Health

LOS ANGELES, Jan 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Some 200 US citizens are due to be quarantined in California after arriving from Wuhan, China amid the coronavirus oubreak.

The passengers, mostly diplomats, were evacuated via a chartered flight that landed on US soil on Wednesday.

They will be quarantined for at least 72 hours, but could be kept isolated for up to two weeks if they have any symptoms, officials said.

The flight landed at a US air base near Riverside, California.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 28 (PTI) A total of 633 people, who returned to Kerala from China in recent days, are under observation for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus, state Health Minister K K Shylaja said on Tuesday.

Of the 633, seven are under observation in isolation wards at different hospitals, according to officials.

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States said it was developing a vaccine against a deadly virus that originated in China, and urged Beijing to step up its cooperation with international health authorities.

The US government is keen to place its own teams on the ground to review the raw data and learn more about the pathogen, which has so far claimed more than 100 lives.

Tokyo, Jan 28 (AFP/PTI) Japan will send a plane to the Chinese city of Wuhan later Tuesday to begin evacuating citizens from the centre of a deadly virus outbreak, the country's foreign minister said.

"We have finalised arrangements, and the Chinese side has communicated to us that it is now ready to accept one chartered flight. Arrangements have been made to secure transportation to the airport," Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters.

Beijing, Jan 28 (AFP/PTI) China on Tuesday urged its citizens to postpone trips abroad as the country expands a massive effort to contain a viral outbreak that has killed more than 100 people nationwide.

The recommendation to delay non-essential travel was issued "in order to protect the health and safety of Chinese and foreign people", the National Immigration Administration said in a statement.

SINGAPORE, Jan 28 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Singapore’s Health Ministry today confirmed the fifth case of imported Wuhan coronavirus in the city today.

In a statement issued today, the ministry said the latest case involved a 56-year old Chinese citizen, who had arrived here from Wuhan together with her family on January 18.

She is currently being treated in isolation at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and her condition is reported to be stable.

Based on a report, the ministry said the woman had not displayed any symptoms during her flight to Singapore.

ABIDJAN, Jan 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) became the first African country to test a suspected Coronavirus case, when a female student arrived at an airport in the capital with suspicious symptoms.

‘‘The 34-year-old student traveled from Beijing to the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Abidjan on Saturday and was coughing, sneezing and experienced difficulty breathing,’‘ Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene said in statement.

GENEVA, Jan 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization, which has sometimes been criticised for its handling of past disease outbreaks, admitted an error in its risk assessment of China’s deadly virus.

The Geneva-based UN agency said in a situation report that the risk was “very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level”.

In a footnote, the WHO explained that it had stated “incorrectly” in its previous reports on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that the global risk was “moderate”.

27 Jan 2019; MEMO: Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud said on Monday the kingdom was closely monitoring developments in global oil markets resulting from “gloomy expectations” over the impact of the new coronavirus on the Chinese and global economy and oil market fundamentals, Reuters reports.

Prince Abdulaziz said he was confident the Chinese government and international community could contain the spread of the virus and fully eradicate it.

KABUL, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The Afghan Public Health Ministry, launched a nationwide campaign today (Monday) to give polio vaccination dose to 9.1 million children under the age of five, the ministry said.

The five-day campaign started on Monday (today), in 30 of the country’s 34 provinces. Due to harsh weather, the anti-polio drive will not be conducted in central Bamyan and Daykundi provinces and western Ghor and Badghis provinces.

The drive was launched as 29 polio cases were detected in Afghanistan in 2019.