Chinese state media confirmed on Friday that the coronavirus, spreading from the city of Wuhan, has now infected 29 of China’s 31 provinces, a concession critics will likely take as confirmation that the Chinese government has not been honest about how rapidly the disease is spreading.
Increasingly draconian measures taken abruptly to combat the virus, such as effectively quarantining Wuhan and several other cities, convey the impression of a crisis that is much more serious than Beijing wanted to admit.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media claim there have only been 895 confirmed cases of infection and 26 deaths, but these sources now admit the infection has spread across the mainland, and some of the reported deaths have occurred far beyond the Wuhan epicenter of the epidemic.
Furthermore, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Friday quoted sources who said the Chinese government is still dramatically under-reporting the number of doctors and nurses who have contracted the virus while treating patients.
As of Friday, Beijing officially stopped treating the Wuhan virus like a minor problem it had well in hand, as the SCMP reported:
In response to the rapidly growing number of infections, China had shut down outbound transport from 13 cities and counties in Hubei by Friday morning, according to China National Radio.
Health officials have warned on nationwide broadcasts that people should avoid traditional family reunions and other public gatherings during the Lunar New Year period that starts on Saturday.
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Confirmed cases of the new coronavirus have been found in several Asian countries, as well as the United States. New infections were confirmed on Friday in South Korea and Japan, while Singapore and Vietnam declared their first cases on Thursday. Other places outside mainland China reporting individuals carrying the virus were Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Chinese citizens living in the outbreak area describe a health care system completely overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, with hospitals so overcrowded that patients are sent home and told to wait days for treatment.
“There’s not enough staff at the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention. They can’t test all the patients. Some people have begun to panic and want to do the tests immediately, but that’s impossible,” a doctor in Wuhan said, advising patients with mild symptoms to isolate themselves and self-medicate to relieve the burden on treatment centers and minimize the risk of spreading infections by visiting crowded hospitals.
More at: https://www.breitbart.com/national-s...ons-provinces/
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