BEIJING, 27 Feb 2020:
Renowned respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan, head of the team of medical experts at the National Health Commission of China, said today the country hopes to have the coronavirus outbreak under control by the end of April.
China is confident the outbreak will be “basically under control” by the end of April, Zhong told a press conference in Guangzhou, adding that “although there was a large outbreak in Wuhan, we did not see massive outbreaks in other cities.”
The specialist indicated the number of cases in China began to decrease after Feb 15.
“We predicted earlier that the peak should take place in mid or late February, due to the strong intervention by the state and the cancellation of travel peaks after Chinese New Year Holiday.”
He also said China should improve cooperation and share its experience with other countries – given the rapid increase in cases in countries such as South Korea, Italy and Iran.
Zhong said although the epidemic began to spread in the Asian country, the first case of coronavirus may not have occurred in China.
“When we were making forecasts, we only thought about China and not other countries. But now outbreaks are taking place in other countries. Though the outbreaks started in China, it does not necessarily mean China was the source,” he said, adding that the source was still unknown.
Meanwhile, a woman confirmed to be a Covid-19 patient travelled from Wuhan in Hubei province to Beijing at the weekend after being released from prison, despite the province being locked down since Jan 23, state-run Chinese newspaper the Global Times reported today.
The Beijing resident surnamed Huang was driven back to Beijing in a car after being released from Wuhan prison, according to the newspaper.
She was diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan, and had been suffering from fever and throat pain since Feb 18, it said.
The case, which is to be investigated by the local authorities, has been widely criticised on Chinese social media and local media, which once again voiced concern for the management of the crisis in Hubei.
“The central government repeated that channels to and out of Wuhan must be strictly controlled to win the battle against the epidemic,” the Global times said, adding “it could put the previous efforts in vain and lead to a virus resurgence.”
On Feb 21, it was reported that a women’s prison in Wuhan had detected 230 cases, which had not been added to the overall account in Hubei because – as per official explanations – the prisons in the province do not have software to take such cases into account.
As reported by the country’s health authorities today, there were 433 new confirmed cases and 29 more coronavirus deaths in China throughout Wednesday, registering a drop of 44% in deaths and a slower rise in cases at under 7% from the previous 24 hours.
Over 32,490 people were discharged after overcoming the illness, 9% more than Tuesday.
Hubei has so far accumulated 84% of cases and 96% of deaths recorded in the country.
On Tuesday there were 409 new cases and 26 new deaths in the province, with 383 of those infections and 19 of the deaths in its capital, Wuhan, where it is believed that the new coronavirus began.
So far there have been 65,596 confirmed cases and 2,641 deaths in Hubei, although the number of those discharged from care continues to increase with 2,288 patients recovered in the last day, for a total of 23,200.
The death toll in China from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 2,746, the country’s National Health Commission said today.
Around 71,572 people are currently under medical care, while the number of discharged patients totals around 32,495.
In JAPAN, a bus tour conductor in her 40s tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus after what appeared a recovery from the disease, Jiji Press reported the Osaka prefectural government as saying yesterday.
The resident of Osaka, the capital of the western Japan prefecture, may have been reinfected, or the virus may have regained strength in her body after going latent, officials said.
The woman was confirmed infected Jan 29 after attending a tour that included visitors from China’s Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
After her condition improved, she was discharged from hospital Feb 1. She tested negative through a screening she voluntarily took on Feb 6 during a monitoring period.
On Feb 19, she felt discomfort in the throat and had chest pain. She then visited more than once the medical institution where she had been hospitalised.
She tested positive yesterday and was hospitalised again. She had no close contact with anybody after the Feb 1 discharge, according to the officials.
“The virus that went latent in the body may have come back,” said Mutsuko Fujii, head of the prefectural government’s health and medical department.
It appears there was not enough virus on her throat when she tested, Fujii told a press conference.
Outside mainland China, there are 91 registered cases in Hong Kong and 10 others in Macau.
The coronavirus, officially known as Covid-19, has spread to more than 25 other countries, including the US, the UK, Singapore, France, Russia, Spain and India.
The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak an international health emergency.
Meanwhile, Singapore yesterday reported two new cases of Covid-19 infection – bringing the number of positive cases in the republic to 93.
In a statement here, the Ministry of Health said both were Singapore citizens who had no recent travel history to China.
According to the ministry, four more cases of Covid-19 were discharged from hospital today, bringing to 62 the number who have fully recovered.
Among them were the private hospital doctor who was confirmed to have contracted the virus on Feb 13 and a Bangladeshi national who works at the Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site, one of the identified Covid-19 clusters here.
Of the 31 confirmed cases still in hospital, the ministry said most were stable or improving while seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
So far, eight positive cases are linked to The Life Church and Missions Singapore cluster, 23 cases to the Grace Assembly of God, nine to medical shop Yong Thai Hang, three to a private business meeting held at Grand Hyatt Singapore, and five to the Seletar construction site.
– EFE, Bernama