China extended the Lunar New Year holiday to expand the sweeping effort and reduce mass gatherings. (Image via Bangkok Post)

Extending Lunar New Year, China reports 80 deaths and over 2,700 new cases

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Jan 27, 2020
2135
It is not a good beginning for China. Postponing the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, China wants to expand the sweeping efforts to tackle the viral coronavirus. The local government insists all of its people to stay at home to prevent any infection as the death toll reached 80 deaths.

The National Health Commission (NHC) said that about 2,744 new cases were confirmed by midnight Sunday, the youngest being a 9-month-old girl in Beijing. Hong Kong and Macao also ended up infected with five and two cases respectively.

Beginning 22 January, China suspended planes, trains, and buses services to Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in Hubei Province, Central China. Not only Wuhan but also the virtual lockdown expanded to a total of 17 cities with more than 50 million populations.

Not only sweeping, but the postponing of the end of the Lunar New Year holiday is to reduce mass gatherings hence the spreading of the epidemic.

Meanwhile, the schools remain closed until further notice.

Following Japan on the evacuation mission, the U.S Consulate in Wuhan is arranging the chartered plane to evacuate the American citizens and diplomats on Tuesday. The French government will also bring back their nationals back to France and quarantine them there.

On Monday, S. Korea confirmed the fourth case. While the virus has reached the ASEAN regions even Australia, the U.S and Canada also reported coronavirus-associated pneumonia.

China’s Minister of Health, Ma Xiaowei, said that the coronavirus got stronger and spread faster. President of China, Xi Jinping, referred to the outbreak as a “grave situation” and called for the country to step up its effort to restrict public transportation service and stay at home, while medical teams are rushing to aid the stricken cities.

In just one week, Wuhan aims to finish two hospitals with 1,500 and 1,000 beds to treat the patients. Moreover, the Chinese military had dispatched 450 medics with experience in past outbreaks such as SARS in 2003 and Ebola.

Source: https://bit.ly/2RRn2dn

Politics , Medical , Health , Disease , Pulmonary , Outbreak , Pneumonia , Coronavirus , Asia , China , Wuhan