PM Modi Writes To Xi Jinping, Offers India's Help To China To Deal With Coronavirus

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed Indian solidarity with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the people of China over the outbreak of coronavirus. In a letter written to the Chinese President, Modi offered India's assistance to face the challenge and offered condolences at the loss of lives. “Modi also conveyed appreciation for the facilitation provided by the government of China for the evacuation of Indian citizens from the Hubei province of China,” said sources said.

A total of 811 people have died of the coronavirus infection so far while the number of confirmed cases has gone up to 37,198, according to latest data by Chinese authorities.

The death toll in China's coronavirus outbreak rose to 811 on Sunday, surpassing the number of fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, while over 37,000 people have been confirmed as being infected with the deadly virus that has spread to more than 25 countries.

Eighty-nine deaths were reported on Saturday - the highest single-day death toll - and there were 2,656 new confirmed cases of the deadly infection, China's National Health Commission said in its daily report on Sunday.

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The death toll surpassed the number of fatalities in the 2002-2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS epidemic that started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in the mainland, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Among the 89 deaths, 81 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, two in Henan, and one each in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shandong, Hunan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it said.

On Saturday, 600 people, including 324 in Hubei province, recovered and walked out of the hospitals, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

As per the data released by the commission, confirmed cases in Hubei, the ground zero of the epidemic, showed a drop perhaps for the first time since the virulent virus first emerged in the province in December.

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On Saturday, Hubei reported 2,147 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection, the commission said.

The figure is 694 less compared with the new confirmed cases reported in the previous day, it said.

Hubei's capital Wuhan reported 1,379 new infections and 63 new deaths, and the cities of Xiaogan and Huanggang reported 123 and 100 new confirmed cases, respectively, according to the provincial health commission.

(With PTI inputs)