Hong Kong reported its first death from the coronavirus on Tuesday – only the second outside China – as the death toll from the outbreak rose to at least 425 and China admitted “shortcomings and difficulties” in its response to the flu-like infection.
The Hong Kong victim was a 39-year-old man from Wuhan, where the virus first originated, who had underlying health problems, the authorities said. It was the second death recorded outside China – the first was in the Philippines on Sunday.
Meanwhile, China’s National Health Commission reported 64 new fatalities as of midnight on Monday – the biggest daily increase since the virus was first detected late last year. Wuhan, and the surrounding province of Hubei, have been effectively sealed off from the rest of the country for more than a week.
There are now 20,438 people confirmed to have the infection.
Late on Monday, the Standing Committee of the Politburo – the country’s top leadership – met in Beijing and acknowledged “shortcomings and difficulties” in China’s response to the outbreak.
“This very rare sort of language to hear,” Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown said from Hong Kong, where he is reporting from the border. “This was the senior leadership of the party essentially admitting they had failed the people. They said officials who had made mistakes would be punished. And they said China would have to improve the way it responded to this sort of national emergency in the future.”
Other countries have rushed to evacuate their citizens from Hubei and its capital city, Wuhan, while many have also imposed extraordinary travel restrictions on travellers to and from China.
About 150 cases have been reported in two dozen other countries, with the United States reporting the second case of human-to-human transmission on Monday.
Here are the latest updates:
Tuesday, February 4
China moves virus patients into new facilities
China has begun moving patients suffering from the deadly new virus into rapidly built or adapted facilities, although the degree of medical isolation among them appears to vary widely.
The first 50 patients were moved into Huoshenshan Hospital, a pre-fabricated structure on the outskirts of the city of Wuhan.
Japan-operated cruise ship quarantined over virus
Japanese health officials are conducting extensive medical checks on all 3,700 passengers and crew of a cruise ship that returned to the country after one passenger tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Japanese officials say a number of people on board are ill, though no one else has yet tested positive for the fast-spreading virus that emerged in China last December.
The US-operated Diamond Princess returned to a port in Yokohama, near Tokyo, late on Monday, ending a 14-day tour during which it stopped at Hong Kong and several other Asian ports before returning to Japan.
Taiwan to restrict entry of foreigners from China
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the island will deny entry to all foreign nationals who had been to China during the past 14 days starting from Friday.
The new incoming travel ban includes all foreign nationals who have been in China since February 7, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It extends an existing ban on visitors from China but does not include visitors from Hong Kong and Macau.
Macau to close casinos for two weeks over virus
Macau will close all its casinos for two weeks because of the coronavirus, the leader of the semi-autonomous territry announced.
Gaming forms the backbone of Macau’s economy.
“We will suspend the gambling industry and related casino businesses for half a month,” chief executive Ho Iat-seng said.
Source: AL JAZEERA NEWS
