And there's no breathing space here! Death toll in coronavirus shoots up to 2663; NHC confirms 508 new cases on Tuesday

New Delhi, February 25: And there's no breathing space here! China on Tuesday reported another 71 deaths from the novel coronavirus, the lowest daily number of fatalities in over two weeks, which raised the toll to 2,663. The National Health Commission also reported 508 new confirmed cases, with all but nine in hard hit Hubei province.

 

 

"It is up from Monday's 409 cases nationwide", the commission noted. Further, while multiple provinces in China have reported zero new cases for several days in a row now, the World Health Organization on Monday noted that the coronavirus epidemic had peaked in China. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the peak in China occurred between January 23 and February 2 and the number of new cases there has been declining steadily since then.

 

 

However, WHO expert Bruce Aylward, leader of a joint WHO-China mission of experts, warned on Monday of outbreaks in other countries increasing at exponential growth rates. "China's actions, especially in Wuhan, have probably prevented hundreds of thousands of cases. I urge the rest of the world to learn the lesson of acting fast", Aylward added.

 

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) no longer has a process for declaring a pandemic, but the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak remains an international emergency. "The novel coronavirus outbreak is not out of control globally nor causing large scale deaths and it is too early to speak of a pandemic", the Geneva based agency said.

 

Despite a downward trend in new case numbers, China continues to struggle to resume normal activity after the virus brought the world's second-largest economy to a standstill. Meanwhile, India is likely to send a military transport aircraft to the coronavirus-hit Wuhan on February 26 to deliver relief material and bring back more Indians following a clearance from China, as revealed by the Health ministry officials on Monday.