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Tag: Wuhan

WHO Team Visits Wuhan Hospital That Received First COVID-19 Patients
The team of World Health Organization experts investigating the origins of the coronavirus met staff Saturday at the Wuhan hospital that received the first confirmed Covid-19 cases, before a scheduled tour of a propaganda exhibition celebrating China’s recovery from the pandemic.
The group was driven to the Jinyintan Hospital, the first hospital to receive officially diagnosed Covid-19 patients in late 2019, as the horrors of the virus emerged in the central Chinese city.
Details of the trip have been scant so far, with the media kept at arm’s length and information on the itinerary dribbling out via tweets from the WHO experts instead of China’s communist authorities.
In a tweet, team member Peter Daszak welcomed the hospital visit as an “Important opportunity to talk directly w/ medics who were on the ground at that critical time-fighting COVID!”
On Saturday afternoon, the team is scheduled to visit a cavernous exhibition that applauds the emergency response of Wuhan health authorities in the chaotic, terrifying early stages of the virus — as well as the agility of the Communist leadership to control a crisis without precedent.
The WHO mission comes with heavy political baggage.
It has been beset by delays, with China refusing access until mid-January, while there are question marks over what the experts can hope to find a year after the virus first emerged.
On Friday, the WHO’s emergencies director Micheal Ryan sought to manage expectations.
Success “is not measured necessarily in absolutely finding a source on the first mission”, he told a news conference in Geneva.
“This is a complicated business, but what we need to do is gather all of the data… and come to an assessment as to how much more we know about the origins of the disease and what further studies may be needed to elucidate that.”
Last week, China warned the United States against “political interference” during the trip, after the White House demanded a “robust and clear” investigation.
The WHO insists the probe will stick tightly to the science behind how the virus jumped from animals — believed to be bats — to humans.
The team is also expected to visit the Huanan market believed to have been the first major cluster of infections, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other labs, in what the WHO’s Ryan described as a “very busy, busy schedule”.
Beijing is desperate to defang criticism of its handling of the chaotic early stages of the outbreak.
It has refocused attention at home — and abroad — on its handling of and recovery from the outbreak.
Since seeping beyond China’s borders, the pandemic has ripped across the world killing more than two million people and wrecking economies.
China, with a relatively low reported death toll of 4,636, has bounced back. It has swiftly locked down areas where any cases are found, tested millions, and restricted travel to snuff out the crisis.
The Chinese economy grew by 2.3 percent despite the outbreak last year and its leadership misses few chances to boast of the country’s resilience and renewal.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Friday flagged the WHO visit as “a part of global research” into the pandemic.
“It is not an investigation,” Zhao Lijian told reporters.
-AFP
January 30, 2021
COVID-19: WHO Team Arrives In Wuhan to Probe virus Origin
A team of experts from the World Health Organization arrived in Wuhan Thursday to probe the origins of the coronavirus more than a year after it emerged, as China reported its first death from COVID-19 in eight months.
The 10 scientists landed for their much-delayed mission, met by Chinese officials in hazmat suits and given throat swabs on arrival, and were whisked to a hotel where they must complete a two-week quarantine before starting their work.
The virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has since billowed out across the world killing nearly two million people so far, infecting tens of millions and eviscerating the global economy.
The WHO says establishing the pathway of the virus from animals to humans is essential to preventing future outbreaks.
But despite painstaking months of negotiations over their remit, the team was blocked from arriving last week — a sign of the political sensitivity of a virus origin story muddied by recrimination between nations, conjecture and denials.
The trip comes as China moves to snuff out fresh clusters of the virus.
More than 20 million people are under lockdown in the north of China and one province has declared an emergency.
China had largely brought the pandemic under control through strict lockdowns and mass testing, hailing its economic rebound as an indication of strong leadership by the Communist authorities.
But another 138 infections were reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday — the highest single-day tally since March last year.
Clusters are still small compared with many countries contending with rampant infections and record numbers of deaths.
But the first Chinese virus fatality in several months — a woman with underlying conditions in northern Hebei province — seeded alarm across China.
The hashtag “New virus death in Hebei” quickly ratcheted up 270 million views on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Thursday.
“I haven’t seen the words ‘virus death’ in so long, it’s a bit shocking! I hope the epidemic can pass soon,” one user wrote.
The last death reported in mainland China was in May last year, with the official death toll now standing at 4,635.
Beijing is anxious to stamp out local clusters ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year festival when hundreds of millions of people will be on the move across the country.
As infections have spread, northeastern Heilongjiang declared an “emergency state” on Wednesday, telling its 37.5 million residents not to leave the province unless absolutely necessary.
– WHO arrival –
China is braced for the scrutiny the expert team of WHO scientists will bring to its virus narrative.
Beijing has drip-fed the idea that the pandemic started outside of its borders, preferring to focus on its relatively swift control of the public health crisis.
The WHO have been at pains to cut the political baggage attached to their mission.
Peter Ben Embarek, team lead, said the group would start with a mandatory hotel quarantine.
“And then after the two weeks, we would be able to move around and meet our Chinese counterparts in person and go to the different sites that we will want to visit,” he said.
He warned it “could be a very long journey before we get a full understanding of what happened”.
Beijing has argued that although Wuhan is where the first cluster of cases was detected, it is not necessarily where the virus originated.
“I don’t think we will have clear answers after this initial mission, but we will be on the way,” Embarek added.
“The idea is to advance a number of studies that were already designed and decided upon some months ago to get us a better understanding of what happened,” he said.
January 14, 2021
Foreign students in Wuhan cherish dawned fall semester, confident in campus anti-epidemic measures
Most students in China’s kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools and universities will embrace their fall semester as usual on September 1, marking China’s success in containing COVID-19 and providing students with safe campuses.

