Hunt for Wuhan travellers to curb spread of disease

BEIJING: Communities in China are offering cash rewards, knocking on doors and questioning people trying to enter their neighbourhoods, but they’re not looking for criminals.

They’re searching for anyone coming from Wuhan, the central city at the epicentre of a deadly virus epidemic that has sparked fear, even panic, in China and beyond.

The end of the extended Lunar New Year holiday this weekend has raised concerns that the new coronavirus could spread further as people travel across the country.

In Beijing, neighbourhoods have sealed themselves off, some with homemade barriers, to force visitors or anyone returning home from the holiday to register their travel history.

One district in northern Shijiazhuang city is even offering cash incentives of 2,000 yuan (RM1,184) for reporting anyone who has travelled to Wuhan in the past two weeks.

For some communities, anyone who has visited central Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, is no longer welcome.

“Even if you live here, you can’t enter,” said a security guard at the entrance of a Beijing neighbourhood when asked about returning Hubei residents.

China has scrambled to contain the epidemic by halting transport from Wuhan, suspending overseas tour groups, cutting long-distance bus routes, and suspending thousands of trains.

But the virus has continued to spread, killing more than 360 people and infecting more than 17,000 across the country.

Though some neighbourhoods have taken the extreme stance of blocking visitors or residents from Hubei, many will allow travellers back in, but monitor them stringently over a twoweek quarantine period.

Once back in their homes, “they cannot go in and out,” said Xu Aimin, secretary of a neighbourhood in Beijing.

If they need to buy food, the neighbourhood committee can do that for them, she added. – AFP