China coronavirus: Wuhan residents describe ‘doomsday’ scenes as patients overwhelm hospitals
- One woman said her husband had been feverish and coughing blood but was turned away by several hospitals that said they had no room
- Desperate scenes come as death toll rises to 41 and more than 1,000 cases of infection confirmed nationwide
Hundreds of patients in Wuhan who have yet to be confirmed as carrying the new strain of coronavirus are becoming increasingly desperate as the city struggles to cope with the numbers reporting pneumonia symptoms.
One 36-year-old, speaking by phone outside a major hospital in the city, said she had spent the past week taking her sick husband from hospital to hospital in a vain attempt to get him tested for the virus, which has already killed 41 people and infected hundreds more.
“I have nothing. No protective clothing, only a raincoat, and I am standing outside the hospital in the rain,” said the woman, who gave her name as Xiaoxi.
“I am desperate, I have lost count of time and days. I don’t know if we will both live to see the new year.”
She said that Lunar New Year’s eve felt like “doomsday” as there was nowhere for her and her sick husband to go in the locked-down city.