Foreign students in Wuhan, Hubei Province reached by the Global Times expressed confidence in their school’s anti-epidemic efforts, as well as excitement to study together with their classmates. After more than half a year staying in dorms and taking online courses for the whole spring semester to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they can finally enjoy the direct experience of the classroom.

Some said the epidemic made them value face-to-face discussions with professors and classmates, and vowed to study harder in the new term.

Primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities across China have basically opened from August 15 to October 10, according to Ministry of Education. All the 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have made clear the arrangement for the beginning of the fall semester.

“I can’t wait to embrace my classmates and teachers as I have never seen them face-to-face for around seven months because of the epidemic. The regular opening of fall semester in Wuhan, such a brave and heroic city sacrificing a lot for fighting against the virus, makes me excited,” said Barry, a 27-year-old Gambian man pursuing his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Central China Normal University (CCNU) in Wuhan, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Barry spent the most severe months of the epidemic on campus. He expressed his gratitude in being able to study safely, contrasted with the high risks of infection from US campuses reopening.
Safe campus

Massive students’ flowing back to schools throughout China requires higher and stricter anti-epidemic measurements to ensure the safety in campuses. Foreign students said they are not worried about the risk of a new outbreak as they believe the Chinese government has fully evaluated the epidemic and is capable of providing a safe campus.

Many colleges and universities require continuing to strengthen semi-closed campus management. Teachers and students are not allowed to leave the campus unless necessary and off-campus personnel are not allowed to enter the campus without an appointment. College canteens will generally encourage students to have meals avoiding peak hours, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

A negative nucleic acid test and temperature check are required for students returning to schools. Students have to apply for special permission to go outside the campus. Disinfection and ventilation are required thoroughly in public areas every day, Chen Nan, a teacher at CCNU, told the Global Times. There are 500 to 600 foreign students in the university and more than 200 foreign students are living on campus during the epidemic.

Barry said his confidence comes from experiencing how responsible his school and teachers were in taking care of people during his time serving as an anti-epidemic volunteer. Barry checked body temperatures three times a day for more than 140 foreign students in his dorm building, distributing food and masks provided by school authorities as students were quarantined in their dorms.

