China coronavirus toll soars to 490; over 24,000 cases confirmed

The death toll in China’s coronavirus outbreak rose to 490 on Tuesday (February 4) while the total number of confirmed cases mounted to 24,324, China’s National Health Commission reported on Wednesday (February 5).

It said 65 deaths were reported on Tuesday, all from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan. It also said 3,887 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection were reported on Tuesday. Around 431 patients became seriously ill, while 262 were discharged from hospital after recovery.

The commission added that 3,219 patients remained in severe conditions and 23,260 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 892 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, it said. Over 2.52 lakh people who were in close contacts with patients had been traced with over 1.85 lakh others still under medical observation, it added.

By the end of Tuesday, 18 confirmed cases had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), including one death, 10 in the Macao SAR and 11 in Taiwan, it said.

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As the novel coronavirus, regarded as the most virulent in recent years, showed no signs of abatement, China has intensified its efforts to contain its spread by opening more hospitals in Hubei province to exclusively treat its patients.

A 1000-bed makeshift hospital was opened on Monday.

Another 1,300-bed hospital is set to be ready on Wednesday. Both will be run by hundreds of military medical personnel.

Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday said they would build eight more mobile cabin hospitals to treat the patients, China Daily reported.

All Chinese cities including Beijing have been reporting a daily increase in the cases of the virus, which has no cure yet.

The virus has now spread to over 20 countries. The Philippines reported the first overseas death due to the virus on Sunday while 176 cases have been reported from abroad so far. India has reported three cases of the coronavirus. All three patients from Kerala recently returned from the affected Wuhan city.

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India on Tuesday further tightened visa rules by cancelling the existing visas for Chinese and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks. On February 2, India temporarily suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China in view of the outbreak.

Currently, 647 Indians and seven Maldivians, who have been evacuated from Wuhan and Hubei are in 14-day quarantine at a medical camp in Manesar, near Delhi.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told the media here that 16 foreigners in China have been infected with the virus.

She, however, refused to provide details of their nationalities in her media briefing, citing privacy concerns. According to reports, those infected included four Pakistanis and two Australians.

Wuhan has thousands of foreigners since it is an education hub. Hundreds of Pakistanis have been requesting their government to evacuate them, citing the evacuation of Indians by the Indian government.

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China has struggled to contain the virus despite implementing unprecedented measures, including virtually locking down more than 50 million people in Hubei.

While the virus cases are increasing by the hour, Chinese health officials attributed the spiralling rate of cases and the death toll to shortages of hospitals mainly in Hubei and its provincial capital Wuhan.

Chinese officials have converted the national auditorium and gymnasium in Wuhan into a hospital to exclusively treat the growing number of coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday that the outbreak of the deadly virus does not yet constitute a “pandemic”.

In its report on Tuesday, the WHO said dramatic measures taken by China to rein in the virus has prevented significant spread abroad. The UN health agency’s chief also called for greater global solidarity, accusing some governments of wealthy countries of being “well behind” in sharing data on virus cases.

“While 99 per cent of cases are in China, in the rest of the world we only have 176 cases,” the UN health agency’s chiefs aid in a technical briefing to the WHO’s Executive Board in Geneva.

Earlier, the WHO categorised the coronavirus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).