(Eagle News) — The number of confirmed deaths from the novel coronavirus rose to 305 on Sunday, Feb. 2 — 304 from China, and one in the Philippines, the first outside China where it originated.
Total confirmed cases meanwhile rose to 14,599 — most of which are in China at 14,422.
Additional confirmed cases were also reported in various countries, with Britain, Russia and Sweden confirming their first nCoV-2019 infections this weekend.
With the announcement in the Philippines of the first coronavirus fatality, the number of confirmed nCOV infections in the country rose to two, including the first confirmed case — a 38-year old Chinese woman from the deadly virus’ epicenter Wuhan City. The fatality was her companion, a 44-year old Chinese male who was admitted to a government hospital, along with the woman, for pneumonia last Jan. 25. He died on Saturday, Feb. 1.
The death toll in China soared to 304 on Sunday, with authorities reporting 45 new deaths from the previous day.
There were also 2,590 new confirmed cases in China.
The number of confirmed nCoV-2019 infections and the countries where they are reported as as follows:
14,422 Mainland China
20 Japan
19 Thailand
18 Singapore
15 South Korea
14 Hong Kong
12 Australia
10 Taiwan
8 Germany
8 Macau
8 US
8 Malaysia
6 France
6 Vietnam
5 United Arab Emirates
4 Canada
2 Italy
2 Russia
2 Philippines
This is based on data from the John Hopkins University dashboard on nCoV-2019 global cases.
The number of confirmed infections in China is far higher than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak of 2002-03.
SARS, which is caused by a pathogen similar to the new coronavirus and also originated in China, killed 774 people worldwide — most of them in mainland China and Hong Kong.
These are the Chinese provinces where there were reported nCoV deaths, based on data from the John Hopkins University dashboard:
294 Hubei
2 Henan
2 Heilongjiang
1 Chongqing
1 Sichuan
1 Beijing
1 Shanghai
1 Hebei
1 Hainan
-Number of recoveries exceed no. of virus deaths –
Meanwhile, the number of persons who recovered from the virus infection also rose at 345, exceeding the number of deaths from the virus.
Here is the list of areas where there were reported nCoV recoveries (also based on data from the John Hopkins University nCoV global cases dashboard:
215 recovered – Hubei Mainland China
23 recovered – Zhejiang Mainland China
14 recovered — Guangdong Mainland China
10 recovered – Jiangxi Mainland China
10 recovered – Shanghai Mainland China
9 recovered – Beijing Mainland China
8 recovered – Hunan Mainland China
7 recovered – Chongqing Mainland China
6 recovered – Jiangsu Mainland China
5 recovered – Anhui Mainland China
5 recovered – Shandong Mainland China
5 recovered – Thailand
4 recovered – Henan Mainland China
3 recovered – Hebei Mainland China
3 recovered – Sichuan Mainland China
3 recovered – Yunnan Mainland China
2 recovered – New South Wales Australia
2 recovered – Guangxi Mainland China
2 recovered – Guizhou Mainland China
2 recovered – Heilongjiang Mainland China
1 recovered – Japan
1 recovered – Hainan Mainland China
1 recovered – Inner Mongolia Mainland China
1 recovered – Jilin Mainland China
1 recovered – Liaoning Mainland China
1 recovered – Shanxi Mainland China
1 recovered – Vietnam
China has locked down Wuhan and surrounding cities in a bid to contain the virus, but it has continued to spread, prompting a hard-hit eastern city far from the epicentre to impose similar draconian measures on Sunday.
The country was also on the last day of an extended Lunar New Year holiday, meaning people are starting to return home on planes and trains, though many businesses will remain closed for at least another week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday declared the situation a global health emergency, and nations have taken extraordinary measures to build virtual fortresses against the disease.
The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Israel banned foreign nationals from visiting if they had been in China recently, and warned their own citizens from travelling there.
Mongolia, Russia and Nepal closed their land borders, while Papua New Guinea went as far as to ban anyone arriving from ports or airports across Asia.
The containment measures may have slowed the spread of the virus, but not stopped it.
The person who died in the Philippines was a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan, the WHO said.
The news of the man’s death was released shortly after Manila announced it would immediately halt the arrivals of any foreign travellers from China.
“This is the first reported death outside China,” Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, told reporters in Manila.
(Eagle News Servic with a report from Agence France Presse)