On Sunday, 57 deaths and 2,828 new cases were reported in mainland China. A total of 361 persons have died in China since the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak was first reported on Dec. 31. With the death toll surpassing 360, the novel coronavirus has surpassed the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-03, which claimed 349 lives in mainland China and 774 around the world.
Novel coronavirus: latest update
A total of 361 fatalities and 17,205 cases have been reported in China, by Sunday, said China's National Health Commission, the Global Times reported. Among the 57 fatalities reported on Sunday, 56 were from China's hard-hit Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak. One fatality was reported in Chongqing, in Sichuan province, situated to the west of Hubei. Till now, only the Philippines has reported the lone fatality outside mainland China. A total of 171 cases have been reported by over two dozen countries.
Of the 2,590 confirmed cases on Sunday, 2,103 were reported in Hubei province, South China Morning Post reported. In Hubei, the number of cases and fatalities increased from 1,921 and 45 respectively, on Saturday, to 2,103 and 56, on Sunday.
Two specialized coronavirus hospitals built in record time
In order to treat a large number of patients infected with coronavirus, China has built two specialized hospitals in Wuhan within 10 days. Huoshenshan Hospital, one of the two, is scheduled to open on Monday.
Global Times shared pictures of 1,400 military medics waiting to admit the first patient in the hospital. With infection cases mounting rapidly, a number of countries have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan. The countries include the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France and India.
Several countries have also placed temporary travel bans on Chinese nationals and those foreigners, who recently traveled to China. These countries include the United States, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Most of the cases reported outside China have been of Chinese nationals, who had recently arrived from China. Vietnam, Germany and Japan are the only countries to report human-to-human transmission of the virus.
