Hong Kong to close some borders with mainland China amid Coronavirus outbreak

Amid coronavirus outbreak, Hong Kong has recently announced its plans to slash cross-border travel between the city and mainland China, the epicentre of the deadly virus. Carrie Lam while announcing the new strategy to tackle the virus, also said that the city will be suspending train and ferry services and flights to mainland China will be halved. She further added that people will also be no longer be able to receive permits to visit Hong Kong from the mainland. 

Hong Kong on January 25 also declared the virus as an 'emergency' and further upgraded the Hong Kong Disease contingency plan form 'serious' to 'emergency' level. Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam while addressing a press conference also announced that schools in the city have been suspended until February 17. 

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The virus has already claimed almost 106 lives in China with 4,515 confirmed cases. According to the National Health Commission, 976 are in serious condition. In a bid to take precautionary measures, China has also locked down 10 cities, including Wuhan, Huanggang, Ezhou, Zhejiang, Qianjiang, suspending all public transport to contain the deadly virus. The mayor of the city of Wuhan has reportedly urged citizens not to travel outside China and the authorities have further issued a travel advisory warning the backlash of coronavirus.

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'Emergency in China'

In order to strengthen control over the virus outbreak, Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak, has suspended visa and passport services for Chinese citizens until January 30. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not yet classified the virus as an international emergency considering the low number of overseas cases. However, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called it 'an emergency in China'.

According to the WHO, symptoms of Coronavirus may include runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, and fever. In more severe cases, it may lead to pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. Experts and researchers are yet to understand the destructive potential of the new virus and have yet not found a cure for the same.

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