In China, the number of new Corona infections has risen at the fastest rate in more than a decade. Within 24 hours, 138 new covid-19 cases were reported, according to health authorities in Beijing on Thursday. The day before, there were 115.
According to the National Health Commission, 124 of the new cases were local infections, with 81 reported in Hebei province around the capital Beijing and 43 in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
More than 28 million in quarantine
The total number of confirmed Corona cases now stands at 87,844, according to official figures, and the number of deaths increased by one to 4635, the first increase since May 2020. Authorities placed more than 28 million people under domestic quarantine in January to contain the spread of the disease.
So far, the government does not expect a resurgence of the Corona epidemic in the wake of the traditional New Year holiday. If controls and precautionary measures are properly implemented, a massive resurgence is unlikely, the CDC health agency said most recently. The New Year holiday begins Feb. 11 and is usually a peak travel period in China.
WHO team arrives in Wuhan
After days of delay, a team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) has arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus. Footage from Chinese state television station CGTN showed today how the plane carrying the WHO experts, which had arrived from Singapore, landed in Wuhan. The mission had originally been scheduled to begin last week. However, lack of approvals from the Chinese side delayed the start. The ten WHO experts, including Fabian Leendertz from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, must initially go into quarantine for two weeks due to strict Chinese entry regulations.
In the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, with its millions of inhabitants, the world’s first focus of infection with the novel pathogen had been detected at the end of 2019. Most scientists assume that bats were the original hosts of the coronaviruses. However, it is unclear which animal served as the so-called intermediate host during transmission to humans.
— source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
This post has already been read 762 times!