02/10/2020 - 9:25
- Clarín.com
- World
China on Monday reported an increase in cases of the new coronavirus, tarnishing the optimism that disease control measures that have left several large cities isolated may be working. In Japan, meanwhile, dozens of new cases were reported on a quarantined cruise ship, with thousands of people on board, including Argentines.
The death toll in mainland China added 97 new casualties, climbing to a total of 908. In the 24 hours until midnight on Sunday, 3,062 new cases were identified, an increase of 15% compared to Saturday that broke a downward trend. A government spokesman had said Sunday that previous declines showed that containment measures were working.
The operator of a quarantine cruise ship in Yokohama, near Tokyo, said another 66 cases had been identified on board , in addition to the 70 already reported.
The Japanese government studied testing the 3,711 passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, which would require everyone to remain on board until the results were obtained. The health authorities were having trouble delivering the medications requested by more than 600 passengers.
AFP
"We do everything we can to keep everyone in good health," Kato said.
The death toll has exceeded 774 people believed to have died in the 2002 and 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), another viral outbreak initiated in China. The total of 40,171 confirmed cases of the new virus far exceeds the 8,098 who suffered from SARS.
More than 440 cases outside of mainland China have been confirmed. At least 910 people have died, including two people in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
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Huoshenshan, the hospital built in ten days to fight the coronavirus
The British government declared the virus a "serious and imminent threat to public health," which he said allows authorities to forcefully arrest infected people if necessary. A British man who was infected in Singapore in January seems be related to at least seven other confirmed cases in Europe.
China has built two hospitals for virus patients in Wuhan and sent thousands of doctors, nurses and other health workers to the city of 11 million people. Most of the access to Wuhan was suspended on January 23 and the restrictions have later been extended to other cities, affecting 60 million people.
An employee cleans the floors in a hospital with 2000 beds in Wuhan./ dpa
Millions return to their jobs
Millions of people in China were returning to work on Monday, in a worrying context. This return to work has ignited the alarms of the World Health Organization (WHO) that sees with concern this return to normalcy in China. The WHO director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that there may be more cases abroad of people who have never traveled to China.
On the roads of Beijing and Shanghai there is much more traffic than in recent days, although many businesses are still closed. In the city of Guangzhou, in the south of the country, public transport resumed as of Monday. Despite this, workers who return to work do so with a lot of fear due to the lethal rhythm of this virus.
Among the measures taken by the customer service centers that have returned to their work, are the taking of temperature to all customers as well as handwashing with disinfectants before performing any operation.
I work from home
However, another is the panorama in the province of Hubei where millions of people have not returned to work because this province is the focus of the outbreak, the authorities have decided that it is better to remain confined, in quarantine, and with the roads Transportation cut to stop the movement of hundreds of millions of people who generally visit their relatives during the Lunar New Year holidays.
Given this situation, a new alternative has emerged so that the country's production does not stop and the risk of contagion is neutralized to the maximum: teleworking.
The online business communication platform DingTalk said in Weibo last week that almost 200 million people were using it for telecommuting and a survey conducted by the US Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai reveals that 60% of its companies also foresee this alternative .
Losses
While businesses in China were beginning to resume operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, which was expanded to avoid displacement in an attempt to contain the virus, they already face heavy losses.
Zhang Peng, who worked for a streaming company, or live internet videos, went to his office in Beijing for the first time since the holiday.
"I think the situation is pretty good now," Zhang said. "Today I went to work in subway and passed several checks at the station. And my company did a good job of prevention and control. ''
But not everyone dared to leave their homes.
People with chins on the subway in Beijing./ EFE
On Monday morning, the public media reported that the number of passengers in the Beijing subway was approximately 50% lower than a normal work day but higher than the last days where all the streets, shopping centers and subways They were almost deserted.
Iris Ke, who works for an advertising company, said she planned to wait the next week to return to the office.
"We have to have a little more sense of self-protection," Ke said. "Life goes on anyway. How do we stop going out or stop working for fear of illness? We can not do that''.
Markets down
Global markets fell on Monday following warnings that investor optimism that the disease and its economic impact were being controlled could be premature . Stock indices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong were falling. Shanghai closed positive after spending most of the day in red.
The central bank of China announced a fund of 300,000 million yuan ($ 43,000 million) to offer low-interest loans to producers of medical equipment and drugs, or other companies involved in the fight against the virus.
Source: AP and RFI
