Home-to-hospital and hospital "screening": China is tightening the focus on the virus

Any resident of Wuhan who purchases cough or fever medication will be required to present an ID card and anyone who refuses to be tested will be punished. Ten isolation centers will be set up in the city and those who refuse to enter the closure will be subject to "coercive measures." The draconian restrictions signal the worsening situation in the capital of Hubei Province, after the death of another senior doctor

Home-to-hospital and hospital "screening": China is tightening the focus on the virus

Authorities in Wuhan City, the focus of the outbreak of the Corona virus, are stepping up tests from house to house to find and "hospitalize" patients - China's official media outlets reported Tuesday, with the death of another senior doctor in the city and the extension of its closure. Anyone suspected of having a blue eye will have to undergo testing, and anyone in close contact with the infection will be placed in isolation.

According to the local newspaper Chutian Daily, ten isolation centers, similar to the makeshift hospital built in the city, will be set up in eight neighborhoods. They will provide an additional 11,400 beds for those who see mild symptoms of a virus infection, which has claimed the lives of some 1,880 people, most of them in the city. This is in parallel with the transformation of factories, industrial zones and transport centers into makeshift centers for the treatment of patients.

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Girl with mask in Beijing, today (Photo: Reuters)

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According to the government-funded "Fair" website, as of today, anyone who buys cough medicines or lowers heat in pharmacies or the internet will have to use his or her ID card. Exacerbation of the restrictions in the city of 11 million residents indicates a worsening situation. The resolutions were published in a new order by the new Communist Party secretary general, Wong Zhonglin, who took office after ousting two senior executives last month because of the rapid spread of the virus. More than 50,000 cases have been registered in the Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan.

The Global Times, published by the government, reported that officials would conduct the tests using large databases and artificial intelligence. Another order issued by the City Council yesterday on "winning the virus war" warned that those who refuse to comply with provisions such as reporting cases of heat and cough to their local committees, or entering a quarantine if applicable, would be subject to "coercive measures." In addition, anyone who "invents and disseminates false information about the epidemic" will be punished.

Man with mask in Beijing, today (Photo: Reuters)

A man with a corona virus-styled mask in Beijing, China on February 18, 2020 (Photo: Reuters)

In a local Communist Party newspaper, police officers saw protective clothing knocking on residents' doors and checking their heat. "We're in the race against time. It's a turbulent war of annihilation, not a long, calm war," the announcer says in the documentation. "This is a painful process, but it must be fought immediately. The temporary closure is for the benefit of our unity in the near future. Wuhan will prosper again."

Residents of the city protested the draconian measures on social networks. "We must not go out at all, we have lost our most basic human rights. The guards are like prison guards, utilizing the little power they have. We are guaranteed personal freedoms in the constitution!" Another surfer said it was like a "prison" because she was forbidden to leave her home, even for a walk in the neighborhood.

(Update first: 14:18)