After a US patient contracted novel coronavirus and left medical authorities no clues as to where it came from, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun sending out new testing guidance to health care workers, the top CDC official said Thursday.
As the deadly novel coronavirus spread throughout China and the world last month, it was clear that something had gone wrong.
Officials in Hubei, the province at the center of the outbreak, were blamed for downplaying -- and potentially even deliberately covering up -- the severity of the virus, ignoring evidence that it spread from person-to-person until it was too late.
Europe has recorded its first coronavirus fatality, a Chinese tourist in France, it has been confirmed.
The death of the 80-year-old man, who was visiting Paris with his daughter when he was taken to hospital three weeks ago after falling ill, also marks the first coronavirus mortality outside Asia since the start of the outbreak.
His 50-year-old daughter also tested positive for the virus and is being treated in hospital, where she is said to be making a good recovery.
China has fired two senior officials in Hubei, the highest-ranking yet to be sacked, as Beijing asserts its control after the deadly coronavirus outbreak – with local officials appearing to be bearing the blame.
State media said that Zhang Jin, the Communist party chief of the health commission in hardest-hit Hubei province, and Liu Yingzi, its director, were both fired. They will be replaced by a national-level official, Wang Hesheng, the deputy director of China’s national health commission.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has made his first public appearance in weeks, as some people began to return to work following the lunar new year holiday, which was extended as authorities grappled with the coronavirus outbreak.
Xi, who has been absent from public view as the crisis worsened, visited a neighbourhood in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. The president had his temperature taken and greeted residents and workers, according to a brief video posted by the state broadcaster CCTV.
A US national in China is believed to be the first foreigner to die from the Wuhan coronavirus, authorities confirmed Saturday, while a Japanese man suspected of having the virus in Wuhan has died of pneumonia.
The US Embassy in Beijing confirmed a 60-year-old American national had died on Thursday at the Jinyintian Hospital in Wuhan, while the Chinese government offered condolences for the death of "a Chinese-American."
The death of a doctor widely regarded as a hero in China for blowing the whistle on the threat posed by the Wuhan coronavirus has led to a massive outpouring of grief and anger online.
Li Wenliang died of the virus in the early hours of Friday morning local time, Wuhan Central Hospital, where he worked, said in a statement. The confirmation follows a series of conflicting statements about his condition from the hospital and Chinese state media outlets.
The Japanese Health Ministry announces that ten people aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship moored in Yokohama Bay are confirmed to have the coronavirus. The ship, which is carrying more than 3,700 people, is placed under quarantine scheduled to end on February 19.
Read the whole story about the COVID-19 pandemic on Diamond Princess in wikipedia.org
The United States has begun implementing new rules around travel from China as the coronavirus death toll creeps higher -- rules that include re-routing Americans flying into the country to specific airports for screening.
So far, more than 420 people have died in China and more than 19,000 have been infected across more than 25 countries.
Hong Kong - A man in the Philippines has died from the Wuhan coronavirus -- the first time a death has been reported outside mainland China since the outbreak began in December.
