China reports 25 more virus deaths
China on Tuesday reported 25 more deaths from a new viral disease, raising the total to at least 106, as the U.S. government prepared to fly Americans out of the city at the center of the outbreak.
Health authorities in Hubei province, where the coronavirus first was detected in December, reported 24 deaths and those in Beijing reported the Chinese capital’s first fatality. No national toll was announced, but 81 other deaths had been reported through Monday.
The U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where authorities cut off most access Jan. 22 in an effort to contain the disease, was preparing to fly its diplomats and some other Americans out of the city. Japan, France, Mongolia and other countries also were preparing evacuations.
China had expanded its already sweeping diseasecontrol efforts by extending the end of this week’s Lunar New Year holiday, the country’s busiest travel season, by three days to Sunday to keep the public at home and reduce the risk of infection spreading. Mongolia closed its border with China. Hong Kong and Malaysia announced they were barring entry to visitors from Hubei province. Chinese travel agencies were ordered to cancel group tours nationwide.
U.S. health officials expanded their recommendation for people to avoid non-essential travel to any part of China, rather than just Wuhan and other areas most affected by the outbreak.
China has confirmed more than 2,700 cases of the new virus, most in Wuhan. More than 40 cases have been confirmed elsewhere in the world.
China’s increasingly drastic containment efforts began with the Jan. 22 suspension of plane, train, and bus links to Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. That lockdown has expanded to 17 cities with more than 50 million people – the most far-reaching disease-control measures ever imposed.
The epidemic has revived memories of the SARS outbreak, which began in China and killed nearly 800 people. The virus is from the coronavirus family that includes the common cold but also more severe illnesses like SARS and Middle
East Respiratory Syndrome. The new virus causes coldand flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath and pneumonia.
The virus is thought to have spread to people from wild animals sold at a market in Wuhan. On Sunday, authorities banned trade in wild animals and urged people to stop eating meat from them.