ASSURANCES GIVEN
BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Chinese President Xi Jinping assured his United States counterpart yesterday that China was doing all it could to contain the coronavirus that has killed almost 640 people, including the doctor who sounded the alarm.
China was gradually achieving results and was confident it could defeat the epidemic with no longterm consequences for economic development, Xi told President Donald Trump in a telephone call, according to state television.
The call to the White House came as China’s central bank vowed to step up support for the economy to cushion the blow of the outbreak.
Xi had earlier declared a ‘‘people’s war’’ on the virus, saying China had responded with all its strength and ‘‘the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures’’.
The rallying cry came amid an outpouring of grief and anger on social media over the death of ophthalmologist Li Wenliang.
Li (34) was one of eight people reprimanded by police in Wuhan, the epicentre of the contagion, last month for spreading ‘‘illegal and false’’ information about the virus.
His social media messages warning of a new ‘‘Sarslike’’ coronavirus — a reference to the illness that originated in China and killed almost 800 people around the world in 200203 — triggered the wrath of police.
China was accused of trying to cover up Sars.
Li was forced to sign a letter saying he had ‘‘severely disrupted social order’’ and was threatened with charges.
Some media outlets described Li as a hero ‘‘willing to speak the truth’’ but there were signs that discussion of his death was being censored.
The death toll in mainland China last night was 636 with 73 more deaths and 3143 new confirmed infections, taking the total to 31,161 cases, the National Health Commission said.
The 3143 new infections were down from Thursday’s 3694 and 3887 on Wednesday, but experts warned it was too early to say if the data represented a trend.
The virus has spread around the world, with 320 cases in 27 countries and regions outside mainland China, according to a Reuters tally of official statements.
There were 41 new cases among about 3700 people quarantined in a cruise ship moored off Japan, for a total of 61.
The cruise ship, Diamond Princess, has been under twoweek quarantine since arriving at Yokohama after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was diagnosed with the virus.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said 21 of the new 41 cases were Japanese. Five were Australian, bringing the number of Australians to test positive on board to seven.
In Hong Kong, a cruise ship with 3600 passengers and crew was quarantined for a third day after three people who had been on board were found to be infected.
Taiwan, which has 16 cases, banned international cruise ships from docking.
Britain confirmed a third case in which the virus was contracted after the person visited an Asian country, other than China, that it did not identify.
Taiwan and China are embroiled in a new spat over the fate of Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan, after Taiwan said one of its citizens sent back on the first flight was infected with the disease.
Only one flight from China has so far evacuated 247 of the estimated 500 Taiwanese in Wuhan.
Beijing has permitted other countries to send, often, several flights to Wuhan to collect their nationals, but Taiwan and China have been unable to agree on further flights to take out the Taiwanese.
Taiwan said the presence of the sick passenger ‘‘created a tear in virus prevention’’ and China had ignored its requests about evacuee priorities.
China said Taiwan had been putting up obstacles and should stop its ‘‘political games’’.
Taiwan and China are already at loggerheads over the handling of the virus outbreak, especially over Taiwan’s exclusion from the World Health Organisation. — Reuters