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Written by: Chen Qianting
2020-01-21 07:00
Last updated: 2020-01-21 08:57The outbreak of new coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province has continued to spread. As of 8 am on January 21, 219 cases have been recorded in various parts of the Mainland; 4 of them died in Wuhan and 15 were infected by medical staff; 14 people were diagnosed in four cities in Guangdong ; 2 confirmed in Shanghai. While confirmed cases were recorded in Thailand, Japan and South Korea, all imported cases were from Wuhan.
Although there are no confirmed cases in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Government has also strengthened monitoring in response to the situation in the surrounding areas, and has newly added that Wuhan passengers arriving in Hong Kong to complete health declaration forms. SARS hero Zhong Nanshan served as the leader of the national expert group, and he made it clear that someone had passed it on.
The following is a brief description of the development of the new epidemic in Mainland China and Asia, Hong Kong's response measures, and the risks brought about by the "year pass".
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Latest Epidemic Development
Wuhan, 1 more dead, 15 doctors confirmed suspected cases in Chengdu and Qingdao
Cases of pneumonia caused by "new coronavirus in 2019" were first discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and then spread to other places. As of 6 am on January 21 this year, Wuhan City announced a total of 198 confirmed cases, of which 136 cases were announced by the Wuhan Municipal Health and Health Commission on January 18 and 19. Of the confirmed cases in Wuhan, 4 died and 169 remained in hospital, of which 35 were critically ill and 9 were critically ill. A total of 15 medical staff in Wuhan were diagnosed, and another medical staff was a suspected case; one of the 16 patients was in serious condition, and the rest were stable, all of whom had received isolation treatment.
In addition, 5 cases were recorded in Beijing and 2 in Shanghai; 13 confirmed cases were added last night in Guangdong Province. Among them, 8 were recorded in Shenzhen across the river from Hong Kong, and 3 were recorded in Zhuhai, which is connected by a bridge to Hong Kong. , Zhanjiang and Huizhou each, a total of 14 cases across the province. Suspected cases were found in Chengdu, Sichuan, and Qingdao. The patients were from Wuhan. The test results were positive. They are currently being treated in isolation and are waiting for review results.
As for the overseas epidemic, two cases were confirmed in Thailand and one case was in South Korea. Both were confirmed by tourists from Wuhan to the local area. One confirmed diagnosis in Japan was a Chinese man living in Japan who had visited relatives in Wuhan and was confirmed after returning.
As of 8 am on January 20, no confirmed case of new viral pneumonia has been diagnosed in Hong Kong.
The National Health and Health Commission decided on Tuesday (21st) to include pneumonitis infected with a new coronavirus into the management of legal infectious diseases, and the World Health Organization will discuss on Wednesday (22th) whether to characterize the outbreak as an international public health emergency.
Hong Kong's response to new epidemics
Expanded reporting standards for suspected cases in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Government has amended legislation since January 8 to force the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health to report suspected cases related to Wuhan pneumonia, and to expand the reporting guidelines until January 20. If there is a fever, symptoms of acute respiratory infections or pneumonia, Patients who have been to Hubei Province or a hospital in the Mainland 14 days before the onset of illness, or have had close contact with a person diagnosed with new virus pneumonia, are notifiable cases. If someone refuses segregated treatment or is illegal, the maximum fine is 5,000 yuan and imprisonment for half a year.
1. Require Wuhan passengers arriving by plane to fill out a health declaration
From January 21, the Department of Health requires passengers on Wuhan inbound flights to fill out health declaration forms. If passengers meet the reporting criteria, they will be compulsorily referred to public hospitals for isolation and treatment. Refusal to fill out the forms may be illegal, with a maximum fine of 5,000 yuan and half a year in prison.
2. Strengthen port temperature detection
The Department of Health has set up infrared temperature detection at various ports. If the passenger's temperature exceeds 35.5 degrees Celsius, the instrument will issue a warning. The agency also measured the body temperature of the passengers of the two high-speed trains arriving in Hong Kong by Wuhan daily.
