02/02/2020 - 18:27
- Clarín.com
- World
The Philippine government announced on Sunday the first death outside of China of a person infected with the coronavirus. The event rekindled fears of a rapid spread of the epidemic , which has claimed the lives of 305 people on Chinese soil.
The announcement comes days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the world emergency, last Thursday, and declared its alarm that the virus could spread in countries with little or no infrastructure to combat it.
The dead man in the Philippines is a 44-year-old Chinese citizen from Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic. "It is the first death recorded outside of China," said Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO delegate in Manila.
The novelty takes place while numerous states close their borders to people from China. The coronavirus 2019-nCoV, transmissible among humans, has already contaminated more than 14,380 people in China and spread through 24 countries .
Surveillance. A group of French citizens is evacuated from the city of Wuhan in China (EFE).
The Asian giant, whose economic growth already suffered a slowdown before the epidemic, announced on Sunday an injection of 175,000 million dollars to support the economy of the country. The central bank will carry out the operation on Monday, when the financial markets are reopened after the New Year holidays, extended due to the coronavirus.
Precisely due to the end of the holidays, the Beijing government redoubled the sanitary controls, in anticipation that they return to their jobs on Monday after the end of the end of the year vacations, which were extended three days from January 30 as a strategy to prevent large agglomerations to help spread the virus. Already on Sunday, control at train stations, airports and access roads to large cities has multiplied in the face of the flood of people who are returning to their homes after the holidays.
In some cities such as Shanghai, home to hundreds of multinationals, vacations have been extended until the next day 9 , while the entire province of Hubei (center-east of the country), epicenter of the focus, also continues to stop. With this, the Government has achieved that the return to the big cities, where millions of people from rural China who take advantage of vacations to return home work, is more staggered.
According to the daily report of the National Health Commission, a total of 85 people were cured in the last hours and were discharged, so the number of people who have overcome the disease amounts to 328. All deaths recorded in the The last 24 hours correspond to the province of Hubei, where the first of the two large hospitals that have been built in less than two weeks to alleviate the crisis is opened this Monday in Wuhan City.
As part of the prevention measures, the Chinese health authorities banned the burial of those killed by the virus, which cannot be buried where their relatives want or have a farewell ceremony but must be cremated at a designated funeral home and nearby Where they are at the time of death.
Arrival. South Korean citizens arrive in Seoul after being evacuated from China (DPA).
Before the spread of this new coronavirus, numerous countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Iraq and Israel, closed their borders to the entry of travelers from China in a desperate attempt to limit their exposure to the epidemic.
The virus has already spread to 24 countries , while Africa and Latin America seem at the moment exempt from the epidemic. The governments of Guatemala and El Salvador have already suspended entry to their territory to people from China.
According to the official Beijing report on Sunday, there are 14,550 infected worldwide, of which 14,380 are in China. Most of the 304 deaths have occurred in Hubei province, where the first case of the new type of coronavirus was detected in December. The most infected countries register with Japan (20 cases), Thailand (19), Singapore (18) and South Korea (15). They follow Taiwan (10), Malaysia (8), Germany and the USA. (8 each), Australia (7) and France and Vietnam with six cases in each country.
Agencies AFP, AP, EFE and ANSA