Barry said his family was initially worried for his safety under the influence of some biased Western reports, and imagined Wuhan’s air was “full of the virus.” Barry introduced the real situation and explained to his family that Chinese teachers taught them comprehensive epidemic prevention methods, provided anti-epidemic materials and contacted them every day to check their physical and mental health.
Given the severity of the COVID-19 around the world, Barry’s family said they feel lucky that he is China.

Foreign students who had to stay at their dormitories amid the outbreak were also required to strictly follow the rules, some students told the Global Times on Friday.

Nina, who has spent three years living in Wuhan, said she was actually traveling outside the city when the coronavirus outbreak began, which forced her to stay in Shanghai for a couple of months. By following the updates through group chats, she said Wuhan University, where she studies, accommodated the students with food and supplies.

“I think what was scariest at that time was just the fear of the unknown,” the student from Botswana told the Global Times. But when looking back, she said it was definitely better to stay, as things are under control in Wuhan and the city is able to reopen unlike other places across the world.

“It was really not as bad as I had thought it would have been in my head,” Nina said, noting that residents were very optimistic, with a sense of pride and accomplishment in overcoming such a scary and catastrophic moment.

Faced some criticism from Western politicians and media that blamed Wuhan for spreading the virus across the world, some even stigmatized the issue by calling it “Wuhan virus.” Nina noted it could have started anywhere, as a disease is not caused by a certain group of people from a certain race or certain country.

“It’s worldwide pandemic,” she said. “Like you look at HIV and AIDS or cancer — they all started somewhere. But nobody says this is an American virus or this is an Italian virus,” the 24-year-old student said.

New expectation

Some students said they were eager to begin fall semester despite having been reluctant to end summer vacations in past academic years.

“I miss studying so much,” Nadia, a 31-year-old Russian woman who is studying for her PhD degree at CCNU, told the Global Times. She is eager to see her supervisor and talk about her thesis.

Nadia plans to work in China after graduation as she loves Chinese people. She said her love has grown deeper in going through such a pandemic in Wuhan.

Nadia used to visit pubs with her friends to taste different drinks every Friday night. However, the epidemic kept her away pubs for almost eight months.

“I still won’t visit pubs at the new term as gathering is not encouraged and going outside campus requires special application. Strict anti-epidemic measurements are conducive to ensuring our safety and study,” she said, adding that “However, I wish the epidemic will come into an end soon and we can enjoy our life as normal.”

Barry’s department opened to register for new semester on Friday, but he has not met any of his classmates yet as everyone is engaged with preparing for their mathematics exam on Friday.

“I prepared well for the exam. As going out was limited, I only play football and watch movies online during the summer vacation, I devoted most of time to study in dorm,” Barry said. Barry said he wants to earn a master’s degree in CCNU and return Gambia to promote mathematics education.

