Desperate patients struggle to get help in coronavirus-hit Wuhan as others wait it out

Fever clinics are packed as those who fall ill are forced to queue for testing kits and the chance of a hospital bed

For others, life under lockdown is frustrating but they are doing what they can to stay active and healthy

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Patients rest at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan on Wednesday. More than 10,000 people have contracted the virus in the city so far. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:00pm, 6 Feb 2020Updated: 5:50pm, 14 Feb 2020

Like many Wuhan residents, primary school teacher “Xiao Ya” had been fearing the worst as the deadly coronavirus outbreak took hold in her city, and the rest of China.

Last week it happened. Her 70-year-old father had been coughing for nearly 10 days and it was getting worse, her mother, 68, was barely eating. Xiao herself had no appetite and a low fever. She checked their temperatures – both had low fevers, too.

Two days later, CAT scans at the Wuhan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine showed her parents both had lung infections, while she had milder symptoms.

Hospitals in Wuhan – a city of 11 million people where the outbreak began – were already overloaded with patients. They were told to get testing kits for the new virus strain and if the results were positive they would have to go on a waiting list for hospital beds.

There were a lot of people in the same boat. At every hospital, fever clinics were packed and a limited number of testing kits were available for those at the front of the queue. They were handed out once the doctors had finished consultations for the day, which could be after midnight.

“I turned up at the fever clinics and they were all crowded with people just like me – with the same shadows on their CAT scans and the same desperate looks on their faces. I couldn’t get a slot [to see a doctor] so I tried another hospital, then another hospital,” the 42-year-old said.