Beijing Calls In Military As Virus Overwhelms Wuhan Hospitals

Beijing Calls In Military As Virus Overwhelms Wuhan Hospitals

by Tyler Durden

Summary: Here's a glimpse of new virus-related developments that occurred overnight.

• Total number of confirmed cases now 900+, 26 dead.
• China restricts travel for 40+ million people as the death toll surges.
• Two deaths have been reported outside Wuhan.
• Some residents displaying symptoms are being turned away from hospitals.
• Hospitals in Wuhan make urgent pleas for help and supplies.
• Beijing orders PLA medics to assist in Wuhan treating patients
• UK and US governments tell citizens to avoid outbreak zones.

Update (0820ET): Over the past few hours, health officials in Nepal have announced that a student who has returned from Wuhan has been found to carry the virus. Meanwhile, officials in India are reporting three suspected cases.

As the response to the virus overwhelms hospitals in Wuhan, the central military command of the PLA, China's army, has ordered medical personnel based in the city of Wuhan to travel to the city's hospitals and aid doctors and nurses struggling to keep up with the influx of cases.

The order comes as experts estimate that some 4,000 individuals may have already been infected across the country.

According to the SCMP, 40 medical officers from the city’s military hospital have already started working in the intensive care unit of Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital. The 40 officers are reported to be an advance party and the General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing will send more in the coming days.

Staff at the PLA hospital swore an oath earlier this week promising to do everything they can to combat the virus.

A medical practitioner who worked at the PLA General Hospital said that the hospital would send staff from its infectious disease centre to help run the new hospital and quarantine centre in Wuhan once it was ready.

Staff there held an oath-taking ceremony on Wednesday pledging they would do their utmost to win the battle against the new coronavirus.

"We all swore that we will follow the order, make sacrifices if necessary and do our jobs as required and would not be afraid to suffer or even to die," he said. "[We were told that] we triumphed over Sars and we will win again this time."

As we noted below, Wuhan is scrambling to build a makeshift hospital from scratch on the outskirts of the city as a quarantine and treatment center for coronavirus patients. Beijing's ability to quickly expand capacity to treat infected individuals was said to be instrumental in the fight against SARS 17 years ago.

Asian markets closed on Friday for the Lunar New Year holiday, which officially begins on Saturday. But in China, the Communist Party leadership are scrambling to contain the virus as 13 cities in Hubei Province are now under quarantine, meaning more than 40 million Chinese will be forced to spend the holiday week at home, the South China Morning Post reports.


Health authorities reported 66 more suspected cases overnightas a result of broader criteria for people showing symptoms, bringing the total number of suspected cases to 236 as of Friday morning in Hong Kong. Among those cases, more than 100 are now in isolation. Across China, Hong Kong and Macau, authorities have closed schools and suspended the start of the new semester. Even Disneyland Shanghai has announced plans to close for the holiday.

Back in Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, conditions are deteriorating rapidly. Video purportedly showing the hospital at the center of the outbreak paints a picture of widespread misery as health care workers collapse on their feet, infection rates explode even among those responsible for treating patients. Local media has also reported that there aren't enough testing kits and medical workers available to diagnose new cases.

There have even been reports of patients showing concerning symptoms being turned away from hospitals. Nice to see that their good ol' socialized health care system is clearly so well-prepared for such an outbreak. Desperate for money and supplies, hospitals in Wuhan have resorted to begging the government and the public for help.

In the meantime, reports claim that China's censors are removing all frightening videos from domestic social media outlets. There have been reports of people in Shanghai and in Wuhan being herded into makeshift quarantine camps erected near hospitals around the country. In some places, authorities are scrambling to build whole new hospital wings as fast as they can. Chinese officials are scrambling to build a whole new hospital in just five days.

China is building a new 1,000-bed hospital in five days to treat victims of the new deadly coronavirus.