“Many people lost their lives in the pandemic. We are lucky to live and we have to pursue a higher dream,” Barry said, expressing confidence and determination towards the new term.
September 4, 2020
All of us were contributing to epidemic control in Wuhan
By Haroon Nomaan from Pakistan
I’m an engineer working for Lenovo in Wuhan. After the COVID-19 epidemic broke
out in the city, I joined a volunteer team of the Hubei Charity Federation, becoming
the only foreigner on the 83-member team.
I helped sort materials donated to the city and translate English and Urdu customs
clearance documents into Chinese.
As an engineer, the volunteering job was new to me, so it was hard for me to pull
things together at the beginning. I had to search for information online first and then
consult professionals every time I encountered terms on customs clearance and
medical materials, so as to ensure correct translation.
My wife, who studied at the School of Journalism and Communication of Wuhan
University, was very supportive. She speaks Russian, so she often helped me translate
Russian materials.
Learning what I was doing, my company particularly reduced my workload.
Gradually, I got better and better at the job. Now I could easily translate complicated
professional terms into Chinese, and now I'm one of the executives for a material
reception group.
Volunteers need to spend much time on communicating to ensure purchases of
preventative materials, unimpeded logistics and rapid handling of tax reduction
formalities for donated materials.
I'm in more than 130 chat groups on the messenger app WeChat, and it's a unique
experience switching between them one by one every day.
To avoid time differences between me and overseas donators, I always talked to those
in Asia at 8 a.m. and contacted those in Europe and America at 2 a.m. the next day.
This extended my working hours to over 14 hours per day.
On March 15, my volunteer service came to an end. Busy as I was during the period,
I didn’t feel the tiredness. When I saw a drastic decline in confirmed coronavirus
cases in China and the remarkable achievements in containing the disease, I felt proud
of myself as a part of it.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping said, public health crises pose a common challenge
for humanity, and solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon to tackle
them.
Over the 40 days, we received 253 batches of donations and I recorded all of them
carefully. They are a token of love for Wuhan, and represent the strong power of the
people from all over the world in combating the disease with concerted efforts.
What touched me deeply was that the alumni associations of international students in
Wuhan also actively donated money and materials to the city, providing concrete
support to the anti-epidemic efforts. Having lived in Wuhan for years, I empathize
with them. Everyone who's been living here is deeply attached to the city.
Every person I met was contributing their share to combating the epidemic. What I
did was trivial compared with their work. A simple message in WeChat group was all
we had to do every time we needed supplies during the quarantine, and the
community workers would soon deliver the goods to our doorsteps. I know that we
were cared for when we were helping others, and this moved me very much.
Now, Wuhan is covered by green plants and flowers in full bloom. In the future, we’ll
cherish more the happy and peaceful life we have here.
June 3, 2020
My first-hand experience with Wuhan’s fight against the epidemic
By Noor-ul-Huda
It was January when I received my graduation certificate and after completing all
formalities, I booked a flight of January 29 to get back to my home country Pakistan.
Being the first girl in my family to achieve a doctorate degree, especially from a well-
reputed university in China, was something worth celebrating with my family. As it
was my birthday on January 30, my family had planned a big party to celebrate my
birthday and my PhD on my return from Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province.
But all of a sudden, there were announcements of locking down Wuhan city. Through
all possible communication means I had: my supervisor, International Students’
Office, friends, news pages on WeChat and even my telecommunication company
reminding me to stock essential items, I learnt that the entire city was going to be shut
down in two hours.
Those two hours were too short for me because my visa would get expired by the end
of January. At that time the Hubei provincial government and my school – Institute of
Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, stood by my side and provided me with
all the possible assistance one could expect.
My visa got automatically renewed for 60 days without any fee and my ticket was
fully refunded too. I couldn’t stop praising the efficiency of the Chinese government.
They had an emergency plan for residents of Wuhan before announcing quarantine for
the city.
The next step was to compromise with the situation and to make my family
