China's Coronavirus death toll climbs to 81

Medical staff wearing protective clothing screen patients at the Wuhan Red Cross hospital in Wuhan. Pic/AFP

Beijing: China continued to reel under deadly Coronavirus epidemic on Monday with the death toll due to it sharply rising to 81 amid the country's National Health Commission reporting 2,744 confirmed cases of the fatal affliction till date.

The Commission also termed the condition of the 461 people being treated for the virus, officially known as 2019-nCoV, as 'critical.'The Commission said during the past 24 hours, 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths from the disease were reported.

By Sunday, pneumonia situation caused a total of 80 deaths, while 51 people had recovered and 5,794 remained as suspected patients, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the commission as saying.

A total of 32,799 close contacts have been traced, the commission said, adding that 30,453 among them were currently under medical observation while 583 others were discharged on Sunday. Almost all provinces in China except Tibet have reported the virus cases.

In addition, 17 confirmed cases were reported - eight in Hong Kong, five in Macao and four in Taiwan.

The mayor of the Hubei province capital Wuhan, which has emerged as the epicentre of the epidemic outbreak, said he expects another 1,000 new patients in the city, official media reported.

"There are signs that the virus is becoming more transmissible. These walking 'contagious agents' [hidden carriers] make controlling the outbreak a lot more difficult," he said.

769
Total no. of confirmed cases in the last 24 hours

US health agency reports five cases of Coronavirus

US health authorities on Sunday said there are now five confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States and more are expected. Nancy Messonnier, head of the respiratory disease section at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said around 100 people in 26 states are being investigated for the virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Of the confirmed cases, all five people had travelled to Wuhan, Messonier said during a conference call with reporters. "Every case we have had in the United States is someone who has had direct contact in Wuhan," she said.

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