More than 100 Frontline Medics are Infected with Coronavirus in China

Many frontline medics or medical support staffs including doctors and nurses are under self-quarantine at home for weeks. One such incident, came to light recently was that of Ning Zhu, who is a nurse in Wuhan. She is restless, as she is under self-quarantine after a chest scan on January 26 revealed that she had a suspected case of the novel Coronavirus.

Zhu is now waiting for a nucleic acid test, as that would provide the final verdict. She told CNN over the phone, “Right now, it is really a problem. Our hospital already has more than 100 people who are quarantined at home. If the tests are fine, we can go back to work. I actually don’t have any symptoms, there is just a slight problem with my CT scan and it seems there is a bit of infection.”

Zhu also informed that additionally 30 other medical workers have been confirmed to have the virus. She estimates that out of the 500 medical staff at the hospital, the virus may have affected more than 130 medics. Coronavirus has so far infected more than 60,000 across the world. She also requested CNN not to publicize the name of her hospital, as she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, a nurse from the Wuhan Central Hospital has said on the local social media platform Weibo, that around 150 colleagues at her hospital have been suspected to be infected including herself. The nurse has been kept under self-quarantine at her home since being infected last month, she was finally admitted into the hospital, where she works. 

She wrote on her social media post, “The (in-patient) floor I live on is basically filled with colleagues from my hospital. These are mostly double or triple rooms, with my colleagues names and bed numbers clearly written in black and white on the doors.”

She further wrote, every time a fellow medic came to check on her, she would hold her breath, as she wrote, “I am afraid the virus inside my body will come out and infect these colleagues who are still standing fast on the frontline”. 

Health workers have always worked at a high-risk situation during major outbreaks, which also include the SARS epidemic that has swept across China between 2002 to 2003. This time in Wuhan, the risk has increased due to a dire shortage of medical resources to cope with the influx of infected patients. 

In Wuhan, there are a total of 398 hospitals and about 6,000 community clinics. But the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission has designated only nine hospitals to treat coronavirus cases, and an additional 61 hospitals to receive patients with fever, which is believed to be a common symptom of the pneumonia-like illness.

Chinese health authorities have not disclosed the number of infections among the health care workers, who are bearing the brunt for fighting the epidemic. However, accounts shared by infected medical workers with CNN, social media posts, Chinese media reports, suggest that the extent of infection is likely to be more than hundreds in number.