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| FILE PHOTO – Medical staff carry a box as they walk at the Jinyintan hospital, where the patients with pneumonia caused by the new strain of coronavirus are being treated, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China January 10, 2020. Picture taken January 10, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo CHINA OUT |
The Chinese-ruled gambling hub of Macau confirmed on Wednesday its first case of pneumonia linked to an outbreak of a newly identified coronavirus and tightened temperature screening measures in casinos and around the city.
The Macau case involves a 52-year-old Wuhan businesswoman who reported to hospital on Tuesday, said Macau Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Leong Lu, who vice chairs a committee set up to respond to the virus.
The woman took a high-speed train to the Chinese city of Zhuhai on Jan 19, then a shuttle bus to Macau. She had dinner with two friends, then went to the hotel and spent a long time in casinos. She was in a stable condition in an isolation ward. Her two friends were also being monitored and were in isolation.
Speaking at a news conference in Macau, Ao and other officials said authorities were coordinating with six gaming enterprises to introduce temperature screening machines at all entrances into casinos.
Meanwhile Thailand has quarantined a fourth patient with the new coronavirus including one Thai national, authorities said on Wednesday, days before the Lunar New Year holiday when thousands of Chinese tourists are expected to arrive.
The Thai patient, a 73-year-old woman, had traveled to Wuhan during the New Year holidays and developed a fever after returning, the Public Health Ministry said.
She was being monitored in a separate ward in a hospital in Nakhon Pathom, 60 km (37 miles) west of Bangkok, where her condition was gradually improving, it added.
“We can control the situation. There have not been cases of human-to-human transmission in Thailand because we detected the patients as soon as they arrived,” Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.
Two other Chinese patients had recovered and been sent home while a third would return once tests showed he was clear of the virus, Anutin said.
Thai officials were stepping up screening at airports to look for passengers with high body temperatures, coughs, headaches and trouble breathing, police said.
The virus has spread to other cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the United States, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
FACTBOX – New coronavirus outbreak spreads in China
At least nine people have died from a new coronavirus in China following an outbreak in the central city of Wuhan, and some 450 cases have been reported globally, most of them in China where the infection has spread faster in recent days.
Global health authorities and financial markets fear the transmission rate will accelerate further as hundreds of millions of Chinese will travel domestically and overseas during the upcoming week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
Little is known about the coronavirus strain, though human-to-human transmission has been confirmed. Some experts say it may not be as deadly as some other coronavirus such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people worldwide during a 2002/03 outbreak that also originated from China.
KNOWN CASES
China’s National Health Commission has confirmed nine deaths and 440 cases by the end of Tuesday. The commission did not provide a detailed breakdown but its sum may include the one confirmed case in Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.
Beyond China, the United States reported one case, Thailand has reported four cases and South Korea one. Japan has also confirmed one case. All of those cases involved people who had either come from or been in Wuhan recently.
AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING ORIGIN
Chinese health authorities are still trying to determine the origin of the virus, which they say came from a market in Wuhan where wildlife was traded illegally. The World Health Orgainization (WHO) also says an animal source appears most likely to be the primary source of the outbreak.
China’s National health Commission Vice Minister Li Bin told reporters during a briefing on Jan. 22 there is evidence of respiratory transmission of the virus from patient to patient.
Chinese authorities have also that 15 medical staff in the country have been infected, which they say indicates loopholes in treatment methods.
COUNTER-MEASURES
There is no vaccine for the new virus.
Chinese authorities have stepped up monitoring and disinfection efforts ahead of the Lunar New Year break that formally starts on Jan. 24, when many of China’s 1.4 billion people will travel domestically and overseas.
They have also advised people to not travel to Wuhan and also asked Wuhan residents to remain in the city.
Airport authorities in the United States as well as many Asian countries, including Japan, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea, stepped up screening of passengers from Wuhan.
Singapore announced on Jan. 21 that it will quarantine individuals with pneumonia and travel history to Wuhan within 14 days before the onset of symptoms.
Taiwan’s government on Jan. 22 advised people to not visit Wuhan unless they absolutely must and suspended tourist groups from the city from visiting the island.
The WHO sent directives to hospitals around the world on infection prevention and control. It has also convened an emergency committee of experts on Jan. 22 to assess whether the outbreak constitutes an international emergency.
REUTERS
