WHO urges calm as coronavirus virus death toll nears 1,900

AFP / STR
The WHO has praised China for taking drastic measures to contain the virus

The death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak rose again on Tuesday but Chinese and international health officials sought to calm global nerves, citing a study showing most cases are mild and warning against excessive measures to contain the epidemic.

Nearly 1,900 people have now died and more than 72,000 people have been infected by the virus in China, with hundreds more cases in some 25 countries.

The epidemic has triggered panic-buying in Singapore and Hong Kong, concerns about cruise-ship travel and the postponement of trade fairs, sports competitions and cultural events in China and abroad.

The outbreak is threatening to put a dent in the global economy, with China paralysed by vast quarantine measures and major firms such as iPhone maker Apple and mining giant BHP warning it could damage bottom lines.
AFP / TANG CHHIN Sothy
The cruise ship industry has come into focus as hundreds of people became infected aboard a vessel off Japan and one passenger tested positive after disembarking another liner in Cambodia


Several countries have banned travellers from China and major airlines have suspended flights.

The World Health Organization, which has previously said travel restrictions were unnecessary, rejected the suggestion that all cruises should be halted after hundreds of passengers were infected on one vessel off Japan.

"Measures should be taken proportional to the situation. Blanket measures may not help," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
AFP / STR
China has placed about 56 million people in hard-hit central Hubei under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country

The WHO has praised China for taking drastic measures to contain the virus.

Authorities have placed about 56 million people in hard-hit central Hubei under an unprecedented lockdown.

Other cities far from the epicentre have restricted the movements of residents, while Beijing ordered people arriving in the capital to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine.

- WHO urges calm -

The official death toll in China hit 1,868 Tuesday after another 98 people died, most in Hubei and its capital Wuhan, where the virus emerged in December.

There were nearly 1,900 new cases -- a drop from the previous day. Reported new infections have been falling in the rest of the country for the past two weeks.

Tedros warned that it was too early to tell if the decline would continue.

The situation remains dire at the epicentre, with the director of a Wuhan hospital dying on Tuesday -- the seventh medical worker to succumb to the COVID-19 illness.

But a study among 72,000 confirmed, suspected and clinically diagnosed cases showed that 81 percent of patients had only mild infections.

Those most at risk were the elderly, and people with underlying medical conditions.