BEIJING • Control of the coronavirus epidemic in China is showing an active and improving trend, state television reported yesterday, quoting a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
With the measures the government has taken, the possible wider spread of the outbreak has been averted, it said. The government is asking Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, to continue with controls on the flow of people out of the province, it added.
The remarks were made as international experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), in Beijing to probe the coronavirus outbreak, began meeting their Chinese counterparts.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the team visited the main infectious disease facility Ditan Hospital and the Anzhen community centre and health clinic, and held talks with the China Centre for Disease Control yesterday.
"Later this week, they are going to Sichuan and Guangdong provinces to understand the application and impact of response activities at provincial and county levels," Mr Jasarevic said.
Officials said yesterday that the total number of coronavirus cases across mainland China rose by 2,048 to 70,548, with 1,770 deaths.
Outside China, more than 500 infections have been confirmed, mostly in people who travelled from Chinese cities, with five deaths - in Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and France.
China is considering delaying its most high-profile annual political meeting for the first time in decades, as the government attempts to contain the outbreak.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) will meet next Monday to consider a delay of the annual meeting of the full Parliament planned to convene on March 5, the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.
The Standing Committee will also consider measures to curb practices that may have contributed to the deadly strain of virus jumping to humans, including a ban on the wildlife trade and the consumption of wild game.
Some 3,000 members of China's Parliament were expected to convene in Beijing for about two weeks of meetings attended by President Xi Jinping and other top leaders.
The decision represented an acknowledgement by the Communist Party that the health crisis had disrupted basic mechanisms of government.
Mr Zang Tiewei, spokesman for the NPC's legislative affairs commission, was cited as saying the body's deputies were needed back home.
"In order to ensure that people's attention is focused on the prevention and control of the epidemic and that people's lives and health are given top priority, the chairman's council... considered it necessary to postpone," Mr Zang said, according to Xinhua.
Officials faced the risk that some attendees could unintentionally transmit the virus. And gathering political leaders at great expense in the capital while many Chinese remain cooped up at home could also prompt public criticism.
Meanwhile, Beijing said it will set up a new mask factory within just six days to meet soaring demand for protective gear, Xinhua reported yesterday. The factory will be able to turn out 250,000 masks each day, it said, adding that it was set to be completed by Saturday.
The rapid pace and makeshift nature of the plant mirror measures taken in the virus epicentre of Wuhan, in Hubei, where hospitals were built from scratch in days.
Producers of masks and other protective equipment around the world have been unable to meet demand in the wake of the outbreak.
Last month, CMmask, a Chinese mask maker that supplies 30 per cent of the domestic market, said daily orders for five million masks were more than 10 times its usual level.
However, the virus has taken a toll on the economy. Yesterday, China's central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending, while ratings agency Moody's lowered its 2020 gross domestic product growth forecast to 5.2 per cent.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
