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Coronavirus kills 69 more people in China’s Hubei as total cases soar beyond 30,000
China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of a lethal viral outbreak, has reported just shy of 2,500 additional cases of the illness and 69 new deaths, bringing the worldwide disease toll to over 30,000, with at least 635 fatalities.
As the spread of the novel coronavirus begins to slow in Hubei, the World Health Organization said on Thursday that it was too early to conclude that the outbreak had reached its peak, with the executive director of the agency’s Health Emergencies Program, Mike Ryan, telling a conference in Geneva it was “too early to make predictions on numbers.” Wednesday marked one of the deadliest days in China for the virus yet, seeing 70 new fatalities and nearly 3,000 new cases.
Singapore – the country with the greatest number of infections outside of China – meanwhile confirmed two more cases, including in one patient with no known connection to China. Officials warned the public to prepare “for the possibility of new infection clusters involving locals within the community.”
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Chinese doctor who sounded the alarm about coronavirus dies from the illness
Li Wenliang was reprimanded by police for 'spreading rumours' in December
The Associated Press · Posted: Feb 06, 2020 5:15 PM ET
A Chinese doctor who got in trouble with authorities for sounding an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak died on Friday after coming down with the illness in early January, a hospital reported.
The outbreak, centred in Wuhan, has now infected over 28,200 people globally and killed more than 560, according to latest figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China has reached 636 as of the end of Thursday, up by 73 from the previous day, the country's National Health Commission said.
Out of the total rise in the toll, central Hubei province — epicenter of the outbreak — reported 69 deaths, including 64 in the provincial capital Wuhan.
Across mainland China, there were 3,143 new confirmed infections on Thursday, bringing the total so far to 31,161.
Li was reprimanded by local police for "spreading rumours" about the illness in late December, according to news reports.
He had told a group of doctors on Chinese social media and messaging platform WeChat that seven cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had been confirmed linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, believed to be the source of the virus.
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Novel Coronavirus(2019-nCoV) Situation Report - 17
HIGHLIGHTS
• No new countries reported cases of 2019-nCoV in the past 24 hours.
• WHO is working with partners to strengthen global diagnostic capacity for 2019-
nCoV detection to improve surveillance and track the spread of disease. WHO and
partners have activated a network of specialized referral laboratories with
demonstrated expertise in the molecular detection of coronaviruses. These
international labs can support national labs to confirm new cases and
troubleshoot their molecular assays.
• WHO is convening a global research and innovation forum to mobilize
international action in response to the new coronavirus, covering a broad
spectrum of research areas including epidemiology, clinical care, vaccines,
therapeutics, diagnostics, animal health, social sciences, and other topics. More
details can be found here.
Currently, there are 15 laboratories have been identified to provide reference testing support for 2019-nCoV. These
laboratories include:
1. Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Thailand
2. Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands
3. Hong Kong University, Hong Kong SAR, China
4. Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan
5. Institute of Virology, Charité, Robert Koch Institute, Germany
6. National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa
7. National Institute of Health, Thailand
8. National Institute of Virology, India
9. National Public Health Laboratory, Singapore
10. Institut Pasteur Dakar, Senegal
11. Institut Pasteur, Paris
12. Public Health England, UK
13. State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology, Vector Institute, Russia
14. United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
15. Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Australia
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The first U.S. death known to be from COVID-19 occurred on Feb. 6
The first U.S. death known to be from COVID-19 occurred on Feb. 6 — nearly three weeks before deaths in Washington state that had been believed to be the country's first from the coronavirus, according to officials in Santa Clara County, Calif. The person died at home and at a time when testing in the U.S. was tightly limited not only by capacity but by federal criteria.
The person is one of three people posthumously identified as dying from COVID-19 in Santa Clara County, after the medical examiner-coroner carried out autopsies and sent samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The other two deaths took place on Feb. 17 and March 6.
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