1st Covid-19 death in France
Chinese tourist first fatality outside Asia, epidemic feared
TOP WHO experts to reach Beijing this weekend to assist China
THE TOLL rose to 1,523 after 143 more people died in China
Paris/Beijing, Feb. 15: An 80-year-old Chinese tourist has died from the new coronavirus in France, the first death confirmed outside of Asia, French health minister Agnes Buzyn said on Saturday.
Buzyn said she had been told about the death of the patient — in hospital in Paris since late January — late on Friday, adding that his condition “had deteriorated rapidly” after several days in a critical condition. Six people with the virus remain in hospital in France, Buzyn said, adding that none were seriously ill.
Three deaths from the virus have so far been recorded outside mainland China — in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.
Top WHO experts are set to arrive in Beijing this weekend to assist China to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
The first fatality outside Asia, fuelled concerns about the epidemic. More than 66,000 people are now infected from the virus in
China, health officials said.
On Saturday China’s Health Commission said the toll in China rose to
1,523 after 143 more people died in the country, most in Hubei, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.
There were reports of
2,641 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 143 deaths on Friday from 31 provinciallevel regions, it said.
The most concentrated number of cases outside China is on a cruise ship quarantined off the Japanese coast, which is holding at least 285 people with the virus among its
3,711 crew and passengers.
A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, are among the 3,711 people on board the quarantined ship. Three Indians are among those infected on the ship. Several countries have banned arrivals from China and major airlines have cut services with the country.
The coronavirus has posed a big threat to the medical staff in China as more than 1,700 Chinese health workers have been infected by the virus while treating the patients and six of them have died so far.
Beijing, Feb 15: Stepping up efforts to contain the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, China has begun to quarantine large quantity of bank notes in the affected areas and temporarily store some of it in warehouses to ensure that the disease does not spread through cash, a Chinese official said on Saturday.
Fourteen-day quarantine has become a norm among people people showing symptoms of COVID-19 in China and many parts of the world since the virus started spreading.
Experts have been asking people to frequently wash hands and face besides wearing masks as basic measure to prevent its spread. The toll in the epidemic climbed to 1,523 with 143 new fatalities reported mostly from the worst-affected Hubei province, while the confirmed cases jumped to over 66,000, Chinese health officials
said on Saturday.
Fan Yifei, vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, said money supply in the country would be ensured, with four billion yuan ($572 million) in new bank notes already allocated to Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, before the Spring Festival holiday. Fan said the central
bank would temporarily store bank notes from major government institutes or state enterprises in warehouses to prevent the disease spreading through the handling of cash.
Banks have also been told to sanitise notes before giving them to enterprises, Fan said. ‘
Fan said cash from hospitals
and wet markets were being stored and bank notes and coins sanitised with UV light before they were released back into circulation. The movement of banknotes between major government institutions and enterprises has also been suspended.