China virus cases continue steadily to drop as foreign fears rise
23 February, 2020
Fears mounted Saturday over the growing spread of infections outside China from the brand new coronavirus outbreak, as the World Health Organization warned of a shrinking window to stem the spread of the deadly disease.
The warning came as the first European died from the COVID-19 strain, which includes now reached more than 25 countries and caused greater than a dozen deaths outside China.
A 78-year-old Italian man died after testing positive for the virus, with the death toll reaching five in Iran, and numerous new cases reported over the Middle East.
A second person died in South Korea, authorities reported Saturday along with a surge of practically 150 new infections with many cases linked to a hospital and a religious sect.
Italy has locked down 10 towns and asked over 50,000 persons to stay home - a move with echoes of China’s lockdown of entire cities in central Hubei Province, the epicenter of the virus where millions remain under quarantine.
The outbreak has claimed 2,345 lives in China and infected a lot more than 76,000 people.
In China, the amount of new cases outside Hubei has been generally declining, although new outbreaks have emerged in a number of prisons and hospitals.
On Saturday, Chinese authorities reported practically 400 fresh cases nationwide, not even half the prior day and just 31 outside Hubei.
But concerns have risen about the reliability of the state data, after Hubei officials changed ways of counting cases and amended their figures.
Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the “window of opportunity” to support the international spread of the outbreak was “narrowing,” as cases surged over the Middle East and in South Korea.
He cautioned that if countries didn't quickly mobilize to fight the reach of the virus, “this outbreak could go in any direction. It might even be messy.”
Cases of the deadly virus were reported in a variety of countries in the Middle East, like the first cases in Israel and Lebanon.
Iran said five people there had died and 28 been infected.
Iraq and Kuwait, which share borders with Iran, were on high alert for a potential outbreak after banning travel to and from the Islamic republic, although they have not confirmed any cases domestically.
Nearly 350 people have already been infected in South Korea, including two deaths, rendering it the hardest-hit country outside China.
Source: the-japan-news.com
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