By: Claire Kim, Maia Singham
COVID-19 - formerly known as just the Coronavirus - is a member of the coronavirus family, but is one that has not been encountered before. It originated in Wuhan, China and all those infected there first had some sort of attachment to a wholesale market in the middle of the city. The virus is said to have originated from some sort of animal - much like Ebola and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). The symptoms of the virus tend to be breathing difficulties, fever, or coughs but the most deadly aspect of the virus is its tendency to cause pneumonia. However, the mortality rate remains at around 2% and several have already been discharged from hospitals after recovery. As this pneumonia would be viral, antibiotics are considered useless, and a cure is yet to be discovered. Most of those that have died due to COVID-19 tend to be older or those who already have pre-existing medical problems.
As of 17th February, there are said to be more than 1,700 deaths and more than 72,000 confirmed cases within Mainland China. Outside of China, there have been more than 749 confirmed cases of the virus - including countries such as Singapore, France and the Philippines. The virus typically takes 2 weeks for symptoms to show, hence statistics could potentially be much higher, but symptoms have not yet been detected. Currently, the virus has no vaccination, meaning those with immune problems or other respiratory issues are extremely vulnerable to it. The world health organisations are saying that the virus could turn into a pandemic - a worldwide spread of disease - as it has already been confirmed in 25 countries outside of China.
The virus spreads from person to person through bodily contact, similar to the spread of the flu. Health experts have strongly suggested hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell. Other countries have strongly discouraged their citizens from gathering in large groups.
Besides the health impacts, the economy has suffered a big blow. The lockdown of Wuhan city - which has a population of approximately 11 million - has led to a temporary closure of factories and businesses, which has inevitably led to a detrimental effect on the Chinese economy. Economists postulate the GDP growth rate to fall by one percent - from 6% to 5%, although the chance of it falling even further is still possible. Passenger seat occupation on commercial airlines has also fallen by 55% in comparison to the busy Chinese New Year last year.
As a precaution, many countries - such as Singapore- are implementing a leave of absence (LOA) for those travelling from China into other countries. This means that individuals have to take a 14-day leave of absence from their job or school, in order to leave time for potential symptoms to show. In addition to that many countries have closed their borders to Chinese passport holders, such as the US, which barred anybody who had been to China in the past two weeks from entering. An area of controversy for some was Hong Kong’s decision to close their borders and barred mainland Chinese people from entering. This could have been a result of hospital workers in Hong Kong going on strike, calling for the border with mainland China to be completely closed. In Malaysia, more than 400,000 people have signed a petition to stop Chinese nationals from entering the country.
Unfortunately, cases of xenophobia have come up as a result of the outbreak. For example, in Denmark, a cartoon was published in a newspaper, displaying virus symbols instead of stars on the Chinese flag. This prompted great controversy and led to a public apology from the newspaper. In addition, the term ‘Yellow Peril’ - a racist colour-metaphor, meaning that the people of East Asia are an existential danger to the Western world - has resurfaced in a French newspaper. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of Singapore has ordered an investigation on an Islamic teacher named Mr Abdul Halim after he had posted on Facebook that the coronavirus outbreak was "retribution by Allah against the Chinese for their oppressive treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang."
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