Chinese authorities has rapidly expanded a mammoth quarantine effort aimed at containing a deadly contagion on Friday to 13 cities and a staggering 41 million people, as nervous residents were checked for fevers and the death toll climbed to 26.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) held off on declaring a global emergency despite confirmed cases in half a dozen other countries, China expanded its lockdown to cover an area with a total population greater than Canada’s.
A range of Lunar New Year festivities have been cancelled, while temporary closures of Beijing’s Forbidden City, Shanghai’s Disneyland and a section of the Great Wall were announced to prevent the disease from spreading further.
The previously unknown virus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
The WHO said China faced a national emergency but stopped short of making a declaration that would have prompted greater global cooperation, including possible trade and travel restrictions.
The outbreak emerged in late December in Wuhan, an industrial and transport hub of 11 million people in China’s centre, spreading to several other countries including the United States.
China is in the midst of its Lunar New Year holiday, a typically joyous time of family gatherings and public festivities.
But on Friday Wuhan was a ghost town, its streets deserted and stores shuttered.
A newly promoted officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), identified only…
President Bola Tinubu promoted Acting Chief of Army Staff Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede to the rank…
The Federal Government has officially scrapped the contentious 18-year age requirement for admission into tertiary…
The Government of Equatorial Guinea has restricted citizens from using mobile data to download and…
President Bola Tinubu has promoted Acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Olufemi Oluyede to the…
The Government of Equatorial Guinea has restricted citizens from using mobile data to download and…