Daily US Times, Beijing: After days of stability, a sharp increase of Coronavirus deaths and cases reported in Hubei province on Wednesday. The day was the deadliest yet, killing 242 people in Hubei and surpassed the previous deadliest day which killed 103.
There was also a sharp increase in the reported cases as 14,480 new cases reported in Hubei on the same day.
The coronavirus, which got a new name on Tuesday, COVID-19, was started in Hubei. Since then, most of the deaths and cases have reported from that province.
The death toll now reached 1,350 with almost 60,000 cases in total.
Until Wednesday’s sharp increase, the number of people diagnosed in Hubei – where the outbreak emerged – was stabilizing.
Hubei situation
More than 80% of the total cases in China have been reported in Hubei. The infections now include “clinically diagnosed cases” in the number of confirmed cases.
This means it includes those showing symptoms, and having a CT scan showing an infected lung, rather than relying only on the standard nucleic acid tests.
Those 242, who died on Wednesday, 135 were such “clinically diagnosed” cases. The province’s 14,840 new infections include 13,332 clinically diagnosed cases and overall the province now has 48,206 confirmed infections.
Cruise ship situation
A cruise ship, after turned away by five countries over fears that some passengers might be infected with the virus, now docked in Cambodia. Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Thailand all refused to accept the ship and then MS Westerdam arrived in Cambodian shore on Thursday morning.
A US citizen from the ship told Reuters, “We’ve had so many near moments w- e thought we were going home only to be turned away.”
“This morning, just seeing land was such a breathtaking moment. I thought: Is this real?”
The World Health Organization (WHO) praised Cambodia’s decision to welcome the ship. Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said ”It was “an example of the international solidarity we have consistently been calling for”.
Meanwhile, another 44 cases have been confirmed on the Diamond Princess, making the number to 218, which is in quarantine in Yokohama, Japan.
People with the virus are taken to hospitals on land to be treated, while those on board are largely confined to their cabins.
Coronavirus now more widespread
The hope is that with each information of and the diagnostic test for coronavirus now more widespread, persons are being diagnosed more rapidly.
This means they are often moved to isolation to include the spread, which should assist keep infections from reaching their most potential.
However, Professor Leung informed The Guardian during a visit to London that the priority now’s to establish the scale and shape of the ‘epidemic iceberg’.
Mike Ryan, the manager director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies programme, mentioned: ‘Everyone is talking about staying calm and holding our populations calm.
‘But each chance we get we seem like we need to speed up the infodemic and never include the epidemic.
‘Let’s watch out in throwing around figures, hypothesis and scaring people. I simply warning all people to not begin throwing around figures that there isn’t any basis for at the moment.’
And on Monday, Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the Facilities for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Nationwide Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, mentioned that she and her company ‘completely assume that the reported cases are an underestimate’ during a Nationwide Press Club event.
Most experts believe that every infected person has gone on to transmit the virus to around 2.5 people, giving an ‘attack rate’ of 60 to 80 per cent.
