Death toll in China's coronavirus rises to 17

Beijing: The death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak in China nearly doubled to 17 with the confirmed infection cases sharply rising to 444 on Wednesday, even as the cases of the deadly pneumonia were reported from the US, Hong Kong, Macao and Mexico.

Chinese authorities have warned that the disease could spread further in the ongoing holiday season during which millions travel at home and abroad amid official advisories to people of Wuhan, the epicentre of illness, not to leave the city. Seventeen people have died due to the virus, state-run China Daily reported on Wednesday.

The coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus that has killed people in China is a novel strain and not seen before. The Chinese health authorities announced on Wednesday that 440 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 had 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 here 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 that human-to-human transmission of the virus had taken place.

The official said there was evidence that the disease was "mainly transmitted through the respiratory tract".

Overseas, one case has been confirmed in Japan, three in Thailand, and one in Korea. The first case of the virus has now been reported in US with official confirmation that a person arrived from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus.

The patient was hospitalised on Sunday, after arriving in Seattle from Wuhan on January 15, officials at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sad.

Li said the figures from the commission show a total of 2,197 close contacts have been traced. A total of 1,394 are under medical observation while 765 people have been discharged. All of the deaths were reported in central Hubei province, where the virus first appeared in the city of Wuhan.

China yet to confirm the exact source of the virus.

"Though the transmission route of the virus is yet to be fully understood, there is a possibility of virus mutation and a risk of further spread of the epidemic," Li said.

The warning comes as millions of people across China are travelling within the country and abroad for the Lunar New Year week-long holiday. The holiday season began on January 10 and would last for 40 days. Officially, China will declare week-long holiday from January 24.

The Wuhan Health Commission said it would authorise medical institutions to quarantine all patients and people in close contact with them as a prevention and control measure, Li said.

On Tuesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) upgraded the coronavirus to a Class B infectious disease, but said it would use the stricter control measures for a Class A disease to handle the outbreak, meaning any infection nationwide must be reported within two hours and monitored.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is holding an emergency meeting on Wednesday, 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. The week-long festival triggers biggest mass migration, clogging road, rail and air networks every year. India has already issued a travel warning. Several countries started screening travellers coming from China, especially from Wuhan to detect symptoms like fever. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang confirmed on Monday about Chinese official's attendance at the emergency meeting of the International Health Regulation (IHR) called by the

WHO.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urged China on Wednesday to release all information about the outbreak of a new virus and work with Taiwan on curbing its spread. At China's insistence, Taiwan is not a member of the World Health Organisation and is not allowed to participate in any of its meetings. However, large numbers of Taiwanese travel to and live in China, where hundreds of people have been sickened and nine have died in an outbreak that apparently originated in the city of Wuhan.

Despite Beijing's restrictions, the Taiwan Center for Disease Control said earlier this month it had been notified on Jan. 15 by its Chinese counterpart about the outbreak. It said it had also sent two experts to Wuhan to visit health care facilities in order to better understand the treatment process of the cases."

Tsai made no mention of those interactions at her news conference Wednesday.

I especially want to urge China, being a member of international society, that it should fulfill its responsibilities to make the situation of the outbreak transparent, and to share accurate information on the outbreak with Taiwan," Tsai told reporters.

One case of the previously unknown coronavirus has been confirmed in Taiwan and others in Macao, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the United States. The Taiwanese patient, a businesswoman who recently returned from Wuhan, is recovering, Tsai said.

Sharing information is also important for the health of the Chinese population and Beijing should not put political concerns above the protection of its own people," Tsai said.

China regards Taiwan as its own territory and says it is not entitled to representation in most international

bodies. I want to reiterate that Taiwan is a member of international society. The 23 million people here, like all other people in every corner of the world, are facing threats to their own health," Tsai said.

Taiwan, which was heavily affected by the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak that also originated in China, has enacted strict monitoring, detection and quarantine

measures.

Similarly, a man in Washington state has been diagnosed with a deadly strain of coronavirus, the first case to be confirmed in the U.S. in an outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people in Asia, federal and state health officials said Tuesday. The man, who is in his 30s and is a U.S. resident, recently traveled to Wuhan, China, the city where the outbreak is believed to have started last month, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Washington state and local health authorities.