Masks sell out over virus fears
Tourists worried about the new coronavirus have cleaned out Nelson pharmacies’ supplies of face masks, as health officials say the risk of an ongoing outbreak here remains low.
A school in the city is following its ‘‘pandemic policy’’ for international students, and the district health board has an incident management team on standby, but it said neither its pandemic nor health emergency plan were required to be activated as yet.
More than 100 people in China have died from the virus, with the city of Wuhan, thought to be the epicentre, and much of surrounding Hubei province in effective lockdown. The number of people infected internationally has risen.
There were no confirmed cases in New Zealand as of yesterday afternoon.
Visitor destination manager at the Nelson Regional Development Agency, Gisela Purcell, said she believed the risk of the virus significantly affecting tourism in the Nelson region, or of tourists bringing it here, was ‘‘extremely low’’. Chinese visitors made up about 5 per cent of visitors to the region.
People about to head overseas, however, were trying to take precautions.
Harley’s Pharmacy in Ta¯ hunanui said a holidaymaker bought a box of 50 face masks on Monday, cleaning out the shop’s supply.
‘‘They wanted the whole box, because they didn’t want it to be touched by anyone, they didn’t want the masks to be contaminated in any way,’’ retail assistant Renee Thomason said.
About eight tourists, all from Asia, had come in since then also wanting masks, she said.
Life Pharmacy in Nelson City sold out of its supplies of surgical face masks on Sunday, when somebody came in and bought a box of 100.
Most people who had asked for masks were tourists, and Nelsonians didn’t appear to be particularly worried about the virus, retail manager Renata Mijatovic-Schrader said.
Apart from selling out of face masks, it was business as usual, she said.
Waimea College principal Scott Haines said the school had no international students from China, but 41 students were due to arrive from ‘‘other affected’’ countries, including Japan, Thailand and South Korea.
‘‘We’ve briefed their homestay families about coronavirus, and we’ve given them information so that they can monitor the temperature and the health of the students.’’
The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology said it was monitoring the situation daily, with students not expected back at the polytechnic for a couple of weeks.
Chief executive Liam Sloan said it was a ‘‘worrying time’’, with a large proportion of NMIT’s 1400 international students hailing from China.
The institute was keeping in touch with staff at partner universities in China, he said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says extracting Kiwis from Wuhan will be ‘‘very difficult’’.
She confirmed there were 53 New Zealanders registered as being in Wuhan. Evacuating them was not a simple, straightforward exercise, she said.
Chinese officials had made clear to the Government that it would be ‘‘very difficult’’ to extract New Zealanders from the province because of the restricted measures that had been put in place, she said.
Meanwhile, Health Minister David Clark has announced coronavirus is officially a notifiable virus from tomorrow.
The status makes it compulsory for every case of the disease to be ‘‘notified’’, which means that any case discovered by health practitioners must be reported to the Government.
On Monday, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said the Ministry of Health was already getting information about suspected cases but the new status would now formalise the process. It would also give the ministry more powers if needed – such as the ability to require isolation.
Most people did comply with ministry requests for information, but there may be the occasional situation in which the risk to the public was greater so the powers would have to be used, McElnay said.
Meanwhile, the Government has been criticised for leaving Kiwis stranded in the Chinese province of Wuhan, where the coronavirus originated.
National Party leader Simon Bridges said the Government needed to stop sitting on its hands and bring home the New Zealanders.
It follows the actions of other countries, which have brought their citizens home.
RNZ has reported a New Zealand citizen trapped at the epicentre of China’s coronavirus outbreak was pleading with the Government to do more to get New Zealanders out.
On Monday, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) said it was aware that some countries were providing their citizens with assistance to depart Wuhan.
There are 21 New Zealanders registered as being in Wuhan City on SafeTravel.
Mfat had received a small number of requests for consular assistance from New Zealanders in Wuhan City and Hubei Province and the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing was providing assistance to them.
It was continuing to closely monitor the situation and was working closely with its China Posts and consular partner countries, regarding how best to assist New Zealanders in Wuhan.
However, The Guardian is reporting that it appeared increasingly unlikely foreign countries would be allowed to simply extricate their citizens in the face of militarily enforced lockdowns.
‘‘Indonesia has said it ‘seems to be impossible’, while Australia has said it ‘needs to abide by the travel restrictions . . . placed there for precisely the purpose of containing the coronavirus’,’’ The Guardian has reported.
Stuff has made inquiries with
Mfat on the situation for Kiwis.
‘‘A responsible Government would be looking after its people. Countries around the world are evacuating their citizens and putting them in quarantine for 14 days,’’ Bridges said.
The New Zealand Embassy in Beijing and the Consulate-General in Shanghai and Guangzhou had been closed for Chinese New Year and Bridges said the Government should have told its officials to come back from holiday to deal with New Zealanders in China who needed help.
The news comes after ministry officials said on Monday there was a ‘‘high likelihood’’ of coronavirus reaching New Zealand, with a moderate chance that it will be spread when it arrives.
There were 53 New Zealanders registered as being in Wuhan.
Travel insurers may not pay out for coronavirus-related claims made after the disease became public knowledge.
House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas said acceptance of claims from people who need medical treatment for the virus or are caught out by travel restrictions may hinge on when insurance cover was taken out.
Based on last year’s figures, Thomas estimated about 20,000 New Zealand residents would return from China in the three weeks around Chinese New Year, with most of them having gone to visit friends and family.
He said Kiwis stranded in Chinese cities locked down to prevent spread of the disease should still approach their insurer about claiming for accommodation costs or flight changes.
‘‘There will definitely be some people who will be caught up in these restrictions in some shape or form.’’
According to the Southern Cross Travel Insurance website, customers who took out policies before 1pm on January 21 this year could submit claims for assessment if their travel was impacted by the virus.
After that time ‘‘we would consider that you would have been aware of the outbreak, which has been widely reported in global media.
‘‘If your travel arrangements aren’t affected by the outbreak, but you have changed your mind or are nervous about travelling, there is no provision to claim under your policy.’’
The New Zealand government Safetravel website advises against visiting China’s Hubei province, and it warns travel restrictions could be extended to other areas of China with little notice, preventing those already there from leaving.