CORONAVIRUS: China slams US over travelling restrictions and banning of foreign officials

Depict of foreign nationals inside train

Following the decision of United States to ban people who travelled to China for the last two weeks from travelling into the country as a measure to stop the spread of Coronavirus, the Chinese government has slammed the US for taking such decision.

Recall that the World Health Organisation has labelled the Coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency as a result of 259 people who have lost their lives in China and thousands infected with the virus.

Trump’s administration decided to ban all flights from China to the country till the disease goes away after 8 cases have been recorded in the US.

The United States declared a public health emergency on Friday and President Trump signed an order blocking the entry of foreign nationals who are not the immediate family of American citizens or permanent residents, if they have visited China within the last 14 days.

Reacting to the decision of the US, China slammed the US eventhough Australia announced similar measures while the WHO warned countries to be prepared against an outbreak.

Reacting to the decision, the China’s foreign affairs ministry spokesman Hua Chunying stated in a statement obtained that Certain US officials’ words and actions are neither factual nor appropriate.

“Just as the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, the US rushed to go in the opposite way. Certainly not a gesture of goodwill.”

Barely hours after WHO declared the epidemic as a global health emergency, WHO representative in Beijing, Gauden Galea said to The Associated Press:

“Countries need to get ready for possible importation in order to identify cases as early as possible and in order to be ready for a domestic outbreak control, if that happens,”

The number of confirmed cases in China has risen to 11,791, surpassing the number in the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

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