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COVID-19 Outbreak: 313 Confirmed Cases in SG, 117 Discharged, 15 Critical (18 Mar)

Carbon82

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BabyBlade

BabyBlade

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1 hour ago, Wind30 said:

Kuta beach area... got cough running nose, no fever.... If I have fever I will not go, else quarantine in Bali lagi worse. 

Yeah later nothing wrong become something wrong.

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RH1667

RH1667

Hypersonic
1 hour ago, BabyBlade said:

Anyway for China to shutdown a city of 11 million I would say its commendable. Outbound cars will also be screened to prevent those with symptoms from leaving. Residents must be scared stiff and rushing to leave the city. Reminds me of the movie I am Legend. Will Smith's flashback of the city going on lockdown. 

Waiting for WHO to declare this an a Public Health Emergency. We need to restrict travel and trade before CNY kicks in. The mass migration has already started. 

Yes, from 10am today, Wuhan Airport, public bus service, MRT, Train, Ferry and trans-city bus all shut down. Those inside Wuhan, with no valid reason, not allow to leave the town. 

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Sosaria

Sosaria

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25 minutes ago, Atrecord said:

Also dunno whether the lessons - and memory/fear - of SARS is a good or bad thing.

On the one hand, it increased vigilance and awareness among people of how serious/deadly an outbreak could be, so it is not to be taken lightly.

For China to make a decision to lockdown a big city like Wuhan, is probably a world first. Who else would dare to do such a thing? Given the protests seen in HK, let's hope Wuhan people will not react badly and violently to the decision.

Now on the other hand, there will be questions asked of whether is there an over-reaction to a situation that isn't as serious - or deadly - as SARS yet. Since SARS, there were a few high-profile disease outbreaks that were somewhat localised (fortunately) eventually, instead of spreading and becoming another global epidemic as initially feared. That included MERS, Ebola (again), and those bird/swine flu.

In any case, let's hope the relevant authorities/experts can deal with this effectively and efficiently so that we can all live in peace and good health again soon.

The lockdown is just a halting of public transportation. Does not yet stop anyone from leaving on private transport, if i am not mistaken, if you have good reason. Prevents convenient long-distance travel and fast spreading, which is probably effective deterrence for a huge country like PRC.

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Carbon82

Carbon82

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1 hour ago, BabyBlade said:

Anyway for China to shutdown a city of 11 million I would say its commendable. Outbound cars will also be screened to prevent those with symptoms from leaving. Residents must be scared stiff and rushing to leave the city. Reminds me of the movie I am Legend. Will Smith's flashback of the city going on lockdown. 

Waiting for WHO to declare this an a Public Health Emergency. We need to restrict travel and trade before CNY kicks in. The mass migration has already started. 

The lock down per my understanding is to restrict those unwell from traveling out of Wuhan, not all its 11m resident. More details shall emerge after 10am when the lock down started. 

As for WHO, I am surprised why they choose to postpone making that critical decision that could potentially affect many others...

WHO postpones decision on whether to declare China outbreak a global public health emergency

Wuhan_pneumonia_china_lunarnewyear_AP_20

The World Health Organization on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether to declare the ongoing outbreak of a novel virus that originated in China a global health emergency, with agency officials saying they needed more information to reach a consensus.

Following a meeting of a WHO emergency committee, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, said he had asked the committee to continue the discussion Thursday.

“This is an evolving and complex situation,” said Tedros, as he is known. He said declaring the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, was a decision “I’m only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence.”

The delay came as new cases were reported and the situation in China was rapidly changing.

Authorities said they planned to implement a travel lockdown in Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the outbreak is believed to have started. Starting at 10 a.m. local time Thursday, public transit service is going to be suspended, and flights and trains from the city are going to be canceled.

Designating an outbreak a PHEIC grants the WHO director-general additional powers to issue recommendations for how countries should respond. While countries can ignore those directives, such an announcement can coalesce global attention on an outbreak.

Dr. Didier Houssin, the chair of the WHO emergency committee, said members were divided over whether to recommend Tedros declare a PHEIC. Ultimately, he said, “the committee felt it was a little too unprecise to very clearly state that it was time to suggest to the [director-general] that it was a PHEIC.”

Hundreds of cases of the virus, which has been determined to belong to a family called coronaviruses, have been confirmed in Wuhan. Infections have also started to crop up around China. Health authorities have identified cases in people traveling from Wuhan to countries including Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and, as of Tuesday, the United States.

