China's Health Commission is warning the
ability of the deadly coronavirus to
spread is getting stronger
it comes as the number of people
infected by the new viruses jumps to
nearly 2,000 that's a 50% increase on
the previous statistic 56 people have
died so far the authorities are also
warning about the risks of the virus
mutating and based on the knowledge we
now have this is a emerging and new
disease the knowledge we have is quite
limited we are not very clear about the
source of the disease and the and the
infections are know entirely under our
control so based on the changes and the
evolvement of the infections we would
enhance our preparedness to respond to
the possible changes of the infections
well this latest development follows
President Xi Jinping's warning that the
country faces a grave situation
authorities are now warning that the
virus is contagious during its
incubation period that is different from
the SARS virus and that virus SARS
killed more than 800 people globally in
2003 the incubation period of the new
coronaviruses anything from 1 to 14 days
China's health Commission insists it
will be taking more measures to curb the
spread of Korean virus but hasn't yet
outlined specific details they have
though banned the sale of wildlife in
markets and restaurants although it
hasn't been confirmed that is how the
virus crossed into humans many people
believe it happened through snakes well
this is the effect the current
quarantine is having in Wuhan that's the
city at the center of the outbreak
officials preventing people from leaving
or entering it seems that most of the
population is staying indoors
our correspondent Steve McDonald is
inland yang having just visited who Bay
Province close to the exclusion zone
well it's still in a pretty dire state I
mean hospitals are calling for donations
from people in terms of face masks the
provincial government has ordered
millions of face masks so somewhere
they're churning them out
the production line special military
medical teams have arrived to arrive to
bolster the local teams and also teams
from Shanghai but but the problem is
just so huge and the lockdown area if
you could call it that is getting wider
and wider now so where we are we're just
across the border from who Bay in her
none but this is also a place with very
much at the heart of this emergency all
of these cars are either from this small
city or they've had to pass a screening
point to enter cities right along this
border area in the region of doing
similar things in some smaller villages
and towns they've just taken it upon
themselves to say anybody who's an
outsider who doesn't live there can't
come in so they're just kind of locking
down the village and deciding we're
gonna as a group ride this out and don't
let any outside is that sort of an
effective self quarantine protective
zone and the government in Beijing given
the the extent of this problem is
considering much more drastic measures
hundreds of thousands of people left who
Bay before that transport lockdown was
in place some of them were sick seeking
treatment so they've gone to Shanghai
Beijing another places seeking treatment
now imagine they're taking the virus
with them that means the problem has
also moved elsewhere and so we could
also see in the big cities of like
Shanghai Beijing transport lockdowns in
place there they're already talking
about preventing some transport arriving
at the Chinese capital now that hasn't
happened yet but again it just shows how
seriously the authorities are taking
this and their preparedness to take much
more drastic steps to try and control
this problem Steve McDonald reporting
there