No new virus cases in Hubei except Wuhan
Covid-19 outbreak returns to the country of origin as the number of cases globally goes past 1,00,300; Vatican City reports its first infection
BEIJING: China’s central province of Hubei, excluding the provincial capital Wuhan -- where the novel coronavirus first emerged in December 2019 -- has reported no new cases of the infection over 24 hours for the first time in the outbreak, authorities said as they seek to stem imported infections in other areas.
Wuhan reported 126 new confirmed cases on Thursday but there were no new infections elsewhere in the province, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
Of the 17 new cases outside Hubei, 16 were imported from outside China, where the epidemic is believed to have peaked in February even as infections across the world surged, signalling a shift in the virus’s spread from China to the countries beyond.
A government official on Friday hinted that China may soon lift the quarantine imposed on the province, which has been under lockdown for over a month.
BEIJING/ VATICAN CITY: China’s central province of Hubei, excluding the provincial capital Wuhan, reported no new cases of the novel coronavirus over 24 hours for the first time during the outbreak. Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic, reported 126 new cases on Thursday but there were no new infections in the province apart from those.
Outside of Hubei, there were 17 new confirmed cases, bringing the total new infections in mainland China to 143 on Thursday, up from 139 cases a day earlier.
Of the 17 new cases, 16 were imported from outside of China 11 in Gansu, four in Beijing and one in Shanghai. Beijing’s four cases were from Italy.
As new cases dwindle in China, attention has turned to potential infections arriving from overseas.
Authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong have all vowed to quarantine travellers from countries hit the hardest by the coronavirus, which Beijing identified as South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy.
The overall number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 80,552 as of Thursday.
The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China was 3,042 as of the end of Thursday, up by 30 from the previous day.
The virus has now infected more than 1,00,300 people worldwide and killed more than 3,400.
Meanwhile, Zhang Boli from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a member of the central government expert group in Wuhan said the provincial capital could see zero new infections by month end and other cities are likely to report the same by the middle of the month. Zhang was quoted as saying by state media that outside Hubei, people could take off their masks and resume normal life by the end of April.
The Vatican said on Friday that a patient in its health services had tested positive, the first in the tiny, walled city state surrounded by Rome.
The discovery brought the epidemic to the heart of the capital of Italy. The death toll in Italy, where the virus has hit in the north, stood at 148 on Thursday.
A Vatican spokesman said the case was diagnosed on Thursday and that services in Vatican clinics had been suspended to sanitise the areas.
Spain confirmed its fifth death, with 365 confirmed cases. Iran reported 1,234 new cases, taking the total to 4,747. The country reported 17 more deaths, taking total fatalities to 124.
Facebook said it is closing its London offices until Monday after a visiting employee from Singapore was diagnosed with coronavirus.