China expands lockdown over virus
China expanded its lockdown against a deadly new virus to an unprecedented 36 million people and rushed to build a prefabricated, 1,000-bed hospital for victims Friday, as a Chicago woman became the second American diagnosed.
The number of confirmed cases around the world climbed sharply to more than 1,280, with at least 41 deaths, all of them in China. The outbreak cast a pall over Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest, most festive holiday.
France on Friday confirmed three cases – the first in Europe – both in people who had traveled to China. Australia confirmed one case.
In China, transportation was shut down in Wuhan, the city of 11 million at the center of the outbreak, and in at least 12 other cities in central China’s Hubei province, encompassing a population bigger than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined.
And authorities in Beijing and other cities canceled many public celebrations and other events marking Lunar New Year, which falls on Saturday.
Hospitals in Wuhan grappled with a flood of patients. Videos circulating online showed throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations, and some complaining that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.
Authorities in Wuhan and elsewhere put out calls for medicine, disinfection equipment, masks, goggles, gowns and other protective gear.
Wuhan authorities said they are rapidly constructing a new hospital to deal with the crisis, to be completed Feb. 3. It will be modeled on a SARS hospital that was built in Beijing in just six days during the SARS outbreak.
The seriousness of the crisis was still an open question.
It was not clear just how lethal the virus is, or even whether it is as dangerous as ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone.
Scientists say it is also not clear if it spreads as easily as SARS, its genetic cousin, which also originated in China and killed about 800 people in 200203.
The American patient, a woman in her 60s, returned from China on Jan. 13 without showing any signs of illness, but three or four days later she called her doctor to report feeling sick.
The patient is doing well and remains hospitalized “primarily for infection control,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner.
Earlier this week, a man in Washington state became the first U.S. patient, also diagnosed after returning from a trip to central China.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expecting more Americans to be diagnosed with the newly discovered virus in coming days. The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia.
Still, “CDC believes that the immediate risk to the American public continues to be low at this time, but the situation continues to evolve rapidly,” said CDC’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier.
The incubation period is thought to be two weeks. But it’s also a heavy flu season, and some of the symptoms are similar, Messonnier said.