The number China reported on Monday was 908. That is how many people the coronavirus had killed on the mainland by the end of Sunday, 97 of them added in a single day. The same morning, the first members of a WHO-organised international mission set off for Beijing.
The mechanics here matter more than the headline. The WHO’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had flown to Beijing in late January, met President Xi Jinping and Chinese ministers, and come home with an agreement in principle to send a mission. Agreeing was the easy part. Reuters noted that settling who would actually be on the team took nearly two weeks, and the government never announced its make-up. The only name made public was Dr Bruce Aylward, a Canadian who has worked epidemics before.
“I’ve just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team for the @WHO-led 2019nCoV international expert mission to China, led by Dr Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies,” Tedros wrote on Twitter from Geneva. State-run China Daily said the group would land in Beijing on Monday night.
What the numbers said
China’s National Health Commission put the day’s toll at 97 deaths, 91 of them in Hubei province, the centre of the epidemic. Anhui accounted for two, and Gansu, Hainan, Jiangxi and Heilongjiang for one apiece. The country logged 3,062 new confirmed cases on Sunday, taking the total to 40,171 across 31 provincial-level regions. Another 4,008 suspected cases were added. Of the confirmed patients, 3,281 had been discharged after recovering.
The catch is how to read any of it. Michael Ryan, who runs the WHO’s health emergencies programme, told a Geneva briefing that reported cases in Hubei had held steady for four days. “That’s good news and may reflect the impact of the control measures that have been put in place,” he said. He added that it was “very early to make any predictions.” Chinese officials were also claiming that confirmed cases had begun to fall.
Beyond China’s borders
The virus was no longer a domestic problem. By Reuters’ tally of official reports the virus had reached 27 countries and territories, with more than 330 people infected abroad. Two deaths had been recorded outside the mainland, both Chinese nationals. Hong Kong counted 36 confirmed patients, one of whom had died, Macao had 10 and Taiwan 18.
The newest cases outside Asia were British visitors in a Haute-Savoie village high in the French Alps, French health officials said, and Europe now had reason to worry about more.
The scale of the shutdown explained why outside eyes were wanted. For two weeks, cities that normally teem had turned into virtual ghost towns after Party rulers imposed lockdowns and cancelled flights, and factories and schools went dark. The WHO had declared a global emergency on 30 January, days after Beijing locked down 60 million people in Hubei and its capital Wuhan. Millions were now heading back to Beijing and other cities after the extended New Year holiday, which ran from 24 January and was pushed to 9 February, though most offices told staff to work from home.
Sources
- China coronavirus toll 908 as WHO-led experts head to Beijing (Reuters)
- WHO sends team of experts to China as coronavirus death toll reaches 908