understand that staying in Wuhan was the best choice. They got worried about my
health and food. So I showed them all the food I had stocked and later showed them
my life here via video calls. They could see how I wore the mask, gloves, thick jacket,
scarf… and how the security guard checked my body temperature before my friends
and I went to the market for shopping together.
We were also provided with masks, fresh vegetables and fish by our teachers as a
caring gesture. Our health status was recorded daily as well, so my family got relieved
for I was safe and under good care here. Muslim community in Wuhan also gifted us
fresh vegetables, halal meat, rice and wheat flour as a unity gesture. Community
shopping was a wonderful experience on its own and staff members tried their best to
provide what we needed.
When situation got eased, we eight international students were divided into two
groups. Each group could go shopping once a week to buy necessities for us all.
During quarantine, the government of Pakistan advised all students to stand by China
in this hard time and cooperate with local health authorities. The two countries are
iron friends since long. I chose to spend the memorable time by witnessing a strong
nation fighting with this epidemic.
I witnessed Chinese army and paramedical staff coming from different parts of China
to assist Wuhan. I witnessed my country proudly supporting China. I witnessed tired
yet determined faces of health workers and the marks on their faces. I witnessed
research centers working hard to develop remedies against this virus. I witnessed
transparency of the data shared by China.
I myself donated money to buy protective gears for frontline workers and witnessed a
boy silently leaving boxes of masks to the policemen. I witnessed people performing
their duties even in the snow. I saw my supervisor, Professor Xie Shouqi, dragging a
cart and distributing vegetables among community members. I celebrated my birthday
all alone in the room singing birthday songs to myself, which was a unique
experience.
I recorded a video in Urdu language for my country mates on basic preventive
measures against COVID-19 that I practiced during the lockdown, so that my
experience could help them. It was watched on social media and well appreciated
among the Pakistani community.
My friends and I also started making meaningful public service slogans about
COVID-19 and the importance of quarantine, especially self-quarantine at home, in
English and Urdu. We circulated it among all friends, family, teachers in both
countries so that they could save themselves and others. The slogans were:
“Quarantine is not a prison; it is for greater good.” and “Quarantine is not a curse.
This isolation will save you and the whole nation.”
Apart from raising public awareness, another reason of making these slogans was to
condemn the discriminatory behaviors we were facing from different parts of the
world. People should understand that virus respects no geographical boundaries and
gender. Mass gatherings could be the main source of its spreading; quarantining
Wuhan and social distancing was the best possible solutions to contain it, and working
on its remedy is the best practice. These were the footprints China offered the world
to follow, and were the best answer to all the fabricated "truths" and false propaganda.
When others were busy in passing the buck, China was busy in constructing two
hospitals in record time. I had full confidence in the Chinese government’s efficiency
and its health facilities. I also believed that the situation would be better soon and
Chinese economy would roar again. The special period proved China as a role model
to other nations. Now Wuhan is back to life, China has almost been healed, and the
country is helping other nations by all possible means.
When I look back, I sum up my experience during the lockdown as ‘roller coaster of
emotions’ as homesickness, increased number of cases, decreased number of deaths
and suspected cases, possible cure for COVID-19, caring gestures from the
community, motivational words from teachers, family and friends used to bring
multiple mood swings within a day.
Death is not just a human body loss but is actually the loss of an entire source of
expertise, and those gaps are hard to fill. I would like to pay homage to all people in
the world who lost their lives in the pandemic.
Photography and sightseeing are my hobbies. I once won photography competitions in
my institute. Moreover, I am “Belt and Road Tourism Ambassador” appointed by Belt
and Road Travelers Alliance to promote the charms of Hubei and Wuhan to the world.
I learnt to sing Huangmei opera during my Chinese language class and have sung it
on various events. I always feel good when I get praise from Chinese people for
performing the opera, though I am far from perfection. I got an opportunity to publish
my experience with Chinese culture and Huangmei opera as an expat in the
Changjiang Weekly.
Such cultural exchanges will always connect me with Wuhan. During the lockdown, I
seldom went for running or took pictures of spring inside the institute to freshen up. I
