I don't think this has been reported in the local media yet. Apparently some SARS like respiratory illness is going around.
Some sources report that the disease has been known since November 2019, with restrictions on flights coming in and out of Wuhan being screened for quite some time now.
Anyone thinking of cancelling their CNY trips?
It's a country run by an evil dystopian government, it's not really a case of 'safe', but a case of being willing to take the risks.
They are doing pretty good job at keeping 1.4 billion people in line.
Agreed. Depending on your political and/or religious circumstances, it may never be “safe” for some people.
Felt safer walking in down town Guangzhou than I do in Perth CBD at night.
As long as you don't criticise the gov.
If you don’t do anything wrong you don’t have anything to worry about. /s
Does the LNP run China as well?
Generally very safe for foreigners.
Just dont go blabbing away on any grievances you have about their government. If you have common sense, you'll be fine.
The number of cases keeps rising daily which doesn't lead to great confidence. I don't think I can afford to be sick. Apparently there are some people that never went near the seafood market that got sick. That suggests some other source of infection or human-to-human possibility. Now if only they could do analysis on the bacteria/virus protein so we know what the structure looks like. How long does it really take when you have computational computing?
I've also started looking at whether the products I regularly buy in intervals are safe. Including some well known chinese medicine, such as Tong Ren Tang. It literally states produced in Wuhan on the box. ;-(
A friend also mentioned it might not be safe to use toilet paper since it is usually brought in as a large roll and converted in Australia. In that process it isn't really cleaned or treated in any special way. I would have thought the bacteria and virus cannot survive that long on paper, but after 7 days it is still apparently able to be cultivated even if it has lost 99.9% of it. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22082498 There is also some other data about hand to paper to hand which suggests only a 0.009% chance of that happening. Safe enough I reckon. lol. Worst case I buy more and store it passively so it becomes safer over time.
Most of the well known brands including ones made in Australia are probably using imported pulp… We don't really have much of a choice here I believe, we are using it even if we don't know it. https://industryedge.com.au/tissue-sector-set-to-rationalise… The fact that the numbers keep rising suggest we aren't producing enough locally.
Anyway… I'm going to think about it a bit more over the next few days but I'm leaning more towards cancelling my trip.
Update: Glad I didn't cheap out. Apparently people are now going to be stuck in Wuhan for a long period.
I'm not even sure how travel insurance would deal with it. Did anyone experience being trapped overseas with SARS? Ultimately what would happen to the hospital bills if long hospital stays were required? It would probably send someone broke right?
Have a feeling the amount of cases is about to explode. It's a bloody drastic step in closing down the whole city.
Wise decision to not travel there. Well done.
Cases is already exploding. Many first cases are appearing in cities all across China. Most if not all were people returning home from Wuhan. The only worry is that their travel may have spread it throughout the train networks and rapidly multiply in the coming days and weeks.
Chinese travel companies were giving free cancellations on most activities. The epidemic is worse than the media reports and If i weren't already in China, I definitely wouldnt go.
Well no one can go now.
You were really on top of this all the way back.
Some sources report that the disease has been known since November 2019, with restrictions on flights coming in and out of Wuhan being screened for quite some time now.
did you find out if this was true?
because the official line is still that the first known human infection was in december
We were there in May, no problems. We got some chest bug on a plane which put a damper on things but got some local antibiotics to get us through the trip. Keep your immune system strong and take the right supps with you.