Drastic containment efforts, including quarantining millions in Hubei, have started to pay off, officials say.
At least 114 new deaths from the coronavirus outbreak were reported on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 2,118 in China.
China’s National Health Commission also reported 394 new confirmed cases, significantly lower than the 1,749 infections announced nationwide the previous day. A total of 74,576 victims are now infected.
The drop, the largest in almost a month, came after Chinese authorities changed their methodology for counting cases in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, to only include those confirmed through genetic testing.
Mainland China has reported 118 new deaths from the coronavirus outbreak , pushing the number of deaths nationwide to at least 2,236.
Beijing also reported 1,109 new confirmed cases of the disease during the same period, sharply up from 349 cases the previous day, reversing three days of decline.
At least 631 of the new cases were from the epicentre of the epidemic in Hubei, including 220 cases from the province’s prison system. Most of the latest deaths were also from the province.
The latest number of infections nationwide has now reached 75,685.
First Italian patient dies of coronavirus
A police car is seen in the village of Codogno after officials told residents to stay home and suspend public activities as 14 cases of coronavirus are confirmed in northern Italy in the province of Lodi, Italy, February 21, 2020 [Reuters]
The dead man was aged 78, it said.
Kuwait stops all flights to and from Iran
Kuwait’s civil aviation authority has decided to stop all flights to and from Iran amid fears from coronavirus outbreak, the state news agency said, citing an official statement.
Kuwaiti nationals arriving from Iran will be subjected to quarantine, it said, adding that residents or those with entry permission who were in Iran during the past two weeks will be barred.
Moreover, any foreign travellers coming from Iran will also be denied entry.
Source: Aljazeera
