BANGKOK- Millions of poor farmers and workers will lose access to a cheap and easy way to buy and sell fresh food if Asian cities clamp down on traditional wet markets in the wake of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, analysts warned on Friday.
Wet markets, which are a series of stalls that sell fresh vegetables and fruits, live fish, chickens and other meats, are named after the melting of ice used to preserve goods and the washing of floors to clean blood and entrails.
They have come under closer scrutiny in recent weeks after the coronavirus outbreak was linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, China.
That market was shut down, and authorities said they would ban illegal wildlife trade and tighten supervision of wet markets, as a debate raged on social media on whether all wet markets should be closed.
"Wet markets are part of the local culture in Asia, as people believe that meat and produce sold there is fresher and cheaper than in modern retail outlets," said Pavida Pananond, an associate professor of international business at Thammasat University in Bangkok.
Across Asia, governments are keen to modernize their cities increasingly view street vendors and informal markets as a hindrance, and as usurpers of public spaces meant for formal businesses and wealthy residents.
From Bangkok to Manila, authorities are pushing vendors into designated zones and imposing restrictions on informal markets.
The 2002-03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which started in China and killed about 800 people, was believed to have emerged from wet markets.
Now the coronavirus, which has led to more than 600 deaths and 30,000 cases, may be used as another reason to tighten controls, although no Southeast Asian nation has declared a shutdown of wet markets.
These traditional markets are a lifeline for millions of small farmers, vendors and small businesses said Pavida, adding that shuttering them would have a significant economic and cultural impact on poorer consumers.
"It will be difficult to completely replace them as they serve consumers at the lower end of purchasing power, not to mention their cultural preference," she said.
SOCIAL SPACES
Singapore has long banned the trade of wild animals and slaughter of poultry in markets, and has now issued advisories for "high standards of hygiene and cleanliness", said a spokesman for the National Environment Agency (NEA), which manages 83 markets across the city-state.
The NEA aims to improve markets "so that they remain social spaces where residents of diverse backgrounds can meet and interact while purchasing affordable household groceries and fresh produce in a clean and hygienic environment," he said.
Wet markets have survived because of culinary traditions that call for freshly slaughtered meat and fish as opposed to frozen meats, said Seshan Ramaswami, an associate professor of marketing education at Singapore Management University.
"I don't think the tradition will collapse because of this outbreak. At best, it might lead to more stringent inspection at the source, or much tighter controls when live animals are being traded," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Any shutdown of wet markets would have a big socio-economic impact and must be done gradually as it may lead to increased food insecurity, said Masami Takeuchi, a food safety officer at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
"Wet markets have been a part of life for many, many centuries. In 2020, they are still an essential part of the culture," she said.
"Obviously there are many challenges in the area of food safety, but with good practices, effective regulation and good inspection schemes, modernization is possible," she said.
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TORONTO/BENGALURU, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Canada on Saturday declared the first "presumptive" confirmed case of the deadly coronavirus in a resident who had returned from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak of the viral disease.
Ontario health officials told a news conference the patient is a male in his 50s, who arrived in Toronto on Jan. 22 and was hospitalized the next day after developing symptoms of respiratory illness.
Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health, told reporters that the man is being treated in a public hospital and is in a stable condition.
Ontario health officials are investigating the details of the man's contact with others since arriving in Toronto. Early indications are that he took private transportation home after arriving at Toronto airport and then paramedics brought him to the hospital, they added.
The health officials said it is a relatively small family situation, though they declined to give a number, and there is very little by way of contact. They said his family members have been put into self isolation.
Officials said the results from the provincial laboratory confirming the positive case arrived earlier on Saturday. Once the results from the local laboratory are confirmed by Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, the case will be declared the country's first confirmed case of coronavirus.
Canada is on high alert to prevent the spread of coronavirus and avoid the repeat of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that killed 44 people in Canada, the only country outside Asia to report deaths from that virus in 2002-2003. Government health officials say Canada is better prepared this time.
The deadly coronavirus has infected more than 1,975 people and killed at least 56 in China. The virus has spread to several countries including the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia and France. (Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Denny Thomas in Toronto ; Editing by Diane Craft and Sandra Maler)
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BEIJING — A mysterious SARS-like virus has spread around China -- including to Beijing -- authorities said Monday, fueling fears of a major outbreak as millions begin travelling for the Lunar New Year in humanity's biggest migration.
The new coronavirus strain, first discovered in the central city of Wuhan, has caused alarm because of its connection to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
Wuhan has 11 million inhabitants and serves as a major transport hub, including during the annual Lunar New Year holiday which begins later this week and sees hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel across the country to visit family.
