The toll of the viral pneumonia epidemic rose to 1,770 deaths in mainland China on Monday, according to official figures published on Monday which confirm a decline, even if the World Health Organization warned that the spread of the coronavirus remains "impossible to provide".
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International experts dispatched to Beijing by WHO have started talking with their Chinese counterparts. "We look forward to this important and vital collaboration contributing to global knowledge of the # COVID19 epidemic," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday evening.
Together, we are facing # COVID19 & we must use the window of opportunity to intensify our preparedness for it.
And more than ever it's time to let science & evidence lead policy. If we don't, we are headed down a dark path that leads nowhere but division and disharmony. # MSC2020
A slowdown in the daily number of deaths
The meeting comes as the toll from the Covid-19 viral pneumonia epidemic has further increased in mainland China, with 1,770 dead now, mostly in central Hubei province, according to official figures released Monday. This figure confirms a slowdown in the daily number of new deaths (105 Monday against 142 Sunday and 143 Saturday). In addition, the number of new cases recorded outside Hubei was only 115 on Monday, compared to nearly 450 a week earlier.
"Do not blow on the embers of hysteria"
A senior Chinese official estimated that his country was in the process of controlling the epidemic: "We can already see the effect of measures to control and prevent the epidemic in different parts of the country", welcomed the door - Word from the Chinese Ministry of Health, Mi Feng. Outside mainland China where at least 70,500 people have been infected, nearly 600 cases of contamination by the coronavirus epidemic have been confirmed in around 30 countries around the world.
Visiting Pakistan, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was confident that "the gigantic effort" made by China "will allow the progressive reduction of the disease". But the head of the WHO for his part warned that it was "impossible to predict which direction the epidemic will take". "We ask all governments, all societies and all news organizations to work with us to raise the appropriate level of alarm without blowing the embers of hysteria," he told the conference. Munich on Security.