The balance of the epidemic of viral pneumonia reached Monday 2,592 deaths in mainland China after the announcement of 150 additional deaths, announced the health authorities, while reporting a decline in the number of new infections. All but one of these new deaths occurred in central Hubei province, the cradle of the new coronavirus and the epicenter of the epidemic.
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The number of deaths recorded in the last 24 hours marks a worsening after the daily toll of 97 dead announced Sunday. The National Health Commission also reported on Monday 409 new confirmed cases of contamination over 24 hours, all except 11 registered in Hubei.
The figure represents a significant decline after the nearly 650 new infections announced on Sunday, and brings to more than 77,000 the number of people infected in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao).
Many provinces have indicated for several consecutive days that they have not discovered any new cases of contagion in their territory.
Iran's neighbors are getting ready
If most of the contamination and death attributed to the new coronavirus, which appeared in December in Hubei, remains concentrated in China, the epidemic is gaining momentum around the world. Some 1,500 infections and 26 deaths have been recorded outside mainland China in more than 25 countries and territories, and the appearance of new outbreaks of contagion in Europe and the Middle East is fueling concern.
Concerned about the spread of the virus in Iran (around 40 cases of contamination and eight deaths), several neighboring states (Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan) have closed their borders or restricted trade with the Islamic Republic.
Four deaths on European soil since the start of the epidemic
In Italy, an elderly woman with cancer who had contracted the coronavirus died on Sunday, bringing the death toll to three in the country of at least 149 people. Extensive containment measures have been imposed in northern Italy. It is the fourth death in Europe, after the death of a Chinese tourist on Saturday February 15 in France.
In South Korea (763 contaminations and seven deaths), the number of cases has jumped in recent days, especially in the city of Daegu (southeast), where hundreds of followers of a Christian sect have been infected. The Chinese authorities had created some confusion over the past two weeks on the balance sheets of contamination and deaths in China by repeatedly changing their counting methods.