BLOG: China's heated battling against 2019-nCoV
Many provincial governments have opted to push back the office return date even later to February 9-10 other than for government officials and some key organizations. Local citizens are being advised to stay home, as there may be a climax of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in early February, some medical researchers warned.
The delay in resuming operations applies to many construction sites too, and some Chinese steel mills have acted accordingly by idling some rolling lines to reduce finished steel output.
On January 1 when the world welcomed the year 2020, or "Aini Aini" in Chinese pronunciation (meaning "love you love you"), no one would have expected the year of love had such a misfortune in store. For once, Chinese citizens would rather go back to work than stay at home for a lengthy holiday but currently, most don't even dare to step outside very much unless out of necessity because of the virus.
Many Chinese restaurants have shut their doors as customers chose to cancel the usual CNY reunions with families and gather-togethers with long-time-no-see friends because of the 2019-nCov emergency. Many cities such as Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province, believed to be the epicentre of the virus outbreak, have suspended public transportation such as coaches, trains, or even flights, to minimize the spread of the virus. To varying degrees of intensity, the 2019-nCov strain has invaded all the country's 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and special administrative regions within the 10 days since the first formal update on the virus was released on January 19.
China started publicly sharing daily updates of 2019-nCoV cases nationwide from January 21, and by the end of January 30, there had been 9,692 confirmed cases (some 213 having died and 171 cured through treatment) and 15,238 cases suspected. This marked a massive escalation from the 291 confirmed cases and 54 suspected cases by the end of January 20, underscoring the aggressive nature of the virus, according to the latest update from China's National Health Commission.
However, the number of cases (and fatalities) might have grown at an even more alarming pace had the central government in Beijing not made the painful but necessary decision to lock down Wuhan to the outside world.
Starting 10am (Beijing time) on January 23, Wuhan suspended all the public transportation including flights to and from the city's airport so as to minimize the spread of the virus – a hard decision that was made swiftly and one that is particular harsh to the people in the city, though most have accepted without much protest. After all, Wuhan is a transportation hub in Central China with a population of over 14 million of whom some 9 million are long-term residents.
People outside Wuhan are tremendously grateful for the sacrifice the Wuhan citizens have made to minimize the spread.
At the same time, Wuhan is racing ahead with the construction of two hospitals – Leishenshan Hospital and Huoshenshan Hospital – so as to treat all infected patients in these rather isolated sites. Though construction started only on January 24-25, both are scheduled to be in operation within two weeks – with Huoshenshan to have 700-1,000 beds ready to take in patients by February 3, and Leishenshan being facilitated with 1,500 beds for hospitalization by February 5.
Construction site of Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan as of January 30 (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
The lightning speed of construction has been heavily relying on pre-fabricated structures, with all Chinese steel mills having been on standby to deliver all sorts of steel products needed, including pipes, structural steel, and galvanized steel.
Naming all the Chinese steel suppliers here would be impossible, as all producers – big and small, state-owned and privately-owned – have been sparing no efforts to contribute whatever they can to combat the crisis.
It is commonly understood that Chinese steel mills usually continue to produce iron and steel as per normal during the CNY period, which, looking back, has enabled them to act promptly to transport the needed steel to the hospital sites.
Written by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
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