China, coronavirus: popular army on the field

(To Antonio Vecchio)
24/01/20

China mobilizes military doctors to help contain the coronavirus epidemic that has erupted in the city of Wuhan.

Chinese media reported yesterday that they are currently 40, and others will arrive in the coming days, the medical officers of the National Liberation Army (PLA) sent to the scene to support the city's health facilities.

A still small number destined to grow, with the additional task of prepare the deployment of a field military hospital facility that will have an important hospitalization capacity (presumably of a level equivalent to BORN ROLE 3).

According to reports from the South China Morning Post1Medical officers are reportedly already working in intensive care units alongside health workers in Wuhan, the city from which the disease has spread to the rest of the country and abroad.

In addition to China, in fact, the United States, Europe, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have also registered cases of infected people.

Instead, the alarm released yesterday in Bari returned, where an Italian citizen returning from Wuhan had been hospitalized with suspicious symptoms.

To date, 26 deaths have been reported and 880 admissions to hospitals in the Chinese city and its immediate suburbs.

The coronavirus, renamed 2019-Ncov it is similar to Sars, and it would be the crossing of a coronavirus from bats with one transmitted by snakes. From these he would then pass to man, acquiring the ability to transmit himself to other people.

Live animal markets, very common in China, would have provided the ideal habitat.

From the images that arrive in Italy, Wuhan appears as a ghost town, despite the 11 million inhabitants. The Chinese newspaper Global Times, in its online editionconfirms that the city, central China's largest transportation hub, is completely inaccessible and residents are prohibited from abandoning it.

At the moment, considering the smaller centers of the region, there would be about 41 million isolated people.

The 40 military doctors who arrived in the city constitute the advance party of the military field hospital that the Central Military Command3 of the PLA will deploy shortly, similar to what was done in the city of Xiaotangshan in 2003 during the SARS epidemic, where a field hospital with the capacity of 1000 beds was deployed, which in two months of activity treated about 15% of Sars patients nationwide.

In the meantime, the city of Wuhan is completing an improvised one in the suburbs, to be used as a quarantine and treatment center for patients, which should be completed in ten days.

Military medical personnel will also work there, whose presence is reported by the media in Beijing, who have given particular emphasis to the oath made last Wednesday by the doctors in uniform, with whom they have pledged to "follow the orders received, make the necessary sacrifices and carry out what is required by one's assigned task, without ever being afraid of suffering or dying", Rest assured that"we triumphed over Sars and we will win this time too. "

PLA is not alone in supporting Wuhan doctors.

Even the National Health Commission, reports the Chinese national radio, has sent some specialists, whose first group, coming from the hospitals of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Sichuan, is made up of medical personnel experienced in intensive care, respiratory and infectious diseases.

As of this writing, 21 medical teams would be sent to local hospitals to supervise and train medical and paramedical staff.

January 25 UPDATE: Military doctors have gone from 40 to 1200.

3 The 2015 military reform commissioned by Xi Jinping created five joint theater commands (East, West, South, North, Center of the country) that replaced the previous seven military regions

Frame: Twitter