Virus: first death outside China
CHINA’S eastern port of Wenzhou yesterday became the first city outside central Hubei province to impose quarantine measures due to the coronavirus outbreak, which claimed its first recorded fatality outside China.
Wenzhou, a city of 9 million on China’s east coast, is 700km from Wuhan, the city in Hubei where the virus first broke out in December.
Families will only be permitted to send one family member out of the house every two days to buy necessities, according to city authorities.
Residents have been advised to not leave their homes except to seek medical treatment or for related reasons.
Wenzhou in Zhejiang province joins the 14 cities in Hubei that remain on lockdown as deaths from coronavirus reached more than 300 nationwide yesterday.
Widespread travel restrictions have been unable to stop the spread of infections, with the number of confirmed cases standing at 14380.
The Philippines yesterday reported the first fatality outside China. A 44-year-old Chinese man died on Saturday after falling ill in late January. He had travelled to the Philippines from Wuhan via Hong Kong with a Chinese companion on January 21.
More than 100 people have fallen ill with the virus in about two dozen countries. German authorities announced yesterday that at least two people repatriated from Wuhan by the army had the disease.
On Thursday, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a global emergency.
With markets due to reopen today after the Lunar New Year break, China’s central bank yesterday said it would inject 1.2 trillion yuan (R2.6 trillion) into the economy to maintain liquidity. The People’s Bank will use reverse repurchase agreements to provide the extra funds, a common tool used by central banks to shore up money markets in times of need.
The stimulus is intended to give Chinese companies breathing room as factories, offices and schools are due to remain shuttered next week for safety reasons.
The measures are also expected to calm markets amid fears of a mass sell-off of shares this morning.
To boost the fight against the virus on the ground, China is deploying hundreds of military staff and students to run a new 1 000-bed hospital in Wuhan to treat coronavirus patients.
Meanwhile, more news is emerging about how the virus is able to spread.
Chinese researchers said the virus could be transmitted from person to person through the digestive system, after reports that some patients had displayed only diarrhoea symptoms rather than classic viral symptoms like a fever.
Experts from the Renminbi Hospital of Wuhan University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology reported their findings after studying patient stool samples and rectal swabs.
Diarrhoea symptoms may make foecal-oral transmission of the virus more likely, especially if there is inadequate hand-washing or sanitary facilities. Public squat latrines are common in China.
The coronavirus broke out at a seafood market in Wuhan that reportedly sold exotic animals for consumption – similar to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).Meanwhile, Thai doctors have seen success in treating severe cases of the new coronavirus with a combination of medications for flu and HIV, with initial results showing vast improvement after 48 hours, they said yesterday.
The doctors from Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok said a new approach in coronavirus treatment had improved the condition of several patients.
The drug treatment includes a mixture of anti-HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir, in combination with flu drug oseltamivir in large doses.