Coronavirus updates: Death toll rises to 1,112, Vietnam sees more patients recover

• Feb 12 – Hubei’s latest death toll and number of confirmed cases are both lower than counts from day earlier.

• Vietnam sees 7th patient recover from novel coronavirus

Health authorities in China’s Hubei province – epicentre of the Covid-19 epidemic – reported 94 new deaths attributable to the contagion, and 1,638 newly confirmed cases as of Tuesday. This brings the totals announced by the province’s health commission to 1,068 and 33,366, respectively. Robert Delaney reports on SCMP.

Officials in Hubei had reported 103 fatalities and 2,097 newly confirmed cases a day earlier.

Some 1,104 of the new cases announced were confirmed in Hubei’s capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated at a seafood and meat market.

Michael Ryan, the World Health Organisation’s head of emergency programmes, said on Tuesday in Geneva that Covid-19 had the potential to spread faster than either the Ebola or Sars viruses. Earlier this week, Covid-19 exceeded the Sars outbreak of 2002-03 in terms of deaths attributed to it.

Transmission methods have been shown to include human-to-human contact, and the incubation period is believed to be up to 14 days.

According to SCMP, in recent days, epidemiologists have said that the contagion may also spread through “aerosol transmission” – when tiny particles or droplets of the virus suspended in the air are inhaled.

Others indicated that transmissions are possible from patients who show mild or no symptoms.

WHO officials said on Tuesday that the agency had also activated a UN crisis management team to better assess and mitigate the outbreak’s economic implications.

Vietnam sees 7th patient recover from novel coronavirus

A Chinese man, 66, has become the seventh patient to be successfully treated for the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Vietnam.

Li Ding, a Chinese national, has tested negative for coronavirus after nearly three weeks being quarantined for treatment at Cho Ray Hospital in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Medical Examination and Treatment, said on Tuesday.

According to Khue, Li can now walk on his own and perform daily activities.

“The patient is in a good condition … We are seeking approval from the national steering committee [on preventing and combating the acute respiratory disease caused by coronavirus to have him discharged,” Khue said at Tuesday’s press conference.

Li was one of the first two new coronavirus-infected patients confirmed in Vietnam last month, with the other being his 28-year-old son, Li Zichao. The father and son were admitted to Cho Ray Hospital on January 22 after having symptoms of a fever. They were confirmed to be infected with coronavirus the next day.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 15 cases of the virus, including 12 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese. Among them, seven have fully recovered. They were all treated for free.