- Daily. "I am the only customer of a central Wuhan hotel. The streets are empty because of the virus"
- Wuhan.In the 'constipated' heart of an isolated and quarantined city
- New Year. "No one will be allowed to leave the city"
- Coronavirus of China, France confirms three cases, USA two and Australia one
Saturday, 16.00 (9.00 in Spain)
Chinese New Year. The year of the rat. The year of prosperity, says the horoscope. Although it started with a bad foot, well, with a bad virus. Wuhan is constipated. The girl from the Xinzhou District knows it well. A common friend has put us in touch. She has been locked up at home for three days now. He does not want to give his name, but his Telegram. On his profile he has a picture of a manga drawing.
My ill-fated Chinese she replaces him with her perfect English. He wants to tell how his family is living these days in a quarantined city. And at parties. "Other years, on the first day of the New Year, we always made fires and the children were in the street playing with their friends. Today we would have to be receiving visits from friends, visiting the homes of our relatives and eating at the home of the elderly. But today nobody knocks on our door to give us his blessing. Nor do we dare to go out , "explains the girl.
"Fortunately in our building we don't know any cases of contagion . But in the one next door, the whole community is infected. That's why we're not going to move from here. We have two refrigerators filled with food to endure these days."
- Is there fear?
-A bit. Or at least a feeling of prudence. We stay at home all day and follow the news. But we don't know what the truth is and which one isn't . Few know what really happens out there. The government says that the situation is fine, that it is controlled. But we watch the videos of Twitter and WeChat we see that there are a lot of people infected everywhere. We do not know how long this situation will last.
It's time to go back to the hotel for a while. On the way, I only find an open shop where there is only one kind of breaded corn and soft drinks left . Enter more or less normal that this holiday is almost all closed. Although this Saturday seems everything but precisely that: a party.
Saturday, 14.30 (6.30 in Spain)
The fog - which is actually pollution - bathes the promenade along the sandy shore of the Yangtze River , which divides Wuhan into two parts. I look at the phone to update myself with the new data: 1,330 cases diagnosed with the coronavirus throughout China, 41 dead and 38 healed . In addition, I read that new infections have been discovered in France, Australia, Malaysia and another in the United States.
I also read that among the new fatalities is one of the doctors who has been caring for the patients. And I see a video of a group of toilets dressed in anti-infection suits congratulating the New Year and the first electronic microscopic images that have left the coronavirus .
I take some pictures and some video with the water and the big buildings in the background. You hear nothing but the sound of the waves hitting the shore. A few meters away, there is an open-air museum with Chinese statues that recreate various moments in history. I have made new friends . And, of course, I take selfies with them.
Before leaving for my next appointment, I check the news and look at the cover of one of Wuhan's main newspapers. The headline highlights a phrase that Chinese President Xi Jinping said yesterday during his speech for the Lunar New Year: "It is a great historical moment for Chinese civilization . " Under the headline was a huge photo of seven doctors, in their protective suits, watching a patient with tubes everywhere that was infected by the coronavirus.
Saturday, 11.00 (4.00 in Spain)
At the entrance of the Hankou Hospital there are three men who have removed the mask to smoke a cigarette. It is the fourth hospital in Wuhan that I visit this week. And, like the others, there is also chaos and collapse in this . The doctors have been exhausted for days. They have reported it on social networks through videos. Something that is not usual in China. The issue of skipping the censorship imposed by the regime, I mean. Although, the truth is that many of those videos have already been deleted in the popular social network of the country: Weibo. But before, they made the leap to Twitter. I speak of images in which patients come collapsing on the floor, losing patience in hospitals and even of the dead in corridors covered with sheets.
At the entrance of the Hankou Hospital I have a temperature control with a digital thermometer. I give 36º . All in order. The first thing you see is a long queue of people waiting. Many are nervous. There are screams and some push. A little further inside, in one of the rooms, there are dozens of patients sitting with serums and IVs in place .