got plenty of ‘me time’ in my room which served as ‘my space’ for self-realization. I
got time to relax after graduation, and to know my strengths and tolerance range
under stressful circumstances.
I call Wuhan my second home and I would like to express my sincere wishes to the
Chinese people. I wish Wuhan prosperity by leaps and bounds.
May 22, 2020
Wuhan kicks off mass testing campaign amid rising cases
Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan have launched an ambitious campaign to test all of its 11 million residents, after a cluster of new cases raised fears of a second wave of infections.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: Nigeria lauds Africa CDC, WHO for providing trainings
At least two of the city’s main districts have delivered notices of the campaign on a door-to-door basis and sent out online questionnaires through community workers seeking information about tests people have had, and if they belong to what are deemed high-risk groups.
The Wuhan government earlier said the city had 53 laboratories to process tests, and 211 locations where nucleic acid tests can be done.
Wuhan was placed under a lockdown on January 23rd and it was only lifted on April 8. It reported six new cases over the weekend, the first infections since the curbs were removed.
May 14, 2020
Wuhan sanitation worker volunteers to serve makeshift hospital during pandemic, records experiences in diary
After a 34-day service in the Fangcang makeshift hospital in Wuchang district,
Wuhan, Sanitation worker Gao Shangyuan finally came back to Wuchang Youyi
Avenue where he worked before, in a brown cap and orange uniform, with the same
old electro-tricycle.
The 53-year-old man, who disinfected the wards and disposed waste at the hospital
every day two months ago, recorded his personal experiences in combating the novel
coronavirus in a diary – a habit that he has always stuck to in work.
Gao volunteered to clean the Fangcang hospital at Hongshan Statidum, Wuchang
district immediately after he saw the hospital's recruitment information on Feb. 6.
"The team leader called at 10:00 am today, telling me to assemble this afternoon and
then head for the hospital," Gao wrote in the diary.
"I'm really honored to be a volunteer at the hospital and excited to do my part in the
fight against the pandemic," he added.
Gao must be extremely cautious when disposing the waste to avoid polluting the
environment outside the hospital. It took him and his team about 5 hours to clean two
inpatient wards on the first day of their service.
"It became easier today, but I'm still tired," Gao wrote, adding that the protective suit
always made him sweat and his goggles were always blurred by his breath.
"My clothes were always soaked after a day was over, and it's not exaggeration," he
said in the diary on Feb. 8, the third day of him working at the hospital, describing
how hard it was to combat the virus.
He said he sometimes couldn't stand the fatigue as he had slipped discs, diabetes, and
periarthritis of the shoulders.
Gao didn’t tell his son about his work at the hospital, but the latter found out from a
picture he posted on social media on Feb. 9.
"My son called today and I missed it. When I called him back, I heard him weeping,"
Gao wrote on that day.
"He was worried about me, blaming me for not telling him earlier and said he also
wanted to be a volunteer so that we could take care of each other."
Gao wrote on February 11 that he made video calls every day to his son as a safety
check. "I raised him alone since 2009 when my wife passed away in a car accident,
and he was only ten then. We are close," he said, referring to his son.
On Feb. 20, Gao received an award for his efforts in combating the novel coronavirus
with a cash bonus of 10,000 yuan from Alibaba Group. "I just did what I should have
done," he wrote in the diary.
Gao noted that it was encouraging to receive the award on behalf of the sanitation
team. "This award doesn't belong to me as an individual, but all the members on the
team," he said.
Gao received a message on instant messenger WeChat from Wang Haixu, a medical
worker from Liaoning province who went to Hubei to assistance, on March 14, when
Gao completed his service and was quarantining himself at a hotel. Wang said that, " I
think we all are comrades-in-arms in this battle, both the medical and sanitation staff.
We just had different duties."
"I was surprised at it," Gao noted, glad that his efforts were appreciated and valued.
After replying Wang, he went on with his diary. "It is such a meaningful experience
fighting together with the medical workers at the hospital. I want to extend my
gratefulness to them for assisting Wuhan. They are real heroes."
May 11, 2020
Trainee teacher in Wuhan serves as courier during COVID-19 epidemic
The Chinese New Year, which fell on Jan. 25 this year, marked the first day for Wu You, a trainee
teacher in a Wuhan middle school, to offer free delivery service for citizens in the city amidst the
COVID-19 epidemic.
From this day on, he started bustling through Wuhan, sending medicines and materials to those in
