Health official: epidemic at 'most critical moment'

A senior official at China's National Health Commission said Saturday that the COVID-19 epidemic is "is at the most critical moment" and remained a "top priority". Liang Wannian said it was a good sign that the increased number of confirmed cases in other provinces has had a continuous decline for ten days, but in some areas of Hubei the number is still rising fast.

Speaking at a joint news conference, the new top health official of Hubei province, Wang Hesheng, said that Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the virus outbreak, will make more field hospitals to take on all the confirmed and suspected infectants.

Speaking at a news conference, Wang added that so far Wuhan has built nine field hospitals with over 6,900 beds.

He also said that more civil venues will be requisitioned for similar hospitals.

China reported Saturday a figure of 2,641 new virus cases, a major drop from the higher numbers of the past weeks and a result of the implementation of a broader diagnostic method.