02/05/2020
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A northeastern Chinese city of 10 million people struggling with currently the country’s biggest coronavirus cluster shut dine-in services on Saturday, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease.
Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang and its biggest city, said it temporarily suspended dine-in services for all eateries, reported the official CCTV citing an emergency epidemic prevention notice.
Catering services operating in the city, such as barbecue eateries and those selling skewers, shabu shabu, and stew, shall suspend dine-in meals until further notice and in accordance with changes in the epidemic situation, the notice said.
While mainland China reported only one case on Saturday and crowds returned to some of its most famous tourist attractions for the 5-day May holiday, the northern province of Heilongjiang is hunkering down to prevent further clusters from forming.
Of the 140 local transmissions in mainland China, over half have been reported as from Heilongjiang, according to a Reuters tally.
Heilongjiang province borders Russia and has become the frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic, with many new infections from citizens entering from Russia.
The province has already banned entry to residential zones by non-locals and vehicles registered elsewhere. It had also ordered isolation for those arriving from outside China or key epidemic areas.
On the back of the outbreak, deputy secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Wang Wentao said at a Friday meeting “we deeply blame ourselves”, according to local media.
“We had an inadequate understanding of epidemic prevention and control,” said Wang, adding that the failure to carry out testing in a timely manner contributed to the clusters.
Source: Reuters
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17/02/2020
- Communist Party mouthpiece releases internal speech given to Politburo Standing Committee on February 3 with presidential orders to contain disease
- Xi makes ‘rare’ disclosure move as he comes under heavy domestic and international pressure, analyst says
President Xi Jinping presides over a meeting and listens to report on epidemic prevention and control work in Beijing on February 10. Photo: Xinhua
President Xi Jinping told the Communist Party’s top echelon to tackle
an outbreak of a previously unknown coronavirus almost two weeks before Chinese authorities announced that there had been human-to-human transmission of the disease, according to an internal speech released on Saturday.
In the speech to the party’s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, Xi outlined a contingency plan to respond to a crisis that he said could not only hamper the health of people in China, but also jeopardise the country’s economic and social stability – even its open-door policy.
The speech was delivered on February 3 and published in the party’s bimonthly journal Qiushi on Saturday. It was also featured on state television and other official mouthpieces.
The release comes as Xi tries to rally support to counter the biggest crisis in his tenure, including an outpouring of public anger over the death a week ago of ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded by police for alerting his friends about the virus in its early days.
In his speech, Xi also accused local officials of not carrying out edicts from the central government, vowing to punish incompetent officials.
“I issued demands during a Politburo Standing Committee meeting on January 7 for work to contain the outbreak. On January 20, I gave special instructions about the work to prevent and control the outbreak and I have said we have to pay high attention to it,” he said.
The document did not say whether the Politburo was aware of human-to-human transmission of the disease at the time but research published by Chinese scientists said such infections occurred as early as December.
How China-US mistrust pushed the WHO into a coronavirus corner
The speech by Xi also indicated his desire to win international understanding and support through propaganda and diplomacy.
“We have to liaise and communicate with other countries and regions, to share information about the outbreak and containment strategies to win international understanding and support,” he said.
In terms of domestic stability, Xi stressed the need to stabilise food and energy supplies to boost public confidence. He also ordered police to increase their presence on the streets.
“[We must] ensure societal control and security by stepping up law enforcement, mobilising public security and armed police in joint efforts,” Xi said.
1,716 frontline Chinese medics infected with Covid-19 in battle against coronavirus
The authorities should also update the public on their efforts to help boost public confidence, he said.
“[We must] inform the people of what the party and government is doing and what is our next step forward to strengthen the public’s confidence,” he said.
He said the government would encourage companies and scientific institutes to speed up research on drugs and vaccines for the outbreaks and they should share their information with the science sector.
At the same time, Xi stressed that national economic goals set for this year, such as achieving “moderate prosperity”, would remain.
This would be achieved by resuming production, boosting consumption and investment in infrastructure, particularly 5G communications.
“There should not be any thought that we can wait a bit [because of the epidemic],” he said.
Coronavirus: infected Chinese tourist in France dies, in Europe’s first death
Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based political analyst who specialises in analysing Xi’s speeches, said the president’s address was a “rare and interesting” shift from the past.
“The speech was made at a time when Xi is facing heavy domestic and diplomatic pressure,” Wu said.
“This is unprecedented. It sounds like he is defending and explaining how he has done everything in his capacity to lead epidemic prevention.”
Meanwhile, a panel of experts from the World Health Organisation began to arrive in Beijing on a trip that will take in three provinces.
Fang Bin is second Chinese citizen journalist to vanish while reporting from coronavirus epicentre
National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said the panel’s mission would include inspecting outbreak prevention work in urban and rural areas, and assessing viral analytics work before making recommendations to China.
Speaking publicly for the first time since being sent to Wuhan, NHC deputy director Wang Hesheng said he would make sure that there “would not be another Wuhan” in Hubei province. Nine medical centres with a combined capacity of nearly 7,000 beds had opened in the city and the province was planning to open more to treat patients with mild symptoms.
Various cities near Wuhan have stepped up quarantine. On Saturday, the small centre of Wuxue announced that with the exception of people working to contain the epidemic, anyone seen walking the streets would be sent to a stadium for “study sessions”.
Beijing has also appointed two senior firefighting commanders to the Ministry of Emergency Management’s leading group – Xu Ping, head of the ministry’s Forest Fire Bureau, and Qiong Se, director of its Fire and Rescue Bureau.
Zhou Xuewen and Liu Wei, two of the ministry’s existing leading party members, have been appointed deputy ministers for emergency management.
Source: SCMP
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