Deadline looms to screen all confirmed and suspected infections
Coronavirus numbers in China could jump once again today from the 74,000 already reported because authorities in Wuhan have a deadline to screen all confirmed and suspected cases by the end of today, according to the Global Times.
Wang Zhonglin, Wuhan's new Party chief, said that all the urban districts should provide accurate data of total infections as of midnight Wednesday. "Without knowledge about how many infected patients there are in the city, we can't win this battle against epidemic," he was quoted as saying in media reports on Tuesday.
The number of new infections outside Hubei have fallen for 15 consecutive days but the situation in the province remains severe. There are many videos of homes being sealed from the outside.
Social workers and officials on the community and district level in a city with a population of about 11 million are now facing the most urgent and challenging task within three days: To make sure infected patients are treated in hospitals, suspected patients to finish nucleic acid tests, close contacts to be put in quarantine, and all residential areas to conduct 24-hour seal-off management. All these tasks should be finished by Wednesday, and no delay would be tolerated, Wang told a meeting on Sunday.
