Coronavirus death toll surpasses fatalities from SARS; total 811 deaths in China

The National Health Commission on Sunday (February 9) announced that the death toll in China due to novel coronavirus epidemic rose to 811, while the confirmed cases jumped to over 37,000.

According to a daily report, 89 deaths were reported on Saturday and there were 2,656 new confirmed cases of the deadly infection.

A total of 811 people have died of the disease so far and 37,198 confirmed cases have been reported in 31 provincial-level regions, according to the commission.

Among the 89 deaths, 81 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, two in Henan, and one each in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shandong, Hunan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it said.

On Saturday, 600 people recovered and walked out of the hospitals. This included 324 in Hubei province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The death toll of coronavirus has surpassed the fatalities caused by SARS, quotes The Washington Post. Nearly, 744 were killed due to SARS it spread in 26 countries during the nine-month epidemic.

In the wake of the outbreak, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a global health emergency.