The coronavirus outbreak that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan has spread across the country and beyond its borders, leaving governments at all levels in China scrambling to limit further person-to-person transmission of the virus, now known as COVID-19. Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, is under lockdown.
Scientists from the United States (US) to Australia are using new technology in an ambitious, multi-million-dollar drive to develop a vaccine in record time to tackle China's coronavirus outbreak. The new virus has spread rapidly since emerging late last year in China, killing more than 800 people in the mainland and infecting over 37,000.
The death toll from China's novel coronavirus outbreak rose to 717 on Saturday as the country seethes over an epidemic that claimed the life of a popular doctor and created global panic.The toll has now surpassed the number of people who died in mainland China and Hong Kong during the 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, after another 81 people succumbed to the illness in central Hubei province.More than 34,000 people have been infected in China by the new strain,
China faced deepening isolation over its coronavirus epidemic on Saturday as the death toll soared to 259, with the United States (US) and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary Chinese travel bans.With Britain, Russia and Sweden among the countries confirming their first infections, the virus has now spread to more than two dozen nations, sending governments scurrying to limit their exposure.China toughened its own quarantine measures at the centre of the outbrea
Countries expanded restrictions on travellers from China over a deadly virus epidemic on Friday as an official admitted that a botched response worsened an outbreak that has now grown into a global health emergency.At least 213 people have died and nearly 10,000 people have been infected in China by the new coronavirus while new cases were found abroad, with more than 20 countries now affected by the disease.The top Communist Party official in Wuhan, the central city of 11 million people wher
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency over the new coronavirus, as China reported Friday the death toll had climbed to 213 with nearly 10,000 infections.The United Nations (UN) health agency based in Geneva had initially downplayed the threat posed by the disease, but revised its risk assessment after crisis talks."Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tol
A virus similar to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pathogen has claimed 56 lives since emerging in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and spread around the world.Here are the places that have confirmed cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus:ChinaAs of Sunday, almost 2,000 people have been infected across China, the bulk of them in and around Wuhan.Nearly all of the 56 who have died were in the Wuhan region, but officials have confirmed at least four deaths elsewhere.The
President Xi Jinping warned Saturday that China was facing a "grave" situation as authorities took urgent action to halt the spread of a virus that has killed 41 people and is overwhelming hospitals at the epicentre of the health emergency.The world's most populous country scrambled to contain the disease that has already infected nearly 1,300 people, building a second field hospital to relieve overwhelmed medical facilities and closing more travel routes as the country marked
China's bid to contain a deadly new virus by placing cities of millions under quarantine is an unprecedented undertaking but it is unlikely to stop the disease spreading, experts warn.The contagious virus has already reached elsewhere in China and abroad, and even an authoritarian government has only a small timeframe in which trapped residents will submit to such a lockdown, they say."I think we have passed the golden period of control and prevention," said Guan Yi, an expert
The true scale of the outbreak of a mysterious SARS-like virus in China is likely far bigger than officially reported, scientists have warned, as countries ramp up measures to prevent the disease from spreading.Fears that the virus will spread are growing ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese move around the country and many others host or visit extended family members living overseas.Authorities in China say two people have died and at least 45 have been i
