WHO names virus as 100 die in a day
DISEASE OFFICIALLY ‘COVID-19’
THE new coronavirus has been officially named as Covid-19, the World Health Organisation said.
This stands for “Coronavirus disease 2019”, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.
It clears up confusion with other types of coronavirus, such as that which caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, known as Sars-CoV.
But despite the WHO’s work, the death toll in mainland China, where the outbreak began, has passed 1,000 people, health authorities announced yesterday.
The daily number of deaths from Covid-19 also topped 100 for the first time in China, as more offices and shops began to reopen after the extended Lunar New Year break. Many are remaining home.
The UK, meanwhile, declared the virus a “serious and imminent threat to public health” and said it would forcibly detain infected people if necessary.
The businessman at the centre of a British outbreak of Covid-19 has thanked the NHS for his treatment and said he is “fully recovered”.
Steve Walsh, 53, from Hove in East Sussex, who is still in quarantine at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, picked up the illness while at a conference in Singapore.
On his way back to the UK, he stopped off for several days at a French ski chalet, where five Britons were subsequently infected.
In Japan, health minister Katsunobu Kato said the government was considering testing everyone remaining on board the Diamond Princess – thus forcing them to stay there longer.
The cruise ship, which originally carried 3,711 passengers and crew, has been quarantined in Yokohama after 135 cases were confirmed onboard.