Beijing: The death toll in China’s coronavirus epidemic has gone up to 1,483 with Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, reporting 116 new fatalities, the country’s health officials said Friday. The hard-hit province reported 4,823 new confirmed cases Thursday, informed the provincial health commission.
The new cases included 3,095 clinically diagnosed ones which have been considered as confirmed, state run ‘Xinhua’ news agency reported.
The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the province to 51,986, the report said. The new cases have pushed the number of infections in China to 64,627 in total. The National Health Commission however, has not yet announced the nationwide figures.
The commission had announced Thursday 254 fatalities as authorities adopted a new diagnosis method amid concerns. Of the total deaths, 242 were from Hubei province and 12 from other provinces.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said Thursday that a sharp rise in reported COVID-19, (official name for coronavirus) cases in China was due to a change in counting methods and it did not represent a big shift in the epidemic.
“This does not represent a significant change in the trajectory of the outbreak,” Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies programme told a press conference in Geneva. “We’re not dealing, from what we understand, with a spike in cases of 14,000 on one day. This increase that you’ve all seen in the last 24 hours is largely, in part, down to a change in how the cases are being reported,” added Ryan.
In a separate development passengers on a cruise ship that spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by five countries over coronavirus fears started disembarking in Cambodia Friday.
The ‘MS Westerdam’, carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members, docked Thursday in the Cambodian port town of Sihanoukville. It had anchored offshore early in the morning to allow Cambodian officials to board and collect samples from passengers with any signs of ill health or flu-like symptoms.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen greeted the passengers with handshakes and bouquets of roses as they stepped off the ship and boarded a waiting bus.
“My wife and I gave him some chocolates as a show of our appreciation,” Lou Poandel, a tourist from New Jersey, told reporters after disembarking and meeting the Cambodian leader.
Agencies