Governments tightened international travel and border crossings with China to try to stop the spread of a coronavirus outbreak that has sickened thousands, and Germany said it had identified a cluster of local patients infected by a woman from Shanghai who had been visiting Europe.
The German cases, which are being closely monitored, appear to be one of the first clusters of transmission outside of China.
It’s a worrying sign for public health authorities who have taken aggressive steps to stop what for now has been mostly a Chinese outbreak from becoming an international one.
The Us and Uk said yesterday all residents should avoid all non-essential travel to China, and United Airlines Holdings Inc., the biggest U.S. carrier to the Asian nation, said it would cut flight service after a drop in demand.
Hong Kong announced restrictions on travel from mainland China. It will close some border checkpoints and restrict flights, trains and ferries from the mainland, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday.
The outbreak has rattled global markets and prompted concerns that there could be economic fallout as travel declines and Chinese business is slowed. More than 4,500 people have been infected in China, and at least 125 have died, including 25 deaths announced Wednesday morning.
In Vietnam, a 65-year-old man from Wuhan became sick with the coronavirus four days after arriving in the country and subsequently infected his 27-year-old son who lived there, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The family had traveled to four cities across Vietnam in planes, trains and taxis, raising concern about human-to-human transmission outside China, according to the report published Tuesday.
And in Germany, three patients were infected by a female Chinese employee of the auto-parts supplier Webasto AG who had been visiting the company’s offices and realized she was sick on her flight back to China on Jan. 23.
The patients are being watched under isolation, according to a statement Tuesday night from the Bavarian Ministry of Health.
A fourth person who worked at the company had already been diagnosed with the virus. German health authorities said they’re monitoring or investigating about 40 employees who may be at risk, as well as others outside the company.
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is now screening passengers from China at 20 airports, up from five airports last week.
While the CDC considers the risk to the American public is considered low, the precautions are necessary to stop its spread, officials said.
“While it’s possible that some person-to-person spread with this virus may be detected in the United States, the goal of the ongoing U.S. public health response is to contain this outbreak and prevent sustained spread in this country,” the CDC said in a statement Tuesday.
American health officials are also trying to get to the front lines of the outbreak in China to better study the fast-moving pathogen.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said during a press conference in Washington he has repeatedly raised that possibility with Chinese officials and is hopeful a U.S. team will be let in
