Int'l community provides aid to China to support anti-epidemic efforts
THE international community has been pouring in aid to China to support its efforts to prevent and control the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
The Pakistani government has allocated 300,000 medical masks, 800 hazmat suits and 6,800 pairs of gloves from the stocks of public hospitals around the nation and transported the aid to China.
The medical supplies from Pakistan arrived in China on Saturday afternoon.
South Korea also offered large amounts of medical and anti-epidemic materials to China, including 2 million face masks, 1 million medical masks, 100,000 hazmat suits and 100,000 pairs of goggles.
These supplies are being transported to the virus-hit central Chinese city of Wuhan in shipments.
The governments of Russia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Australia, Algeria, Iran and Turkey among other countries have also offered donations of anti-epidemic medical supplies to express their firm support for China's fight against the epidemic.
Confirmed new cases
New cases of infection with a novel strain of coronavirus, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, are being reported daily around the world.
In China, at least 259 people have died and 11,791 people have been infected across the country, according to the government on Saturday.
Dozens of cases have also been confirmed in several countries in the Asia-Pacific region as well as states in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, a group of Pakistani students and community members stranded in Urumqi city, the capital of Xinjiang province in China's far northwest, due to suspension of flights in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak have been granted an 11-day visa extension by authorities in Beijing.
In the intervening time, tech giant Apple on Saturday announced it has temporarily shut all its retail stores and offices across mainland China till February 10 as part of preemptive measures amid the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus that has killed more than 250 people and infected more than 10,000 others.
Apple said that the measure will come into force from Sunday till midnight of February 9, Russia Today reported. However, online stores of the company will remain open. In its advisory, the com
pany also restricted employees from travelling to the East Asian country. Some other multinational companies have also suspended business trips to China, or limited it to critical operations, according to media reports.
staying for two weeks. PHOTO: AFP
Closed borders
Countries around the world have closed their borders to arrivals from China, as officials work to control the rapid spread of the coronavirus.
Australia will deny entry to foreign nationals arriving in the country over the next two weeks from the coronavirus-hit mainland China, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Saturday.
While the Australian citizens, permanent residents and members of their immediate families have been exempted from the ban, they will be asked to "self-isolate" for 14 days from their date of departure from China, Morrison added, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. Morrison said that the decision in this regard -- which has been taken after a meeting of the Chief Medical Officers of all states and territories on Saturday -- is aimed at substantially reducing "the volume of travellers coming from mainland China".
Australia and the US said they would deny entry to all foreign visitors who had recently been in China, where the virus first emerged in December
Earlier, countries including Russia, Japan, Pakistan and Italy announced similar travel restrictions.
But global health officials have advised against such measures.
"Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies," the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The WHO recommends introducing screening at official border crossings. It has warned that closing borders could accelerate the spread of the virus, with travellers entering countries unofficially.
In other recent developments:
China asked the European Union to facilitate the sending of medical supplies from member countries
Vietnam Airlines suspended all flights to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
Other airlines, including Qantas, Air New Zealand, Air Canada and British Airways, cancelled or scaled back flights
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered his condolences in a letter to China's president
Hotel chains, including Hyatt, Radisson and Hilton, extended their cancellation policies for guests travelling to China
Apple said it would temporarily close its stores in China
The UK announced it would pull dozens of Foreign Office staff out of the mainland
Russia said two Chinese citizens had been placed in isolation after they tested positive for the virus
Germany, Italy, and Sweden confirmed further cases in Europe
Singapore closed its borders to all travellers from China
Ways to treat coronavirus patients
China has found effective ways of treating critically ill patients who are affected by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), renowned Chinese epidemiologist Li Lanjuan told Xinhua.
China's National Health Commission said Saturday that 11,791 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infections had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps by the end of Friday. A total of 243 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital.
Measures to treat patients in critical condition are known as the "four fights and two balances," said Li, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who heads the State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases.
"The first is to fight the virus. We found that if we start antiviral treatment a day earlier, the rate of patients in critical condition decreased by 10 percent, and the mortality rate fell 13 percent," she said in an exclusive interview by Xinhua Wednesday.
"The second is to prevent shock through supplementing a saline substance. The third is to prevent hypoxemia and multiple organ failure. The fourth is to prevent and fight secondary infections. We adopt antiviral treatment in the early stage, and use antibiotics when secondary infection occurs," she said.
The "two balances" refer to maintaining water electrolytes, acid-base balance and micro-ecological balance, Li said.
GNLM
REFERENCES: AFP; ANI; Aljazeera; BBC; Xinhua News Updates
