Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has ordered to strictly control the border crossing points (BCPs) in a bid to keep coronavirus out. 

By president’s order Deputy Prime Minister, Azim Ibrohim, yesterday held a working meeting to discuss additional measures to keep coronavirus out.

According to Khovar news agency, the meeting participants included heads of all ministries, committees and agencies.  

Speaking at the meeting, Azim Ibrohim reportedly noted that from two to five medical specialists and epidemiologists now stay at 27 BCPs along borders with neighboring countries maintaining an around-the-clock presence.  

Besides, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and its subdivisions in the regions are taking additional measures to prevent the spread of the virus to Tajikistan, according to Khovar.  

The head of state reportedly ordered to take under strict control movement of citizens and goods via BCPs and take other measures to prevent the virus from spreading to the country.  

Meanwhile, as the outbreak of the mysterious new coronavirus rapidly spreads, the Chinese authorities said today that the official count of known cases jumped again overnight, with the death toll now exceeding 130.

Some media reports say the number of known cases of the new virus rose by nearly a third overnight.

According to Global News, the U.S. and Japan today began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by an outbreak of a new virus that has killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000 on the mainland and abroad.

The British government is warning against all but essential travel to mainland China amid the outbreak of the new type of coronavirus.  South Korea also said it will send a plane, and France, Mongolia and other governments also planned evacuations.

China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further. The lockdown has trapped more than 50 million people in the most far-reaching disease control measures ever imposed.

The new virus causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath and pneumonia. It is thought to have spread to people from wild animals sold at a Wuhan market.  China on Sunday temporarily banned trade in wild animals and urged people to stop eating meat from them.

On Tuesday, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss the latest information on the outbreak and reiterate their commitment to bringing it under control, WHO said in a news release.

The source of the virus and the full extent of its spread are still unknown.  However, WHO said most cases reported to date “have been milder, with around 20 per cent of those infected experiencing severe illness.”

The cases counted outside China include a German man who may have been infected by a co-worker visiting from Shanghai and a Japanese tour bus driver who had driven buses carrying tourists from Wuhan. Most of cases abroad have involved Chinese tourists travelling for the Lunar New Year holiday, people who visited Wuhan, or family members who had close contact with those already infected.