Coronavirus (COVID-19) Respiratory illness - Effect on Travel

[Himeno]

Wearing masks is not an Australian cultural thing. When I was in Japan, it was a common sight.

Japanese don't wear masks to protect themselves from viruses. They wear them when they are sick to protect others from their illness.


It seems that this coronavirus went from a bat, to a snake, to humans. The local government in Wuhan covered it up when first detected and now that the central government has found out what's going on, they've gone all in. They did take a beating over their lack of action over SARS. The Wuhan government also shut down internal city transport, but forgot to close the highway out of the city, so a number of people got out before the central government moved in and shut down the highways and airport.

The only BSL4 lab in China is in Wuhan. They didn't use it to study this virus, instead sending samples to the BSL3 lab in Shanghai.

There are reports of 12 other cities in Hubei under some amount of quarantine. If the central government is going all in on this, they might as well just quarantine the entire province.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

Will companies in Australia put in any precautions regarding the virus?
Asking staff to work from home ect?
Wear masks at work? Is it effective?

We had a message from our office cleaners saying that they are stopping all services for the safely of their staff and customers until further notice.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I found this article quite interesting about the source of the virus.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-zoonosis-1.5440146

 

[kamchatsky]

Well I am at CAN in China now. Will be leaving in 3 days to come back to Australia. All major CNY festivities are cancelled, restaurants are half empty for CNY Eve dinner, which is unbelievable. All the masks are sold out a long time ago. About 50% of people wear masks here. Would be more if there are masks in stock.

 

[p--and--t]

I'm intrigued that they haven't given it a new handle yet. SARS MERS et al.

Must be driving the media crazy trying to do a beat up piece in a short news grab and having to say the name out in full

Maybe Chinese Bat Respiratory Syndrome

Someone heard me . It has been named 2019-nCoV - not as catchy as SARS or MERS

 

[esseeeayeenn]

What is really worrying is that this is much more contagious than SARS or MERS.
Apparently 8 times more contagious than SARS.

 

[juddles]

What is really worrying is that this is much more contagious than SARS or MERS.
Apparently 8 times more contagious than SARS.

but what does that even mean?? That the average Aussie has about a billion to one chance of getting it??

Despite being a pessimist by nature, i do always look for the silver lining in any cloud, and this trivial flu has caught the media interest, so may be a good thing. So I really hope that it does inevitably stop the recent actually harmful news flu where everyone is stricken by a need to just compete with alarming terms about bushfires... The media run this and cause far more pain and worry than the actual reality. They have run that topic about as far as it can go, despite feeble recent attempts to now sell alarm about rains and flooding....

As always, I do not ignore the significance of such things as yet another illness. IMHO this is the ever present danger to people. But I dislike the rot of the media. they have "cried wolf" so many times they have managed to deafen and blind the audience. I think that they actually have been driven to SCREAM wolf with every story. This has a numbing effect.

Far more people will die due to texting on their mobile phones whilst driving than are taken out by this hideous new trans-animal horror disease. But reporting and discussing this is what sells.

In the old days the masses were kept busy just with footy. Now they are led with a constant and consistent stream of fear articles.

 

[Pushka]

but what does that even mean?? That the average Aussie has about a billion to one chance of getting it??

Despite being a pessimist by nature, i do always look for the silver lining in any cloud, and this trivial flu has caught the media interest, so may be a good thing. So I really hope that it does inevitably stop the recent actually harmful news flu where everyone is stricken by a need to just compete with alarming terms about bushfires... The media run this and cause far more pain and worry than the actual reality. They have run that topic about as far as it can go, despite feeble recent attempts to now sell alarm about rains and flooding....

As always, I do not ignore the significance of such things as yet another illness. IMHO this is the ever present danger to people. But I dislike the rot of the media. they have "cried wolf" so many times they have managed to deafen and blind the audience. I think that they actually have been driven to SCREAM wolf with every story. This has a numbing effect.

Far more people will die due to texting on their mobile phones whilst diving than are taken out by this hideous new trans-animal horror disease. But reporting and discussing this is what sells.

In the old days the masses were kept busy just with footy. Now they are led with a constant and consistent stream of fear articles.

Your thoughts assume that we have been told the true mortality and infection rate from China. For China to take such drastic action, of their own accord on CNY suggests otherwise.

 

[tgh]

This probably as good as we will get in terms of official info , it's updated constantly… currently 1438
We can probably assume that the bug is proliferating much faster than any reporting system can follow ; as medical facilities are overloaded the reporting of cases will increasingly lag the real numbers.
All looking quite bleak at the moment

ArcGIS Dashboards

ArcGIS Dashboards

gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com

 

[serfty]

This probably as good as we will get in terms of official info , it's updated constantly… currently 1438

Hmmm ....I did a double take at the statistic of Current reported Deaths being at 42 while 'recovered' is at 39.

