Hospitals in Hong Kong cut services on Tuesday after thousands of medical workers went on strike for a second day demanding the complete closure of its borders with China.
The city’s Hospital Authority said it was cutting back services because “a large number of staff members are absent from duty” and “emergency services in public hospitals have been affected” by the strike. As many as 9,000 medical workers are expected to join the walkout.
The move comes as Hong Kong reported its first death of the deadly respiratory illness, a 39-year-old man who had travelled from the city of Wuhan in January.
Hong Kong closed almost all of its border crossings with China on Monday to stem the spread of coronavirus as the number of deaths from the disease soared past 420.
City leader Carrie Lam said only two checkpoints will remain open, and denied the move came after pressure from medical workers who threatened a five-day strike unless the border was sealed.
China unveiled a new 1,000-bed hospital in Wuhan that was completed in just 10 days, with a second 1,500 bed hospital to be opened soon.
Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has now infected more than 20,000 people worldwide. China’s health commission said on Tuesday that 425 people had died of the virus in the country.
Repatriation
Dozens of Italians and Poles repatriated from the Chinese city of Wuhan have been quarantined over fears they may have contracted the coronavirus.
Italy’s evacuation flight landed at a military airport near Rome on Monday – bringing 56 people home – while 30 people from Poland landed Sunday night. Both groups will spend two weeks in quarantine.
Turkey became the latest country to suspend flights to and from China.
Meanwhile, tests on 20 people who arrived in France on an evacuation flight from China with symptoms of the disease were negative.
A total of 254 Europeans arrived in France on Sunday from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the deadly virus was first detected. They are now in quarantine in France or have travelled on to their home countries.
Depending on their test results, those in quarantine will either be hospitalised or they will join one of the two quarantine places — a holiday camp near Carry-Le-Rouet or at a firefighters’ training centre near Aix-en-Provence
The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) said authorities in Germany had confirmed another case on Sunday — a person who had close contact with a visitor from China.
Across Europe, confirmed cases now stand at 12 in Germany, 6 in France, 2 each in Italy, Britain and Russia and 1 each in Finland, Spain, Sweden and Belgium.
European cases include student and tourists
Beijing has criticised a decision by the United States to bar entry to most non-nationals who have visited China in the past two weeks, saying it contradicted the WHO’s appeal to avoid travel bans.
Other countries to have taken similar measures include Australia, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines.
The WHO said it was especially concerned that some cases outside China involved human-to-human transmission.
“Countries need to get ready for possible importation in order to identify cases as early as possible and in order to be ready for a domestic outbreak control, if that happens,” WHO representative in Beijing, Gauden Galea, told AP.
One of the first two people to test positive for coronavirus in the UK is a student at the University of York. The university said in a statement that the risk of infection is low and that the student and another member of their family are being treated at a specialist unit in
Elsewhere in Britain, 83 British nationals evacuated from Wuhan were on their third day of a two-week quarantine at a hospital in Wirral while 27 non-UK nationals were at Brize Norton RAF base in Oxfordshire.
There have been eight cases of human-to-human transmission in four countries outside China: Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the US.
France revealed its sixth case of coronavirus on January 30 — a Paris doctor who’d come back from China.
In Finland, two cases have been reported including a Chinese tourist found to be infected with the virus at a hospital in Lapland, according to health authorities. They said the tourist was from Wuhan and that a further 15 people may have been exposed.
What’s the situation in China?
In Hubei, bustling streets, shops, restaurants and other public spaces in the city were eerily empty as authorities put more than a dozen cities on lockdown.
The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, has admitted the first patients to the new hospital, while construction crews continue to work around the clock on the second facility.
Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded the city’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances.
The cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Tianjin have suspended long-distance coach services, as well as the vast province of Shandong.
As a symbol of the concern that has gripped China, the authorities have announced the closure of sections of the famous Great Wall, as well as the Disneyland resort site in Shanghai.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam announced on Tuesday that all rail links to mainland China will be closed starting Friday, in order to stop the contagion. This includes both the high-speed rail station and the regular train station.
Mongolia already closed its vast border with China and North Korea said it was strengthening quarantine measure
