China recorded its first case on Friday in a person who had recently entered the country and was in quarantine.
“To prevent monkeypox infection,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, made several recommendations. “Do not have direct contact with strangers,” he stressed on the Weibo social network.
Wu Zunyou, a figure in the fight against covid-19 in China, also called on the population to avoid this type of contact with people who have been abroad during the previous three weeks, as well as with “unknown people”.
He assured that China’s strict anticovid policy, with border controls and a mandatory quarantine on arrival, has so far prevented the spread of monkeypox in the territory, warning against the risk of letting certain cases “pass through the net”.
His post was widely shared on various Chinese social media over the weekend, but the comments section on the original post was disabled.
Among those who commented on the screenshots of his message, some protested against “discrimination” and others pointed out that many foreign workers residing in China have not been able to leave the country since the start of anti-coronavirus restrictions.
Wu Zunyou’s original post on Weibo was changed, presumably to counter the start of the controversy.
It now refers only to “foreigners who have recently arrived (within the last three weeks) from overseas monkeypox-affected areas, and who may be infected with the disease.”
The entrance China recommends avoiding contact with foreigners due to monkeypox was first published in diary TODAY.
