The number of victims of the Covid-19 in mainland China increased Monday, February 17, to 1,765 dead, according to the latest official figures. Excluding mainland China, the death toll reached 1,770.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the spread of the coronavirus remains "impossible to predict". 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 on Twitter.

A decrease in deaths has however been noted in recent days: 105 died Monday, against 142 Sunday and 143 Saturday. In addition to this drop, the number of new cases recorded outside Hubei also decreases, from 115 Monday against nearly 450 a week earlier.

A senior Chinese official said his country was in the process of containing the epidemic. "We can already see the effect of measures to control and prevent the epidemic in different parts of the country," said Chinese Ministry of Health spokesman Mi Feng.

"Impossible to predict which direction the epidemic will take"

Outside mainland China, where at least 70,500 people have been infected, nearly 800 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.

At the center of the crisis, Hubei province, where 56 million people have been cut off from the world since January 23, has further restricted the freedom of movement of its citizens far beyond its capital Wuhan. Villages and residential cities are now subject to "strict closed management" 24 hours a day, which means that residents are no longer expected to leave their homes until further notice.

Purchases and distribution of food and medicine can be done "centrally," said a provincial directive released Sunday.

In the rest of the world, the epidemic keeps the planet alert. A first death outside Asia and a first case on the African continent have been recorded in recent days. Taiwan also announced its first death on Sunday, a 61-year-old taxi driver.

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.

With AFP

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