Travel to and from Wuhan banned as cities cancel Chinese New Year celebrations
On January 23, Chinese authorities introduced travel restrictions on three cities — Wuhan, Huanggang, and Ezhou - effectively shutting down the movement of some 20 million people in an unprecedented attempt to contain the new strain of coronavirus that’s caused 132 deaths and nearly 6,000 confirmed cases at the time of writing.
Already, cases have popped up in travelers from Wuhan to Japan, Thailand, and Korea - as well as two major Chinese cities, Beijing and Shenzhen, prompting airports in Asian countries to ramp up its screening and monitoring of passengers, especially those from countries with confirmed cases of the virus. At the time of this report, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia and France joined the list of other countries that have detected the virus, confirming that cases had been found and were being treated. Sri Lanka has also joined, with a confirmed case and a few suspected ones at the time of writing.
Because health authorities are dealing with a new virus, the picture of this outbreak and its seriousness is shifting rapidly, and will continue to do so in the coming days. Certain aspects of the outbreak have startling resemblance to SARS, which, when detected in 2003, emerged as a then newly discovered virus. The virus was transmitted from civet cats – a food delicacy in China to humans, and eventually spread to 24 countries killing 774 people and infecting over 8,000 others.
The most likely source from which the virus originated is an animal according to WHO. But officials do not know which one. They also do not know the extent of human-to-human spread.
The Science China Life Sciences publishing its findings after conducting studies, claims that the virus may have originated from bats, whilst another study published in the Journal of Medical Virology identifies snakes as the most likely virus reservoir. The seafood market where the deadly virus first surfaced also sells exotic wildlife. However, neither study has explained how the virus may have been transmitted from animals to humans.
Meanwhile, Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport has reportedly taken measures including high tech screening to prevent infected travelers from entering the country. Further, onboard announcements on all inbound flights to Sri Lanka will request passengers with suspicious symptoms of the coronavirus to report to the BIA health desk before the immigration process.
265,965 Chinese tourists visited the Sri Lanka in 2018, whilst there were fewer arrivals from China during 2019 owing to the Easter Sunday terror attacks in April last year. Sri Lanka aims to welcome 300,000+ Chinese tourists in 2020.
Sri Lankan airlines will fly a special charter to bring back nearly 150 Sri Lankan students studying currently in the affected cities in China.
Report compiled by in2ition.
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