Coronavirus: China admits ‘shortcomings, deficiencies’

Agency Reporter

China’s top leadership has admitted “shortcomings and deficiencies” in the country’s response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The Politburo Standing Committee said the national emergency management system had to improve.

A crackdown on wildlife markets, where the virus emerged, has been ordered.

There are more than 17,000 confirmed cases in China, with 361 deaths, and more than 150 in other countries, with one death in the Philippines.

The number of deaths in China, excluding Hong Kong, now exceeds the 349 killed on the mainland in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002-03.

The new coronavirus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms usually start with a fever, followed by a dry cough.

The outbreak took its toll on Chinese shares when financial markets reopened yesterday following the Lunar New Year holiday. The Shanghai Composite index closed nearly 8% lower, its biggest daily drop for more than four years.

Reports of the standing committee meeting, chaired by President Xi Jinping, were carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

It said lessons had to be learned from what had been a “big test” of China’s governance system.

One area to be tackled is the trade in illegal wildlife, which should be “resolutely banned”, while supervision of markets should be strengthened.

It is thought a market in the city of Wuhan was the source of the viral outbreak. On Monday, a study by a Chinese virologist said bats were the likely source.

Wuhan remains the “top priority” and additional medical staff will be sent there, the committee said.

It said officials should assume full responsibility for their duties in epidemic prevention, and that those who failed to perform them would be punished.

The Chinese government has accused the U.S. of causing “panic” in its response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

It followed the U.S. decision to declare a public health emergency and deny entry to foreign nationals who had visited China in the past two weeks.

Outside China, there are more than 150 confirmed cases of the virus – and one death, in the Philippines.

The virus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough.

The outbreak took its toll on Chinese shares when markets reopened yesterday following the Lunar New Year holiday. The Shanghai Composite index closed nearly 8% lower, its biggest daily drop for more than four years.

On 23 January, the U.S. ordered the departure of all non-emergency U.S. personnel and their family members from the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, where the virus originated.

Any U.S. citizen who has been in Hubei province will be subject to 14 days’ quarantine upon returning to the U.S.

Russia said yesterday it may deport foreigners, who test positive for coronavirus as Russian military planes flew in to evacuate its citizens from the Chinese province at the epicentre of the outbreak.

Russia, which has a 4,300km (2,670-mile) land border with China, reported its first two cases of the virus last week in the Siberian regions of Tyumen and Zabaykalsk. Both involved Chinese nationals.