Beijing: The death toll in China’s novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 213 with the number of confirmed cases totalling to 9,692, China’s national authorities announced Friday.
Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 5,806 confirmed cases, including 204 deaths, official media reported. So far 213 people have died of the disease as of Thursday, state-run ‘Xinhua’ news agency reported.
Chinese health authorities announced that the confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions and the ‘Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps’ by the end of Thursday. About 20 countries, including India, have reported confirmed cases of the virus in travellers coming from China.
China said it has full confidence and capability to win the fight against the epidemic.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency. The UN health agency Friday declared an international emergency over the deadly novel coronavirus from China – a rarely rarely used designation that could lead to improved international co-ordination in tackling the disease.
“Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He announced the virus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Reacting to the announcement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in a press statement said, “Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic, the Chinese government has been taking the most comprehensive and rigorous prevention and control measures with a high sense of responsibility for people’s health. Many of these measures go well beyond the requirements of the International Health Regulations.
The spokesperson added, “We have full confidence and capability to win this fight against the epidemic.”
Chunying informed that, the Chinese side informed relevant sides and shared the genome sequence of the coronavirus in a timely manner with openness, transparency and a responsible attitude. “WHO and many countries have recognised and commended this,” she said.
Hua said China has been in close communication and cooperation with WHO. “The experts from WHO recently conducted a field trip to Wuhan. Director-gGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also visited China and discussed containment and mitigation of the 2019-nCoV with the Chinese side,” she informed.
Agencies