The story appears on

Page A3

March 10, 2020

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeNation

36 in Hubei, no new local infections elsewhere

THE Chinese mainland, outside Hubei Province, reported no new locally transmitted coro­navirus cases for the second day yesterday, as the outbreak epicenter Wuhan closed most of its makeshift hospitals.

China had 40 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections as of Sunday, the National Health Commission said, down from 44 cases a day earlier, and the lowest number since the health authority started publishing na­tionwide data on January 20.

Of the new cases, 36 were in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Prov­ince, while the remaining four in Gansu Province were import­ed from Iran.

The new cases on Sunday brought the total accumulated number of cases in China’s mainland to 80,735.

While the domestic spread of the virus has significantly slowed in recent days, au­thorities are mindful of risks stemming from people — for­eigners and Chinese nationals — travelling back to China from new hot spots abroad.

China’s total number of im­ported cases hit 67 with the four Gansu cases.

A leading group of China’s COVID-19 response, led by Premier Li Keqiang, yesterday made arrangements for deep­ening international cooperation on epidemic prevention and control.

In the face of the challenges posed by the spread of the disease overseas, China will enhance international coopera­tion, the group noted.

Inbound travelers who are confirmed or suspected of being infected with the virus or are close contacts will be checked, treated and quaran­tined according to relevant rules, said the group, noting the particular importance for ports with high numbers of entries and exits such as Bei­jing to work meticulously on epidemic prevention.

Zhong Nanshan, head of the NHC’s team investigating the COVID-19 outbreak, said it would persist globally until at least June.

Meanwhile, public facili­ties are slowly getting back to normal.

Wuhan yesterday suspended another public-facility-turned temporary hospital.

The last batch of 34 patients walked out of the temporary Jianghan hospital at 3pm, wav­ing farewell to the medics.

“Your discharge marks the closure of the temporary hos­pital of Jianghan,” said Hu Yu, president of the Wuhan Union Hospital that ran Jianghan over the past 34 days, when handing a hospital discharge certificate to a woman surnamed Guo.

Guo was admitted to the hos­pital on March 2 when she felt discomfort around her throat. “Medics here are very nice. I felt as if I was staying in a big family rather than a hospital,” Guo said.

The closure of the temporary hospital of Jianghan, which was converted from the existing international exhibition cen­ter of Wuhan, has brought the number of closed makeshift hospitals in the city to 14.

The other two temporary hospitals remaining in op­eration are expected to close today, the city’s COVID-19 con­trol headquarters said.

Hubei Airport Group ordered all airports in the province to get back to work by Thursday. Wuhan’s Tianhe International Airport — which suspended flights on January 23 except for airlifts for foreigners — said in a statement it was preparing to resume work, taking mea­sures such as staff training, equipment maintenance and security inspections. It did not give a date for the resumption of commercial operations.

Swedish furniture giant Ikea has reopened 16 of its stores with shorter opening hours in China, after closing all outlets in late January, it said.

Meanwhile, some regions are gearing up to reopen schools this week, after more than a month of closures.

Qinghai Province, spread across the Tibetan Plateau, an­nounced in late February that high schools and vocational schools would resume gradu­ally from yesterday.

Middle schools would reopen later in the month.

The southwest Guizhou Province has also said some students in high school and middle school would resume classes from March 16.

 


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend