Coronavirus death toll rises to 2,592 in China
China’s death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 2,592 on Monday, after the National Health Commission reported 150 more fatalities, all but one in the epicentre of Hubei province while a total of seven people died and 763 got infected in South Korea.
Monday’s death toll was a jump on the 97 deaths reported Sunday.
The commission also confirmed a total of 409 new cases in China, with all but 11 in Hubei.
Multiple provinces have reported zero new infections for several days in a row, even as the situation continues to worsen within Hubei and outside of China.
Only one death was reported outside of Hubei on Monday, in Hainan province, where the official Xinhua news agency said a 55-year-old doctor had died.
The coronavirus has spread to more than 25 countries and is causing mounting alarm due to new pockets of outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Italy reported a third death while cases spiked, and authorities suspended football games while the Venice Carnival was cut short.
Iran’s confirmed death toll rose to eight, prompting travel bans from neighbouring countries.
China’s numbers of daily new infections are well down from the outbreak’s early height.
But the country’s authorities have sowed confusion about the data by repeatedly changing their counting methods.
Chinese authorities also said that non-residents of Wuhan might leave the quarantined city if they showed no symptoms and had never had contact with patients.
Wuhan, a city of 11 million, has been under lockdown since January 23 after the authorities shut down transport links into and out of the city in an effort to contain the new coronavirus outbreak.
Meanwhile, South Korea reported 161 more coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the nationwide total to 763 and making it the world’s largest total outside China.
The country has seen a rapid surge in the number of coronavirus cases since a cluster of infections emerged from a religious sect in the southern city of Daegu last week.
Most of the country’s cases are connected to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southern city of Daegu, including 129 of Monday’s confirmations, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
Two more people had died, it added — both of them connected to a second cluster around a hospital in Cheongdo — taking the toll to seven.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in on Sunday raised the country’s virus alert to the highest ‘red’ level, in a bid to strengthen the government response to the spiralling outbreak.
The government has extended kindergarten and school holidays by one week nationwide and plans to enforce tighter two-week monitoring of arrivals from China.
News Courtesy:www.newagebd.net
