Coronavirus: UK records first death as infections double in Netherlands

Mainland China reported a rise in new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday, reversing three straight days of declines, because of a spike in new infections in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.

Mainland China had 139 new confirmed cases as of Wednesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said, bringing the total accumulated number of cases of the Covid-19 virus in the country to 80,409. Authorities reported 119 new cases the previous day and 125 the day before that.

The increase was driven by more cases in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, where the virus is believed to have emerged in a market late last year.

Wuhan’s new infections climbed to 131 from 114 a day earlier. There was no immediate elaboration and health officials were due to hold a briefing later in the day.

After what some critics said was an initially hesitant response to the new virus, China imposed sweeping restrictions to try to stop it, including transport suspensions, lockdowns of cities and extending a Lunar New Year holiday across the country.

World Health Organisation (WHO) officials have said other countries have much to learn from the way China has handled the outbreak, and vice-foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu said many countries had asked for help on the issue and China was responding.

The number of new confirmed cases in Hubei, excluding Wuhan, has remained in single digits for seven consecutive days, with three new infections recorded on Wednesday.

In the rest of mainland China, outside Hubei, there were only five new confirmed cases, the health commission said.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China had reached 3,012 as of the end of Wednesday, up by 31 from the previous day. Hubei accounted for all of the new deaths. In Wuhan, 23 people died.

Chinese authorities have also turned their attention to stopping the virus being brought in from new coronavirus hot spots abroad.

Wuhan will likely see new infections drop to zero by the end of this month, an expert with the country’s top panel on battling the illness said on Thursday.

First case

Elsewhere on Thursday, the UK recorded its first death from the virus, reportedly an older patient.

South Africa confirmed its first case of coronavirus, affecting a citizen who had passed through an airport showing no symptoms on his way back from a trip to Italy.

South Africa’s health ministry said the patient was a 38-year-old male who had travelled to Italy with his wife, passed through the main OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg when they returned home and then went to the eastern region of KwaZulu-Natal. The couple were part of a group of 10 people and they arrived back in South Africa on March 1st, it added.

French authorities on Thursday reported two more deaths linked to the coronavirus outbreak in the country, taking the total number of deaths to six. Authorities said in a statement France has also registered 92 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking the total toll of cases to 377.

Meanwhile, confirmed cases of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands have more than doubled to 82, Dutch health authorities said.

Iranian health minister Saeed Namaki announced on state TV that all schools and universities in Iran will be closed until the end of the Iranian calendar year on March 20th.

India shut all primary schools in the capital New Delhi until the end of March on Thursday and imposed new restrictions on travel from Italy and South Korea as part of efforts to fight the spread of the new coronavirus.

In Britain’s capital, HSBC sent more than 100 staff home after a worker tested positive for coronavirus, the first known case at a major company in London.

Hong Kong has quarantined the dog of a coronavirus patient in what could be the first case of human-to-animal transmission, although experts cautioned against pets being potential spreaders of the virus.

Worrying spreads

The number of new infections overseas now exceeds the tally of new cases in China, with Italy, South Korea and Iran, in particular, seeing worrying spreads of the virus.

Chinese authorities have asked overseas citizens hoping to return home to reconsider their travel plans, while cities across China have set up quarantine rules for those entering from high-risk places.

An infected person is known to have arrived in China from Iran, one of the new hot spots for the virus, last week.

The cities of Shanghai and Guangdong have ordered people who have been in countries with severe outbreaks within the previous two weeks to stay in quarantine for 14 days.

The NHC has said authorities were transitioning from “overall containment to targeted containment” measures, with a focus on containment within communities, and medical treatment.

Mr Ma told a briefing China would make donations to South Korea, Iraq, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, on top of what it has already given to Pakistan, Japan and Iran, to fight the virus.

Meanwhile, Australia on Thursday banned the arrival of foreigners from South Korea, tightening its border controls in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus as it recorded its second death from the virus.

Prime minister Scott Morrison also extended existing bans on foreigners arriving from mainland China and Iran and said there would be tougher screening processes for people arriving from Italy.

Australia was one of the first countries to take a hardline approach to tackling the coronavirus outbreak, imposing border controls on visitors from the epidemic’s epicentre in China just in excess of a month ago.

Australia has recorded 54 cases of the coronavirus, the majority of those people having contracted the disease overseas before returning home for treatment.

In the US, Apple Inc and Netflix Inc have said they are pulling out of the South by Southwest music and tech festival to be held later this month due to the virus.

The US death toll from coronavirus infections rose to 11 on Wednesday and California governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency amid the nation’s largest outbreak. – Reuters