Then, thinking a bit, hopefully there's many who recovered from it without actually being diagnosed.

... hopefully ...

 

[tgh]

It makes good sense holistically , but one has to feel for the millions of ordinary people penned up in these closed cities with overloaded medical facilities and likely increasing shortage of staples.. brrrrrrrrrrrr…..

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They think they are trying to contain it... but given the guy diagnosed here arrived on 19 Jan, if others have an equally long incubation period it’s probably quite wide reaching by now

 

[amaroo]

North Korea's response was fast and early ..... just like it was in World War Z

North Korea closes border : Coronavirus

Why did North Korea Close its Borders?

www.eturbonews.com

 

[tgh]

We should be seeing better studies and real world proliferation projections very soon …….. if they are released
If the projections are dire , info like this could be suppressed to minimise public panic.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext

A recent cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, was caused by a novel betacoronavirus, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). We report the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics and treatment and clinical outcomes of these patients.
Methods
All patients with suspected 2019-nCoV were admitted to a designated hospital in Wuhan. We prospectively collected and analysed data on patients with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection by real-time RT-PCR and next-generation sequencing. Data were obtained with standardised data collection forms shared by the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium from electronic medical records. Researchers also directly communicated with patients or their families to ascertain epidemiological and symptom data. Outcomes were also compared between patients who had been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and those who had not.
Findings
By Jan 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. Most of the infected patients were men (30 [73%] of 41); less than half had underlying diseases (13 [32%]), including diabetes (eight [20%]), hypertension (six [15%]), and cardiovascular disease (six [15%]). Median age was 49·0 years (IQR 41·0–58·0). 27 (66%) of 41 patients had been exposed to Huanan seafood market. One family cluster was found. Common symptoms at onset of illness were fever (40 [98%] of 41 patients), cough (31 [76%]), and myalgia or fatigue (18 [44%]); less common symptoms were sputum production (11 [28%] of 39), headache (three [8%] of 38), haemoptysis (two [5%] of 39), and diarrhoea (one [3%] of 38). Dyspnoea developed in 22 (55%) of 40 patients (median time from illness onset to dyspnoea 8·0 days [IQR 5·0–13·0]). 26 (63%) of 41 patients had lymphopenia. All 41 patients had pneumonia with abnormal findings on chest CT. Complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome (12 [29%]), RNAaemia (six [15%]), acute cardiac injury (five [12%]) and secondary infection (four [10%]). 13 (32%) patients were admitted to an ICU and six (15%) died. Compared with non-ICU patients, ICU patients had higher plasma levels of IL2, IL7, IL10, GSCF, IP10, MCP1, MIP1A, and TNFα.
Interpretation
The 2019-nCoV infection caused clusters of severe respiratory illness similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and was associated with ICU admission and high mortality. Major gaps in our knowledge of the origin, epidemiology, duration of human transmission, and clinical spectrum of disease need fulfilment by future studies.

 

[p--and--t]

They think they are trying to contain it... but given the guy diagnosed here arrived on 19 Jan, if others have an equally long incubation period it’s probably quite wide reaching by now

If you look at the map provided by @tgh this morning (post #69) the genie has well and truly escaped, cases all over China. 244 suspected cases in Hong Kong

 

[jase05]

They think they are trying to contain it... but given the guy diagnosed here arrived on 19 Jan, if others have an equally long incubation period it’s probably quite wide reaching by now

50-60k passengers transiting through WUH daily plus being a main railway hub which would move possibly millions a week. Then you have one of the largest river ports in China aswell as cars, scooters etc. And this is just one city and the virus has been active for atleast a month?
No wonder it has spread so far, would be a logistical nightmare to try and contain

 

[p--and--t]

A timely reminder to always remember to have travel insurance whenever you book......

China Suspends All Group Tours Effective Monday

China has decided to suspend all group tours effective Monday.

loyaltylobby.com

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A timely reminder to always remember to have travel insurance whenever you book......

China Suspends All Group Tours Effective Monday

China has decided to suspend all group tours effective Monday.

loyaltylobby.com

i would hope the tour companies and airlines would provide refunds - not burden the insurance companies

 

[p--and--t]

i would hope the tour companies and airlines would provide refunds - not burden the insurance companies

I like to have plan B when the operator says "service fee" to cancel or "Oops - Bankrupt" or just doesn't answer your emails or texts.

Edit: Also the scenario you bought non-refundable air tickets direct from airline & bought the tour from someone else. You are very unlikely to get the airfare back.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You are very unlikely to get the airfare back.

I think all Chinese airlines will soon be offering refunds... Air China already is for all flights to/from/via China - no questions asked. All carriers must refund domestic flights. CX has a cancellation waiver in place for mainland China. It would be pretty poor form if QF/VA sought to profit from this.