As the Coronavirus which broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan spreads internationally, Saudi Arabia based Molecular Biologist Ahmed Manjang admonishes Gambia government to take steps in safeguarding the health of the nation and to protect the country from the deadly disease.
In a Facebook post, Ahmed Manjang queried:
”With the new Corona virus spreading like wildfire, I hope The Gambia government by now has mechanisms in place that will screen travelers coming From China. Safety of citizens should be taken seriously”
So far, three Chinese cities with a total population of 20 million have been put on lockdown and Beijing has also cancelled a number of major public events in an attempt to contain the spread of a deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Chinese authorities have also banned transport links from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, on Thursday, as well as the nearby central Chinese cities of Huanggang and Ezhou, suspending buses, subways, ferries and shutting the airport and train stations to outgoing passengers, reports the Guardian.
Meanwhile, there have been 633 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, from the same family of viruses that gave rise to Sars. Chinese officials are worried that the lunar new year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese will crisscross the country, will exacerbate an outbreak that has reached almost all of the country’s provinces, as well as the US, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Macau and Hong Kong.
It is feared that there may be cases in the U.K. as three weekly flights from Wuhan arrives in the U.K.
Gambia have a sizeable Chinese population and it remains to be seen what measures the Gambian health authorities have put in place to prevent the arrival of the deadly virus into the country.
What is Coronavirus?
According to Wikipedia, Coronaviruses cause diseases in mammals and birds that include diarrhea in cows and pigs, and upper respiratory disease in chickens. In humans, the virus causes rare but potentially lethal respiratory infections, although these are often mild.
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