By The SUN
 |
| HK's 2 confirmed coronavirus patients are in isolation in Princess Margaret Hospital |
UPDATED Jan 25: As Chinese people all over the world began
celebrating the long Lunar New Year holiday, 16 more people have died in China from the dreaded novel coronavirus that
started in Wuhan City, bringing the death toll to 42.
In Hong Kong, three new cases have been confirmed, bringing the known number of
coronavirus patients to five. The first two confirmed cases were reported
within hours of each other on Thursday.
For the first time, two of the deaths in China occurred outside Hubei
province, of which Wuhan
is the capital, sparking fears the disease is rapidly spreading.
Chinese state media reported that as of Jan
25, the number of infected patients has risen to nearly 1,500 nationwide, nearly double the figure the previous day.
Worldwide, the total number of confirmed cases has also risen rapidly. For the first time, the contagion has spread to Europe, with France reporting 3 confirmed cases. It has also spread to South Asia, where a Nepali student in Wuhan has come down with the virus. A second case has also been reported each in the USA and Macau. Apart from Hong Kong, Thailand has 5; Singapore,,Malaysia, and Australasia, 4 each; Taiwan, 3; and South Korea, Japan
and Vietnam with 2 each.
All confirmed cases had either flown out, or had traveled, to Wuhan.
Of the 42 who died in China,
one was in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, and one was in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
Only Tibet among China's 31 provinces and municipalities
has not reported any coronavirus case, despite lockdowns and travel bans being
enforced in Wuhan
and 15 other cities.
Several Chinese provinces and key cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have
declared the highest level of public health emergency over the coronavirus
outbreak, and handed management of response measures to the State Council, China’s
cabinet.
In Hong Kong, the known cases have risen to 5, with the last 3 patients being confirmed hours after testing positive in preliminary tests.
Controller of the Centre for Health Prevention Wong Ka-hing
also revealed that Japan’s
second confirmed patient had transited in Hong Kong.
The first coronavirus patient in Hong Kong was a 39-year-old
mainland tourist who arrived via high-speed train at West
Kowloon station from Shenzhen on Tuesday, Jan. 21, and showed signs of a fever. He had earlier taken
another train from Wuhan
to Shenzhen.
The second was a 56-year-old Hongkonger who had visited Wuhan and arrived back in Hong Kong
on Jan. 19. He voluntarily submitted for tests at Prince of Wales Hospital on
Jan. 21 after experiencing low-grade fever.
Both are now in isolation rooms in Princess Margaret Hospital in Kowloon.
The last three cases involved two 62-year-old women and a 63-year-old man married to one of them. All three had been in Wuhan within the past two weeks. The couple has been admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital in Shatin, while the other woman is in Tuen Mun Hospital.
Also today, health authorities announced that as of 8am, a
record 66 new cases of suspected coronavirus were reported over a 24-hour
period, as a result of using broader
criteria for people showing symptoms.
The new cases brought the total number to 236, with 119
patients needing hospitalization. Two with pre-existing medical conditions are
in critical condition.
The Hospital Authority says it has prepared 309 isolation
wards and 570 isolated hospital beds to cope with the increasing number of
suspected cases, but even those may not be enough in the near term.
There is also the problem of providing accommodation to
hospital staff who are worried about going home after treating the infected
patients.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines,
the four family members of Hong Kong’s first
confirmed case have already been tracked by immigration authorities.
The group
flew on to Manila aboard Cebu Pacific 5J111 yesterday morning, after staying
overnight at Empire Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. Their whereabouts in the Philippines has not been reported.
Philippine health authorities say the four were not
stopped at the airport because they did not manifest symptoms. For the same
reason, they were not tested for the virus.
“They are not sick so
there is no need to test or admit them. But we are still monitoring them,”
Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said.
He also said the Philippines has remained free of the Wuhan
contamination, despite initial tests showing a 5-year-old boy Chinese boy who was hospitalized in Cebu City was infected with an
undetermined coronavirus.
Domingo
said the DOH was still awaiting the results of the swab test on the boy which
had been passed on to a laboratory in Melbourne,
Australia for
further analysis.
He
urged everyone who had traveled to Wuhan
since Dec 8 and are experiencing flu-like symptoms to go to public hospitals so
they could be tested and treated if necessary.
In a separate interview, Health Secretary Francisco Duque II said the boy was not contagious, as he did not infect his mother who had flown in with him from Wuhan, or any of the passengers on their flight.
This led him to conclude the virus acquired by the boy could not have been transmitted from human to human.
"The hypothesis that there is no human to human transmission is right," he said, but added the Wuhan coronavirus might be different.
Chinese media reports indicate several medical staff had been infected after treating patients with the disease.
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