dire need.
Wu’s first “client” was a father of a three-year-old boy. The man isolated himself in the kitchen
and the bathroom because he was suspected of contracting the novel coronavirus. When asking for
help from Wu, he almost ran out of food and medicines.
From Jan. 25 to the end of Wuhan’s lockdown, Wu, an enthusiast of video-blogging and rap
music, cycled over 1,000 kilometers and helped more than 700 people get through the darkest
time.
His volunteering service started from a favor he did for one of his students’ parents who asked
him to send some masks and drugs, which later inspired him to post a message on micro-blogging
platform Weibo and instant messenger WeChat in which he said he would offer free delivery of
masks and medicines for the left-behind elderly.
At first, Wu was just trying to offer some help passingly, as most of his approximately 300
followers on Weibo were friends and relatives. However, he unexpectedly received more than
1,000 pieces of help information, most of which were sent by strangers.
Trying to fulfill his promise, Wu asked his student Huang Xinyuan to join him. The two bought
medicines and then distributed them. They selected some help seekers who lived nearby and were
in urgent need, and started delivering at around 2:00 pm on the first day of the Chinese New Year.
It was already 10:00 pm when they arrived home.
They didn’t feel scared until they finally hit the road, realizing they were at a very high risk
because the recipients might be COVID-19 patients.
“But we left it all behind and carried on,” Wu said. “We are not that great, but we just can’t turn
them down.”
As there were more and more help seekers, Wu decided to carry on his service till the epidemic is
relieved. He reassigned tasks with Huang, with him sending supplies to the east part of the city
and Huang to the west. Wu would always spot the patients for the medicines, and firstly send the
medicines to children and the elderly.
He received an emergency call at around 10:00 pm on the third day of his service, when he was
about to sleep. The caller said he was quarantined at her aunt's in Wuhan, and his uncle had a
breathing problem, adding that he was worried very much since the drugs had run out.
Wu went out immediately and took with him a box of oranges, because the vitamin C needed by
the caller was out of stock. The residential complex of the caller, which was newly built and
located 10 kilometers away, was not shown in the navigation application, so Wu could only search
for it according to description.
However, when he finally arrived at the residential complex, he was not able to locate the specific
building. Therefore, the only way to find the receiver was to shout his name, even though it was
raining. He was finally answered by the help-seeker's uncle who thanked him in a trembling voice.
Three days later, Wu was informed that the senior man had been hospitalized and his conditions
turned great. The caller extended a million thanks to Wu, saying his timely delivery service had
won valuable time for the treatment.
“From that moment on, I started to feel that I was probably saving lives,” Wu recalled.
He was joined by more people since mid-February and gradually formulated a team. Some verify
information while some deliver medicines. Besides, his delivery coverage has also been extended
to the whole city.
Wu established a chat group on WeChat containing 250 people, including psychological
consultants, doctors and patients, to share experiences of fighting the pandemic. There was even a
software engineer for map apps planning routes for Wu and his team every day.
In the meantime, the number of followers of Wu on Weibo exceeded 1 million, and he started
receiving donations from across the country. A volunteer team from Sichuan sent critical drugs
and 4 tons of vegetables, while writers from Beijing mailed protective suits and alcohol. He also
received masks from Chinese students overseas.
　
Wuhan started to resume production and work at the end of March, gradually reopening its public
transport and subway system, which led to a decline in the number of help seekers. During the
past two months, Wu was thanked numerous times and received “like” from millions of internet
users.
Wu believes the tiredness and doubts he received are worthy, and the only regret is that he still
missed many help seekers. “To help more and care for more is needed not only during the
epidemic, but also in the post-crisis period,” he wrote on Weibo.
May 11, 2020
Wuhan lockdown prevents 12-42 million people from catching COVID-19: study
The “decisive” lockdown imposed in Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province largely cut off the COVID-19 infections, preventing 500,000 to 3 million more infections in China and 12 to 42 million more infections in the globe, according to a Chinese expert at Peking Union Medical College.
Liu Yuanli, head of the school of public health in Peking Union Medical College revealed the data during a live streaming seminar at Tsinghua University on Saturday, April 25.
