The balance sheet keeps getting heavier. The death toll from mainland China caused by the new coronavirus approached 1,700 on Sunday February 16, while the first death outside Asia was reported on Saturday in France.

According to the latest report released by the Chinese authorities on Sunday, the Covid-19 viral pneumonia caused the death of 1,665 people in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao). Most were in Hubei Province (center), the focus of the epidemic that started in December in its capital Wuhan.

A dead man in France

Only four deaths have been recorded elsewhere in the world: one in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and the other three respectively in Japan, the Philippines and France.

French Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn announced Saturday the death the day before the evening of an 80-year-old Chinese tourist hospitalized in France since the end of January. The death is "the first outside Asia, the first in Europe," she said.

China also reported on Sunday more than 68,000 cases of contamination on its territory, mainly in Hubei province.

In its daily report, the national health commission reported 2,009 new cases in the country - including 1,843 in this province - which represents a decrease for the third consecutive day.

restrictions

While Hubei has been cut off from the world for three weeks and several cities in eastern China have taken drastic containment measures, Beijing in turn on Friday tightened restrictions to stem the spread of the virus.

The capital now obliges all those arriving from outside to impose their forties on their 14 days at their home or hotel, under penalty of sanctions, reported the Beijing Daily, an official daily. Activity in the city remains largely paralyzed and many companies are imposing telework on their employees.

These non-detailed rules of application come at a time when, after extended Lunar New Year holidays, many Chinese who have returned to their region of origin for the holidays must now return home.

Some 283 million trips were made in the country between January 25 and February 14, according to Deputy Minister of Transport Liu Xiaoming.

The liner Diamond Princess, an infectious focus

The Covid-19 epidemic keeps the world on the alert, with almost 600 confirmed cases of contamination in around 30 countries. Egypt announced Friday that it has registered the first case on the African continent.

But the main source of infection outside of China remains the cruise ship Diamond Princess, in quarantine in Japan: 355 cases of contamination have been confirmed there, including 70 new cases announced on Sunday.

The liner had 3,711 passengers and crew members when it arrived in Yokohama on February 3. Since then, the infected people have been evacuated and hospitalized, as have some people who need medical treatment for other reasons.

A spokesman for the US State Department announced that the United States nationals on board would be evacuated and undergo a two-week quarantine on their return to American soil.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday that fighting the virus was "a big test for his country's system and governance capacity".

Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese medical expert veteran in the fight against SARS (2002-2003), said he expected a peak in the epidemic "by mid- or late February". More cautious, the World Health Organization (WHO) judges that it is "much too early" to make forecasts. An international team of WHO experts was scheduled to arrive in Beijing this weekend for a joint mission with their Chinese counterparts.

With AFP

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Download the app

google-play-badge_FR