After two high-ranking government officials in China’s Hubei Province died from the new form of viral pneumonia, many officials in Hubei are getting special intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) injections at medical facilities to protect themselves against the disease. Meanwhile, locals who have symptoms of the deadly virus are being turned away by hospitals.
Special Treatment
The information was made public when Chongqing-based Upstream News published a report about an official named Huang Tongzheng in Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, a neighboring province of Hubei, who recently developed symptoms similar to Wuhan pneumonia.However, the report was soon revised. The current version is only a short announcement of Huang’s case, and the section about Hubei officials receiving IVIG injections was completely deleted.
Cases
Prior to Huang’s case, Chinese state media reported the deaths of two high-ranking officials who died of Wuhan pneumonia in Hubei.He died on Jan. 26.
The second reported death was of a Hubei official named Yang Xiaobo, who was the mayor of Huangshi City between 2008 and 2014.
The “Two Sessions” are parallel administrative meetings of the government and Communist Party, held annually at various levels of government.
On Jan. 30, Huang Xianglong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of Songzi City in Hubei, began receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Upstream News reported that he is suspected of contracting the coronavirus, but the hospital would not confirm. He was promoted to his current position in September 2018.
The deputy director of the Hubei commerce department Huang Mouhong is also being treated at a hospital in Wuhan.
Ordinary Citizens Turned Away by Hospitals
Meanwhile, several individuals from Wuhan disclosed to the Chinese-language Epoch Times that their family members who experienced coronavirus symptoms couldn’t get admitted into the hospital for treatment.Mr. Wang, who currently lives in Toronto, Canada, told The Epoch Times that his mother in Wuhan had a fever on Jan. 15. When over-the-counter medication failed to relieve her symptoms, she went to the No. 4 Hospital in Wuhan on Jan. 19 and learned that she was infected by the virus.
However, she couldn’t receive treatment. Wang, who tried to help his mother by phone from Toronto, was told that any patient seeking treatment for Wuhan pneumonia needed to register with their community service director first. The director will then report the case to “upper levels.” After approval, the patient will be put on a waiting list.
“We don’t know how many people have been waiting to get treatment before my mother,” Wang said. “We can only wait. And the director refused to tell us who the ‘upper level’ is.”
Another woman from Wuhan said she and her husband sent her father to the hospital for treatment on Jan. 25. They literally “knelt down” to beg the hospital staff to admit him, but the hospital refused to admit her father, she said.
“My father passed away on Jan. 29 and was immediately cremated on the same day,” the woman said. “Now my husband also has symptoms. No one came to help us disinfect the room my father used to stay. We tried to purchase disinfectants to do it ourselves, but they are all sold out,” she added.
The Chinese-language Epoch Times called Jinyintan Hospital, a designated hospital for the treatment of Wuhan pneumonia, to inquire about the hospital’s current guidelines for admitting patients.
A hospital staff stated that the hospital now only admits patients who were selected and approved by the Wuhan Health Commission.
“Any patient who wants to seek treatment in our hospital will have to communicate with the Wuhan Health Commission,” he said.