Coronavirus Update: Over 40,000 Cases, Spread of Virus Outside China is “Tip of Iceberg”
MONDAY’S FACTS AND FIGURES
The global death toll and number of infections from the Wuhan coronavirus continued to climb as of Monday. Officials in China said that the number of deaths had reached 908, an increase of 97 in the preceding 24 hours and the most deaths in a single day. The number of confirmed cases is now 40,171, up 3,062 since the last report one day prior. Most of the deaths were in the Hubei province.
On Sunday, the death toll outdistanced that of the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic.
The actual number of infections and deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus is believed to be significantly higher as the Chinese healthcare system is straining to keep up with tests and reporting.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
02-10 The head of the WHO also said that the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus being transmitted by people who have never travelled to China could be the “tip of the iceberg.” The spread outside China has been slow, but “could accelerate,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.
02-10 Hong Kong expanded its quarantine orders to encompass more than 160 people who arrived there from the Chinese mainland. Violators of the quarantine law, which the Hong Kong government put into place to avoid full border closure, risk six months’ imprisonment
02-10 The Ladies Professional Golf Association, or LPGA, said it was cancelling tournaments in Thailand and Singapore amidst concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
02-10 Airbnb has temporarily stopped taking reservations for locations in Beijing. The San Francisco-based company suspended bookings through February 29 “in light of local authorities’ guidance,” it said.
02-09 The World Health Organization will lead an investigation into the coronavirus. The Chinese ambassador to the United States told reporters that China was allowing representatives of the WHO to lend assistance “very soon.” The announcement was followed by a message on Twitter from the organization’s director general, who said an advance team was just in the process of flying out to China.
02-09 The number of cases of the novel coronavirus in Hong Kong rose to 36 after nine members of a family in Hong Kong were found to be infected. The infection likely occurred as the result of sharing a hot pot meal in late January, Chinese officials said. Present at the meal were two family members from Guangdong on the mainland.
02-09 The United States will spend up to $66 million in efforts to fight the coronavirus, health officials said. The plan was reported in a notice sent to congress by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
02-09 More cases of the Wuhan coronavirus were reported in Britain and in Spain. In Britain, the infected person was a “known contact of a previously confirmed U.K. case,” said Chris Whitty, the country’s chief medical officer. Spain confirmed a second case a British man who lives in Majorca.
02-09 Passengers who were being held in quarantine in a Hong Kong port on the cruise ship World Dream were released after its crewmembers tested negative for the virus, officials there said.
02-09 An additional 65 on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, tested positive for the novel coronavirus, raising the total to 135. A total of 3,700 people have been held in quarantine on the ship since last Monday after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong later tested positive for the virus.
02-09 Academics and other professionals calling for freedom of speech at the wake of Dr. Li Wenliang, who was among the first to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus, only to be silenced by the Chinese government, and who died Friday after contracting the virus.
02-09 The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, is accusing “Hong Kong secessionists and foreign entities” of exploiting Dr. Li’s death to stir up antigovernment sentiment.
02-09 The government of Fang County, which is located in the Hubei Province, is offering residents who report that they have a fever a reward of 1,000 renminbi ($142.82). It is also offering those who report others with fevers 500 renminbi.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
