Throughout Wednesday (March 18), China witnessed no new domestic cases of Covid-19 infection. This is no small feat for the Asian nation, where the disease first originated in late December and reported 80,894 cases along with 3,237 fatalities. According to the WHO, the epicenter of the disease outbreak has shifted from Asia to Europe, with the continent reporting about 15,000 cases, in a day.
China reports no domestic Covid-19 case
On Wednesday, China reported 34 new cases of Covid-19 infection, all overseas. Thus, no domestic case was reported in the country, for the first time. The number of deaths has also reduced to a single-digit, with 8 deaths being reported on Wednesday.
Also, for the first time, its Hubei province, which has served as the epicenter of the virus outbreak, witnessed no new cases -- either domestically or abroad, South China Morning Post reported.
Although China has been successful in dealing with the outbreak, critics have raised questions, regarding the accuracy of Chinese data. The country has often modified the diagnostic criteria, that raises serious concerns whether the virus threat is over in China.
Virus epicenter moves to Europe
Several European nations are being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the number of new Covid-19 cases, reported by European nations stands at: 4,207 in Italy, 2,943 in Spain, 2,960 in Germany, 1,404 in France, 676 in UK, 373 in Switzerland.
The number of fatalities reported by European nations, in a single day stands at: 475 in Italy, 105 in Spain, 89 in France and 33 in UK. Italy is the hardest-hit European nation, with 35,713 cases and 2,978 fatalities. It's followed by Spain, with 14,769 cases and 638 fatalities.
China, Donald Trump stuck over 'Chinese virus'
As the United States reported 2,848 new cases and 41 new fatalities, in a day, the US President Donald Trump is being accused of taking a racist stance towards the pandemic. On multiple occasions, he has called Covid-19, the 'Chinese virus'. This has irked the Chinese establishment.
The Chinese state media has accused the US President of using China as a 'scapegoat' to 'cover up his incompetent crisis handling'.
It shared the clip of Dr. Mike Ryan, a WHO official, who said "the pandemic of influenza in 2009 originated in North America, we didn't call it North American flu".
