CORONAVÍRUS
Coronavírus:
Bruxelas admite vir a controlar as fronteiras se a epidemia piorar
“Espero que os
ministros da Saúde se concentrem na preparação, porque ainda estamos numa fase
activa deste surto, pelo que os Estados-membros têm de estar preparados”,
sublinhou o comissário europeu responsável pela Gestão de Crises.
Lusa 13 de
Fevereiro de 2020, 10:31
A Comissão
Europeia defendeu nesta quinta-feira a adopção de “medidas proporcionais” ao
risco de propagação do novo coronavírus na União Europeia (UE). E admitiu a
possibilidade de, se a situação piorar, poder ser considerado o controlo das
fronteiras.
Falando aos
jornalistas à entrada para reunião extraordinária de ministros da Saúde da UE
sobre o novo surto, o comissário europeu responsável pela Gestão de Crises,
Janez Lenarcic, referiu que o executivo comunitário vai incentivar a adopção de
“medidas proporcionais” na União.
Questionado se
tal poderá incluir controlos nas fronteiras da UE para evitar a propagação do
Covid-19, o responsável respondeu: “Isso é algo que tem de ser discutido.”
Ainda assim, vincou que “a UE tem de estar preparada, caso a situação fique
pior”.
Para Janez
Lenarcic, devem ser adoptadas, ao nível da União, medidas que “tenham em conta
o risco, que ainda é baixo, mas [que] existe e pode aumentar”.
“Espero que os
ministros da Saúde se concentrem na preparação, porque ainda estamos numa fase
activa deste surto, pelo que os Estados-membros têm de estar preparados”,
sublinhou.
Também falando à
entrada para a reunião, a comissária europeia para a Saúde, Stella Kyriakides,
vincou que este “é um momento importante para a UE na resposta à epidemia do
coronavírus”.
“Apoiei, desde o início, a presidência do
Conselho para promover este conselho extraordinário, porque o vírus não conhece
fronteiras e, nesse sentido, a UE e os Estados-membros têm de trabalhar juntos
de forma coordenada para enfrentar este desafio”, acrescentou a responsável.
Stella Kyriakides
observou que, “embora o número de casos confirmados ainda seja relativamente
baixo”, a UE deve “estar vigilante e coordenada”.
Dados do Centro
Europeu de Prevenção e Controlo das Doenças, consultados esta manhã pela Lusa,
indicam que existem, neste momento, 35 casos confirmados na UE: 16 na Alemanha,
11 em França, três em Itália, dois em Espanha e um na Bélgica, na Finlândia e
na Suécia. A estes acrescem, na Europa, oito casos no Reino Unido.
Bruxelas acolhe
esta quinta-feira uma reunião extraordinária de ministros da Saúde da União
Europeia, convocada de emergência pela presidência do Conselho, na qual os 27
discutirão o reforço da coordenação ao nível europeu para prevenir a propagação
do novo coronavírus.
De acordo com a
actual presidência semestral croata do Conselho da UE, neste encontro
extraordinário “os ministros terão a oportunidade de trocar pontos de vista,
confirmar uma compreensão comum da situação e discutir possíveis medidas
complementares para melhorar a coordenação ao nível dos sistemas de preparação
e de resposta com vista a proteger a saúde pública”.
A presidência do
Conselho acrescenta que esta será também “uma oportunidade para considerar uma
eventual resposta conjunta da UE a situações imprevistas em países terceiros
que possam afectar o mercado europeu de produtos medicinais e dispositivos
médicos”.
No final do
encontro está prevista a adopção de conclusões pelos 27 sobre o surto do novo
coronavírus, o Covid-19 — nome que lhe foi atribuído esta semana pela
Organização Mundial de Saúde —, que teve origem na China e que já infectou 60
mil pessoas, na sua esmagadora maioria no continente chinês, provocando a morte
a mais de 1300.
Coronavirus:
China purges regional leaders hours after spike in deaths and new cases
Political
fallout from outbreak continues, with three more leaders sacked, as change in
criteria leads to surge of cases
Lily Kuo in
Beijing, Martin Farrer and Sarah Boseley
Thu 13 Feb
2020 12.43 GMTFirst published on Thu 13 Feb 2020 05.50 GMT
The number
of deaths and infections caused by the coronavirus in China has risen sharply
after authorities changed the way they calculated the figures amid a purge of
party officials in the stricken province of Hubei.
