Death toll in China's coronavirus outbreak rises to 563, total cases cross 28,000
The death toll in China's novel coronavirus outbreak went up to 563 as 73 people died on Wednesday, the highest one-day fatalities so far, while total confirmed cases rose sharply to 28,018, Chinese health officials said on Thursday.
The death toll in China’s novel coronavirus outbreak went up to 563 as 73 people died on Wednesday (February 5), the highest one-day fatalities so far, while total confirmed cases rose sharply to 28,018, Chinese health officials said on Thursday (February 6).
On Wednesday, 73 people died due to the virus and the new confirmed cases of the epidemic went up by 3,694, the Chinese National Health Commission announced.
Among the deceased, 70 were from Hubei province and Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak. Tianjin, Heilongjiang and Guizhou provinces registered one death each, the Commission said. Around 5,328 new suspected cases were reported on Wednesday, out of which 2,987 are in Hubei.
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On Wednesday, 640 patients also became seriously ill and 3,859 remained in severe conditions, the commission said.
As the virus is transmitted from human-to-human, over 2.82 lakh close contacts of the patients have been traced, with over 1.86 lakh others still under medical observation.
By the end of Wednesday, 21 confirmed cases had been reported from Hong Kong 10 in the Macao and 11 in Taiwan, the commission said.
The virus cases abroad climbed to 182 on Wednesday. The Philippines reported its first death abroad while Hong Kong announced its first casualty on Sunday (February 2).
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Chinese officials hope the cases will come down in the coming days with more specialised hospitals being set up in Wuhan.
China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said that a batch of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, which will be put into clinical trials to test its efficiency on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is expected to arrive in China soon.
Remdesivir has been used to treat Ebola infections abroad, a media report said. So far, there is no proper treatment to cure patients affected by the coronavirus.