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Coronavirus spreads to Beijing as China confirms 139 new cases China: coronavirus cases surge, fuelling fears of major outbreak
(about 4 hours later)
Two new cases confirmed in Chinese capital and one in southern Guangdong province amid fears of virus spreading over lunar new year Authorities on alert ahead of lunar new year holiday as 139 new cases of strain detected
A mysterious Sars-like virus has spread around China – including to Beijing – authorities said on Monday, fuelling fears of a major outbreak as millions begin travelling for the lunar new year in humanity’s biggest migration. A mysterious Sars-like virus has spread around China – including to Beijing – fuelling anxiety of a major outbreak in the country as millions begin travelling for the lunar new year.
The new coronavirus strain, discovered in the central city of Wuhan, has caused alarm because of its connection to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-03. Authorities reported 139 new cases of the new strain of coronavirus over the weekend, more than doubling the total number of infected patients since the virus was first detected last month in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Wuhan has 11 million inhabitants and serves as a major transport hub, including during the annual lunar new year holiday which begins later this week and sees hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel across the country to visit family. Three people have died, and at least three cases have been reported overseas: two in Thailand and one in Japan. On Monday, media in South Korea said a woman who had travelled from China had also tested positive.
No human-to-human transmission has been confirmed so far but authorities have previously said the possibility “cannot be excluded”. Cases have been detected in Beijing, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, Chinese authorities said on Monday, heightening fears ahead of the lunar new year holiday, when more than 400 million Chinese citizens are expected to travel domestically and internationally.
A third person was confirmed to have died, and in Wuhan 136 new cases were found at the weekend, the local health commission said. The strain has caused alarm because of its connection to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-03.
Three cases have been reported overseas: two in Thailand and one in Japan. On Monday, media in South Korea said a woman who had travelled from China had tested positive for the virus. China’s National Health Commission said it had sent working groups to all provinces to oversee outbreak prevention, describing the situation as “controllable”. Hospitals in Shanghai and Beijing and in Zhejiang province have “comprehensively” strengthened examination procedures in hospitals. In Shenzhen, temperature checks have been put in place in airports, ports and railway stations.
Inside China, health authorities in Beijing’s Daxing district said two people who had travelled to Wuhan were treated for pneumonia linked to the virus and were in stable condition. More than 100 patients with symptoms were waiting to be seen at the Xiehe hospital in Wuhan since 6am on Monday, according to a hospital worker. “If you are coming now, you have to wait between three and four hours before you can see the doctors,” a hospital worker said by phone.
China’s eastern province of Zhejiang also reported that five patients were in quarantine for respiratory illness but the diagnosis was not confirmed yet. At a hospital in Chaoyang district in Beijing, patients were being given masks and forms to fill out, detailing any recent travel to Wuhan. A nurse said preventive measures were also being taken to protect doctors but declined to give more details.
The province found five people travelling Wuhan with respiratory symptoms since 17 January, Zhejiang province’s health commission said in a statement on its website, adding that the patients were in stable condition and their close contacts had been placed under medical observation. Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and people and the outbreak in Wuhan has been linked to a now-closed seafood market where live animals were reportedly sold.
In Guangdong, a 66-year-old Shenzhen man was quarantined on 11 January after contracting a fever and showing other symptoms after a trip to visit relatives in Wuhan, the provincial health commission said in a statement. He was also in stable condition. Authorities have said there is no clear evidence the virus has been spread through human to human contact. Researchers worry the number of infections has been severely underestimated.
“Experts believe that the current epidemic situation is still preventable and controllable,” the Guangdong health commission said. Xi Chen, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said the likelihood of human to human transmission was large given how many cases were confirmed. “It’s hard to see all these cases coming from animals at the same market,” Chen said.
A total of 201 people have been diagnosed with the virus in China. For weeks, the only reported cases were in Wuhan and areas outside mainland China, prompting many people to question whether other cities were simply not reporting or testing for the virus. Some internet users joked the virus appeared to be “patriotic” by only spreading beyond China’s borders.
