Shanghai, China
Reuters
The death toll from a new coronavirus in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563 on Thursday, its third consecutive record daily rise, as experts intensified efforts to find a vaccine for a disease that has shut down Chinese cities and forced thousands more into quarantine around the world.
Hubei province, the epicentre of the epidemic, reported 70 new deaths on Wednesday and 2,987 new confirmed cases – more than 80 per cent of the total reported by Chinese authorities. The other fatalities were in Tianjin city, the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang and Guizhou province in the south-west.
A police officer wears a face mask and goggles at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China, on 4th February. PICTURE: Reuters/Thomas Peter
Hubei province in central China has been in virtual lockdown for nearly two weeks, with its train stations and airports shut and its roads sealed off. The flu-like virus was first identified in Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan and is believed to have originated at a seafood market in the city.
There have been two deaths outside mainland China – in the Philippines and Hong Kong – both following visits to Wuhan.
Hundreds of foreigners have been evacuated from Wuhan and placed in quarantine centres around the world, and thousands of passengers and crew were in lockdown on two cruise ships in Asian waters.
Ten more people on a cruise liner in the Japanese port of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, tested positive for the coronavirus, NHK television reported citing the Japanese health ministry, bringing the total number of cases on board to 20.
About 3,700 people are facing at least two weeks quarantined on the ship after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who travelled on it late last month tested positive.
One passenger using the handle @daxa_tw tweeted on Thursday that crew members had handed out medication refill request forms for those in need of medicines.
In Hong Kong, 3,600 passengers and crew were confined to their ship docked in the city for tests after three people on board had tested positive earlier.
More than two dozen airlines have suspended or restricted flights to China and several countries, including the United States, have banned entry to anyone who has been in China over the previous two weeks.
Hong Kong said all visitors from mainland China would be quarantined for two weeks, while Taiwan banned the entry of mainland residents from Thursday.
Hundreds of experts will gather in Geneva next week, on 11th to 12th February, in an attempt to find a way to fight back against the outbreak by speeding research into drugs and vaccines, the World Health Organization said. A multinational WHO-led team would go to China “very soon”, it added.
Asked about reports of “drug breakthroughs”, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said: “There are no known effective therapeutics against this 2019-nCoV [virus].”
While most people infected with the virus recover quickly with only mild symptoms, the virus can lead to pneumonia and other severe respiratory illnesses. It is still too early to know what its death rate will be, since there are likely to be many cases of milder disease going undetected.
China’s National Health Commission said another 3,694 coronavirus cases were reported throughout the country on 5th February, bringing the total to 28,018.
More than 200 cases have been reported in 27 other countries and regions outside mainland China, according to a Reuters tally based on official statements.
– Reporting by LUSHA ZANG, RYAN WOO, ROXANNE LIU and SE YOUNG LEE in Beijing, DAVID STANWAY, YILEI SUN and WINNI ZHOU in Shanghai, TOM WESTBROOK in Singapore, JAMIE FREED in Sydney, MATTHEW TOSTEVIN in Bangkok, STEPHANIE NEBEHAY in Geneva, Hong Kong and Taipei newsrooms, DAVID LAWDER, ANDREA SHALAL, SUSAN HEAVEY and MAKINI BRUCE in Washington.