With millions of people expected to travel around the Lunar New Year holidays, which kick off this week, health authorities fear spread of the virus could accelerate. Countries, including the United States, are screening passengers arriving from Wuhan for symptoms of the infection, including cough, fever, and shortness of breath, and informing travelers about the signs of the virus to encourage them to seek out medical care if they become sick.

There have been 17 confirmed deaths related to the virus, which is known provisionally as 2019-nCoV. At least some of the patients who died had existing health complications when they contracted the virus.

North Korea has closed its border to foreign travelers, according to tour operators. Restricting travel and trade with a country dealing with an outbreak, however, is viewed as unlikely to stop disease spread and as likely to discourage countries from being transparent about outbreaks. The PHEIC designation would have enabled Tedros to urge countries not to close borders or limit trade.

Coronaviruses, which include SARS and MERS, typically spread to humans from an animal source. Many of the early cases of the novel coronavirus were linked to a seafood market in Wuhan that also sold game. But health authorities have confirmed that some infections have come through human-to-human transmission. They are still trying to determine whether spread among people is limited or whether it might be spreading in a sustained manner, meaning it easily passes from one person to the next and then onward. They are also trying to learn if people with the virus can spread it only when they are symptomatic or before symptoms arise as well.

The seafood market in Wuhan was closed Jan. 1, the day after Chinese health officials reported to the WHO a strange spike in pneumonia cases in the city. That allowed scientists to discover the novel virus.

The emergence of a global coronavirus outbreak from China is reminiscent of the SARS outbreak of 2002 to 2003, which went on to kill nearly 800 people. The PHEIC designation (pronounced “fake”) was created following an update to the International Health Regulations after that outbreak.

The first PHEIC was declared for the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, and others have included the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak and the Zika outbreak in 2016. The WHO set up an emergency committee to assess whether MERS should be declared a PHEIC, but it concluded after meeting several times that the disease did not constitute a global health emergency.

There are currently two active PHEICs: the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the continued transmission of polio.

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inlinesix

inlinesix

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2 minutes ago, Sosaria said:

The lockdown is just a halting of public transportation. Does not yet stop anyone from leaving on private transport, if i am not mistaken, if you have good reason. Prevents convenient long-distance travel and fast spreading, which is probably effective deterrence for a huge country like PRC.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047263/china-coronavirus-travel-ban-issued-residents-wuhan

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The notice did not mention private cars but said “citizens should not leave the city unless there are special conditions”.

@Carbon82

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Atrecord

Atrecord

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44 minutes ago, Sosaria said:

The lockdown is just a halting of public transportation. Does not yet stop anyone from leaving on private transport, if i am not mistaken, if you have good reason. Prevents convenient long-distance travel and fast spreading, which is probably effective deterrence for a huge country like PRC.

It's always going to be tricky. Everybody will cook up some 'good' reasons to leave - or have to accept staying in the cooking pot there.

There will likely be hot temper, and maybe clashes even...

And this is not forgetting that those who leave by private transport - there are millions and millions of cars in China now - might also contain infected people, which means this strategy to 'contain within' is not really total success.

Anyway, it's a world first. Let's see how they handle it.

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inlinesix

inlinesix

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2 minutes ago, Atrecord said:

It's always going to be tricky. Everybody will cook up some 'good' reasons to leave - or have to accept staying in the cooking pot there.

There will likely be hot temper, and maybe clashes even...

And this is not forgetting that those who leave by private transport - there are millions and millions of cars in China now - might also contain infected people, which means this strategy to 'contain within' is not really total success.

Anyway, it's a world first. Let's see how they handle it.

In China, it is easy to lock down the city especially large cities like Beijing.  There is existing mechanism to ensure that non-local registered vehicle from entering the city.  At every entering point of the city, there is a vehicle check point.

 

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RadX

RadX

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Just now, inlinesix said:

In China, it is easy to lock down the city especially large cities like Beijing.  There is existing mechanism to ensure that non-local registered vehicle from entering the city.  At every entering point of the city, there is a vehicle check point.

 

eh why u no say

 

AI plus camera....your ad nauseum line😁

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Ichibawa

Ichibawa

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2 hours ago, BabyBlade said:

Anyway for China to shutdown a city of 11 million I would say its commendable. Outbound cars will also be screened to prevent those with symptoms from leaving. Residents must be scared stiff and rushing to leave the city. Reminds me of the movie I am Legend. Will Smith's flashback of the city going on lockdown. 

Waiting for WHO to declare this as a Public Health Emergency. We need to restrict travel and trade before CNY kicks in. The mass migration has already started. 

Macam a scene in "I am Legend".

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