The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has been noticeably absent from public view as his government scrambles to fight the coronavirus outbreak that claimed more than 400 lives and infected more than 20,000 people.
His most recent public appearance was on 28 January when he met the director general of the World Health Organization in Beijing and said he was “personally commanding” the response to the outbreak.
Yet Xi does not appear to be the face of the government’s fight against the virus. He has not been pictured visiting hospitals, doctors or patients. In the days after officials acknowledged the gravity of the crisis it was the premier, Li Keqiang, who visited Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak. While photos of a long convoy prompted rumours over the weekend that Xi was on his way to Wuhan, he has yet to turn up.
What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.
What other coronaviruses have there been?
New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are other examples – severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.
What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China’s national health commission, and there have been human-to-human transmissions in the US and in Germany. As of 7 February, the death toll stands at 636 inside China, one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. Infections inside China stand at 31,161 and global infections have passed 280 in 28 countries. The mortality rate is 2%.
Two members of one family have been confirmed to have the virus in the UK, and a third person was diagnosed with it in Brighton, after more than 400 were tested and found negative. The Foreign Office has urged UK citizens to leave China if they can.
The number of people to have contracted the virus could be far higher, as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by World Health Organization (WHO) experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2%. However, this is likely to be an overestimate since many more people are likely to have been infected by the virus but not suffered severe enough symptoms to attend hospital, and so have not been counted. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that people should call 111 instead of visiting the GP’s surgery as there is a risk they may infect others.
Is this a pandemic and should we panic?
Health experts are starting to say it could become a pandemic, but right now it falls short of what the WHO would consider to be one. A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in about 25 countries outside China, but by no means in all 195 on the WHO’s list.
There is no need to panic. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, and says there is a “window of opportunity” to halt the spread of the disease. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact.
Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin
Instead, state media have portrayed him as in command from a distance, issuing pledges to overcome the “devil virus” and approving measures such as the deployment of 1,400 military medics at a new hospital in Wuhan. On Monday, Xi chaired a meeting of the Communist party’s ruling politburo standing committee and ordered officials to work together to improve the country’s emergency response system and public health regime.
For a leader whose face and words decorate banners and signs across the country and feature in state media daily, the low-key approach during a time of national crisis seems out of character.
“This is clearly one of the most serious issues to confront China in decades. Xi has heavily centralised power in himself, cultivated a populist image, and vested himself with the title of ‘people’s leader’,” said Carl Minzner, a professor of Chinese law and politics at Fordham University. “Failing to publicly address the issue would seem likely to harm his populist image.”
Some experts say the approach may be deliberate. Xi, who has aggressively centralised power and made himself the core of the Communist party, may be more at risk to the political fallout of the coronavirus. Local government officials have so far borne the brunt of criticism, but as the central government handles the crisis more scrutiny will be placed on top officials.
“If the situation improves, he will take credit. If it worsens the blame will be pinned on Li Keqiang,” said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Some of the central-level efforts were approved by Xi, such as a lockdown in Wuhan and surrounding cities when there was not enough medical supplies and hospital capacity to cope with the number of patients.
Xi’s absence from the scene has been noticed. “He has not visited places hard hit by the virus,” Lam said. “This has been criticised in part because Xi claims to be the core of the leadership, the all-powerful leadership … and he doesn’t have the guts to go the epidemic-stricken areas.”
Previously available comments about Xi’s absence that mockingly used the term “personally commanding” appear to have been removed from the Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Douban.
A post titled “What Xi Dada has been doing these days” on the site Pincong.rocks, a Chinese-language discussion forum hosted overseas, included a timeline of his meetings and directives given in relation to the virus.
“Maybe he’s already found a safe place to hide and quarantine himself,” a commentator said in response to the post. “Maybe he is with all those face masks that have gone missing in Wuhan,” another said, in reference to the city’s shortage.
• This article was amended on 5 February 2020. The original wrongly attributed the comments from Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, to Vivienne Shue, a professor at the University of Oxford. We apologise for the error.
