Germany sends more medical aid to China to fight virus

FILE: People queueing outside a Wuhan drug store to buy face masks and medical supplies (Photo By China News Service／中国新闻网, CC BY 3.0)

BERLIN — Germany is sending a second shipment of medical aid to China to help the Asian giant fight the coronavirus epidemic that has infected over 73,000 people.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday the government is sending 8.7 tons of aid supplies worth 150,000 euros ($162,000), including protection gear and disinfectants.

“Germany stands firmly on the side of China in the battle against coronavirus and works closely and trustfully with the Chinese officials,” Maas said. “We have the utmost respect for the efforts China has already undertaken.”

The virus, which emerged in central China in December, has killed 1,868 patients in mainland China and five others elsewhere. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19. C hina has instituted a strict lockdown on over 60 million people in central Hubei province to try to halt the progression of the virus.

Europe has had one death among its 47 confirmed virus cases, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist in Paris.

Serbian citizens who had been evacuated from China on a French plane and then spent two weeks in quarantine in France spoke of their ordeal Tuesday in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

“We would like to offer our support (to China), because of the torment the Chinese people are going through,” said Aleksandar Kalaba, who lives in Wuhan, the hard-hit capital of Hubei province. “I hope they will succeed in dealing with this misfortune.”

Dusan Djelic, who lives in Shanghai, had travelled to Wuhan on the eve of the lockdown.

“It was a bit scary. It is a ghost town,” he said.

Serbia’s foreign minister said 14 Serbian citizens, including 12 crew members, remain aboard the troubled Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has been struck under quarantine in Japan. The cruise ship carrying some 3,700 people has seen 542 passengers and crew get the virus so far.

Slovenia’s foreign ministry said two of its six citizens on the ship have tested negative for the virus, while the others are waiting for results.

Both reports in Serbia and Slovenia said airlines have refused to take Diamond Princess passengers, so authorities are looking for other ways to fly them back.

Italy said 14 of the 25 Italian crew members aboard the Diamond Princess will take an Italian military evacuation flight home. The other 11, including the captain of the ship, will stay. No date for the Italian air force flight has been decided yet.

Russian said one Russian from the cruise ship has come down with the virus and is being treated in Japan.

On Monday, a Russian court sent a woman who had broken out of a locked 14-day hospital quarantine in St. Petersburg back into quarantine. Russian health authorities are suing others who have defied quarantine requirements.