From the day the said virus started spreading across Chinese cities, including Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei Province, and also said to be the epicentre of the said virus, around 56 million people have been prevented from obtaining it. There was the objective to help slow down the infection and curb it during the Lunar New Year, which is otherwise known to be China’s busiest travel season, and its aftermath can be seen from the figures. At present, around 105 people have been killed, and thousands are still infected with it.
The virus has also spread around 16 more countries including Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Germany, Taiwan, USA, and many others.
Recently, Germany has confirmed its first patient who got the disease through a Chinese colleague, who actually happened to visit Germany few days before.
The authorities of Moscow (Russia) are taking special safety measures at tourist sites and hotels especially. Thailand has also confirmed officially of 6 new cases of Corona virus and is now scanning passengers who are arriving from China. Japan is arranging for charter flights so that it can bring back its citizens from China.
Philippines has suspended visas on tourists arriving from China as a health safety measure. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has told its citizens to avoid ‘non-essential travel’ to China.
Moreover, in India, the government has started evacuating its citizens from China, following this deadly outbreak. A recent report by Press Trust of India (PTI) provides that for evacuation of Indian citizens from Wuhan City, a 423-seater plane of Air India is kept ready so that there is no delay if in case any urgent need arises. A 24×7 helpline number has also been provided by our government for attending respective queries on novel Corona virus (nCOV).
Also, this has some serious consequences on respective economies dealing and trading with China in the sense that now; either to go for increased screenings or to depart from the contract entered with disease-hit economy. Global as well as Asian markets are getting affected in the sense that markets in Japan and South Korea have decreased by 3%. What is more significant is that Thailand is fearing a whopping loss in revenue related to tourism, close to $1.6 billion.
Therefore, countries are resorting to evacuation mechanisms so that their citizens life doesn’t get adversely affected, and also with the objective to not allow this virus to enter their country by resorting to proper health and body related checkups of all the people travelling from China and other affected countries. Additionally, restricting their own citizens’ travel to China in the most effective manner possible as they can by resorting to the criteria of ‘essential travel.’
City wide quarantine measures in the form of restriction on movement of people to and from Wuhan has been imposed on January 23. 2 speciality hospitals namely, Huoshenshan and Leishenshan are going to be constructed just within one or two weeks of its announcement with a capacity of 1000 and 1300 beds respectively so that patients can get a recovery and quarantine facility.