On Thursday
China confirmed 254 additional deaths – the majority of them in Hubei, the
centre of the outbreak, bringing the total death toll to 1,370. After days of
declines in new infections, Hubei province reported an enormous increase of
almost 15,000 – a jump of about a third on the total so far.
Hubei’s
health commission said it was now including in its confirmed tally those people
diagnosed via CT scans as well as via testing kits. Previously, the authorities
had included only those cases confirmed by the diagnostic testing kits, which
are in short supply. The change has been applied only to Hubei province.
In other
developments on Thursday, Japan recorded its first death and Vietnam placed
10,000 people under quarantine after six cases were discovered in a cluster of
villages – the first such lockdown overseas.
The change
in China to include what are known as “probable cases” appeared aimed at
heading off complaints about the availability of tests and treatment for
residents, as well as questions about whether officials have been
underreporting cases.
The
shortage of the testing kits has meant that many sick residents have been
unable to seek treatment, with hospital admission contingent on the test
result. Health workers have been calling for authorities to broaden the
parameters for diagnosing in order to treat more patients. Some have also
questioned the reliability of the tests.
The
political fallout from the outbreak also escalated on Thursday with the firing
of party chief of Hubei province, the party chief of Wuhan and the head of
China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office. Ying Yong, the new party chief of
Hubei, came up through the ranks in Zhejiang, where the president, Xi Jinping,
previously served as party secretary and was also part of anti-corruption
campaigns, the president’s signature initiative.
“This is clearly Xi’s move,” said Dali Yang, a
professor of political science focusing on China at the University of Chicago.
“The stakes are high and he needed time to find the right people for the
positions to salvage the Hubei, Wuhan situation,” he said.
On
Wednesday, the state-run China Daily news site reported that a powerful Beijing
official parachuted into Wuhan to supervise the fight against the virus had
reprimanded local officials for failing to organise treatment quickly enough
for people reporting to hospitals with symptoms of the illness.
Thursday’s
jump in infections may have been another impetus for the purges. “I suspect Xi
would have wanted the personnel change to project a sense that he is in control
of the situation. The bad numbers undermine that message,” said Sam Crane who
teaches Chinese politics and ancient philosophy at Williams College.
In Shiyan,
a city in central Hubei, the authorities have instituted “war-time measures”,
where only those actively involved in fighting the virus are allowed to leave
their homes. From Thursday, all buildings will be sealed. Residential areas
will also be sealed and put under 24-hour watch. Public security will enforce
the measures.
Victor
Shih, a specialist in Chinese politics at the school of global policy and
strategy at University of California San Diego, said the switch in methodology
was “disturbing”. “The adjustment of the data today proved without doubt that
they have had two sets of numbers for confirmed infected all along,” he said.
Paul
Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the World
Health Organization seemed also to be at a loss. “It is notable that WHO has
not updated its dashboard with Chinese figures today, suggesting to me that
they have not yet decided how to deal with this,” he said.
The crisis
also deepened in Hong Kong, where the education minister announced that schools
would remain closed until at least the middle of March. They have been closed
since the start of the lunar new year at the end of January.
In Vietnam,
the authorities announced the lockdown of the commune of Son Loi, a farming
region about 25 miles from Hanoi, for 20 days. Checkpoints were set up around
the commune and health officials wearing protective suits sprayed disinfectant
on vehicles.
In Japan
authorities announced the first death of a person infected with virus, making
it the third outside mainland China after the Philippines and Hong Kong.
However, it was not clear if the woman in her 80s had died because of the virus
or other complications, the Japanese health minister said.
The biggest
cluster of cases outside China is on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan’s
coast, where 44 more people tested positive for the virus, raising the total
number of infections on the Diamond Princess to 218.
In
Cambodia, passengers on a cruise ship that spent two weeks at sea after being
turned away by five countries over fears that someone aboard might have the
coronavirus cheered and clapped as the vessel finally arrived at port.
The MS
Westerdam, carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew, docked in Sihanoukville in
the evening after anchoring offshore early in the morning to allow Cambodian
officials to board the vessel and collect samples from passengers with any
signs of ill health or flu-like symptoms. Disembarkation is due to take place
on Friday.
As UK
health officials prepared for more cases of the virus after the first confirmed
sufferer in London, US officials said a second case had been confirmed in San
Diego.
The person
was an evacuee from Wuhan and was among 232 people placed under quarantine at
the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar after being airlifted from Wuhan.
Reuters contributed to this report
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