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China’s Hubei province reports 108 more virus deaths: official


Bangladeshpost
Published : 20 Feb 2020 07:17 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 08:39 PM

The death toll from China’s new coronavirus epidemic jumped to 2,112 on Thursday after 108 more people died in Hubei province, the hard-hit epicentre of the outbreak, reports BSS/AFP. Most of the deaths were in the provincial capital Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, according to the daily update from the Hubei health commission.

More than 74,500 people have now been infected with the new coronavirus nationwide. Hubei health officials said there had been 615 new cases in Wuhan and 13 more elsewhere in the province. KLM airlines extends ban on China flights 

KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France KLM, has said it will extend a ban on flights to China due to the coronavirus outbreak. "All KLM flights to Beijing and Shanghai have been suspended until 28 March 2020," the airline said on its website. "Flights are expected to resume on 29 March 2020."

Cases on Japan cruise ship rise to 634

Another 13 people on board a cruise ship that was quarantined off the coast of Japan have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, the country's health ministry said on Thursday. Confirmation of the new cases, from 52 additional test results, brought the total number of infections diagnosed on board the Diamond Princess so far to 634, the ministry said in a statement.

Three more infections reported in Iran

Three patients have tested positive for the coronavirus in Iran, a health ministry spokesman said. "Two people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Qom and one person in Arak, bringing the total of confirmed cases to five in Iran," Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a tweet.

Ukraine residents protest evacuees landing

Residents in central Ukraine protested the arrival of a plane carrying evacuees from China's Hubei province on Thursday, fearing they could be infected with the coronavirus despite authorities insisting there was no danger. Protesters from the village of Novi Sanzhary blocked the road leading to a sanatorium where the evacuees are due to be held in quarantine for at least two weeks to make sure they were not carrying the virus.

South Korea reports first death

South Korea health authorities have reported the first death from coronavirus in the country.  Infections have ballooned in recent days, raising the total to 104, with many traced to a church in the central city of Daegu. On Thursday alone, the country announced 53 new cases. 

Egyptair to resume flights to China from next week 

Egyptair has said in a statement that it will resume some flights to and from China starting next week. The national airline suspended all flights to China in early February over the coronavirus outbreak. "Egyptair has decided to resume a flight weekly every Thursday," the statement said. China lab says conspiracy theories hurting efforts to curb virus

An outbreak of disinformation in China and elsewhere has hurt global efforts to combat the new coronavirus, said a specialist infectious disease lab located at the epicentre of the epidemic - and at the heart of a number of conspiracy theories, including that it had "artificially synthesised" the virus.

In a statement, the state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology said "internet rumours" had "received close attention from all walks of life" and "caused great harm to our research staff on the front line of scientific research".

Australia extends ban on China arrivals into fourth week

Australia will extend a ban on arrivals from mainland China into a fourth week to contain the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

"The National Security Committee of Cabinet has today decided that the continuing coronavirus infections in mainland China make it necessary to continue the travel restrictions on foreign nationals entering Australia for a further week to 29 February," Morrison said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Minister says virus control efforts 'are working'

China's efforts to control the deadly outbreak of a new coronavirus "are working", Beijing's top diplomat said on Thursday, attributing an easing in new cases to his country's "forceful action" against the illness. Speaking in Laos after talks with peers from the 10 Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries, Wang Yi said the outbreak was "controllable and curable" despite the global panic it has seeded.

China says media spreading racial discrimination must pay the price

Media organisations that spread racial discrimination and maliciously smear China must pay the price, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday, following Beijing's decision to revoke the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal correspondents.

Geng told reporters during a press briefing that China was not interested in the division of labour at the Wall Street Journal in response to a question on why it is acting against the paper's journalists, who had no involvement in the publication of a opinion column in the paper that the Chinese government found offensive.