'Do the little bit I can': Wuhan-born woman raises funds to help hospitals back home

A Prince George woman originally from Wuhan, China is raising money to buy basic medical supplies to help halt the spread of the mysterious coronavirus that originated in her hometown.

"I try to do the little bit I can," said Vicki Larsen.

So far, the retired restaurant owner and her friend Sarah Lin Yang, also from Wuhan,havebought $400 worth of surgical gloves and face masks. But Larsenhopes to purchasemore supplies, including sanitizing solution and full-body protective equipment, before shipping the load to Wuhan, the sprawling capital of China's Hubei province.

The city is now on lockdown, leaving 11 million residents in a state of mass quarantine, while over-capacity hospitals continue to face a shortage of medical supplies. The virus has now killed 41 people, all in China, mostly within Hubeiprovince.

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"I know it's very limited but I'm trying my best," the 54-year-old told CBC's Andrew Kurjata about her effort to help, which involves a partnership with Marquee International, a Prince George grocery store that isalso accepting donations.

"It's very scary and very sad."

Fortunately, Larsen says, nobody she knows hascontracted the virus.

The 'Chicago of China'

Larsen and her family left Wuhan for British Columbia's north when she was16, but she never lost touch with her hometown.

Over the last decade, Larsen has visited Wuhan every year, always drawn back by the city's famous breakfast treat: hot dry noodles.

"That's the first thing I do [when] I get to Wuhan," said Larsen, about her affinity for the dish. "It could be 12 o'clock, middle [of the] night. That's what I want."

She last visited this past October, whenChina's seventh most populous city bustled with people. Now,streets lie mostlyempty as many residents hunker indoors. When people do venture outside, they are required to wear face masks, though theB.C. Centre for Disease Controlhascast doubt on the effectiveness of the masks.

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"It's very desperate," said Larsen, who receives continual WeChat updates from friends back home. "Everything is shut down."

The epidemic has emerged at Lunar New Year, typically one of China's busiest times of year. When people would normally be flocking to outdoor celebrations, the government has instead encouraged residents to wish their friends and family a happy new year over social media.

"It's a very different new year for Wuhan," she said.

A growing global crisis

On Friday, one day after banning travel to and from Wuhan, China expanded the lockdown to include 12 cities and 35 million people across the central part of the country.

Meanwhile, "to address the insufficiency of existing medical resources," the city is constructing a 1,000-bed hospital modelled after the Xiaotangshan SARS hospital in Beijing. The facility is a prefabricated structure, slated for completion Feb. 3.

The SARS hospital was built from scratch in 2003 in just six days to treat an outbreak of a similar respiratory virus, which spread from China to more than a dozen countries, killing about 800 people.

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According to China's National Health Commission, more than 1,287 people in China have beeninfected by the virus, bringing the global total to over 1,300. So far, cases have been identified in France, Australia and the United States, including Washington state.

There have been no confirmed cases in Canada, butLarsen's thoughts are more than 9,000 km away, where the picture looks very different.

"It really hurts, and you just feel helpless," Larsen said. "I wish I could do more."