China struggles to cope with coronavirus

After just a few weeks the coronavirus crisis has become an all-embracing, extraordinary, economy-destroying, panic-driven drama on a scale not thought possible, let alone predicted. The most bizarre decision came out of the UK Foreign Office today. The FCO ordered, or I guess I should say advised, ALL Britons to leave China immediately. There are an estimated 30,000 Brits in China! THIRTY-THOUSAND! Where are they, who are they, why are they there in such large numbers? And, more importantly, how the hell can they just upsticks and come back to the UK? What if they had been there for, say, 15 years and like living there? Are they supposed to abandon everything and take the first flight out? And by the way, flights out are few and far between. And if they did all leave at the same time, what happens when they arrive at Heathrow? Do they put 30,000 people into a million coaches and cart them off to some wilderness facility for a fortnght so they can't endanger the rest of us? And if they don't and they arrive at Heathrow and get the first taxis out and return to see their beloved great aunts in Wiltshire or Southend, is there even the slightest risk that among the 30,000 there will be half a dozen carriers of coronavirus and thus the spreading will begin. I find it extraodinarily inept of the government to just tell every Brit to leave. It sounds like a-not-thinking-it-through panic measure. Most of the 30,000 will probably stay put, take precautions and lie low for a few weeks. But from the latest reports coming out of Beijing, I doubt they will have much confidence in the Chinese government who appear to have done their best to play down the crisis, in the hope that it will go away. Too late, President Xi Zinping. The good old Communist party central committee has failed again. Those infected have gone from a few hundred to more than 20,000 in the flick of a finger, with more than 400 dead. It doesn't sound of epidemic proportions as yet, but if all foreign nationals are told to leave the country this deadly virus might get its tentacles into every nation in the world. That would truly be a pandemic. And even if it doesn't happen, the Chinese people are going to face a nightmare time until an antidote is found. The building of a 1,000-bed hospital in less than two weeks is nothing short of miraculous but at this rate they are going to have to build these instant hospitals in every region in the country. Neither the Beijing government nor the World Health Organisation seem capable of handling this global scare.