A Chinese doctor, among the first to raise the alert about China’s new coronavirus, himself died from the pathogen on Friday, emphasizing the depth of a worsening crisis that has killed at least 630 people.

Global panic also spread, with thousands trapped on quarantined cruise ships.

Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang died at 2:58 am, Wuhan Central Hospital said in a post on its verified account on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

The 34-year-old sent out a message about the new coronavirus to colleagues on December 30, but was later among eight whistleblowers summoned by police for “rumour-mongering.” 

He later contracted the disease while treating a patient and has been hailed as a hero by Chinese internet users.

Li was among more than 28,000 people who have been infected in China, where authorities are struggling to contain the outbreak, despite ordering millions indoors in a growing number of cities.

Two dozen countries have confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, which emerged from a market selling exotic animals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Thousands of holidaymakers on cruise ships in Hong Kong and Japan face an agonising wait to find out if more among them have been infected.

At least 20 people on the Diamond Princess — off Yokohama since Monday — have tested positive. Some 3,700 passengers and crew from more than 50 countries have been confined to quarters.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said another cruise ship, the Westerdam, was heading to the country with one confirmed case.

He said no foreigners from the vessel, capable of carrying nearly 3,000 passengers and crew, would be allowed to disembark.

Anxiety in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, 3,600 people spent a second night confined aboard the World Dream. Authorities conducted health checks after eight former passengers tested positive for the virus.

Hong Kong has been particularly nervous because the crisis revived memories of another coronavirus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). It killed nearly 300 people in the city and another 349 on the Chinese mainland in 2002-2003.

Panic buying in semi-autonomous Hong Kong left supermarkets empty of toilet paper following false online claims of shortages, prompting authorities to appeal for calm.

One person has died after contracting the virus in Hong Kong.

While the death toll rises in China with the death of Li and others, experts have stressed that at two percent mortality, 2019-nCoV is far less deadly than SARS, which killed around 10 percent of the people it infected 17 years ago.

The outbreak has nevertheless been declared a global health emergency, prompting several governments to warn against travel to China and ban arrivals from the country, while airlines have halted flights and brought home their citizens.

Almost 200 Canadians showed up at the airport in Wuhan for the country’s first evacuations, most on a commercial airliner chartered by Ottawa, officials said. 

Germany’s foreign ministry said it was working to bring home several nationals who had not made it out on a flight that reached Frankfurt last Saturday.

Saudi Arabia banned citizens and resident foreigners from travelling to China, while Air France-KLM extended its flight suspension by another month until March 15.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a call that all countries should “follow World Health Organization guidelines on travel and health in a timely manner”, state news agency Xinhua reported.

After Britain advised nationals to leave China, Beijing’s ambassador to London said there should not be “such a panic.”

Short of medical staff 

China has enacted unprecedented measures to contain the virus, which spread during the Lunar New Year holiday in late January, when millions criss-crossed the country.

But deaths and new infections continue to rise, especially at the epicentre in Hubei province, where 18 cities housing 56 million people have been under virtual lockdown since late last month.

There is a shortage of 2,250 medical personnel in Hubei, deputy provincial governor Yang Yunyan said Thursday. The inability to offer health workers adequate protective gear is hindering the numbers that can be deployed on the front lines, he added.

With Hubei’s capital Wuhan overwhelmed, authorities were due to open a second, 1,600-bed field hospital.

The central government has announced measures intended to ensure the supply of vital resources, with tax breaks for manufacturers of medical equipment.

BGI Group, a genome sequencing company in southern China, said it had opened a lab in Wuhan able to test 10,000 people a day.

‘Don’t go out’ 

More cities are ordering people to stay indoors.

They include Hangzhou, 175 kilometres (110 miles) from Shanghai, where fences block streets and loudspeakers tell people: “Don’t go out!”

In Beijing — where streets remain eerily quiet — restaurants have been barred from accepting reservations for parties.

And in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province which borders Hubei, pharmacists must send reports to the authorities on anyone buying fever or cough medicine. 

The outbreak has also hit major businesses.

Workers making iPhones at tech giant Foxconn’s plant in Henan province, bordering Hubei, will be quarantined for up to two weeks, the company said.

China said it would halve tariffs on $75 billion worth of US imports, as part of a trade truce with Washington and as officials look to calm markets unnerved by the outbreak.

