Asia had successfully contained the coronavirus outbreak in
the continent, or so it thought, but the number of new cases are spiking across
Asia - a second wave of coronavirus infections following weeks of declines. As
such, officials in south-east Asia, South Korea, Taiwan and parts of China are
taking new measures to prevent the importation of cases from other parts of the
world. The number of imported infections are on the rise as people are fleeing
Europe - the new epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at the University
of Hong Kong said: "What many people hadn't recognized is that it is only
a temporary success, it is not a permanent success.
"There is a challenge to containment by the increasing
number of imported infections in all of these locations at the moment from
Europe, but in the future, it could be from other parts of the world as
well," he added.
According to statistics published by the Chinese
government, the number of imported coronavirus cases has spiked from less than
50 two weeks ago to 155. On Monday, March 16, the National Immigration
Administration said that about 120,000 people a day had entered China from
other countries since the World Health Organization had declared the
coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11. On March 17, Hong Kong's cases
climbed to 168 from 116 on March 9. 90% of those new cases had recently
traveled.
Countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore
have also recorded marked increases in imported cases. Lee Hsien Loong,
Singapore's prime minister warned last week: "We expect more imported
cases, and, therefore, new clusters and new waves of infection, this time
coming from many countries rather than one or two."
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