Rain Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) This is on KSL. For some reason I can't grab the link on my phone. I'll try to do it when I get home. Most of the info I have is from the Missionary Mommas Facebook group. Edited: Found the link on Deseret News This will affect 113 missionaries. If they are close to the end of their mission they will return early. Others will be transferred to a different mission, but with a 2 week quarantine first. If they have no symptoms they will go home for the 2 weeks (in home quarantine). If they have symptoms it will be somewhere else. Edited: the article says they can not leave Hong Kong till they no longer have symptoms and some countries may require the quarantine to be at a "government facility." Edited February 5, 2020 by Rain 1
Duncan Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) I know someone's daughter who just got there maybe less than a month ago now? I take she'll be shipped elsewhere Edited February 5, 2020 by Duncan
bluebell Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 Poor missionaries, especially for the ones who just learned that their mission is suddenly over.
pogi Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Rain said: This is on KSL. For some reason I can't grab the link on my phone. I'll try to do it when I get home. Most of the info I have is from the Missionary Mommas Facebook group. Edited: Found the link on Deseret News This will affect 113 missionaries. If they are close to the end of their mission they will return early. Others will be transferred to a different mission, but with a 2 week quarantine first. If they have no symptoms they will go home for the 2 weeks (in home quarantine). If they have symptoms it will be somewhere else. Edited: the article says they can not leave Hong Kong till they no longer have symptoms and some countries may require the quarantine to be at a "government facility." I understand that the church is using every precaution, but this seems a little extreme to me at the present rate of transmission in Hong Kong. This was updated yesterday from my source (Travax - which pulls info from the CDC, WHO, and Department of State) Quote According to international health authorities, 17 laboratory-confirmed cases (14 imported cases, 3 locally acquired, and 1 death) of 2019-nCoV infection were reported from January 2 through February 4, 2020. With 7.392 million people living in Hong Kong, the current estimated risk is beyond negligible. I would be more afraid of the flu and the widespread violent protests over there. There are no travel restrictions and only a level 2 travel advisory from the Department of State - level 2 means "use increased caution" when traveling. Level 3 is "avoid unnecessary travel"; level 4 is "don't travel". It is true that things can change quickly, but this seems a little premature at a level 2 advisory. This is probably the result of crazy paranoid moms who don't understand the information driving the church crazy demanding that they pull their son/daughter. Edited February 5, 2020 by pogi 1
Rain Posted February 5, 2020 Author Posted February 5, 2020 55 minutes ago, pogi said: I understand that the church is using every precaution, but this seems a little extreme to me at the present rate of transmission in Hong Kong. This was updated yesterday from my source (Travax - which pulls info from the CDC, WHO, and Department of State) With 7.392 million people living in Hong Kong, the current estimated risk is beyond negligible. I would be more afraid of the flu and the widespread violent protests over there. There are no travel restrictions and only a level 2 travel advisory from the Department of State - level 2 means "use increased caution" when traveling. Level 3 is "avoid unnecessary travel"; level 4 is "don't travel". It is true that things can change quickly, but this seems a little premature at a level 2 advisory. This is probably the result of crazy paranoid moms who don't understand the information driving the church crazy demanding that they pull their son/daughter. While still not much compared to 7 million people, the article I have since linked above puts the death number at 490. The Deseret News got that number from the New Your Times. I wonder why the difference in the 2.
