The novel coronavirus health threat has truly grown global with the World Health Organisation declaring a global health emergency over it. Singapore and Hong Kong have been quick to adopt some of the sternest measures to date, with Singapore issuing a blanket ban on visitors from China. This is no time to add undue, even unreasonable, pressures on China, especially if reflexive moves in response to public anxieties are not necessarily in the best interests of everyone involved. Any such ugly scenes are bad enough if directed at Chinese citizens and China. And as the axiom goes, if China now sneezes, the world stands a good chance of being caught in its feverish paroxysm.

Source: New Strait Times February 07, 2020 15:56 UTC