We know that China has some 60m people in lockdown. The always pragmatic British have now joined the push, via The Telegraph:
Britain will put people airlifted from China into quarantine amid concerns that around 1,500 people who arrived in the UK since the new year have not undergone checks.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, ordered a “belt and braces” approach to the coronavirus amid concerns that the virus is far more contagious than was thought.
Scientists in China believe that it could be transmitted for up to two weeks before the carrier has any symptoms, such as a fever or cough.
Under the new plans, all 1,500 people who have flown in from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, since mid-January will be asked to remain in isolation for at least a fortnight.
A good idea. Expect it to catch on quickly.
At the more extreme end of things, North Korea has closed its border with China and The Phillippines is sending tourists from Wuhan home.
Meanwhile, Downunder, ScoMo has booked his latest figurative trip to Hawaii as we run out of facemasks, at Domain:
The head of the Royal Australian College of GPs is calling on the federal government to urgently open the nation’s emergency medical mask stockpile as GP clinics around the country prepare for a possible surge of coronavirus infections.
The masks are needed to stop patients with the virus spreading the disease.
China’s new coronavirus claims more lives in China, as global efforts continue to contain the outbreak. Schools in China and Hong Kong have been delayed to try to contain the virus, while China’s ‘exclusion zone’ of cities on lockdown continues to wi
But Australia’s summer of bushfires means they are sold out across the country.
That shortage has sparked a warning from a leading biosecurity expert that Australia is not prepared for the coming threat.
And the education minister wants everyone to catch it:
Mr Tehan has chastised private schools who are telling Chinese students and other pupils who have visited China to stay home to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
Elite schools in Sydney and Melbourne are isolating pupils who have recently visited China or telling them to stay away for at least a fortnight, while other schools are demanding medical certificates as the school year begins this week.
But the Minister said schools should be following federal health department advice that all students should be going to school unless they have coronavirus symptoms or had contact with someone with signs of the virus.
Chinese-Australians have a better idea, at the ABC:
Concerned members of Sydney’s Chinese community are begging the NSW Government to bar students who may have been infected with coronavirus from returning to classes.
Two online petitions asking the Government to quarantine pupils who visited China during the school holidays have gathered thousands of signatures and are being circulated on social media platform WeChat.
Some Chinese-Australian parents have labelled the Federal and NSW Government’s response to the outbreak as inadequate and called for airline passengers arriving from China to be isolated for two weeks.
And more:
The Morrison government is under mounting pressure to evacuate Australians stranded in China by the coronavirus outbreak as the number of citizens seeking consular help in the locked-down province of Hubei hit 400.
Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick criticised the government for a “she’ll be right” response to the unfolding crisis, calling on Foreign Minister Marise Payne to lean on Beijing to assist with the repatriation of Australians.
“The Royal Australian Air Force should be involved,” he said. “The government does need to do better on this … They are in contact with people in Beijing who are in charge and should be indicating to China that we want to get our citizens out. We need to be looking at all options.”
Bring ’em home and quarantine ’em.
Meh, pass the Mai Tai.
