China’s Coronavirus Death Toll Reaches 360, overtakes SARS
Government authorities in Hubei province, which is also the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 56 new deaths. The death toll in China thus reaches 360, which also exceeds the 349 mainland deaths during the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, also in China.
At the start of the week, China’s death toll from the Coronavirus epidemic has reached 360, with increasing global concern about the outbreak and governments closing their borders to the people returning from China.
Government authorities in Hubei province, which is also the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 56 new deaths. The death toll in China thus reaches 360, which also exceeds the 349 mainland deaths during the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, also in China.
Authorities took action while struggling to contain the virus in the eastern city of Wenzhou, closing the roads and confining people to their homes. Wenzhou is around 800 kilometres from Wuhan, the metropolis at the heart of the health emergency.
The coronavirus that has emerged out of Wuhan late last year has already infected more than 16,400 people across China and reached about 24 other countries.
The G7 countries, which include France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom, have all confirmed the cases of the coronavirus. The G7 countries are planning to discuss a joint response to contain the virus, Health minister of Germany, Jens Spahn said recently.
Meanwhile, some positive news from Thailand is coming that an elderly Chinese patient, who is treated with a cocktail of flu and HIV drugs had shown dramatic improvement and tested negative for the virus within 48 hours. Thailand has so far confirmed 19 cases of Coronavirus.
Most of the infections overseas have been detected in people who have travelled to Wuhan or to Hubei province recently. Wuhan is an industrial hub with 11 million populations.
Seeing the gravity of the virus, many countries are closing their borders to people who have been to China recently. For example, Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Israel has been banning foreign nationals from visiting the country if they have been in China recently.
They have also warned the native citizens against travelling to China, while Russia, Nepal and Mongolia have closed their land borders. The number of foreign nations, who have recently reported the infections rose to 24, after Russia, Sweden and Britain confirmed their first cases this week.
2,103 new confirmed cases have been detected in hardest-hit Hubei province at the start of the week, bringing the total infected by the virus to more than 16,480.
As hospitals in Wuhan are overflowing, China today will open a military field hospital that has been built in just 10 days to treat the people affected by the virus.
