UK warns against all but "essential" travel to Wuhan

Airports around the world are implementing measures against the virus that originally emerged from Wuhan, China, a city in central China (Credit: Reuters)

The United Kingdom has advised against all but "essential" travel to Wuhan, China, the city where the latest Coronavirus outbreak originated. This is the latest effort by the UK to prevent the spread of the SARS-like virus that has killed 17 people, at the time of writing.

A statement from the UK's foreign office said that this decision came "in light of the latest medical information...and the Chinese authorities' own advice."

Earlier today, the UK's health service said that passengers arriving into the United Kingdom from Wuhan, China will be monitored on arrival in order to prevent the spreading of the Coronavirus. Starting from Thursday Chinese authorities in

Wuhan will shut down all public transport

out of the city and urged residents not to leave.

A health team will meet the passengers as they depart from their direct flight at Heathrow, the UK's largest airport. The airport will receive flights in an isolated terminal where they will be met with staff, including some with the ability to speak Mandarin and Cantonese.

They will be there "to provide advice and support to those that feel unwell," a statement from the UK's health service said. The enhanced monitoring of direct flights will be kept under continuous review and expanded to other Chinese departure points if necessary.

Heathrow airport said that this was "a precaution" and that reassured passengers that Public Health England had confirmed the risk of someone in the UK catching the Coronavirus, had been categorised as "low." The strain, which has already infected almost 500 people in China and spread to five other countries, was raised from a ranking of "very low" because of the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

There is no vaccine for this version of the virus. However, some experts have said that this strain of the SARS virus, which also started in China and killed over 800 people in 2002 and 2003, is not as dangerous.

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"The whole world needs to work together"

Heathrow is not the only airport to take preventative measures against the spread of this virus. Romania has announced they will be implementing screening measures at their airport. Italy will introduce temperature checks from people arriving from direct flights to Rome, the only city in Italy with a direct flight from Wuhan.

France's Health Minister, Agnes Buzyn told Europe 1 radio that people coming into France from China will receive information on what to do if they feel unwell or have a temperature. She added that the health authorities will isolate people with a suspected infection so that they will not be in contact with the rest of the population.

Charles de Gaulle in Paris, France is also one of the other few European airports with direct routes to the central Chinese city where many of the cases are being reported.

The former Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Zhu Min, told CGTN that tackling the Coronavirus was an international challenge. "I think the whole world needs to work together...through this case we need to enhance the multinationalism," he said.

Experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) are meeting in Geneva to determine if the current outbreak should be considered an international emergency as cases of the virus have been confirmed in Chinese mainland and Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Japan and the United States. Mexico has one unconfirmed case reported in Mexico City.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters