‘No household shall be left unchecked’: Millions of residents to be checked for coronavirus

Chinese authorities will go door-to-door to check Wuhan’s nine million residents for coronavirus as they “battle to annihilate it”.

Medical staff at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan, China where police are preparing to conduct checks of all nine million residents. Picture: AFP

The number of new coronavirus infections in mainland China has fallen below 2000 for the first time since January, although global health authorities warn it is still too early to say the outbreak is being contained.

The rapidly spreading virus claimed another 98 lives bringing the total death toll in mainland China to 1868 as of Monday, with 1886 new confirmed infections for a total of 72,436, the country’s National Health Commission said.

Tough restrictions on travel and movement have helped to limit the spread of the virus outside the epicentre in Hubei province.

The developments on Monday night came hours after the new Communist Party chief of Wuhan declared a three-day operation to cleanse the city, ordering police and other officials to check every resident.

#LATEST on #COVID19 outbreak in China, as of Feb 17:
- 72,436 confirmed cases in Chinese mainland
- 1,868 deaths
- 12,552 discharged from hospital pic.twitter.com/6YfdW8IOkd

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) February 18, 2020

One of the highest-ranking doctors in of Wuhan is feared to have died after contracting coronavirus, as Chinese police prepared to begin house-to-house checks of all nine million people living in the city.

Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang hospital, was reported in a tweet from the state-run People’s Daily newspaper to have died on Monday.

However, within minutes the tweet was deleted after denials from the provincial health commission covering Wuhan, which said that Dr Liu was still being “resuscitated”.

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A man walks the street in Wuhan, China on February 13, 2020. Picture: Getty Images

The reports mirrored confusion over the death on February 7 of Li Wenliang, 33, a Wuhan Central hospital doctor silenced by Beijing when he became the first to warn of the coronavirus.

Initial reports of Dr Li’s death prompted outrage on social media. His hospital then contradicted those statements by saying that he was “in a critical condition and we are trying our best to rescue him”, only for his death to be confirmed hours later.

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A patient has her temperature checked at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan on Monday, February 17, 2020. Picture: AFP

All residents of Wujan have been ordered to stay at home. Public venues such as cinemas, sports centres, art galleries, museums and religious sites remain closed. People who are allowed to move around the city must wear masks and scan codes before they enter places such as supermarkets and hotels.

In Huanggang, another city in the province of Hubei, anyone who voluntarily visits a clinic with symptoms such as fever will be rewarded 500 yuan (A$106), as will anyone who reports on others they believe to be infected.

Those found to be displaying symptoms of the virus will be taken to hospital and all suspected cases will be tested.

“No household shall be left unchecked, and not a single person will be left behind,” Wang Zhonglin, 57, who was appointed last week as the city’s highest official dealing with the public health crisis.

“Wuhan is the site of the decisive battle, and we must concentrate our powers for a battle to annihilate it, rather than a slow, protracted war,” Mr Wang said. “There’s no turning back. There’s no time left. We must win.”

The operation to purge the virus came more than three weeks after authorities cut the city off from the rest of the world to curb the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 70,500 people across China.

In Wuhan, the virus has killed 1,309 and infected more than 41,000 people.

Chinese authorities say the stabilisation in the number of new cases is a sign that measures they have taken to halt the spread of the disease are having an effect.

The number of new daily infections in mainland China had not been below 2000 since January 30, while the daily death toll had not come under 100 since February 11.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Chinese data “appear to show a decline in new cases”.

“This trend must be interpreted very cautiously. Trends can change as new populations are affected,” he added.

With The Times and Reuters