BEIJING, Feb 6, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – China’s coronavirus crisis deepened on
Thursday with the death toll soaring to 563, as thousands of people trapped
on quarantined cruise ships added to global panic about the epidemic.
More than 28,000 people have now been infected across China as authorities
struggle to contain the outbreak despite compelling millions to stay indoors
in a growing number of cities.
Two dozen countries have confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, which
emerged from a market selling exotic animals in the central Chinese city of
Wuhan late last year.
Thousands of people on cruise ships in Hong Kong and Japan now face an
agonising wait to find out if more among them have been infected.
At least 20 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive so
far, while some 3,700 passengers and crew from over 50 countries have been
confined to quarters aboard the cruise ship off Yokohama since Monday night.
Japan Prime MInister Shinzo Abe said later Thursday that another huge
cruise ship, the Westerdam, was heading to the country with one confirmed
infected passenger aboard.
He said no foreigners from the vessel, capable of carrying nearly 3,000
passengers and crew, would be allowed to disembark.
In Hong Kong, 3,600 people were preparing to spend a second night confined
aboard the World Dream as authorities conducted health checks after eight
former passengers tested positive for the virus.
On Thursday, health officials in the financial hub said they were also
asking some 5,000 Hong Kongers who had taken trips on the ship since mid-
January to contact them.
Hong Kong has been particularly nervous as the disease has revived
memories of another coronavirus, the one that causes Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 300 people in the city and another 349
in the Chinese mainland in 2002-2003.
Panic buying in the semi-autonomous city left shelves of toilet paper
empty at supermarkets following false online claims of shortages, prompting
authorities to appeal for calm.
One person has died after contracting the virus in Hong Kong so far. While
the death toll continues to rise in China, health experts have stressed that
at two percent, 2019-nCoV is far less deadly than the SARS pathogen, which
killed around 10 percent of the people it infected 17 years ago.
But the outbreak has been declared a global health emergency, prompting
several governments to warn against travel to China and ban new arrivals from
the country, while airlines have halted flights.
In the latest international actions, Saudi Arabia banned its citizens and
resident foreigners from travelling to China, while Air France-KLM decided to
extend its flight suspension by another month until March 15.
– Temporary hospitals –
China has enacted unprecedented measures in a desperate bid to contain the
virus, which spread far and wide as millions of people criss-crossed the
country during the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.
But deaths and new infections continue to rise, especially at the
epicentre of the epidemic in Hubei province, where 18 cities housing 56
million people have been under virtual lockdown since late last month.
A newborn was among the new cases in Wuhan, suggesting the baby was
infected by the mother during pregnancy or immediately after.
With medical facilities in Hubei’s capital Wuhan overwhelmed with
patients, authorities were due to open a second field hospital, offering
1,600 beds. The first hospital, with 1,000 beds, opened earlier this week,
and authorities said they were converting public buildings into temporary
medical facilities to deal with the influx of sick people.
The city of 11 million is facing a “severe” lack of beds, said Hu Lishan,
a senior official in Wuhan, noting that there were 8,182 patients admitted to
28 hospitals that have a total of 8,254 beds.
There is also a shortage of equipment and materials, Hu said.
The central government has announced measures intended to ensure the
supply of vital medical resources, with tax breaks for manufacturers of
equipment needed to fight the epidemic.
“We must make all-out efforts across the country to meet the need for
essential medical supplies and medical professionals in Hubei Province,”
Premier Li Keqiang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
BGI Group, a genome sequencing company based in southern China, said it
opened on Wednesday a lab in Wuhan able to test up to 10,000 people per day
for the virus.
– Cities hunker down –
More cities are ordering people to stay indoors.
They include residents of Hangzhou, a city just 175 kilometres (110 miles)
from Shanghai, where fences block streets and loudspeakers tell people:
“Don’t go out!”
In some cities, even in the far north of the country, inhabitants are
being offered cash rewards to inform on people who come from Hubei.
In Beijing — where streets remain eerily quiet and businesses are
shuttered — restaurants have been barred from accepting reservations for
parties.
And in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province which borders Hubei,
pharmacists must send reports to the authorities on anyone buying fever or
cough medicine.
The city has also limited the number of outings per family.
The outbreak has also hit major businesses.
Workers making iPhones at tech giant Foxconn’s plant in Henan province,
which borders Hubei, will be quarantined for up to two weeks, the company
said.