Deadliest day as virus toll grows

Outbreak’s persistence dims optimism that measures are working

China’s daily death toll from new virus has topped 100 for first time, with more than 1000 total deaths recorded, the health ministry announced yesterday, as the spread of the contagion shows little sign of abating.

Though more offices and stores in China have reopened after the extended Lunar New Year break, many people appear to be staying home. Public health authorities are watching closely to see whether workers’ returning to cities worsens the spread of the virus.

Another 108 deaths were reported over the previous 24 hours, the National Health Commission said in a daily update. That increased the total to 1016 deaths, well beyond the toll taken by the 2002-2003 outbreak of Sars which comes from the same family of coronaviruses as the current deadly pathogen.

Newly confirmed cases fell slightly to 2478 from 3062 the day before, bringing the total to 42,638 on the mainland, some of whom have since been cured and released from hospital.

The outbreak’s persistence is dimming optimism that the near-quarantine of some 60 million people and other disease-control measures might be working.

Britain, meanwhile, declared the virus a “serious and imminent threat to public health” and said it would forcibly detain infected people if necessary. France tested scores of children and their parents after five British tourists contracted the virus at a ski resort.

The director-general of the World Health Organisation said that the agency is still unable to predict where the outbreak is heading but that he believes there is still an opportunity to contain it.

“In recent days, we have seen some concerning instances of onward transmission from people with no travel history to China, like the cases reported in France yesterday and the UK today,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The detection of the small number of cases could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire, but for now, it’s only a spark.”

More than 440 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China, including two deaths in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Britain issued its “imminent threat” declaration after a British man who caught the virus in Singapore in January appeared linked to several other confirmed cases in Europe. Five Britons, including a 9-year-old boy, contracted the virus in the French Alpine ski town of Contamines-Montjoie after staying in the same chalet as the British man.