Death toll in novel coronavirus climbs to 2,345 in China; WHO team decides to visit Wuhan

New Delhi, February 22: The death toll in novel coronavirus has climbed to 2,345 in China with 109 more deaths reported yesterday, while the confirmed cases have risen to 76,288. The Chinese health authorities noted that a total of 397 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported yesterday. Meanwhile, the National Health Commission of China reaveled that among the deaths, 106 were from the Hubei Province, the epicenter of the virus.

 

 

A WHO-led team of international experts, currently in China to investigate the coronavirus outbreak, will travel to Wuhan. Besides controlling the spread of the virus, a major task of the WHO team along with their Chinese counterparts is to come up with standard medicine to cure the disease.

 

While the vast majority of deaths have occurred in mainland China, there have been fatal cases of the virus in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan and France. Cases of the virus have been confirmed in more than two dozen countries worldwide, affecting nearly every continent.

 

Meanwhile, India has also approached all States and UTs to review their preparedness, identify gaps and strengthen core capacities needed to prepare for, detect and respond to possible outbreaks. Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme has issued advisory to pick up any travel related case reported in the community and follow up contacts of confirmed cases.

 

Further, while National Institute of Virology, Pune is fully geared up to test samples of nCoV, ten other laboratories under Indian Council of Medical Research’s Viral Research and Diagnostics Laboratories network are also equipped to test such samples, as per the reports.