been spawned in a market that sold wild game, spreading far and wide by a Lunar New Year holiday season in which hundreds of millions of Chinese travel domestically or abroad.
'Totally new situation'
Japan's infection rate grew to 11 after three Japanese citizens among more than 200 on an evacuation flight Wednesday tested positive.
Officials had already confirmed two cases in which patients tested positive without having travelled to China, adding to anxiety over human-to-human transmission of the respiratory disease.
''We are in a truly new situation,'' Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament.
The fact that two of the three new confirmed Japanese cases showed no symptoms underscored the scale of the challenge for health workers.
The WHO has come under fire after it last week declined to declare a global health emergency.
The global health body's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed regret for what he called a ''human error'' in the WHO's assessment.
WHO's Emergency Committee will meet Thursday to decide whether to declare an emergency -- which could lead to travel or trade barriers.
''The whole world needs to take action,'' Michael Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told reporters in Geneva.
A US charter flight from Wuhan arrived Wednesday at a California military base with nearly 200 consular staff and other Americans, who ''cheered loudly'' when the jet touched down, said an official with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All passengers were declared symptom-free but will remain isolated for days while they are monitored.
Some 250 French citizens and 100 other Europeans will be flown out of Wuhan on board two French planes this week.
Australia plans to house any citizens it evacuates from the city on an island normally used to detain asylum seekers.
A growing number of governments – including the United States, Britain and Germany – have advised their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to China.
China also has urged its own citizens to delay trips abroad, after more than 15 countries confirmed infections.
READ MORE: Three Japanese evacuated from Wuhan have new coronavirus
Flights scrapped, stores closed
Major airlines that have suspended or pared back service to China include British Airways, German flag carrier Lufthansa, American Airlines, KLM, and United.
China efforts to halt the virus have seen the suspension of classes nationwide and an extension of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Most street traffic in and around Wuhan has been banned.
''This is the first day since the lockdown that I've had to go out,'' a man in his 50s told AFP on the mostly deserted streets of the industrial city.
''I have no choice because I need to buy food.''
China's football body meanwhile said it was postponing ''all levels and all types of football matches across the country'', including the country's top-tier Chinese Super League, in response to the outbreak.
As the ''world's factory,'' the disruptions in China are expected to send ripples through supply chains globally, denting profits.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the new coronavirus posed a fresh risk to a fragile world economy, adding that the US central bank was on alert.
The contagion has spread to nearly every corner of China, with remote Tibet reporting its first case on Thursday.
READ MORE: China sees deadliest day yet as global virus fears mount
Chartered flights
China's aviation authority has approved chartered flights to bring home from overseas trips some residents of the central city of Wuhan, the site of an epidemic caused by a new virus, state television said on Thursday.
Domestic and international airlines have cancelled flights between Wuhan and overseas cities since Jan. 23, in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.
The aviation authority also asked the airlines not to stop healthy Wuhan residents from boarding flights.
Punish
China's anti-corruption watchdog said on Thursday it will severely punish officials who slack off on the job in fighting a new virus that is spreading across the country.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on its website that anyone who doesn't effectively carry out President Xi Jinping's instructions in the fight against the virus would be punished.
CCDI also said it would punish those who are derelict in their duty and misappropriate rescue funds and materials.
Stay calm
President Moon Jae-in urged South Koreans not to give in to fear on Thursday, as the government prepared to evacuate the first of about 700 citizens from the epicentre of a new coronavirus epidemic in China's central city of Wuhan.
The first of up to four planned flights to Wuhan had been expected to depart on Thursday morning, but was delayed for unspecified reasons, Yonhap news agency said, although they are now expected to depart later in the day.
"The weapons that will protect us from the new coronavirus are not fear and aversion but trust and cooperation," Moon said in a speech, decrying "fake news" for having stirred excessive anxiety.
Protesters had used tractors on Wednesday to block the roads to facilities earmarked for quarantine centers in the cities of Asan and Jincheon, about 80 km (50 miles) south of Seoul, the capital.
