At least 99 people from the epicenter of China’s deadly novel coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak are under quarantine at a hotel in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region’s (XUAR) Atush (in Chinese, Atushi) city, according to officials, where authorities are racing to control the spread of the contagion.
On Jan. 23, Chinese state media announced the first confirmed infections in the XUAR—two men who had previously traveled to Wuhan—and by Thursday at least 36 people have been infected, while more than 1,600 are under medical observation in the region after exhibiting symptoms associated with the virus.
Recent reports on social media, including one by a medical staffer in the XUAR, suggest that as many as 13,000 people from Wuhan may have entered the region ahead of an order by authorities to shut down all transportation in and out of the city of 11 million people last month, although these numbers could not be independently verified by RFA’s Uyghur Service.
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