Over the weekend (9 February 2020), The Guardian headlined

"Chinese in UK report 'shocking' levels of racism after coronavirus outbreak" 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/09/chinese-in-uk-report-shocking-levels-of-racism-after-coronavirus-outbreak

On Monday morning, the Department of Health and Social Care declared a 'serious and imminent threat' to public health.

Next, I read that Chinese and other Asian people in my home country the Netherlands were also experiencing abuse and that people there had already started a petition to stop this kind of abuse in the Netherlands. "Enough is enough", they said.

I am hoping to nip this in the bud in the UK before it gets out of hand. I happen to have a garden-variety cold at the moment. I've been sneezing a lot. How would people respond to that if I were Chinese, I wondered, in view of what I had read.

As it was the Department of Health and Social Care that declared a 'serious and imminent threat' to public health over this particular coronavirus on Monday 10 February 2020, it should also do THIS.

I want the authorities - that is, Matt Hancock who is the Secretary of Health and Social Care - to speak out very clearly and state that abusing people of Asian heritage or nationality or anyone else over the Covid-19 virus is NOT ON.

There is a sister petition, for people with a UK home address: 
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/coronavirus

When I created this campaign, the Dutch petition had already been signed 24,000 times

And in the Netherlands, Matt Hancock's counterpart has already made a statement and called for the discrimination to stop. This is not what one does in a civilised society, he said.

Is the UK, by contrast, okay with it? Surely not. Sign the petition. Thanks.

PS
If you have suggestions for how to improve this petition or want to help me manage it, please contact me.