11:11 am: China sends more than 25,000 medical workers to Hubei

China has dispatched more than 25,000 health workers to help Hubei as of Feb. 14, as the central Chinese province seeks to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, state-owned Xinhua reported, citing a senior official at the National Health Commission.

"The total number of medical workers has far exceeded that for rescue in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and we did it at a much faster speed," Wang Hesheng, deputy head of the commission, reportedly said. He was referring to a magnitude 8 earthquake in May 2008 that hit southwest China's Sichuan Province, that killed an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people.

Wang said that of the 25,633 medical workers sent to Hubei, about 20,000 are now working in Wuhan city — where the virus is thought to have first emerged. The official said that number does not include medical staff sent by the military, according to Xinhua. -- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/16/coronavirus-latest-updates-china-death-toll-rises.html [cnbc]

Twenty-five thousand more medical workers flowing into the center of the #COVID-19 / #2019-nCoV / Wuhan #coronavirus outbreak ... I'm really hoping they get a handle on this soon.