71 more killed in China: Universities closed in different parts; several countries

BEIJING: China Tuesday reported another 71 deaths from the coronavirus, the lowest daily number of fatalities in over two weeks, which raised the toll to 2,663.

The National Health Commission also reported 508 new confirmed cases, with all but nine in hard-hit Hubei province. It is up from Monday's 409 cases nationwide.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,663 as of the end of Monday, up by 71 from the previous day. The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China is now 77,658, reports the international media.

Several universities were closed in different parts of China.

Multiple provinces in China have reported zero new cases for several days in a row now, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) saying that the coronavirus epidemic has “peaked” in China.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the peak in China occurred between Jan 23 and Feb 2, and the number of new cases there “has been declining steadily since then”.

However, WHO expert Bruce Aylward, leader of a joint WHO-China mission of experts, warned of outbreaks in other countries “increasing at exponential growth rates”.

Despite a downward trend in the number of new cases, China continues to struggle to resume normal activity after the virus brought the world’s second-largest economy to a standstill.

The country also decided to postpone its annual Parliament session for the first time since the Cultural Revolution.

Tens of millions of people remain under lockdown in Hubei province, where the virus is believed to have originated late last year.

A slight easing of the lockdown in Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, was retracted shortly after being announced on Monday.

Outbreaks in prisons and hospitals have also raised further concerns about ineffective containment measures.

The Communist Party’s political and legal affairs commission said on Tuesday that 323 coronavirus cases were reported in Hubei prisons by Sunday, including 279 in the Wuhan Women’s Prison.

South Korea, which has the largest number of cases outside China, reported 60 more infections and one more fatality on Tuesday, raising its death toll to eight and total patients to nearly 900.

South Korea’s outbreak has centered on a religious sect in Daegu, the country´s fourth largest city.

The country is on its highest “red” alert. As part of the containment efforts, school holidays were extended nationally while the 2.5 million people of Daegu were told to remain indoors.

Italy, which has reported seven deaths and over 200 cases, has locked down 11 towns, while upcoming football matches in its Serie A and the Europa League will be played behind closed doors.

With police manning checkpoints to enforce a blockade, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said that residents could face weeks of lockdown.

The disease — officially known as COVID-19 — spread to new countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman.

At least 12 people have died in Iran, the highest toll outside China.

But there were concerns the situation might be worse than officially acknowledged. The semi-official ILNA news agency quoted one local lawmaker in hard-hit Qom — a religious centre — who said 50 people had died there.

The Iranian government denied the report, and pledged transparency.

Even so, authorities have only reported 64 infections in Iran, an unusually small number that would mean an extremely high mortality rate.

Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies programme, said a team from the UN agency would be arriving in Iran on Tuesday.

But he cautioned against drawing any conclusions about the mortality rate. Iran “may only be detecting severe cases” because the epidemic was still at an early stage, he said.

Several countries have taken measures to prevent arrivals from Iran.

A clinical trial has begun in Nebraska to test whether an experimental drug can treat the new coronavirus, starting with an American who was quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, the National Institutes of Health said on Tuesday.

But another federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration, said it was closely watching the supplies of 20 unrelated drugs that are either made in China, where the epidemic has drastically reduced manufacturing, or contain ingredients from China.

The agency said it has not been notified of any shortages so far, and it did not say which drugs it was monitoring for possible disruptions in China. But the world relies heavily on that country for supplies of many essential medications, like aspirin and penicillin.