The new coronavirus from Wuhan, China, was confirmed to have spread to Australia, Malaysia and Nepal on Saturday (Jan 25).
AUSTRALIA
Australia confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on Saturday in Melbourne, with many pharmacies in the city's centre running out of protective masks despite health officials saying they are not recommended.
A Chinese national in his 50s, who had been in the city of Wuhan where the virus first appeared, is in a stable condition in a Melbourne hospital after arriving from China on Jan. 19 on a flight from Guangzhou, Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told journalists.
"It is important to stress that there is no cause for alarm to the community," Mikakos said.
In neighbouring New South Wales state, health officials said they were treating two cases as "probable infections" although definite results of tests would only be known later on Saturday.
The death toll from the virus in China rose to 41 on Saturday, with more than 1,300 infected globally, but most of the cases have been in Wuhan, where officials have imposed severe restrictions on travel and public gatherings.
Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said that there might be more cases of coronavirus, giving significant travel from Wuhan city to Australia in the past.
"This is the first confirmed case," Murphy told a news conference. "There are other cases being tested each day, many of them are negative, but I wouldn't be surprised if we had further confirmed cases."
The news spread quickly in Melbourne and by midday Saturday many people rushed to pharmacies to buy masks for protection from the newly discovered coronavirus.
"I have been to nine pharmacies already, they're all out of them," said a 22-year-old Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology student, who is originally from Shanghai and only give her first name as June. "And I need them, we all need them."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday that Australia had a national stockpile of over 10 million protective masks in the event of an outbreak of coronavirus.
Four pharmacies approached by Reuters in the Melbourne centre on Saturday said they had sold out of masks. The masks have been in higher demand in recent weeks also due to bushfires that blanketed Melbourne and other cities in toxic haze.
The spike in demand comes even as some officials warn about the effectiveness of some masks.
"Face masks are not recommended for use by members of the public in Victoria for the prevention of infections like novel coronavirus," Victoria health department said in a statement.
A pharmacist in Melbourne centre who did not want to be identified said she sold all the "hundreds" of packages of masks she had on stock by midday Saturday.
She was charging A$29.99 ($20.50) for a packet of 10 of the "Cause I'm Happy" face masks, while the company selling them online charges A$10 for the same quantity.
"I took a gamble last week and bought out all the nearby pharmacies," she said.
Australians were urged on Saturday not to travel to the Hubei province in China, with the government issuing its most severe travel advisory.
Australia is a popular destination for Chinese. It saw about 1.4 million short-term arrivals from China last year – the largest source of foreign visitors to the country.
MALAYSIA
Malaysia on Saturday said it had confirmed three cases of Coronavirus infection, the first in the Southeast Asian country.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the three individuals infected were Chinese nationals and related to the 66-year-old man that was confirmed by Singapore health authorities to have tested positive for the virus.
The infected individuals were a 65-year-old woman, who is the wife of the man detected with the virus in Singapore, and their two grandsons, aged 11 and 2, Dzulkefly said.
The three have been admitted to Sungai Buloh hospital in Kuala Lumpur for treatment and were considered in stable conditions, the minister said at a news conference.
In a separate statement, Malaysia airports said it has heightened screening of all passengers and crew arriving from China at gateway airports across the country to minimize the potential spread of the virus.
NEPAL
A Nepali student home from China tested positive for the new coronavirus, an official in Kathmandu said on Friday, making it the first confirmed case in the Himalayan nation.
"One patient tested positive for coronavirus. He is a Nepali student studying in China," Mahendra Shrestha, a Health Ministry spokesperson, told Reuters.
The student had come home on holiday from Wuhan in China, a Ministry of Health statement said. He is being kept under surveillance and those in close contact with him were being investigated.
The airport in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, was closed on January 23.
The ministry said it was seeking health information from all passengers travelling from China into Nepal.
