Chinese President Xi Jinping was spotted wearing a surgical mask and meeting with patients after an extended public absence amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The 66-year-old Xi visited a number of places around Beijing on Monday, a day after China saw 97 additional deaths from the virus, a single-day record in the country’s health crisis. More than 40,000 people have been infected, and 910 have died from it. Most of the deaths and infections occurred in mainland China, but the coronavirus has spread to the United States and more than two-dozen other countries.
Xi visited a community neighborhood office on Monday where he received a briefing on the work being done to combat the disease. He also was seen having his temperature taken by health workers and mingling with residents, according to the New York Times.
“Let’s not shake hands in this special time,” Xi said to some laughter.
“How much do the vegetables cost?” he asked two people carrying grocery bags.
The Chinese leader also visited a hospital in Beijing where he wore a lab coat and spoke via video chat with hospital officials in Wuhan, the city in which the virus originated and where many of the deaths have occurred.
“Here, on behalf of the Central Party Committee,” Xi said, “I extend my high respect and heartfelt thanks to you and to the medical workers in the fight against the epidemic throughout the country.”
The public display was seen as a way for him to project his authority during the outbreak, which is the worst health crisis China has experienced since the 2002-03 SARS outbreak.
Xi has not yet visited Wuhan, but Premier Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan have. Sun imposed extreme measures during her visit and ordered authorities to go house-to-house and to send the infected to quarantine internment camps.
“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,” she said last Thursday.
Amid fears of a worldwide pandemic, the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global public health emergency.
