Coronavirus: Death Toll Rises to 213 in China as WHO Declares Emergency

• Coronavirus: Death Toll Rises to 213 in China as WHO Declares Emergency

The total death due to Coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 213 with around 1,990 new cases confirmed, the National Health Commission stated on Friday.

According to the commission, 43 new deaths were recorded in the hardest-hit Hubei province where the virus first surfaced.

The commission on Friday said there were 1,982 new confirmed cases, bringing the total number of victims to just under 10,000. While another 102,000 people were reportedly under medical observation with possible symptoms of the respiratory ailment.

World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday revised its risk assessment of the situation and call for global emergency to tame the wide spreading deadly virus.

“We must all act together now to limit further spread… We can only stop it together,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva.

In Lagos, the state commissioner for health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said the Chinese government, through her embassy in Nigeria, was working with Lagos State to prevent entry of the virus into the country.

He said, “We are very happy with the cooperation we are receiving from the Chinese government. We’ve had a very serious and high-level discussion with the Chinese government through their embassy in Lagos. Our primary concern has been the return of their citizens to Lagos in a few days and we are happy to inform you that the Embassy of China is also concerned about this, and they have sent out information through notifications to their citizens and companies located in Lagos that their citizens should try and remain in China until there is clarity about how this infection is going.

“However, if some of them choose to return, and we cannot restrict people, if they do return to Lagos, the instruction from the Chinese Embassy is that they should be quarantined for a period of 10 to 14 days in their houses, hostels and accommodations.”