The death toll in China from the coronavirus rose to 213, as the World Health Organization declared a health emergency for a disease that now has more global cases than were officially reported during the SARS epidemic.
The WHO’s decision comes amid signs that the spread of the sometimes deadly pathogen shows no signs of abating. Confirmed cases in China jumped to 9,692, the National Health Commission reported Friday, up from about 7,700 a day earlier. Bloomberg reports.
In the U.S., health officials reported the first case of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus, in a woman who traveled to China and then infected her husband. India documented its first case on Thursday, while Russia closed its land border with China to travelers.
More Chinese Cities Extend Holiday Break
More regions in China extended the end of the Lunar New Year break beyond Feb. 2, in an effort to control the spread of the virus.
The city of Chongqing and the provinces of Hebei, Anhui, Fujian, Yunnan, Shandong and Jiangxi said businesses need not start operations until at least Feb. 10. They join Shanghai, Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, which had already announced extending the holiday.
The break was originally due to end on Jan. 30 across China, but was stretched to Feb. 2 on Monday.
WHO Calls Coronavirus International Emergency
The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak centered in China a public health emergency of international concern, a step that will let public health authorities aid countries with less-robust health systems to stop the spread of the virus.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China‘s efforts to contain the outbreak, saying he had never seen a nation respond so aggressively to a disease, including building a new hospital in just 10 days.
“Let me be clear: This declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China,” Tedros said. “On the contrary the WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”
It’s a contrast to the criticism China faced for a lack to transparency during the SARS pandemic 17 years ago, which killed almost 800 people.
Tedros says there’s no need at this time for measures that interfere with travel and trade, even though many governments, airlines and businesses have already taken such steps. He also urged people to be careful of rumors and rushing to judgment.
“This is the time for facts not fear,” Tedros said. “This is the time for science not rumors. This is the time for solidarity not stigma.”
According to Bloomberg, in the past, the WHO has come under fire for raising the alert too soon as well as too late. The last respiratory illness to trigger a health emergency was the flu pandemic of 2009, which caused widespread alarm but ended up being relatively mild. The WHO’s emergency committee, a group of infectious-disease experts, last week delayed a decision on whether to make the emergency declaration.
Three new cases of coronavirus have emerged in Vietnam
Three Vietnamese citizens, who returned from Wuhan have been diagnosed with coronavirus, Do Xuan Tuyen, Deputy minister of Vietnam’s Ministry of Health said in the afternoon of January 30.
The three were among many people returned from China’s Wuhan amid a deadly outbreak started by the pneumonia-causing virus, bringing the number of active cases in the Southeast Asian country to four.
Two different methods were used to test biological samples from the three people, and the results were positive for the new coronavirus (nCoV). It is the first time that Vietnamese citizens have been confirmed to be infected with the virus, said Deputy minister.
Two of three patients are Hanoians, currently quarantined and treated at at National Hospital Of Tropical Diseases in Kim Chung commune, Dong Anh district of Hanoi, the other patient is being quarantined at Thanh Hoa City General Hospital.