Coronavirus: three Chinese cities locked down and Beijing festivities scrapped

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

Three Chinese cities with a total population of 20 million have been put on lockdown and Beijing has cancelled a number of major public events in an attempt to contain the spread of a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Authorities banned transport links from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, on Thursday, as well as the nearby central Chinese cities of Huanggang and Ezhou, suspending buses, subways, ferries and shutting the airport and train stations to outgoing passengers.

Meanwhile the state-run Beijing News said the capital had cancelled events including two well-known lunar new year temple fairs. Separately, the country’s railway operator, China State Railway Group, said passengers would be able to receive full refunds on tickets nationwide starting on Friday.

There have been 633 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, from the same family of viruses that gave rise to Sars. Officials worry the lunar new year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese will crisscross the country, will exacerbate an outbreak that has reached almost all of the country’s provinces, as well as the US, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Macau and Hong Kong.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/23/coronavirus-panic-spreads-in-china-with-three-cities-in-lockdown

[MosheFeingold]

1. What they're not telling everyone

Is Wuhan is home to China's biological weapons programs.

Something slipped out.

[icymist]

2. Interesting. Here's an article I found in an Aussie paper:

Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2020, 05:35 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/beijings-forbidden-city-to-close-over-virus-fears-as-authorities-put-chinese-cities-in-lockdown/news-story/cb1087c96df64ea91533781a19e27896

Beijing’s Forbidden City to close over virus fears as authorities put Chinese cities in lockdown

...Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances this morning. Only travellers holding tickets for the last trains out were allowed to enter. Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million people were eerily quiet.

In addition to shutting down the train station, authorities closed the airport and halted ferry, subway and bus service.

...The coronavirus family includes the common cold as well as viruses that cause more serious illnesses, such as the SARS outbreak that spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002-03 and killed about 800 people, and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which developed from camels. China is keen to avoid repeating mistakes with its handling of SARS. For months, even after the illness had spread around the world, China parked patients in hotels and drove them around in ambulances to conceal the true number of cases and avoid WHO experts.
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/cfd3b2334977c9708788df95aa8d50b9?width=650
People on a domestic flight out of the central Chinese city of Wuhan having their temperature taken one-by-one by people in protective suits. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter

The link leads to a picture which shows full contact isolation precautions for the personal taking temperatures. During the SARS outbreak, China tried to hide how bad it was from the rest of the world. Now, they are being very quick to report it and lock down major cities of millions of people. I'm hoping this is over-reaction.

Just found this:

Link to tweet

?s=20

Another video in chat groups shows a woman being carried into an ambulance by fully protected medical staff near Decai Primary School in Hanyang district,

I think there's more going on here than an air borne virus.

Link to tweet

?s=20

A more clear picture of the sealed quarantine box at the Fuzhou airport.

Please be an over-reaction! This is getting surreal.

Interesting paragraph I found here:

China possesses the required technology and resources to mass-produce traditional BW agents as well as expertise in aerobiology. The country has also acknowledged research in defense against biological weapons; in 2007 China announced a 20-year plan to set up a research center to study natural and man-made epidemics as well as to produce vaccines and protective equipment. [28] In 2007, it was also announced that China would open its first BSL-4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, part of the Chinese Academy of Science. [29] China completed the facility in January 2015, but the National Health and Family Planning Commission must validate the facility before it becomes operational. Several Chinese scientists also conducted BSL-4 training in France, a key partner in the project. [30] While China's substantial dual-use infrastructure would in theory be integral to a large-scale BW program, it is also indicative of a modern research and development complex aimed at peaceful applications. Perhaps of greater concern is China's potential role in the export or transshipment of dual-use goods to countries of proliferation concern such as Iran and North Korea, with whom it retains significant trade relationships. Although China has published thorough export control legislation, its enforcement efforts are understaffed and under-funded, creating a weak link in the system. Additionally, many top Chinese leadership lack sufficient political will to fully enforce domestic export controls, especially when the exporting party is a powerful, politically connected company. [31]

[31] Stephanie Lieggi, "From Proliferator to Model Citizen? China's Recent Enforcement of Nonproliferation-Related Trade Controls and Its Potential Positive Impact in the Region," Strategic Studies Quarterly (Summer 2010), www.au.af.mil.

https://www.nti.org/learn/countries/china/biological/