The number of deaths caused by the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China increased this Saturday to 722, announced the Chinese National Health Commission, which registered an increase in new cases higher than that seen in the last days.
This Saturday there are 3,399 more cases, while on Friday there were 3,143 new infections, after several days in which the number of new cases had been decreasing.
Health officials are treating 6,101 critically ill patients and have already released 2,050 people who contracted pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, 345,498 people have been followed up on suspicion of infection, 189,660 of whom remain under observation.
The Chinese doctor who gave the first warning about the outbreak of the new coronavirus died on Thursday after contracting pneumonia last week, announced the hospital where he was admitted.
Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, 34, was “unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus”, said in his Facebook account, the central hospital in Wuhan.
The first person to die from the new coronavirus outside of China was a Chinese citizen in the Philippines.
In addition to the mainland of China and the Chinese regions of Macau and Hong Kong, there are other confirmed cases of infection in more than 20 countries.
On January 30, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency situation, which implies the adoption of preventive and coordinating measures worldwide.
The disease has been identified as a new type of coronavirus, similar to atypical pneumonia, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which between 2002 and 2003 killed 650 people in mainland China and Hong Kong.
Infected people can transmit the disease during the incubation period, which varies between one day and two weeks, without the virus being detected.
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