New Chinese city locked down as first virus death abroad reported

Channel News Asia ^ | 2/2/2020 | CNA

[Zhang Fei]

BEIJING: China imposed a lockdown on Sunday (Feb 2) on a major city far from the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, as its death toll from the disease soared to 304 and the first fatality outside the country was reported in the Philippines.

The events added to deepening concern about the potential for the virus to spread, as governments around the world closed their borders to people from China.

Struggling to contain the virus, authorities took action in eastern city of Wenzhou on Sunday - some 800 kilometres from Wuhan, the metropolis at the heart of the health emergency - closing roads and confining people to their homes.

Since emerging out of Wuhan late last year, the coronavirus has infected nearly 14,500 people across China and reached 24 countries.

In Thailand, which has 19 confirmed cases, doctors on Sunday said an elderly Chinese patient treated with a cocktail of flu and HIV drugs had shown a dramatic improvement and tested negative for the virus 48 hours later.

Most of the infections overseas have been in people who had travelled from Wuhan, an industrial hub of 11 million people, or surrounding areas of Hubei province.

The man who died in the Philippines was a 44-year-old from Wuhan, according to the World Health Organisation, which has declared the epidemic a global health emergency.

China has embarked on unprecedented efforts to contain the virus, which is believed to have jumped to humans from a Wuhan animal market, and can be transmitted among people in a similar fashion to the flu.

LOCKDOWNS

Those efforts have included extraordinary quarantines in Wuhan and surrounding cities, with all transport out banned, effectively sealing-off more than 50 million people.

But 10 days after locking down Wuhan, authorities imposed similar draconian measures on Wenzhou, a coastal city of nine

[Zhang Fei]

Wenzhou is a "city" of about 4800 sq miles (~2x the size of Delaware) populated by 9m people. The other big development is that Thai doctors claim to have found a cure.

[for-q-clinton]

So how much truth is there to this whole China accidentally let this virus out of their lab?

I personally think they have really responded pretty strongly with lockdowns on cities. Which would make me think they did release it and they are trying to contain what they created/caused.

But on the other hand I read where they haven’t done a very good job. So who knows.

[null and void]

In before the 'It's Nothing Worse Than The Flu' crowd.

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[JonPreston]

but flu?

[Zhang Fei]

More on the situation in Wenzhou from Hong Kong’s Western expat-oriented English language paper:

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3048610/chinas-private-sector-business-capital-lockdown-coronavirus

[Carriage Hill]

“...death toll from the disease soared to 304...”

Total BS. Add 3 more zeros.

[NorseViking]

If it is to continue expect a hike in consumer prices.

[trebb]

Yep - hard to tell but the initial coverup probably let a lot of it loose...

[metmom]

Infectious disease ping.

[Zhang Fei]

[Yep - hard to tell but the initial coverup probably let a lot of it loose...]

---

There’s a lot of deflection of blame towards local officials in the government’s narrative. Except in China, top level local leaders are not local. In order to retain central control and prevent local leaders from cultivating power bases that might feed separatist tendencies in times of turmoil, senior officials are not only helicoptered in from other provinces, they are also rotated periodically in order to prevent them from going native. This is how the Chinese empire has been held together for thousands of years. The regimes change, but the methods remain the same. These “local” leaders will quite literally call a deer a horse, if told to do so by Xi Jinping.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Gao#Calling_a_deer_a_horse

You can’t even call these “local” officials carpetbaggers, since carpetbaggers planned to set down roots.

[GOPJ]

The other big development is that Thai doctors claim to have found a cure.

Link?

[grey_whiskers]

If you keep this up I’ll have to start buying call options on silver mining stocks.

[grey_whiskers]

Mix of anti-flu and anti-HIV retrovirals.

For example

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/cocktail-of-flu-hiv-drugs-appears-to-help-fight-coronavirus-thai-doctors/ar-BBZz7u5

[Charles Martel]

Wenzhou is a "city" of about 4800 sq miles (~2x the size of Delaware) populated by 9m people.

And a busy port city, too. I hope someone is tracking vessels that departed before the lockdown.

[bgill]

They’re so scared they’re now nailing up lumber and putting metal bars across people’s doors and windows to they can’t escape. Yep, that’s absolutely out of their minds terrified.

[WildHighlander57]

grey_whiskers wrote:

“If you keep this up I’ll have to start buying call options on silver mining stocks.”

If he keeps this up, he will turn blue...

[bgill]

What’s the diversity on Viking Cruises?

[Redcitizen]

Smurf ping.

[plain talk]

“In before the ‘It’s Nothing Worse Than The Flu’ crowd.”

Actually one genius said it was just a cold. :-)