Action over imported cases urged
Print Edition
CHINESE authorities yesterday stressed taking accurate measures against the cross-border spread of the coronavirus as the World Health Organization said that confirmed COVID-19 cases outside China now exceed those inside.
A meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang called for adapting epidemic prevention and control efforts to new changes, noting that “the epidemic prevention and control situation in China continues to improve, and the virus spread is basically under control.”
A total of more than 83,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported outside China as of yesterday morning, exceeding the cumulative number of infections in China, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said, while the overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland reached 80,860.
As of Sunday, over 140 countries and regions worldwide had reported confirmed cases.
China had 16 new infections on Sunday, the National Health Commission said yesterday, down from 20 on Saturday. China’s death toll in the outbreak stood at 3,213 by Sunday, up 14 from the previous day.
Twelve of the new cases were imported infections, exceeding the number of domestic transmissions for a third day.
Beijing accounted for four infections, Guangdong for four, while Shanghai had two, with one each in Yunnan and Gansu provinces. That took the tally of imported infections to 123.
Of the two cases in Shanghai, one is an Italian, who left Amsterdam on March 10 and arrived at the Pudong airport the next day via Paris.
The other new case was a Shanghai native, who lived in the United Kingdom. The person left London on March 12 and arrived at the Pudong airport the next day.
The city has not reported local cases for two weeks.
Beijing’s four new cases were all Chinese nationals returning from abroad, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director at the Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control said yesterday. Three had shown symptoms such as fever before returning, yet they still boarded the long-haul international flights.
“Their behavior increased the risk of infection for fellow travellers,” she added.
China issued a joint statement from several ministries yesterday saying people infected with quarantinable diseases or suspected epidemic victims who refuse to receive isolated observation or fail to truthfully fill out their health declaration forms at border checkpoints could face criminal penalties.
The guideline listed six kinds of behaviors that could constitute the crime of impairing frontier quarantine measures, targeting individuals who spread or risk spreading a quarantinable infectious disease identified by the State Council, including plague, cholera, yellow fever and COVID-19.
According to China’s Criminal Law, whoever violates the provisions on frontier health and quarantine inspection and causes the spread or a grave danger of the spread of a quarantinable infectious disease shall face penalties ranging from a fine to two-year imprisonment.
Beijing police said they were investigating a case involving a 37-year-old woman coming back from the United States who had hid her symptoms before boarding.
China has imposed stricter screening and quarantine measures on travelers entering the border through flights, trains, ships and roads as cases spiraled around the world.
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