READ MORE: South Korea’s Moon urges calm amid protests over coronavirus quarantine sites
Stranded in Wuhan
Pregnant, newlywed and now trapped at the Chinese epicenter of a global health crisis, Thai national Aphinya is among thousands of foreigners desperate to escape – and watching helplessly as the US and Japan fly their citizens home.
Hundreds were flown to safety this week to Tokyo, Singapore and California on government-chartered flights, but those from countries with less diplomatic clout fear they are being left behind.
''I feel hurt that they don't care about us,'' Aphinya Thasripech, 32, told AFP.
''Either I could starve or I'll get infected and die,'' said the factory worker, who is two months pregnant. So far 170 people have been killed by the virus since it emerged from a market in Wuhan, and more than 7,700 people have been sickened. (With reports from Hannah L. Torregoza, AFP and Reuters)
(AP photo/DOH/MANILA BULLETIN)
The DOH had initially placed under strict monitoring and investigation 27 foreign nationals for the 2019-nCoV. But four of them, including a man who was later diagnosed to be infected with HIV and later died of pneumonia, were later cleared of 2019-nCoV.
However, the remaining 23 foreigners will continue to be monitored until completely cleared.
READ MORE: DOH confirms 1st case of 2019-nCoV in PH
‘Great Wall’ vs PH visitors
With the alarming situation, Philippine Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Thursday urged the government to tighten its border control against Chinese visitors to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Recto said it is time that the Philippines puts up a temporary “Great Wall” while the world is dealing with the coronavirus crisis.
“Let us explain to them that we are not permanently closing our doors. This is not a permanent Great Wall. This is only during the duration of the coronavirus crisis,” Recto said.
“There is no hint of racism or xenophobia in this policy. This is an assertion of the national well-being and an acceptance of the fact that our defenses and capacity to respond to a health emergency is not that strong,” he pointed out.
READ MORE: Senators urge gov’t to impose travel ban on travelers from China
WHO eyes global alarm
The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, called a meeting of its Emergency Committee Thursday to consider issuing a global alarm.
“The whole world needs to be on alert now,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the UN agency’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference in Geneva. “The whole world needs to take action and be ready for any cases that come” in China or beyond.
China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as confirmation that three Japanese evacuated from the outbreak's epicentre were infected deepened fears about a global contagion.
The WHO, which initially downplayed the severity of a disease that has now killed 170 nationwide, warned all governments to be ''on alert'' as it weighed whether to declare a global health emergency.
As foreign countries evacuated their citizens from Wuhan, the locked-down city where the virus was first detected, concern over the economic impact has steadily intensified.
Airlines have suspended services to China and companies from Starbucks to Tesla have shuttered stores and production lines.
Chinese authorities have taken extraordinary steps to arrest the virus's spread, including effectively locking down more than 50 million people in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.
But that was yet to pay dividends, with the government reporting 38 new deaths in the 24 hours to Thursday, the highest one-day total. All but one were in Hubei.
The number of confirmed new cases also grew steadily to 7,711, the National Health Commission said. Another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.
The pathogen is believed to have been spawned in a market that sold wild game, spreading far and wide by a Lunar New Year holiday season in which hundreds of millions of Chinese travel domestically or abroad.
'Totally new situation'
Japan's infection rate grew to 11 after three Japanese citizens among more than 200 on an evacuation flight Wednesday tested positive.
Officials had already confirmed two cases in which patients tested positive without having travelled to China, adding to anxiety over human-to-human transmission of the respiratory disease.
''We are in a truly new situation,'' Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament.
The fact that two of the three new confirmed Japanese cases showed no symptoms underscored the scale of the challenge for health workers.
The WHO has come under fire after it last week declined to declare a global health emergency.
The global health body's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed regret for what he called a ''human error'' in the WHO's assessment.
WHO's Emergency Committee will meet Thursday to decide whether to declare an emergency -- which could lead to travel or trade barriers.
