Hundreds of Canadians are anxiously awaiting evacuation from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, amid bureaucratic delays.
Canada announced late on Sunday that it had chartered an aircraft to evacuate 304 citizens from the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province.
All of the visas for crews have been approved, but the Canada is awaiting final approvals from Beijing, officials said on Monday.
What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.
What other coronaviruses have there been?
New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are other examples – severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.
What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China’s national health commission, and there have been human-to-human transmissions in the US and in Germany. As of 6 February, China’s death toll grew to 563, with 28,018 confirmed cases. There remains one additional fatality in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. The mortality rate stands at 2.1%.
Two members of one family have been confirmed to have the virus in the UK, and a third person was diagnosed with it in Brighton, after more than 400 were tested and found negative. The Foreign Office has urged UK citizens to leave China if they can.
The number of people to have contracted the virus could be far higher, as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by World Health Organization (WHO) experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2%. However, this is likely to be an overestimate since many more people are likely to have been infected by the virus but not suffered severe enough symptoms to attend hospital, and so have not been counted. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that people should call 111 instead of visiting the GP’s surgery as there is a risk they may infect others.
Is this a pandemic and should we panic?
Health experts are starting to say it could become a pandemic, but right now it falls short of what the WHO would consider to be one. A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in about 25 countries outside China, but by no means in all 195 on the WHO’s list.
There is no need to panic. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, and says there is a “window of opportunity” to halt the spread of the disease. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact.
Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin
The plane will first land in Hanoi, Vietnam, and then travel onwards to Wuhan. Evacuees will be flown to the Trenton air force base in the province of Ontario, where they will be quarantined for a period of 14 days. Anyone showing symptoms of the virus will not be allowed to board the plane.
Canada has also secured access to a second plane if needed, the foreign minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said in a briefing on Monday.
The number of citizens requesting evacuation from China has climbed dramatically as the scope of infection also increases. Canada has said only citizens who entered China on Canadian passports will be permitted to board the plane, probably preventing permanent residents from leaving Wuhan.
There is no indication the delay in evacuating citizens is tied to the chilled diplomatic relations between Beijing and Ottawa, stemming from the extradition proceedings of a Chinese telecoms executive. Instead, the delay appears tied to a closure of airspace over the city of Wuhan, part of a mass quarantine of the region by Chinese officials.
The United States, Australia and the UK all evacuated citizens from the city last week. Japan is planning its fourth evacuation flight this week, its foreign ministry said on Sunday.
The World Health Organization is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine.
The UN agency advises people to:
- Frequently wash their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or warm water and soap
- Cover their mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing
- Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever or cough
- Seek early medical help if they have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share their travel history with healthcare providers
- Avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals when visiting live markets in affected areas
- Avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods.
Despite a surge in sales of face masks in the aftermath of the outbreak of the coronavirus outbreak, experts are divided over whether they can prevent transmission and infection. There is some evidence to suggest that masks can help prevent hand-to-mouth transmissions, given the large number of times people touch their faces. The consensus appears to be that wearing a mask can limit – but not eliminate – the risks, provided they are used correctly.
In a rare moment of praise, China’s foreign ministry lauded Canada’s decision not to place restrictions on Chinese residents entering the country.
“Canada believes the entry ban has no basis, which is a sharp contrast to the US behaviours,” spokesperson Hua Chunying said during an online press conference.
In contrast, the US and a number of other countries have advised against travel to China and banned entry by foreign citizens who have travelled to the country in the last 14 days.
There are currently more than 17,000 cases of the coronavirus worldwide. The vast majority of the 361 fatalities have been inside China, with only a single death in the Philippines on Sunday.
Canada has publicly said the risk to its citizens remains low. There have been four confirmed cases in the country, with the first case already released from hospital.
