Wuhan (China) (AFP)

Overwhelmed staff, patients left to fend for themselves, endless and agonizing wait: residents of Wuhan, haunted by the new coronavirus and exhausted by the wait, describe a chaos worthy of a horror film in hospitals.

The city of 11 million inhabitants, epicenter of the epidemic, has been de facto in quarantine since Thursday with a large part of its province of Hubei (center). And movement within the perimeter is more and more restricted.

At the Red Cross hospital, patients met by AFP confess their exasperation and their helplessness. All agreed to testify but on condition of anonymity, for fear of sanctions in a country where information is tightly controlled.

"It has been two days since I sleep and I have been wandering from hospital to hospital," said a feverish thirty-something who came to try his luck to see a doctor on Saturday evening. "Arriving now, my turn will be at best tomorrow morning".

The epidemic has created a psychosis in the city, with many patients choosing to go to the emergency room to find out whether or not they have contracted the new type of virus.

At the entrance of the establishment, a long line of patients are patiently preparing themselves for a very long wait, standing or on plastic stools. Some, better equipped, did not hesitate to bring a lounge chair.

But despite the large number of patients, the staff seems insufficient: the health crisis struck just before the long holidays of the Chinese New Year, when millions of workers return to their region of origin.

"The nurses are very courageous but the management is really chaotic!", Carried away a lady in her sixties, supported by her son.

This lucky woman waited only "five hours" before seeing a doctor. A few minutes later, an old man, wearing a Mao cap, hates to have waited all day for nothing and to be sent home "for lack of room".

- On the floor -

Wuhan hospitals are "saturated," the Municipal Health Commission admitted to the People's Daily, the governing body of the Communist Party.

An influx likely to increase the risk of contagion.

Faced with the congestion of the medical system, the city has just started the construction of two hospitals of a thousand beds each, which must be delivered in record time of less than two weeks.

According to the new China agency, the city has 4,000 hospital beds for infected patients or suspected cases and will have 6,000 more by the end of the month.

In the meantime, "there is no more room in the rooms, the staff are overwhelmed, some medicines are lacking and the patients are left to fend for themselves", laments the thirty-something.

And to show on his smartphone the photo of a patient on respiratory assistance lying on the floor in a hospital corridor, despite the risk of contagion.

AFP was unable to verify the authenticity of the photograph.

The virus, whose discovery was made on a city market, has infected nearly 2,000 people since December, 56 of them fatally, according to a report by the Chinese authorities on Sunday. The vast majority of cases have been reported in Hubei.

But many Wuhan residents say the toll is largely underestimated, as many patients cannot travel to hospitals due to transportation.

From midnight on Sunday (4:00 p.m. GMT), non-essential car traffic is prohibited in Wuhan as part of measures to curb the spread of the virus.

"There were many deaths in this hospital (...) so much so that certain bodies remained all day in general indifference," assured a witness. For him, "it was like in a horror film".

© 2020 AFP