17 People Now Dead In China As New Coronavirus Strain Is Fast Spreading And Wuhan City Is In Shut Down
The number of deaths in
China as a result of the new
coronavirus is fast increasing by the hour and so has the number being infected. According to Chinese officials the number has now jumped to 17 deaths with hundreds more in critical conditions and the number of infected is rising exponentially.
The Chinese government is also imposing a “defacto city shutdown and
quarantine”.
Wuhan, the central Chinese city of 11 million people where the
coronavirus outbreak began last month, has suspended all planes, trains and ferries beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday to contain the escalating epidemic.
The leading newspaper, People’s Daily, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, reported that “no people in
Wuhan . . . will be allowed to leave the city.” It said that train stations, ferries, buses and the airport would all be shuttered. The de facto
quarantine came as the World Health Organization postponed a decision on whether to declare a public health emergency and as the new virus continued to spread across
China and countries halfway around the world. Chinese health authorities confirmed on Thursday morning that at least 17 people have now died of the respiratory infection, more than doubling the death toll in a day.
Tweeted Hu Xijin, editor in chief of
China’s Global Times, a state-run English-language publication, “Shutting down outbound transportation of a provincial capital city is unprecedented in China since 1949. Didn’t do so even during SARS epidemic in 2003,” when more than 8,000 people were infected and about 800 people died.”
It was unclear whether
China’s ramped-up response would actually halt the spread of the virus, and it drew mixed reactions from health experts.
Tom Inglesby, director of the
Center for Health Security at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health told
Thailand Medical News, “In past outbreaks, we haven’t seen evidence that large-scale quarantine diminishes spread of disease. It runs the risk of people losing confidence in government. And it places enormous responsibilities on government to make sure that people can continue to get food, basic necessities, medicines. The new restrictions could also make people more reluctant to report illness and might encourage them to escape the area of the quarantine, he said. I would focus on isolating the people who are sick.”
However, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the decision to shutter one of China’s major transportation hubs as “a very strong measure” that would reduce mass gatherings that often spread infection.
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He said in a news briefing in Geneva, “Taking the action they think is appropriate is very important.”
He added that as long as the response is “tailored to the problem and the commitment we see, we commend their actions.”
The agency’s team in
Wuhan would assess the impact on the ground, he said
Health and media officials are struggling to collate official data on the number infected as figures are sprouting non-stop all over the country while government authorities are controlling the release of data.
The media and journalists have also been banned from
Wuhan city and so has all cameras and video recording equipment.
People are reporting that actual quarantine areas are worse than prisons and are manned by the army.
Meanwhile health experts in the US and Europe are warning that the way the
virus is manifesting its virulence, that it is indeed mutating and might even be more potent than the
SARS virus in 2002.
One health expert from
WHO wishing to remain anonymous said that it is only a matter of weeks before a
pandemic is declared.
Elsewhere in
China, the outlook is grim with the army and police doing checks at airports, major highways, train stations etc looking for people who might be infected. Protective mask are all sold out all over the country and so are disinfectants and even over the counter NSAIDs.
Numerous shops and malls are all closed not for the Chinese New Year but rather out of fear for the
viral disease.
It is also expected that other cities in
China will shortly also be under shutdowns as the virus is seen fast spreading in other parts of
China as well.
(reporting By Thailand Medical News Staff : Liu Chu Ming in Beijing, Heng Choon Eng in Wuhan, Enrique Ruiz In Geneva)
