China isolates 18 million people, global actions due to mysterious virus
China has decided to impose the de facto quarantine on a second city, isolating more than 18 million citizens, in order to prevent the spread of the new Corona epidemic that prompted the authorities around the world to take emergency preventive measures.
Huanggang Municipality announced that the movement of the trains will stop in the city, which has a population of 7.5 million people, located 70 kilometers east of Wuhan, until further notice at the end of the day.
On Thursday in Wuhan, the Chinese authorities isolated more than 11 million citizens in an attempt to stem the outbreak of a deadly new virus that has infected hundreds, and spread to several cities and other countries during the Lunar New Year holiday, which is witnessing a crowd in travel inside and outside China.
Teams of police and rapid intervention and security forces closed the Wuhan train station, allowing only passengers with tickets to enter the station.
At exactly ten o'clock in the morning, China time, the metal bars blocked the entrance to the station, so that passengers would return their stairs, complaining that they did not have another shelter they could go to.
North Korea also announced its intention to close its borders to tourists as a precaution to prevent the virus from arriving in neighboring China, a travel agency announced on Wednesday.
The diseases that were caused by the newly recognized Corona virus appeared for the first time in Wuhan last month, and the majority of the cases, which amounted to 571 cases, were in China.
However, other cases have been found in Thailand, the United States, Japan and South Korea. One case has been confirmed in the southern Chinese province of Hong Kong, after one case has been confirmed in Macau, most of them from Wuhan or have recently traveled to here
17 people died, all in Wuhan and surrounding areas. The average age of the victims was 73 years, the oldest was 89 years old, and the youngest was 48 years old.
International procedures
Airports worldwide have enhanced the screening of passengers from China. The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it would assess the risk of further spreading the virus worldwide.
British Business Secretary Andrea Ledsom said Thursday that the spread of the new Corona virus in China is a source of great concern to the world.
Many countries in the Middle East have taken preventive measures at airports to screen travelers from China via thermal detection systems.
Tips for travelers
The World Health Organization has published, on its website, some precautions travelers must take into consideration to protect and protect themselves from Corona.
The world body said that the possibilities and methods of transmission of this virus are still unclear, noting that reducing the risk of acute respiratory infections while traveling to areas affected by the disease (currently Wuhan) would be a rational matter.
The organization advised to avoid intimate contact with those with acute respiratory infections, farm animals or wild animals, as well as persistently washing hands again and again.
It was also stressed the need to provide health practitioners and public health authorities traveling with information that reduces the risk of developing acute respiratory infections in general through the use of health clinics and travel agencies.