No human-to-human transmission has been confirmed so far, but authorities have previously said the possibility "cannot be excluded".
A third person was confirmed to have died, and in Wuhan 136 new cases were found over the weekend, the local health commission said.
Three cases have been reported overseas -- 2 in Thailand and 1 in Japan.
Health authorities in Beijing's Daxing district said 2 people who had traveled to Wuhan were treated for pneumonia linked to the virus and are in stable condition.
In Guangdong, a 66-year-old Shenzhen man was quarantined on January 11 after contracting a fever and showing other symptoms following a trip to visit relatives in Wuhan, the provincial health commission said in a statement. He is also in stable condition.
"Experts believe that the current epidemic situation is still preventable and controllable," the Guangdong health commission said.
A total of 201 people have now been diagnosed with the virus in China.
DETECTION MEASURES
A seafood market is believed to be the centre of the outbreak in the city, but health officials have reported that some patients had no history of contact with the facility.
Scientists with the MRC Center for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London warned in a paper published Friday that the number of cases in the city was likely to be closer to 1,700, much higher than the number officially identified.
Wuhan deputy mayor Chen Xiexin said on state broadcaster CCTV at the weekend that infrared thermometers had been installed at airports, railway stations and coach stations across the city.
Chen said passengers with fevers were being registered, given masks and taken to medical institutions. Nearly 300,000 body temperature tests had been carried out, according to CCTV.
Authorities in Hong Kong have stepped up detection measures, including rigorous temperature checkpoints for inbound travelers from the Chinese mainland.
The United States said from Friday it would begin screening direct flights arriving from Wuhan at San Francisco airport and New York's JFK, as well as Los Angeles, where many flights connect.
Thailand said it was already screening passengers arriving in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket, and would soon introduce similar controls in the beach resort of Krabi.
In Wuhan, 170 people are still being treated at hospital, including nine in critical condition, the city health commission said. The new patients are between 25 and 89 years old and their symptoms included fever, coughing and chest pain.
Guangdong's health authority said it was taking measures including intensifying its triage of fever at clinics and banning illegal wildlife sales.
Agence France-Presse
PARIS - After Thailand detected its second case of a mysterious SARS-linked virus this week following confirmed cases in China and Japan, here are a few key points about coronavirus.
What is coronavirus?
The UN's health agency says that the outbreak of the disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan is a never-before-seen strain belonging to a broad family of viruses ranging from the common cold to more serious illnesses such as SARS.
According to Arnaud Fontanet, head of Paris' Institut Paster department of epidemiology, the new strain is the seventh known type of coronavirus that humans can contract.
"We think that the source may have been animals sold at market and from there it passed to the human population," he told AFP.
There is so far no indication of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
The outbreak has caused alarm because of the link with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
Fontanet said the current virus strain was 80 percent genetically identical to SARS.
At least 40 cases have been reported in Wuhan this year, and the outbreak has already claimed two lives.
Time to panic?
Fontanet said that the coronavirus appears to be "weaker" than SARS in its current form, but cautioned that it could mutate into a more virulent strain.
"We don't have evidence that says this virus is going to mutate, but that's what happened with SARS," he said.
"The virus has only been circulating a short time, so it's too early to say."
As for person-to-person transmission -- a key hallmark of pandemics -- it may also be too early to tell.
Investigations carried out into the 700 or so people in Wuhan who came into contact with quarantined cases showed no one had passed on the virus, with the possible exception of one woman who claims she never went to the seafood market where the outbreak is thought to have started.
Authorities have pronounced the risk of human transmission "weak" but not impossible.
Fontanet said the fact that the virus had spread beyond China was "starting to make us fear that interhuman transmission is possible."
WHO has not recommended any specific measures for travelers or restrictions on trade with China but believes that new coronavirus cases in other countries are likely.
The best way of containing any disease outbreak is to rapidly confirm the source, according to Raina MacIntyre, from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
"Tests are being done on animals in the Wuhan region and they should provide some insight," she said.
Experts said authorities must be vigilant and monitor travelers coming to and from Wuhan for signs of breathing problems.
Lessons learned?
Fontanet said health workers in China had responded admirably by rapidly carrying out testing among patients and linking the cases to the market in question.
"We've learned some lessons from SARS. We're better armed and more reactive," he said.
Adam Kamradt-Scott, an expert in the spread and control of infectious diseases the University of Sydney, said China had "has been quick to share the genome sequencing of this novel coronavirus.
