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China virus cases pass 70,000 as WHO mission begins
BEIJING, Feb 17, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The number of people infected with the
new coronavirus in China passed 70,000 on Monday as international experts
began meetings with their Chinese counterparts on how to tackle an epidemic
that has caused global concern.
The death toll jumped to 1,765 in mainland China after 100 more people
died in Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December before
spreading across the country and overseas.
Worries about its spread remain high and the epidemic’s reach was
highlighted by the US announcing that more than three dozen Americans from a
cruise ship quarantined off Japan were infected.
The number of new cases of the COVID-19 strain spiked last week when
officials in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases to include
people diagnosed through lung imaging.
The number of new cases in the province on Monday was around 100 higher
than those on Sunday but still sharply down from those reported on Friday and
Saturday.
The latest figures came as the head of the World Health Organization said
international experts in a WHO-led joint mission had arrived in Beijing and
had had their first meeting with their Chinese counterparts.
“We look forward to this vitally important collaboration contributing to
global knowledge about the #COVID19 outbreak,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
said on Twitter.
Mi Feng, National Health Commission spokesman, said Sunday that slowing
case numbers nationally showed that China was controlling the outbreak.
But Tedros has warned it is “impossible to predict which direction this
epidemic will take”.
The UN health body has also asked China for more details on how diagnoses
are being made.
– Tightening movement –
The scale of the epidemic ballooned on Thursday last week after
authorities in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases, retroactively
adding 14,000 cases in a single day.
Chinese authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei and its
capital Wuhan under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the
rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.
Even as China insisted the epidemic was under control, Hubei authorities
announced on Sunday a tightening of movement across the province.
This includes broad instructions that residential compounds and villages
be “sealed off” from unnecessary visitors, with tenants’ outings “strictly
managed”.
Local authorities elsewhere in China have also introduced measures to try
and stop the virus spreading.
Beijing’s municipal government has enacted a rule requiring people coming
to the capital to self-quarantine for 14 days, according to official media.
Outside mainland China, Taipei officials reported the island’s first death
from the new coronavirus on Sunday, as a 61-year-old man from central Taiwan
with underlying health problems but no recent overseas travel history died in
hospital.
He is the fifth person outside of the mainland to die from the virus, with
the other deaths in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and France.
The biggest cluster outside China is on a quarantined cruise ship off
Japan, with 355 infections confirmed.
A top US health official on Sunday said 40 Americans from the ship have
become infected and would be treated in Japan.
Other Americans left the Diamond Princess into the early hours of Monday
for chartered jets that would fly them home — and into further quarantine.
– Social stability –
The virus spread last month as millions travelled across China for the
Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended to try to prevent more infections.
People have slowly started to return to work in the past two weeks, though
many are doing their jobs from home and schools remain closed.
With the government facing criticism over its handling of the crisis,
Chinese President Xi Jinping said the government must “increase use of police
force” during the crisis. He made the comments in a February 3 speech
published by state media on Saturday.
A number of local officials have been sacked for their role in mishandling
the outbreak.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0840 hrs