Outbreakdeathtoll risessharply
1ST DEATH IN HONG KONG Number of people dead jumps to 427; over 20,000 infected with virus
BEIJING: Hong Kong reported its first death from the new coronavirus on Tuesday, the second outside mainland China from an outbreak that has killed 427 people.
The total infections crossed 21,000 globally, with China recording the deadliest day with 64 new deaths and more than 3,000 as of early Tuesday.
The US, Australia and Singapore--where six new cases were reported including four humanto-human transmissions--have banned the entry of Chinese and other foreigners who were recently in China. Japan and South Korea banned entry to those who have visited the worsthit Hubei province.
Dozens of airlines have cancelled flights in and out of China. In response to Italy’s suspension of flights to China, the Chinese foreign ministry urged “certain countries” to rationally and fairly assess the situation and initiate measures per the World Health Organization advisory and not go beyond the reasonable limit and hinder normal exchanges.
The WHO said on Tuesday that the outbreak does not yet constitute a pandemic. “Currently we are not in a pandemic,” Sylvie Briand, head of WHO’S Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, told reporters in Geneva.
The outbreak has already crossed the SARS epidemic’s infections by around four times. The confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 20,438 by the end of Monday. The youngest Chinese patient so far is one month old and the oldest over 90 years old. Authorities said 2,788 patients remained in severe condition, and 23,214 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.
Wuhan city, where the outbreak began, will convert another stadium, a conference hall and a cultural building complex into makeshift hospitals to provide 3,400 more beds.
In a worrying development, “cluster cases” of the outbreak have begun appearing in different regions of China including in capital Beijing.
A cluster of coronavirus infection case was seen in a Beijing hospital. The nine patients included five medical personnel and four hospitalised patients were infected. A cluster outbreak refers to two or more cases found in a small area (such as one home or a construction site) within 14 days with the possibility of human-to-human transmission caused by close contact or the possibility of infection caused by joint infection.