The confirmed cases of infection are 63,932, the victims 1,381. 6,728 people recovered from hospitals. There is still no agreed estimate of how many fell ill in Wuhan. For the WHO there have been no "dramatic increases" in coronavirus cases outside China. Vietnam isolates a village of 10,000 inhabitants.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The number of Covid-19 cases registered in China has increased by 5,093 between yesterday and today. The latest figures from the National Health Commission say that 121 other deaths have occurred in the country. This brings the confirmed cases of infection to 63,932, 10,204 of which are patients in serious conditions.
So far there have been 1,381 victims of the virus in China; 6,728 people healed and discharged from hospitals. Without providing explanations, Chinese officials removed 1,043 previously confirmed cases from the count. Among the new deaths, 116 occurred in Hubei, the province at the center of the epidemic. Here the authorities claim that 108 twice counted deaths have been removed from official statistics.
In China, there is still no agreed estimate of how many people may have been infected with the virus in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei where the epidemic broke out. A research paper published in the medRxiv medical research archive suggests that the number of infections as of February 9th could have amounted to between 54,000 and 90,000 people. 11 million live in the city. According to the publication, around 21,000 people have been infected with the virus in the rest of Hubei province.
Yesterday the World Health Organization (WHO) said that there have been no "dramatic increases" in coronavirus cases outside China. The statements by Mark Ryan, head of the WHO health emergency program, came after yesterday's surge in the death toll. This was due to changes made by the Chinese authorities to diagnostic methods; nevertheless, the new data had a strong negative impact on the markets.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) notes that oil demand this year will register the slowest growth rate since 2011, reflecting one of the most immediate economic consequences of the epidemic. The IEA has reduced the growth forecast for 2020 to 825 thousand barrels per day from the previous estimates of 1.2 million, as the emergency weighs on Chinese consumption and the global economy.
Outside China, there have been 505 confirmed cases of contagion over 24 countries. Two people died, one in the Philippines and the other in Japan. One of the most delicate situations is taking place in Vietnam, where the authorities have ordered the isolation of a village with over 10,000 residents for the control of the coronavirus. Sơn Lôi, in the north of the country, is located about 40 kilometers north-west of Hanoi. The village will remain isolated for 20 days, after a recent confirmed infection case has suggested that the virus is being transmitted to the area. More than 90 people in Sơn Lôi have been under close medical observation since yesterday.