3. Public hospitals provide isolation beds and designated clinics
There are 480 negative-pressure isolation beds available in public hospitals. If there is a need to move about 1,400 isolation beds to respond to the epidemic, and if there are confirmed cases in Hong Kong, the HA will consider setting up a designated clinic in each of the 7 networks to handle Wuhan Patients with pneumonia-related cases to reduce the risk of cross infection.
New coronavirus origin unknown
Mainland authorities shared the new coronavirus gene map with the World Health Organization on January 12. Local laboratories can make rapid tests to speed up the identification of confirmed patients. Within one week after the gene map was released, the number of confirmed cases in the country has multiplied. Hong Kong Chinese Xu Shuchang, a chair professor of respiratory sciences at the university, estimates that since new testing technologies can enable hospitals everywhere to find patients, it is expected that the number of confirmed cases, including overseas cases, will continue to increase.
The National Health Commission said on January 19 that the source of the virus could not be determined. Yuan Guoyong, a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, pointed out that the new virus is a Beta-like coronavirus, which is similar to SARS virus in 80%. He estimated that the virus passed from bats to live game meat and then to humans.
According to the report of Zhejiang Health Commission, at least 5 cases of suspected neopneumonia have been recorded since January 17, including those from Zhoushan. All patients need to be treated in isolation.
▼ Common mask styles for epidemic prevention ▼
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WHO confirms virus "limited to people"
The WHO confirmed on January 19 that the 2019 new coronavirus is a "limited human-to-human transmission". According to the limited information currently published in the Mainland, two of Wuhan's cases belong to family groups. Male patients who worked in the South China Seafood Market developed the disease first, and his wife had not been to the market, but the same happened 5 days later. According to mainland information quoted by the Center for Health Protection, only 70% of the first 41 confirmed cases have visited the wet market, and some patients have reported that they have not visited the wet market.
CUHK expert Xu Shuchang believes that reflecting the virus has exited the market, it is expected that Wuhan has been infected in many places; Liang Zichao, chairman of the Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Medical Association, pointed out that data shows that there is a large-scale community outbreak in Wuhan, which is more efficient than human transmission. Wei's statement may be higher, and the authorities need to investigate again. He Bailiang, director of the Center for Infectious and Infectious Diseases of the University of Hong Kong, believes that the second round of transmission has already occurred, and it is only a matter of time before a confirmed case appears in Hong Kong. He reminds the public to pay attention to personal hygiene.
Professor Guan Yi (front left) and the research team discovered that three coronaviruses were prevalent in Saudi camels in 2015, of which the variant MERS was the culprit for the outbreak of "New SARS" in South Korea. (Hong Kong University website)
Experts worry about the spread of the Spring Festival and Lunar New Year
As the Chinese New Year approaches the Chinese New Year each year, the total number of passengers in the Spring Festival is in the hundreds of millions. Kong Fanyi, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, is concerned that a large number of passengers have been in close contact with the same space (such as trains and airplanes) for a long time, or increased the risk of virus transmission .
Professor Guan Yi, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases of the University of Hong Kong, expects that the Spring Festival will definitely further expand the epidemic, and if patients go around or make the situation out of control. He mentioned that he has played an important role in responding to SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreaks. The current disease development is similar to SARS, and the first confirmed case was recorded before the new year. He pointed out that the main outbreak areas of SARS that year were in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The epidemic affected "not reaching its peak." It cannot be ruled out that the outbreak may be more serious than during the SARS period. "If patients go everywhere, we are completely out of control."
However, Guan Yi said that the Hong Kong government has the virus genetic information and corresponding epidemic prevention measures. The most important thing is that suspect cases must be inspected and quarantined immediately to prevent Hong Kong from "reoccupying again".
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Wuhan pneumonia
