WHO team visits Wuhan city as death toll in China's coronovirus crosses over 2300

A team of WHO experts visited China's Wuhan city, epicentre of vel coronavirus, on Saturday as death toll due to epidemic climbed to 2,345 with 109 more fatalities reported, while confirmed cases of infection rose to 76,288, Chinese health officials said on Saturday.

A total of 397 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday, while 109 deaths were reported from 31 provincial-level regions, health authority said.

By end of Friday, a total of 2,345 people h died of disease and 76,288 confirmed cases of vel coronavirus infection h been reported from all over country. Among deaths, 106 were from Hubei province, epicentre of virus, one each from Hebei province, Shanghai and Xinjiang, it said, National Health Commission (NHC) said.

central Hubei province reported 366 new confirmed cases and 106 new deaths on Friday. latest report brought total confirmed cases in hard-hit province to 63,454, provincial health commission said.

team of public health experts from World Health Organisation (WHO) has visited Wuhan city, capital of Hubei province, to conduct a detailed probe about virus which reportedly originated from a sea food market in December last year.

NHC said WHO experts along with ir Chinese counterparts who formed a joint investigation team have held talks with local health authority in Wuhan and visited relevant healthcare institutions.

UN team comprises specialists from United States, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore and South Korea, Hong-Kong based South China Morning Post reported.

12-member team, which arrived in China on Monday, was initially designated to visit only Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, while worst-affected Hubei province and its capital Wuhan were missing from list.

However, team was finally given permission to visit Wuhan by Chinese government.

Besides controlling spre of virus, a major task for WHO team along with ir Chinese counterparts was to come up with standard medicine to cure disease.

NHC said on Saturday that team h met top Chinese respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan in Guangdong, and visited centre for disease control and prevention in Guangdong and city of Shenzhen, and Sichuan.

specialists also discussed quarantine measures, wild animal tre and community prevention measures with ir Chinese counterparts, it said.

Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at Washington-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations, said it was important for team to see conditions on ground and to offer vice.

"Fact-finding is important, especially doing risk assessments and evaluating situation on ground, and helping or countries better prepare for this outbreak," Huang was quoted as saying in media report.

"But in meantime, I think y could do more in terms of helping China, for example, evaluate effectiveness of containment measures, to guide ir Chinese counterparts, treatment protocols, helping m identify origin of virus," he said.

On Saturday, NHC said China has me progress in curing patients of vel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as it steps up epidemic prevention and control measures and medical reinforcements.

A total of 36,680 confirmed COVID-19 patients were still being treated in hospitals on Friday, compared with peak number of 38,020 on February 18, Mi Feng, spokesperson for NHC told media here.

rest of Hubei province reported 10,967 confirmed cases on Friday, compared with peak number of 13,886 on February 14, Mi said pointing that number of cases were coming down in epicentre.

Outside Hubei, number of COVID-19 patients still hospitalised were 5,637 on Friday, dropping significantly from a peak of 9,141 on February 11, Mi said.

Only 31 new confirmed cases were reported outside Hubei on Friday, with all or provincial-level regions reporting less than 10 or zero new infections.

A total of 20,659 COVID-19 patients h been discharged from hospital after recovery by end of Friday.

China has postponed Boao Forum for Asia, its most prestigious annual meeting held in picturesque Hainan province where it would invite top world leers, CEOs to discuss ecomy, tre and related issues.

forum was expected to take place from March 24-27. China also hinted at postponing annual parliament session to be held in first week of March.