Chinese city at heart of outbreak ‘in lockdown’
The city at the centre of a mystery virus sweeping through China and beyond has been locked down in an effort to contain the fastmoving outbreak.
From yesterday morning Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, will effectively be in quarantine with air, bus, ferry and rail terminals closed to prevent the spread of the disease around the country.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city in December, has infected at least 551 people and killed 17.
The announcement of the lockdown came as the World Health Organisation last night delayed a decision on declaring a global health emergency.
An emergency meeting of the WHO will reconvene today to discuss whether to sound a warning that would mean affected countries must report cases and give the organisation power to impose trade and travel restrictions.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said the decision to declare an emergency should not be taken lightly.
‘‘[The decision] is one I’m only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of the evidence,’’ he said.
Tedros would not be drawn on whether or not he thought putting Wuhan in effective quarantine was a good idea. ‘‘We will need some time to understand the specific measures that are being taken,’’ he said.
The majority of cases of the pneumonia-type illness have been in China – but there have been four cases reported in Thailand as well as single cases in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico and the US. Russia has also reported a suspected case.
The novel coronavirus comes from the same family as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) coronavirus that went around the world from 2002 to 2003. That, too, emerged in China, eventually infecting around 8000 people and killing 800.
The disease – which preliminary research has linked to snakes – is thought to have originated in an animal market in Wuhan, 650 miles south of Beijing, but officials were still unsure which animals were transmitting the disease and how fast it was spreading from human to human.
Disease modelling carried out by researchers at Imperial College,
London, showed that thousands of cases may have not yet been identified, with as many as 4000 people in the city at the epicentre of the outbreak likely to have been infected.
Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial, said that over the coming weeks the number of cases would increase rapidly.
‘‘It will be much more complicated to estimate for the whole of China,’’ he added.
The virus causes a pneumonia-type illness, leading to fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. Health officials have confirmed human-to-human transmission.
The virus is spread through coughing and sneezing.
Authorities in China warned yesterday that the novel coronavirus was already ‘‘adapting and mutating’’.
George Fu Gao, directorgeneral of China’s centre for disease control and prevention, said: ‘‘The virus gradually adapted once it was transmitted from the animals [to humans], and we need more time to study further.’’ At the moment, however, children and young people do not appear to be susceptible to the virus, Gao added.
In Wuhan, local officials were asking people to avoid large social gatherings and were barring imports of livestock and wild animals into the city.
Many countries in Asia and as far away as the US have stepped up screening measures at airports for incoming travellers from China.
North Korea has closed its borders to all foreign tourists, most of whom visit from China.
Hong Kong, where hospitals were monitoring more than 100 people with related symptoms, had already prepared quarantine camps as an emergency measure, its public broadcaster reported.