''The whole world needs to take action,'' Michael Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told reporters in Geneva.
A US charter flight from Wuhan arrived Wednesday at a California military base with nearly 200 consular staff and other Americans, who ''cheered loudly'' when the jet touched down, said an official with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All passengers were declared symptom-free but will remain isolated for days while they are monitored.
Some 250 French citizens and 100 other Europeans will be flown out of Wuhan on board two French planes this week.
Australia plans to house any citizens it evacuates from the city on an island normally used to detain asylum seekers.
A growing number of governments – including the United States, Britain and Germany – have advised their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to China.
China also has urged its own citizens to delay trips abroad, after more than 15 countries confirmed infections.
READ MORE: Three Japanese evacuated from Wuhan have new coronavirus
Flights scrapped, stores closed
Major airlines that have suspended or pared back service to China include British Airways, German flag carrier Lufthansa, American Airlines, KLM, and United.
China efforts to halt the virus have seen the suspension of classes nationwide and an extension of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Most street traffic in and around Wuhan has been banned.
''This is the first day since the lockdown that I've had to go out,'' a man in his 50s told AFP on the mostly deserted streets of the industrial city.
''I have no choice because I need to buy food.''
China's football body meanwhile said it was postponing ''all levels and all types of football matches across the country'', including the country's top-tier Chinese Super League, in response to the outbreak.
As the ''world's factory,'' the disruptions in China are expected to send ripples through supply chains globally, denting profits.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the new coronavirus posed a fresh risk to a fragile world economy, adding that the US central bank was on alert.
The contagion has spread to nearly every corner of China, with remote Tibet reporting its first case on Thursday.
READ MORE: China sees deadliest day yet as global virus fears mount
Chartered flights
China's aviation authority has approved chartered flights to bring home from overseas trips some residents of the central city of Wuhan, the site of an epidemic caused by a new virus, state television said on Thursday.
Domestic and international airlines have cancelled flights between Wuhan and overseas cities since Jan. 23, in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.
The aviation authority also asked the airlines not to stop healthy Wuhan residents from boarding flights.
Punish
China's anti-corruption watchdog said on Thursday it will severely punish officials who slack off on the job in fighting a new virus that is spreading across the country.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on its website that anyone who doesn't effectively carry out President Xi Jinping's instructions in the fight against the virus would be punished.
CCDI also said it would punish those who are derelict in their duty and misappropriate rescue funds and materials.
Stay calm
President Moon Jae-in urged South Koreans not to give in to fear on Thursday, as the government prepared to evacuate the first of about 700 citizens from the epicentre of a new coronavirus epidemic in China's central city of Wuhan.
The first of up to four planned flights to Wuhan had been expected to depart on Thursday morning, but was delayed for unspecified reasons, Yonhap news agency said, although they are now expected to depart later in the day.
"The weapons that will protect us from the new coronavirus are not fear and aversion but trust and cooperation," Moon said in a speech, decrying "fake news" for having stirred excessive anxiety.
Protesters had used tractors on Wednesday to block the roads to facilities earmarked for quarantine centers in the cities of Asan and Jincheon, about 80 km (50 miles) south of Seoul, the capital.
READ MORE: South Korea’s Moon urges calm amid protests over coronavirus quarantine sites
Stranded in Wuhan
Pregnant, newlywed and now trapped at the Chinese epicenter of a global health crisis, Thai national Aphinya is among thousands of foreigners desperate to escape – and watching helplessly as the US and Japan fly their citizens home.
Hundreds were flown to safety this week to Tokyo, Singapore and California on government-chartered flights, but those from countries with less diplomatic clout fear they are being left behind.
''I feel hurt that they don't care about us,'' Aphinya Thasripech, 32, told AFP.
''Either I could starve or I'll get infected and die,'' said the factory worker, who is two months pregnant. So far 170 people have been killed by the virus since it emerged from a market in Wuhan, and more than 7,700 people have been sickened. (With reports from Hannah L. Torregoza, AFP and Reuters)