ZCZC
BFF-13
CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS
China virus crisis deepens as whistleblower doctor dies
BEIJING, Feb 7, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A Chinese doctor who was punished after
raising the alarm about China’s new coronavirus died from the pathogen on
Friday, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger over a worsening crisis
that has now killed more than 630 people.
At least 31,000 people have now been infected by a virus that
ophthalmologist Li Wenliang and colleagues had first brought to light in late
December.
The disease has since spread across China, prompting the government to lock
down cities of tens of millions of people, while global panic has risen as
more than 240 cases have emerged in two dozen countries.
A quarantined cruise ship in Japan now has 61 confirmed cases.
Li, 34, died early Friday, Wuhan Central Hospital said in a post on China’s
Twitter-like Weibo platform, an announcement that triggered grief on social
media — over a doctor who was hailed a hero — and anger over the
government’s handling of the crisis.
“He is a hero who warned others with his life,” a fellow Wuhan doctor wrote
on Weibo after reports of his death emerged.
“Those fat officials who live on public money, may you die from a
snowstorm,” wrote one angry Weibo user.
His death also highlights the enormous risks that frontline doctors have
taken to treat patients in overwhelmed and under-equipped hospitals in Wuhan,
the quarantined city of 11 million people where the virus emerged in
December.
Medical staff are overstretched and lack sufficient protective gear, the
deputy governor of Hubei province admitted Thursday.
Li sent out a message about the new coronavirus to colleagues on December
30 in Wuhan — the central city at the epicentre of the crisis — but was
later among eight whistleblowers summoned by police for “rumour-mongering.”
He later contracted the disease while treating a patient.
Censors even appeared to struggle with out how to deal with his death.
State-run newspaper Global Times and state broadcaster CCTV first reported
on Weibo that Li had died late Thursday, only to delete their posts after the
death rapidly surged to be among the top topics on the popular platform.
Even the World Health Organization reacted to the first reports of his
death to express sadness.
Analysts have said that local authorities played down the extent of the
outbreak in early January because they were holding political meetings at the
time and wanted to project an aura of stability.
The first fatality was reported on January 11. The death toll has since
soared to 636, with 73 more reported on Friday and an additional 3,000 new
infections.
– Global spread –
The virus is believed have emerged from a market selling exotic animals in
Wuhan before jumping to humans and spreading across China and abroad as
millions travelled for the Lunar New Year holiday.
MORE/MSY/1032
ZCZC
BFF-14
CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS-2-LAST
Some 56 million people in Wuhan and surrounding cities have been ordered to
stay home, while several countries have banned arrivals from China and
advised their citizens to leave.
Major airlines have suspended flights to and from the country.
But cases keep emerging.
Two cruise ships carrying thousands of holidaymakers in Hong Kong and Japan
have been placed under quarantine as authorities test people for infections.
On Friday another 41 people tested positive aboard the Diamond Princess in
Japan, bringing the total of infected cases on the ship to 61,
There were 3,700 people aboard the ship when it arrived in Japanese waters.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday another cruise ship, the Westerdam,
was heading to the country with one confirmed case, and no foreigners would
be allowed to disembark.
In Hong Kong, 3,600 people spent a second night confined aboard the World
Dream, where eight former passengers have tested positive for the virus.
Hong Kong has been particularly nervous because the crisis has revived
memories of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). That killed nearly 300
people in the city and another 349 on the Chinese mainland in 2002-2003.
While the death toll continues to rise, experts have stressed that at two
percent mortality, 2019-nCoV is far less deadly than SARS, which killed
around 10 percent of the people it infected 17 years ago.
The outbreak has nevertheless been declared a global health emergency.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1032 hrs