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 36 minutes ago, Rain said: While still not much compared to 7 million people, the article I have since linked above puts the death number at 490. The Deseret News got that number from the New Your Times. I wonder why the difference in the 2. 490 is the total number of deaths worldwide (almost all from Mainland China). Hong Kong is a different story - only 1 death and 17 confirmed cases total. To put things in perspective, there are between 16,000 - 61,000 deaths annually from the flu reported since 2010. Im not saying that the outbreak isn’t concerning, it is, it just isn’t real concerning in Hong Kong right now. Edited February 6, 2020 by pogi 2
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) This is my report for Thailand: “According to international health authorities, 25 laboratory-confirmed cases (20 imported and 5 locally acquired) of 2019-nCoV infection have been reported from January 22 through February 4, 2020.” There is greater risk in Thailand than Hong Kong. Similar transmission rates throughout SE Asia. Should we pull all missionaries from there too? There is no good rationale for this. I almost guarantee that scared moms pressured the church into this. Edited February 6, 2020 by pogi
Calm Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 The report from my brother in Singapore is that businesses are suspending travel because of concerns for sudden quarantines and employees getting stuck somewhere rather than for fear of the outbreak. My niece's school trip to NZ has been canceled as well as the Church's Asian Women's Conference my sister-in-law has been helping to plan for months. They are stuck at home and highly annoyed. 1
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Calm said: The report from my brother in Singapore is that businesses are suspending travel because of concerns for sudden quarantines and employees getting stuck somewhere rather than for fear of the outbreak. My niece's school trip to NZ has been canceled as well as the Church's Asian Women's Conference my sister-in-law has been helping to plan for months. They are stuck at home and highly annoyed. I can understand suspending travel to mainland China for those reasons but not to Hong Kong or anywhere else in Asia. No one is being quarantined unless they come from mainland China or have been around someone who has been from there and they are showing symptoms. Its a lot of irrational fears. Edited February 6, 2020 by pogi
Duncan Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 The daughter I referred to earlier is back near her home and said it's just a temporary thing-for her though it's nuts she was a 2 week visa waiter in California, then Hong Kong now almost home and then hopefully soon back to HK, what a ride 1
Meadowchik Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 11 hours ago, pogi said: I understand that the church is using every precaution, but this seems a little extreme to me at the present rate of transmission in Hong Kong. This was updated yesterday from my source (Travax - which pulls info from the CDC, WHO, and Department of State) With 7.392 million people living in Hong Kong, the current estimated risk is beyond negligible. I would be more afraid of the flu and the widespread violent protests over there. There are no travel restrictions and only a level 2 travel advisory from the Department of State - level 2 means "use increased caution" when traveling. Level 3 is "avoid unnecessary travel"; level 4 is "don't travel". It is true that things can change quickly, but this seems a little premature at a level 2 advisory. This is probably the result of crazy paranoid moms who don't understand the information driving the church crazy demanding that they pull their son/daughter. For some reason the precautions being taken in China are extremely circumspect. School openings have been delayed, travel has been restricted. Movement is being highly restricted. While cities and their inhabitants are being instructed to only leave home once every two days for food, for example. Source: expat news, and Chinese clients of my employer's online platform are sharing firsthand information and local news stories. I think that the general reason for this could be fairly straightforward: a new virus especially one like this traced to wild animal slaughter is an unknown quantity. Not an epidemiologist, but if I understand correctly, a newer virus might mutate the most in its earlier stages.
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Meadowchik said: For some reason the precautions being taken in China are extremely circumspect. School openings have been delayed, travel has been restricted. Movement is being highly restricted. While cities and their inhabitants are being instructed to only leave home once every two days for food, for example. Source: expat news, and Chinese clients of my employer's online platform are sharing firsthand information and local news stories.. Mainland China is a totally different story. I think people are confusing Hong Kong with mainland. Even on mainland it is mostly all in one province. China is a HUGE place. There are no travel restrictions to or from Hong Kong currently. The only restrictions are for travel from Hong Kong to mainland. There are no home quarantine advisories in Hong Kong either. In fact, thousands of people are all out on the streets every day protesting unrelated issues. Edited February 6, 2020 by pogi 1
Meadowchik Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 24 minutes ago, pogi said: 24 minutes ago, pogi said: Mainland China is a totally different story. I think people are confusing Hong Kong with mainland. Even on mainland it is mostly all in one province. China is a HUGE place. There are no travel restrictions to or from Hong Kong currently. The only restrictions are for travel from Hong Kong to mainland. There are no home quarantine advisories in Hong Kong either. In fact, thousands of people are all out on the streets every day protesting unrelated issues. Well yes it's huge, and Hong Kong is not the same place, but many countries have travel bans from anywhere in China with Hong Kong included. Transport makes those large distances less important, hence the bans. ETA: looks like Hong Kong has imposed mandatory quarantine on travellers from mainland China. Edited February 6, 2020 by Meadowchik
