Chile to quarantine travellers from Italy, Spain amid coronavirus dread

Amid coronavirus dread, Chilean health authorities on March 10 reportedly announced that travellers arriving from Italy and Spain would be quarantined in a bid to contain the spreading of the deadly virus. Italy and Spain are the worst-hit countries in Europe as both countries have reported most deaths from the novel coronavirus outside China. The virus has reportedly killed 631 people in Italy and Spain, on the other hand, has recorded almost 1,695 cases.  

The Health Ministry in a statement said, “People who enter Chilean territory having visited Spain and Italy, must remain in isolation for 14 days. People arriving from these countries will be classified as 'high-risk travellers' and placed under the surveillance of Chilean health authorities during their isolation period”. 

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As per reports, Chile has so far confirmed 17 coronavirus cases. The deadly virus has also affected 11 countries in the region. Chile's neighbouring country, Argentina, also reported its first death due to coronavirus. El Salvador, on the other hand, banned all arrivals from countries affected by the crisis, including Italy and Spain, as well as France, Germany, China, South Korea and Iran. 

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More than one lakh infected

First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across more than 90 countries since December 2019. As per reports, the total number of confirmed cases within China has reportedly hit 80,783 and more than one lakh worldwide. According to reports, the death toll in China has also surpassed 3,000 and the National Health Commission also confirmed more than 29 new cases. The death toll due to the deadly virus across the world also mounted to 4,299. 

According to the reports, amid mounting cases of the deadly COVID-19, China resorted to stepping up its quarantine measures on the foreign nationals as well. It also offered assistance to the countries abroad like Iran and Japan which are severely impacted by the contagion. Minister of China's National Health Commission (NHC) Ma Xiaowei told a news conference that despite some success in containing the strain of the new virus, there was a risk of the epidemic rebounding.

(With PTI inputs) 

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