China has agreed to allow US health experts into the country as part of a World Health Organisation (WHO) effort to help combat the fast-spreading coronavirus, as the number of cases and deaths continues to mount.
Earlier on Monday, China accused the United States of spreading fear by pulling its citizens out and severely restricting travel.
In central China’s Hubei province, epicentre of the epidemic, Chinese state TV reported there were 2345 new cases of the virus and another 64 deaths, bringing the total of virus-related fatalities in Hubei to 414 by Monday.
The global death toll has risen to 426; all but one of the victims – a man in the Philippines – have died in mainland China. The total number of cases now standing at 20,438, officials said on Tuesday.
The White House announced on Monday China had accepted its offer to have US experts as part of a WHO mission to study and help combat the virus that emerged in Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan.
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A 1000-bed hospital built in eight days to treat people with the virus in Wuhan was due to receive its first patients on Monday, state media said. A second hospital with 1600 beds is due to be operational later this week.
With Wuhan and some other Chinese cities in virtual lockdown, travel severely restricted and China facing increasing international isolation, fears of wider economic disruption are growing. Sources at the OPEC oil cartel told Reuters producers were considering cutting output by almost a third to support prices.
The WHO last week declared the flu-like virus a global emergency. It has spread to 23 other countries and regions. The Philippines reported the first coronavirus death outside of China.
Airlines around the world have stopped flights to parts of China. A suspension by the United Arab Emirates on Monday will affect the Gulf airlines Etihad and Emirates.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defended the measures taken by the United States, including suspending the entry of foreign nationals who had visited China within the past 14 days.
The outbreak is reminiscent of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a virus from the same family that emerged in China in 2002 and killed almost 800 people around the world out of the roughly 8000 who were infected.
Chinese data suggests the new virus, while much more contagious than SARS, is significantly less lethal, although such numbers can evolve rapidly. Prior to the latest figures from Hubei, the number of confirmed infections in China stood at 17,205.
The WHO said at least 151 cases had been confirmed in 23 other countries and regions, including Japan, Thailand, Germany, Britain and the United States, which on Monday reported its second case of person-to-person transmission within its borders.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said controlling the virus was his country’s most important task, Xinhua state news agency said.
-with AAP
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