China scrambles to find beds for virus patients
BEIJING—China scrambled to find bed space for thousands of newly infected patients on Thursday, as the toll from a deadly new virus jumped again.
More than 28,000 people are now known to be infected nationwide in an outbreak that has killed 563 and spiraled into a global health emergency.
Two dozen countries now have confirmed cases of the new coronavirus that emerged from a market selling exotic animals at the end of last year.
Two fatalities have been reported outside mainland China, in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
On Thursday, 10 more people were found to have contracted the disease on a cruise ship off the Japanese coast, where 3,700 people face a two-week quarantine.
The new infections brought to 20 the virus cases on the Carnival ship Diamond Princess, including a Filipino member of the crew. The first 10 cases were taken to hospitals in Yokohama on Wednesday.
In Hong Kong, a cruise ship with 3,600 passengers and crew was quarantined for a second day on Thursday pending testing after the discovery of three positive cases on board.
‘Severe’ lack of beds
At the Chinese epicenter of the epidemic, the locked-down city of Wuhan was due to open a second field hospital on Thursday, offering 1,600 beds.
The first hospital, with 1,000 beds, opened earlier this week, and authorities said they were converting public buildings into jury-rigged medical centers to deal with the influx of sick people.
The city of 11 million is facing a “severe” lack of beds, said Hu Lishan, a senior official in Wuhan, noting that there were 8,182 patients admitted to 28 hospitals that have a total of 8,254 beds.
There is also a shortage of equipment and materials, Hu told reporters.
The central government has announced measures intended to ensure the supply of vital medical resources, with tax breaks for manufacturers of equipment needed to fight the epidemic.
“We must make all-out efforts across the country to meet the need for essential medical supplies and medical professionals in Hubei province,” Premier Li Keqiang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Cities hunker down
Tens of millions of people in Hubei and surrounding provinces are now facing harsh restrictions on their movement as authorities try to slow the spread of the virus.
They include residents of Hangzhou, a city just 175 kilometers from Shanghai, where fences block streets and loudspeakers tell people: “Don’t go out!”
In some cities, even as far north of the country, inhabitants are being offered cash rewards to inform on people who come from Hubei.
In Hangzhou, fences blocked streets near the headquarters of Chinese tech giant Alibaba—one of the world’s most valuable companies—as a fighter jet circled overhead.
The building appeared to be shut down, while deliverymen moved in and out of nearby fenced-in residential areas to drop off groceries.
The company is based in one of three Hangzhou districts subject to new restrictions that allow only one person per household to go outside every two days to buy necessities.
In Beijing, where streets remain eerily quiet and businesses are shuttered, restaurants have been barred from accepting reservations for parties.
Far less deadly than SARS
While the death toll continues to rise, health experts have stressed that at 2 percent, the new coronavirus is far less deadly than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a pathogen in the same coronavirus family that killed around 10 percent of people it infected during an outbreak in 2002-2003.
But panic has risen worldwide with countries barring arrivals from China and governments warning against travel to the country, while airlines have halted flights.
Italy announced that passengers on every international flight would be scanned for fever.
The World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared a global health emergency, has called for $675 million to fight the novel coronavirus.
“Our message to the international community is invest today or pay more later,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that the funding appeal was “much less than the bill we will have to pay if we do not invest in preparedness now.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to commit up to $100 million.
Hundreds of experts will gather in Geneva on Feb. 11-12 to try and find a way to battle the outbreak by speeding research into drugs and vaccines, the WHO said. A multinational WHO-led team would also visit China, it said.
Most of those infected with the virus recover quickly with only mild symptoms but it can lead to severe respiratory illnesses. It is early to know how lethal it may be, as many mild cases are probably going undetected.
