A Chinese health official says not to touch foreigners if you want to avoid getting monkeypox

Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - After the first known case of monkeypox on mainland China, a senior Chinese health official told people t...

Image: Reuters

Berita 24 English - After the first known case of monkeypox on mainland China, a senior Chinese health official told people to stay away from foreigners to avoid getting the virus.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on his official Weibo page on Saturday, "It is recommended that 1) you don't have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners. This is part of a healthy lifestyle."

Wu also told people to avoid this kind of contact with people who have been abroad in the last three weeks and with "strangers" in general. He urged people to be careful.

His post was shared a lot over the weekend on social media, but the comments section under his original post was turned off on Sunday and early Monday morning in Beijing.

Some people who commented on forwarded or screenshot versions of his post asked why foreigners in China, many of whom have lived there for a long time and haven't left recently because of COVID-19 barriers, were seen as more dangerous than Chinese people.

Monday, Reuters asked Wu to say something about this through his social media account, but he didn't answer right away.

On Friday, a person who had just moved to Chongqing from another country became infected with the monkeypox virus. This is the first case of monkeypox on mainland China since the virus recently spread around the world.

The person who got sick was a Chinese citizen who was 29 years old and had flown to Chongqing on September 14 from Spain, the Center for Disease Control said later.

The risk of spreading the disease was low because the person was put in quarantine as soon as they arrived in Chongqing, according to a statement from the municipal health commission. All close contacts were put in separate places and were watched by doctors.

About 90 countries where monkeypox is not common have reported outbreaks of the virus. The World Health Organization has called this a global health emergency. There have been more than 60,000 confirmed cases, and some countries that don't normally have the disease have seen their first deaths from it.