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Meadowchik said: Well yes it's huge, and Hong Kong is not the same place, but many countries have travel bans from anywhere in China with Hong Kong included. Transport makes those large distances less important, hence the bans. ETA: looks like Hong Kong has imposed mandatory quarantine on travellers from mainland China. I don’t think they are travel bans to Hong Kong as much as they are airlines deciding to cut flights because of decreased interest due to irrational fears. That might be part of the reason the church is pulling missionaries out I suppose - they might be concerned that they couldn’t find flights out if the situation worsens, because some airlines are already cutting flights. Edited February 6, 2020 by pogi 1
Meadowchik Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 3 minutes ago, pogi said: I don’t think they are travel bans to Hong Kong as much as they are airlines deciding to cut flights because of decreased interest due to irrational fears. That might be part of the reason the church is pulling missionaries out I suppose - they might be concerned that they couldn’t find flights out if the situation worsens, because some airlines are already cutting flights. I was talking about countries banning entry to travellers from China and Hong Kong. But anyways, yes, the way the church responds will be different from national responses. It has different responsibilities.
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 1 minute ago, Meadowchik said: I was talking about countries banning entry to travellers from China and Hong Kong. But anyways, yes, the way the church responds will be different from national responses. It has different responsibilities. I am not aware of any travel restrictions to Hong Kong from other countries, but I admit that I mostly keep an eye on our own Department of State advisories. If there are bans for travel to Hong Kong, they are completely irrational. Might as well ban all travel to South East Asia, because the risk is equal if not greater in most of those countries. We are currently at advisory level 2 in the US, we still have a ways to go before a full on ravel ban.
Meadowchik Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 8 minutes ago, pogi said: I am not aware of any travel restrictions to Hong Kong from other countries, but I admit that I mostly keep an eye on our own Department of State advisories. If there are bans for travel to Hong Kong, they are completely irrational. Might as well ban all travel to South East Asia, because the risk is equal if not greater in most of those countries. We are currently at advisory level 2 in the US, we still have a ways to go before a full on ravel ban. You keep saying "to Hong Kong." I've been saying "from," which is what would apply more immediately to the current topic. Anyway: " Today the Trump administration said it will bar entry to the US of foreign nationals who’ve recently been to China. The temporary measure, which will throw many a travel plan into disarray, comes in response to a rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak that has sickened thousands of people around the world and killed hundreds in China, where it originated in the central city of Wuhan. The restriction will go into effect Sunday (Feb. 2) at 5pm, applying to any foreign national who has been in China in the last 14 days, said Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary, at a White House media briefing. An exception will be made for immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents, he said, but a mandatory 14-day quarantine awaits US citizens who’ve traveled to China’s Hubei Province within the last two weeks. Before this a federal quarantine order hadn’t been issued since the 1960s. Azar added that Americans returning from other parts of China will face screening at select ports of entry and be asked to perform a 14-day “self-isolation” period at home, with local health officials monitoring their condition."https://qz.com/1795104/wuhan-virus-prompts-us-to-bar-foreign-nationals-recently-in-china/
pogi Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 6 minutes ago, Meadowchik said: You keep saying "to Hong Kong." I've been saying "from," which is what would apply more immediately to the current topic. Anyway: " Today the Trump administration said it will bar entry to the US of foreign nationals who’ve recently been to China. The temporary measure, which will throw many a travel plan into disarray, comes in response to a rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak that has sickened thousands of people around the world and killed hundreds in China, where it originated in the central city of Wuhan. The restriction will go into effect Sunday (Feb. 2) at 5pm, applying to any foreign national who has been in China in the last 14 days, said Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary, at a White House media briefing. An exception will be made for immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents, he said, but a mandatory 14-day quarantine awaits US citizens who’ve traveled to China’s Hubei Province within the last two weeks. Before this a federal quarantine order hadn’t been issued since the 1960s. Azar added that Americans returning from other parts of China will face screening at select ports of entry and be asked to perform a 14-day “self-isolation” period at home, with local health officials monitoring their condition."https://qz.com/1795104/wuhan-virus-prompts-us-to-bar-foreign-nationals-recently-in-china/ This only includes foreign nationals and does not include those coming from Hong Kong. When a report says "China" think "mainland". Hong Kong is almost a totally separate entity with different currency, government, and legal systems - though still technically part of the same country. For example the link you have says that the US has warned US citizens not to travel to "China". Again, you have to distinguish China from Hong Kong, because the US is not warning US citizens not to travel to Hong Kong.
