Chinese health authorities Wednesday informed that 1,113 people have died of the deadly novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and confirmed receiving reports of 2,015 positive cases. 97 deaths from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps were reported.
Among the 97 deaths, 94 were in Hubei Province and one in Henan, Hunan and Chongqing respectively, according to China’s National Health Commission
With this, the overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland reached 44,653 by the end of Tuesday.
Another 3,342 new suspected cases were reported Tuesday, said the commission. Also on Tuesday, 871 patients became seriously ill, while 744 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.
The commission added that 8,204 patients remained in severe condition, and 16,067 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.
A total of 4,740 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.
The commission said 451,462 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 30,068 were discharged from medical observation Tuesday, with 185,037 others still under medical observation.
By the end of Tuesday, 49 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 18 in Taiwan.
One patient in Macao and one in Taiwan have been discharged from hospital after recovery.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday gave the official name for the latest coronavirus as “COVID-19” with no geographical association. ‘CO’ stands for corona, ‘VI’ for virus and the ‘D’ for disease.
“We now have a name for the disease and it’s COVID-19,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
WHO had earlier given the virus the temporary name of “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease” and China’s National Health Commission this week said it was temporarily calling it “novel coronavirus pneumonia” or NCP.
WHO, which has declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency, further stated that it poses a “very grave threat for the rest of the world” and should be viewed as “Public Enemy Number 1”.
“Viruses can have more powerful consequences than any terrorist action,” he told reporters.
WHO began a two-day meeting, where it appealed for sharing virus samples and speeding up research into drugs and vaccines.
“The first vaccine could be ready in 18 months. So we have to do everything today using the available weapons to fight this virus while preparing for the long term using the preparations for the vaccines,” Tedros was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“With 99% of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” he told more than 400 researchers and national authorities, including some taking part by video conference from mainland China and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, WHO sent an advance team to China this week for an international mission to examine the epidemic.
It was unclear, however, whether the team would be able to visit Wuhan, a city in central China which has been under lockdown after the outbreak was registered in a food and live animal market in the city.
Earlier on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with medical workers and patients affected at a hospital in Beijing, where he called for “more decisive measures” to contain the outbreak, according to the state broadcaster CCTV.
The novel Coronavirus outbreak has caused alarm as it has crossed global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic.
Over 770 people had died worldwide during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.
The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.
The deadly virus has spread to more than 25 countries.
(With agency inputs)