Global novel coronavirus death toll reaches 1,383 as China purges officials in Hubei
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The number of novel coronavirus cases has risen to more than 64,000 worldwide, after China reported another major increase at the epicenter of the outbreak following a change in how authorities there diagnose cases.
As of Friday morning, over 100 more people had died of the virus, officially known as Covid-19, in central China’s Hubei province – raising the global death toll to 1,383. Of those, all but three have died in mainland China.
Chinese health authorities also confirmed an additional 5,090 cases across the country. That’s a major spike, but nowhere near the 14,840 new cases reported Thursday – the largest single-day rise since the epidemic began.
The government explained the spike was due to a change in how cases are tabulated – the total will now include “clinically diagnosed cases” – people who demonstrate all the symptoms of Covid-19 but have either been unable to access a test or are believed to have falsely tested negative. The hope is that more people will be able to receive treatment by receiving this diagnosis.
The health system in Hubei, particularly in the capital Wuhan where the outbreak began, has struggled to handle the influx of patients, even with the help of several purpose-built hospitals dedicated to treating Covid-19. Provincial authorities said there are about 37,000 patients in hospital, 1,685 of whom are in critical condition.
More than 6,723 patients in China have recovered and been discharged since the outbreak began.
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Relatives of quarantined passengers wave at the Diamond Princess cruise ship as it leaves a port in Yokohama, Japan, to dump wastewater and generate potable water. Dozens of people on the ship were infected with coronavirus.
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A police officer, left, wears protective gear as he guards a cordon at the Hong Mei House in Hong Kong on February 11.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has his temperature checked during an appearance in Beijing on February 10.
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People participating in a Lunar New Year Parade in New York City hold signs reading, "Wuhan stay strong!" on February 9.
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A worker wearing a protective suit uses a machine to disinfect a business establishment in Shanghai, China, on February 9.
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Workers in protective gear walk near the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama on February 7.
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A woman grieves while paying tribute to Li at Li's hospital in Wuhan on February 7.
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This aerial photo shows the Leishenshan Hospital that is being built in Wuhan to handle coronavirus patients.
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A mask is seen on a statue in Beijing on February 5.
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Striking hospital workers in Hong Kong demand the closure of the border with mainland China on February 4.
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Medical workers in protective suits help transfer patients to a newly completed field hospital in Wuhan.
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A man stands in front of TV screens broadcasting a speech by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on February 3. Lam said the city would shut almost all border-control points to the mainland.
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A colleague sprays disinfectant on a doctor in Wuhan on February 3.
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Medical workers move a coronavirus patient into an isolation ward at the Second People's Hospital in Fuyang, China, on February 1.
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Passengers in Hong Kong wear protective masks as they wait to board a train at Lo Wu Station, near the mainland border, on January 30.
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A volunteer wearing protective clothing disinfects a street in Qingdao, China, on January 29.
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Nanning residents line up to buy face masks from a medical appliance store on January 29.
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Lyu Jun, left, a member of a medical team leaving for Wuhan, says goodbye to a loved one in Urumqi, China, on January 28.
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A charter flight from Wuhan arrives at an airport in Anchorage, Alaska, on January 28. The US government chartered the plane to bring home US citizens and diplomats from the American consulate in Wuhan.
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in wears a mask to inspect the National Medical Center in Seoul on January 28.
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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, center, attends a news conference in Hong Kong on January 28. Lam said China will stop individual travelers to Hong Kong while closing some border checkpoints and restricting flights and train services from the mainland.
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Workers at an airport in Novosibirsk, Russia, check the temperatures of passengers who arrived from Beijing on January 28.
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Alex Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, speaks during a news conference about the American public-health response.
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Two residents walk in an empty park in Wuhan on January 27. The city remained on lockdown for a fourth day.
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A person wears a protective mask, goggles and coat as he stands in a nearly empty street in Beijing on January 26.
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Medical staff members bring a patient to the Wuhan Red Cross hospital on January 25.
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People wear protective masks as they walk under Lunar New Year decorations in Beijing on January 25.
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Construction workers in Wuhan begin to work on a special hospital to deal with the outbreak on January 24.
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A couple kisses goodbye as they travel for the Lunar New Year holiday in Beijing on January 24.
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Workers manufacture protective face masks at a factory in China's Hubei Province on January 23.