bluebell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 14 hours ago, Calm said: The report from my brother in Singapore is that businesses are suspending travel because of concerns for sudden quarantines and employees getting stuck somewhere rather than for fear of the outbreak. My niece's school trip to NZ has been canceled as well as the Church's Asian Women's Conference my sister-in-law has been helping to plan for months. They are stuck at home and highly annoyed. That's too bad, that would be very disappointing. I wouldn't be surprised if the church is going this because of similar fears about people being stuck in China and unable to return, rather than fears over the virus itself. 1
Bill “Papa” Lee Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 I think one difficult aspect of something like this happening, comes for missionaries who don’t have long left, who end up going home early. For these missionaries, who have come to love those they served, they have little to no time to say goodbye. In the case of the Hong Kong Mission, missionaries serving a single city, even more heart wrenching, when they may have had no time to say goodbye to good friends they made, be they members, converts, or other missionaries. I am of the mind that is is difficult not to serve anyone, or any place, that it is impossible not to live both. 😢
JamesBYoung Posted February 9, 2020 Posted February 9, 2020 We must trust the leadership to make the prudent choices necessary for the safety and welfare of the missionaries
Stargazer Posted February 9, 2020 Posted February 9, 2020 I think the concern outside of China is that the habitually secretive Chinese government might be minimizing the extent of the epidemic and that it might be closer to a pandemic. Hence, governments outside of China are taking very conservative precautions. One of my great grandfathers and my young great uncle died in the post-WW1 world flu pandemic. From the Wikipedia article: "The 1918 influenza pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920; colloquially known as Spanish flu) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus, with the second being the swine flu in 2009. It infected 500 million people around the world, or about 27% of the then world population of about 1.8 billion, including people on remote Pacific islands and in the Arctic. The death toll is estimated to have been 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million (about 3 to 6 percent of Earth's population at the time), making it one of the deadliest epidemics in human history." If this coronavirus outbreak is as virulent as it seems to be, we might be looking at a serious problem. Or, it might peter out into a fizzle at some point. But don't panic.
JAHS Posted February 21, 2020 Posted February 21, 2020 They are now closing down temples due to the coronavirus. SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is temporarily closing two temples, quarantining missionaries in three countries and limiting or even canceling weekly worship services in some areas of the world in an effort to protect against the spreading coronavirus. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to closely monitor the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on people around the world, including the ability of our missionaries to effectively find and teach and of our members to gather for worship,” the church said in a statement. “We pray for all those affected by this illness and plead for the Lord’s blessings during this difficult time.” Coronavirus prompts church to close temples, quarantine missionaries in several countries
bsjkki Posted February 22, 2020 Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) I stocked up on things we will use no matter what. I’ve got my year supply of food storage but I was lacking on my 3 month supply of everything else. Not panicking but feeling the need to be prepared. Edited February 22, 2020 by bsjkki 1
Stargazer Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 Don't panic, but this virus appears to be hitting everywhere. Some authorities are saying that efforts to contain it may be fruitless. Northern Italy apparently has something like 12 towns that they are quarantining because of this problem. Things seem to be getting serious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbnMY3xytDw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJlRomNysqg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m_YZJDneW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP9mHpAiQX0
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