Coronavirus deaths rise sharply, US bars foreign nationals who visited China
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The number of people who have died from the coronavirus has risen sharply to 213 – hours after the outbreak was declared a global public health emergency.
Chinese health officials have said that 9,692 people have now contracted the illness.
This is an increase of 1,981 cases and 81 deaths since Wednesday.
No deaths have been reported outside of China, but the virus has spread to more than a dozen countries.
The vast majority of cases have been in Hubei province – and the Chinese city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak.
An international emergency is described as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a co-ordinated international response.
The Trump administration, while insisting the risk to Americans from coronavirus is low, nevertheless declared a public health emergency on Friday and announced the extraordinary step of barring entry to the United States of foreign nationals who have recently visited China.
In addition, U.S. citizens who have traveled within the past two weeks to China’s Hubei Province – epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic – will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of 14 days, the incubation period of the virus, officials said.
Americans who visited other parts of mainland China will undergo special health screening upon their return, followed by up to 14 days of “monitored self-quarantine,” under the temporary restrictions.
There have been a handful of confirmed cases in the US, including the first known incident of person-to-person transmission in the country.
The US State Department advised all American citizens against travelling to China on Thursday.
European countries have sent a chartered airliner to China to evacuate hundreds of European citizens.
Captain Antonios Efthymiou said the flight would stop in Paris to pick up a team of doctors and extra crew members before heading to Hanoi and then China.
Mr Efthymiou told Portuguese media it would bring back about 350 Europeans.
A passenger plane enlisted for the evacuation took off on Thursday morning from a former Portuguese military airport southeast of Lisbon, carrying only the pilots and crew.
An increasing number of airlines stopped their flights to mainland China – including Air France, British Airways, Germany’s Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic.