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Shoppers wear masks in a Wuhan market on January 23.
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Passengers are checked by a thermography device at an airport in Osaka, Japan, on January 23.
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People wear masks while shopping for vegetables in Wuhan on January 23.
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People in Guangzhou, China, wear protective masks on January 22.
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People go through a checkpoint in Guangzhou on January 22.
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Medical staff of Wuhan's Union Hospital attend a gathering on January 22.
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Health officials hold a news conference in Beijing on January 22.
Beijing purge
As the number of deaths and cases at the epicenter of the outbreak continued to rise, China moved to purge several officials in the region, replacing them with loyalists of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has now taken personal charge of the response.
State media announced Thursday that the Communist Party chiefs of Hubei and Wuhan had both been removed. Ying Yong, the former mayor of Shanghai, will become the new Hubei chief, while Wang Zhonglin will take over Wuhan itself. Ying is a key protege of Xi’s, and the two men have worked together since the early 2000s when they were both officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
Another Zhejiang veteran and Xi ally, Chen Yixin, is already in Wuhan. Chen arrived in the city last week to lead the response to the epidemic – his appointment there was seen as Xi moving to take charge of the crisis after it was mishandled in the early weeks by Wuhan and Hubei officials, who have been accused of downplaying the severity of the virus, resulting in its spread nationwide.
The removal of the Wuhan and Hubei party chiefs might only be the beginning of the provincial purge. Last week, amid nationwide outrage over the death of whisteblower doctor Li Wenliang – who was reprimanded for spreading “rumors” by Wuhan police – Beijing dispatched an anti-corruption team to the city to investigate the matter.
Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang, one of the public faces of the crisis, previously offered to resign “to appease public indignation,” but the central government has yet to take him up on that.
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Worldwide spread
While the vast majority of Covid-19 are in mainland China, the virus has been confirmed in more than two dozen countries worldwide, and concern is growing over its potential spread outside the epicenter.
“This outbreak could still go in any direction,” World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.
“We have to invest in preparedness,” Tedros said, adding that richer countries should help invest in countries with a weaker health system. He warned the virus could “create havoc” if it reaches a country whose health system is not capable of handling such an epidemic.
Three additional cases were confirmed in Hong Kong as of Friday morning, bringing the total to 53 in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, which has been in partial shutdown for weeks and closed most of its borders with the mainland. One of the three deaths outside mainland China occurred in the city.
The third of those deaths occurred in Japan on Thursday – a woman in her 80s, according to health officials. She was not a passenger on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner currently quarantined at Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
The ship is currently home to the largest outbreak outside mainland China. Another 44 cases of the virus were confirmed Thursday, bringing the total of cases on the ship to 219, as Japanese health authorities continue to test the more than 3,500 people on board.
Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said that people who had tested negative for the virus and were over 80 years old, or had a non-virus medical condition requiring attention, would be allowed to leave the ship and move to a government medical facility. He did not give a timeline for that process. Already on Tuesday, an unknown number of passengers with non-virus medical conditions had been allowed to disembark.
Frustration is growing, however, among the thousands passengers and crew on board, who have been unable to leave the ship for a week now.
Speaking to CNN, one crew member said she feared the crew were at greater risk of being exposed to the outbreak because they were not being quarantined in the same way as the passengers and were having to continue working to take care of the guests.
Sonali Thakkar, 24, from Mumbai, said she and her colleague – who she shares a cabin with – became ill with a headache, cough and a fever two days ago. Her supervisor told her to stop working and she is currently staying in her cabin in isolation.
“I’m not eating very well and have been having fevers,” she told CNN in a Skype call Wednesday. “We all are really scared and tense.”
Thakkar feared that the virus may be spreading around the crew. At least five have tested positive.
There was better news for passengers on board MS Westerdam, another cruise ship. After several days in limbo at sea due to ports not being willing to accept it – despite no coronavirus cases being confirmed on board – it was finally able to dock in Cambodia Friday, where passengers were greeted by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
CNN’s Ben Tinker in Atlanta; Steven Jiang and Yong Xiong in Beijing; Mick Krever in Yokohama; Helen Regan, Carly Walsh, Laura He, Isaac Yee, Sandi Sidhu and Nectar Gan in Hong Kong; and Lindsay Isaac, Zahid Mahmood and Meera Senthilingam in London contributed reporting.