Posted on Friday, January 31, 2020 at 8:37 a.m.
The body of a dead man was left on a sidewalk for several hours in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the viral pneumonia epidemic, before he was taken to the rescue.
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The man, who may be in his sixties, wears a white protective mask over his face. Dressed in black, he is stretched out on his back, his arms long along the body. No link can be established between his death and the coronavirus which has already killed 170 people in China, the vast majority of which in Wuhan or its region.
But Wuhan’s quarantine last week and the ban on driving there practically emptied the streets of the city, and explains the relative anonymity in which this person died.
An AFP journalist saw the body dead Thursday morning outside a furniture store. Then, shortly after, police and rescuers arrived in full protective suits.
The man died a few dozen meters from Wuhan Number 6 Hospital, one of the main medical centers for treating people affected by the virus. The police and local health authorities, contacted by the AFP, could not provide any details on the conditions of his death.
“Many people are dead”
After examining the body, medical personnel carefully place a blue blanket over the body. Visibly nervous police then surround the body with boxes to hide it from public view, before a team of forensic scientists continue examining the body. Once this is finished, they take off their full coveralls, before being immediately sprayed with disinfectant by their colleagues.
A passer-by who heads towards the scene of the incident is prevented from approaching by a resident in pink pajamas, who says he fears that the dead man will be infected with the virus.
“It is terrible,” she said, visibly affected, and said that overwhelmed medical personnel could not take care of the victim immediately. “Many people have died in recent days,” she says.
Two hours on the sidewalk
A man who smokes near the scene is told by the police to put out his cigarette and put on a mask, as has been mandatory in the city for the past few days. It runs quickly.
After remaining on the sidewalk for more than two hours, the body is finally placed in a yellow body bag, then transported on a stretcher in a white van with tinted windows.
The police and medical personnel immediately begin to disinfect the places where the body was found.
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