Coronavirus death toll jumps to 565 as China confirms thousands of new cases

BEIGING, Feb 6, 2020, SCMP. Daily deaths caused by the new coronavirus have reached another record in China, with 73 fatalities confirmed in figures released by health authorities on Thursday morning, taking the death toll in mainland China to 563, South China Morning Post reported.

The number of new infections in mainland China and Hubei province both fell on Wednesday compared to the day before, with 3,694 additional cases in the country and 2,987 in Hubei, national and provincial health authorities announced Thursday morning.

The last time new infection figures dropped was January 28, with the daily increase in confirmed cases in China and Hubei steadily rising to a record high on Tuesday – 3,887 and 3,156, respectively. The deadly new coronavirus, which first emerged at the end of December, has killed at least 565 people worldwide, and sickened more than 28,000.

Health authorities in Hubei reported 70 new deaths, a daily record, and 2,987 newly confirmed cases as of Thursday. This brings the totals announced by the province’s health commission to 549 and 19,665, respectively. Officials in Hubei had reported 65 fatalities and 3,156 newly confirmed cases on Tuesday.
Some 1,766 of the new cases announced on Thursday were confirmed in Hubei’s capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated at a seafood and meat market.

Worldwide, there have been 565 deaths reported and 28,261 cases of infection.

Cruise ships banned in Taiwan

Taiwan has banned all cruise ships from docking at its ports, regardless of whether they have visited Hong Kong, Macau or mainland China after a Taiwanese woman was found to have been infected on a Japanese cruise ship.

The woman was among 20 people on board the ship to have tested positive for the coronavirus infection. About 1,000 tourists disembarked from the ship, for a day trip to Taipei and New Taipei City, when it anchored at the northern port of Keelung on January 31, according to Taiwanese immigration authorities.

More tests conducted

Health officials are racing to develop treatments and testing methods for the virus. Wuhan, ground zero of the outbreak, launched an emergency test laboratory on Wednesday. The Huo Yan Laboratory is designed to handle 10,000 samples each day to detect the virus.

The lab is now under trial operation. It is expected to significantly increase the speed of virus testing so that suspected infections can be quickly detected and diagnosed.

Clinical trial for Remdesivir begins

Experimental drug Remdesivir moves closer to being approved for treatment as a stage-three clinical drug trial for the antiviral medication started in Wuhan on Thursday. Led by teams from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, the trial will involve 761 patients, 308 with mild to average symptoms while 453 are in serious condition.

Remdesivir was initially developed by US-based Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola but has been repurposed to treat the new coronavirus. It has not been approved by any country currently.

Gilead Sciences has agreed with China’s ministry of health to fully support clinical trials, including providing the drug for free to use in the trials, according to Beijing-based media group Caixin.

The first coronavirus patient in the US was treated with Remdesivir and his condition improved, according to his doctors in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine last week.

China has taken unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus, including travel restrictions for most Hubei province, a centrally situated region with a population of more than 50 million.

The travel lockdown and other orders have stirred debate globally over whether such steps would be effective and worthwhile relative to the disruption they pose for local residents and economy.
At a recent meeting of the Communist Party’s inner circle, the Politburo Standing Committee, President Xi Jinping said local officials would be punished severely if they failed to heed Beijing’s orders to stop the virus from spreading.