"This has enabled the identification of this new case in Japan," he said.
Fontanet said that such transparency was different to the start of the SARS epidemic, when China "hid the story for two or three months" at the start of the outbreak.
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BEIJING — A second person has died in China from a mystery virus that has stricken dozens and appeared in two other Asian countries, officials said.
Local authorities said a 69-year-old man died on Wednesday in Wuhan, the central Chinese city believed to be the epicenter of an outbreak of a coronavirus from the same family as the deadly SARS pathogen.
The outbreak has caused alarm because of the link with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
At least 41 people have been hit with pneumonia linked to the new virus in China.
The Wuhan health commission said in a statement late Thursday that 12 people have recovered and were discharged from hospital while five people were in serious condition.
The man who died had become sick on December 31 and his condition worsened five days later, with pulmonary tuberculosis and multiple organ functions damaged, the commission said.
Two other cases were detected in Thailand and Japan, with authorities in both countries saying the patients had visited Wuhan prior to their hospitalizations.
Authorities in Wuhan said a seafood market was the center of the outbreak. It was closed on January 1.
No human-to-human transmission of the virus behind the Wuhan outbreak has been confirmed so far, but the health commission has said the possibility "cannot be excluded".
Agence France-Presse
BANGKOK - Thai health officials are stepping up monitoring and inspection at its airports for the new mystery virus from China ahead of Lunar New Year, when Chinese visitors flock to the Southeast Asian country, a health official said on Wednesday.
The procedures comes days after a Chinese woman was quarantined in Thailand with the mystery strain of the coronavirus, in the first instance of its detection outside of China.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infections ranging from the common cold to SARS.
The World Health Organisation has said there may have been limited human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus in China within families.
Authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan confirmed on Wednesday that a married couple were among 41 people diagnosed with pneumonia believed to be caused by the new virus.
The prospect of human-to-human transmission of a new virus has put Thai authorities on alert.
The president of the Tourism Council of Thailand told Reuters on Wednesday that about 800,000 visitors from China were expected to visit the country over the Lunar New Year holiday later this month.
The Public Health Ministry has increased its monitoring at four airports that have daily flights from Wuhan - Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueng, Chiang Mai and Phuket - and any airports that receives charter flights from the city.
Preliminary lab tests cited by Chinese state media showed the 41 pneumonia cases in Wuhan, where one patient has died, could be from a new type of coronavirus. There have since been no new cases or deaths, Wuhan health authorities said on Tuesday.
"Usually there are 1,200 arrivals from Wuhan in Thailand, which can go up to 1,500 to 1,600 during Lunar New Year, so we will increase personnel," Thai Disease Control Department Director Sophon Iamsirithaworn told Reuters on Wednesday.
"Currently, officers are working 24 hours in three shifts of 5 to 6," he said adding that two infrared thermal scan machines were being used, with two in reserve.
Memories remain fresh in Asia of a 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China and killed nearly 800 people worldwide.
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LONDON -- A cluster of more than 50 pneumonia cases in the central Chinese city of Wuhan may be due to a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks, World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
While the United Nations health agency said it needed more comprehensive information to confirm precisely the type of pathogen causing the infections, it said a new coronavirus was a possibility.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infections ranging from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Some of the virus types cause less severe disease, while some - like the one that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) - are far more severe.
"The initial information about the cases of pneumonia in Wuhan...pointed to a coronavirus as a possible pathogen causing this cluster," the WHO said in a statement.
It added that since Chinese authorities have conducted laboratory tests and eliminated the SARS coronavirus and the MERS one as possible causes, as well as flu, bird flu, adenovirus and other common respiratory pathogens, "therefore, a novel coronavirus could not be ruled out".
The pneumonia outbreak started last month, and 59 cases had been reported by Chinese authorities by Sunday.
The WHO noted that coronaviruses emerge periodically - including in 2002 to cause SARS and in 2012 to cause MERS.
It said that according to Chinese authorities, the virus behind the Wuhan cases can cause severe illness in some patients and does not appear to pass easily from person to person.
"More comprehensive information is required to confirm the pathogen, as well as to better understand the epidemiology of the outbreak, the clinical picture, the investigations to determine the source, modes of transmission, extent of infection, and the countermeasures implemented," the WHO said.
In 2003, Chinese officials covered up a SARS outbreak for weeks before a growing death toll and rumours forced the government to reveal the epidemic. The disease spread rapidly to other cities and countries in 2003. More than 8,000 people were infected and 775 died.
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