Hiding illness may lead to death penalty in China

BEIJING: Chinese authorities scrambling to contain the fast-spreading novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) are ready to implement harsh measures, including the death penalty, to control the outbreak that has killed 492 people and infected more than 24,000 globally.

Coronavirus-infected people who conceal their infection and spread the disease “intentionally” in public places could be sentenced to death, officials have told Chinese state media.

IN CHINA, 490 PEOPLE HAVE DIED DUE TO THE INFECTION; MOST OF THEM IN AND AROUND WUHAN

In China, 490 people have died due to the infection; most of them in and around the locked-down central city of Wuhan, where the new virus emerged late last year. As many as 24,324 confirmed cases have been reported on the mainland.

China had similarly threatened execution and long jail sentences during the 2002-03 SARS epidemic for anyone avoiding quarantine and spreading the disease. It had invited criticism from human rights watchdogs.

SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

For the current outbreak, China’s ministry of public security (MPS) – responsible for internal security and a powerful government organ

of the ruling Communist party — and local governments at all levels “…vowed to crack down on coronavirus-related crimes to ensure social stability, in which violators could face the death penalty”.

Spreading rumours about the outbreak has been linked to “subversion of state power” and will attract swift and harsh punishment.

Infected people with a history of travelling to areas worst-hit by the outbreak but hiding those facts would also be severely punished.

If spared from the death penalty, a 15-year jail term lies in store for them.

The Changchun police of northeast China’s Jilin province, for example, is investigating a man for allegedly “endangering public security” as he concealed his travel history to a critical epidemic area, and then causing at least five more infections.

The High People’s Court of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province has said it would severely punish 36 crimes related to the prevention and control of the epidemic in accordance with the law.

“People who spread the virus intentionally and endanger public security could be regarded as violating the Criminal Law, which states that actions that ‘endanger public security; can be subject to the death penalty if the situation is severe,” the statecontrolled tabloid, Global Times reported.

The MPS will come down heavily on those spreading rumours, the tabloid said. “Those who use the virus to fabricate or spread rumors, to promote secession from China or undermine national unity, or incite subversion of state power or the overthrow of the socialist system can face a maximum 15-year jail term,” the report added.

China has directed “…public security organs at all levels to probe illegal and criminal activities that cause trouble and sabotage social order, and resolutely safeguard national political security”.

Manufacturing and selling counterfeit and substandard medicines and medical devices, harming medical personnel, disrupting medical services, blocking or interrupting traffic, and using the epidemic to inflate prices will be severely punished.

The tabloid reported that on January 23, Beijing authorities imposed a maximum 3 million yuan ($429,000) of fine on a local pharmacy that raised the price of N95 masks from 200 to 850 yuan per box.

In a related development, a research institute in virus-hit Wuhan has applied for a patent on the use of a drug made in the US after it was found to be effective in treating infected patients, raising questions whether the lab’s move violated the intellectual property rights.

Amid a global health scare, there is a race to develop a viable medicine to treat novel coronavirus patients.

US doctors treating a coronavirus patient earlier this month reported his successful recovery after treating him with experimental antiviral drug Remdesivir. This prompted China to announce immediate field trials to test the drug.

China’s National Health Commission said the drug trials were being carried out at multiple hospitals in Wuhan.

Some 270 patients will take part in the study, Hong Kongbased South China Morning Post quoted China’s thepaper.cn as reporting on February 3.

Although the drug has not gone through all the procedures of clinical trials on the coronavirus abroad, it has shown fairly good vitro activity in related domestic research, Sun Yanrong, an official of the ministry of science and technology, told a media briefing.

Besides Remdesivir, researchers have also selected from screening several existing drugs, including Chloroquine phosphate and Favipiravir, as well as some traditional Chinese medicines that contain active antiviral ingredients as drug candidates, for further animal experiments and clinical trials, Chinese health officials said.

Also, the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Tuesday that its researchers discovered that two medicines — Remdesivir and chloroquine —could effectively inhibit the recently emerged coronavirus.