The Health Ministry of Israel just issued a special statement asking travelers returning from Thailand, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Macau to remain in isolation for 14 days. Previously, only travelers coming from China were subject to such a self-quarantine.
Until now, only travelers showing symptoms of the virus had to remain in self-quarantine. Now, travelers returning from Thailand, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Macau have joined the ones coming from China and need to remain isolated at home, even without showing ang symptoms at all! Three more countries that are expected to enter the black list soon are Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which already been issued a travel warning.
According to the Israeli Ministry Of Health, travelers coming to Israel from these five countries “Must not go out in public and must stay away from public places, including educational institutions, workplaces, public transportation, stores and places of entertainment, hospitals and clinics, for a period of 14 days”.
**” UPDATE: Starting Feb 20th, Israel is going to refuse entrance from non-Israeli visitors coming from Thailand, Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, the same way it is done with people coming from China.
What is Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses have existed for a very long time, the deadly SARS is a form of coronavirus. However, this current outbreak, named 2019-nCoV, is a new strain. Since this strain has only been recently discovered, not very much is known about it. Let’s take a look at what we’ve learned so far.
Coronavirus is an airborne pathogen that spreads similarly to the way the flu spreads. Person-to-person transmission happens when someone who is infected coughs into the air and other people inhale those respiratory droplets. As with most other respiratory viruses, patients with coronavirus are thought to be most contagious when they are the most symptomatic, but with this strain of coronavirus, people might be contagious before they start to show symptoms.
Reported symptoms in confirmed cases range from mild flu-like symptoms to severe illness and sometimes death. The most frequently documented symptoms are fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The incubation period – or time between exposure and first symptoms – ranges from 2 to 14 days.
So far, there are over 42,000 infected with the total number of deaths at more than 1,000. Most of the patients are either in Wuhan, somewhere else in China, or have recently traveled to the country. In total, 25 different countries, including the U.S., have reported cases. Outside of China though, the numbers remain very low and only 1 death has been reported (in Thailand).
Travelling between countries is becoming complicated
This new warning is a grave sign to what is expected for us all in the near future, when travelling between countries will become very complicated, especially for those coming from South-East Asia countries. As the cannabis industry is currently mainly focused in US, Canada and Europe, these difficulties will not be felt immediately, but big international cannabis events, will take a direct hit. In addition, the whole vaping industry, heavily relying on products coming from China, is having a hard time securing their supply chain, the same with bottles for tinctures, containers for topicals, etc.
Looking to learn more about the different ways the coronavirus is expected to disrupt the cannabis industry?
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