Singapore is probing three new suspected cases of the contagious Chinese coronavirus involving two young Chinese children and an elderly Singapore woman.
Two boys, 3 and 4, as well as the 78-year-old woman, recently traveled to China and are in quarantine while awaiting test results. Singapore has had 10 suspected cases to date; all prior tested negative for the virus.
The government has also formed a taskforce to coordinate the government’s response.
Seventeen people have now died from the SARS-like disease in China’s Hubei province, a month since it was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The number of confirmed cases in China has also soared past 500, the country’s National Health Commission announced today, as it puts Wuhan on lockdown starting today, shutting outbound flights and train services for the city of 11 million people in an attempt to contain the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile, new cases continue to be reported around the region.
The first infections were detected in Hong Kong and Macau yesterday.
In Bangkok, the first Thai national has been stricken by the SARS-like virus, one of two new infections in the kingdom. China seeks to limit travel from the city where it originated.
A 73-year-old Thai woman who recently traveled to Wuhan and came down with fever upon her return home, and a 68-year-old male Chinese tourist detected with a fever Sunday at Suvarnabhumi International Airport made for the third and fourth infections found in Thailand since Jan. 8.
The woman was being held in isolation at a hospital in Nakhon Pathom province while the man is at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Disease Institute. Two Chinese tourists previously confirmed to have the virus in Thailand have returned home.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, also known as the 2019-nCoV, was first reported in December and has been linked to a now-closed seafood market there. Within weeks, it spread to other parts of China, including Beijing and Shanghai.
Meeting yesterday in Geneva, the World Health Organization was not ready to declare a global health emergency. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more evidence is required.
“The decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern on new #coronavirus is one I take extremely seriously, and one I am only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence,” he said in a tweet. The meeting has been extended for another day.
In Hong Kong, a 56-year-old man tested positive during preliminary tests for the novel coronavirus, Hong Kong health officials said in the wee hours of Thursday, less than a day after they announced the city’s first confirmed case.
The latest confirmed patient visited Wuhan Jan. 10 and developed a fever Saturday. He had returned to Hong Kong on his own after flying from Wuhan to the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Yesterday, a 39-year-old male Chinese tourist tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Hong Kong as well. The man, who was isolated at the Princess Margaret Hospital, had arrived in Hong Kong from Wuhan on Tuesday via the high-speed rail from nearby Shenzhen.
He was traveling with four family members, who flew to Manila from Hong Kong on Wednesday. The family members reportedly showed no symptoms.
In nearby Macau, a 52-year-old businesswoman from Wuhan was confirmed to have the pneumonia virus in the popular Chinese gambling city yesterday.
In Manila, Philippine authorities said they were awaiting the World Health Organization’s decision before deciding on whether to impose travel restrictions to and from China.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque told local radio station DZMM today that the decision is “high on their agenda.”
Confirmed cases as of 10am Thursday Jan. 23, 2020:
China: 571 (17 deaths)
US: 1
South Korea: 1
Thailand: 4
Japan: 1
Taiwan: 1
Hong Kong: 1
Macau: 1
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