The death toll from the 2019-nCoV coronavirus in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563 on Thursday, its third consecutive record daily rise as 10 more cases were reported on cruise ship off Japan and hundreds of experts to gather in Geneva to decipher how to combat the virus.
Hubei province, the epicentre of the epidemic, reported 70 new deaths on Wednesday and 2,987 new confirmed cases – more than 80% of the total reported by Chinese authorities. The other fatalities were in Tianjin city, the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and Guizhou province in the southwest… There have been two deaths outside mainland China – in the Philippines and Hong Kong – both following visits to Wuhan.
Ten more people on a cruise liner in the Japanese port of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, tested positive for the coronavirus, NHK television reported citing the Japanese health ministry, bringing the total number of cases on board to 20. About 3,700 people are facing at least two weeks quarantined on the ship after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who travelled on it late last month tested positive… In Hong Kong, 3,600 passengers and crew were confined to their ship docked in the city for tests after three people on board had tested positive earlier.
Hundreds of experts will gather in Geneva next week, on Feb. 11-12, in an attempt to find a way to fight back against the outbreak by speeding research into drugs and vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) said… Asked about reports of “drug breakthroughs”, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said: “There are no known effective therapeutics against this 2019-nCoV (virus).”
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, by some miracle, the researchers will find a way to fight the virus very, very quickly!
Note: Earlier today, it was reported that Apple iPhone assembler Foxconn plans to ramp up production in factories in China next week, but it will take at least a week or two more to resume full production.