Facing growing pressure to contain a deadly viral outbreak that has spread in Asia, China’s ruling Communist Party raced on Tuesday to confront the disease, slapping restrictions on the epicentre in the central city of Wuhan and warning that anyone who hides infections will be “forever nailed to history’s pillar of shame.”
The response by the Chinese leadership, which has come under intensifying criticism that it has been slow to acknowledge the severity of the outbreak, came as fatalities rose to at least six, infections surged overnight from 200 to 300, and global financial markets were rattled by the possibility of a pandemic emanating from the world’s most populous country during the Lunar New Year — Asia’s heaviest travel season.
Already, cases of the pneumonialike virus have also been confirmed in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and South Korea. Airports around the world, including in the United States and Australia, are screening passengers from Wuhan. The World Health Organization has called a meeting Wednesday over whether to declare the outbreak an international health emergency.
In Wuhan, an urban sprawl of 11 million that is the capital of Hubei province, authorities have banned group tours out of the city and ordered vehicles checked for live animals. Nervous residents are buying up face masks and flooding hospitals to report fevers and coughs. Some schools are cancelling classes and even Buddhist temples are turning away the faithful.
Chinese authorities are facing growing demands for transparency in their disclosures about the disease, as new cases emerged this week in other Chinese cities and officials confirmed that the virus spreads from human-to-human contact.
The outbreak is testing China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and the party’s penchant for secrecy in moments of crisis, 17 years after Beijing drew widespread criticism for withholding information and acting slowly in handling the outbreak of SARS, which killed more than 800 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide.
On Monday, China’s health commission said it would respond with measures intended to manage outbreaks of the most virulent diseases, including mandatory reporting of cases. It classified the virus as a class B infectious disease — a category that includes diseases such as SARS.
But the government, wary of letting fear run rampant, is also working meticulously to control the narrative about the virus by censoring news articles and social media posts.
