China coronavirus: Death toll climbs to 2,744 amidst decline in cases

Beijing, Feb. 27 (PTI): The virulence of the novel coronavirus continues to show a declining trend in China which reported 29 new fatalities, the lowest in weeks, taking the death toll to 2,744 while the confirmed cases climbed to 78,497, officials said on Thursday.

The country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said it received reports 433 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection and 29 deaths on Wednesday from 31 provincial-level regions on the mainland.

Among the deaths, 26 were from the epicentre of the virus Hubei province and its capital Wuhan and one each from Beijing, Heilongjiang and Henan, it said.

In Hubei province alone 2,641 people died due to the virus since it erupted in December last year including 2,104 fatalities in Wuhan.

The province, which is under lockdown, reported 409 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, taking the total confirmed cases to 65,596, local health commission said.

Wuhan reported 383 new confirmed cases and 19 new deaths on Wednesday. In total, the city has registered 47,824 confirmed cases.

In all 34,978 people were hospitalised in Hubei province of which 6,581 were still in severe condition and 1,403 others in critical condition.

The commission also said Hubei reported 403 suspected cases, taking the total to 2,019 cases.

Meanwhile, Beijing is facing mounting pressure in efforts to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak as new confirmed infections surged due to arrivals from abroad and cluster outbreaks, state-run Global Times reported.

Officials from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDCP) on Thursday said the central government put the capital on top priority of its epidemic prevention and control work, with measures benchmarking those adopted in epicentre Hubei and execution even more rigorous and decisive.

By the end of Wednesday, capital Beijing recorded total 410 confirmed cases, five deaths and 2,658 persons with close contact with infected patients.

Ten more cases were reported in the capital after a woman suffering from coronavirus was released from prison in Wuhan and managed to travel to Beijing breaching lockdown.

According to the Beijing CDCP, the woman, whose surname is Huang, was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday. She was released from prison on February 17, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

“Epidemic control work in Beijing is most critical. Although the current situation in the capital is not as severe as in Hubei, by referencing the measures taken there, the steps taken in Beijing are much more decisive than in other cities,” Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at China CDC said.

“Our focus is the management of those who return to Beijing. To prevent the virus spreading, these people must quarantine themselves at home for 14 days. At the same time, we also go all lengths to manage the communities, as we issued different permits to each resident depending on if he or she is a permanent resident, a tenant or a temporary resident,” Global Times quoted an official as saying.

All over China, a total of 2,358 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 32,495 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery including 23,200 in Hubei province.

New coronavirus epidemic at ‘decisive point’ — WHO

The new coronavirus epidemic is at a “decisive point” globally, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday, urging affected countries to “move swiftly” to contain the disease.

“We’re at a decisive point,” Tedros told reporters in Geneva.

Pointing to a decline in new cases in China, Tedros said: “It’s what’s happening in the rest of the world that’s now our greatest concern.”

Urging countries at the early stages of the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease to “move swiftly”, he said: “If you act aggressively now, you can contain this virus, you can prevent people getting sick, you can save lives.”

“There does not appear to be widespread community transmission,” he added.

Tedros emphasised that all countries should ensure that their health systems were prepared for an outbreak.

“We are actually in a very delicate situation in which the outbreak can go in any direction based on how we handle it,” Tedros said.