At 724 deaths, Coronavirus set to cross SARS global toll, 1.9 lakh under observation

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The new coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) outbreak has now claimed 722 lives in China with 86 new deaths reported overnight, health officials said on Saturday.

At least one foreigner is said to have died from the disease in Wuhan, the outbreak’s ground zero.

The total number of infections has soared to 34546, while at least 6101 patients were critical, the National Health Commission (NHC) said, adding that a staggering 1,89,660 people were under medical observation.

At the current pace, the NCP toll is set to cross the global toll of the 2002-03 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 774, the last health epidemic which wrecked havoc in China.

Two deaths have been reported outside of mainland China – from Hong Kong and the Philippines – from nearly 300 cases in at least 25 countries.

Both deceased were Chinese nationals.

Hong Kong, China’s special administrative region (SAR) has begun a mandatory two-week quarantine for anyone from the mainland to contain the spread of the contagion.

Visitors will either be isolated in government-run centres or have to isolate themselves in hotel rooms.

A US citizen became the first confirmed non-Chinese victim of the disease on Saturday; a Japanese man also died with symptoms associated with it.

The 60-year old U.S. citizen diagnosed with coronavirus died at Jinyintan Hospital in China’s Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, on February 6, a US embassy spokesperson in Beijing told US media.

A Japanese man in his 60s died in Wuhan on Saturday after battling severe pneumonia. Though his cause of death is suspected to be NCP as of now, no definitive conclusion has been reached yet, Chinese state media quoted the Japanese foreign ministry as saying.

At least 17 foreigners are under quarantine and treatment for the disease in China.

China’s top economic planner has invested 200 million yuan (about USD28.67 million) by Friday from the central budget to help treat severe cases of novel coronavirus infection.

“The investment was directed to three hospitals in Hubei Province, the heart of the coronavirus outbreak, for building treatment units for severe cases,” the National Development and Reform Commission said.

The infection numbers for the disease are already many more than that of SARS.

Experts say the NCP numbers indicate that it is more infectious than SARS but has a lower mortality rate.

Majority of the deaths have been reported from the epicentre of Wuhan, the capital city of central China’s Hubei province, the province worst-hit by the outbreak.

More than 15 cities in Hubei are under lockdown, virtually sealed off with exit and entry of people severely restricted.

China’s economy, the second largest in the world after the US’, has taken a hard hit from the outbreak with several sectors including transport and tourism badly impacted.

China will accelerate the technical review of newly developed drugs and medical devices that may be effective on the novel coronavirus pneumonia, and strive to get them on the market as soon as possible, the National Medical Products Administration announced on Saturday.

Respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan has told state media that no inflection point for NPC is in sight despite numbers of newly reported cases dropping for two consecutive days.

The whole country should continue focusing on finding suspected cases and strictly imposing quarantine measures, Zhong added.

More than 11,000 medics from across China have been sent to Wuhan including over 3,000 specialised in treating critical-condition patients.

As many as 16 provinces have sent province-city teams to support other cities in Hubei, a state media report said.

The NHC on Saturday gave the virus a temporary official name – novel coronavirus pneumonia, or NCP.

It said the name should be adopted by China’s government departments and organisations in China until a permanent name for the infection has been determined.

Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, has said that the WHO has also provided an interim name for the disease, calling it the “2019-novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease”.

“We thought it was very important that we provide an interim name, so no location was associated with the name,” she said.

“We want to ensure that there was no stigma associated with this virus”.

The WHO, as per a state media report, said the final name of the disease will be provided by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), with the final decision being made by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.