After showing symptoms of coronavirus infection for a week, a woman in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in China, was finally tested at one of the overcrowded hospitals in the city.

She tested positive for the pathogen, but more disappointing news followed.

“I need medical care but the doctor only says to remain confined at home,” the woman in her 30s told The Asahi Shimbun in a phone interview. “Are they telling me to just wait to die?”

Residents in Wuhan are living in fear of being left untested, untreated and ultimately dying from the illness. Hospitals are overflowing with desperate people, medical supplies are in short supply, and doctors are being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of confirmed and possible cases.

The medical chaos has led to a much higher death rate in the city compared with the overall average in the country, according to experts.

Although the Chinese government has taken emergency measures to try to contain the virus, some Wuhan residents doubt those steps will be enough.

The woman in her 30s said she first developed a fever on Jan. 24, one day after the Wuhan government locked down the city and banned residents from traveling outside.

On Jan. 25, she felt dizzy from the fever and went immediately to a hospital.

However, a doctor there told her the hospital did not have the necessary equipment to test her for coronavirus.

She was prescribed medicine and told to wait at home. But the medicine did nothing to alleviate her symptoms.

Still running a high fever, she was finally able to take a test at the hospital on Jan. 31 and was confirmed to have the coronavirus.

She said the doctor told her: “To be honest, you should be hospitalized, but we have no available beds. Do what you can for yourself.”

She said she has been forced to go to the hospital each day for an injection, but the shots have not improved her condition.

In fact, she said, her coughing and shortness of breath are now more pronounced, and she experiences difficulties even walking and talking.

A man in his 20s living in Wuhan described the situation there in a phone interview with the Asahi on Feb. 4.

“The lobby of one hospital was filled with patients who constantly needed an oxygen mask,” he said.

The man’s grandmother, who lived nearby, died on Jan. 27. His mother was subsequently diagnosed with the coronavirus. His father and older sister also have symptoms, such as coughing and overall lethargy. But they cannot be hospitalized.

The man said his parents were given IV drips and oxygen masks at the lobby of the hospital and told to wait until a bed opened up.

He said about 20 such patients were waiting for beds at the hospital.

Although the man delivers rice gruel and noodles to his parents daily, he is also worried about becoming infected. He said he cannot buy protective clothing because of shortages in Wuhan.

“I want to do something, but there is nothing I can do,” he said.

Construction work on two new hospitals in Wuhan was completed in about 10 days. One, with 1,000 beds, opened on Feb. 3. The other one, with 1,600 beds, was scheduled to open on Feb. 5.

However, a woman living in Wuhan said by phone that her uncle in his 50s still could not be hospitalized as of Feb. 4 even though he was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Jan. 31.

Another woman who works at university in Wuhan said, “Whenever I go to the hospital, I see many people there.”

The two new hospitals may not be enough to handle the number of confirmed and suspected coronavirus cases in Wuhan.

According to Wuhan city government officials, 28 hospitals had taken in patients with the coronavirus as of the evening of Feb. 3.

Including the new hospital that opened on Feb. 3, those hospitals have a total of 8,199 beds. But according to city statistics, 8,279 beds are now being used to treat coronavirus patients.

Many hospitals have brought in beds and placed them in hallways and lobbies to care for patients.

In the meantime, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the city continues to increase by about 1,000 people a day.

Under Chinese government orders, about 3,000 beds were brought to an international convention center and an auditorium in Wuhan to treat patients with less-severe symptoms on the evening of Feb. 3.

As of midnight on Feb. 3, there were 6,384 coronavirus patients in Wuhan, about 31 percent of the total in China.

Among the 425 deaths from the virus in China, 313, or 74 percent, occurred in Wuhan.

In China, excluding Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, about 0.2 percent of those infected with the coronavirus have died. For Hubei province, excluding Wuhan, the death rate is about 1.4 percent.

But in Wuhan, about 4.9 percent of those infected have died.

An expert in pathogens said the death rate in Wuhan has risen because adequate care could not be provided to patients whose symptoms worsened.

“The medical care system (in Wuhan) has collapsed because there are too many patients,” said Mitsuo Kaku, a specially appointed professor at Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University who specializes in controlling infectious diseases.

He said inadequate quarantining of those with the coronavirus may have spread the disease to other people at hospitals seeking treatment for different illnesses.

Li Lanjuan, a Chinese doctor, said the cooperation of physicians from other parts of China is needed in Wuhan to adequately care for patients whose symptoms have worsened.

(This article was compiled from reports by Yuri Imamura, Kanako Miyajima in Shanghai and Yoshikazu Hirai in Beijing.)