(AFP)

An isolation ward stands ready at a hospital in Khartoum, Sudan. Laboratories in Senegal and Madagascar have the testing equipment they need. Passengers arriving at airports in Gambia, Cameroon and Guinea are being screened for fever and other viral symptoms.

Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says it has activated its emergency operation centre in the face of what global health officials say is a high risk the coronavirus disease epidemic that began in China will spread to its borders.

On a poor continent where healthcare capacity is limited, early detection of any outbreak will be crucial.

The fear is great that a spreading epidemic of coronavirus infections will be hard to contain in countries where health systems are already overburdened with cases of Ebola, measles, malaria and other deadly infectious diseases.

“The key point is to limit transmission from affected countries and the second point is to ensure that we have the capacity to isolate and also to provide appropriate treatment to people that may be infected,” said Michel Yao, emergency operations program manager at the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is barring its citizens from flying to China. Burkina Faso has asked Chinese citizens to delay travelling to Burkina, and is warning that they face quarantine if they do. Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda have all suspended flights to China.

“What we are emphasising to all countries is that they should at least have early detection,” Yao said.

“We know how fragile the health system is on the African continent and these systems are already overwhelmed by many ongoing disease outbreaks, so for us it is critical to detect earlier to that we can prevent the spread.”

John Nkengasong, Africa’s CDC director, told a briefing in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa this week that the activation of the emergency operation centre would create a single incident system to manage the outbreak across the continent.

The Africa CDC will also hold a training workshop in Senegal for 15 African countries on laboratory diagnosis, he said.

The continent has more than doubled the number of laboratories now equipped to diagnose the viral infection, this week adding facilities in Ghana, Madagascar and Nigeria and to established testing labs in South Africa and Sierra Leone.

“By the end of the week we expect that an additional 24 countries (in Africa) will receive the reagents needed to conduct the tests and will have the test running,” a spokeswoman for the WHO’s Africa Region told Reuters.

Source: Reuters

As doctors scramble to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus, a potent brew of anti-retroviral and flu drugs has emerged as a possible defence against the disease that has killed hundreds.

But the science is inconclusive on whether they are actually effective, and experts say a specific treatment could take years to develop.

Here is what we know — and don’t know — about the drugs deployed against the SARS-like virus.

– Why anti-retrovirals? –

Patients diagnosed with the common flu are often prescribed an antiviral drug widely known as Tamiflu.

But seasonal flu is “very different from the Chinese coronavirus”, said Sylvie van der Werf at the Paris-based Pasteur Institute.

So far the new coronavirus has infected tens of thousands worldwide and killed more than 420 people, mostly in mainland China.

Two weeks ago Chinese doctors confirmed they had been giving anti-HIV drugs to coronavirus patients in Beijing, based on a 2004 study published after the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that showed “favourable” responses.

Used together, lopinavir and ritonavir decrease the amount of HIV cells in a patient’s blood, stripping back the virus’s ability to reproduce and attack the immune system.

Doctors have also combined the treatment with another anti-flu drug called oseltamivir, hoping the creative cocktail can sap the new coronavirus of its strength.

In Thailand, where there are now 25 confirmed cases, a 71-year-old Chinese patient returned a negative test within 48 hours of being given the three drugs.

But Thai doctors urged caution, saying the medicine needed to be given under supervision due to possible side effects.

– Does it actually work? –

In short, we don’t know for sure.

The 2004 study showed anti-retrovirals used on patients with SARS had “substantial clinical benefits”, experts in China said.

But random trials on 41 coronavirus patients had “limitations”, according to research published in The Lancet on January 24.

Doctors in Singapore — where there are 24 cases — have followed suit with the anti-retroviral treatment, said the country’s chief health scientist Tan Chorh Chuan, without going into details about the results.

Other studies looked “promising” and a clinical trial has started in Wuhan.

“These agents appear to be effective but we can’t be certain at the moment,” he said Tuesday.

– What’s big pharma doing? –

Biotech firms are working on a suite of treatment options.

California-based Gilead Sciences said they are working with Chinese authorities on clinical trials to determine if remdesivir — a drug used to treat SARS — is effective.

Meanwhile three teams around the world — in China, Australia and the Pasteur Institute in France — have now succeeded in cultivating the coronavirus in the laboratory.

That could lead to pinpointing its “Achilles’ heel” by understanding how it replicates in cells, said Christophe d’Enfert, the institute’s scientific director.

