Virus’ death toll surpasses SARS

Decline in new cases hints spread slowing

BEIJING — China’s virus death toll rose by 89 on Sunday to 811, passing the number of fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, but fewer new cases were reported in a possible sign its spread might be slowing as other nations stepped up efforts to block the disease.

Also Sunday, South Korea reported a new case in a 73-year-old woman whose relatives visited Guangdong province in southern China. That raised South Korea’s total to 25.

In China, some 2,656 new virus cases were reported in the 24 hours ending at midnight Saturday, most of them in the central province of Hubei, where the first patients fell sick in December. That was down by about 20 percent from the 3,399 new cases reported in the previous 24-hour period.

Outside China and Hong Kong, 288 confirmed cases have been reported in 24 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Experts say the declining daily toll of new cases suggests the virus’s spread might be slowing. They also say, however, the total will rise further once Chinese laboratories test a backlog of thousands of samples from possible cases.

The fatality toll passed the 774 people believed to have died of severe acute respiratory syndrome, another viral outbreak that originated in China.

The total of 37,198 confirmed cases of the new virus vastly exceeds the 8,098 sickened by SARS.

Meanwhile, a charter flight carrying Filipinos from Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak, arrived in the Philippines. The 29 adults and one infant will be quarantined for 14 days, the virus’s incubation period.

On Saturday, the U.S. State Department said two more flights from Wuhan with American citizens, permanent residents and close relatives landed in the United States. A spokesman said more than 800 American diplomats and others have been evacuated from Wuhan.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it will send experts to China starting Monday or Tuesday.

Elsewhere in China, the industrial metropolis of Chongqing in the southwest told residential communities to close their gates and check visitors for fever. The government said the spread of the virus through “family gatherings” had been reported in Chongqing but gave no details.

Andy Wong The Associated Press Family members wearing face masks ride on a tricycle Saturday in Beijing.