Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE UPDATES: India Reports Two New Cases As Global Death Count Passes 3,000

More than 3,000 people have now died from the novel coronavirus outbreak, also known as COVID-19, as China reported 42 more deaths on Monday. The new fatalities were all in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. According to China's National Health Commission, the overall death count in mainland China to 2,912. However, in what could be seen a good news, health officials reported the lowest daily tally of fresh infections since late January, with 202 new cases.

The COVID-19 outbreak emerged late last year in Hubei in central China, but has now spread to more than 60 countries around the world. South Korea reported 476 new cases taking their total number of infections to 4,212. The country has also recorded 22 fatalities so far. Iran raised its death toll to 54 with confirmed infections rising by more than half to 978. In the United States, two people have died so far due to coronavirus, both in the Washington state. Australia also reported its first fatality over the weekend, while infections nearly doubled in the past 48 hours in Italy, Europe's hardest-hit country. France’s confirmed cases has risen to 130, while the number of people in Germany infected rose to 129 on Sunday.

The World Health Organisation said Sunday that the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illness. The agency noted that most people with the COVID-19 illness only experience mild symptoms, while around 14 per cent suffer severe disease like pneumonia and five per cent become critically ill. It said the mortality rate in the outbreak appears to be between two and five per cent. The seasonal flu has an average mortality rate of about 0.1 per cent but is highly infectious, with up to 400,000 people worldwide dying from it each year. Other strains of coronavirus, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), have established mortality rates of 9.5 per cent and 34.5 per cent, respectively.

(With Agency Inputs)