In January Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that masks were ‘not any real protection.’ Since then the message has changed. Video / Mark Mitchell
There are fears the coronavirus, the deadly disease sweeping the globe, has reached Africa with Sudan claiming two patients may have contracted the infection.
Both patients, who are citizens of Sudan, returned from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the heart of the deadly outbreak.
The man and woman are currentlybeing monitored by doctors, but leading scientists fear the virus could spread rapidly through Africa with many nations and locations not medically prepared for the killer disease.
The World Health Organisation's emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan says many of those affected experience only a mild illness and estimated that the death rate is at about 2 per cent. The death rate for SARS, a related virus, was about 10 per cent.
Ryan says the few instances of the new virus spreading between people in countries beyond China, including Germany, are of great concern.
Two people, one in Germany and one in Japan, have contracted the virus even though they had not travelled to China. They contracted the virus from visitors from the Wuhan region.
One of them is a Japanese tour bus driver in his 60s who had driven two groups of Chinese tourists from Wuhan earlier this month.
Residents wear masks to prevent an outbreak of a new coronavirus in Hong Kong. Photo / AP
Sudanese officials have already enforced strict screening of travellers arriving at airports and shipping ports to try to prevent the spread.
So far 133 people have died in China and more than 6000 people around the world have caught the highly infectious disease.
France, the US and Australia have confirmed cases of coronavirus.
New Zealand will join Australia in a plan to evacuate the nations' citizens from the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed there are now 82 New Zealanders registered as being in or near the Wuhan region.
Ardern on Wednesday afternoon confirmed New Zealand would be working with Australia on a "joint ANZAC assisted departure" from Wuhan.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced Australians trapped in the Chinese city of Wuhan will soon be evacuated. Morrison says it's in partnership with New Zealand. Photo / File
"Specific details of the evacuation plan, including the medical protocols that will be applied to returning New Zealanders, and access arrangements on the ground in China are being worked through by officials," she said.
Ardern has warned any plan to remove New Zealanders would be complex and difficult because of logistical issues, including tight travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese Government, pre-departure screening requirements and complying with any quarantine measures.
"You can't use military aircraft because the Chinese Government won't accept that. Other contingency plans are being put in place as we speak," Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said.
When asked whether it'll be Australian or New Zealand aircraft, he said it could be both. Peters says he can't give any details about how these people will be quarantined, but said "we've already worked on that".
Back home, a fourth person has been tested for coronavirus at Rotorua Hospital.
A person was assessed at Rotorua Hospital's emergency department on Monday evening, in addition to the three from a tour group tested on Sunday.
A major road going through the streets of Wuhan remains deserted as people stay at home and avoid transport due to the virus outbreak in the city. Photo / Getty
A Chinese student is also believed to be in isolation in Auckland City Hospital after undergoing tests for possible coronavirus.
A student accommodation provider, who asked not to be named, said the male student was coughing when he arrived at his accommodation on Tuesday from Hubei Province, the epicentre of China's coronavirus epidemic.
The accommodation provider sent him to the hospital, which is understood to have to have taken tissue swabs that have been sent to Australia for analysis.
"He is in isolation right now at Auckland Hospital."
Public health authorities said they would not comment on individual cases, but that there were no confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Zealand.