– So what should you do? –

The best approach for the general public is to try and “stay healthy” so your immune system can offer a robust response to the threat of the virus, said Singapore’s health minister Gan Kim Yong.

But for already infected patients, hospitals must provide support to prevent complications.

“Chances are if you already have underlying medical conditions… your defences are weak and your organs may already be impaired, and therefore the risk of death is higher,” he told parliament Monday.

– Home remedies and quackery –

Misinformation has proliferated online about home and traditional remedies.

A liquid made with honeysuckle and flowering plants used in traditional medicine was initially claimed to “inhibit” the virus, sparking frenzied buying in China.

But Chinese state media later sounded a more cautionary note, as researchers warned of potential side effects.

In India, where there are three reported confirmed cases, the government has touted ancient homeopathy and Ayurveda remedies as the answer.

The jury is out on the effectiveness, and doctors still recommended that patients be treated in a hospital.

Online posts erroneously identified saline as a coronavirus killer in Australia, while in Thailand social media suggested antiseptic should be sprayed in a person’s mouth.

The antiseptic company Betadine has refuted the claim.

Source: AFP

As the Coronavirus in China spreads, it is hurting many people in its path and spreading fear around the world.

Some 8,000 people have already been infected and over 300 have been killed.

While many Africans have been suspected of having the virus, tests conducted on them upon arrival in their home countries have been negative.

However, a Cameroonian International student at the Yangtze University in China has been diagnosed with the Coronavirus. He is the first known African to be infected with the virus ever since news of the virus hit the stands.

He was tested following his return from Wuhan which is considered as the epicenter of the health crisis that has paralyzed the Chinese economy and sown fear across the globe.

Kem Pavel Daryl, 21, has been quarantined and is responding to treatment at the Jingzhou Chest hospital.

His parents have been duly informed and the doctors attending to him say his situation is stable, adding that he will be fine in the days ahead.

No African country has been affected by the killer virus and most African countries have deployed the necessary equipment at their airports to ensure any cases are rapidly diagnosed.

A man has died of the coronavirus in the Philippines, the first confirmed fatality outside China.

The patient was a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan, in Hubei province, where the virus was first detected.

He appeared to have been infected before arriving in the Philippines, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

More than 300 people have died in the outbreak so far, the vast majority from Hubei. More than 14,000 people have been infected.

The US, Australia and an increasing number of other countries have barred the arrival of foreigners from China and are requiring their own citizens to be quarantined.

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has overtaken that of the similar Sars epidemic, which spread to more than two dozen countries in 2003. But the mortality rate of the new virus is much lower, suggesting it is not as deadly.

What do we know about this death?

The man travelled to the Philippines from Wuhan, via Hong Kong, with a 38-year-old Chinese woman who also tested positive last week, the Philippines Department of Health said.

Officials said he was admitted to a hospital in the capital, Manila, where he developed severe pneumonia.

The man is thought to have had other pre-existing health conditions.

Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, urged people to remain calm: “This is the first reported death outside China. However, we need to take into mind that this is not a locally acquired case. This patient came from the epicentre of this outbreak.”

According to local news outlet Rappler, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the patient was “stable and showed signs of improvement”, but his condition deteriorated rapidly over 24 hours.

“We are currently working with the Chinese embassy to ensure the dignified management of the remains according to national and international standards to contain the disease,” Mr Duque said, adding that the man would be cremated.

The Department of Health was now trying to track down people who were on the same flight as the man so that they could be quarantined, he said, as well as any other people the man and woman may have come into contact with, such as hotel staff.

The man’s death was confirmed shortly after the Philippines announced it would immediately halt the arrivals of any foreign travellers from China.

It had previously restricted only those from Hubei, which is at the epicentre of the outbreak.

What is the latest from China?

Authorities said 45 more deaths were recorded in Hubei province by the end of Saturday, bringing the death toll in the country to 304.

Nationally, there were 2,590 new confirmed infections. The total number of infections in China is now 14,380, state TV quoted the National Health Commission as saying.

Estimates by the University of Hong Kong suggest the total number of cases could be far higher than the official figures. More than 75,000 people may have been infected in the city of Wuhan, which is at the epicentre of the outbreak, experts say.

Which countries are restricting arrivals?

