Half of the passengers on 2 flights from China had COVID

[Mike J]

This was a flight from China to Italy.  I would not be surprised the Philippines will implement some type of additional restrictions for visitors from China.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/half-of-the-passengers-on-2-flights-from-china-had-covid/ar-AA15KIW5?cvid=4d0d7a2326b242008a4533dd60f5958f

Nearly half of the passengers on two separate flights this week from China to Milan tested positive for COVID, and now health officials in Italy have announced that they will test all travelers coming from the eastern Asia country.

The two flights of sick passengers arrived at Malpensa Airport from China on Monday, Bloomberg reported.

On the first flight, 35 out of 92 passengers tested positive for the virus, while on the second flight, 62 passengers out of 120 were infected, according to Lombardy region’s health chief Guido Bertolaso.

The passengers who tested positive have been isolated, and officials have ramped up their contact tracing efforts.

Italy’s Health Minister Orazio Schillaci on Wednesday announced that tests would be required “for all passengers from China and in transit through Italy.”

Officials say the measure will be critical to prevent the spread of new variants of the virus.

Nearly half of the passengers who arrived in Italy from China on Monday tested positive for COVID. AFP via Getty Images

“The measure is essential to ensure the surveillance and identification of any variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population,” Schillaci said, adding that further details to the plan will be provided later.

Schillaci’s announcement follows the reversal of China’s strict “zero-COVID” policies earlier this month. The sudden change has spurred China’s largest outbreak of COVID infections since the start of the pandemic and left hospitals swamped, turning away ambulances and unable to care for some critical patients.

Some 37 million people may have contracted COVID-19 in China on Dec. 20 alone, and as many as 248 million people — nearly 18% of China’s population — came down with the virus in the first 20 days of December.

US officials are considering taking additional measures for travelers coming from China, given the lack of virus-related data from the Chinese government.

US officials are reportedly considering implementing travel restrictions for people coming into the country from China. AP
“There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing COVID-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from the PRC,” officials, who requested anonymity, said in a written statement Tuesday.

“Without this data, it is becoming increasingly difficult for public health officials to ensure that they will be able to identify any potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread,” the officials said, as first reported by Bloomberg.

“The U.S. is following the science and advice of public health experts, consulting with partners, and considering taking similar steps we can take to protect the American people.”

The officials pointed to recent measures implemented by other countries, like Japan, India and Malaysia, for travelers coming in from China.

[BrettGC]

There's a shock...

[Jollygoodfellow]

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

There's a shock...

I dont know why western countries dont offer China real vaccine as obviously the China made is useless. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

The U.S. is following the science and advice of public health experts

This too is a shock.

[Mike J]

13 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

I dont know why western countries dont offer China real vaccine as obviously the China made is useless. 

I think it was offered and China refused?  

[Kingpin]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

COVID

*China virus

[BrettGC]

The biggest concerns by experts in the field is the number of new variants that have been allowed to evolve in the isolated petri dish that is China.  For the most part, no one outside of China has any vaccines or built up immunity to them, and we could be back to square one again.  

[Freebie]

2 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

I dont know why western countries dont offer China real vaccine as obviously the China made is useless. 

Because they dont want it. Never have. How embarassing for China to have to use something thats not made by China.  They have started importing some vaccines from Germany but you can be sure they will never ever beg for a US vaccine. Lived there for 7 plus years and you can be sure the Chinese mentality is very strange. govt loves to big up China and its advanvces all the time and put down western and Japanese  society equally regularly.

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 minute ago, Freebie said:

you can be sure they will never ever beg for a US vaccine

But would they not reverse engineer it and steal it?

[Old55]

3 hours ago, Kingpin said:

*China virus

ccp virus.