Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

WUHAN, a big city in Central China and the capital of Hubei Province, is now under the spotlight worldwide, not for the famous Yellow Crane Tower or numerous Yangtze River bridges linking its downtown areas, but for the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.

When the first cases emerged in Wuhan in December, local health commission officials traced it to a seafood market in the city believed to be the source of the outbreak.

Without clear evidence, Wuhan officials were hasty to say that it was unlikely that the virus could be transmitted between humans.

However, many reports since then have revealed that patients diagnosed with the new coronavirus had no exposure to the seafood market and never visited Wuhan at all.

Some of the cases were even confirmed in other countries, such as Japan, Thailand, Australia, the United States and South Korea.

As of Tuesday, more than 473 cases had been confirmed on the Chinese mainland, among which nine patients had died due to multiple organ failure, the National Health Commission said yesterday.

Moreover, 15 medical staff members in Wuhan were also confirmed to be infected with the virus while treating patients.

At a news conference held by the National Health Commission, Zhong Nanshan, head of a high-level expert team, said that the latest evidence had proved the virus could spread between humans.

Zhong, a famous respiratory disease physician in China and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was an important person to lead the country during the SARS outbreak in 2003.

In the name of maintaining social stability and their political careers, it is a common practice for local Chinese officials to cover up the truth and bad news from the public. Nevertheless, lies, and not transparency, are the real enemy of social stability.

Who will be held accountable for the deaths, the quick spread of the virus and the safety of people all over the world as well as those infected medical staff? I hope that Chinese Party committees and governments at various levels can learn a serious lesson from the SARS outbreak more than 17 years ago and do a better job in fighting against the new virus this time.

People’s lives and health are of top priority. Given the massive population migration and traveling nationwide or overseas during the coming one-week Chinese New Year holiday, which begins Jan. 24, it is an urgent and arduous task to prevent and control the disease. Reducing unnecessary travel may help curb the disease. As the epicenter of the virus, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang has called on locals not to leave the city and people from outside not to come if there is no particular need. While fully protecting medical staff, hospitals should try their best and make all-out efforts to treat the infected, and beef up the identification, reporting, case monitoring and standardized diagnosis procedures. Compulsory temperature detection should be conducted in all airports, railway stations and checkpoints. Confirmed patients, and those who have had contact with them, should be isolated and quarantined, and people with a high temperature should be advised not to travel, which are methods proved to be effective in preventing and controlling the spread of disease.

A timely reporting system on a daily basis should be established nationwide to release and share information on time and take concerted actions. Governments at all levels should regulate and even ban fairs and other large-scale gatherings, especially in some severely infected areas. Authorities should strengthen the inspection of wet markets and crack down on the illegal sale of wild animals, which are suspected of being the intermediary of the virus. Media outlets should take measures and open special columns to publicize relevant policies and basic knowledge about the disease. Drug stores in communities should ensure a sufficient supply of certain medical necessities, such as breathing masks, liquid soap and more.

China has informed the World Health Organization (WHO) and relevant countries about the disease since its outset. Close coordination with the global community should be maintained and strengthened in order to make accurate assessments and curb the spread of the outbreak. The WHO has so far urged all countries to get prepared and has suggested protective measures targeting respiratory infections, including avoiding contact with people who are infected and paying special attention to personal hygiene, such as washing hands regularly and refraining from touching livestock and wild animals.