Coronavirus toll jumps to 636 in China

WUHAN: The death toll due to the fast-spreading novel coronavirus outbreak in China has increased to 636, authorities said on Friday, February 7, while the number of confirmed cases also rose to 31,161.

Chinese health authorities said it received reports of 3,143 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 73 deaths on Thursday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the deaths, 69 were in Hubei Province, one in Jilin, one in Henan, one in Guangdong and one in Hainan, according to China's National Health Commission, Xinhua reported.

Another 4,833 new suspected cases were reported on Thursday, said the commission. Also on Thursday, 962 patients became seriously ill, and 387 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 31,161 by the end of Thursday, the commission said, noting that a total of 636 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 4,821 patients remained in severe condition, and 26,359 people were suspected of being infected with the virus. A total of 1,540 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery. The commission said 314,028 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 26,762 were discharged from medical observation on Thursday, with 186,045 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Thursday, 24 confirmed cases had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), including one death, 10 in the Macao SAR and 16 in Taiwan.

The world is facing a chronic shortage of gowns, masks, gloves and other protective equipment in the fight against a spreading coronavirus epidemic, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

As of 6am (Geneva time), there were 31,211 confirmed cases in China and 637 deaths, he said.

“For the last two days there had been fewer reported infections in China, which is good news, but we caution against reading too much into that. The numbers could go up again,” he told the WHO Executive Board in Geneva.