Report: Wuhan Coronavirus Patients Left to Die Without Medical Care

A report at the Epoch Times on Thursday found appalling conditions at the hotels in Wuhan, China, where coronavirus patients have been quarantined. Whistleblowing family members of the quarantined patients said they have been left to die without medical care.

A woman with the surname Yang told the Epoch Times her mother died swiftly from the coronavirus after inadequate testing and a lack of treatment because hospital beds were scarce. Yang’s father was warehoused in one of the quarantine hotels soon afterward, where he found no one actively caring for the patients. Running a fever as high as 104 degrees, he eventually secured permission to leave the hotel and walked two miles to a medical center, which said he probably had the coronavirus but would not admit him because no beds were available. He walked all the way back to the quarantine hotel, where he remains in grave condition, able to communicate with his daughter only through a video chat system.

“Please help us. I already lost my mom, I cannot afford to lose my dad!” Ms. Yang sobbed to her interviewer.

Another patient named Wang Xiangkai found himself in a quarantine hotel filled with feverish patients but no one providing medical care.

“There is no treatment whatsoever. Confirmed patients and suspected patients are placed together at the quarantine site. Basically they are left to die on their own,” his daughter said.

Wang Xiangkai’s brother was also condemned to the same quarantine hotel and died of his infection there. The family was billed for his cremation but was not allowed to see his remains. Wang was not able to get permission to leave the hotel, so he somehow escaped and returned home, where several other members of his family are now displaying coronavirus symptoms.

The Epoch Times quoted reports from 2003 that patients during the SARS epidemic were treated the same way, locked into quarantine facilities and left to die without care in hopes the epidemic would burn itself out. Entire villages were locked down and allowed to die in order to control the infection.

Chinese manufacturers are reportedly ramping up production of face masks to meet soaring public demand, but the World Health Organization on Friday warned there could be a worldwide shortage of protective equipment. 

The Chinese government has highly publicized the rapid construction of new hospitals and the conversion of large buildings like sports arenas into emergency treatment centers, but the Epoch Times noted there may still be an acute shortage of actual medical supplies to go around, so those “treatment centers” might be better understood as “containment camps.”