China to withdraw thousands of medical staff from Wuhan as virus outbreak 'almost seen its end'
Beijing: China on Monday announced plans for an orderly withdrawal of thousands of medical staff deployed in the worst-hit Wuhan city as a top medical expert said the coronavirus outbreak has "almost seen its end" in the country but a final judgement would be made after a month.
A leading Chinese official group, headed by Premier Li Keqiang, suggested orderly withdrawal of the medical staff supporting virus-hit Hubei province for which Wuhan is the capital, where the virus first emerged in December last year.
China deployed over 30,000 medical personnel, including staff from the military, and built 14 makeshift hospitals at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in January. The makeshift hospitals have been dismantled.
The leading group asked officials to ensure high-level treatment of severe COVID-19 patients in Wuhan while withdrawing the supporting medical teams, state-run China Daily reported.
Timely and full payment of subsidies should be guaranteed for frontline personnel in epidemic prevention and control, including medical staff, community workers, police and volunteers, the leading group said.
Meanwhile, Cao Wei, Deputy Director and Associate Chief Physician of the Department of infectious diseases of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said the deadly coronavirus which brought China to a grinding halt for about three months has "almost seen its end".
"Currently, after three months of fight, the (virus) outbreak in China, which started in last December has almost seen its end," said Cao.
"We will still wait for another month to see and make the final judgement," Cao, who was in Wuhan directing mammoth medical operations to fight the disease, told an online media briefing.
She also said that no data has been found to indicate the relationship between the novel coronavirus and the weather.
The National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday that the coronavirus death toll in China rose to 3,213 with 14 new fatalities, while the imported cases climbed to 123 after 12 new infections were reported, prompting Beijing to make 14-day quarantine in special facilities compulsory for foreigners arriving in the country.
Cao along with Dr. Du Bin, Director of medical ICU, Peking Union Medical College, Yan Xiawei, Vice Chief of Internal Medicine, Peking Union Medical college hospital, and Wu Dong, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology of the same hospital addressed the foreign and local media in an online press briefing from Wuhan.
All the four were part of several thousand medical personnel sent by China to worst-hit Hubei province and Wuhan since the virus outbreak.
"We all know WHO declared it as a pandemic a few days ago. It means the situation globally will not solely depend on China or any other single county," Cao said, adding that China would take a call on it in about a month.
Asked whether China apprehends a second wave of the virus, she said the relapse of the COVID-19 epidemic in China "would not be a great concern under the current prevention and control measures."
She said the number of newly reported cases of coronavirus in the country, including imported ones, might stay at a relatively low level, but it would last for a certain period of time as the imported cases have become an important source of COVID-19.
Cao also said there is no evidence to show that the virus would abate with the onset of summer and the resultant rise in temperatures, ruling out the prevailing view that summer heat would subdue the virus. There is no data about Covid-19 relevance to weather pattern.
"The impact of the weather on COVID-19 has not been confirmed yet," Cao said.
Mi Feng, an official with the National Health Commission, said the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus fell to 9,898 on Sunday on the Chinese mainland.
The number of severe cases continue to decrease and the medical treatment is effective, Mi told the media on Monday.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,860 by the end of Sunday, including 9,898 patients who were still being treated, 67,749 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,213 people who died of the disease.
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Ballari violence: Were cops made scapegoats to cover political failure?
Bengaluru: Across Karnataka, a serious discussion has begun after the violence in Ballari and the swift action taken against police officers who were on the ground that day. The core question being asked is simple: when law and order fails, why are police officers the first to be shown the door, while political responsibility is quietly pushed aside?
The January 1 clash in Ballari was not a sudden street fight. It was a political confrontation involving supporters of two sitting MLAs. A banner related to the unveiling of a Valmiki statue became the flashpoint. What followed was stone-pelting, firing, and the death of a Congress worker. The situation spiralled within hours.
Within a day, Ballari SP Pavan Nejjur was suspended. Soon after, senior officers were reshuffled. Deputy Inspector General of Police Vartika Katiyar was transferred. No official reason was cited in the notification. But the timing made one thing clear: accountability, at least on paper, had been fixed.
Since then, there has been unease within police circles and political debate outside it.
Unconfirmed reports that Nejjur attempted suicide after his suspension were firmly denied by senior officers and the home minister. They said he was safe, resting, and under stress. Still, the very fact that such reports gained traction says something about the pressure officers feel when action is taken overnight, without public clarity.
Opposition leaders have called Nejjur a scapegoat, pointing out that he had taken charge only hours before the violence. They have asked how an officer can be blamed for a political clash he barely had time to assess. They have also drawn parallels with earlier incidents where police leadership was suspended after tragedies, while political decision-making remained untouched.
However, responding to this criticism, Home Minister G Parameshwara rejected the argument that the suspension was unfair because Nejjur had assumed charge only hours earlier. “It is not important whether he reported to duty on the same day (of incident) or one hour back. Duty is duty. He is not new to the department. IPS officers are trained to handle such situations any time. If he had acted swiftly and promptly, he could have prevented the situation from escalating.” He had said adding that Nejjur did not discharge his duties properly and that this was the reason for his suspension.
Now, fresh and unconfirmed reports suggest that Vartika Katiyar may have met a senior cabinet minister, questioning why she was made to pay the price for a situation that was political in nature. There is no official confirmation of this meeting. But the talk itself has added fuel to the debate.
What is being discussed in the state is not whether the police made mistakes. Many acknowledge that the situation on January 1 was mishandled. A clash earlier in the day was allowed to cool down without strong preventive action. Later, a banner came up near a politically sensitive location. The crowd should not have been allowed to build up. Better anticipation was needed.
At the same time, critics are asking whether the entire burden can be placed on officers when the trigger itself was political rivalry. Who installed the banner? Who mobilised supporters? Who had armed private gunmen present at the spot? These are questions that are still part of the investigation, yet administrative punishment moved faster than political accountability.
This has led to a wider comparison with past incidents, including the Bengaluru stampede after the RCB victory celebrations. There too, police officers were suspended after lives were lost, while decisions taken at higher levels were defended as unavoidable. Many are now saying Ballari fits into the same pattern.
The argument being made is not that the police are blameless. The argument is that responsibility appears to stop at the uniform. When things go wrong, officers are transferred or suspended to send a message. But when the violence is rooted in political rivalry, that message feels incomplete.
Within police ranks, there is also quiet concern about working conditions. Officers say they are expected to manage volatile political situations overnight, often with little room to push back against powerful interests. When things hold, they are invisible. When they collapse, they stand alone.
The Ballari episode has once again exposed this fault line.
For the government, the challenge is larger than one suspension or transfer. The real test is whether it is willing to publicly acknowledge political failures when law and order breaks down, instead of letting the system suggest that the police alone dropped the ball.
For now, what remains is a growing feeling across Karnataka that accountability is selective. And that whenever politics turns violent, the easiest answer is to change the officers, not the decisions that led to the violence in the first place.
