Coronavirus latest update: In first American fatality, US citizen dies in China

The new coronavirus epidemic in mainland China is almost certain to become more deadly than SARS as the death toll passed 700 while health experts warned of mask shortages and more cases were confirmed on a quarantined Japanese cruise ship. The number of new infections in China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, rose on Friday from a day earlier, Chinese health officials said, reversing two days of declines and showing the difficulty of predicting the epidemic's peak.

The death toll in mainland China jumped by 86 to 722, and is poised to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus that jumped from animals to humans in China. So far only two deaths have been reported outside mainland China - in Hong Kong and the Philippines - from about 332 cases in 27 countries and regions.

Here are the latest updates of Coronavirus

Five Britons infected at French ski resort

The latest patients include five British nationals staying in the same chalet at a ski resort in Haute-Savoie in the Alps, health officials said, raising fears of further infections at a busy period in the ski season.

The five, including a child, had stayed in the same chalet with a person who had been in Singapore. They were not in a serious condition, the officials said.

France issued a new travel advisory for its citizens, saying it did not recommend travelling to China unless there was an "imperative" reason. Italy asked children travelling from China to stay away from school for two weeks voluntarily.

Hong Kong cruise ship passengers spread fear of virus

Passengers stuck on a cruise ship being quarantined in Hong Kong are beginning to worry that lax controls on the boat and a lack of information might put them at risk of the new coronavirus spreading among those on board

Anger simmers over death of doctor threatened by police

Public anger continued to simmer over the authorities' treatment of a young doctor who was reprimanded by police for issuing a warning about the virus before being infected and dying this week.

In death, 34-year-old Li Wenliang became the face of anger at the ruling Communist Party's controls over information and complaints that officials lie about or hide disease outbreaks, chemical spills, dangerous consumer products or financial frauds.

The 34-year-old ophthalmologist died overnight at Wuhan Central Hospital, where he worked and likely contracted the virus while treating patients in the early days of the outbreak.

American, Japanese succumb in Wuhan, cruise ships quarantined

The US Embassy in Beijing said a 60-year-old U.S. citizen diagnosed with the virus died in Wuhan on Wednesday. The patient was apparently the first American fatality. The embassy did not identify the person.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said a Japanese man in his 60s being treated in Wuhan also died. It said the patient had been suspected of having the coronavirus, but that it had not been confirmed.

Cruise ship passengers faced more woe as Japan reported three more cases for a total of 64 on one quarantined vessel and turned away another. The three are among 3,700 passengers and crew on the quarantined Diamond Princess. They must remain on board for 14 days.

China is doing a 'very professional job': Trump

US President Donald Trump said Friday that China is doing a "very professional job" in combating the coronavirus epidemic.

Trump said that he discussed the crisis with President Xi Jinping in a "very good" phone call late Thursday.

"We talked about, mostly about the coronavirus. They're working really hard and I think they're doing a very professional job," he told reporters at the White House.

Trump said the United States and China were "working together" on the issue.

"I think that China will do a very good job."

US offers $100 million to China, others to fight coronavirus

United States on Friday offered up to $100 million to China and other impacted countries to combat the fast-spreading coronavirus.

"This commitment — along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector — demonstrates strong US leadership in response to the outbreak," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"We encourage the rest of the world to match our commitment. Working together, we can have a profound impact to contain this growing threat," he said.

Pompeo, who has frequently criticized China on issues from human rights to its overseas infrastructure spending, said the United States would provide the assistance either directly or through multilateral organizations.

He said the spending would come out of unspecified funds that have already been allocated within the US government.

Indians on cruise ship quarantined off Japan

Several Indian crew members and passengers on board a cruise ship have been quarantined off Japan because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

In a tweet on Friday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, "Many Indian crew & some Indian passengers are onboard the cruise ship #DiamondPrincess quarantined off Japan due to #Coronavirus. None have tested positive, as per the latest information provided by our Embassy @IndianEmbTokyo. We are closely following the developments."

Earlier, Japan's Health Ministry confirmed that the number of people who tested positive for the novel coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess ship off the coast of Yokohama reached 61.

15 Kerala students stranded in China's Hubei reach Kochi

Fifteen students from the state who were stranded in Hubei province of China following the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus have landed at the Cochin International Airport Limited and undergone a thermal screening for the infection, airport officials said on Saturday.

The students travelled to Bangkok from Kunming Airport and then took an Air Asia flight to reach here, they said.

When the flight reached Kochi at 11 pm on Friday, they were directly taken to the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital in five sterilised ambulances.

