BEIJING, Feb 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping donned a
face mask and had his temperature checked Monday while visiting medical
workers and patients affected by the deadly coronavirus that has killed more
than 900 people.
The Chinese president, who has called the virus a “demon”, made a rare
visit Monday to meet frontline medical staff at a hospital treating infected
patients.
Calling the situation at the virus epicentre “still very grave”, Xi urged
“more decisive measures” to contain the spread of the epidemic, said state
broadcaster CCTV.
Xi has largely kept out of the public eye since the virus outbreak
spiralled across the country from the epicentre in Hubei province to infect
more than 40,000 people.
He appointed Premier Li Keqiang to lead a working group tackling the
outbreak, and it was Li who visited ground zero in Wuhan last month.
On Monday Xi donned a blue mask and white surgical gown to meet doctors at
Beijing Ditan hospital, observe the treatment of patients and speak via video
link to doctors in Wuhan, state media said.
He then visited a residential community in central Beijing to “investigate
and guide” efforts to contain the epidemic, said CCTV.
Video footage showed Xi having his temperature taken with an infrared
thermometer, then speaking with community workers and waving at smiling
residents leaning out of their apartment windows.
The outbreak has prompted unprecedented action by the Chinese government,
including locking down entire cities in Hubei province as well as cutting
transport links nationwide, closing tourist attractions and telling hundreds
of millions of people to stay indoors.
The sweeping measures turned cities into ghost towns — but there were
some signs of normality returning on Monday.
– Strike a balance –
Roads in Beijing and Shanghai had significantly more traffic and the
southern city of Guangzhou said it would start to resume normal public
transport.
However, for those at work, it was not an easy balance to strike.
“Of course we’re worried,” said a 25-year-old man surnamed Li in a Beijing
beauty salon that reopened Monday.
“When customers come in, we first take their temperature, then use
disinfectant and ask them to wash their hands.”
The Shanghai government suggested staggered work schedules, avoiding group
meals and keeping at least one metre away from colleagues.
Many were encouraged to work from home and some employers simply delayed
opening for another week.
State media reported that passenger numbers on the Beijing subway were
down by about half on Monday compared to a normal work day.
Large shopping malls in the capital were deserted and many banks closed.
One bank employee in Shanghai was heading to work for a half-day, with
other workers due to take over in the afternoon.
The rest of the day he would work from home.
“It makes our work more difficult because we need to access the systems in
our office,” he told AFP.
Schools and universities across the country remained shut.
The toll has overtaken global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic when
China drew international condemnation for covering up cases — though it has
drawn praise from the WHO this time.
Chief of the UN health body, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said there had
been some “concerning instances” of cases overseas in people with no travel
history to China.
– Infections soar on cruise ship –
“We may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he tweeted, as a team of
WHO experts departed for China.
In Hong Kong, thousands of people stranded aboard the World Dream cruise
ship for five days were allowed to disembark Sunday after its 1,800 crew
tested negative for the coronavirus.
But another 65 people aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship
moored off Japan have been diagnosed with novel coronavirus, the health
ministry said Monday, bringing the total number of known infections to 135.
The Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since arriving off the
Japanese coast early last week after the virus was detected in a former
passenger who got off the ship last month in Hong Kong.
In China, the eastern city of Wuxi said anyone trying to enter from
provinces with high numbers of cases would be “persuaded to go back”, while
Suzhou, near the financial hub of Shanghai, suspended all passenger transport
to surrounding counties.
“I just checked and it would take 18 hours for me to go to work by
bicycle,” wrote one frustrated commuter on China’s Twitter-like social media
site Weibo.
Travel authorities said there had been 11 million journeys by train, road
or plane Saturday — 84 percent down on the same day last year.
About 800 vehicles from “hard-hit areas” have been denied entry into
Shanghai over the last month, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Beyond China, the tourism industry remains in the doldrums, with several
countries banning arrivals from the mainland and major airlines suspending
flights.
Online rental site Airbnb has suspended all bookings in Beijing until
February 29.