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Coronavirus epicentre Wuhan could see zero cases by March-end
Two new areas of worry are emerging in China – new cases coming in from abroad and recovered patients relapsing.
The central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak could see zero new cases by the end of March, a leading government expert has said, though there was an increase in fresh cases for the second consecutive day.
The national health commission (NHC) also announced on Friday that some vaccines against covid-19 could be put to clinical trials or emergency use in April.
By the end of Thursday, Hubei reported 29 of the 30 new deaths and 126 of the 143 new infections reported from across China, national health commission (NHC) officials said.
The death toll from covid-19 is now 3042 and total infections 80522 in China, the NHC said.
All the new infections in Hubei were from Wuhan, and none were reported from other major cities in the province.
Taking a cue from the trend, Zhang Boli from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a member of the central government expert group in Wuhan said the provincial capital could see zero new infections by month-end and other cities are likely to report the same by the middle of the month.
Zhang was quoted as saying by state media that outside Hubei, people could take off their masks and resume normal life by the end of April.
“In Hubei and particularly in Wuhan, however, people will have to wait one additional month. Zero reported new cases is not absolute. Sporadic new cases will emerge,” he said.
Two new areas of worry are emerging in China – new cases coming in from abroad and recovered patients relapsing.
On Friday, Shanghai reported three new cases of covid-19 infections, all from Tehran, Iran, taking the total number of such cases to 39.
The three infected persons, two from northwest China’s Ningxia and one from Gansu, are studying in Iran.
As of Thursday, 16 new “imported” cases of novel coronavirus infection were reported on the mainland, including 11 in Gansu Province, four in Beijing and one in Shanghai. The cases in Beijing were tracked back to Italy.
Doctors here are also carefully looking into the cases of relapsed patients.
Residents of a building in Xi’an in northwest China’s Shaanxi province have been quarantined for two weeks since Thursday after a recovered COVID-19 patient living in the building again turned positive.
A rehabilitation clinic for recovered patients has been opened in Wuhan.
According to doctors, the facility is necessary as recovered patients, especially in severe cases, may continue to show symptoms like fatigue and lack of appetite. They are also prone to relapse as their immune system is low.
Meanwhile, NHC’s Zheng Zhongwei said Friday that “eight institutions in China were working on developing vaccines along five technical routes”.
“Many of them have entered animal trials and the development progress for vaccines in China is similar to somewhat ahead of those in foreign countries,” Zheng was quoted as saying by state-run China Daily.
