The deadly coronavirus outbreak has claimed 3,000 lives as of Monday after China reported 42 recent deaths. The new fatalities were all in the virus epicenter Hubei province, the National Health Commission said, bringing the overall toll in mainland China to 2,912.
Health officials also reported the lowest daily tally of fresh infections since late January, with 202 new cases. In China, the number of reported new cases has gradually been declining, and there were only six confirmed new infections outside Hubei. The virus emerged late last year in Hubei in central China but has now spread to more than 60 countries around the world.
However, the virus has now spread to 60 other countries including South Korea, Italy, Australia, Iran, United States.
The United States and Australia reported their first fatalities over the weekend, while infections nearly doubled in the past 48 hours in Italy, Europe’s hardest-hit country. Another US citizen died on Monday, a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions who had been hospitalised with Covid-19 died on Saturday at a Kirkland nursing facility, Public Health – Seattle & King County said on Sunday local time.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illnesses.
The Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted on Sunday, “WHO raised the risk assessment for the #COVID19 outbreak
to ‘very high’ globally, based on the spread of the new #coronavirus and countries’ capacity to respond.”
The global #COVID19 risk is very high for following reasons (1):
-increase of international spread of cases
-large clusters of cases currently reported outside 🇨🇳
-limited testing capacity in some countries
-potential medical supply shortages#coronavirus— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 29, 2020
The agency noted that most people with the COVID-19 illness only experience mild symptoms, while around 14 percent suffer severe diseases like pneumonia and five percent become critically ill. It said the mortality rate in the outbreak appears to be between two and five percent.
Risk assessments are done by @WHO & the conclusions are shared with public health authorities, including through the International Health Regulations Event Information Site. The assessments are undertaken and updated regularly to inform decision-making and planning. #COVID19
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 29, 2020
The seasonal flu has an average mortality rate of about 0.1 percent but is highly infectious, with up to 400,000 people worldwide dying from it each year. Other strains of coronavirus, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), have established mortality rates of 9.5 percent and 34.5 percent, respectively.