▶️ As of Saturday, China reported 811 deaths from the epidemic and said more than 37,000 people have become ill from the coronavirus. The coronavirus death toll now exceeds the 774 deaths caused by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus in over two dozen nations in 2002 and 2003.
▶️ A study published Friday in the medical journal JAMA found that 41% of the first 138 patients diagnosed at one hospital in Wuhan, China, were presumed to be infected in that hospital.
▶️ China has been transferring patients to the second newly completed specialized hospital in Wuhan, the Leishenshan Hospital. The hospital is able to take 1,500 beds and accommodate more than 2,000 medical staff.
▶️ Four passengers onboard the Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas cruise ship have tested negative, according to New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy. The ship is docked in Port Bayonne in New Jersey, some 15 miles from New York City. Staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the ship on Friday to test 27 passengers who had recently traveled from mainland China. The CDC cleared 23 of those passengers but the remaining four had to be further evaluated.
▶️ The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the country’s seventh case of the coronavirus on Saturday. Singapore’s Health Ministry on Saturday confirmed seven new cases of the coronavirus,, bringing the total number of cases in the city-state up to 40.
▶️ France will shut two schools while investigating a cluster of new cases. On Saturday, the French health minister confirmed five new cases of the coronavirus, including four adults and one child — all British citizens — bringing the total in France to 11.
▶️ Hangzhou, a Chinese city with a population of 10 million, said it would temporarily ban the sale of flu and cough medicine at pharmacies, in an effort to compel people who might be sick to see a doctor.
▶️ FedEx allowing pilots to decline trips to China over the coronavirus outbreak.
▶️ More than 70 exhibitors have withdrawn from the Singapore Airshow. The event, due to be held in Singapore from Feb. 11-16, is touted as Asia’s largest aerospace event.
▶️ A British government charter flight took off on Sunday from Wuhan carrying more than 200 people, in what Britain’s foreign ministry said would be the country’s final evacuation from the locked-down city.
▶️ A lawyer who had provided a rare glimpse into the dire conditions in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has gone missing, his friends say, expressing fear for his safety.
▶️ The government of Gibraltar, a British territory at the southern tip of Spain, on Saturday turned away a cruise ship because dozens of passengers were suspected of being sick with coronavirus, which can cause diarrhea, vomiting and fever.
Photo by Chinatopix, via Associated Press
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