Wuhan, a city making lockdown sacrifice
SITTING by the window, in Wuhan, a megacity in central China, “Cheng Chuchu” bathed in the morning sun and opened a book she began reading just before falling ill a month ago.
She has a good appetite: “I had broccoli, sausage fried rice, beef stew, an orange and homemade soy milk for lunch,” she said.
Cheng was just discharged from hospital, but is still in quarantine in her apartment.
By Saturday, the novel coronavirus had killed 2,442 people and infected over 76,000 nationwide, according to the National Health Commission. Of them, 1,856 fatalities were reported in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, accounting for 76 percent of the total.
On January 23, two days before the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, China imposed traffic restrictions in Wuhan, home to over 10 million residents and capital of Hubei Province, to curb the spread of the deadly pathogen.
All urban public transport, including city buses, ferries and metro lines have hence been suspended and outbound channels at the airport and rail stations closed.
All of a sudden, the city seemed stalled, with streets empty, restaurants closed and celebration of the Lunar New Year nowhere to be found. But some places are busier than ever — the hospitals.
Having had a scratchy throat and cough days before, Cheng developed a fever on the lockdown day, and a CT scan showed she might have been infected with the coronavirus. Early the next day, she rushed to the hospital for a nucleic acid test. “The hospital was stuffed with patients,” she recalled. She waited for nearly 10 hours to know the result. It was positive.
The next day, or the Spring Festival, was her nine-year-old son’s birthday. “I was in no mood for celebrating, at all,” Cheng said. She couldn’t be near him for fear of passing on the disease. Cheng sang “happy birthday” to her son via a video chat, only to see a disappointed face.
Her condition deteriorated over the next few days, developing constant high fever, dyspnoea, muscular soreness and even falling into a coma.
She forced herself to gulp five liters of water every day and took her prescribed pills regularly. Yet she maintained a desperate thirst for survival. She kept dialing hotlines hoping to be hospitalized, but received little help — there were too many patients waiting for a bed. “I was physically frail and sad as there seemed no hope,” she said.
Also on the Spring Festival, Chang Kai’s 91-year-old father began to develop a fever and breathing difficulties. The family took him to several hospitals but was told that no bed was available.
Chang, a producer with the Hubei Film Studio, issued pleas for help to friends but all the efforts were in vain. The family fell into despair.
“In silent surrender, we took our old father back and looked after him by the bed as the last chance to show our filial piety. He passed away in just days, with hatred,” Chang wrote in an article titled “Chang Kai’s last words.”
The family was hit hard. Chang’s mother died of the same disease within a week and both the Changs were infected. “Chang was admitted to Wuchang Hospital in early February and soon fell into a coma,” said Li Yang, Chang’s colleague.
He died on February 14. So did his elder sister, on the same day.
“I have been filial as a son, conscientious as a father, devoted as a husband and sincere to others all my life. Farewell to the people I love and those who love me,” he wrote down these words in his final hours.
Chang’s wife is receiving treatment at Jinyintan Hospital and moved out of the intensive care unit on February 19. “I’ll try my best to live,” she told Li in a WeChat message.
The tragedy of the family is like a piece of a grim reality jigsaw puzzle that reflects Wuhan’s life-and-death battle against the novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19.
The shutdown of a big city like Wuhan due to a public health emergency is unprecedented in modern Chinese history. Even when factories in most parts of China have gradually resumed operation and people are returning to work, Wuhan is still at a standstill as authorities strive to contain the epidemic.
“Given the large population base, it can easily have a serious impact on the health system. In fact, what happened in Wuhan has already verified this. If the spread of the disease is not contained in time, it will lead to a global pandemic,” warned Tang Bei, an international public health researcher at Shanghai International Studies University.
Most people began to feel the pinch of the outbreak in late January, but weeks before, medics in Wuhan had already begun to feel its impact.
Qin Lixin, director of the radiology department at Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital, said the first COVID-19 case in the hospital was reported on January 3 but didn’t arouse enough caution since winter is a common flu season. “We got nervous when more and more patients flooded the hospital about a week later,” Qin said.
When Feng Xiang at Wuhan Psychological Hospital heard the virus can spread from person to person, his first thought was that “there are not enough beds.”
“I’m a doctor and I know the number of isolation beds in Wuhan is far from enough,” said Feng. “My colleagues at the fever clinics said it was quite scary to see the hospital stuffed with patients.”
Vaccination and reduction of social contact are the only two effective ways to hinder interpersonal transmission of a virus, according to Tang. “The first method is not yet in place. Considering the high infection rate and a large number of close contacts in Wuhan at that time, there’s no other better ways except cutting off traffic to reduce population outflow.”
The latest figures showed the overall mortality rate of COVID-19 patients on the Chinese mainland except Hubei is around 0.7 percent. In Wuhan, it is 4 percent.
Globally, there are fewer than 30 countries and regions affected by the epidemic, far lower than the over 200 countries and regions affected by the H1N1 flu in 2009. And over 90 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases are in China.
“The figure has shown that Wuhan’s closure has a remarkable effect on slowing the spread outside the city,” Tang said. “Wuhan’s move not only helps curb the epidemic in China, but has also won precious time for the international community to prevent its further spread.”
In fact, not only Wuhan, almost all cities in Hubei have taken similar measures to prohibit or restrict inter-city movements, such as Huanggang, Xiaogan and Jingzhou, where the epidemic is serious.
“The lockdown is a move not perfect but urgently necessary. Though some say the death rate of the coronavirus disease is not high enough to take such strict measures, an important factor should be taken into consideration that the public lacks immunity to the new virus,” explained Tang.
The losses are tremendous. Besides ordinary citizens, more than 1,700 doctors and nurses were infected by the disease, with at least ten deaths.
Li Wenliang, 34, an ophthalmologist with the Central Hospital of Wuhan, died on February 7 because of the disease. He was among the first to draw public attention to the novel virus and was infected while at work.
“People are upset because Li is an iconic figure in this epidemic,” said Feng with the Wuhan Psychological Hospital. “This is a hard-learned lesson.”
The dead also include government officials, academics, a bodybuilding champion, retired workers and drivers.
On February 11, Wuhan rolled out the strictest measures ever, demanding all residential communities be closed to minimize the flow of people. Each family can only have one person go out every three days, and supermarkets no longer serve individual customers.
“We hardly go out now. We can order food and other necessities online and the community will help deliver them,” said Feng. “We’re at a critical stage and I believe this is necessary.”
On January 20, President Xi Jinping ordered resolute efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, putting people’s safety and health as the top priority.
China has carried out national mobilization, across-the-board deployment and swift responses, adopted the most comprehensive and rigorous prevention and control measures and launched a people’s war against the epidemic.
(Xinhua)