BEIJING — Hong Kong hospitals cut services early today as medical workers were striking for a second day to demand its borders with mainland China be shut completely to ward off a virus that caused its first death in the semi-autonomous territory.
All but two of Hong Kong’s land and sea crossings with the mainland were closed at midnight after more than 2,000 hospital workers went on strike Monday. As many as 9,000 medical workers could join a bigger walkout Tuesday to demand closure of the border across which tens of thousands of people continue to travel daily.
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority said it was cutting back services because “a large number of absent from duty” and “emergency services in public hospitals have been affected.”
Hong Kong was hit hard by SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2002-03, an illness from the same family of viruses as the current outbreak and which many believe was intensified by official Chinese secrecy and obfuscation.
The mainland’s latest figures of 425 deaths and 20,438 confirmed infections of the new coronavirus were up from 361 deaths and 17,205 cases the previous day. Outside mainland China, at least 180 cases have been confirmed, including two fatalities, in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
The patient who died in Hong Kong was a 39-year-old man who had traveled to Wuhan, the mainland city that has been the epicenter of the outbreak, before being hospitalized. The Hospital Authority said Tuesday he had existing health conditions but did not give details.
Most cases of the illness have been mild, but most who died have been older people with other ailments such as diabetes or heart disease.
Late Monday, China’s President Xi Jinping presided over a special meeting of the top Communist Party body for the second time since the crisis started, saying “we have launched a people’s war of prevention of the epidemic.” He told the Politburo standing committee the country must race against time to curb the spread of the virus and those who neglect their duties will be punished, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Other countries are continuing evacuations and restricting the entry of Chinese or people who have recently traveled in the country. A plane carrying Malaysians from Wuhan arrived in Kuala Lumpur and the 133 people on board were to be screened and quarantined for 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus.
Taiwan on Monday flew home 247 of its citizens from Wuhan and had sent three passengers for treatment after they were found to have fever or sore throats. The other passengers are being quarantined at medical facilities for the next two weeks.
Germany’s Lufthansa became the latest international airline to suspend flights to China, and several countries are barring Chinese travelers or people who passed through China recently.
Medical teams from the People’s Liberation Army were arriving in Wuhan to relieve overwhelmed health workers and to staff a new 1,000-bed hospital.
It was built in just 10 days, its prefabricated wards equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and ventilation systems. A 1,500-bed hospital also specially built for patients infected with the new virus is due to open within days.