Getty Images A top Chinese health official has warned locals against touching foreigners, a day right after China recorded its first monkeypox infections.
In a submit on Weibo, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Illness Control and Avoidance (CDC) Wu Zunyou advised against “skin-to-skin contact with foreigners”.
The post drew controversy, with some labelling it as hurtful.
Comments around the original post have got since been handicapped from the platform.
“In order to prevent feasible monkeypox infection and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that 1) you do not have immediate skin-to-skin contact with foreign people, ” said Mr Wu on his Weibo page on Saturday.
In addition , Mr Wu also called for local people to avoid skin-to-skin contact with recent travellers who else had returned from abroad in the last three weeks, and with strangers.
He posted the comments a day after the southwestern city of Chongqing reported its very first case of monkeypox in an individual who showed up from abroad. It is not clear if the individual was a Chinese resident or a foreigner.
The post, that was widely shared upon social media during the weekend break, drew largely important comments on Weibo.
“This is very inappropriate [to say]. At the start of the outbreak, some foreigners stood up and [defended us] by saying that Chinese people are not viruses, inch wrote one commenter.
“How racist is this? What about the ones like me who have been living in China for almost ten years? We haven’t observed our families in like 3-4 yrs due to borders becoming closed, ” had written another user upon Weibo, who seemed to be a foreigner.
Cina has imposed some of the world’s toughest Covid measures since the start of the pandemic, which have integrated snap lockdowns, edge closures, mandatory examining and travel restrictions.
The monkeypox disease, which is transmitted through close contact with contaminated people, animals or contaminated materials, generally causes symptoms for example fever, headache plus rashes.
Around ninety countries where monkeypox is not considered native to the island have reported breakouts of the viral illness, which the World Wellness Organization has announced a global health emergency.
There have been more than 60, 000 confirmed cases and some non-endemic countries have reported their first related deaths.
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