Coronavirus: People return to China epicentre, security talks off
People wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 novel coronavirus walk to a train, one of the stops being Wuhan, at a station in Shanghai, China, on March 28, 2020. PHOTO | HECTOR RETAMAL | AFP
What you need to know:
- Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged last year, partly reopened on Saturday after more than two months of near total isolation for its population of 11 million.
- Thousands of migrant workers in India, left jobless and penniless by the full shutdown of the country, are walking long distances back to their home villages after all transport was stopped except for essential services.
- More than 50 per cent of South Korea's 9,478 confirmed coronavirus cases have now recovered, authorities said Saturday.
Hong Kong,
Here are the latest developments from Asia related to the novel coronavirus pandemic:
Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged last year, partly reopened on Saturday after more than two months of near total isolation for its population of 11 million.
People are now allowed to enter the city but not leave. AFP saw crowds of passengers arriving at Wuhan railway station on Saturday, most wheeling suitcases alongside them.
The metropolis in Hubei province was placed under lockdown in January with its outskirts ring-fenced by roadblocks and drastic restrictions on daily life.
A top Asian security conference that gathers defence ministers -- including from the US and China -- and senior military officials was cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Shangri-La Dialogue, held annually since 2002, had been scheduled for early June in Singapore with more than 40 countries set to participate.
MIGRANT WORKERS
Thousands of migrant workers in India, left jobless and penniless by the full shutdown of the country, are walking long distances back to their home villages after all transport was stopped except for essential services.
Huge numbers had crammed onto trains and buses before the country of 1.3 billion people ground to a halt for three weeks, but many others were left stranded.
"Rather than die hungry, we decided to walk," said Dilipji Thakor, who worked at a now-shuttered shopping mall in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, as he trudged along a road.
Brunei reported its first coronavirus death on Saturday -- a 64-year-old man who was the country's 25th confirmed Covid-19 case.
The man had travelled to Cambodia and Kuala Lumpur but did not take part in a huge Islamic gathering in the Malaysian capital last month that has been linked to infections across the region, authorities said.
It came as Malaysia, which has recorded more than 2,320 virus cases, received tens of thousands of virus test kits, masks and items of protective clothing from China, and 200 ventilators.
RECOVERIES
More than 50 per cent of South Korea's 9,478 confirmed coronavirus cases have now recovered, authorities said Saturday.
The figures are "a small achievement that our entire society can celebrate together", disaster agency official Yoon Tae-ho said.
Once the hardest-hit country outside China, South Korea appears to have brought its outbreak under control.
It has tested more than 380,000 people in a process that is free to anyone referred by doctors or those who have links to a confirmed case.
At least 15,000 people in northern India who may have caught the coronavirus from a super-spreader guru are under strict quarantine after the Sikh religious leader died of Covid-19.
The 70-year-old guru, Baldev Singh, had returned from a trip to Europe's virus epicentre Italy and Germany when he went preaching in more than a dozen villages in Punjab state.
It has sparked one of India's most serious alerts related to the pandemic and special food deliveries are being made to each household, under even tighter restrictions than the 21-day nationwide stay-at-home order imposed by the government.
AUSTRALIA ELECTION
People in the Australian state of Queensland were urged to vote in local elections or face a fine of Aus$133 ($80), as polls went ahead despite most citizens being encouraged to stay home to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Many of the three million eligible voters had cast their ballot early, or remotely by post or telephone. But long queues were reported outside some booths on Saturday due to limits on the number of people allowed inside at once.
An Australian police officer is being tested for Covid-19 after a 25-year-old woman arrested in Sydney for speeding allegedly spat and coughed in their face.
The woman claimed she was on her way to be tested for the virus, police said. Although the woman was not showing any symptoms, the officer is now undergoing testing.
It is the latest of several reported incidents of people maliciously coughing towards others as the outbreak spreads.
