Health in China

Beijing has warned Chinese citizens not to travel to the United States, in what analysts said is a political move that will worsen already heightened tensions between the two powers. In a travel advisory released on Monday, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism cautioned against visiting the US, citing its “overreaction” to the coronavirus outbreak and the “unfair treatment” Chinese tourists received in the country. “Do not travel to the US,” the ministry said in a notice. This appeared to be a direct response to Washington’s decision nearly a month ago to deny entry to foreigners who have been to China within the past 14 days.  Since the outbreak, more than 60 countries have imposed some

Seventeen years after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, and seven years since the first Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) case, there is still no coronavirus vaccine despite dozens of attempts to develop them. As research institutes and companies around the world race to find potential vaccines for a new coronavirus strain that has infected more than 80,000 people and claimed over 2,700 lives, the question is, will this time be different? To stop communicable diseases, it is important to stop transmission, using medicine and developing vaccines. But those vaccines take time as they have to go through trials to ensure they are safe and effective. They are also costl

The novel coronavirus that causes the infectious disease known as Covid-19 did not originate at a seafood market in the central China city of Wuhan as was first thought, a new study by a team of Chinese scientists suggests. The coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, was imported from elsewhere, said researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research. The team, led by Dr Yu Wenbin, sequenced the genomic data of 93 SARS-CoV-2 samples provided by 12 countries in a bid to track down the source of the infection and understand how it spreads. What they found was that while the virus had spread rapidly within the H

It all came without warning. One month ago in the early hours, authorities in Wuhan, the biggest city in the central province of Hubei, announced a full lockdown in response to a coronavirus crisis that just a day earlier had been declared “under control.” It was an unprecedented moment in the history of China – and the world – and condemned the 9 million people left within the city’s limits to an unknown fate. Not even at the height of the Sars epidemic, another coronavirus outbreak 17 years earlier, had such sweeping controls on movement been imposed on so many people at one time. In the weeks since, people in the city have confronted life-altering experiences, whether in a supermarket que

It’s a story that repeats itself over and over in the month since the central Chinese city of Wuhan went into lockdown. As the city’s infrastructure crumbled under the weight of an epidemic the country’s leader called the “most difficult” to control, civilians sprang into action to help one another. They are ordinary citizens except for the fact that they decided to act. They are volunteers who have no experience in organizing. They have little in common besides a shared sense of purpose. Inkstone interviewed several people who are making it their mission to save Wuhan. Here are their voices. ‘It was miserable reading the news every day. We had to do something.’  Han Qing, 35, social worker

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, may have seen its first decline in greenhouse gas emissions in three years as the coronavirus outbreak has shut down much of the country, a new study has found. The study, released on Wednesday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland, said that coronavirus has temporarily reduced China’s carbon emissions by a quarter.  Since mid-January, China has placed cities and towns of tens of millions of people on lockdown to contain the coronavirus. These restrictive policies have resulted in repeated delays in industrial operations and a sharp reduction in energy demand. China accounts for more than one-fourth of the world’s total gree

Chinese people angered at the authorities’ handling of the coronavirus outbreak are trying to speak their minds online by obfuscating their messages.  Social media posts composed of dashes and dots as well as out-of-order words have cropped up on the Chinese internet after the death of Dr Li Wenliang. The doctor was chided by Chinese police in December for alerting others to a possible outbreak. His death from the virus has become a symbol of the Chinese government’s botched response to early reports of the disease now known as Covid-19. “The epidemic exposed the harm caused by censorship of speech to the people and the country,” Shu Song, a California-based Chinese developer who created a w

As the number of coronavirus patients has continued to climb, medical workers in the heart of the outbreak have had to avoid drinking and cross their legs to get through long shifts in their protective suits. But for the many women on the front line of China’s fight against the epidemic, they have also had to deal with menstruation, a need that some female medical professionals said is being overlooked by China’s decision makers. A group of women’s rights advocates is seeking to help by sending hundreds of thousands of pairs of disposable underwear designed for periods to hospitals in the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. The goal is to help female hospital staff have mor

The march of the coronavirus has shown little signs of stopping. The virus has sickened at least 64,440 people and killed 1,380 worldwide since the outbreak was first reported in late December. But while the disease’s footprint has spread to over 24 countries, its toll has been concentrated in mainland China, where all except 3 deaths have been reported. For many people living in the heart of the epidemic, fending off the virus remains a priority. As whole cities are sealed off and public transportation shut down, millions of people have no choice but to stay home, wondering how much more damage the coronavirus will cause before it ends – if it ends. Their experience is almost without preced

Medical personnel in Wuhan, the epicenter of the current coronavirus outbreak, wear diapers as they work through grueling shifts in protective suits, often until skin irritation from their masks leaves bloody marks on their faces, a doctor said on Wednesday. “When doctors and nurses are in the ward,” dressed in protective clothing that seals them off from the environment, “they cannot eat, drink or go to the bathroom,” Han Ding, deputy director of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, said at a press briefing in the central city of Wuhan. “Just in case they must urinate, they [wear a] diaper, and wash up after they’re done with their shift,” he said. The reported conditions o