The US and Australia have said they will deny entry to all foreign visitors who had recently been to China, where the 2019-nCov strain of the coronavirus first emerged in December.

Other countries including New Zealand, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Italy and Singapore have also announced travel restrictions.

On Sunday, South Korea said it would bar entry to foreigners who had recently visited Hubei.

In the US, citizens and residents returning from Hubei will be quarantined for 14 days. Those returning from other parts of China will be allowed to monitor their own condition for a similar period.

The Pentagon said it would provide housing for 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined after arriving in the US from abroad. Four military bases in California, Colorado and Texas would provide up to 250 rooms each.

Another confirmed case in the US on Saturday – in Massachusetts – brought the total number there to eight.

Australia said any of its own citizens arriving from China would also be quarantined for two weeks.

There have also been a number of evacuations from China as foreign governments work to bring their citizens back.

What restrictions are there in China?

Wuhan is in lockdown and other major cities across the country have suspended non-essential business.

The mayor of Huanggang – a city of six million people to the east of Wuhan – has warned that the number of cases there is set to spike in the coming days, state media said. Up to 700,000 people had returned to the city from Wuhan before travel out of Wuhan was banned.

Huanggang and the eastern city of Wenzhou have imposed draconian restrictions on residents, only allowing one designated person per family to leave home once every two days to buy food and other supplies, Chinese media reported.

Hubei officials have extended the Lunar New Year holiday to 13 February and said that marriage registrations would be suspended in an effort to discourage public gatherings.

Meanwhile, hospital workers in Hong Kong have voted to go on strike from Monday unless the territory’s border with mainland China is completely closed. The Hong Kong government has refused to do so, citing WHO recommendations to introduce screening measures at borders instead.

Do the travel bans work?

Global health officials have advised against the bans.

“Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies,” the head of the WHO said on Friday.

The WHO recommends introducing screening at official border crossings. It has warned that closing borders could accelerate the spread of the virus, with travellers entering countries unofficially.

China has criticised the wave of travel restrictions, accusing foreign governments of ignoring official advice.

What other international action has been taken?

• India has evacuated 300 citizens from Wuhan. About 100 Germans have been flown home. Thailand and Russia are due to evacuate citizens from Wuhan and Hubei province in the coming days
• China asked the European Union to facilitate the sending of medical supplies from member countries
• Vietnam Airlines suspended all flights to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Other airlines, including Qantas, Air New Zealand, Air Canada and British Airways, cancelled or scaled back flights
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered his condolences in a letter to China’s president
• Hotel chains, including Hyatt, Radisson and Hilton, extended their cancellation policies for guests travelling to China
• Apple said it would temporarily close its stores in China
• The UK announced it would pull dozens of Foreign Office staff out of the mainland
• Russia said two Chinese citizens had been placed in isolation after they tested positive for the virus
• Germany, Italy, and Sweden confirmed further cases in Europe

Culled from the BBC

In recent days, more foreign leaders have spoken positively of and supported China’s efforts to battle the novel coronavirus outbreak through various means.

In his call to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered sympathies over the pain and loss inflicted on Chinese families and wished each patient a speedy recovery.

He expressed belief that under Xi’s leadership, China’s resolute measures will contain the epidemic and minimize losses.

The Russian people are willing to offer necessary aid to the friendly Chinese people, Putin said, adding that relevant Russian departments will work with counterparts in China through closest coordination to eliminate this common threat.

Calling Chinese leaders’ efficient response and the heroism of the Chinese people admirable, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Belarus, always China’s reliable and loyal friend, will offer medical supplies to help the Chinese people battle the epidemic.

Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn said that the international community is greatly impressed by the efforts and determination of the Chinese government to fight the epidemic and the extensive epidemic prevention measures it has taken.

The Thai people and himself will pull together with the Chinese people in times of trouble, the king said, extending wishes that China will secure an early victory against the epidemic.

Nepali President Bidhya Devi Bhandari said that at this difficult time, Nepal will firmly unite with the Chinese government and the friendly Chinese people. Bhandari expressed appreciation of and support for the Chinese leaders’ extraordinary efforts to contain the epidemic, and thanked China for taking care of Nepali citizens in China.

Tunisian President Kais Saied spoke highly of the Chinese government’s efforts in combating the epidemic, expressing belief that under the strong and wise leadership of Xi, China’s efforts to contain the outbreak will soon pay off.

