China: US spreading coronavirus fear

Bans on travel are called overreaction, ‘ bad example’

WASHINGTON – China’s foreign ministry said Monday that the U. S. has not helped contain the outbreak of coronavirus that began in the city of Wuhan but has instead spread fear by imposing travel bans.

“There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel,” Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said in a statement.

More than 17,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in China and 183 across 26 other countries from an outbreak that has killed 362 people. There are 11 confirmed cases in the U. S.

Last week, the U. S. State Department issued a travel advisory telling Americans not to go to China because of the virus. And President Donald Trump called the outbreak a public health emergency requiring quarantines for U. S. travelers who recently visited parts of China associated with the outbreak.

Hua said the U. S. “inappropriately overreacted” with the travel advisory.

On Monday, the first U. S. patient infected with the virus said he was out of the hospital and getting better, according his statement provided to the Asso

ciated Press. The 35- year- old unidentified man fell sick after returning home from a visit to China and was admitted to the hospital Jan. 20.

China’s Hua said the U. S. “hasn’t provided any substantive assistance to us, but it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers. What it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a very bad example.”

U. S. officials have said the administration has offered to help China. On Sunday, national security adviser Robert O’Brien told CBS News that the U. S. offered to send officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to China. “And we have not heard back yet from the Chinese on those offers, but we’re prepared to continue to cooperate with them,” he said.

MARK RALSTON/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Passengers on a flight from Asia arrive at Los Angeles International Airport. The U. S. has barred foreign nationals who visited China in the past 14 days.