Monkeypox: don’t touch foreigners, says China health chief, as first case reported

The first case of the monkeypox on mainland China was reported on Friday, and a senior Chinese health official advised people to avoid physical contact with foreigners.

The chief epidemiologist at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you don't have skin-to-skin contact with foreigners in order to prevent monkeypox.

People should avoid skin-to-skin contact with people who have been abroad within the past three weeks, as well asstrangers.

There is a possibility that this is the US's first Monkeypox death.

He wrote that it was important to strengthen the prevention of monkeypox epidemic.

The comments section under his initial post were disabled on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday in Beijing after his post was widely shared on social media.

Many people who commented on his post questioned why foreigners in China, many of whom are long-term residents and have not left recently due to Covid-19 barriers, were considered more dangerous than locals.

A request for comment was sent to his social media account on Monday.

The first known monkeypox infections in mainland China were recorded in a person who arrived from abroad.

The health commission said in a statement that the risk of transmission is low because the individual was put in a quachicle. Close contacts were isolated and put under observation.

The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency due to an outbreak of monkeypox in 90 countries. More than 60,000 cases have been confirmed and some countries have reported their first deaths.