23 January,2020 07:44 AM IST | Beijing | Agencies
Masked workers disinfect a passenger throughfare at the Taoyuan International Airport on Wednesday. Pic/AFP
Beijing: The death toll in China's novel coronavirus virus has gone up to 17 with the confirmed infection cases sharply rising to 543 the health authorities said on Wednesday, warning that the disease could spread further in the ongoing Chinese holiday season during which millions travel at home and abroad.
The Chinese health authorities announced on Wednesday that 543 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) had been reported in 13 provincial-level regions in the country by the end of Tuesday.
The cases resulted in nine deaths, all in central China's Hubei Province, Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission told at a press conference on Wednesday. Altogether 149 new confirmed cases were reported on Tuesday, Li added.
Li said China was now at the 'most critical stage' of prevention and control following confirmation that human-to-human transmission of the virus had taken place.
ALSO READ
Death for man who rammed crowd in China
China, Japan agree to talks on security issues as they seek to mend ties
Japan's foreign minister seeks 'positive' direction in bilateral ties during his visit to China
China 2024: Military standoff with India ends in Ladakh, long freeze over
Former Chelsea player Oscar returns to Brazil''s Sao Paulo from China
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO), will consider declaring an international public health emergency over the virus - as it did with swine flu and Ebola.
Such a declaration, if made, will be seen as an urgent call for a coordinated international response in view of fears that millions of Chinese are travelling at home and abroad for the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival holidays starting from January 24.
149
Total no. of cases reported on Tuesday
The first case of coronavirus which has claimed the lives of 17 people in Asia has been detected in the US, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention announced.
The male patient, who travelled from Wuhan to Washington, is in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