A seafood market is believed to be the centre of the outbreak but health officials have reported that some patients had no history of contact with the facility. Chen said the high cost of testing for diagnosis may have contributed to underreporting.
Scientists with the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London warned in a paper published on Friday that the number of cases in the city was likely to be closer to 1,700, much higher than the number officially identified. Authorities have still not identified the source of the infection, which further complicates the government’s ability to contain the outbreak. The Huanan seafood market, where thousands of traders sold products, has been closed since 1 January. But some of the detected cases are patients with no history of visiting the market.
Wuhan’s deputy mayor, Chen Xiexin, said on the state broadcaster CCTV at the weekend that infrared thermometers had been installed at airports, railway stations and coach stations across the city. “What concerns me is the source of infection. We have no idea. That’s the most important thing. Without knowing that we don’t know the harm, how hard it can be,” Chen said.
Chen said passengers with fevers were being registered, given masks and taken to medical institutions. Nearly 300,000 body temperature tests had been carried out, according to CCTV. Others fear that authorities have not moved quickly enough to contain the spread of the virus or educate the public. In Wuhan, temperature checkpoints have been installed at the airport and at train stations and bus terminals since 14 January, about five weeks after the virus was first detected.
Authorities in Hong Kong have stepped up detection measures, including rigorous temperature checkpoints for inbound travellers from the Chinese mainland. Observers and residents worry about the possibility of a cover-up, worsening the outbreak, as was the case with Sars in 2003.
The United States said that from Friday it would begin screening direct flights arriving from Wuhan at San Francisco airport and New York’s JFK, as well as Los Angeles, where many flights connect. Some residents in Wuhan have been told not to speak to media. The official Weibo account of Wuhan police said on 1 January that eight internet users who spread false information online “causing adverse social impacts” had been dealt with “according to the law”.
But Chinese health officials have made improvements since the Sars episode. In response to a bird flu outbreak in 2013, authorities quickly worked with the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fresh food markets were shut down but the outbreak was exacerbated by poultry sales into smaller, less-regulated markets.
The situation is complicated by the fact that farmers are unlikely to be compensated by the government or to give up their sick animals.
“It’s not about a cover-up. Rather it’s about a lack of capacity and about a lack of enforced regulation,” said Nicholas Thomas, associate professor focusing on health security at City University of Hong Kong.
“At the moment, it is a bad flu. Yes, it is something to be concerned about and it is probably going to get worse in terms of infections and mortality, but again it’s winter,” he said. “It is likely to spread but we are still a long way off the levels of Sars or bird flu.”
The state-run Global Times said in an editorial on Sunday: “In the early days of Sars, there was a cover-up and delayed reporting. Such things can never be repeated again in China.”
Authorities have advised residents in the run-up to the lunar new year, which falls on 25 January, to be on the lookout for symptoms including fever, coughs, breathing difficulties and pneumonia.
The WHO has not recommended any travel restrictions and Chinese authorities have not yet issued any. Still, not all residents were comforted by government assurances.
“With this huge amount of spring festival travel, why are there not any prevention measures?” one wrote on Weibo. On the Douban forum, another observed that few people at the Wuhan train station were wearing masks. “The group appears calm, and there may be many reasons … including the failure of government to fully inform people,” the user said.
Traders at the suspected seafood market in Wuhan said they were not overly worried about the virus, seeing it as little more than the common cold during the winter. “We start early, at 2am or 3am. We put our hands in the cold water. If we catch a cold, we don’t pay it much attention,” said Li, 52, who has operated a stall in Huanan for most of the past decade.
Li said that starting from late December, the property developer that owned the market asked renters to wear masks to work and avoid going to crowded places. “I’m not worried,” said Li. “My grandchildren all live in Wuhan and we don’t believe it. It’s just rumours.”
However, Li said some tenants who might have shown symptoms of the virus were unlikely to have reported themselves, fearing the impact on their business and being quarantined. “Most people wouldn’t say if they had it,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lillian Yang