Italy recorded a second death yesterday from the new Corona virus, the second European victim at a time of increasing concern about the high number of infections outside China, while the World Health Organization called for action to contain a pandemic that affected 77 thousand people in the world.
The second European victim is an Italian woman, who was in the hospital about 10 days ago in Lombardy (North), according to Italian news agencies, which did not specify the age of the victim.
Before that, the first death in Italy was announced by a 78-year-old man.
About 30 casualties have been counted so far on Italian soil, including more than 25 in Lombardy, where about 10 cities have been completely cut off since Friday.
Outside mainland China, more than 1,300 injuries have been recorded so far, especially in South Korea and Japan.
Fear came to dominate Europe, after the World Health Organization expressed concern about the difficulty of containing the spread of the epidemic.
The organization's director general, Tedros Adhanom Gebresus, rang the alarm Friday in Geneva, saying: "As we speak now, we are still at a stage where we can contain the epidemic." He warned that "the chances of (preventing the spread of the virus) are narrowing", condemning the lack of international financial support.
He said that the organization is concerned about the number of cases that were infected with Corona virus without a clear link with the epidemic, although the total number of infections outside China is still relatively small.
He added on "Twitter" that the cases that are not clearly related to the epidemic include people who have not traveled to China or had any contact with a confirmed case of the virus.
The disease continues to spread, with Saturday recording a new death in Iran, bringing the deaths to five.
On the official television, Iranian Ministry of Health spokesman Kianosh Jahanpour announced the discovery of 10 new cases of Corona virus in the country and the death of one of the infected people.
With the announcement of new cases in Iran, the total number of people infected with the virus will rise to 28, and the number of deaths due to it has risen to five. The spokesman did not say where the latest death occurred.
Most cases, including eight new cases, are in the city of Qom, 120 km south of the capital, Tehran.
Yesterday, two confirmed injuries were announced in Lebanon and Israel.
In South Korea, a second death was recorded yesterday, and the number of injuries rose for a second day in a row to 346 people, with 142 new injuries recorded, according to a toll announced by the South Korean health authorities yesterday morning. Among the new infections, 92 are associated with the Cheongdu Hospital in the south.
In Japan, hundreds of tourists, who were in direct contact with injured people on board the Diamond Princess, began to disembark from the ship, according to local media reports.
After their disembarkation, more than 1,000 people, including the crew members who are still on board, are supposed to be quarantined for 14 days.
Questions are being raised about the means adopted by the Japanese health authorities, which this week allowed about 970 people to get off the ship, after the results of their tests were negative in terms of their HIV status.
However, among these, there are two Israelis and two Israelis who were declared infected with the virus upon their return to their home countries.
The Diamond Princess is still the main epicenter of the epidemic outside China. Of the 3,711 people on board initially, more than 630 are infected with the virus.
Britain evacuated 32 of the ship's passengers, British and European, on a flight that took off yesterday from China.
For its part, Romania returned two passengers and four crew members to the ship and the Ministry of Health announced that the six people "underwent medical tests" to see if they were infected with the Covid-19 virus "before takeoff and the results of the tests were negative."
Also, Greece evacuated yesterday two citizens who were on board the ship and will be quarantined for 14 days in a hospital in Athens, according to a diplomatic source.
In contrast, in mainland China where the majority of deaths are, there is a decrease in the number of daily deaths. Yesterday, the health authorities announced 109 new deaths, compared to 118 the previous day, bringing the number of national deaths to 2345.
The same applies to the daily virus death toll, which recorded a significant decline, with 397 new infections on Saturday, compared to nearly 900 Friday.
A delegation of experts led by the World Health Organization is expected to arrive in Wuhan, at a time when the number of injured people in mainland China exceeds 76,000.
Official media quoted the Chinese authorities in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the Coronavirus, as saying that the incubation period for the new strain of the virus could extend to 27 days.
The central daily Hubei newspaper reported that a 70-year-old man had no symptoms about a month after his sister's visit on January 25, shortly before she was diagnosed with Coronavirus (Covid-19).
He did not mingle with his sister again after the visit and showed his first symptoms on February 19.
Earlier estimates indicated that the incubation period for the virus is 24 days, according to Chinese researchers, although most quarantine measures to contain the virus around the world last only 14 days.
Iran: 10 new cases of coronavirus and one new death bring the number to five.
The World Health Organization is concerned about the emergence of cases of "corona" without traveling to China or contact with patients.