Coronavirus: Death Count Mounts To 811, Over 36,000 Confirmed Cases Across China

The death count in China’s novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 811, China’s national authorities announced on Sunday. Almost all the deaths are in Hubei Province which showed a sharp increase with new confirmed cases. It said 81 deaths were reported on Saturday, all from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan.

In its daily update, Hubei’s health commission also confirmed another 2,147 new cases in the central province, where the outbreak emerged in December.

There are now more than 36,690 confirmed cases across China.

The death count due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has surpassed the toll from the SARS outbreak on the mainland and Hong Kong almost two decades ago. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a disease in the same family as the new coronavirus, left nearly 774 people dead in mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. More than 120 others died around the world.

China has struggled to contain the current virus despite having placed some 56 million people under effective lockdown in Hubei and its provincial capital, Wuhan. Other cities far from the epicentre have also taken measures to keep people indoors, limiting the number of individuals who can leave their home.

China imposed a lockdown on a major city far from the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic. The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Israel have banned foreign nationals from visiting if they have been in China recently, and they have also warned their own citizens against travelling there.

China has opened a new hospital built in 10 days, infused cash into tumbling financial markets and further restricted people's movement in hopes of containing the rapidly spreading virus and its escalating impact.

WHO says coronavirus case numbers stabilising

The number of cases of the deadly novel coronavirus being reported on a daily basis in China is “stabilising”, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday. The UN health agency said this was “good news” but cautioned that it was too early to make any predictions about whether the virus might have peaked.

“There has been a stabilisation in the number of cases reported from Hubei,” Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said at a briefing in Geneva.