《TAIPEI TIMES》 China scrambles for beds as toll mounts

/ Agencies, BEIJING

China yesterday was scrambling to find bed space for thousands of newly infected people as the death toll from the 2019 novel coronavirus soared to 563.

More than 28,000 people are now known to be infected nationwide in the outbreak.

請繼續往下閱讀...

Two dozen nations have now confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which reportedly emerged in December last year from a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Wuhan was scheduled to open a second field hospital, offering 1,600 beds.

The first hospital, with 1,000 beds, opened this week, and authorities said that they were converting public buildings into temporary medical facilities to deal with the influx of sick people.

The city of 11 million is facing a “severe” lack of beds, said Hu Lishan （胡立山）, deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party’s Wuhan chapter, adding that there were 8,182 patients admitted to 28 hospitals that have a total of 8,254 beds.

There is also a shortage of equipment and materials, Hu told reporters.

The Chinese government has announced measures intended to ensure the supply of vital medical resources, with tax breaks for manufacturers of equipment needed to fight the epidemic.

“We must make all-out efforts across the country to meet the need for essential medical supplies and medical professionals in Hubei Province,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang （李克強） was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

BGI Group （華大）, a company based in southern China that sequences genomes, said that on Wednesday it opened a lab in Wuhan able to test up to 10,000 people per day for the virus.

Scientists in the city have applied to patent a drug made by US company Gilead Science to treat the disease, possibly fueling conflict over technology policy that helped trigger Washington’s tariff war with Beijing.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology said this week that it applied for the patent last month along with a military laboratory.

Xinhua yesterday reported that clinical trials of the drug, remdesivir, were due to start.

In Taipei, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中） yesterday said that the government has asked Gilead to reserve remdesivir supply for Taiwan.

Additional reporting by CNA

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES