Premier Li Keqiang, the second most senior Chinese leader after President Xi Jinping, paid his first visit to Wuhan on Monday (Jan. 27), as death toll spiked to 106 in mainland China.
Li currently heads a high-level group charged with fighting the coronavirus epidemic, according to an announcement made on Sunday (Jan 26) by Beijing.
Li guided response work, visited patients & medical workers
Videos and pictures from Chinese state media showed Li wearing a green face mask and dressed in blue plastic scrubs, as he visited hospitals and construction sites to rally the medical staff, workers and patients.
The China's State Council said that Li was in Wuhan to "inspect and guide" the ongoing response work.
In one of the videos, Li was seen visiting the construction site of the temporary Huoshenshan hospital.
Four state-owned construction firms broke ground on the eve of Lunar New Year, on Jan 24, with more than 1,000 workers toiling around the clock.
The hospital is set to open in a few days' time on Feb. 3, and will house 1,000 patients.
Li told the construction workers in the crowd,
"We must ensure quality [of the project].
Speed doesn't mean that quality is not important.
The project we are building must prevent infection.
And the quality of the project must be safe in the first place.
Can it be done?
Yes (from those in the crowd)"
In another video, Li addressed the medical staff at Jinyintan hospital, one of the Wuhan facilities for treating infected patients, saying:
"Stay healthy, and protect your own lives. Because your job is to do your utmost to save lives and protect health.
People across the country are relying on you."
2,000 more nurses sent in two days
According to South China Morning Post, Li said that "2,000 more nurses would be sent to Wuhan over the next two days, along with 20,000 pairs of protective medical goggles".
Li added that every effort should be made to ensure that all patients are admitted to the hospital.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Li's new role to fight the Wuhan virus and his visit "turns a rare spotlight on Mr. Li".
This is because, as WSJ observed, Xi usually "has assumed leadership of many such groups and beefed up their powers — often at the expense of the ministries that Mr. Li oversees".
WSJ also reported that #PremierComesToWuhan had garnered more than 40 million views on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, including 500,000 likes for the state broadcaster’s coverage of the visit.
Top photos from CGTN and SCIO Twitter.