Telemundo News
A person with U.S. citizenship died of the new coronavirus in the epicenter of the epidemic in China, which this Saturday exceeded the number of deaths worldwide that caused the Acute and Severe Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the US embassy in Beijing reported.
“We can confirm that a 60-year-old American citizen declared a carrier of the coronavirus died in a Wuhan hospital in China on February 6,” a spokesman for the US embassy told AFP. “We present our deepest condolences to the family,” he said and added that no further comments will be made to preserve the privacy of their family members.
It was not immediately clear whether the possibility of repatriating it from China was considered for this person, as happened in the case of other Americans.
The State Department informed on Saturday that they are already “more than 800” People evacuated from Wuhan. The US authorities have so far confirmed 12 cases of coronaviruses detected in the national territory. At least 15 Americans were infected outside the country, according to NBC News calculations.
For its part, the office of the governor of New Jersey announced on Saturday that the four Chinese citizens who were admitted to a hospital in that state with a possible coronavirus were negative in the analyzes performed and will be discharged.
Wuhan, a city of 11 million inhabitants, where the viral pneumonia epidemic began in December, and the province of Hubei (central China), of which it is the capital, have been isolated from the world for two weeks by a sanitary cord.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China rose at least 811 on Saturday, while the total number of confirmed cases reached 37,198, after another 3,399 people were diagnosed with the disease in the last 24 hours. The balance exceeded that of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic, which killed 774 people worldwide between 2002 and 2003.
After the first two deaths from the virus outside China were recorded in the last week, which occurred in Hong Kong and the Philippines, on Saturday Japan reported that a citizen of this country died of a “severe pneumonia” (a condition indicated between the symptoms caused by the coronavirus).
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party faces recriminations of public opinion about the death of a doctor who was threatened by the police after he warned about the new disease a little over a month ago.
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In Japan, three more cases were detected on Saturday among the 3,700 occupants of the Diamond Princess ship, for a total of 64. All people aboard the cruise remain under quarantine for 14 days.
After the fury unleashed online by the government’s treatment of Dr. Li Wenliang, the Communist Party said it would send a team to “fully investigate the relevant issues raised by the public.”
Li, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, contracted the virus while caring for the sick, and his death was confirmed on Friday. He is one of eight Wuhan medical professionals who they tried to warn to his colleagues and others when the government did not. Li had said the police forced him to sign a statement admitting he was spreading lies.
Even the pro-government newspaper Global times He said that the treatment given to Li and other informants was “evidence of the incompetence of local authorities to face a contagious and lethal virus.”
The incident generated complaints that party officials lie about, or conceal, disease outbreaks, chemical spills, dangerous products or financial fraud. Chinese citizens can be jailed for accusations of spreading rumors or generating problems.
The majority of deaths from the virus have been from elderly people with pre-existing health problems, but specialists said that Li’s work – eye specialists feel very close to their patients during the checkups – could have exposed him to very high amounts of viruses that made his disease more serious. All deaths, except one, have been in Chinese territory.
A situation that led Hong Kong to apply a drastic measure whereby anyone arriving from mainland China will be obliged to isolate themselves for two weeks at home, in a hotel or in any other accommodation. Those who do not abide by the norm are exposed to six months in prison.
Confinement measures remain in force in many Chinese cities, where tens of millions of people remain locked up at home. The metropolis of Shanghai (east), with 24 million inhabitants, became this Saturday the last municipality to impose the use of a mask in public places.
During a visit to Wuhan this week, Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan ordered local authorities to take measures to “times of war“, tracking the neighborhoods in search of inhabitants who have a fever. The city and the province of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, have been isolated from the world for two weeks by a sanitary cordon.
Cruise ships blocked
Beyond Hong Kong, many countries tighten measures against people from China and advise against traveling to the country, where most international airlines have stopped flying. In addition, thousands of travelers and crew remain confined to two cruises in Asia.
In Japan, the number of people infected on the Diamond Princess cruise reached 64 cases this Saturday, including an Argentine. About 3,700 people on board remain locked in the cabins.
In Hong Kong, 3,600 people suffered the same fate at the World Dream, where eight passengers tested positive. Japan has banned docking another cruise ship because an infected passenger is suspected of being on board.
In China, medical center workers, saturated, remain very vulnerable to the virus: 40 employees from a university hospital in Wuhan they were infected in January, according to a study published in Jama magazine.
While the hypothesis that the virus would come from a bat seemed to be confirmed, Chinese scientists announced that pangolin could be the “intermediate host” that transmitted the infectious agent to humans.
The virus appeared in a market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold for consumption. According to a scientific study, diarrhea could be a secondary route of transmission of the new coronavirus.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that 82% of registered cases are considered mild, 15% serious and 3% “critical”, and less than 2% were fatal. Thus, the mortality rate of this virus, temporarily called “2019-nCoV”, is currently much lower than that of SARS.
As the epidemic progresses, WHO is looking for a definitive name for the infectious agent that does not stigmatize either the Chinese population or Wuhan. He is expected to make a decision about it in the coming days.
Meanwhile, China announced on Saturday that it will provisionally call the condition “pneumonia of the new coronavirus” and gave it the acronym NCP (by its name in English “novel coronavirus pneumonia”).
With information from AP and AFP.
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