More than 50 million people are spending China’s most important holiday under lockdown as the country expands its travel restrictions in an attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Chinese officials confirmed on Saturday, the lunar new year, that the death toll from the viral outbreak had reached 41 and more than 1,200 other people had been affected.
A doctor treating people infected with the virus was among those who died. Liang Wudong, 62, died on Saturday morning, state media said, and it was also reported by the Chinese Global Times website that another doctor who had been treating patients in Wuhan died of a heart attack later in the day.
What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals, or possibly seafood. New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are examples.
What other coronaviruses have there been?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.
What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died are known to have been already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
In the past week, the number of confirmed infections has more than tripled and cases have been found in 13 provinces, as well as the municipalities Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin. The virus has also been confirmed outside China, in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam. There have not been any confirmed cases in the UK at present, with the 14 people tested for the virus all proving negative. The actual number to have contracted the virus could be far higher as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected.
How worried are the experts?
There were fears that the coronavirus might spread more widely during the week-long lunar new year holidays, which start on 24 January, when millions of Chinese travel home to celebrate, but the festivities have largely been cancelled and Wuhan and other Chinese cities are in lockdown.
At what point should you go to the doctor if you have a cough, say?
Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that there is generally no need to visit a doctor for a cough unless it is persistent or you are having other symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty breathing or you feel very unwell.
Should we panic?
No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. It increases the likelihood that the World Health Organization will declare the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday evening. The key concerns are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital.
Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin
The virus is now confirmed to have reached Australia and Malaysia, while France confirmed on Friday that three people there had the virus.
Hong Kong, which has confirmed five cases of the illness, declared the outbreak an emergency on Saturday, and said it would keep primary and secondary schools closed for two more weeks after the holiday.
A growing number of airports around the world have introduced screening to identify those affected, although the effectiveness of such measures has been questioned. An article published in the Lancet, based on a family that had recently visited Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, suggested it was possible to have the disease while not experiencing any symptoms.
Across China, the lunar new year holiday has been overshadowed by travel blocks imposed on at least 17 cities, and the cancellation of major festive events. In an effort to stop the disease from spreading further, part of the Great Wall was closed, and Beijing’s temple fairs, a new year tradition, have been cancelled. Shanghai Disneyland also announced it would close indefinitely.
It is feared the lunar new year, when hundreds of millions of people go on holiday or to visit relatives, could fuel the spread of the virus across China and abroad.
So far, 29 provinces and cities in China have been affected, and further cases had been reported in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The US reported its second case.
In Wuhan, restrictions were tightened on Saturday, with officials banning most vehicles from the roads. Train stations, airports and railway stations had all been shut since the lockdown began on Thursday morning.
The city was facing shortages of beds, testing kits and other supplies, and 450 military medical staff arrived late on Friday to help treat patients, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The ministry of commerce was overseeing an operation to supply more than 2m masks and other products from elsewhere in the country, Xinhua said.
Footage on social media, apparently taken inside the city’s hospitals, appeared to show staff breaking down and long queues of residents waiting to be assessed. Patients told the Guardian that people had been turned away by hospitals, and that their relatives had been unable to get a test to find out if they had the virus.
It was announced on Saturday that a second hospital was to be built to treat coronavirus patients. Work has already begun to build a 1,000-bed hospital in 10 days.
Wuhan’s streets have been deserted for days, with residents mostly staying home. Many were following social media, where there was a constant stream of updates, videos and speculation, including misinformation.
“Looking out of the window every day, I can see one or two cars and pedestrians on the street. The streets are relatively deserted,” said Wuhan resident Mr Wang, who was speaking before the traffic ban was implemented. “Now, at night, it is like a dead city. I look at the neighbourhood and there are very few lights.”
Residents who left the city before transport blocks were introduced had faced hostility elsewhere in China, being blamed for potentially spreading the virus.
Wang said it was understandable many felt that way, but added that Wuhan residents were “the biggest victims of [the] bureaucracy”.
“Information was hidden from everyone. Most people believe that the official information is correct, so when the sudden outbreak is announced and the city is closed, they easily panic about the situation.”
Xi Cheng, a professor at the Yale school of public health, said: “We know very little about the origin of this virus and we know very little about the speed of transmission and when it starts to transmit.”
The virus comes from a large family of coronaviruses. This includes Sars as well as viruses that cause nothing worse than a cold.
Associated Press contributed to this report
