Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a surprise visit to Wuhan on Tuesday, deemed the epidemic "practically contained" at the epicenter of Covid-19, according to comments reported by state media. "The first results were obtained by stabilizing the situation and reversing the trend in Wuhan and Hubei", the surrounding province, where some 56 million inhabitants have been quarantined since the end of January, said the president, quoted by the official new China agency.
Dramatic drop in the number of contaminations
Xi Jinping's arrival comes after the Ministry of Health's announcement on the same day of encouraging figures for China, with only 19 new infections in the past 24 hours. A dramatic drop from the hundreds of contaminations announced daily in February, signifies that the drastic containment measures are bearing fruit.
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Xi Jinping, turquoise mask on the face, arrived Tuesday morning in Wuhan, then went "as of his descent of plane" towards the hospital of Huoshenshan, the one which had been built in 10 days by an army of workers , said CCTV television. He then interacted - at a good distance - with patients and nursing staff via videoconference, according to the images of CCTV.
Xi Jinping also went to a residential area in Wuhan to speak with quarantined residents and officers responsible for applying the preventive measures. The new coronavirus appeared in December in Wuhan, before spreading throughout the country and then abroad. More than 110,000 people have been infected worldwide, including some 4,000 fatally, the vast majority in China.