A weak health-care system complicates China’s coronavirus battle

THE DOCTORS who examined Rana Zhou’s parents decided that the couple had probably caught the coronavirus which has been sweeping their home city, Wuhan, and spreading globally. But they said they did not have enough test kits to be sure. Instead of finding them beds in a hospital, officials in their neighbourhood told them to go to one of many hotels which the government has requisitioned in order to monitor and isolate people with minor virus-related symptoms. But when her father’s fever worsened, staff said they could not take care of him. They told the pair they would have to return home.

It is a scary time to be ill in Wuhan. The city has one-third of all confirmed infections by the virus and three-quarters of the deaths caused by it. People there are barred from travelling elsewhere (similar rules apply across Hubei, a Syria-sized province of which Wuhan is the capital). Since late January military medics have been piling into the city. Soldiers are helping enforce its cordons. The army’s growing presence reassures many people, says a resident. But some find it unnerving.