Coronavirus story in China being played on repeat mode

A year ago, WION was among the first to report on the novel coronavirus outbreak in China and now the same story is being played out on repeat mode.

There is a second major outbreak in China in the province of Hebei.

A giant quarantine centre is being built in the province to house three thousand people.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The question is why does China need a massive quarantine centre when the administration has claimed victory over the virus.

The latest outbreak is China is growing by the day and so it needs bigger quarantine facilities.

A facility that covers an area of about 33 hectares is being built.

More than 600 workers are involved with the construction work along with 100 machines that are running non-stop.

The urgency can be understood from the fact that the construction work began this week and local officials claim they will finish it up in three days.

It is being built at Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province and is one of the biggest hotspots right now.

The new surge has affected two Chinese provinces: Hebei and Heilongjiang.

Multiple cities in these two provinces are under lockdown.

More than 100 patients are now being treated and 144 new infected were recorded in the last 24 hours.

One patient has died of Covid-19, the first death in the country in eight months.

However, these are official figures and given China's record, take them with a lump of salt.

The under-reporting in Wuhan last year was widely reported and the actual number of cases was likely to be 10 times higher.

The extent of data fudging could be estimated from the fact that 500,000 people could have been infected in Wuhan, but Beijing said the entire country saw about 97,500 cases.

Again, China is saying 1,000 cases, but a quarantine centre is being built for 3,000 people.

The situation is serious and the best way to address is to maintain transparency.

The epicentre is Hebei and most of the cases have been reported from rural towns and suburban villages.

Reports say 70 per cent of the people infected are farmers.

More than 20,000 people from 12 villages have been moved to centralised quarantine sites.

From Hebei, the virus seems to be spreading to other parts.

China is trying to halt the world's biggest human migration, the Lunar New Year celebrations.

There are more than 280 million migrant workers and this is the time when they visit their families.

Last year, China faced the same challenge to halt travel amid a virus surge.

This year again China may have to cancel the Lunar New Year celebrations.

In several cities, workers are being paid to stay at home.

Construction workers are being given one-off payments of 1,000 yuan each as an incentive not to travel.

Companies that stay open during this period will be eligible to get upto 100,000 yuan.

The local government is also ready to reimburse train or plane tickets.

This is happening in Beijing's neighbourhood and so it wants workers to produce a negative test before entering the capital city.

A report says the lockdown in Hebei's capital was necessary for the "political security" of Beijing.