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Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 18:11
Coronavirus: New cases in China drop to under 2,000 for 1st time
By Xinhua
Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 18:11 By Xinhua

Workers produce medical N95 masks at a mask production company in southwest China's Chongqing, Feb 17, 2020. (WANG QUANCHAO / XINHUA)

BEIJING/WUHAN - The daily number of newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease reported across China on Monday dropped to under 2,000 for the first time, Mi Feng, an official with the National Health Commission, said Tuesday.

Monday also saw new infections outside Hubei province, the epicenter province of the outbreak, reduced to a number lower than 100 for the first time, Mi said at a press conference in Beijing.

According to the commission's daily report, the daily new confirmed cases outside Hubei had dropped for 14 consecutive days by Monday to reach the lowest record of 79.

For the first time, the daily number of new infections across China dropped below 2,000, and the daily new infections outside Hubei as well as the daily number of new fatalities across the country fell to under 100 

Mi also added that, for the first time, the daily number of new deaths also slid to below 100 across the country.

The commission said earlier in the day that it received reports of 1,886 new confirmed cases and 98 deaths on Monday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Comparing the statistics in the peak period, Mi said the first appearance of these three noteworthy decreasing numbers demonstrate that the epidemic situation is further developing towards a good prospect.

In the next step, China will cement the current results of the epidemic control, strengthen the treatment of patients in severe condition and the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine in treatments, Mi said.

He added that great efforts will be put into preventing the deterioration of patients from mild symptoms to severe symptoms and enhancing the cure rate.

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Of the 98 new fatalities reported on Monday, 93 of them were in Hubei, three in Henan, and one in Hebei and Hunan respectively. 

According to Hubei's health authorities, 1,807 new confirmed cases were reported in Hubei on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 59,989.

Meanwhile, the commission also said 1,432 new suspected cases were reported Monday.

Also on Monday, there were 1,097 patients who became seriously ill. The commission said that in total, 11,741 patients remained in severe condition

A total of 12,552 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery

A total of 1,701 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, of which 1,223 were reported in Hubei, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 7,862. In roundup, a total of 12,552 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

In Hubei, there were 41,957 patients who are still in hospital, 9,117 of them are still in severe condition and another 1,853 in critical condition.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 72,436 by the end of Monday, and 1,868 people had died of the disease.

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The comission added that 6,242 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

It said 560,901 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 27,908 were released from medical observation Monday, with 141,552 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Monday, 60 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 22 in Taiwan including one death.

Two patients in Hong Kong, five in Macao and two in Taiwan have been discharged from hospital after recovery.


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