The death toll for the novel coronavirus outbreak centred in China surpassed 1,000 people as some countries ramped up efforts to contain the virus.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam asked members of the public to stay at home and avoid crowded places. Meanwhile, South Korea urged citizens not to travel to Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, according to the local Yonhap News Agency.
The virus – officially called 2019-nCoV – has infected over 43,000 people and its death toll has already surpassed that of the SARS outbreak in 2003.
At the epicentre of the outbreak in Hubei province, two health officials were fired, Chinese state media said. The move comes after an outcry over the handling of the outbreak.
It also follows the death of doctor Li Wenliang who had given an early warning about the virus fuelling further criticism of Chinese officials.
Outside of China, the virus has appeared in 24 countries after first being reported in late December in Wuhan, China.
‘Serious and imminent’
The UK said on Monday that the novel coronavirus outbreak constitutes a “serious and imminent threat to public health”.
The health department announced on Monday that four more patients had tested positive for the virus bringing the total number of cases in the country to eight.
“The new cases are all known contacts of a previously confirmed UK case, and the virus was passed on in France,” Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said.
That previously confirmed case is widely reported to be a UK businessman who had travelled from Singapore stayed in a ski resort in the Alps. He is linked to an additional five cases of coronavirus in France.
Those five people are currently being hospitalised in Lyon, Saint-Etienne, and Grenoble. This brings the total number of cases in Europe to 43.
Meanwhile, at least 791 people in the United Kingdom tested negative for the virus. The foreign office has advised UK citizens to leave China.
Many countries have repatriated citizens from the epicentre of the outbreak, Wuhan, China. Those citizens are being held in quarantine for a total of two weeks, the approximate incubation period of the virus.
There will be an extraordinary EU meeting of a council of health ministers later in the week, EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarčič told reporters.
“Now is the time to pull our forces together,” he said.
Cruise ship quarantine
An additional 66 passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total to 130 people on the cruise. The ship is anchored in Yokohama port and being quarantined until February 19.
Infected passengers were evacuated by the Japanese coast guard and being treated in the country.
A total of 3,700 people from 56 different countries are on board the ship.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, lifted a quarantine on another cruise ship – World Dream – after testing crew members aboard the ship.
The ship was placed under quarantine after eight Chinese passengers on a voyage last month were diagnosed with the virus.
Protect yourself & others from getting sick. Wash your hands:
?after coughing or sneezing
?when caring for the sick
?before, during & after you prepare food
?before eating
?after toilet use
?when hands are visibly dirty
?after handling animals or animal waste#2019nCoV pic.twitter.com/86J88VDzGj— WHO/Europe (@WHO_Europe) February 6, 2020
France ramps-up efforts to fight the epidemic
The French ministry of health announced on Monday evening that it will invest €2.5 million in new research on coronavirus.
France’s health and research ministries said in a joint press statement that they will use these resources “to reinforce those already put in place by research laboratories since the virus outbreak started”.
“As soon as the World Health Organization announced the first suspected cases of an epidemic of viral pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in early January, a ‘task force’ was mobilised to ensure the sharing of scientific information and coordinate the French research effort”, the two ministries added.
The task force formed in response to the epidemic has identified several areas of work, including monitoring the epidemic and studying the characterization of the virus, as well as implementing and improving diagnostic techniques and therapeutic approaches.
