China’s Health Commission Minister said the country was entering a “grave and complicated stage” as the ability of a new type of virus to spread is “getting stronger.”
Speaking in Beijing, Ma Xiaowei declined to estimate how long it would take to bring the situation under control.
He said there was still limited knowledge of the mechanism of spread of the virus, as well as the risk of it mutating.
Gao Fu, Director of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters that scientists were closely watching the virus and its behaviour and so far no obvious changes has been found.
Meanwhile the U.S. confirmed five cases of the respiratory disease, including new cases in Arizona and California.
It comes as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned that it was “likely that there will be more imported cases” of the virus from China, after France revealed that three cases had been detected – two in Paris and one in Bordeaux.
French health officials confirmed late Saturday that three people diagnosed with the coronavirus were doing “very well” and that fears of a European epidemic of the respiratory disease were premature.
French Director-General of Health Jerome Salomon said he was “completely reassured” about the three victims, while the lead doctor treating the two cases in Paris said that the illness appeared less serious than comparable outbreaks of the past, AP reported.
‘Further deaths are expected’
But in a statement Sunday, Josep Jansa, ECDC Principal Expert for Emergency Preparedness and Response, said: “since the original source remains unknown and human-to-human transmission has been documented, further cases and deaths are expected.”
Other cases have been reported in Australia, Canada, the United States, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore.
Dr. Yazdan Yazdanpaneh said the two patients at Paris’ Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital are a couple from Wuhan, where the viral respiratory illness first was detected.
The 31-year-old man and 30-year-old woman arrived in France on January 18 without symptoms, but one developed symptoms the next day and the other soon followed, the doctor said.
The two are staying in separate, specially equipped rooms and are doing well, physically and psychologically, Yazdanpaneh said.
Also on Saturday, French automaker PSA Group said it will repatriate its expatriate employers and their families from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, after they have been quarantined in another Chinese city.
Starting Sunday, medical teams will be at France’s airports, notably Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, to help passengers arriving from various Chinese cities with questions, concerns or medical needs, health chief Salomon said.
China has stepped up its efforts to contain the viral disease by postponing the end of this week’s Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection as the death toll rose to 80 on Monday.
Almost three thousand cases have been confirmed in China, with 56 deaths in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak.
The youngest patient is a 9-month-old girl in Beijing. China also reported five cases in Hong Kong and two in Macao.
Elsewhere, Australia announced its first case on Saturday, a Chinese man in his 50s who last week returned from China.
Canada also confirmed its first case on Saturday. A man recently flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou, and then on to Toronto on January, 23. He is now in stable condition in isolation and was admitted to hospital a day after his flight to Toronto.
Malaysia said three people tested positive Friday, all relatives of a father and son from Wuhan who had been diagnosed with the virus earlier in neighbouring Singapore.
Travel lockdown in China
In Hubei, bustling streets, shops, restaurants and other public spaces in the city were eerily empty as authorities put more than a dozen cities on lockdown.
The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, announced it will build a designated hospital with space for 1,000 beds by February 3, in the style of a facility that Beijing constructed during the SARS epidemic in 2003.
Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded the city’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances.
The cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Tianjin have suspended long-distance coach services, as well as the vast province of Shandong.
As a symbol of the concern that has gripped China, the authorities have announced the closure of sections of the famous Great Wall, as well as the Disneyland resort site in Shanghai.
Global health officials are preparing for it to spread
At a press conference held on Sunday morning, China’s national health minister Ma Xiaowei said that this newly identified virus is also infectious during incubation, unlike Sars.
The virus’ incubation period is between two and 12 days, French Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn said at a press conference last Friday. Buzyn said the country stepped up efforts to inform the public, adding flyers in international airports on what to do if you suspect you have the virus.
But they do not plan to screen people for the fever in airports which she said was an ineffective method.
Health officials in Paris and in Lyon, however, will also be able to do a diagnostic test in health centres for the virus.
Experts at WHO warned the public not to underestimate the severity of the epidemic, stating that there were many sick people in the hospital in China right now.
The first case of coronavirus in Macao was confirmed on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The infected person, a 52-year-old woman, was a traveller from Wuhan.
Many of those who died were elderly or had other health risks, infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Maria D Van Kerkhove said at a WHO press conference.
The original source of the outbreak remains unknown and therefore further cases and deaths are expected in Wuhan, and in China. It is possible that further cases will also be detected among travellers from Wuhan to other countries.”
According to the ECDC, China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases linked to a fish and live animal market in the city on December 31, 2019. Ten days later, China confirmed that the coronavirus was the cause.
Three airports in the European Union (EU) have direct flight connections to Wuhan, while there are indirect flight connections to other European hubs.
Chinese New Year celebrations at the end of January will cause an increased travel volume to and from China and within China, the EDC said, increasing the likelihood of arrival in the European Union of possible cases.
