Virus flare-up in China’s Hebei claims one life, outbreaks also in other regions
Just as a team of international scientists which will investigate the origins of the new coronavirus landed in Wuhan, where the deadly pathogen first emerged, China announced another death in Hebei province.
Hebei, near the capital Beijing, has become a virus hotspot since Jan 2. Infections soared to 643 as of Friday. More than 70 children, aged from six months to 14 years are infected.
On Saturday afternoon, the communist state media announced that Hebei’s lockdown is extended to Jan 19, after 39 more locals were diagnosed with the disease. 247 more are positive in the Hebei capital Shijiazhuang, and most are from “isolation medical observation sites’’, state media said. Two imported patients are in Hebei hospitals, state news agency Xinhua said Saturday.
While Hebei deals with a rapid resurgence, infections continue to pop up in various provinces across China. Heilongjiang, the northernmost province, is another virus hotspot and has declared an emergency. The province borders Russia and Harbin is the capital. Clusters emerged in rural regions of Wangkui county, Suihua city in Heilongjiang. Heilongjiang battled a resurgence in April as well, when 409 were infected. The virus also spread to Inner Mongolia.
State media said, “China is facing multiple sporadic and regional outbreaks.’’ A minister has admitted failings in epidemic controls and deficiencies in healthcare in villages from where infections have spread.
An infected woman in Hebei died on Wednesday, state media said the following day. She was the first person reported to have died in China since May.
Ten of 12 scientists from the WHO arrived in Wuhan on Thursday, after months of delays. They are in quarantine. Wuhan was once the new coronavirus epicentre.
Hebei’s capital, Shijiazhuang has moved 27,000 people, close contacts of patients, and secondary close contacts into 434 “centralised quarantine centres citywide,’’ the city’s deputy mayor, Meng Xianghong, said.
Shijiazhuang is also building 3,000, 18- square-metre, prefab rooms on a 33-hectare site described by state media as a wasteland, for quarantine in a village bordering the high risk district of Gaocheng, where the city’s first confirmed patient was diagnosed. The prefab rooms are called ‘Huangzhuang apartments’.
In the first 12 hours on Friday, Shijiazhuang diagnosed 48 more local infections and 10 non symptomatic carriers. In northern Jinzhong in Shanxi Province, one non symptomatic carrier has been diagnosed. In the south, Guangxi detected one infected local on Thursday and 270 close contacts have tested negative. Guangxi also reported five close contacts of confirmed patients from Hebei.
A city in northeastern Jilin Province locked down 42 residential communities after 49 local were found without symptoms. They were all close contacts, or secondary close contacts of earlier infections, the city government said Saturday, state media said.
As of 10:00a.m. Saturday, 73,362 of some 209,000 residents were tested and all are negative.
China faces severe challenges and tests in coronavirus prevention and control, and intensified efforts must be taken, said Ma Xiaowei, the minister in charge of the National Health Commission, the China Daily reported him as saying on Thursday.
Ma said the recent outbreaks have exposed problems in epidemic control, including lax efforts on epidemic control and prevention among people and officials, and lack of emergency response caused by inadequate preparations, the communist daily said. The outbreaks, in which a number of confirmed patients live in rural areas, also exposed insufficient epidemic prevention and control in rural areas due to reasons such as inferior healthcare resources, he said.