Hundreds of animals found dead at epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in China

Hundreds of animals have been found dead in Chongqing in Hubei province, a mass die-off after the Chinese government deployed a fleet of trucks to spray affected cities.

Video of the disinfect trucks have been circulating on social media and party officials with the Communist Party blamed the deaths on what it called “massive disinfecting efforts carried out by Chinese authorities.”

At least 135 animals — including boar, birds and weasels — were found dead just in Chongqing.

The mass die-off comes as the Chinese government has deployed a fleet of disinfectant trucks to spray affected cities.

The country claims to have “mobilized a force of 5,300 forest rangers to monitor wildlife in the area” and enlisted 200 “full-time supervisors” to monitor the situation. The sites where the animals were found will be disinfected — and the carcasses presumably burned.

The coronavirus, which started in a market in Wuhan, is edging toward pandemic status. Over the weekend, the virus had been found in 29 countries with 78,767 confirmed cases. Most of those cases  76,936 are in mainland China. The death toll stood at 2,461, and 21,259 had recovered.

This week South Korea asked residents of Daegu, a city of 2.5 million people, to stay home and Italy reported its first death linked to the virus.

 

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Peg Fong is also in recovery from newspapers

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