BEIJING: Americans traveling in China should avoid animals and contact with sick people as the country grapples with a mystery pneumonia outbreak, the US embassy in China said Tuesday.
The viral illness was first reported last week in Wuhan, a central Chinese city with a population of over 11 million, and has since grown to at least 59 cases.
Chinese health officials have ruled out a resurgence of the highly contagious SARS virus, which killed hundreds more than a decade ago, after fears spread online that it had made a comeback.
“Be aware and practice usual precautions,” said the health alert issued by the US embassy, which urged citizens to seek medical care “right away” if they felt sick after traveling to Wuhan.
The outbreak of pneumonia comes just a few weeks before China’s busiest travel season of the year, when millions of people take buses, trains and planes for Lunar New Year.
The upcoming holiday has prompted concerns in Taiwan, where vice premier Chen Chi-mai has urged the island’s health and welfare ministry to strengthen quarantine controls at airports and “plan properly.”
On Monday, Taiwan’s center for disease control also advised residents planning to travel to or near Wuhan to wear masks and avoid contact with wild animals.
In Hong Kong, authorities say 21 people have been hospitalized after returning from Wuhan in recent days and displaying flu-like illnesses but none were confirmed to have contracted the mystery new strain.
Nonetheless officials have raised the alert level to “serious” and rolled out extra monitoring measures.
So far, none of the 59 patients infected with pneumonia have died though seven are seriously ill, according to Wuhan’s health commission.
All are being treated in quarantine and no obvious evidence of human-to-human transmission has been found so far, it said Sunday.
The infection broke out between December 12 and 19, with some of the patients employed at a seafood market in the city that has since been closed for disinfection.
Avian flu and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have also been ruled out alongside SARS, it added.
“The reported link to a wholesale fish and live animal market could indicate an exposure link to animals,” the World Health Organization said on Sunday.
“Pneumonia is common in the winter season,” it added, and said the concentration of cases should be handled “prudently.”
US warns citizens in China over mystery pneumonia outbreak
https://arab.news/4qh28
US warns citizens in China over mystery pneumonia outbreak
- The viral illness was first reported last week in Wuhan, a central Chinese city with a population of over 11 million
- Chinese health officials have ruled out a resurgence of the highly contagious SARS virus
Filmmakers defend Berlin festival chief in Gaza row
- Actors and filmmakers rushed to defend the head of the Berlin film festival Thursday following a media report that her job was on the line over a director’s anti-Israel speech at the event
BERLIN: Actors and filmmakers rushed to defend the head of the Berlin film festival Thursday following a media report that her job was on the line over a director’s anti-Israel speech at the event.
Syrian-Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Al-Khatib kicked off a controversy during Saturday’s closing ceremony by accusing Germany of being complicit in genocide in Gaza through its support for Israel.
German tabloid Bild had reported that Tricia Tuttle was due to be dismissed at an emergency meeting on Thursday, citing sources close to state-owned KBB, the company that runs the festival.
Culture minister Wolfram Weimer’s office confirmed the meeting had taken place but made no mention of Tuttle being sacked, stating that discussions had been “constructive and open” and would “continue in the coming days.”
A group of cinema luminaries including Tilda Swinton, Todd Haynes, Sean Baker and Tom Tykwer signed an open letter defending the Berlinale as a forum for free expression.
“As filmmakers in Germany and beyond, we are following the debates surrounding the Berlinale and the discussion about the dismissal of Tricia Tuttle with great concern,” they wrote. “We defend the Berlinale for what it is: a place of exchange.”
Angry rows over the Israel-Palestinian conflict have repeatedly rocked the Berlinale, held every February as Europe’s first major film festival of the year.
Environment Minister Carsten Schneider walked out of Saturday’s closing ceremony, labelling Khatib’s remarks “unacceptable.”
Germany, as it has sought to atone for the horrors of the Holocaust, has been a steadfast supporter of Israel, and criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been more muted than in many other countries.
Conservative lawmaker Ellen Demuth was among those who condemned the “antisemitic incident” at the awards ceremony and urged “a fresh start at the top of the film festival.”
The Berlinale Team in an Instagram post meanwhile defended Tuttle, praising her “clarity, integrity and artistic vision.”
The writers’ association PEN Berlin said Khatib’s comments were protected by freedom of expression and that if Tuttle were to be sacked over them, it would cause “immense damage” to the festival.
“Such wanton destruction of the German cultural scene, such self-inflicted insularity, must not be allowed to happen,” it said.
The backdrop of the Middle East conflict led to a tense 76th edition of the festival from the start.
More than 80 film professionals criticized the Berlinale’s “silence” on the Gaza war in an open letter, accusing the festival of censoring artists “who reject the genocide” they believe Israel has committed in Gaza.
Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy withdrew from the festival after the jury president, German director Wim Wenders, said cinema should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza.
