The World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed the authorities' "enormous progress" in curbing the Covid-19 epidemic. While the death toll exceeds 2,100 deaths (with 108 additional deaths recorded in the province of Hubei), the new cases of contamination with coronavirus announced by the authorities in China decreased markedly, Thursday, February 20.

Only 615 new cases of contamination have been recorded, down sharply from the 1,693 reported on Wednesday, according to the provincial health authorities, which have also revised downwards, without specifying why, the number of cases declared in previous days .

"We have made huge progress in a short time," said director of emergency measures in the eastern Mediterranean, Richard Brennan, at a press conference by the WHO regional office in Egypt.

"We can diagnose the virus everywhere now" and "effective health systems" have been put in place, welcomed his side the regional director of WHO Ahmed al-Mandhari. However, it is "too early to say that the virus has been contained," said Dr. Brennan.

Concerns after arrival of Diamond Princess passengers

In Japan, about 500 passengers disembarked Wednesday from the liner Diamond Princess, in quarantine in the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo. Japanese authorities announced Wednesday evening that they had identified 79 new carriers of the coronavirus on board. With at least 621 cases, the cruise ship is the largest focus of the virus outside of China.

Some in Japan are concerned, however, that the passengers of the ship are scattered in the wild or departing for their respective countries. The dozens of new cases seen on board each day raised questions about the effectiveness of quarantine during which passengers were allowed to walk in small groups on the deck with masks, while flight attendants went from cabin in cabin to distribute meals.

Several countries, including the United Kingdom, have decided to send planes to repatriate their nationals without further delay. As for the crew, they will enter quarantine once the last passenger has left.

Ukrainian protesters against the arrival of a plane from Wuhan

The concern over the virus also affects Russia, where no Chinese national can enter from Thursday, the climax of health measures taken against the epidemic, despite the economic cost for tourism and border regions.

Officially, Russia has not had any patients with the new coronavirus on its territory since the discharge from hospital last week of the only two patients, Chinese nationals. Moscow had already closed its approximately 4,250 km of borders with China, cut passenger rail links and restricted the number of flights to Chinese cities.

In Ukraine, dozens of people protested Wednesday against the planned arrival in the country on Thursday of a plane carrying 48 Ukrainians and 29 third-country nationals from Wuhan. Protesters blocked a road to a hospital in Vynnyky, in the west of the country.

France, for its part, sent a new plane to Wuhan in order to repatriate "a few dozen" of its nationals, announced the Ministry of Health.

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