Death toll in China's novel coronavirus virus rises to 17

Masked workers disinfect a passenger throughfare at the Taoyuan International Airport on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

Beijing: The death toll in China's novel coronavirus virus has gone up to 17 with the confirmed infection cases sharply rising to 543 the health authorities said on Wednesday, warning that the disease could spread further in the ongoing Chinese holiday season during which millions travel at home and abroad.

The Chinese health authorities announced on Wednesday that 543 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) had been reported in 13 provincial-level regions in the country by the end of Tuesday.

The cases resulted in nine deaths, all in central China's Hubei Province, Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission told at a press conference on Wednesday. Altogether 149 new confirmed cases were reported on Tuesday, Li added.

Li said China was now at the 'most critical stage' of prevention and control following confirmation that human-to-human transmission of the virus had taken place.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO), will consider declaring an international public health emergency over the virus - as it did with swine flu and Ebola.

Such a declaration, if made, will be seen as an urgent call for a coordinated international response in view of fears that millions of Chinese are travelling at home and abroad for the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival holidays starting from January 24.

149
Total no. of cases reported on Tuesday

First coronavirus case detected in US

The first case of coronavirus which has claimed the lives of 17 people in Asia has been detected in the US, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention announced.
The male patient, who travelled from Wuhan to Washington, is in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.

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