Editorial: Huge task to contain deadly virus

Health Officials in hazmat suits check body temperatures of passengers arriving from the city of Wuhan. Photo / AP

There are few bigger tests for a nation than suddenly being confronted with a disastrous threat. As Australia takes advantage of a weather respite during a long, hot bushfire summer, China is trying — in an operation that involves putting an estimated 55 million people in lockdown — to contain a coronavirus than has already slipped its borders.

In both countries the threats have affected large areas, endangering people, draining resources and sent experts and authorities scrambling to respond.

Scientists believe the bush fires have been influenced by climate change and are contributing to it. Britain's Met Office reported that the fires had fuelled one of the biggest annual increases in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since measurements began in 1958.

China had to deal with a major outbreak, the Sars epidemic, 17 years ago. Then, authorities were criticised for a lack of transparency as officials downplayed the danger. The mobilisation to deal with the Wuhan virus is mindboggling in scale.

From a Kiwi perspective, where a disaster in our small country can seem overwhelming and small details get picked over, it's hard to grasp the sheer logistics of dealing with one potentially threatening many millions.

Public transport has been restricted in several Chinese cities. So far at least 56 people have died in China from about 2000 confirmed cases. The virus was first reported to the World Health Organisation at the end of last year. Cases have now reached other countries in Asia, the US, Europe and Australia.

Chinese authorities are racing to build two new hospitals. Medical staff are said to be heading to Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. Events have been cancelled and tourist sites temporarily closed. Travellers are having their temperature checked. The crisis is hitting during a Lunar New Year holiday period when people visit family.

In Wuhan, a city of about 11 million, roadblocks were set up. Flights were cancelled, rail, bus and ferry services suspended and now private vehicles are banned from central areas.

Experts have questioned the practical worth of such mass measures, especially with such a massive cost to civil liberties. Can all paths outwards be blocked? People could also have travelled with the virus without knowing it, because of its incubation period. Epidemiologist Dr Ian Lipkin, who worked on Sars, told the New York Times: "The horse is already out of the barn."

The WHO said such a huge quarantine operation in a big city was "new to science". But China is attempting to be firmly on the front foot in trying to stamp out the virus. Beijing doesn't want a high-profile disaster on the scale of Sars, which killed about 800 people and spread to 26 countries. President Xi Jinping warned that the virus spread was accelerating. There is a clear desire to stay politically on top of the narrative.

Perhaps the Australian bush fires, where PM Scott Morrison was heavily criticised for a slow, limp response, is a cautionary tale fresh in the memory.