COVID: In Wuhan where virus was first identified, there is creeping sense more suffering is coming
In the city where it all began, there is a creeping sense more suffering is coming.
Wuhan, the city now known worldwide as COVID-19‘s original epicentre, is experiencing a second surge.
It is two weeks since zero COVID restrictions were suddenly and abruptly reversed in China – exactly what that means in terms of infections and deaths is still unknown.
But three years to the week that the first patient was admitted to a Wuhan hospital with a “pneumonia of unknown origin”, people are again getting sick.
At hospitals across the city we saw ambulances lining up to drop people off and sick people queuing at fever clinics.
Many with symptoms are coming here for medicine, advice and care.
We saw one woman being connected to oxygen, and a panicked father, crying out for help, running with his child slung over his shoulder into the children’s section of the fever clinic.
But the vast majority did not seem overly worried.
In the queue we met Mr Li, who had brought his wife in as she had caught COVID and was suffering with a high fever.
He knew people who died of the disease in 2020 when it was ripping through the city – he thinks and hopes this time will be easier.
“The mentality is different now, in the beginning everyone was pretty scared,” he said.
“Wuhan was the first to have to deal with a new coronavirus outbreak, nobody had any experience.
“People have become more and more aware of COVID and have a certain psychological endurance.
A medical worker takes a swab sample from a resident in Wuhan
“At the moment the infection rate is high, but the fatality rate is very low.”
But it’s impossible to know just how high or how low.
Most infections are not being reported here anymore, and deaths are so narrowly defined that officially there have been fewer than 20 in nearly seven months.
Indeed, authorities confirmed on Tuesday that only COVID-positive patients who die of respiratory failure or pneumonia will be counted – anyone with an underlying condition will not.
But experts have predicted there could be hundreds of thousands of deaths by the spring, a million or more in total.
And there are other signs things are getting more serious.
Authorities ‘extremely anxious’
A crematorium on the outskirts of Wuhan was busy, family after family arriving, some dressed in traditional white scarves, others carrying framed pictures of their loved ones.
And authorities were extremely anxious – they made it very hard to film, and two cars of men followed us all day.
Mr Wang runs a small shop selling funeral decorations, he spoke to us as he was listing out what he’d sold that day.
“I’m very busy. This epidemic is lighter than 2020, but it is still more serious than normal,” he said.
“[In 2020] cremations were all handled by the government because there were so many people who died at that time, we couldn’t manage it.
“Now it is not mainly due to COVID that people die, but elderly people with underlying complications that inundate systems, the virus causes underlying diseases and leads to death.”
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But we may never know how widespread those deaths are, the instinct here is to conceal.
That was evident at the wet market where many believe the very first people became infected.
It is now totally boarded off. If you didn’t know it used to be there, you would almost certainly miss it.
Most people here just want to get on with their lives, and many are relaxed in the knowledge that Omicron is less dangerous than what hit their city exactly three years ago.
But there are those who think China has had time to prepare for this moment and didn’t – the very abrupt change in direction will come with consequences.
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
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The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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