Cameroonian President Paul Biya said that on behalf of the Cameroonian people, he offered sympathies and support to the Chinese people at a time when the Chinese government and people are fighting a heroic battle against the epidemic.

Cote d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara said the government and people of Cote d’Ivoire firmly support the efforts made by the Chinese government and people in fighting the epidemic.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said the Pakistani side highly appreciates and firmly supports China’s efforts to combat the epidemic and thanks China for providing help to Pakistani citizens in China.

The Pakistani side firmly believes that China can give full play to its unique institutional advantages to overcome the epidemic, Khan said, adding that Pakistan is willing to mobilize all the country’s medical supplies reserves to assist China, and will firmly stand alongside the brotherly Chinese people.

Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh said the people of Mongolia understand the feelings of the Chinese government and people, who are facing the challenges posed by the epidemic. The Mongolian people believe that under the strong leadership of the Chinese government and with the concerted efforts of the Chinese people, China will soon rein in the epidemic.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore will closely cooperate with China to jointly combat the epidemic. China is making efforts to control the illness and Singapore has been prepared. There is no need to panic.

Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe Jorge Bom Jesus offered his sympathy and support to the Chinese government and believed that China will defeat the epidemic.

Source: Xinhuanet

The nationwide death toll in China’s coronavirus outbreak has risen to 213, with nearly 2,000 new cases confirmed, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

In its daily update, the commission said 43 new deaths had occurred as a result of the virus, all but one of them in hardest-hit Hubei province where the virus first emerged.

The latest numbers indicate that the daily death count and the overall spread of the virus within China were continuing to grow steadily, despite unprecedented quarantine measures imposed on Hubei a week ago and other preventative steps nationwide.

On Thursday, Chinese health officials had reported a nationwide total of 38 new deaths, all but one of them in Hubei.

The National Health Commission said there were 1,982 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to just under 10,000.

Another 102,000 people were under medical observation with possible symptoms of the respiratory ailment.

The WHO had initially downplayed the threat posed by the disease, but revised its risk assessment after crisis talks on Thursday.

“We must all act together now to limit further spread… We can only stop it together,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva.

Tedros nevertheless said travel and trade restrictions with China were unnecessary to stem the spread of the virus, which has now been confirmed in more than 15 other countries across the globe.

Many countries have already urged their citizens not to visit China while some have banned entry for travellers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first surfaced.

(AFP)

China suspended all football in the country Thursday, hours after the World Indoor Athletics Championships and World Cup skiing were postponed, adding to a long list of sports events hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

The world’s most populous country has become an increasing powerhouse in hosting international sport in recent years but has had its 2020 sporting calendar thrown into chaos.

Here, AFP Sport lists the events already affected and those potentially under threat:

Cancelled, postponed or moved

— Football: China on Thursday suspended all domestic football and postponed indefinitely the top-flight Chinese Super League season kick-off due on February 22 in order to “carry out prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic,” said the Chinese Football Association.

— Athletics: The World Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed for a year. “It is with regret that we have agreed with the organisers … to postpone the event to March 2021,” the sport’s governing body said in a statement Wednesday.

— Football: The Asian Football Confederation announced Wednesday that home Champions League group stage games featuring four Chinese clubs would be switched to away fixtures for the first three match days in February and March. A decision on venues for each club’s three home group matches will be made at a later date.

— Women’s football: A women’s Olympics qualifying event between China, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia scheduled from February 3-9 in Wuhan, the disease epicentre, was moved initially to Nanjing then to Sydney. The China women’s football team were quarantined in a Brisbane hotel on Wednesday after arriving in Australia for the tournament.

— Boxing: A qualification event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics initially scheduled from February 3-14 in Wuhan was rescheduled for Amman in Jordan from March 3-11.

— Women’s basketball: Another Olympic qualifying tournament, a four-team battle for three Tokyo places between China, Great Britain, Spain and South Korea was moved on Monday from Foshan, in southern China, to Belgrade where it will run alongside another four-team group on February 6-9.

— Aquatics: The Chinese leg of the Diving World Series, scheduled for March 7-9 in Beijing, “has been cancelled,” Cornel Marculescu, president of the international swimming federation, told AFP on Monday. He said the World Series of synchronised swimming, scheduled for Suzhou from April 23-25, was also in question.

