The Chinese premier was on Monday visiting Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus epidemic, the government said. Li Keqiang traveled to "investigate and guide" the authorities' efforts to contain the virus, but also to "meet with patients and medical personnel on the front lines" of the epidemic.
This is the first visit by a very senior Communist regime official to the city since the start of the new coronavirus epidemic, which has killed 80 people and infected at least 2,744 people in China since December. In official photos released by the government, Li Keqiang appears dressed in a blue plastic blouse, his face covered by a mask of the same color, examining a bedridden patient on a screen.
Extended leaves
Li Keqiang has been appointed to head a "task force" to oversee the fight against the epidemic, which began in December in a market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold. The holiday period for the Chinese New Year, which was to end on January 30, has been extended until February 2 in order to "limit population movements," state media said.
The New Year period usually results in massive population displacements across the country. While Wuhan and its region are de facto quarantined and cut off from the rest of the world, several large cities in the north of the country - Beijing, Tianjin, Xian - as well as Shandong Province have announced the suspension of long coach lines distance.
WHO Director's visit
While the epidemic is now spreading to ten countries, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for his part announced that he was going to China to discuss with the authorities ways to contain the virus.
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