The students have been admitted to an isolation ward of the hospital, the officials said.

China's Wuhan opens another makeshift hospital

The Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 700 people across the country opened another makeshift hospital on Saturday, providing 1,500 beds, state media reported.

The first medical team has arrived at the Leishenshan hospital in Wuhan and patients will be admitted on Saturday, state-run CCTV reported. It said the hospital has 32 wards and a surgical operating room.

First foreign victim of coronavirus

A 60-year-old US citizen diagnosed with the virus died on Thursday in Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the health emergency, according to the US embassy, which did not provide more details about the person.

A Japanese man in his 60s with a suspected coronavirus infection also died in hospital in Wuhan, the Japanese foreign ministry said, adding that it was "difficult" to confirm if he had the illness.

The only fatalities outside the mainland were a Chinese man in the Philippines and a 39-year-old man in Hong Kong.

Shanghai plans stimulus measures to cushion coronavirus effects

The Shanghai city government plans to cut loan rates and take other measures to help companies and maintain growth as the spread of the novel coronavirus takes its toll on China’s economy.

The city wants financial institutions to increase lending to industries, and small and medium-sized firms hit by the epidemic, Ma Chunlei, deputy secretary general of the municipal government, said at a briefing in Shanghai. He called for loan rate cuts of at least 0.25 percentage points off benchmark prime for the duration of the virus. Other measures could include extended repayment periods, rent reductions and deferment of tax payments, Ma said.

It is too early say whether the outbreak had peaked: WHO

After China recorded its first daily drop in the number of new infections on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was too early say whether the outbreak had peaked.

The first cases in December were traced to a seafood market in the Hubei capital of Wuhan, where wildlife was sold illegally.

"It is hard to say how lethal this novel coronavirus infection is - that is, what proportion of people with infection will eventually die of the infection," Professor Allen Cheng, an infectious diseases expert at Monash University in Melbourne, told Reuters.

Hubei officials on Saturday reported 81 new deaths, 67 of those in Wuhan, a city under virtual lockdown. Across mainland China, excluding the 2,050 people who had recovered and those who had died, the number of outstanding cases stood at 31,774.

False negatives

Not all of the infected will test positive for the virus, warned Wang Chen, head of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

"For patients who are really infected with the new type of coronavirus, the positive rate for tests is 30% to 50%," Wang told state television in an interview that has gone viral on social media since its telecast on Wednesday.

"There are still many false negatives by collecting suspected cases of throat swabs. In other words, more than half of the people who are truly infected with the new coronavirus may be 'negative'."

Hubei has started to use computerized tomography (CT) scans for quicker and more accurate test results.

Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, 34, was among eight people reprimanded by police in Wuhan for spreading "illegal and false" information after he shared details of the virus with colleagues.

Social media users called him a hero and shared a selfie of him lying on a hospital bed wearing an oxygen respirator and holding up his Chinese identification card. One image showed the message "farewell Li Wenliang" etched into snow on a riverbank.

There were signs that discussion of Li's death was being censored. After briefly trending on Weibo, the topics "the Wuhan government owes doctor Li Wenliang an apology" and "we want free speech" yielded no search results.

Lack of masks, gowns

The WHO chief warned of worldwide shortages of gowns, masks and other protective equipment.

"When supplies are short and demand is high, then there could be bad practices like hoarding in order to sell them at higher prices, and that's why we ask for solidarity," Tedros told a Geneva briefing.

Another three people on a cruise liner off Japan tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases from the ship to 64, Japan's health ministry said on Saturday.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd on Friday banned "any guests holding a Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passport, regardless of when they were there last" from boarding the company's ships.

Taiwan’s government said that starting from Monday it would suspend all direct passenger and freight shipping between the island and China. It had already decided to suspend most flights from Monday between Taiwan to China.

Hundreds of foreigners have been evacuated out of Wuhan over the past two weeks. A second evacuation plane to airlift Australians out of Wuhan was delayed after China did not give it clearance to land, Australian officials said on Saturday.

Global equity markets and government debt yields slumped on Friday, as growing concerns about the virus' impact on global growth overshadowed a strong US jobs report.

Apple Inc, however, said it was working to reopen its China corporate offices and call centres next week, and was making preparations to reopen retail stores there.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the United States was prepared to spend up to $100 million to assist China and support coronavirus efforts by the WHO.

The United States has sent nearly 17.8 tons of medical supplies to China, including masks, gowns and respirators, a State Department official said.

The WHO said out of $675 million it is seeking for its coronavirus response through April, it has received pledges of $110 million, $100 million of that from the Gates Foundation.