— Cycling: The Tour of Hainan, due to be promoted to the second-tier ProSeries this year, was scheduled from February 23 to March 1 on the southern island of Hainan. It has been cancelled “due to the health situation in the country”, the International Cycling Union said on Monday but could be rescheduled later in 2020.

Under threat

— Formula One: The Chinese Grand Prix race weekend is scheduled for Shanghai from April 17-19, an event which attracts tens of thousands of fans.

“We are monitoring the situation in close collaboration with F1, the promoter and with the Federation of Automobile Sports in China, which is our conduit on the ground in China,” governing body FIA said in a statement.

“We are all monitoring it together. At this stage not much we can do except watch the situation and react if necessary, if recommendations are made by the relevant authorities.”

— Formula E: The electric car racing series is also due to stage a race in China, on March 21 on the southern island of Hainan.

A Formula E statement read: “Given the current health concerns, we are continuing to closely monitor the situation as it develops on a daily basis. We have requested that our regional partner works together with the local motorsport federation, to liaise with the relevant authorities in Hainan province to further analyse and assess the situation and provide recommendations on preparations for the race.”

— Football: China is due to host the Maldives in a World Cup qualifying match on March 26 and travel to Guam for another on March 31 and said despite the postponement of all domestic football any decision on international fixtures would be made at a later date.

“The CFA will continue to maintain close communication with national authorities, and decide each event’s timing separately based on the actual development of the epidemic situation in each locality,” a statement said.

— Wrestling: The Asian Olympic qualifying tournament scheduled for March 27-29 in Xi’an could be cancelled. “We are following the situation closely and we are in close contact with the Chinese federation and local authorities,” Nenad Lalovic, president of the International Wrestling Federation, told AFP on Monday. “We will take a decision within 15 days.”

— Sport conference: The SportAccord annual convention, which brings together the presidents of the major international sports federations and the heads of the Olympic movement, including IOC President Thomas Bach, is due to take place in Beijing from April 19-24.

SportAccord is “closely monitoring the situation” and “is following the recommendations of the Chinese authorities and the WHO concerning travel to and from China,” a spokesman told AFP on Monday.

Source: AFP

To His Excellency Mr. Paul BIYA,

President of the Republic of Cameroon

Your Excellency,

We your compatriots schooling and working in Wuhan~ Hubei Province in China, bring our warm wishes for the year 2020. We pray for good health,  happiness and peace in our fatherland.

Your excellency,

We are writing to you directly, because the situation forces us to do so outside the established protocol.

Indeed we are Cameroonian nationals residing in the People’s Republic of China where for the most part we are students and workers.

We are here to steal the flame of knowledge in order to come and help our country overcome the challenges of development.

Your Excellency, we are about three hundred (300) Cameroonian residents in Hubei Province which happens to be the epicenter of the Coronavirus 2019-nCov epidemic that is currently affecting our host country and others.

 With shopping centers, markets, and transportation at a standstill, we are therefore very anxious about the future of events. Wuhan has been in quarantine since 23 January 2020 Mr President. Despite our many approaches (phone calls and correspondences) to the Cameroonian Embassy in Beijing, we remain without news or official answers to reassure us or give humanitarian instructions.

Your Excellency,

The Chinese government is working to contain this virus but however, it continues to gain ground and psychosis too.

Our frustration is even greater when our colleagues from neighbouring countries receive both moral and physical support from their hierarchy. We refuse to believe that we have been abandoned, which is why we want to seize this opportunity to cry out for help from you.

We wish to suggest that we be provided with a Hotline or Emergency number for all Cameroonians in China via the Embassy.

 Above all, Your Excellency, we pray to be provided with the most urgent necessities at this time of crisis: masks, disinfectants and food. Most shops have been emptied and many of us have already exhausted our reserves and are completely stranded.

We know as our father, you cannot see your children being confronted with such an unfortunate  situation without being moved. Help us, Your Excellency, we pray you.

We would have loved to be evacuated from here, but understand that circumstances may not permit, and so kindly pray to be assisted with the basic necessities that can sustain us here till things get back to normal.

We are confident, Mr. President, that this message will reach you in good faith.

May God continue to bless, protect and guide you.

Signed:

 Members of the Executive Bureau,

 Cameroonian Community in Hubei, China-

1. Dr. Pisso Nseke

2. Jum Francis

3. Christian Manga