The Wuhan lockdown effectively cut off the spread of COVID-19, Liu said. The lockdown helped
reduce 500,000 to 3 million infections in China and 12 to 42 million infections globally, he said.
Wuhan imposed the citywide lockdown on January 23, a day before the annual Chinese Lunar
New Year’s eve.
If the lockdown wasn’t imposed on that day, then the next day would have seen the peak of
population flow for Chinese family reunions at Spring Festival, Liu said.
The Wuhan lockdown sent a “very clear signal” about the upcoming epidemic and won “much
time” for the world, Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan
University, told the Global Times on Sunday, April 26.
China’s stringent measures significantly slowed the global spread of the virus and earned a
window period for the world.
Rather than thanking China for reporting the virus and taking such decisive measures to contain
the virus spread, some outside China are surprisingly trying to blame China for concealing the
epidemic and hyping Wuhan is the virus origin, which is absurd and unreasonable, Yang said.
Wuhan sacrificed itself by locking the city and asking millions of residents to stay at home in a
timely manner when facing the COVID-19 epidemic, which is a common enemy of the mankind.
How come people are still trying to take China as a scapegoat for the pandemic, experts said.
The study offered strong evidence of how much Wuhan lockdown is essential for the worldwide
pandemic, however, miscommunication and underestimation were repeated not only in Europe but
also in the US, where governments and officials failed to prevent infections from exploding in
their countries, Chinese experts noted.
“Closure of a city in the fight against epidemics has never happened not only in China, but such a
large-scale city lockdown has never happened in the history of the world epidemic prevention,”
said Liu, of Peking Union Medical College at the live-streaming event on Saturday.
Wuhan was locked at just the right time. “The lockdown sent a signal to the whole country that the
overall battle against the epidemic was starting,” Liu said.
There were more than 400 confirmed cases on January 22 in Wuhan and on the next day on
January 23, Wuhan adopted strict measures to restrict people from leaving the city.
It later proved that the week after January 23 was a crucial week, Liu noted.
If the city was closed one day or one week later, the impact of the epidemic would be “huge,” Liu
said.
“Facts also proved,” Liu said, that 63 percent of that more than 80,000 cases diagnosed nationwide
were in Wuhan.
The Wuhan lockdown was not simply a restriction on traffic but an overall anti-epidemic policy
for a city: medical treatment for patients, community closed-loop management, mass screening
and quarantine of residents, Liu noted.
May 4, 2020
U.S., Germany, France question China’s virus response as Wuhan death figures rise
The U.S., Germany, and France have questioned Beijing’s response to the coronavirus as Chinese authorities announced a large jump in the official number of fatalities in Wuhan, the original epicentre of the outbreak.
Earlier on Friday China revised the number of virus-related fatalities in the central city up by 1,290, to 3,869 – an increase of around 50 per cent.
U.S. President Donald Trump later lambasted China on Twitter saying their death toll was “far higher than that and far higher than the U.S., not even close!”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he was “naturally concerned” about the dramatic rise in the official number of deaths in Wuhan.
“There are questions that at some point must be answered,” he said in an interview with the Bild newspaper as he called for transparency from Beijing.
French President Emmanuel Macron had earlier told the Financial Times that it would be “naive” to assume that China’s handling of the virus has been better than Western democracies, as some analysts cited Beijing’s heavy-handed lockdowns as successful to curbing the spread.
“We don’t know. There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about,” Macron added.
The debate over the real number of deaths came as the worldwide toll from the novel coronavirus passed 150,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. has the most reported deaths at 34,575, followed by Italy at 22,745, Spain at 19,613, and France at 18,703.
There are over 2,200,000 reported cases globally with the U.S. the leader in reported cases at 683,786, the university said.
The Hubei province government, home to Wuhan, said that the number of deaths had been revised up due to late reports from medical institutions and to the fact that some coronavirus patients died at home while hospitals were overloaded in the early stages of the epidemic.
“The registration of some death cases was incomplete, and there were repetition and mistakes in the reporting,” said the statement.
Over the past few weeks, there has been intense speculation that the number of casualties in Wuhan had far exceeded official reports, based on the number of urns released to family members in late March. (dpa/NAN)
April 18, 2020