A global emergency due to Corona .. withdrawing employees, preventing travel and deportation of citizens

Despite the Chinese authorities asserting that they took all measures to contain the Corona virus and prevent its spread, a number of countries in the world rushed to withdraw their employees or deport their citizens from China, and took urgent measures against each of them.

The British government said in a statement on Saturday that it had decided to withdraw some employees from its embassy and consulates in China due to the Corona virus.

The statement said that the government will retain key personnel to continue to do important work.

"In the event that the situation deteriorates further, the ability of the British embassy and consulates to provide assistance to British citizens from inside China may be limited," he added.

This coincided with the announcement by the United States, on Friday, of a health emergency in the country after the registration of six new HIV cases.

This came in statements made by US Secretary of Health Alex Azar during a press conference from the White House, in which he stressed the seriousness of the health situation in China due to the spread of this epidemic.

In his statements, the minister said, "The measures taken in the context of the state of emergency include preventing foreigners from China from entering the United States from Sunday."

In the same context, the minister stressed that President Donald Trump has ordered a temporary ban on entry into the country of people who may carry the virus.

He pointed out that any American citizen who returns to the country after visiting Khubei Province in China during the past two weeks, will be placed in quarantine for a period of 14 days. Americans returning from China will also undergo medical examinations at designated entry points.

He explained that the measures taken are preventive, stressing that the risk of HIV infection in the country is low, and that the authorities ’task is to keep the risks emanating from Corona at this level.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in China quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying that it required family members of embassy staff in China under the age of 21 to leave China immediately from January 31.

Moves
The Anatolia Agency stated that the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs had asked, on Friday evening, its citizens not to travel to China and invited those present at the end of the day to leave quickly.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributed this to the spread of the new coronavirus, and in its concern for the safety of Kuwaiti citizens, stressing the need to adhere to the instructions of the relevant authorities and the safety procedures followed until departure in order to ensure their safety.

And a plane belonging to the Royal Jordanian Airlines evacuated at the dawn of Saturday, 71 Jordanian and Arab students from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the Corona virus epidemic, according to a Jordanian official source.

The official Jordanian News Agency (Petra) said that "the plane that King Abdullah II directed to send, arrived at dawn today, Saturday, to Queen Alia International Airport (30 km south of Amman) with 71 Jordanian and Arab students on board from the Chinese city of Wuhan after the outbreak of the Corona virus."

"The plane transported 55 Jordanian students, seven students from Palestine, three from the Sultanate of Oman, one Lebanese, three Tunisians, and one Bahraini, in addition to the wife of a student with Russian citizenship, medical personnel and plane personnel," the agency quoted the Jordanian-Jordanian Minister of Health, Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, as saying.

Turkey also warned its citizens against traveling to Mongolia, after the authorities considered the new Corona virus "a major threat."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement indicated that the Mongolian authorities considered the outbreak of the virus that spread in China as "a great danger" for Mongolia due to the intensive bilateral relations and mutual flights between the two countries.

Noting that it is likely a "further rise" in the spread of the virus, the Singaporean government has banned entry for arriving passengers and those transiting from it who have visited China during the past 14 days, and has stopped issuing all forms of new visas for Chinese passport holders.

In turn, Mongolia announced that it will not receive Chinese citizens and foreigners coming from the neighboring country by air, trains or cars from Saturday to March 2 next. The Mongolians will also be prevented from traveling to China during the same period.

In Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Fuk ordered the suspension of the issuance of any new tourist visas for Chinese citizens and foreigners who have traveled to China during the past two weeks.

He added that trade with China will be "undesirable" until the spread of the epidemic decreases. Japan, in turn, joined Britain, Germany, and other countries that recommended its citizens to avoid traveling to China.

Emergency
It is reported that the World Health Organization declared a state of emergency five times globally since it was adopted in 2007 for swine flu, polio, Zika and twice for Ebola.

This declaration allows the United Nations to make recommendations that the international community is expected to follow. However, the organization warned on Friday that closing the borders would not prevent transmission, but might speed the spread of the virus.

And the Chinese authorities announced on Saturday that the number of confirmed deaths from the new corona virus has risen to 259 cases in the country, while the number of people infected with the deadly respiratory virus reached about 12 thousand people.

The National Health Committee said at its press conference that the number of new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours amounted to 46 deaths, all - except for one death only - registered in Hubei, the central province which the virus first appeared in its capital, Wuhan, last month.

The infection continued to spread in China, with 11,791 infected with the virus.

It is believed that the new virus appeared in a market in Wuhan, where wild animals are sold, and spread in the shadow of the Chinese New Year holiday season, during which millions of Chinese travel internally and abroad.

China took strict measures to prevent the spread of the virus, including quarantining more than 50 million people in Wuhan and besieging Hubei Province.

Outside of China, more than 20 countries have reached the epidemic. In turn, the delegate of China in Geneva, Chen Xu, told reporters that "there is no need for any unnecessary panic. No need to take excessive measures," stressing that Beijing is working firmly to contain the disease.