Coronavirus
deaths and fresh cases leap in China as countries struggle to evacuate citizens
WHO
prepares to meet on Thursday to decide whether to declare outbreak a global
emergency
Coronavirus
outbreak – live updates
Justin
McCurry
Thu 30 Jan
2020 06.15 GMTLast modified on Thu 30 Jan 2020 07.15 GMT
China
reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as
countries struggled to evacuate citizens still trapped in Wuhan, the central
Chinese city where the outbreak began.
The death
toll rose to 170 on Thursday – up from 132 reported on Wednesday, a rise of
29%. The number of confirmed cases in China now stands at 7,711, up from 5,974
a day earlier.
It is
understood that 162 of the deaths – or 95% – are in Hubei province, where Wuhan
is located. Of the new deaths, 37 were in Hubei province and one in the
south-western province of Sichuan.
The World
Health Organization (WHO), which initially downplayed the severity of the
disease, has warned all governments to be “on alert”, with the UN agency’s
emergency committee due to meet later on Thursday to decide whether to declare
the outbreak a global health emergency.
The WHO’s
emergencies chief, Dr Michael Ryan, said the few cases of human-to-human spread
of the virus outside China – in Japan, Germany, Canada and Vietnam – were of
“great concern”.
The US and
Japan have started evacuating citizens, and other countries are poised to send
chartered flights to the city, amid reports that some evacuations had been held
up by delays in obtaining permission from the Chinese authorities.
A British
flight to bring about 200 nationals back to the UK was unable to take off as
planned on Thursday. The Foreign Office said it was “working urgently” to
organise a flight to the UK “as soon as possible”.
Australia
is yet to gain permission from the Chinese government to evacuate hundreds of
its citizens, and New Zealand has launched a separate rescue mission from its
neighbour, though a timeline is still unclear.
France,
South Korea and other countries are also pulling out their citizens or making
plans to do so. About 250 French citizens and 100 other Europeans will be flown
out of Wuhan on board two French planes this week.
Businesses
are beginning to feel the impact of the outbreak. Several airlines, including
British Airways, have suspended services to China, while Toyota, Ikea, Foxconn,
Starbucks, Tesla and McDonald’s were among major companies to temporarily
freeze production or close large numbers of outlets in China. The Chinese
Football Association has postponed all domestic games.
In Huahe
town, in the stricken Hubei province, authorities are investigating reports a
17-year-old boy with cerebral palsy died after his father, who cared for him,
was taken into quarantine for five days.
Almost 200
Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan on Wednesday are undergoing three days
of testing and monitoring at a Southern California military base to make sure
they do not show signs of the virus.
In Japan,
three of the 206 people repatriated on Wednesday have tested positive for the
coronavirus, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 11. A
second group of 210 Japanese nationals arrived in Tokyo on Thursday morning.
The cases
in Japan include two that are believed to have come from human-to-human
transmission – a bus driver in his 60s who drove tourists from Wuhan on two
occasions this month, and a female tour guide in her 40s who worked alongside
him. Neither of them had travelled abroad in the past month, the public
broadcaster NHK said.
“We are in
a truly new situation,” Japan’s health minister, Katsunobu Kato said.
The
Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said he was concerned that Taiwan’s
exclusion from the WHO risked hampering the region’s ability to coordinate a
response.
Speaking in
parliament on Thursday, Abe said Taiwan, whose participation in the WHO has
been blocked by China and its diplomatic allies, should be admitted to the
body. “It will be difficult to maintain the health of the entire region and
prevent infection if [Taiwan] is excluded,” Kyodo news agency quoted him as
saying.
Authorities
in Taiwan, where eight cases have been confirmed, have banned residents of
Hubei province from entering the island.
Several
countries in Asia are battling the virus on a second front – the spread of
online rumours about affected areas and the number of deaths.
Police in
South Korea are investigating a rise in falsehoods about the coronavirus,
including a scam in which people are being asked to provide personal details in
return for access to information about the spread of the disease.
The South
Korean government has arranged for a chartered plane to fly to Wuhan late
Thursday to repatriate the first group among an estimated 700 nationals living
or staying in and around Wuhan.
Wire
agencies contributed to this report
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