Sars-like virus spreading

EPICENTRE: SEAFOOD MARKET IN WUHAN, CHINA, SUSPECTED ORIGIN OF DEADLY DISEASE

Lunar New Year holiday celebrations exacerbate situation.

The Chinese city at the centre of a severe acute respiratory syndromelike virus outbreak has urged people to stay away, cancelling a major Lunar New Year event as it strives to contain a disease that is spreading.

The death toll from the Sars-like virus, which first emerged in the central city of Wuhan, has reached nine while more than 400 people have been confirmed infected across the country.

The disease is spreading just as hundreds of millions of people are travelling in packed trains, planes and buses across China to gather with friends and family for the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts tomorrow.

Wuhan’s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, urged residents to not leave the city and visitors to avoid it so that the possibility of transmission can be reduced.

“If it’s not necessary, we suggest that people don’t come to Wuhan,” Zhou told state broadcaster CCTV.

National Health Commission (NHC) vice-minister Li Bin added his voice to calls to avoid the city, saying it was best “that people do not visit Wuhan unless needed and for Wuhan residents not to leave the area”.

Wuhan has 11 million inhabitants and is a major transport hub.

Fever scanners have been set up at the city’s train station and airport and officials check the temperatures of drivers at highway checkpoints, while outbound tour groups have been banned from leaving the city.

The NHC announced measures to curb the spread, including disinfection and ventilation at airports and bus stations as well as inside planes and trains.

We suggest that people don’t come to Wuhan

The vast majority of cases of the new virus have been found in Wuhan, where a seafood market that illegally sold wild animals is the suspected epicentre of the outbreak.

The virus, which can be transmitted between humans and could mutate, has also infected people in other countries, including the United States, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

The Wuhan government will cancel activities during China’s Lunar New Year holiday.

Picture: AFP PRECAUTION. A passenger wears a face mask while sleeping on a ferry shortly before its arrival in Macau from Hong Kong yesterday after China recently confirmed the outbreak of the new Sars-like virus.