Again outside, at the door, we talked to a man who is leaning on a corner. He says his name is Zheng and that he came this morning to see if he was infected because he got up with a lot of cough. Although he has no fever. He also tells that he has two relatives (a cousin and an uncle) admitted to the center for a week. Next to Zheng, another man protests because he has been told that he has to stand in line to be taken care of and ensures that most people who wait in line do nothing and that they should sneak into him.
I keep collecting testimonies inside the scepter. This time, the good guy from Zheng, who speaks more or less English, has offered to help me with the translation. Touch to go for the patients. But that will go in another chronicle later.
Thursday, 9.30 (2.30 in Spain)
Today I left the hotel with a full stomach. I'm still the only person staying there. One feels a bit like El Resplandor if we say that the hotel has more than 500 rooms, lots of light, wide corridors ...
Well, what I was going to do is that this morning one of the cooks made me a plate of very rich noodles for breakfast. And the receptionist has given me five more masks, besides taking my temperature and checking that I had no fever. "Today is a sad day , " the boy tells me.
The streets are practically empty. The shops, except for some sporadically functioning premises, are closed. Although it is not uncommon on this holiday date. There are cleaning employees who are disinfecting the sidewalks. And a few passers-by taking a walk calmly. Some are even dressed in something similar to pajamas. Except for spontaneous temperature controls in the middle of the streets, there is no panic. That space of collective hysteria that one can believe from the distance there is in Wuhan, is only reserved for a very specific area: inside hospitals.
When looking at a Didi (the Chinese application similar to the Uber) I don't get any. Not even to ask for a taxi. When trying, a message appears that says "to prevent the spread of the disease, Didi has suspended all its services in the city." Then add that remember to put on the mask and if I feel any symptoms of fever that go to the hospital . Very good. To go in a hurry because they hardly pass taxis down the street. And the ones that are there are busy or don't stop. Specifically, 50 minutes pass and a good walk until a good Samaritan who drives a taxi agrees to take me to my next destination.
Saturday, 00.30 (Friday 17.30 in Spain)
Outside, it's still raining. I review the message that had come to me from Ariel Yuan in full darkness. The one in my hotel room where the light had gone. Wuhan's night. That of the unlit lanterns on Hezuo Road. That of a Chinese New Year more muted than normal. At least, from doors to outside. Because, within the abnormality that the epicenter of the coronavirus is experiencing these days even without an easy to digest name (technically they have called it 2019-nCoV), Ariel has done something normal: to have family dinner to celebrate the holiday.
"How are you celebrating?" I wondered about WeChat - a Chinese application similar to WhatsApp - after sending the image of two homemade Dim sum trays prepared by her mother. Then send another capture of an elongated table with 15 typical dishes: duck, prawns, chicken with asparagus, viscera, beet salad, stew, hake ...
"Me here ... writing. Happy New Year!" I replied. Ariel lives in Shanghai , but returned to Wuhan before this city became a totally blocked city. After talking with her, I check the latest news updates to update my article: there are already a dozen cities trapped in Hubei province. In total there are 41 million people trapped .
It is as if in Europe they quarantine Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia. All transports are closed. No one can enter or leave. Not by land, sea or air . Specifically, during all this last day, in the exits of the city some have tried it by car. But, unless you have the certified permission of a health officer, the police stop the drivers, take the temperature with a digital thermometer and turn them around.
I also read that in the Chinese media that the Wuhan authorities have begun to build on the periphery a hospital with 1,000 beds only for infected . And it will be finished on February 3. Yes, only in 10 days. It will seem amazing, but when there was the SARS crisis in 2003 - the virus that shares kinship with that of Wuhan and that left Guangdong Province and spread through 37 Asian countries leaving 774 dead and more than 8,000 infected - in Beijing a hospital, that of Xiaotangshan, was built in seven days.
They say that this new center will occupy an area of 25,000 square meters and there are already 400 doctors from Shanghai and Guadong who are going to move to Wuhan to occupy the squares. The purpose, apart from treating the infected, is to look for the original source of the virus, that is, the wild animal that was sold in the market where it sprouted.
Finally, I review the data on how China's economy and tourism is reeling a little these days because of the virus. And in the capital, in Beijing, the Forbidden City has even been closed. What a sad New Year that comes to the poor.
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