A weak health-care system complicates China’s coronavirus battle
More medical staff and better primary health-care facilities would help
THE DOCTORS who examined Rana Zhou’s parents decided that the couple had probably caught the coronavirus which has been sweeping their home city, Wuhan, and spreading globally. But they said they did not have enough test kits to be sure. Instead of finding them beds in a hospital, officials in their neighbourhood told them to go to one of many hotels which the government has requisitioned in order to monitor and isolate people with minor virus-related symptoms. But when her father’s fever worsened, staff said they could not take care of him. They told the pair they would have to return home.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Under observation”
From the February 8th 2020 edition
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