A top Chinese official has ordered authorities where the coronavirus originated to go house-to-house and send those infected to quarantine internment camps.
The Chinese government dramatically increased its coronavirus containment efforts in Wuhan, China, on Thursday and have begun implementing drastic new measures, according to the New York Times.
Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, 69, announced new procedures in the city of 11 million that include going to each home and checking the temperature of all residents.
“Set up a 24-hour duty system. During these wartime conditions, there must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever,” Sun said on Thursday.
Sun ordered medical workers to go door-to-door to move any of those infected, with force, if necessary, to makeshift quarantine camps that include a convention center and other converted buildings. The country has already outlawed people from leaving Wuhan, and images from inside the converted stadium show tight rows of beds separated by just feet.
Some on Chinese social media evoked imagery from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic when comparing the draconian measures.
“It must be cut off from the source,” Sun told medical workers during a tour of one of the shelters. “You must keep a close eye. Don’t miss it.”
As of Thursday, more than 550 deaths and 28,088 infections have been officially reported in China, although experts believe that number could be far higher than authorities have said.
The death toll from the outbreak increased by 73 on Wednesday, its largest single-day jump. And on Thursday, the Chinese doctor who tried to warn the public early on about the illness and was subsequently punished by the government died after contracting the virus.
There have been 12 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, including through person-to-person contact. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency as fears of a global pandemic grow.
