China is swiftly building a hospital dedicated to treating
patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds
and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities home to millions of people
during the country’s most important holiday.
On the eve of the Lunar New Year, transportation was shut
down Friday in at least 10 cities with a total of about 33 million people. The
cities are Wuhan, where the illness has been concentrated, and nine of its
neighbours in central China’s Hubei province.
The Wuhan government said Friday it was building a
designated hospital with space for 1,000 beds in the style of a facility that
Beijing constructed during the SARS epidemic.
The hospital will be erected on a 25,000 square-metre lot
and is slated for completion February 3, municipal authorities said.
The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus has
risen to 830, the National Health Commission said. Twenty-six people have died,
including the first two deaths outside Hubei.
The health commission in Hebei, a Northern Province
bordering Beijing, said an 80-year-old man died there after returning from a
two-month stay in Wuhan to see relatives. Heilongjiang province in the
northeast confirmed a death there but did not give details.
Initial symptoms of the virus can mirror those of the cold
and flu, including cough, fever, chest tightening and shortness of breath, but
can worsen to pneumonia.
The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan,
but people who visited or had personal connections to infected people were
among the scattered cases counted beyond the mainland. South Korea and Japan
both confirmed their second cases Friday and Singapore confirmed its third.
Cases have been detected in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States,
Thailand and Vietnam. Many countries are screening travellers from China and
isolating anyone with symptoms.
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