Get the latest on the #coronavirus here 👉 https://t.co/j01UaC8ySA pic.twitter.com/Af3YjVciML

— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 24, 2020

Just as we expected, a shortage of facemasks that inspired hoarding and price gouging in Hong Kong has now spread across Asia, according to the Japan Times.

While they've disappeared from the Chinese Internet, videos showing sick or collapsing patients and health-care workers are flooding US social media.

WATCH: Video shows the situation at a hospital at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak; it has now been removed from China's social media platform pic.twitter.com/uC5QYY9Z0a

— BNO News (@BNONews) January 24, 2020

Brutal https://t.co/nFao4ADFPZ

Especially for those who have been turned away, the mood on the streets of Wuhan is turning into full blown panic as hundreds of worried patients plead with hospitals for help. 'Please help us' the city's leadership begged as it implored its neighbors for help.

Typically, LNY is the most important holiday in China and celebrations typically begin the night before, which this year is Friday night.  Chinese who work typically make it home in time to prepare a meal of fried dumplings and sticky rice cakes before hosting reunion dinners with family. At midnight, Chinese typically set off firecrackers to ring in the new year.

But this year, an anxiety-laden quiet is expected instead. Meanwhile, several US media outlets reported that ordinary Chinese are growing increasingly frustrated with their government. 

"We won’t have a new year celebration tonight. There’s no feeling for it, and no food," a Wuhan resident named Wu Qiang, told the NYT.

Qiang added that his family is so on edge, that a simple sneeze from his son set off alarm bells at home.

"I think he’s O.K., but now even an ordinary sneeze makes you worry," Mr. Wu said. "You start to think every cough or sneeze might be the virus."

Another woman put it more bluntly.

"Today should be the Chinese people’s happiest day," she said, "but this sickness has destroyed that feeling."

Health experts issued an ominous warning about a coronavirus pandemic 3 months ago. Their simulation showed it could kill 65 million people.

Business Insider

• A scientist at Johns Hopkins last year modeled what would happen if a deadly coronavirus reached a pandemic scale. His simulated scenario predicted that 65 million people could die within 18 months.

Eric Toner, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wasn't shocked when news of a mysterious coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, surfaced in early January.

Less than three months earlier, Toner had staged a simulation of a global pandemic involving a coronavirus.

Coronaviruses typically affect the respiratory tract and can lead to illnesses like pneumonia or the common cold. A coronavirus was also responsible for the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China, which affected about 8,000 people and killed 774 in the early 2000s.

"I have thought for a long time that the most likely virus that might cause a new pandemic would be a coronavirus," Toner said.

The outbreak in Wuhan isn't considered a pandemic, but the virus has been reported in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. The US reported its first case on Tuesday: a man in his 30s living in Washington's Snohomish County, north of Seattle, who recently visited China.

So far, the virus has killed 18 people and infected more than 630.

"We don't yet know how contagious it is. We know that it is being spread person to person, but we don't know to what extent," Toner said. "An initial first impression is that this is significantly milder than SARS. So that's reassuring. On the other hand, it may be more transmissible than SARS, at least in the community setting."

Toner's simulation of a hypothetical deadly coronavirus pandemic suggested that after six months, nearly every country in the world would have cases of the virus. Within 18 months, 65 million people could die.

Toner's simulation imagined a fictional virus called CAPS. The analysis, part of a collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, looked at what would happen if a pandemic originated in Brazil's pig farms. (The Wuhan virus originated in a seafood market that sold live animals.)

The virus in Toner's simulation would be resistant to any modern vaccine. It would be deadlier than SARS, but about as easy to catch as the flu.

The pretend outbreak started small: Farmers began coming down with symptoms that resembled the flu or pneumonia. From there, the virus spread to crowded and impoverished urban neighborhoods in South America.

Flights were canceled, and travel bookings dipped by 45%. People disseminated false information on social media.

After six months, the virus had spread around the globe. A year later, it had killed 65 million people.