Coronavirus Update in Asia

It has been almost three months since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) broke out in China, till this point of time, the disease has already infected more than 100,000 people around the globe, with more than 3000 people dead according to authorities in different nations. This is an update to this new disease and its effect in Asian countries which we have covered earlier last month. 

China

There are at least 80,000 cases confirmed in mainland China, with almost 3,000 deaths. Schools and work have been closed, cities were being quarantined, public transport has been shut down. However, everything has gone back to normal in China with people going to work, public transport reopened, except for schools in the country. The Chinese education department has adopted the method of “online study”, which prevents students from going to schools by learning online, but make sure the students learn for the upcoming yearly College entrance exam– the most important exam in every Chinese student’s life. 

Huge amounts of cases have been confirmed in China shortly after the outbreak, with the majority of cases being in the province of Hubei, where the center of this epidemic, Wuhan, is located. 

The number of cases confirmed per day, according to Chinese officials, has dramatically decreased in the past few days. However, authorities have warned that the disease will not “go away” as many people have expected and that the spread is still happening, so people should expect that there is still another wave of confirmed cases in the future. 

Nearby countries

Since the novel coronavirus broke out in China, it has spread across the world. However, it is not considered by the WHO (yet) as a pandemic as of March 6th, 2020. South Korea, among other asian countries besides mainland China, remains to have the most confirmed cases, and deaths. Japan, after the incident of the Diamond princess, decided to shut down all their schools and public facilities. Unfortunately for Japan, the government does not have the right to quarantine its patients nor impose curfews under the post-WWII-constitution, which guaranteed Japanese citizens a significant amount of freedom and rights, however, it is entirely possible that this restriction could backfire. 

The Iranian government, according to one radio station, despite having officially flights cancelled from and to China, still operates its flight between China, Iran and Turkey, but this was denied consistently by an Iranian official. Many criticized the Iranian government’s quarantine method as “old fashioned”, and there is still a concern that the Iranian official counts were an underestimation. 

(Data as of Mar. 6th, 2020)