Hong Kong reports its first death of coronavirus patient

HONG Kong on Tuesday became the second place outside mainland China to report the death of a coronavirus patient as restrictions on movement were imposed in more cities far from the epicentre, including the home of tech giant Alibaba.

The toll on the mainland soared to 425 deaths after 64 more people died, the biggest single day tally since the first fatalities emerged last month.

In a sign of growing concerns about infections rising further in major metropolitan areas, authorities in eastern Zhejiang province limited the number of people allowed to venture outside in three cities.

Three districts in Hangzhou – including the area where the main office of Chinese tech giant Alibaba is based – decided to allow only one person per household to go outside every two days to buy necessities, affecting some three million people.

The city is only 175km southwest of Shanghai, which has more than 200 cases, including one death, so far.

Similar measures were imposed in Taizhou and three districts in Ningbo, with total populations of nine million, days after the same was done in Wenzhou, home to another nine million people.

Z heji a ng pr ov i nc e ha s conf ir med 829 cases – t he highest number outside the c ent r a l re g ion of Hubei, whose capital, Wuhan, is the epicentre of t he outbrea k.

The disease is believed to have emerged in a market in Wuhan that sold wild animals, spreading rapidly as people travelled for the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.

China has struggled to contain the virus despite enacting unprecedented measures, including locking down more than 50 million people in Hubei.

The death of the 39-yearold man in Hong Kong came a s t he semi-autonomous cit y closed a ll but t wo land crossings with the Chinese mainland to slow the spread of t he v ir us.

Hong Kong media said the man had underlying health issues that complicated his treatment. He had visited Wuhan last month.

Hong Kong has been particularly on edge over the virus as it has revived memories of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak of 2002-2003, which killed nearly 300 people in the financial hub and 349 people in the mainland.

With more than 20,400 confirmed infections in China, the mortality rate for the new coronavirus is much lower than the 9.6 per cent rate for Sars.

The virus has so far spread to more than 20 countries,

prompting the World Health Organisation to declare a global health emergency, several gov er n ment s t o i n s t i t ut e t ravel rest r ict ions, a nd a i rlines to suspend f lights to and from China.

On Sunday the Philippines reported the death of a Chinese man who had come fromWuhan – the first outside China.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Minister of Health Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad told a news conference on Tuesday that the country’s first citizen – hailing from Selangor state – has contracted the virus along with another Chinese national from Wuhan, bringing the tally of confirmed cases in the country to 10.

The 41-year-old Malaysian travelled to Singapore for a meeting with colleagues from China – one of them from Wuhan – between January 16 and 23, Dr Dzulkefly said.

“He returned to Malaysia on January 23, and on January 29 he received treatment at a private hospital because of fever and cough,” he said.

He said the Chinese national, 63, arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on January 18 and was placed under home surveillance after visiting a hospital on January 23 complaining of fever.

Lab tests revealed on Monday that both men had contracted the virus.

China’s Communist leadership made a rare admission of fallibility on Monday as it acknowledged “shortcomings and difficulties exposed in the response to the epidemic”.

The elite Politburo Standing Committee called for improvements to the “national emergency management system” at the meeting, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

“It is necessary to strengthen market supervision, resolutely ban and severely crack down on illegal wildlife markets and trade,” the Politburo said.

The government also said it “urgently” needed medical equipment such as surgical masks, protective suits and safety goggles as it battles to control the outbreak.

Most of t he deat hs have been in Wuhan and the rest of surrounding Hubei province, which has largely been under lockdow n for a lmost t wo weeks.

A 1,000-bed field hospital in Wuhan built from scratch within two weeks to relieve overburdened medical facilities started receiving patients on Tuesday.

A second makeshift hospita l is due to open later t his week.