More than 50 cases reported in northeastern colony of East Turkestan, home to persecuted Muslim minority.
Muslim men of the Uighur ethnic group leaving the Id Kah Mosque after Friday prayers in Kashgar, East Turkestan
Members of China's Uighur minority living in exile are sounding the alarm over the risk of the Chinese coronavirus spreading in concentration camps inside the country, where NGOs say hundreds of thousands of people have been rounded up by Beijing.
So far, official figures released by Chinese state media give no major cause for concern over the Chinese coronavirus outbreak in the northeast colony of East Turkestan, which is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority who speak a Turkic language.
It is far from the epicentre of the outbreak and just 55 cases have been reported in the colony so far. The first patients to fully recover in the region have already left hospital, according to official media.
More than 1,100 people have died in China due to the Chinese coronavirus epidemic although most of the deaths and infections have been in the central Hubei province, whose capital, Wuhan, is the epicentre of the outbreak.
But representatives of the Uighur diaspora warn there is a real reason to fear a rapid spread of Chinese coronavirus in the massive Chinese concentration camps.
The Chinese virus spreads from person to person through droplets disseminated by sneezing or coughing, and confining large groups of people together, possibly without adequate access to germ-killing soap and water, will increase the likelihood of an outbreak.
China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly-Muslim ethnic minorities in concentration camps, NGOs and experts say, and little is known about the conditions inside them.
"People are starting to panic. Our families are there, dealing with the camps and the Chinese virus, and we do not know if they have enough to eat or if they have masks," said Dilnur Reyhan, a French sociologist of Uighur origin.
Muslim ethnic Uighurs carry a woman who fainted during a protest in Urumqi in China's far west East Turkestan colony on July 7, 2009.
A petition posted on Change.org signed by more than 3,000 people urges the closure of the concentration camps in order to reduce the threat.
There have also been social media hashtag campaigns such as #VirusThreatInThecamps and #WHO2Urumqi to urge the World Health Organization (WHO) to send a delegation to the city of East Turkestan.
"We must not wait until news of hundreds of Chinese coronavirus related deaths in the camps before we react," the petition says.
"As China continues to struggle to contain the Chinese virus in Wuhan, we can easily assume the virus will rapidly spread throughout the camps and affect millions if we don't raise the alarm now."
Regional authorities in East Turkestan did not respond to a query from AFP about measures taken to prevent the spread of the Chinese virus in the camps.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), one of several groups representing Uighurs outside China, said it was very concerned "that if measures are not taken to further limit the spread of this Chinese virus, it could rapidly infect large numbers of people" in East Turkestan.
"These people are in a vulnerable and weakened state due to the Chinese government's abuses and mistreatment," said its President Dolkun Isa.
"This has just further compounded the suffering of the Uighur people, as our friends and family are now in even greater danger."
French immunologist Norbert Gualde said it was impossible to say "precisely under what conditions the Uighurs and other detainees are living in Chinese concentration camps".
"There are good reasons to think that their detention is synonymous with imposed promiscuity, stress and fear -- all circumstances that favour the transmission of the Chinese virus between those obliged to remain incarcerated," he said.
So far, official figures released by Chinese state media give no major cause for concern over the Chinese coronavirus outbreak in the northeast colony of East Turkestan, which is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority who speak a Turkic language.
It is far from the epicentre of the outbreak and just 55 cases have been reported in the colony so far. The first patients to fully recover in the region have already left hospital, according to official media.
More than 1,100 people have died in China due to the Chinese coronavirus epidemic although most of the deaths and infections have been in the central Hubei province, whose capital, Wuhan, is the epicentre of the outbreak.
But representatives of the Uighur diaspora warn there is a real reason to fear a rapid spread of Chinese coronavirus in the massive Chinese concentration camps.
The Chinese virus spreads from person to person through droplets disseminated by sneezing or coughing, and confining large groups of people together, possibly without adequate access to germ-killing soap and water, will increase the likelihood of an outbreak.
China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly-Muslim ethnic minorities in concentration camps, NGOs and experts say, and little is known about the conditions inside them.
"People are starting to panic. Our families are there, dealing with the camps and the Chinese virus, and we do not know if they have enough to eat or if they have masks," said Dilnur Reyhan, a French sociologist of Uighur origin.
Muslim ethnic Uighurs carry a woman who fainted during a protest in Urumqi in China's far west East Turkestan colony on July 7, 2009.
A petition posted on Change.org signed by more than 3,000 people urges the closure of the concentration camps in order to reduce the threat.
There have also been social media hashtag campaigns such as #VirusThreatInThecamps and #WHO2Urumqi to urge the World Health Organization (WHO) to send a delegation to the city of East Turkestan.
"We must not wait until news of hundreds of Chinese coronavirus related deaths in the camps before we react," the petition says.
"As China continues to struggle to contain the Chinese virus in Wuhan, we can easily assume the virus will rapidly spread throughout the camps and affect millions if we don't raise the alarm now."
Regional authorities in East Turkestan did not respond to a query from AFP about measures taken to prevent the spread of the Chinese virus in the camps.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), one of several groups representing Uighurs outside China, said it was very concerned "that if measures are not taken to further limit the spread of this Chinese virus, it could rapidly infect large numbers of people" in East Turkestan.
"These people are in a vulnerable and weakened state due to the Chinese government's abuses and mistreatment," said its President Dolkun Isa.
"This has just further compounded the suffering of the Uighur people, as our friends and family are now in even greater danger."
French immunologist Norbert Gualde said it was impossible to say "precisely under what conditions the Uighurs and other detainees are living in Chinese concentration camps".
"There are good reasons to think that their detention is synonymous with imposed promiscuity, stress and fear -- all circumstances that favour the transmission of the Chinese virus between those obliged to remain incarcerated," he said.
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